Part I – A Subject for Contemplation
By G.H. Frater N.O.M. (William Wynn Westcot)
Before even strength of will, you will must have purity of body, mind, intellect and of emotion if you hope for magical power.
The spiritual powers will flourish only as you starve the animal soul, and the animal soul is largely dependent on the state and treatment of the animal body. The animal man is to be cared for and protected, kept in health and strength, but not petted.
Be moderate in all things human. Extreme ascetic habits, are to you here, a source of another danger, they may lead only to a contemplation of your own Heroism, in being abstinent. To be truly ascetic is indeed to submit to discipline and to curb unruly emotions, thoughts and actions. But, who is a slave to his animal soul, will practice vice in a Forest; while he who restrains himself among the crowds of a city, and passes through a busy life unpolluted, shows more resistance and suffers severer discipline, and shall obtain greater reward.
Part II – Remarks upon Subject for Contemplation
By V.H. Frater Levavi Oculos (Percy Bullock)
Spiritual power results from the transmutation of the gross animal nature. The various centres of sensation in the human body can be harmonised by the equipose or circulation in the contrary forces of attraction and repulsion – or, on the other hand, the vehicle of excess.
If ‘Our God is superlative in His Unity’, analogy must follow between the greater and lesser worlds.
One of Danton’s clairvoyants once described a lake of gold in the centre of the earth, and we have the injunction ‘visita interiora terrae, etc.’ The primum mobile of even a commonplace vessel is placed in the centre of the ship. Now, the place of power and seat of equipoise is in numbers; the number 5 as has been pointed out: –
1234 5 6789.
That is the Sephira Geburah ‘Where there is Gold’, whose lineal figures traced with the single point uppermost is the most powerful continuous symbol there is (The pentagram).
By the sign of the Microcosm is the symbolized the athanor of the Alchemist – at everybody’s hand without their knowing it.
‘A strong and decided will’, says Levi, ‘can in short space of time arrive at absolute independence’.
The condition of equipoise is therefore necessary before the manipulation of the will is even possible; and will is something more than the ascending of our higher desires over the lower, being a kind of electric force, the executive of desire.
In this light it is the creative power, which fashions according to the ideal form or subsisting types. It is therefore through the agency of the will that the hidden becomes manifest, whether in the Universe or Man.
The student has to learn to arouse those forces within him or her self.
This masterly indifference is the great theme of the Bhagavada Gita and the Indian Yogis – in fact both East and West unite in teaching us to preserve that equal mean between two extremes, which is the law of immortality.
Part III – Three Suggestions on Will Power
By S.S.D.D. (Florence Farr)
Head 1.
In studying the nature of the will force we are aided by our Minutum Mundi scheme. Mars, Geburah, Fire, Aries, each expressive of the will force on different planes, are all red in colour. The Red Lion was used as a symbol by the Alchemists to express the highest powers of the Adept. The whiteness of purity having been attained, the heat must be violently increased, until by the redness of perfection strength manifests itself.
Head 2.
Now the danger which attends out labours arises from attempting to exercise this will power, before we have purged ourselves of ignorance and darkness.
Until we know we must refrain from doing. This sounds as if the case was pretty hopeless; but we have each in our own persons all the materials for experiment, and as long as we desire light, and do all we know to obtain it, we are not likely to do ourselves permanent harm; but at the same time we cannot be too careful in applying the very superficial magical knowledge we have at present to others, especially to those who are uninitiated. The danger I have found is that though the first step is most difficult, I mean it is extremely difficult to gain control over another’s will so as to alter their natural tendencies; yet this is done the force you have set in motion becomes almost uncontrollable, the other individual seems sometimes to only live in your presence, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. This is a noticeable feature in the cases of those who have been cured by faith healers; or professional hypnotists.
Head 3.
Note: See Flying Roll VI for suggestions on improving exercise.
Having explained these dangers, the method I advise for cultivation of will is, to imagine your head as centre of attraction with thoughts like rays radiating out in a vast globe. To want or desire a thing is the first step in the exercise of Will; get a distinct image of the thing you desire placed, as it were, in your heart, concentrate all your wandering rays of thought upon this image until you feel it to be one glowing scarlet ball of compacted force. Then project this concentrated force on the subject you wish to affect.
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