The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 321 of Magic ,' for she has always denied relationship to those who live outside the brothel , the asylum , and the jail ; and further , in this case , burnt and destroyed countless thousands of innocent and erudite persons on the authority of a divine book she had rendered obscene by her whorish thumbmarks ; nevertheless , in spite of her Lodges and her logic , the greatest of her sons and daughters , as we have already seen , were mystics and magicians pure and simple ; this no doubt accounts for the comparative safety and dignity with which the early fathers travelled in the East , and the greatest of her ceremonies were entirely of a magical nature . I defy any one to find any essential difference between the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ig natius and the practices of Raja Yoga ; space here does not permit me to draw parallels , though I have collected a considerable number . And as with Igna tius , so with other true saints of the Church , and so also with the countless magical ceremonies which have tinted the atmosphere of the West : they are all one . 1 This term must not be confounded with that applied to Theobald's toy - shop , or to such jugglery as performed by Maskelyne and Colley . 2 A good example is that of Hugo de St. Victor . He made a three - fold division , the lowest being Cogitatio , the next Medi tatio , and the last and highest , Contemplatio . On a similar basis Richard de St. Victor erected six stages of contemplation : 1. In imaginatione secundum solam imaginationem . 2. In imaginatione secundum rationem . 3. In ratione secundum imaginationem . 4. In ratione secundum rationem . 5. Supra rationem sed non praeter rationem . 6. Supra rationem videtur esse praeter rationem . Y