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158 THE TREE OF LIFE
Philosophia, upon which much of the former is based, Crowley's
Liber 777, and in my own Garden of Pomegrafiates will be found a
wide series of natural and symbolic correspondences to each of the
Thirty-two Paths of the Tree of Life. To these attributions the
Magician should have recourse in verifying his vision, since experiment
has proved, as I have said above, a real connection between
the symbols and the attributions of the magical alphabet and
subjective realities. If the vision of Mercury contains irregular
elements, either of colour or number, which these columns attribute
to, say, Mars or Saturn the student may be certain that something
radically wrong has occurred, and steps should at once be instigated
to repeat the entire vision, making sure that no errors or confusion
of vision re-occur. As experience increases, the Magician retaining
within his memory a comprehensive alphabet of correspondences,
and as he becomes more familiar with the nature of that plane, he
will become aware instantaneously as to whether the vision proceeds
aright, and his growing intuition will warn him when some danger
to coherency threatens. It cannot be too frequently uttered that
the checking of the vision by reference to the magical alphabet is
one of the most important tasks devolving upon the Magician. To
neglect this scientific verification and critical examination of the
vision is to find oneself sooner or later wallowing in the clogging
mire of astral intoxication, with the prospect of advance and
progress imperceptibly vanishing into thin air.
A few precautions, however, should be observed prior to projecting
the Body of Light. To leave the physical body by itself without the
guiding intelligence and control of the inner Self is tantamount in
most cases to extending an open invitation to whatever astral
entity, malignant or otherwise, is in the vicinity to take possession.
There is ac~ually no need to enterrain any apprehension for the
physical welfare of the body, inasmuch as the Nephesch, the seat of
the vital forces and the design body, remains within it to provide
the continuation of its functions and physical life. But obsession
at all costs rnust be avoided. 'I'he possession of the human frame
by a dog-faced denion is subversive to magical aim and procedure.
Hence certain rnethods have been devised to prevent the possibility
of obsession, leaving the body quite safe while the soul wings its
way to the sacred fires. Some authorities believe that the surrounding
of the body with an imaginary circle of white light is one of
the most effective of all protective methods, since white being the