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THE TREE OF LIFE 241
for the production of such transformations as a hawk, a lotus, a
swallow and so on may there be discerned. How to render one's
being invisible to other eyes, even although in a large crowd, through
the formulation of an enveloping astral shroud, is another branch
of this grey Magic existing between the Magic of Light and the dark.
I cannot say that the aspirant to the Augoeides has much use for
such dubious powers and attainments.
The nature of Black Magic which seems a great bother to so many
hysterics consists almost entirely in the motive held in the operator's
mind. When Levi deals with this subject and that of sorcery in
his writings he flies off completely at a tangent, and his superb
exaggerations, coloured with all the flamboyance and rhetoric at
his disposal, make amusing reading. That some have seriously
quoted him on this subject for literal interpretation, instead of
dismissing it as mere verbosity, surpasses my-comprehension. His
observations about the goat of Mendes and the worship of Baphomet
in connection with the Templars are simply ridiculous. What
comment can one make to the absurd directions provided by him
as being the supposed steps taken by those engaged in the black
arts, other than that they would make splendid material for presentday
" thrillers " I have yet to learn in what department store
candles manufactured of human fat may be purchased. What
human being could be asinine or mad enough to think of procuring
incense mixed with the blood of a goat, a mole and a bat Other
frightful necessities consist of the head of a recently deceased black
cat, a bat drowned in blood, the horns of a virgin goat and the skull
of a parricide ! Yet in his Book of Ceremonial Magic Mr. Waite
has gone to the trouble of uttering a fearful warning against Goetia
together with Levi's ludicrous drawing of the goetic circle for
employment with the afore-mentioned " props." In preparation
for an overwhelming offensive on Black Magic, Waite manceuvred
his heaviest artillery into position when, in reality, a peashooter
would have been much more effective against such enemy as this.
Little doubt can be entertained that Levi was " pulling the leg "
of some readers, and that he was simply indulging in his gift for
impossible lurid rites, the children of a curious but exuberant
imagination.
Hypnotism, and the act of depriving another person of choice or use
of will, does constitute one of the most loathsome forms of Black
Magic. Those who do employ such methods should be severely