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CHAPTER TEN
T
HE foregoing chapters should have gone far to show in what
manner Theurgy conceives ~ ili and Imagination to be the
instruments for the reconstruction of a human being. I
propose to go further into the question of this employment of the
Imagination, inasmuch as the most fundamental task in Magic is
concerned therein. Since the plastic substance of the Astral Light
is peculiarly susceptible to the manipulation of imaginative currents,
and since the images made in that Light produce perceptible changes,
if the Will be strong enough to vitalize those images, the Magician
seeks to apply these facts to his own sphere. Attention should be
redirected to the fact that by all authorities is the Astral Light
considered dual in nature. There is the base astral aspect, the
deceiving serpent so-called, occupied by the decaying shells and
phantasmagoria ; and the superior plane, wherein is a wealth of
real images, ideas, and spiritual intimations. To rise beyond the
astral serpent through to the higher Astral is obviously a primary
magical task. Invocations of the Holy Guardian Angel and the
telestic union with the Gods and universal Essences constitute the
supreme methods of transcending the lowest etheric planes ; but
these are ultimate ends, to which all methods and techniques are
made subservient. To make the difficult ends of invocation and
union more easily attained and less arduous, the Theurgists recommend
a practice in which success confers the ability consciously to
transcend the inferior astral and deliberately rise even beyond the
higher astral towards the formless divine fires of the spiritual realms.
Inasmuch as all the planes of nature, and all the forces which
obtain in the universe are represented in the interior constitution
of man, the astral plane in its dual aspect is likewise found within
him. The lowest aspect, the lunar phase, corresponds to the human
principle of the Nephesclt, whereas the higher plane might be assumed
to correspond to the central Sephirah of the Tree of Life, Tipharas,
the pulsating heart of Ruach, and even extend to the confines of the
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