BEINGS I HAVE SEEN 
359 
intense magical effort on the traditional lines; there was no 
accident about it; when I evoked N to visible appearance, I 
got N and nobody else. But even so, there isn't much to 
splash! 
The first definitely physical sight was due to the 
"evocation to visible appearance" of the Goetia demon Buer 
by myself and V.H. Frater "Volo Noscere." (Our object was 
to prolong the life, in imminent danger, of V.H. Frater lehi 
Aour-Allan 
Bennett-Bhikkhu 
Ananda Metteya-and 
was 
successful; he lived another 20 odd years. And odd years they 
were!) 
I was wide awake, keyed up, keenly observant at the time. 
The temple was approximately 16 feet by 8, and 12 high. 
A small "double-cube" altar of acacia was in the centre of a 
circle; outside this was a triangle in which it was proposed to 
get the demon to appear. The room was thick with the smoke 
of incense, some that of Abramelin, but mostly, in a special 
censer in the triangle, Dittany of Crete (we decided to use 
this, as H.P.B. once said that its magical virtue was greater 
than that of any other herb). 
As the ceremony proceeded, we were aware that the 
smoke was not uniform in thickness throughout the room, 
but tended to be almost opaquely dense in some parts of it, 
all but clear in others. This effect was much more definite 
than could possibly be explained by draughts, or by our own 
movements. Presently it gathered itself together still more 
completely, until it was roughly as if a column of smoke were 
rising from the triangle, leaving the rest of the room 
practically clear. 
Finally, at the climax of the ritual-we had got as far as the 
"stronger and more potent conjuration"-we 
both saw, 
vaguely enough, but yet beyond doubt, parts of a quite 
definite figure. In particular, there was a helmet suggesting 
Athene (or, horror! Brittania!), part of a tunic or chlamys, 
and very solid footgear. (I thought of "the well-greaved 
Greeks.") Now this was very far from satisfactory; it 
corresponded in no wise with the appearance of Buer which