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176 THE TREE OF LIFE
recited, a lyrical paean or dithyramb chanting praises to the God,
delineating the nature and the spiritual qualities of the God in speech.
If the student have skill in writing no great difficulty need be
encountered. On the other hand some such litany could with the
greatest of ease be constructed from the Orphic Hymns, or the collection
of lyrical texts comprising the Book of the Dead, which is replete
with some of the finest extant examples of ritual. In brief, the
invocation of the God should be couched in such language as will
tend to produce a mental exhilaration and ecstasy. The following,
adapted from the Book of the Dead, is an instance of some such
ritual, although it is given here not as an example to be rigidly and
slavishly imitated, but only to serve as an intimation and to assist
perhaps the sincere student.
" Homage to thee, 0 Ra, at thy beauteous rising. Thou risest,
thou shinest at the Dawn. The company of the Immortals praise thee
at sunrise and at sunset, when, as thy morning boat meeteth thy
evening boat with fair winds, thou sailest over the heights of heaven
with a gladdened heart. 0 thou Only One, 0 thou Perfect One, 0
thou who art eternal, who art never weak, whom no power can abase,
0 thou splendour of the noon-day Sun, over the things which
appertain to thy sphere none hath domination at all. And therefore I
make homage to thee. All hail, Horus ! All hail, Tum ! All hail,
Khephra ! Thou great Hawk, who by thy beauteous face make all
men to rejoice, thou renewest thy youth, and dost set thyself in
yesterday's place. 0 divine youth, self-created, self-anointed, thou
art the Lord of Heaven and earth, and didst create beings celestial
and beings terrestrial. 0 thou heir of eternity, everlasting Ruler,
self-sustained, as thou risest thy gracious rays are upon all faces and
abide in every heart. Live thou in me, and I in thee, 0 thou Golden
Hawk of the Sun I "
With the recitation of each point of the invocation, uttered
with magical intonation and intent, a strong realization in thought
of the significance of the words should be obtained. As the Theurgist
cries " Thou shinest at the dawn," the astral form of the God should
be seen and actually felt with the senses to emit a refulgence before
which the brightest midday sunshine would seem as but black
darkness, a light so sharp and keen, and rich with a brilliance and
golden glory, that its essence should suffuse with great subtlety
the heart and mind and soul. And when the Magician utters " Live
thou in me, and I in thee, 0 Golden Hawk of the Sun," the process of