THE DANGERS OF MYSTICISM
alleged copyright;
we find another so sensitive that the
mention of his name by the present writer induces an attack
οί epileptic mania;
if such are really “united with " or
”absorbed in ” God, what of God?
We are told in Galatians that the fruits of the Spirit are
peace, love, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance; and somewhere else, “ By their fruits
ye shall know them.”
Of these evil-doers then we must either think that they
are dishonest, and have never attained at all, or that they
have united themselves with a devil.
Such are “Brethren of the Left Hand Path,“ described
so thoroughly in
Liber
418 (EgUINox, Νο. ν.,
Special
Supplement, pp. 119 5994).
Of these the most characteristic sign is their exclusive—
nessi
“We are the men.”
“ Ours is the only Way.”
“All
Buddhists are wicked," the insanity of spiritual pride.
The Magician is not nearly so liable to fall into this
fearful mire of pride as the mystic; he is occupied with things
outside himself, and can correct his pride.
Indeed, he is
constantly being corrected by Nature.
He, the Great One,
cannot run a mile in four minutes!
The mystic is solitary
and shut up, lacks wholesome combat.
We are all school-
boys, and the football field is a perfect prophylactic of swelled
head.
When
the mystic meets
an
obstacle, he
“ makes
believe" about it.
He says it is “only illusion.”
He has
the morphine-maniacs feeling of bien-étre, the delusions of
the general paralytic.
He loses the power of looking any
fact in the face; he feeds himself on his own imagination; he
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