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THE TREE OF LIFE
to the front, both arms being first drawn up to the head and flung
forward as though projectingthe magical force towards the Triangle
of Evocation. As this sign is being assumed, while the lungs are
exhaling the air charged with the name, the latter should be strongly
imagined to rise swiftly from the feet, through the thighs and body,
and so be forcibly hurled forth with a mighty sliout of triumph. If
the whole body of the Magician feels aflame with force and energy,
and thundering into his ears from every surrounding portion of
space he hears the resounding echo of the name just magically
vibrated, he may rest assured that the pronunciation has been
correctly accomplished. The effect of the vibration of the Godnames
is to set up a strain in the upper astral light, in response to
which the intelligence evoked hastens. Other gestures and other
signs exist for each of the Gods, and a study of the Egyptian Godforms
will confer a knowledge of what these signs are.
Closely allied with the vibration of divine names, is another
branch of Magic. In some rituals the student may have noticed
numbers of incomprehensible words in a foreign or unknown tongue
known technically as the " barbarous names of evocation " which,
we are counselled by the Chaldaan Oracles, never to change, " for
they are names divine having in the sacred rites a power ineffable."
originally all that was meant by the " barbarous names " was that
these words were in the dialect of the Egyptians, Chaldaans and
Assyrians, regarded as barbarians by the Greeks, and G. R. S. Mead
renders the phrase as " native names."
I43
Iamblichus, in answering
Porphyry's enquiries on this point, states : " Those who first learned
the names of the Gods, having mingled them with their own proper
tongue, delivered them to us, that we might always preserve immoveable
the sacred law of tradition, in a language peculiar and
adapted to them. . . . Barbarous names likewise have much
emphasis, great conciseness, and participate of less ambiguity,
variety and multitude." Experience confirms that the most
puissant invocations are those in which are words of a foreign,
ancient, or perhaps forgotten tongue ; or even those couched in a
degenerate, and it may be meaningless, jargon. The most outstanding
quality of these conjurations is that the language used is always
very vibrant and sonorous. That is their sole virtue, for they are
peculiarly effective when recited with magical intonation, each
syllable being carefully vibrated. For some reason or other it has
been found that the recitation of these names is conducive to the