THE EQUINOX Vol. I. No. II 1st part
September 2, 1989 e.v. key entry and January 18, 1990 e.v. first proof
reading against the 1st edition.
done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O.
(further proof reading desirable)
Copyright (c) O.T.O. disk 1 of 3
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.----------------------------------------------------------------------.
: THE EQUINOX :
: :
: No. III, will contain in its 400 pages: :
: :
:AN OFFICIAL NOTE of the Ordeals and Examinations to be :
: passed by the Aspirant to the A.'. A.'. from Probationer to :
: Adept. [A.'. A.'. publication in Class D.] With a Comment :
: by G.H.Fra.O.S.V. :
: :
:LIBER 963. A collection of litanies whose use will enable the :
: student to acquire the direct consciousness of God. [A.'. A.'. :
: Publication in Class B.] :
: :
:THE ELEMENTAL CALLS OR KEYS, WITH THE GREAT :
: WATCH-TOWERS OF THE UNIVERSE and their explanation. :
: A complete treatise, fully illustrated, upon the Spirits :
: of the Elements, their names and offices, with the method of :
: calling them forth and controlling them. From the MSS. of :
: Dr. DEE and SIR EDWARD KELLY. :
: :
:THE CONTINUATION OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON :
: THE KING. A full account of the reception of Fra. P. into :
: the Rosicrucian Order, with illustrations; and of his operations :
: in Ceremonial Magic, &c. [His Studies of Eastern Magic and :
: Meditation, &c., to follow in Nos. IV. and V.] :
: :
:THE CONTINUATION OF THE HERB DANGEROUS: :
: "The Poem of Hashish," translated from the French of :
: CHARLES BAUDELAIRE by ALEISTER CROWLEY. :
: :
:THE SOUL-HUNTER, unpublished pages from the Diary of Dr. :
: ARTHUR LEE, "The Montrouge Vampire." :
: :
:AN ORIGIN, by VICTOR B. NEUBURG. :
: :
:MR. TODD: A Morality, by the author of "Rosa Mundi." :
: :
:IN MANU DOMINAE: A Black Mass. :
: :
:THE DAUGHTER OF THE HORSELEECH, by ETHEL RAMSAY. :
: :
: &c. &c. &c. :
.----------------------------------------------------------------------.
THE EQUINOX
"The Editor will be glad to consider
contributions and to return such as
are unacceptable if stamps are enclosed
for the purpose"
THE EQUINOX
THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE A.'. A.'.
THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC ILLUMINISM
An. V VOL. I. NO. II. Sun in Libra
SEPTEMBER MCMIX
O.S.
"THE METHOD OF SCIENCE---THE AIM OF RELIGION"
LONDON
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO.LTD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
EDITORIAL 1
LIBER O 11
THE HERB DANGEROUS --- (PART II) THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH. BY
OLIVER HADDO 31
REVIEWS 90, 104, 385
THE GARDEN OF JANUS. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 91
THE DREAM CIRCEAN. BY MARITAL NAY 105
THE LOST SHEPHERD. BY VICTOR B. NEUBURG 131
A HANDBOOK OF GEOMANCY 137
THE ORGAN IN KING'S CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE, BY G. H. S.
PINSENT 162
A NOTE ON GENESIS 163
THE FIVE ADORATIONS. BY DOST ACHIHA KHAN 186
ILLUSION D'AMOUREUX. BY FRANCIS BENDICK 187
THE OPIUM-SMOKER 191
POSTCARDS TO PROBATIONERS. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 196
THE WILD ASS. BY ALYS CUSACK 201
THE SPHINX AT GIZEH. BY LORD DUNSANY 205
THE PRIESTESS OF PANORMITA. BY ELAINE CARR 209
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING (BOOK II) 217
AMONGST THE MERMAIDS. BY NORMAN ROE 335
AVE ADONAI. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 351
THE MAN-COVER. BY GEORGE RAFFALOVICH 353
STEWED PRUNES AND PRISM: THE TENNYSON CENTENARY.
BY A. QUILLER, JR. 393
ILLUSTRATION
THE SIGNS OF THE GRADES "Facing page" 12
EDITORIAL
IT is four hundred and seventy-seven years since the trouble in the Monastery. There were assembled many holy men from every part of the civilized world, learned doctors, princes of the Church, bishops, abbots, deans, all the wisdom of the world; for the Question was important --- how many teeth were there in a horse's mouth. For many days the debate swung this way and that, as Father was quoted against Father, Gospel against Epistle, Psalm against Proverb; and the summer being hot, and the shade of the monastery gardens pleasant, a young monk wearied of the discussion, and rising presumptuously among those reverend men, impudently proposed that they should examine the mouth of a horse and settle the question.
Now, there was no precedent for so bold a method, and we are not to be surprised that those holy men arose right wrathfully and fell upon the youth and beat him sore.
Having further immured him in a solitary cell, they resumed debate; but ultimately "in the grievous dearth of theological and historical opinion" declared the problem insoluble, an everlasting mystery by the Will of God.
To-day, their successors adopt the same principles with regard to that darkest of horses, the A.'. A.'. They have {1} not only refused to open our mouths, but have even refused to look into them when we ourselves have gone to the length of opening them wide before them.
However, there have been others. Whether we were too confident or they too easily discouraged is a question unnecessary to discuss. We hoped to sever at one blow their bonds; at least we should have loosened them. But their struggle, which should have aided our efforts, seemed to them too arduous. They have been perplexed rather than illumined by the light which we flashed upon them; and even if it showed a road, gave no sufficient reason why it should be followed.
Of such we humbly crave the pardon; and in answer to a seemingly widespread desire to know if we mean anything, and if so, What? we request those who would know the Truth of Scientific Illuminism to look into the open mouth of its doctrine, to follow its simple teachings step by step and not to turn their backs on it and, walking in the opposite direction, declare so simple a problem to be an everlasting mystery.
We are therefore not concerned with those who have not examined our doctrine of sceptical Theurgy, or scientific illuminism, or that which lies beyond. Let them examine without prejudice.
Some, too, have raised weapons against us, thinking to hurt us. But malice is only the result of ignorance; let them examine us, and they will love us. The sword is not yet forged that can divide him whose helmet is Truth. Nor is the arrow yet fledged that will pierce the flesh of one who is clothed in the glittering armour of mirth. So here, and now, {2) and with us; he who climbs the Mountain we point out to him, and which we have climbed; he who journeys by the chart we offer to him, and which we have followed, on his return will come in unto us as one who has authority; for he alone who has climbed the summit can speak with truth of those things that from there are to be seen, for HE KNOWS. But he who stands afar off, and jests, saying: "It is not a Mountain, it is a cloud; it is not a cloud, it is a shadow; it is not a shadow, it is an illusion; it is not an illusion, it is indeed nothing at all!" --- who but a fool will heed him? for not having journeyed one step, HE KNOWS NOT concerning those things of which he speaks.
To make ourselves now utterly plain to all such as have misunderstood us, we will formulate our statement in many ways, so that at least there may be found one acceptable to each seeker who is open to conviction.
I
1. We perceive in the sensible world, Sorrow. Ultimately that is; we admit the Existence of a Problem requiring solution.
2. We accept the proofs of Hume, Kant, Herbert Spencer, Fuller, and others of this thesis:
The Ratiocinative Faculty or Reason of Man contains in its essential nature an element of self-contradiction.
3. Following on this, we say:
If any resolution there be of these two problems, the Vanity of Life and the Vanity of Thought, it must be in the attainment of a Consciousness which transcends both of {3} them. Let us call this supernormal consciousness, or, for want of a better name, "Spiritual Experience."
4. Faith has been proposed as a remedy. But we perceive many incompatible forms of Faith founded on Authority --- The Vedas, The Quran, The Bible; Buddha, Christ, Joseph Smith. To choose between the we must resort to reason, already shown to be a fallacious guide.
5. There is only one Rock which Scepticism cannot shake; the Rock of Experience.
6. We have therefore endeavoured to eliminate from the conditions of acquiring Spiritual Experience its dogmatic, theological, accidental, climatic and other inessential elements.
7. We require the employment of a strictly scientific method. The mind of the seeker must be unbiased: all prejudice and other sources of error must be perceived as such and extirpated.
8. We have therefore devised a Syncretic-Eclectic Method combining the essentials of all methods, rejecting all their trammels, to attack the Problem, through exact experiments and not by guesses.
9. For each pupil we recommend a different method (in detail) suited to his needs; just as a physician prescribes the medicine proper to each particular patient.
10. We further believe that the Consummation of Spiritual Experience is reflected into the spheres of intellect and action as Genius, so that by taking an ordinary man we can by training produce a Master.
This thesis requires proof: we hope to supply such proof by producing Genius to order. {4}
II
1. There is no hope in physical life, since death of the individual, the race, and ultimately the planet, ends all.
2. There is no hope in reason, since it contradicts itself, and is in any case no more than a reflection upon the facts of physical life.
3. What hope there may be in Investigation of the physical facts of Nature on Scientific lines is already actively sought after by a powerful and well-organized body of men of perfect probity and high capacity.
4. There is no hope in Faith, for there are many warring Faiths, all equally positive.
5. The adepts of Spiritual Experience promise us wonderful things, the Perception of Truth, and the Conquest of Sorrow, and there is enough unity in their method to make an Eclectic System possible.
6. We are determined to investigate this matter most thoroughly on Scientific lines.
III
1. We are Mystics, ever eagerly seeking a solution of unpleasant facts.
2. We are Men of Science, ever eagerly acquiring pertinent facts.
3. We are Sceptics, ever eagerly examining those facts.
4. We are Philosophers, ever eagerly classifying and co-ordinating those well-criticised facts.
5. We are Epicureans, ever eagerly enjoying the unification of those facts. {5}
6. We are Philanthropists, ever eagerly transmitting our knowledge of those facts to others.
7. Further, we are Syncretists, taking truth from all systems, ancient and modern; and Eclectics, ruthlessly discarding the inessential factors in any one system, however perfect.
IV
1. Faith, Life, Philosophy have failed.
2. Science is already established.
3. Mysticism, being based on pure experience, is always a vital force; but owing to the lack of trained observation, has always been a mass of error. Spiritual Experience, interpreted in the terms of Intellect, is distorted; just as sunrise shows the grass green and the sea blue. Both were invisible until sunrise; yet the diversity of colour is not in the sun, but in the objects on which its light falls, and their contradiction does not prove the sun to be an illusion.
4. We shall correct Mysticism (or Illuminism) by Science, and explain Science by Illuminism.
V
1. We have one method, that of Science.
2. We have one aim, that of Religion.
VI
There was once an Inhabitant in a land called Utopia who complained to the Water Company that his water was impure. {6}
"No," answered the Water Man, "it can't be impure, for we filter it."
"Oh indeed!" replied the Inhabitant, "but my wife died from drinking it."
"No," said the Water Man; "I assure you that this water comes from the purest springs in Utopia; further, that water, however impure, cannot hurt anybody; further, that I have a certificate of its purity from the Water Company itself."
"The people who pay you!" sneered the Inhabitant. "For your other points, Haeckel has proved that all water is poison, and I believe you get your water from a cesspool. Why, look at it!"
"And beautiful clear water it is!" said the Water Man. "Limpid as crystal. Worth a guinea a drop!"
"About what you charge for it!" retorted the incensed Inhabitant. "It looks fairly clear, I admit, in the twilight. But that is not the point. A poison need not cloud water."
"But," urged the other, "one of our directors is a prophet, and he prophesied --- clearly, in so many words --- that the water would be pure this year. And besides, our first founder was a holy man, who performed a special miracle to make it pure for ever!"
"Your evidence is as tainted as your water," replied the now infuriated householder.
So off they went to the Judge.
The Judge heard the case carefully. "My good friends!" said he, "you've neither of you got a leg to stand on; for in all you say there is not one grain of proof. --- The case is dismissed." {7}
The Water Inspector rose jubilant, when from the body of the Court came a still small voice.
"Might I respectfully suggest, your Worship, that the water in question be examined through my Microscope?"
"What in thunder is a Microscope?" cried the three in chorus.
"An instrument, your Worship, that I have constructed on the admitted principles of optics, to demonstrate by experience what these gentlemen are arguing about "a priori" and on hearsay."
Then they both rose up against him, and cursed him.
"Unscientific balderdash!" said the Water Man, for the first time speaking respectfully of Science.
"Blasphemous Nonsense!" said the Inhabitant, for the first time speaking respectfully of Religion.
"Wait and see," said the Judge; for he was a just Judge.
Then the Man with the Microscope explained the uses of this new and strange instrument. And the Judge patiently investigated all sources of error, and concluded in the end that the instrument was a true revealer of the secrets of the water. And he pronounced just judgment.
But the others were blinded by passion and self-interest. They only quarrelled more noisily, and were finally turned out of court. But the Judge caused the Man with the Microscope to be appointed Government Analyst at Pounds12,000 a year.
Now the Water Man is the Believer, and the Inhabitant the Unbeliever. The Judge is the Agnostic --- in Huxley's sense of the word; and the Man with the Microscope is the Scientific Illuminist.
Curious as it may seem, all this was most carefully explained {8} in No. 1 of this Review, in Mr. Frank Harris's "The Magic Glasses."
Mr. 'Allett is the Materialist, Canon Bayton the Idealist, the Judge's daughter is the Agnostic, and Matthew Penry the Scientific Illuminist. If the little girl had been able to "follow up the light," she might there have seen Penry standing, his head and his feet white like wool, and his eyes a flaming fire!
This, then, in one language or another, is our philosophical position. But for those who are not content with this, let it be said that there is something more behind and beyond. Among us are those who have experienced things of a nature so exalted that no words ever penned could even adumbrate them faintly. The communication of such knowledge, so far as it is at all possible, must be a personal thing; and we offer it with both hands.
It is simple to write to the Chancellor of the A.'. A.'. at the care of the publishers, 23 Paternoster Row, E.C.; a neophyte of the Order will be detailed to meet the inquirer. He will read to him the History of the Order and explain the task of the Probationer. For we give to each inquirer a year's study; mutual, so that he may decide whether we can indeed give that which he wishes, and so that we may know exactly what training is suitable for him.
Also because we are subtle of mind, many are offended. For we wished to test the world by the touchstone of THE EQUINOX. Those who perceived the essential gold that lay hidden in that hard rock are now busy delving out the same; many are thereby become rich.
So I who write this for the Brethren, with all humility and {9} awe, do seriously summon all men unto the Search, even those who are offended because I laugh, gazing into the Eyes of the Beloved; and those who are offended because I hate the veil of words that hides the face of the Beloved; and those who are offended because my passion for the Beloved is too virile and eager to suit their awe; perhaps they forget that passion means suffering.
But let them know that my Beloved is mine and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies. {10}
LIBER O
VEL
MANVS ET SAGITTAE
SVB FIGVRA
VI
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class B.
Imprimatur:
D.D.S.Praemonstrator
O.S.V.Imperator
N.S.F.Cancellarius
{Illustration facing page 12: THE SIGNS OF THE GRADES.
These are arranged as ten panels: * * * *
* *
* *
*
*
These are all halftone photos of a single human in a black Tau robe, barefoot with hood completely closed over the face. The hood displays a six-pointed figure on the forehead --- presumably the radiant eye of Horus of the A.'. A.'., but the rendition is too poor in detail. There is a cross pendant over the heart. The ten panels are numbered in white in the upper left, but the numerals are very dim even in the Ist edition (some blurred out entirely in the Weiser edition).
The panels are identified by two columns of numbered captions, 1 to 6 to the left and 7 to 10 to the right. The description is bottom to top and left to right:
"1. Earth: the god Set fighting." Frontal figure. Rt. foot pointed to the fore and angled slightly outward with weight on ball of foot. Lf. heel touching Rt. heel and foot pointed left. Arms form a diagonal with body, right above head and in line with left at waist height. Hands palmer and open with fingers outstretched and together. Head erect.
"2. Air: The god Shu supporting the sky." Frontal. Heels together and slightly angled apart to the front, flat on floor. Head down. Arms angled up on either side of head about head 1.5 ft. from head to wrist and crooked as if supporting a ceiling just at head height with the finger tips. The palms face upward and the backs of the hands away from the head. Thumbs closed to side of palms. Fingers straight and together.
"3. Water: the goddess Auramoth." Same body and foot position as #2, but head erect. Arms are brought down over the chest so that the thumbs touch above the heart and the backs of the hands are to the front. The fingers meet below the heart, forming between thumbs and fingers the descending triangle of water.
"4. Fire: the goddess Thoum-aesh-neith." Frontal. Head and body like #3. Arms are angled so that the thumbs meet in a line over the brow. Palmer side facing. Fingers meet above head, forming between thumbs and fingers the ascending triangle of fire.
"5,6. Spirit: the rending and closing of the veil." Head erect in both. #5 has the same body posture as #1, except that the left and right feet are countercharged and flat on the floor. Arms and hands are crooked forward at shoulder level such that the hands appear to be clawing open a split veil --- hands have progressed to a point that the forearms are invisible, being directly pointed at the front. Upper arms are flat and horizontal in the plain of the image. #6. has the same body posture as #1, feet in same position as #1 but flat to the floor. The arms are elbow down against abdomen, with hands forward over heart in claws such that the knuckles are touching. Passing from #5 to #6 or vice versa is done by motion of shoulders and rotation of wrists. This is different from the other sign of opening the veil, the Sign of the Enterer, with is done with hands flat palm to palm and then spread without rotation of wrists.
"7-10. The L V X signs."
"7. + Osiris slain --- the cross." Body and feet as in #2. Head bowed. Arms directly horizontal from the shoulders in the plane of the image. Hands with fingers together, thumbs to side of palm and palmer side forward. The tau shape of the robe dominates the image.
"8. L Isis mourning --- the Svastica." The body is in semi-profile, head down slightly and facing right of photograph. The arms, hands, legs and feet are positioned to define a swastika. Left foot flat, carrying weight and angled toward the right of the photo. Right foot toe down behind the figure to the left in the photo. Right upper arm due left in photo and forearm vertical with fingers closed and pointing upward. Left arm smoothly canted down to the right of photo, with fingers closed and pointed down.
"9. V Typhon --- the Trident." Figure frontal and standing on tip toe, toes forward and heals not touching. Head back. Arms angled in a "V" with the body to the top and outward in the plain of the photo. Fingers and thumbs as #7, but continuing the lines of the arms.
"10. X Osiris risen --- the Pentagram." Body and feet as in #7. Head directly frontal and level. Arms crossed over heart, right over left with hands extended, fingers closed and thumb on side such that the palms rest on the two opposite shoulders.}
LIBER O
VEL
MANVS ET SAGITTAE
SVB FIGVRA
VI
I.
1. This book is very easy to misunderstand; readers are asked to use the most minute critical care in the study of it, even as we have done in its preparation.
2. In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist.
It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.
3. The advantages to be gained from them are chiefly these:
("a") A widening of the horizon of the mind.
("b") An improvement of the control of the mind.
4. The student, if he attains any success in the following practices, will find himself confronted by things (ideas or {13} beings) too glorious or too dreadful to be described. It is essential that he remain the master of all that he beholds, hears or conceives; otherwise he will be the slave of illusion, and the prey of madness.
Before entering upon any of these practices, the student should be in good health, and have attained a fair mastery of Asana, Pranayama and Dharana.
5. There is little danger that any student, however idle or stupid, will fail to get some result; but there is great danger that he will be led astray, obsessed and overwhelmed by his results, even though it be by those which it is necessary that he should attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh the first resting-place for the goal, and taketh off his armour as if he were a victor ere the fight is well begun.
It is desirable that the student should never attach to any result the importance which it at first seems to possess.
6. First, then, let us consider the Book "777" and its use; the preparation of the Place; the use of the Magic Ceremonies; and finally the methods which follow in Chapter V. "Viator in Regnis Arboris," and in Chapter VI. "Sagitta trans Lunam."
(In another book will it be treated of the Expansion and Contraction of Consciousness; progress by slaying the Chakkrams; progress by slaying the Pairs of Opposites; the methods of Sabhapaty Swami, &c., &c.)
II.
1. The student must FIRST obtain a thorough knowledge of "Book 777", especially of columns i., ii., iii., v., vi., vii., ix., xi., xii., xiv., xv., xvi., xvii., xviii., xix., xxxiv., xxxv., xxxviii., {14} xxxix., xl., xli., xlii., xlv., liv., lv., lix., lx., lxi., lxiii., lxx., lxxv., lxxvii., lxviii., lxxix., lxxx., lxxxi., lxxxiii., xcvii., xcviii., xcix., c., ci., cxvii., cxviii., cxxxvii., cxxxviii., cxxxix., clxxv., clxxvi., clxxvii., clxxxii.
When these are committed to memory, he will begin to understand the nature of these correspondences. ("See" Illustrations "The Temple of Solomon the King" in this number. Cross references are given.)
2. If we take an example, the use of the table will become clear.
Let us suppose that you wish to obtain knowledge of some obscure science.
In column xlv., line 12, you will find "Knowledge of Sciences."
By now looking up line 12 in the other columns, you will find that the Planet corresponding is Mercury, its number eight, its lineal figures the octagon and octagram. The God who rules that planet Thoth, or in Hebrew symbolism Tetragrammaton Adonai and Elohim Tzabaoth, its Archangel Raphael, its Choir of Angels Beni Elohim, its Intelligence Tiriel, its Spirit Taphtatharath, its colours Orange (for Mercury is the Sphere of the Sephira Hod, 8), Yellow, Purple, Grey, and Indigo rayed with Violet; its Magical Weapon the Wand or Caduceus, its Perfumes Mastic and others, its sacred plants Vervain and others, its jewel the Opal or Agate; its sacred animal the Snake, &c., &c.
3. You would then prepare your Place of Working accordingly. In an orange circle you would draw an eight-pointed star of yellow, at whose points you would place eight lamps. The Sigil of the Spirit (which is to be found in Cornelius {15} Agrippa and other books) you would draw in the four colours with such other devices as your experience may suggest.
4. And so on. We cannot here enter at length into all the necessary preparations; and the student will find them fully set forth in the proper books, of which the "Goetia" is perhaps the best example.
These rituals need not be slavishly imitated; on the contrary the student should do nothing the object of which he does not understand; also, if he have any capacity whatever, he will find his own crude rituals more effective than the highly polished ones of other people.
The general purpose of all this preparation is as follows:
5. Since the student is a man surrounded by material objects, if it be his wish to master one particular idea, he must make every material object about him directly suggest that idea. Thus in the ritual quoted, if his glance fall upon the lights, their number suggests Mercury; he smells the perfumes, and again Mercury is brought to his mind. In other words, the whole magical apparatus and ritual is a complex system of mnemonics.
[The importance of these lies principally in the fact that particular sets of images that the student may meet in his wanderings correspond to particular lineal figures, divine names, &c. and are controlled by them. As to the possibility of producing results external to the mind of the seer ("objective," in the ordinary common sense acceptation of the term) we are here silent.]
6. There are three important practices connected with all forms of ceremonial (and the two Methods which later we shall describe). These are: {16}
(1) Assumption of God-forms.
(2) Vibration of Divine Names.
(3) Rituals of "Banishing" and "Invoking".
These, at least, should be completely mastered before the dangerous Methods of Chapters V. and VI. are attempted.
III
1. The Magical Images of the Gods of Egypt should be made thoroughly familiar. This can be done by studying them in any public museum, or in such books as may be accessible to the student. They should then be carefully painted by him, both from the model and from memory.
2. The student, seated in the "God" position, or in the characteristic attitude of the God desired, should then imagine His image as coinciding with his own body, or as enveloping it. This must be practised until mastery of the image is attained, and an identity with it and with the God experienced.
It is a matter for very great regret that no simple and certain test of success in this practice exists.
3. The Vibration of God-names. As a further means of identifying the human consciousness with that pure portion of it which man calls by the name of some God, let him act thus:
4. ("a") Stand with arms outstretched. ("See" illustration.)
("b") Breathe in deeply through the nostrils, imagining the name of the God desired entering with the breath.
("c") Let that name descend slowly from the lungs to the
heart, the solar plexus, the navel, the generative
organs, and so to the feet. {17}
("d") The moment that it appears to touch the feet,
quickly advance the left foot about 12 inches,
throw forward the body, and let the hands (drawn
back to the side of the eyes) shoot out, so that you
are standing in the typical position of the God
Horus,<<"See" Illustration in Vol. I. No. 1, "Blind Force.">>
and at the same time imagine the Name as
rushing up and through the body, while you breathe
it out through the nostrils with the air which has
been till then retained in the lungs. All this must
be done with all the force of which you are capable.
("e") Then withdraw the left foot, and place the right
forefinger upon the lips, so that you are in the
characteristic position of the God Harpocrates.<<"See"
Illustration in Vol. I. No. 1, "The Silent Watcher.">>
5. It is a sign that the student is performing this correctly when a single "Vibration" entirely exhausts his physical strength. It should cause him to grow hot all over, or to perspire violently, and it should so weaken him that he will find it difficult to remain standing.
6. It is a sign of success, though only by the student himself is it perceived, when he hears the name of the God vehemently roared forth, as if by the concourse of ten thousand thunders; and it should appear to him as if that Great Voice proceeded from the Universe, and not from himself.
In both the above practices all consciousness of anything but the God-form and name should be absolutely blotted out; and the longer it takes for normal perception to return, the better. {18}
IV
I. The Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram must be committed to memory; they are as follows:
"The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram"
(i) Touching the forehead say Ateh (Unto Thee).
(ii) Touching the breast say Malkuth (The Kingdom).
(iii) Touching the right shoulder, say ve-Geburah (and
the Power).
(iv) Touching the left shoulder, say ve-Gedulah (and the
Glory).
(v) Clasping the hands upon the breast, say le-Olahm,
Amen (To the Ages, Amen).
(vi) Turning to the East make a pentagram (that of
Earth) with the proper weapon (usually the
Wand). Say ("i.e." vibrate) I H V H.
(vii) Turning to the South, the same, but say A D N I.
(viii) Turning to the West, the same, but say A H I H.
(ix) Turning to the North, the same, but say A G L A.
Pronounce: Ye-ho-wau, Adonai, Eheieh, Agla.
(x) Extending the arms in the form of a Cross say:
(xi) Before me Raphael;
(xii) Behind me Gabriel;
(xiii) On my right hand Michael.
(xiv) On my left hand Auriel;
(xv) For about me flames the Pentagram,
(xvi) And in the Column stands the six-rayed Star.
(xvii-xxi) Repeat (i) to (v), the Qabalistic Cross. {19}
"The Greater Ritual of the Pentagram"
The Pentagrams are traced in the air with the sword or other weapon, the name spoken aloud, and the signs used, as illustrated.
THE PENTAGRAMS OF SPIRIT
' ' Equilibrium of Actives
/ \ / \
* / \ # / \ Name: A H I H (Eheieh)
\---------------- \----------------
\ '/ . . \' \ '/ . . \'
\/ . " . \ \/ . " . \
I /\' ' \ /\' ' \ B
N \ \ A
V # * N
O I
K ' ' S Equilibrium of Passives
I / \ / \ H
N / \ * / \ # I Name A G L A (Agla).
G ----------------/ ----------------/ N
'/ . . \' / '/ . . \' / G
/ . " . \/ / . " . \/
/ ' '/\ / ' '/\
/ /
# *
The Signs of the Portal ("see" Illustrations): Extend the hands in front of you, palms outwards, separate them as if in the act of rending asunder a veil or curtain (actives), and then bring them together as if closing it up again and let them fall to the side (passives).
(The Grade of the "Portal" is particularly attributed to the element of Spirit; it refers to the Sun; the Paths of Samekh, Nun and Ayin, are attributed to this degree.<> See "777" lines 6 and 31 bis).
THE PENTAGRAMS OF FIRE.
I ' ' B
N / \ # / \ * A Name: A L H I M
V / \ \ / \ \ N
O -------------\-- -------------\-- I (Elohim).
K '/ . . \'\ '/ . . \'\ S
I / . " . \ \ / . " . \ \ H
N / ' ' \ * / ' ' \ # I
G N
G
{20}
The signs of 4 Degree = 7 Square: Raise the arms above the head and join the hands, so that the tips of the fingers and of the thumbs meet, formulating a triangle ("See" illustration).
(The Grade of 4 Degree = 7 Square is particularly attributed to the element Fire; it refers to the planet Venus; the paths of Qof, Tzaddi and Peh are attributed to this degree. For other attributions "see" "777" lines 7 and 31).
The Pentagrams of Water.
I ' ' B
N / \ / \ A
V #----------* *---------# N
O ---------------- ---------------- I Name: A L (El).
K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S
I / . " . \ / . " . \ H
N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I
G N
G
The signs of 3 Degree = 8 Square: Raise the arms till the elbows are on a level with the shoulders, bring the hands across the chest, touching the thumbs and tips of fingers so as to form a triangle apex downwards. ("See" illustration).
(The Grade of 3 Degree = 8 Square is particularly attributed to the element of Water; it refers to the planet Mercury; the paths of Resh and Shin are attributed to this degree. For other attributions "see" "777", lines 8 and 23).
THE PENTAGRAMS OF AIR.
I ' ' B
N / \ / \ A
V *----------# #---------* N Name: I H V H
O ---------------- ---------------- I (Ye-ho-wau).
K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S
I / . " . \ / . " . \ H
N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I
G N
G
The signs of 2 Degree = 9 Square: Stretch both arms upwards and outwards, the elbows bent at right angles, the hands bent back, the palms upwards as if supporting a weight. ("See" illustration). {21}
(The Grade of 2 Degree = 9 Square is particularly attributed to the element Air; it refers to the Moon; the path of Taw is attributed to this degree. For other attributions "see" "777" lines 9 and 11).
THE PENTAGRAMS OF EARTH
I ' ' B
N # / \ * / \ A
V / / \ / / \ N
O -/-------------- -/-------------- I Name: A D N I (Adonai).
K / '/ . . \' / '/ . . \' S
I / / . " . \ / / . " . \ H
N * / ' ' \ # / ' ' \ I
G N
G
The Sign of 1 Degree = 10 Square: Advance the right foot, stretch out the right hand upwards and forwards, the left hand downwards and backwards, the palms open.
(The Grade of 1 Degree = 10 Square is particularly attributed to the element of Earth, "See" "777" lines 10 and 32 bis).
"The Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram."
This ritual is to be performed after the "Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram".
(i) Stand upright, feet together, left arm at side, right
across body, holding the wand or other
weapon upright in the median line. Then
face East and say:
(ii) I.N.R.I.
Yod. Nun. Resh. Yod.
Virgo, Isis, Mighty Mother.
Scorpio, Apophis, Destroyer.
Sol, Osiris, Slain and Risen.
Isis, Apophis, Osiris, IAO. {22}
(iii) Extend the arms in the form of a cross, and say:
"The Sign of Osiris Slain." ("See" Illustration).
(iv) Raise the right arm to point upwards, keeping the
elbow square, and lower the left arm to point
downwards, keeping the elbow square, while
turning the head over the left shoulder looking
down so that the eyes follow the left forearm,
and say, "The Sign of the Mourning of Isis."
("See" Illustration).
(v) Raise the arms at an angle of sixty degrees to each
other above the head, which is thrown back,
and say, "The Sign of Apophis and Typhon."
("See" Illustration).
(vi) Cross the arms on the breast, and bow the head
and say, "The Sign of Osiris Risen." ("See"
Illustration).
(vii) Extend the arms again as in (iii) and cross them
again as in (vi) saying: "L.V.X., Lux, the
Light of the Cross".
/\ #
/ \ \ (viii) With the magical weapon trace the
/ \ \ 1 Hexagram of Fire in the East, saying,
/ /\ \ * "Ararita" (Aleph-Resh-Aleph-Resh-Yod-Taw-Aleph).
---------- This Word consists of the initials of a
/ \ # sentence which means "One is His Beginning:
/ \ \ One is His Individuality: His Permutation is
---------- \ 2 One."
*
This hexagram consists of two equilateral triangles, both apices pointed upwards. Begin at the top of the upper {23} triangle and trace it in a dextro-rotary direction. The top of the lower triangle should coincide with the central point of the upper triangle.
/\ #
--------\- (ix) Trace the Hexagram of Earth in the
2* \/ \/\ South, saying "ARARITA." This Hexagram
\/\ /\ *1 has the apex of the lower triangle pointing
-\-------- downwards, and it should be capable of
# \/ inscription in a circle.
/\ #
/ \ \
/ \ \
/ \ \ 1
---------- *
---------- (x) Trace the Hexagram of Air in the
2* \ / West, saying "ARARITA." This Hexagram
\ \ / is like that of Earth; but the bases of the
\ \ / triangles coincide, forming a diamond.
\ \/
#
----------
* \ /
\ \ /
\ \ / (xi) Trace the hexagram of Water in the
# \/ North, saying "ARARITA."
/\ # This hexagram has the lower triangle placed
/ \ \ above the upper, so that their apices coincide.
/ \ \
/ \ *
----------
(xii) Repeat (i-vii)
The Banishing Ritual is identical, save that the direction of the Hexagrams must be reversed. {24}
"Invoking" "Banishing"
/\ # # /\ "The Greater Ritual of"
--------\- -/-------- "the Hexagram"
2* \/ \/\ Saturn /\/ \/ *2
\/\ /\ *1 1* /\ /\/ To invoke or banish
-\-------- --------/- planets or zodiacal
# \/ \/ # signs.
1 The Hexagram of
2* /\ *--/\--# Earth alone is used.
-/-------- ---------- Draw the hexagram,
/\/ \/ # Jupiter \/ \/ beginning from the
# /\ /\/ /\ /\ point which is
--------/- ---------- attributed to the
\/ *1 #--\/--* 2 planet you are dealing
with. ("See" "777" col.
#--/\--* 1 /\ *2 lxxxiii).
---------- --------\- Thus to invoke
\/ \/ # \/ \/\ Jupiter begin from the
/\ /\ Mars \/\ /\ # right-hand point of
---------- -\-------- the lower triangle,
2 *--\/--# 1* \/ dextro-rotary and
complete; then trace
4,9.* # 6,7. the upper triangle
#-- / /\ # --*5,8. 10,3.*-- / /\ * --# from its left hand
--------\- --------\- point and complete.
2,11.*/\/ \/\# #/\/ \/\*2,11. Trace the
#\/\ /\/*1,12.Sun 1,12.*\/\ /\/# astrological sigil
-\------/- -\------/- of the planet in the
6,7.*-- # \/ * --# #-- * \/ # --*4,9.centre of your
3,10. 5,8. hexagram.
For the Zodiac use
#--/\--*2 /\ *1 the hexagram of the
---------- --------\- planet which
\/ \/ Venus # \/ \/\ rules the {25) sign
/\ /\ \/\ /\ # you require ("777",
---------- -\-------- col. cxxxviii); but
1*--\/--# 2* \/ draw the astrological
sigil of the sign,
1* /\ 2*--/\--# instead of that of the
-/-------- ---------- planet.
/\/ \/ # Mercury \/ \/
# /\ /\/ /\ /\
--------/- ----------
\/ *2 #--\/--*1
/\ # # /\
--------\- -/--------
1* \/ \/\ Moon /\/ \/ *1
\/\ /\ *2 2* /\ /\/
-\-------- --------/-
# \/ \/ # {25}
For Caput and Cauda Draconis use the lunar hexagram, with the sigil of Caput Draconis or Cauda Draconis.
To banish, reverse the hexagram.
In all cases use a conjuration first with Ararita, and next with the name of the God corresponding to the planet or sign you are dealing with.
The Hexagrams pertaining to the planets are as in plate on preceding page.
2. These rituals should be practised until the figures drawn appear in flame, in flame so near to physical flame that it would perhaps be visible to the eyes of a bystander, were one present. It is alleged that some persons have attained the power of actually kindling fire by these means. Whether this be so or not, the power is not one to be aimed at.
3. Success in "banishing" is known by a "feeling of cleanliness" in the atmosphere; success in "invoking" by a "feeling of holiness." It is unfortunate that these terms are so vague.
But at least make sure of this: that any imaginary figure or being shall instantly obey the will of the student, when he uses the appropriate figure. In obstinate cases, the form of the appropriate God may be assumed.
4. The banishing rituals should be used at the commencement of any ceremony whatever. Next, the student should use a general invocation, such as the "Preliminary Invocation" in the "Goetia" as well as a special invocation to suit the nature of his working.
5. Success in these verbal invocations is so subtle a {26} matter, and its grades so delicately shaded, that it must be left to the good sense of the student to decide whether or not he should be satisfied with his result.
V
1. Let the student be at rest in one of his prescribed positions, having bathed and robed with the proper decorum. Let the place of working be free from all disturbance, and let the preliminary purifications, banishings and invocations be duly accomplished, and, lastly, let the incense be kindled.
2. Let him imagine his own figure (preferably robed in the proper magical garments and armed with the proper magical weapons) as enveloping his physical body, or standing near to and in front of him.
3. Let him then transfer the seat of his consciousness to that imagined figure; so that it may seem to him that he is seeing with its eyes, and hearing with its ears.
This will usually be the great difficulty of the operation.
4. Let him then cause that imagined figure to rise in the air to a great height above the earth.
5. Let him then stop and look about him. (It is sometimes difficult to open the eyes.)
6. Probably he will see figures approaching him, or become conscious of a landscape.
Let him speak to such figures, and insist upon being answered, using the proper pentagrams and signs, as previously taught.
7. Let him travel about at will, either with or without guidance from such figure or figures. {27}
8. Let him further employ such special invocations as will cause to appear the particular places he may wish to visit.
9. Let him beware of the thousand subtle attacks and deceptions that he will experience, carefully testing the truth of all with whom he speaks.
Thus a hostile being may appear clothed with glory; the appropriate pentagram will in such a case cause him to shrivel or decay.
10. Practice will make the student infinitely wary in these matters.
11. It is usually quite easy to return to the body, but should any difficulty arise, practice (again) will make the imagination fertile. For example, one may create in thought a chariot of fire with white horses, and command the charioteer to drive earthwards.
It might be dangerous to go too far, or to stay too long; for fatigue must be avoided.
The danger spoken of is that of fainting, or of obsession, or of loss of memory or other mental faculty.
12. Finally, let the student cause his imagined body in which he supposes himself to have been travelling to coincide with the physical, tightening his muscles, drawing in his breath, and putting his forefinger to his lips. Then let him "awake" by a well-defined act of will, and soberly and accurately record his experiences.
It may be added that this apparently complicated experiment is perfectly easy to perform. It is best to learn by "travelling" with a person already experienced in the matter. Two or three experiments will suffice to render the student confident and even expert. See also "The Seer", pp. 295-333.
VI
1. The previous experiment has little value, and leads to few results of importance. But it is susceptible of a development which merges into a form of Dharana --- concentration --- and as such may lead to the very highest ends. The principal use of the practice in the last chapter is to familiarise the student with every kind of obstacle and every kind of delusion, so that he may be perfect master of every idea that may arise in his brain, to dismiss it, to transmute it, to cause it instantly to obey his will.
2. Let him then begin exactly as before, but with the most intense solemnity and determination.
3. Let him be very careful to cause his imaginary body to rise in a line exactly perpendicular to the earth's tangent at the point where his physical body is situated (or to put it more simply, straight upwards).
4. Instead of stopping, let him continue to rise until fatigue almost overcomes him. If he should find that he has stopped without willing to do so, and that figures appear, let him at all costs rise above them.
Yea, though his very life tremble on his lips, let him force his way upward and onward!
5. Let him continue in this so long as the breath of life is in him. Whatever threatens, whatever allures, though it were Typhon and all his hosts loosed from the pit and leagued against him, though it were from the very Throne of God Himself that a Voice issues bidding him stay and be content, let him struggle on, ever on.
6. At last there must come a moment when his whole {29} being is swallowed up in fatigue, overwhelmed by its own inertia.* Let him sink (when no longer can he strive, though his tongue by bitten through with the effort and the blood gush from his nostrils) into the blackness of unconsciousness; and then, on coming to himself, let him write down soberly and accurately a record of all that hath occurred, yea a record of all that hath occurred.
EXPLICIT
* This in case of failure. The results of success are so many and wonderful that no effort is here made to describe them. They are classified, tentatively, in the "Herb Dangerious," Part II., "infra".
[A book of Elementary Invocations is in preparation, and will be issued in Number 3.]
{30}
THE HERB DANGEROUS
PART II
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH
BY
OLIVER HADDO
THE HERB DANGEROUS
I
"The girders of the soul, which give her breathing, are easy
to be unloosed."
"Nature teaches us, and the oracles also affirm, that even the
evil germs of matter may alike become useful and good."
ZOROASTER.
COMPARABLE to the Alf Laylah wa Laylah itself, a very Tower of Babel, partaking alike of truth both gross and subtle inextricably interwoven with the most fantastic fable, is our view of the Herb --- Hashish --- the Herb Dangerous. Of the investigators who have pierced even for a moment the magic veil of its glamour ecstatic many have been appalled, many disappointed. Few have dared to crush in arms of steel this burning daughter of the Jinn; to ravish from her poisonous scarlet lips the kisses of death, to force her serpent-smooth and serpent-stinging body down to some infernal torture-couch, and strike her into spasm as the lightning splits the cloud-wrack, only to read in her infinite sea-green eyes the awful price of her virginity --- black madness.
Even supreme Richard Burton, who solved nigh every other riddle of the Eastern Sphinx, passed this one by. He took the drug for months "with no other symptom than increased appetite," and in his general attitude to hashish-intoxication {33} (spoken of often in the "Nights") shows that he regards it as no more than a vice, and seems not to suspect that, vice or no, it had strange fruits; if not of the Tree of Life, at least of that other Tree, double and sinister and deadly. ...
Nay! for I am of the Serpent's party; Knowledge is good, be the price what it may.
Such little fruit, then, as I may have culled from her autumnal breast (mere unripe berries, I confess!) I hasten to offer to my friends.
And lest the austerity of such a goddess be profaned by the least vestige of adornment I make haste to divest myself of whatever gold or jewellery of speech I may possess, to advance, my left breast bare, without timidity or rashness, into her temple, my hoped reward the lamb's skin of a clean heart, the badge of simple truthfulness and the apron of Innocence.
In order to keep this paper within limits, I may premise that the preparation and properties of "Cannabis indica" can be studied in the proper pharmaceutical treatises, though, as this drug is more potent psychologically than physically, all strictly medical account of it, so far as I am aware, have been hitherto both meagre and misleading. Deeper and clearer is the information to be gained from the brilliant studies by Baudelaire, unsurpassed for insight and impartiality, and Ludlow, tainted by admiration of de Quincey and the sentimentalists.<> {34}
My contribution to the subject will therefore be strictly personal, and so far incomplete; indeed in a sense valueless, since in such a matter personality may so largely outweigh all other factors of the problem. At the same time I must insist that my armour is more complete in several directions than that of my predecessors, inasmuch as I possess the advantage not only of a prolonged psychological training, a solid constitution, a temperament on which hashish acts by exciting perception (San~~n~~a), quite unalloyed by sensation (Vedana) and a perfect scepticism; but also of more than an acquaintance with ceremonial drunkenness among many nations and with the magical or mystical processes of all times and all races. It may fairly be retorted upon me that this unique qualification of mine is the very factor which most vitiates my results. However ...
With the question of intoxication considered as a key to knowledge let me begin, for from that side did I myself first suspect the existence of the drug which (as I now believe) is some sublimated or purified preparation of "Cannabis indica."
II
"Labour thou around the Strophalos of Hecate."
ZOROASTER.
In 1898-1899 I had just left Cambridge and was living in rooms in Chancery Lane, honoured by the presence of Allan Bennett (now Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya) as my guest. {35}
Together for many months we studied and practised Ceremonial Magic, and ransacked the ancient books and MSS. of the reputed sages for a key to the great mysteries of life and death. Not even fiction was neglected, and it was from fiction that we gathered one tiny seed-fact, which (in all these years) has germinated to the present essay.
Through the ages we found this one constant story. Stripped of its local and chronological accidents, it usually came to this --- the writer would tell of a young man, a seeker after the Hidden Wisdom, who, in one circumstance or another, meets an adept; who, after sundry ordeals, obtains from the said adept, for good or ill, a certain mysterious drug or potion, with the result (at least) of opening the gate of the Other-world. This potion was identified with the Elixir Vitae of the physical Alchemists, or one of their "Tinctures," most likely the "White Tincture" which transforms the base metal (normal perception of life) to silver (poetic conception), and we sought it by fruitless attempts to poison ourselves with every drug in (and out of) the Pharmacopoeia.
Like Huckleberry Finn's prayer, nuffin' come of it.
I must now, like the Baker, skip forty years, or rather eight, and reach a point where my travels in India had familiarised me with their systems of meditation and with the fact that many of the lesser Yogis employed hashish (whether vainly or no we shall discuss later) to obtain Samadhi, that oneness with the Universe, or with the Nothingness, which is the feeble expression by which alone we can shadow that supreme trance. I had also the advantage of falling across Ludlow's book, and was struck by the circumstance that he, obviously ignorant of Vedantist and {36} Yogic doctrines, yet approximately expressed them, though in a degraded and distorted form.
I was also aware of the prime agony of meditation, the "dryness"<> (as Molinos calls it) which hardens and sterilises the soul.
The very practice which should flood it with light leads only to a darkness more terrible than death, a despair and disgust which only too often lead to abandonment, when in truth they should encourage, for that --- as the oracles affirm --- it is darkest before the dawn.
Meditation therefore annoyed me, as tightening and constricting the soul. I began to ask myself if the "dryness" was an essential part of the process. If by some means I could shake its catafalque of Mind, might not the Infinite Divine Spirit leap unfettered to the Light?
Who shall roll away the stone?
Let it not be imagined that I devised these thoughts from pure sloth or weariness. But with the mystical means then at my disposal, I required a period of days or of weeks to obtain any Result, such as Samadhi in one of its greater or lesser forms; and in England the difficulties were hardly to be overcome. I found it impossible to meditate in the cold, and fires will not last equably. Gas stinks abominably; heating apparatus does not heat; electricity has hitherto not been available. When I build my temple, I shall try it.
The food difficulty could be overcome by Messrs. Fortnum and Mason, the noise difficulty by training, the leisure difficulty {37} by sending all business to the devil, the solitude difficulty by borrowing a vacant flat; but the British climate beat me. I hope one day to be rich enough to build a little house expressly for the purpose; but at present there is on the horizon no cloud even so large as the littlest finger of a man!
If only, therefore, I could reduce the necessary period to a few hours!
Moreover, I could persuade other people that mysticism was not all folly without insisting on their devoting a lifetime to studying under me; and if only I could convince a few competent observers --- in such a matter I distrust even myself --- Science would be bound to follow and to investigate, clear up the matter once for all, and, as I believed, and believe, arm itself with a new weapon ten thousand times more potent than the balance and the microscope.
Imagine me, therefore, if you please, selecting these few facts from the millions of others in the armoury of my brain, dovetailing them, and at last formulating an hypothesis verifiable by experiment.
III
"But I evolve all these mysteries in the profound abyss of
Mind." --- ZOROASTER.
This was my hypothesis:
"Perhaps hashish is the drug which 'loosens the girders of the soul,' but is in itself neither good nor bad. Perhaps, as Baudelaire thinks, it merely exaggerates and distorts the natural man and his mood of the moment." The whole of {38} Ludlow's wonderful introspection seemed to me to fortify this suggestion.
"Well, then, let me see whether by first exalting myself mystically and continuing my invocations while the drug dissolved the matrix of the diamond soul, that diamond might not manifest limpid and sparkling, a radiance 'not of the Sun, nor of the Moon, nor of the Stars';" and then, of course, I remembered that this ceremonial intoxication constitutes the supreme ritual of all religions.
First, however, it was necessary to determine the normal action of the drug upon my particular organisation. There are various preparations of "Cannabis indica," all alike in this, that their action is so uncertain as to be not easily or surely standardised. It is not even a question of reasonable limits: of two samples apparently alike one may be fifty times stronger than the other. A sample may apparently degenerate 50 per cent. in strength within a few days. Some samples may be totally inert.
This fact has led to the almost total abandonment of the use of the drug in medicine.
Further, the personal equation counts for much. Allan Bennett in Chancery Lane had on one occasion taken sufficient Conium (hemlock) to kill forty men without the smallest result of any kind.
In Kandy I had (for the first time in my life) taken two hundred and twenty-five drops of Laudanum in five hours, also with no more result than would have been produced by ten drops upon the average man.
Our equation was therefore composed exclusively of variables, and wide variables at that! Nothing for it, then, {39} but rule-of-thumb! The old Chancery Lane rule: begin with half the minimum dose of the Pharmacopoeia, and if nothing happens within the expected time, double the dose. If you go on long enough, something is nearly sure to happen!
IV
"The Mind of the Father said Into Three! and immediately
all things were so divided." --- ZOROASTER.
Let my readers be good enough to remember, then, that what follows concerns myself only. This must excuse the use of the first person, highly improper in a scientific essay, were it not that the personality of the experimenter is perhaps an essential. I cannot assert that my results would be achieved by another. Yet I have the strong conviction that I have eliminated many sources of error, and that my observations may possess a more absolute value in psychology than those of Ludlow or even of my great master Baudelaire. The few on whom I have been able to test the drug have in large measure confirmed, and in no way contradicted, my results.
In the first place, I make an absolute distinction between three effects of hashish, which may be, and I think probably are --- so distinct they appear --- due to three separate substances.
Possibly a simple stimulus-curve may account for it, but I do not think so.
1. "The volatile aromatic effect" (alpha ).
This, the first evanescent symptom, gives the "thrill" described by Ludlow, as of a new pulse of power pervading {40} one. Psychologically, the result is that one is thrown into an absolutely perfect state of introspection. One perceives one's thoughts and nothing but one's thoughts, and it is as thoughts that one perceives them. Material objects are only perceived as thoughts; in other words, in this respect, one possesses the direct consciousness of Berkeleyan idealism. The Ego and the Will are not involved; there is introspection of an almost if not quite purely impersonal type; that, and nothing more.
I am not to be understood as asserting that the results of this introspection are psychologically valid.
2. "The toxic hallucinative effect" (beta ).
With a sufficiently large dose --- for it is possible to get effect (alpha ) only as a transient phenomenon --- the images of thought pass more rapidly through the brain, at last vertiginously fast. They are no longer recognized as thoughts, but imagined as exterior. The Will and the Ego become alarmed, and may be attacked and overwhelmed. This constitutes the main horror of the drug; it is to be combated by a highly --- may I say magically? --- trained will.
I trust my readers will concede that the practice of ceremonial magic and meditation, all occult theories apart, do lead the mind to immense power over its own imaginations.
The fear of being swept away in the tide of relentless images is a terrible experience. Woe to who yields!
3. "The narcotic effect" (gamma ).
One simply goes off to sleep. This is not necessarily due to the brain-fatigue induced by (alpha ) and (beta ); for with one sample of "Cannabis," I found it to occur independently. {41}
V
"For this Paternal Intellect, which comprehendeth the
Intelligibles and adorneth things ineffable, hath sowed symbols
through the World."
"Comprehending that Intelligible with extended Mind; for
the Intelligible is the flower of Mind."
"A similar fire flashingly extending through the rushings of
air, or a Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a Voice, or
even a flashing Light abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying
aloud. Also there is the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of
Light, or also a Child, borne aloft on the shoulders of the
Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with gold, or naked, or
shooting with the bow shafts of Light and standing on the shoulders of
the horse; then if thy meditation prolongeth itself, thou shalt
unite all these symbols into the Form of a Lion." --- ZOROASTER.
The most important of the psychological results of my experiments seem to me to lie in (alpha ). I devoted much pains to obtaining this effect alone by taking only the minutest doses, by preparing myself physically and mentally for the experiment, and by seeking in every possible way to intensify and prolong the effect.
Simple impressions in normal consciousness are resolved by hashish into a concatenation of hieroglyphs of a purely symbolic type.
Just as we represent a horse by the five letters h-o-r-s-e, none of which has in itself the smallest relation to a horse, so an even simpler concept such as the letter A seems resolved into a set of pictures, a fairly large number, possibly a constant number, of them. These glyphs are perceived together, just as the skilled reader reads h-o-r-s-e as a single word, not letter by letter. These pictorial glyphs, letters as it were of the {42} word which we call a thought, seem to stand at a definite distance in space behind the thought, the thought being farther from the perceiving soul. Looking at each glyph, one perceives, too, that itself is made up of other glyphs yet nearer to the Self, these glyphs, however, being formless and nameless; they are not truly perceived, but one is somehow aware of them.
Unfortunately, the tendency to fall into effect (beta ) makes it very difficult to concentrate on the analysis of these ideas, so that one is hurried on to a similar examination of the next thought. It is curious, though, to notice how this analysis corresponds to the worlds of the Qabalah, the single "pure soul" at the back of all, the shadowy "creative" world, the varied "formative world," and the single though concrete "material" world.
It puzzles one, too (at the time, in the very course of the analysis), to ask: If the external simple impression be made up of so many glyphs, and each of these again of many more, how can one ever return to the "pure soul"? For all the while one is clearly conscious of a simple Ego or "pure soul" which perceives all this.
The only solution appears to lie in a metaphysical identification of Monotheism and Pantheism.
Again, one is conscious of a double direction in the phenomena. Not only is it true to say that the thoughts are analysed into glyphs and so on, back to the pure soul; but also that the pure soul sends forth the glyphs, which formulate the thought. Here again we must identify the Atman system of Hinduism centred in Ego with the Anatta system of Buddhism, in which the impressions are all. {43}
Further, there arises an exceedingly remarkable state of mind, described in the Bhagavad-Gita (I quote Arnold):
"I, who am all, and made it all, abide its separate Lord."
The experience could not be better phrased. Zoroaster, too:
"Who first sprang from Mind, clothing the one Fire with the other Fire, binding them together, that he might mingle the fountainous craters, while preserving unsullied the brilliance of His own Fire."
"Containing all things in the one summit of his Hyparxis, He Himself subsists wholly beyond."
It is almost impossible to describe so purely metaphysical a state, which involves clearly enough a contradiction in terms. Yet the consciousness is so vivid, so intense, so certain, that logic is condemned unflinchingly as puerile. The best escape for the logician is to argue that the three assertions are closely consecutive, so closely that mind thinks them one; just as the two points of a pair of compasses pressed upon certain parts of the body are felt as one point only. While the mystic will mutter some esoteric darkness about the true interpretation of the doctrine of the Trinity.
I think one should add that these results of my introspection are almost certainly due to my own training in philosophy and magic, and that nothing but the intensification of the introspective faculty is due to the hashish. Probably, too, this effect (alpha ) would be suppressed or unnoticed in a subject who had never developed his introspection at all.
Yet I am inclined to believe that this effect (alpha ) is the true effect; and that Ludlow's "access of self-consciousness" is but the same operating on the organization of a man evidently nervous and timid. {44}
VI
"The Intelligible is the principle of all section."
"The Mind of the Father whirled forth in re-echoing roar,
comprehending by invincible Will Ideas omniform; which flying
forth from that one fountain issued; for from the Father alike
was the Will and the End (by which are they connected with
the Father according to alternating life, though varying
vehicles). But they were divided asunder, being by Intellectual Fire
distributed into other Intellectuals. For the King of all previously
placed before the polymorphous World a Type, intellectual,
incorruptible, the imprint of whose form is sent forth through
the World, by which the Universe shone forth decked with Ideas
all-various, of which the foundation is One, One and alone.
From this the others rush forth distributed and separated through
the various bodies of the Universe, and are borne in swarms
through its vast abysses, ever whirling forth in illimitable radiation.
"They are intellectual conceptions from the Paternal Fountain
partaking abundantly of the brilliance of Fire in the culmination
of unresting time.
"But the primary self-perfect Fountain of the Father poured
forth these primogenial Ideas."
"The Soul, being a brilliant Fire, by the power of the Father
remaineth immortal, and is Mistress of Life, and filleth up the
many recesses of the bosom of the world." --- ZOROASTER.
The alleged annihilation of time and space, which so frequently reappears in articles on hashish, seems to me solved more simply by a more accurate analysis of the phenomenon. The normal explanation involves the assumption that man naturally possesses a perfect and infallible "time-sense" as regular as a clock. Which is absurd; were it so, we should not need watches. We are accustomed to work (whether the idea be philosophically tenable or not is not german to the matter) with a minimum cogitable both of space and of time. Just as a definite number of beats of the pendulum makes an {45} hour, so mentally a less definite but far from indefinite number of thoughts makes an hour's consciousness. Perhaps powerful and vivid thoughts count for a longer lapse of time than weak ones. Deep sleep passes like an invisible electric discharge.
The apparently contrary fact that time seems short when we have been reading an interesting book or performing a pleasant and absorbing task is explained thus; the multitude of impressions is harmonised into one impression. Read an unharmonious and dull book, or an essay like this, and the time appears ineffably long.
The other contrary fact, that a minute's Samadhi appears as an eternity, though Samadhi is a single thought, is explained by the intensity of that thought and by other considerations which I shall hope to discuss more fully in section xiii. of this essay.
This, then, is what happens to the eater of hashish. For each impression he has thousands of glyphs (effect(alpha )) or in the more common<> effect (beta ) the images are so multiplied and superimposed that all harmony is lost; the brain fails to keep pace with its impressions, still less to codify and control them. It finds then that from the idea "cat" to the idea "mouse" is a journey through the million dying echoes of cat to the million dawn-rays of mouse, and that the journey takes a million times as long as usual.
This analysis of a thought into its dawn, noon, and sunset, is well drawn in Buddhist psychology.<<"See Mrs. Rhys David's book.">>
Often, too, most often, one of the "cat-echoes" will be so loud that the whole chain is shattered; the cat-echo becomes {46} the dominant, and its harmonics (or inharmonics) themselves usurp the throne --- and so on and so on --- through countless ages of insane hallucination.
The same criticism applies to space; for in practice we judge of space by the time required to pass through it, either by the small angular or focussing movements of the eye or by our general experience. So that if I cross a room, and think a million thoughts on the way, the room seems immense. It is by the tedium of the journey, not by any hallucination of the physical eye, that this illusion is produced.
In writing my notes on one occasion I found that my right arm (which of course is not in the line of vision at all, normally) was many thousands of miles in extent. It was strange and difficult to control such colossal sweeps through space to the fine work of the pen. Yet my handwriting was no worse than usual --- I admit this says little! It was the time that it apparently took to get one word written that caused the illusion of extravagant size, itself therefore a rational illusion, turned to phantastic absurdity by the excited imagination, which visualized it.
VII
"The Intelligible is the principle of all section."
"God is never so turned away from man, and never so much
sendeth him new paths, as when he maketh ascent to divine
speculations or works in a confused or disordered manner, and
as it adds, with unhallowed lips, or unwashed feet. For of those
who are thus negligent, the progress is imperfect, the impulses
are vain, and the paths are dark." --- ZOROASTER.
Another and highly important result of thought-analysis is the criticism of thought as it arises. Just as the impressions {47} are represented by pictorial glyphs, so each reflection upon an impression is accompanied by either one or two (more only when the control is imperfect) "critical" glyphs, as it were in small type, an annotation of approval or otherwise. Thus, a chain of thought A-B-C will have three approving pictures in a fainter key; the soul justifying the sequence. Should one continue A-B-C-E an opposing glyph will warn of the falsity, or at least cast doubt upon it. In the generally unstable condition of the thought, such a critical glyph may be strong enough to become the dominant; and then the whole line of thought breaks down. Let me give an example:
"Thought" "Criticisms and their glyphs."
1. Man a man reaping --- meaning "Good --- go on."
a horse = "True --- Mill's definition."
2. Featherless Biped. Three horses in a field ' "Are there no
other featherless bipeds?"
a stream = "Stop---Stop---Stop."
3. Was it Mill? A tombstone on a hill = "Was it Locke?"
4. Locke? Locke? a battle.
thousands of other violent glyphs.
The whole mind is now a raging sea of confused thought: doubts, attempts to remember accurately who on earth first said "featherless biped," even an agony to recover thought 1, and start again. This one unfortunate weakness of thought 2 has drawn the thought-current away from the consideration of "man" to an academic question; and, as hashish goes, one is unlikely ever to get back to it. On the contrary, one of the critical glyphs attacking the thought "Locke? Locke?" will probably be strong enough to carry away the thought into a new channel, in its turn to be diverted. This at the best: for one is now ready to fall into the Maelstrom of effect (beta ). {48}
There is only one remedy for this state of affairs, the discipline of thought which we call in its highest forms meditation and magic. The existence of the disease, it will be noticed, indeed perfectly explains the nature of thought-wandering as observed by me in simple meditation without drugs. It should be taken, I think, as the normal action of the untrained mind. So long as the thoughts are strongly thrown out, rational, the critical glyphs approve, and the thought-current moves harmoniously to its end. Such are the trained thought-currents of educated man. The irresponsible an aimless chatter of women and clergymen is the result of weak thoughts constantly drowned by their associated critical glyphs. Mere sympathetic glyphs, too, may be excited in really feeble intelligences. Puns and other false associations of thought are symptomatic of this imbecility. An extreme case is the classical "Cat-mousetrap-kittens" chain of the lunatic, when somebody said "hat."
As I said, there is but one remedy; we all more or less subject to this wandering of thought,and we may all wisely seek to overcome it; that remedy is to train the mind constantly by severe methods; the logic of mathematics, the concentrated observation necessary in all branches of science, the still more elaborate and austere training of magic and meditation.
Too many people mistake reverie for meditation; the chemist's boy who thought Epsom salts was oxalic acid is a less dangerous person. Reverie is turning thought out to grass; meditation is putting him between the shafts.
The so-called poet with his vague dreams and ideals is indeed no better than a harmless lunatic; the true poet is the {49} worker, who grips life's throat and wrings out its secret, who selects austerely and composes concisely, whose work is as true and clean as razor-steel, albeit its sweep is vaster and swifter than the sun's!
The discursive prattle of such superficial twaddlers as Longfellow and Tennyson is the most deadly poison of the mind. All this is true enough in the merest exoteric necessity of adult civilisation. But if we are to go further into the nature of things, to dive deeper than the chemist, soar higher than the poet, look wider than the astronomer, we must furnish ourselves with a blade of still better temper.
VIII
"It is not proper to understand that Intelligible One with
vehemence, but with the extended flame of far-reaching Mind,
measuring all things except that Intelligible. But it is
requisite to understand this; for if thou inclinest thy Mind thou wilt
understand it, not earnestly; but it is becoming to bring with
thee a pure and inquiring sense, to extend the void mind of thy
soul to that Intelligible, that thou mayst learn the Intelligible,
because it subsisteth beyond Mind."
"Thou wilt not understand it, as when understanding some
common thing." --- ZOROASTER.
In other of my philosophical writings I have endeavoured to show that the ratiocinative faculty was in its nature unable to solve any single problem of the universe.
Its "reductio ad absurdum" is clear enough in the gorgeous first section of Herbert Spencer's First Principles. Kant demonstrated the Dualism and inherent Self-contradiction well enough in the Prolegomena and its four theses and their {50} antitheses (Section 51); and Hegel's Logic, if properly understood, would have brought the whole thing into contempt.
But unfortunately the "common sense" of mankind retorted that after all the interior angles of every triangle "are" together equal to two right-angles; and that a mental process which deduced this so accurately from a few simple axioms and definitions must be trustworthy; adding something uncomplimentary about Germans and Metaphysics.
Both are right, and both are wrong. In the world of common sense, reason works; in the world of philosophy, it doesn't. The metaphysical deadlock is a real and not a verbal one. The inner nature of things is not rational, at least so long as we are asked to define "rational" as "rationalistic." Why should it be? Why should the rules of golf govern the mechanics of the flight of a golf-ball?
It is this fact that has made it possible for the faith-mongers to make head against the stream of philosophy. Fichte is really and truly just as right and as wrong as Schelling; Hume is quite as impregnable as Berkeley.
Let us not try to shirk the truth of it, either by the "common- sense" folly, or the "faith" folly, or the Hegelian folly.
It may, I think, be readily conceded that the reasoning faculty is not apodeictally absolute. It represents a stage in human thought, no
more.
You cannot convince a savage of the truth of the Binomial Theorem; should we then be surprised if a mystic fails to convert a philosopher?
Yet must he try. {51}
IX
"For being furnished with every kind of armour, and armed,
he is similar to the goddess." --- ZOROASTER.
My dear Professor, how can you expect me to believe this nonsense about bacteria? Come, saith he, to the microscope; and behold them!
I don't see anything.
Just shift the fine adjustment --- that screw there --- to and fro very slowly!
I can't see ---
Keep the left eye open; you'll see better!
Ah! --- But how do I know? ...
Oh, there are a thousand questions to ask!
Is it fair observation to use lenses, which admittedly refract light and distort vision?
How do I know those specks are not dust?
Couldn't those things be in the air?
And so on.
The Professor can convince me, of course, and the more sceptical I am the more thoroughly I shall be convinced in the end; but not until I have learned to use a microscope. And when I have learned --- a matter of some months, maybe years --- how can I convince the next sceptic?
Only in the same way, by teaching him to use the instrument.
And suppose he retorts, "You have deliberately trained yourself to hallucination!" What answer have I? None that I know of. Save that microscopy has revolutionised {52} surgery, &c., just as mysticism has revolutionised, again and again, the philosophies of mankind.
The analogy is a perfect one. By meditation we obtain the vision of a new world, even as the world of microorganisms was unsuspected for centuries of thinking --- thinking without method --- bricks without straw!
Just so, also, the masters of meditation have erred. They have attained the Mystic Vision, written long books about it, assumed that the conclusions drawn from their vision were true on other planes --- as if a microscopist were to stand for Parliament on the platform "Votes for Microbes" --- never noted possible sources of error, fallen foul of sense and science, dropped into oblivion and deserved contempt.
I want to combine the methods, to check the old empirical mysticism by the precision of modern science.
Hashish at least gives proof of a new order of consciousness, and (it seems to me) it is this "prima facie" case that mystics have always needed to make out, and never have made out.
But to-day I claim the hashish-phenomena as mental phenomena of the first importance; and I demand investigation.
I assert --- more or less "ex cathedra" --- that meditation will revolutionise our conception of the universe, just as the microscope has done.
Then my friend the physiologist remarks:
"But if you disturb the observing faculty with drugs and a special mental training, your results will be invalid."
And I reply:
"But if you disturb the observing faculty with lenses and a special mental training, your results will be invalid." {53}
And he smiles gently:
"Patient experiment will prove to you that the microscope is reliable."
And I smile gently"
"Patient experiment will prove to you that meditation is reliable."
So there we are.
X
"Stay not on the precipice with the dross of matter, for
there is a place for thine image in a realm ever splendid."
ZOROASTER.
"When thou seest a terrestrial demon approaching, cry aloud
and sacrifice the stone Mnizourin." --- ZOROASTER
As a boy at school I enjoyed a reputation for unparalleled cowardice; in the world I am equally accused of foolhardiness. The judgment of the boys was the better. The truth is that I have always been excessively cautious, have never willingly undertaken even the smallest risk.
The paradoxical result is that I have walked hundreds of miles unroped over snow-covered glaciers, and that nobody (so far as I know) has ever attempted to repeat my major climbs on Beachy Head. One may add a little grimly that the same remark applies to my excursions into the regions of the mind, the conscience, and the soul.
This bombastic prelude to a simple note on the precautions which I took in my experiments.
First, the use of the minutest care in estimating doses.
Secondly, the rule never to repeat my experiment before the lapse of at least a month. {54}
Frankly, I doubt if these were necessary. I do not suppose my will to be abnormally strong; I believe rather that there is a definite type of drug-slave, born from his mother's womb; and that those who achieve it or have it thrust upon them are a very small percentage. In saying this I include such obsessions as music, religion, gambling, among drugs. Is the "Keswick week" less of a debauch than the navvy's Bank Holiday? There are people who rush from meeting to meeting, and give up their whole lives to this unwholesome excess of stimulant; they are happy nowhere else; they become as irritable as the cocaine-fiend, and render wretched the lives of those who are forced to come in contact with them.
Personally, I have never felt the bearing-rein of habit, though I have tried all the mental and physical poisons in turn. I smoke tobacco, the strongest tobacco, to excess, as I am told; yet a dozen times I have abandoned it, in order to see whether it had any hold upon me. It had none; I resigned it as cheerfully as a small boy resigns the tempting second half of his first cigar. After a meal (for the first day or two) my hands would go to my pockets from habit; finding nothing there, I would remember, laugh, and forget the subject at once.
I think, therefore, that we may dismiss the alleged danger of acquiring the hashish habit as fantastic.
Nobody will acquire the habit but the destined drug-slave; and he may just as well have the hashish habit as any other; he is sure to fall under the power of some enchantress.
All these alarmist reports, however, are really worthless, worthless at the best as the "omne ignotum pro terribili" fear {55} of the savage for an unfamiliar shape of bottle, worthless at the worst as the temperance crank's account of the fatal effects of alcohol, the vegetarian's account of the dangers of meat-eating, or the missionary's account of the religion of the people he lives among. The alleged sensuality of hashish --- even Baudelaire admits it --- simply does not exist for me, perhaps because there is no germ of lasciviousness in my mind. Of course if you excite, by whatever stimulus, a foul imagination, you will get pestilent effects. When Queen Mab tickles the lawyer, he dreams of fees. So the people who associate nudity with debauchery, and see Piccadilly Circus in Monna Lisa, will probably obtain the fullest itching from the use of the drug.
I recommend it to them for, slaves and swine as they are, it must inevitably drag them to death by the road of a certifiable insanity less dangerous to society than their present subtler moral beastliness.
I think, too, that Baudelaire altogether exaggerates the reaction. I never felt the slightest fatigue or lassitude; but went from the experiments to my other work with accustomed freshness and energy. Probably, however, these effects depend largely on the sample of the drug employed; some may contain more active or grosser toxic agents than others.
Putting aside all these optimistic considerations, one is yet perfectly in accord with Baudelaire's conclusion, and for the same reason. (We discard his preliminary sophisms.)
I have no use for hashish save as a preliminary demonstration that there exists another world attainable --- somehow. Possibly if pharmacists were to concentrate their efforts upon {56} producing a standard drug, upon isolating the substance responsible for effect (alpha ), and so on, we might find a reliable and harmless adjuvant to the process which I have optimistically named Scientific Illuminism.
But at least for the present we have not arrived so far. In my own case I should know fairly well what to do, well enough to get my little "loosening of the girders of the soul" at a guess twice in five times, perhaps more.
Not surely enough to guarantee results to other people without a lengthy series of experiments, still less to recommend them to try for themselves, unless under skilled supervision.
My present appeal is to recognised physiologists and psychologists to increase the number and accuracy of their researches on the introspective lines which I have laid down above, possibly with further aid from the pharmacist.
Once the pure physio-psychological action is determined, I shall then ask their further attention to the special results of combining the drug with the mystic process --- always invoking trained observation --- and from that moment the future of Scientific Illuminism will be assured.
I must add a paragraph or two on the nature of the mystic process and the general character of the transcendental states of consciousness resulting from its successful practice.
XI
"He maketh the whole World of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth,
and of the all-nourishing Ether." --- ZOROASTER.
One truth, says Browning, leads right to the world's end; and so I find it impossible to open a subject, however small {57} in appearance, without discovering an universe. So, as I set myself to discuss the character of mystic states, it is immediately evident that if I am to render myself at all intelligible to English readers, a totally new system of classification must be thought out.
The classical Eight Jhanas will be useless to us; the Hindu system is almost as bad; the Qabalistic requires a preliminary knowledge of the Tree of Life whose explanation would require a volume to itself; but fortunately we have, in the Buddhist Skandhas and the Three Characteristics which deny them, a scheme easily assimilable to Western psychology.
In "Science and Buddhism" I dealt in some detail with these Skandhas; but I will briefly recapitulate.
In examining any phenomenon and analysing it we first notice its Name and Form (Nama and Rupa). "Here is a Rose," we say. In such a world live the entirely vulgar.
Next (with Berkeley) we perceive that this statement is false. There is an optical sensation (Vedana) of red; an olfactory sensation of fragrance; and so on. Even its weight, its space, are modifications of sense; and the whole statement is transformed into "Here is a pleasurable set of sensations which we group under the name of a rose." In such a world lives the sensuous artist.
Next, these modifications of sense are found to be but percepts; the pleasure or pain vanishes; and the sensations are observed coldly and clearly without allowing the mind to be affected. This perception (San~~n~~a) is the world of the surgeon or the man of science.
Next, the perception itself is seen to be dependent on the {58} nature of the observer, and his tendency (Sankhara) to perceive. The oyster gets no fun out of the rose. This state establishes a dualistic conception, such as Mansel was unable to transcend, and at the same time places the original rose in its cosmic place. The creative forces that have made the rose and the observer what they are, and established their relation to one another, are now the sole consciousness. Here lives the philosopher.
Easily enough, this state passes into one of pure consciousness (Vin~~n~~anam). The rose and the observer and their tendencies and relations have somehow vanished. The phenomenon (not the original phenomenon, "a rose," but the phenomenon of the tendency to perceive the sensation of a rose) becomes a cloudless light; a static, no longer a dynamic conception. One has somehow got behind the veil of the universe. Here live the mystic and the true artist.
The Buddhist, however, does not stop here, for he alleges that even this consciousness is false; that like all things it has the Three Characteristics of Sorrow, Change, and Unsubstantiality.
Now all this analysis is a purely intellectual one, though perhaps it may be admitted that few philosophers have been capable of so profound and acute a resolution of phenomena. It has nothing to do with mysticism as such, but its rational truth makes it a suitable basis for our proposed classification of the mystic states which result from the many religious and magical methods in use among men. {59}
XII
"The Vast sun, and the brilliant moon."
"O Ether, sun, and spirit of the moon! Ye, ye are the
leaders of air!"
"The Principles, which have understood the Intelligible works
of the Father, He hath clothed in sensible works and bodies,
being intermediate links existing to connect the Father with
Matter, rendering apparent the Images of unapparent Natures, and
inscribing the Unapparent in the Apparent frame of the World."
"There are certain Irrational Demons (mindless elementals),
which derive their subsistence from the Aerial Rulers; where-
fore the Oracle saith, Being the Charioteer of the Aerial, Terres-
trial and Aquatic Dogs."
"The Aquatic when applied to Divine Natures signifies a
Government inseparable from Water, and hence the Oracle calls
the Aquatic Gods, Water Walkers."
"There are certain Water Elementals whom Orpheus calls
Nereides, dwelling in the more elevated exhalations of Water,
such as appear in damp, cloudy Air, whose bodies are sometimes
seen (as Zoroaster taught) by more acute eyes, especially in
Persia and Africa."
"Let the immortal depth of your soul lead you, but earnestly
raise your eyes upwards." --- ZOROASTER.
"Nama-Rupa." --- Purely material, and therefore shadowy and meaningless, are the innumerable shapes which haunt the mind of man. In one sense we must here include all purely sensory phenomena, and the images which memory presents to the mind which is endeavoring to concentrate itself upon a single thought.
In other systems of mysticism we must include all astral phantoms, divine or demoniac, which are merely seen or heard without further reflection upon them. To obtain these it is sufficient to perform the following experiment: {60}
Sit down comfortably; it is perhaps best to begin in the dark.
Imagine as strongly as possible your own figure standing in front of you.
Transfer your consciousness to that figure, so that you look down upon your physical body in the chair.
{This is usually the one difficulty.)
Feeling perfectly at home in your imagined body, let that body rise through the air to a great height.
Stop. Look around you. Probably the eyes of your "astral" body will be closed. It is sometimes difficult to open them.
You will then perceive all sorts of forms, varying as you travel about. Their nature will depend almost entirely on your power of control. Some people may even perceive the phantoms of delirium and madness, and truly go mad from fear and horror.
Let the "astral" body return and sit down, coinciding with the physical body.
Closely unite the two: the experiment is over.
Practice makes perfect.
This practice is delusive and even dangerous; it is best to precede and follow it by a carefully performed "Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram."<> Better still, have a skilled teacher. The experiment is an easy one; with two pupils only (of some dozens) I have failed, and that completely; with the others the first experiment was a success.
We must include, too, in this section the forms appearing in answer to the rites of ceremonial magic. {61}
(Consult "Goetia," the "Key of Solomon," Eliphaz Levi, Cornelius Agrippa, Pietro di Abano, Barrett and others for instructions.)
These forms are more solid and real, much more dangerous, and are excessively difficult to obtain. I have known very few successful practitioners.
All these forms and names are almost infinitely varied. The grosser visual and auditory phenomena of hashish belong to the group. It is not just to suppose that a vision of a Divine being of ineffable splendour is necessarily of higher type than this shadowy form-world. Mistake on this point has led many a student astray. Highest among these things are the three visual and seven auditory phenomena of Yoga. (We omit consideration of the other senses; the subject requires a volume.) These are referred to the Sun, the Moon, and Fire; and their appearance marks the attainment of Dhyana. They are dazzling, and accompanied with such intense though passionless bliss that they partake of the nature of Vedana and may under certain conditions even rise to touch San~~n~~a. Of the auditory are sounds heard like bells, elephants, thunder, trumpets, sea-shells, "the sweet-souled Vina," and so on; they are of less importance and are much more common.
As one would expect, such forms leave little impress upon the memory. Yet they are seductive enough, and I am afraid that the very great majority of mystics live all their lives wandering about in this vain world of shadows and of shells.
All this, too, is the pleasant aspect of the affair. Here belong the awful shapes of delirium and madness, which obsess and destroy the soul that fails to control and dismiss them. Here lives the Dweller of the Threshold, that concentration {62} into a single symbol of the Despair and Terror of the Universe and of the Self. Yet on all the paths is He, ready to smite whoso falters or swerves, though he have attained almost the last height.
How many have I known, like Childe Roland and his peers, who have come to that Dark Tower! One young, one brave, one pure --- lost! lost! penned in the hells of matter, swept away in the whirling waters of insane vision, true victims of the hashish of the soul.
What poignant agony, what moaning abjectness, what self-disgust! What vain folly (of all true hope forlorn!) to seek in drugs, in drink, in the pistol or the cord, the paradise they have forfeited by a moment's weakness or a moment's wavering!
This "two-handed engine at the door stands ready to smite" each one of us who has not attained to Arahatship, admission to the Great White Brotherhood. Is it not enough to make us throw away our atheism and exclaim, "O God be merciful to me a sinner, and keep me in the way of Truth!" Nay, for those of us who know what triple silver cord of moonlight binds the red blood of our heart to the Ineffable Crown of Brilliance, who have seen what Angel stands in the moon-ray, who have known the perfume and the vision, seen the drops of dew supernal stand on the silver lamen of the forehead --- for us is neither fear nor pride, but silence in the one thought of the One beyond all thought.
The world of phantoms has no terror left; we can take the blood of the Black Dragon for our Red Tincture. We understand the precept "Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenias Occultum Lapidem"; and harnessing to our triumphal car the White Eagle and the Green Lion we voyage at {63} our ease upon the Path of the Chameleon, by the Towers of Iron and the Fountains of Supernal Dew, unto that black unutterable Sea most still.
XIII
"From the Cavities of the Earth leap forth the terrestrial
Dog-faced demons, showing no true sign unto mortal man."
"Go not forth when the Lictor passeth by."
"Direct not thy mind to the vast surfaces of the Earth; for
the Plant of Truth grows not upon the ground. Nor measure
the motions of the Sun, collecting rules, for he is carried by the
Eternal Will of the Father, and not for your sake alone. Dismiss
(from your mind) the impetuous course of the Moon, for she
moveth always by the power of necessity. The progression of
the Stars was not generated for your sake. The wide aerial
flight of birds gives not true knowledge, nor the dissection of
the entrails of victims; they are all mere toys, the basis of
mercenary fraud; flee from these if you would enter the sacred paradise
of piety, where Virtue, Wisdom, and Equity are assembled."
"Stoop not down unto the darkly splendid World; wherein
continually lieth a faithless Depth, and Hades wrapped in clouds,
delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black
ever-rolling Abyss; ever espousing a Body unluminous, formless
and void."
"Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the Earth,
reached by a descending Ladder which hath Seven Steps, and
therein is established the Throne of an evil and fatal force."
"Stay not on the Precipice with the dross of Matter, for
there is a place for thy Image in a realm ever splendid."
"Invoke not the visible Image of the Soul of Nature."
"Look not upon Nature, for her name is fatal."
"It becometh you not to behold them before your body is
initiated, since by always alluring they seduce the souls from the
sacred mysteries."
"Bring her not forth, lest in departing she retain something."
"The Light-hating World, and the winding currents by which
many are drawn down." --- ZOROASTER.
It may be useful here to distinguish once and for all between false and real mystical phenomena; for in the {64} previous section we have spoken of both without distinction. In the "astral visions" the consciousness is hardly disturbed; in magical evocations it is intensely exalted; but it is still bound by its original conditions. The Ego is still opposed to the non-Ego; time is, if altered in rate, still there; so, too, is Space the sort of Space we are all conscious of. Again, the phenomena observed follow the usual laws of growth and decay.
But all true mystical phenomena contradict these conditions.
In the first place, the Ego and non-Ego unite explosively, their product having none of the qualities of either. It is precisely such a phenomenon as the direct combination of Hydrogen and Chlorine. The first thing observed is the flash; in our analogy, the ecstasy of Ananda (bliss) attending the Dhyana. And as this flash does not aid us to analyse the Hydrochloric acid gas, so the Ananda prevents us by startling us from perceiving the true nature of the phenomenon. In higher mystic states, then, we find that the Yogi or Magician has learnt how to suppress it.
But the combination of the elements will usually be a definite single act of catastrophic energy.
This act, too, does not take place in time or space as we know them. I think that for the first time of experiencing a Dhyana it is necessarily single. Certain mystical methods may teach us to retain the image; but the criterion of true Dhyana is the singleness, so totally opposed as it is to the vague and varying phantoms of the "astral plane."
The new consciousness resulting from the combination is, too, always a simple one. Even where it is infinitely complex, as in Atmadarshana or the Vision of the Universal {65} Peacock, its oneness is the truer of these two contradictory truths.
So for the matter of time and space. All time is filled; all space is filled; the phenomenon is infinite and eternal.
This is true even though its singleness makes the duration of the phenomenon but one minimum cogitabile. In short, it is experienced in some other kind of time, some other kind of space.
There is nothing irrational about this. Non-Euclidean geometries, for example, are possible, and may be true. It is only necessary to a theory of the universe that it should be true to itself within itself; for there is no other thing outside by which we can check our calculations.
Nor is it inconceivable that many of these worlds may exist, interpenetrating. Assume four dimensions, and there is room for an infinite number of them. For though a plane fills a square completely, it must always leave a cube entirely empty.
Concerning the laws which govern this new realm we can say nothing here. The most mystics have been led away from the proper line of research, usually by the baser ("i.e.," the emotional or devotional) attractions of the Vedana-phenomena which we are about to notice; but perhaps even the best must be baffled by the non-congruity of their Experience with the symbols of language.
One may add that the language difficulty is in some ways an essential one. Language begins with simple expression of the common needs of the most animal life. Hence we see that all sciences have formulated a technical language of their own, not to be understanded of the common people. The {66} reproach against mystics that their symbols are obscure is just as well founded as a similar reproach against the algebraist or the chemist. A paper at the Chemical Society is often completely intelligible only to some three or four of the odd hundred distinguished chemists in the room.
What is gained to "popular science" is lost to exactitude; and in a paper of this sort I fear rather the reproach of my mystical masers than that of the bewildered crowd.
More important and certain than the mere characteristics of mystic traces in themselves is the great and and vital diagnostic that the result of a true trance is to inspire the Yogi with power to do first- rate work in his own department.
People who produce maudlin and hysterical gush, inane sentimentality, who are faddists, fools, drivellers, dodderers --- these | | |
