the book of ceremonial magic contents - Yankeeclassic.com
the book of ceremonial magic contents - Yankeeclassic.com
the book of ceremonial magic contents - Yankeeclassic.com
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make gold in a moment by Magic, transport precious stones, prolong life to several<br />
hundred years, teach all arts and provide <strong>the</strong> operator with ministering spirits in visible<br />
and corporal form. These claims merely externalise <strong>the</strong> cupidity and o<strong>the</strong>r desires <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
artist. Here<strong>of</strong> at least is <strong>the</strong> domain <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> occult working where it happens to suffer <strong>the</strong><br />
title <strong>of</strong> transcendental; its entire term and horizon are within <strong>the</strong> limits <strong>of</strong> low material<br />
gain and pleasure; and <strong>the</strong> ambition <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Magus was to secure <strong>the</strong>se advantages--firstly-<br />
-by <strong>the</strong> trickery and artifice <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> occult world, instead <strong>of</strong> by his proper activity, and-secondly--on<br />
a very much larger scale than was normally likely or possible.<br />
When we turn, however, to <strong>the</strong> Rituals which I have classed as <strong>com</strong>posite, we shall find<br />
that we are dealing with a much more valued and popular series <strong>of</strong> hand<strong>book</strong>s, and <strong>the</strong><br />
head or crown <strong>of</strong> all is held in <strong>the</strong> polite opinion <strong>of</strong> occult circles to be white by its<br />
essential nature and only Goëtic in its accretions. As a matter <strong>of</strong> fact, it is Goëtic by<br />
intention and essence, and white only in <strong>the</strong> sense that some <strong>of</strong> its distracted processes<br />
might, apart from <strong>the</strong>ir sanguinary nature, be termed<br />
p. 335<br />
harmless. It is obvious, however, from <strong>the</strong> text that <strong>the</strong> Intelligences who are <strong>the</strong> subjects<br />
<strong>of</strong> conjuration are fallen spirits, and that one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> anxieties in respect <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir apparition<br />
is <strong>the</strong> hideousness <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir native form. The main purposes <strong>of</strong> experiment are (1) <strong>the</strong><br />
recovery <strong>of</strong> stolen goods; (2) <strong>the</strong> power to go invisible, for reasons which are not less<br />
certain because <strong>the</strong>y pass unsaid; (3) <strong>the</strong> possession <strong>of</strong> a buried treasure; (4) <strong>the</strong> seeking<br />
<strong>of</strong> love and favour. Those that remain are more expressly and literally <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> order <strong>of</strong><br />
Fairyland. This is so far concerning what is accepted as <strong>the</strong> prototype and fountain <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
Art. The Infernal Hierarchy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Lemegeton seems from time to time a promise <strong>of</strong><br />
things more important, but <strong>the</strong> diabolism <strong>of</strong> practical Magic was essentially <strong>of</strong> a popular<br />
kind in <strong>the</strong> bulk <strong>of</strong> its documents, and those which aimed too high--as, for example, at<br />
logic and philosophy, <strong>the</strong> liberal sciences, eloquence and good understanding--had<br />
<strong>com</strong>paratively few votaries. To give riches, to kindle love and lust, to discover treasures-as<br />
<strong>the</strong>se were <strong>the</strong> sum <strong>of</strong> ambition, so <strong>the</strong>y were <strong>the</strong> qualifications in chief demand from<br />
<strong>the</strong> spirits. The class <strong>of</strong> people to whom such considerations would appeal were those<br />
obviously--and as I have o<strong>the</strong>rwise indicated--who could not obtain <strong>the</strong>ir satisfaction<br />
through <strong>the</strong> normal channels--<strong>the</strong> outcasts, <strong>the</strong> in<strong>com</strong>petent, <strong>the</strong> ignorant, <strong>the</strong> lonely, <strong>the</strong><br />
deformed, <strong>the</strong> hideous, <strong>the</strong> impotent and those whom Nature and Grace alike denied.<br />
This is <strong>the</strong> category into which <strong>the</strong> modern psychic mind would enter unwittingly, could I<br />
suppose for a moment that, outside such purlieus as Paris, <strong>the</strong>re has been any revival <strong>of</strong><br />
Ceremonial Magic in <strong>the</strong> nineteenth or twentieth century. The typical occult student is<br />
preposterous enough in his preoccupations, but when he takes <strong>the</strong> Grimoires seriously he<br />
has usually some assumption as to a meaning behind <strong>the</strong>m--not<br />
p. 336<br />
that <strong>the</strong>y are allegorical writings, but ra<strong>the</strong>r that <strong>the</strong>y are <strong>the</strong> final issue in abuse and<br />
travesty <strong>of</strong> something that looms to his intelligence like real knowledge. The tendency in<br />
this direction has been promoted by that knavish hypo<strong>the</strong>sis concerning occult