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By G. H. Frater N.O.M.
Before even strength of will, you will must have purity of body, mind, intellect
and of emotion if you hope for magical power. The spiritual powers will flourish
only as you starve the animal soul, and the animal soul is largely dependent on
the state and treatment of the animal body. The animal man is to be cared for
and protected, kept in health and strength, but not petted. Be moderate in all
things human. Extreme ascetic habits, are to you here, a source of another
danger, they may lead only to a contemplation of your own Heroism, in being
abstinent. To be truly ascetic is indeed to submit to discipline and to curb
unruly emotions, thoughts and actions. But, who is a slave to his animal soul,
will practice vice in a Forest; while he who restrains himself among the crowds
of a city, and passes through a busy life unpolluted, shows more resistance and
suffers severer discipline, and shall obtain greater reward.
P art II - Remarks upon Subject for Contemplation
By V. H. Fra Levavi Oculos
Spiritual power results from the transmutation of the gross animal nature. The
various centres of sensation in the human body can be harmonised by the equipose
or circulation in the contrary forces of attraction and repulsion -- or, on the
other hand, the vehicle of excess. If 'Our God is superlative in His Unity',
analogy must follow between the greater and lesser worlds. One of Danton's
clairvoyants once described a lake of gold in the centre of the earth, and we
have the injunction 'visita interiora terrae, etc.' The primum mobile of even a
commonplace vessel is placed in the centre of the ship. Now, the place of power
and seat of equipoise is in numbers; the number 5 as has been pointed out: -
1234 5 6789. That is the Sephira Geburah 'Where there is Gold', whose lineal
figures traced with the single point uppermost is the most powerful continuous
symbol there is. By the sign of the Microcosm is the symbolized the athanor of
the Alchemist - at everybody's hand with out their knowing it. 'A strong and
decided will', says Levi, 'can in short space of time arrive at absolute
independence'. The condition of equipoise is therefore necessary before the
manipulation of the will is even possible; and will is something more than the
ascending of our higher desires over the lower, being a kind of electric force,
the executive of desire. In this light it is the creative power, which fashions
according to the ideal form or subsisting types. It is therefore through the
agency of the will that the hidden becomes manifest, whether in the Universe or
Man. The student has to learn to arouse those forces within him or her self.
This masterly indifference is the great theme of the Bhagavada Gita and the
Indian Yogis - in fact both East and West unite in teaching us to preserve that
equal mean between two extremes, which is the law of immortality.
Part III - Three Suggestions on Will Power By S.S.D.D.
Head 1. In studying the nature of the will force we are aided by our Minutum
Mundi scheme. Mars, Geburah, Fire, Aries, each expressive of the will force on
different planes, are all red in colour. The Red Lion was used as a symbol by
the Alchemists to express the highest powers of the Adept. The whiteness of
purity having been attained, the heat must be violently increased, until by the
redness of perfection strength manifests itself.
Head 2. Now the danger which attends out labours arises from attempting to
exercise this will power, before we have purged ourselves of ignorance and
darkness. Until we know we must refrain from doing. This sounds as if the case
was pretty hopeless; but we have each in our own persons all the materials for
experiment, and as long as we desire light, and do all we know to obtain it, we
are not likely to do ourselves permanent harm; but at the same time we cannot be
too careful in applying the very superficial magical knowledge we have at
present to others, especially to those who are uninitiated. The danger I have
found is that though the first step is most difficult, I mean it is extremely
difficult to gain control over another's will so as to alter their natural
tendencies; yet this is done the force you have set in motion becomes almost
uncontrollable, the other individual seems sometimes to only live in your
presence, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. This is a
noticeable feature in the cases of those who have been cured by faith healers;
or professional hypnotists.
Head 3. Having explained these dangers, the method I advise for cultivation of
will is, to imagine your head as centre of attraction with thoughts like rays
radiating out in a vast globe. To want or desire a thing is the first step in
the exercise of Will; get a distinct image of the thing you desire placed, as it
were, in your heart, concentrate all your wandering rays of thought upon this
image until you feel it to be one glowing scarlet ball of compacted force. Then
project this concentrated force on the subject you wish to affect.
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