magic a treatise on esoteric ethics by manly p hall preface as paracelsus noted centuries ago the invisible realms of nature are governed by immutable laws which cannot be violated with impunity in recent years researchers in many fields have been exploring the hidden side of life and nature but few of them have given serious consideration to the moral and ethical responsibilities associated with their labors the tendency has been to assume that the transcendental arts like the resources of the physical world can be exploited without regard for consequences as in the case of the sorcerers of long ago the principal objective is the binding of invisible energies for the advancement of personal ambitions many innocent persons have become involved in magical practices and disciplined which are detrimental to character and dangerous to physical health the abuse of powers and forces as yet but partly understood must result in both psychical and psychological tragedy in this little essay i have attempted to present in concise form a code of rules which if faithfully followed will protect both the individual and society we are fully aware that the materialistic approach on any level of esoteric knowledge is contrary to the universal plan we must all accept the burdens that come from the exploration of natural mysteries and dedicate our findings to the glory of god and the well-being of all humanity part one children of the false darkness one for ages man has labored under a misunderstanding he has called the perversion of a cult power black magic this is an improper use of the word black for black does not mean evil black is the basic not color of all things it is the source of all being and represents the body of the absolute intelligence all consciousness and light are borne out of the chaotic blackness and cosmic night with its dark prelayer is the father mother of creation black darkness must forever shroud the workings of the infinite and no matter how much light there is in the human soul it is forever surrounded with the dark seething substances of chaos all manifestation is a concretion of dark and unmeasured possibility two the children of the dark birth who labor in the blackness of this substance molding it into myriads of unseen and unmeasured forms are not evil they are the sons of saturn satan the black father who like the very darkness of chaos itself must in time swallow all of his creations and in so doing bring them back to life again from the death that men call creation we are all born out of this dark abyss and have no right to call it evil it is the parent of gods and men forever wrapped in the unexplorable robes of its own mystery out of this blackness nature's unfathomed treasure house man must exhume the stone of his own soul in the same way that the miner removes the diamond from its sheath of black carbon three the dark lords of saturn are the builders of the first dawn the mourning of blackness and from the friction of their strivings were born the first flaming sparks of dawning consciousness they were the mind-born and other brahmins of our chain of globes being delivered from the brain and mouth of brahma their throne is made up of solid substance and the chemicals of solid matter they are the satanic outpourings the spirits of cold darkness four in the diagram that follows are shown the four births which have come out of the body of brahm bium the unknown blackness the ex of being five there is a false darkness and a true darkness the true darkness is the womb of light the false darkness the perversion of the light that pours out of the true darkness natural darkness is the basic principle of things while the false darkness is the result of debasing the power of the angels of satan 6 the devil the archetype of misuse is not a son of saturn but a son of man and the false darkness of earth man is the incarnation of the germ of mental intelligence and black magic is possible only to intelligent beings seven absolute spirit minus all the sheets of vehicles unformed and uncompounded is true darkness the dimensionless basis of all that is has been or ever shall be and the ultimate veil behind which all creation must retire eight absolute crystallization is the false darkness and is the color less vibration at the lower end of the spectrum opposing the color less vibration at the upper end of the spectrum both ends ultimately are swallowed up in darkness one in the darkness of spirit and the other in the darkness of matter nine life lives in darkness and dies in light form lives in light and dies in darkness but in dying really comes to life for life as we know it is pure death 10 natural darkness is unawakened possibility false darkness is perverted opportunity the philosophy of opportunity 11 if it were not for opportunity in its various forms there would be no perversion of power there is an old saying opportunity makes the thief opportunity is the eternal temptation without temptation there could be no sinners therefore when the higher powers brought man opportunity they also brought him sin and death the one who brought him light brought him also the false darkness light and shadow are inseparable the shadow of light is the false darkness for the creation of the first automatically brings the second to be free from temptation man must be free from reason to be free from darkness he must renounce light thus he becomes a renouncer of opposites for in accepting one opposite he must need to accept the other 12 temptation is the price that the human race pays for intelligence therefore the serpent of wisdom is also the eternal tempter when man learns with his growing intelligence of the powers of nature and most of all of the power that he himself possesses there comes with that increasing knowledge ever greater responsibility if man today knew of the god powers that lie dormant within him he would be the most dangerous creature in the universe both to himself and to the plan of things the soul must grow with the knowledge that it gains otherwise the organisms will ultimately destroy each other action and reaction must build strength of character so that the will is always strong enough to curb the desires when this is not the case and desire runs rampant then regardless of the position of the organism in the path of unfoldment a black magician is created thirteen man has no free will at the present time but merely the power of choice over a certain area of incident brought by his ever-growing consciousness within the scope of his comprehension these incidents have been differentiated by his evolving organisms from the dark premium heil or the true blackness the greater his growth the larger the area of his choices and the greater his independence why has been the eternal question in nature and the letter y is its phonetic equivalent for it forms the sling that hurls the white stone at the forehead of goliath the latter represents the false darkness while the stone represents true illumination 14 in egypt the point where the arms of the y converge was called the forking of the ways the candidate for spiritual things always stands at the point where the three arms of the y come together carrying in his hand the scales of discrimination as long as he measures blindfolded his weight will be just but woe unto him if he removes the blindfold for the two eyes themselves give birth to good and evil 15 the diagram accompanying this paragraph opposite shows the why of choice passing upward through the four creations of brahma the line passing through the circle shows the path of evolution through those kingdoms of nature where there is no conscious reason therefore no revolt against the laws of god the small ring where the three lines meet shows the present position of the human ego dwelling in the mind of brahma from it the path branches man must now choose his own way instead of depending upon nature he has in spirit and in truth reached the point where the scales of libra have been inserted by cutting the sign of scorpio virgo into and thus dividing the way of unfoldment 16 during the first half of this fourth globe the great ones came to man to strengthen him for his choice and to give him basic instructions through which he should learn to redeem his own soul we know these demigods now only as mythological characters but they were the ones who were bored with the human mind while it was in the making and planted there in the seeds of discrimination which is the ultimate redeemer of human reason 17 those who follow the right-hand path enter into one of the seven rays which lead to immortality while those who follow the left-hand path enter the ray that leads to ultimate crystallization both lead to darkness one to the immortal darkness of divine union and the other to the mortal darkness of divine annihilation the accompanying diagram may make this point clearer following page the fruitage of black magic the left hand path those who take this path number one choose that their immortal spirit shall be the servants of lower bodies in this way involving themselves in evidence of materiality and enmeshing their con scienceness more and more in matter if this practice is persisted in long enough the spirit will be unable to disentangle itself from the substances of the lower worlds and must remain enmeshed therein until the dissolution of the universe at the time of the night of brahma when the divine spark is cast into the blackness of the infinite through the rings of saturn by taking this path the ego attains darkness but it is the darkness of the tomb and of unconsciousness reached through the path of perversion and negation its reward is the black death and the loss of the soul such an ego wanders in a great unknown without hope reason or understanding while the endless wheels of chaos dissolve the bodies of which it has failed to make the proper use the fruitage of white magic the right hand path in taking this path number three the spirit identifies itself with those who choose to liberate the divine essence from its bodies and to have them for servants rather than masters the consciousness unwinds itself from mata in a spiral motion and functions in ever finer substances until it completely disentangles itself from form and consciously attains the resurrection in so doing it gains the powers to mold matter into whatever forms are necessary for its labors it crosses over into the world of spirit and enters what man can know only as darkness light is a form of a nation and when we enter the divine presence we enter the omnipotent darkness this in the living shade over which we have perfect power and which contains within itself all things in unawakened potentiality we have allied ourselves with the dark cause the womb of light and have become moulders of the cosmic scheme path number two this represents the line pass not the non-existing spiritual equator dividing the poles and is that ridge which divides the black and the white paths like that mystic line which separates day from night in this the spirit ignores opportunity rejects rhea son and in this way comes under the law and mystery of the mechanics of opportunity 18 all action immediately sets into motion the law of reaction which the ancients have called the law of karma which is the factor employed by nature for the creation of the soul the rejecting or ignoring of opportunity falling under the law of indifference and inertia fails to result in a reaction this in turn results in the starving of the soul those who have ignored experience are called the soulless creations and are in the same position as those kingdoms which like the angels have not been given individual intelligence the law or reaction immediately starts incorporating into the organisms the fruitage of the outboard endeavor in this way slowly transmuting the entire chain of vehicles into intelligent symbols or images of the path chosen by the consciousness as one pole or the other slowly grows within the being the atoms of the opposing substances are slowly crowded or forced out or sloughed off for lack of cohesion the battle of these opposing qualities in the various organisms of life forms the groundwork for the great indian battle of kurukshetra or the armageddon of christian theology through this subtle process the student who lives the white path slowly starves out or else transmutes the powers of the black ray within himself that is if he is able to stand the conflict which must first take place in his bodies on the other hand the student who takes the black path slowly eliminates or destroys all of the finer principles within until he becomes a very demon incarnate once having destroyed conscience he does evil for the joy of it definitions of magic magic is the art of manipulating the unseen forces of nature a magician is one who is capable of juggling the four elements of bodies a magician is one who is capable of consciously molding the substances of matter of the three and a half worlds of material substance nineteen a white magician is one who is laboring to gain the confidence of the powers that be and to prove through the purity of his life and the sincerity of his motive his worthiness to be entrusted with the great arcane the wand of the magus a black magician is one who seeks to gain authority over spiritual powers by means of force rather than by merit in other words he is one who is trying to storm the gates of heaven he is one who is seeking spiritual power and occult dominion with an ulterior motive the black magician's motto is might is right survival of the fittest the white magician's motto is right is might survival of all grey magic is the unconscious or subconscious perversion of power yellow magic is the failure to learn how to prevent the perversion of power black magic is the use of spiritual powers to gratify animal or selfish proclivities white magic is the right use of spiritual power consciously and objectively twenty every living person is in one of these four classes it is important that each should analyze himself and see just which class he is in there is nothing in all the universe so subtle as the powers of false darkness we must go over our lives every day for we never reach a place of safety the more power we have the greater light we have the stronger the temptation to abuse it or to use it for self-gratification we must learn to realize that the greater the knowledge the greater the penalty for abusing it the sin that is excusable in the child is unforgivable in a man motive 21 motive is the key to the problem of magic even the greatest of white magicians can become a degenerate in an instant if his motive becomes unworthy the white magician serves humanity the black magician seeks to serve himself 22 the black magic of the past the darkness that sank atlantis when man made slaves of the demons of the elements and chained them to do his bidding still survives to this day the black magic of the middle ages with its witchcraft and orgies is not dead only its form has changed like all other forms in nature it has incarnated again in our age with all its power and fury it is gnawing as in the days of old at the very heart of our civilization and if left unredeemed will tear down and destroy our race under the garb of right it masquerades as the messenger of the most high yet under its oral promises forever lurks the menace of the goat of mendes in its false shadows hide the furies of hell and the vampires of the astral plane 23 as the black magician has no legitimate means of securing his power not having passed through the school of reclamation he wanders the earth like the werewolves of old vampirizing humanity to secure the vitality which he must have to continue his operations 24 all who are not consciously fortified in the path of right are possible victims of these monsters of iniquity all who are not consciously on the white path and firmly established in the way of sincerity and truth are in eternal danger of these harpies who float like solar specters on the tide of evolution they have the powers of invoking the demons who serve them while the impartial natural law is misused hourly that they may perpetuate themselves the power of light in their hands becomes but a scepter of death for many hands wield spiritual powers whose hearts are dead whose minds are rotting dent of iniquity and whose souls have long since bid them goodbye they are lost beyond recall to this life wave for they have killed out even the germ of good within themselves they battle on however clinging desperately to life at any price realizing only too well that eternity holds nothing for them may the mercy of god rest upon them spirit is matter inverted and mata is spirit inverted the beast is god defiled part two the source of power in magic 25 all occultists realize that there is but one source of vitality in the universe and that is the emanation ring of the universal logos this power is not split up until it reaches the lower worlds where it grades itself according to vibratory rate magicians both black and white draw their power from the same great stream which pours eternally from the center of the causal being and spreads along the lines of the radius to the circumference the difference between black and white magic lies not in the force used which is always divine power but in the manner that it is secured and employed the source of the black magician's power is said to be the devil to whom the infernal conjurer must sell his soul in exchange for the cooperation of this evil spirit in the attaining of his nefarious ends in order to clarify this problem let us analyze the composition of the devil who is in reality the most abused creature in the universe for man through his perversion of divine energy forever transmutes his own deity into a demon the personality of evil 26 for many ages theologians have insisted upon personalizing natural principles all the great forces of being are dressed up like puppets in a punch and judy show and have the pronouns him or her applied to them this is one of the main reasons for the inability of theologians to read the bible correctly or intelligently they are unable to see the abstract power under the concrete symbol for ages religion has made the devil a human being and incidentally human beings devils this is incorrect both in principle and application the devil is a natural principle the product of natural means and the ultimate of natural perversion the devil is a compound complex creature dividing itself up into all the sins of the calendar studied as a group entity the devil is the spirit of perversion or negation the created principle of misuse 27 evil is not a false thing there are no false things in the creation of a true god evil is an abuse or misuse of power it is the crossing of currents or an interference with the plan we may say as one definition of evil that it is the right thing in the wrong place the worst evil in nature can be transmuted into good by the simple process of adjustment the average intelligence of the consciously functioning man is sufficient to make a god out of any demon by the simple process of inversion likewise he is capable of making a demon or evil thing out of any good thing or god by placing it in improper relationship to other things the word devil is used to cover the two excesses of polarity in nature for when uncured either will destroy the organism that man is seeking to construct the two great demons of creation are satan saturn and lucifer mars according to the greeks venus 28 satan is the spirit of caution prudence and when pervert negation at his door are laid the sins of omission few realize that man is responsible for the things he has not done that is part of the law it is just as wrong not to do the right things as it is to do the wrong thing satan inhibits he draws back he holds aloof he is key to crystallization and his unhampered reign would result in cosmic inertia for he destroys action he is symbolized as the reaping skeleton for he governs the bones of man and the planets which are the bones of the macrocosmic man he is the cold demon of ice that freezes the spirit in the blood and is given dominion over the tomb of unrealized hopes he is the spirit that finally calls unto himself all things which have poured out through his mystic rings lucifer on the other hand is the spirit of excess the flaming son of rashness and the ruler of sent gratification over which he wields dominion with a scepter of serpents those who fall victims to his power do deeds of violence not because he wills it so but because they have this spirit of energy and pervert him themselves lucifer is the lightbringer he is transmuted by man into the fiery demon of war and hate his power is used by man as the inspiration of lust and passion while he would have it used only for the attainment of ideality uncurbed those who fall under the sway of his influence dash madly to their own destruction he always is opposed to satan seeking to snatch the soul of man from the cold embrace of saturn he is the heat that incubates the soul but man uses him as a flame to burn up reason 29 all the powers in nature naturally serve good but as they are the servants of those capable of wielding authority man makes out of them barbarous spirits who damn his own world between these two thieves of excess satan utter coldness and lucifer blazing heat hangs the spirit of man crucified like the christ of the sublime allegory seared by the burning fire of one chilled to freezing by the negation of the other here is the great truth suppose either of these forces which man has made into demons were to withdraw what would happen to the plan of being 30 if satan were to go out of the scheme man would be burned up by the fiery passions of mars and the angels of lucifer without the chill caution and curbing of saturn his soul would speedily be lost in utter debauchery and licentiousness if on the other hand lucifer should withdraw man would soon be a stone again incapable of incentive of motion or emotion unchained like the sufferers of dante's inferno by the icy fingers of death 31 thus it is that the eternal battle of these great principles like night and day tempers the blasts and blends them to the good of man that he may ultimately reach the goal to which he aspires such is the mystery of night and day if the sun were to shine all the while man would be burned up with its rays and so vitalized that he would speedily turn into ether while if night forever enshrouded him he would gradually return to crystal 32 satan and lucifer are not evil but are two of the greatest powers in all creation without them the universe could not come into being for mars with the lucifer angels is the dynamo of our solar system and without them the planets could not keep up their endless march on the other hand satan builds the earth and worlds by his crystallization without which we would have no solid substances to form bodies it is not force or power but the perversion of force which constitutes evil the magician says demon is deus inversus we may say the demon is power perverted therefore man the perverter of power is the creator of demons because he is the lowest creature capable of exercising authority from within his own being the lower kingdoms are forced to react upon group impression and obey unquestioningly 33 in paradise lost milton tells how sin and death were launched into the world as the result of the disobedience of man satan as prudence negation and crystallization represents death who eternally inhibits his creation while lucifer as energy and action represents sin the positive expression of misuse they go about ministering to the needs of creation as constructive and helpful powers until the black magician with the innate perversion of his own soul bends them from their appointed way and launches them upon man as spirits of hell the ancients called the forces of nature the one-eyed gods because they were no respecters of persons but fulfilled their appointed paths whether it be to kill or resurrect the individualizing consciousness of the seven rings of sparks cast from the universal per layer must become the one moulder of these forces and the karmic responsibility for this molding and the expressions of these forces rest not upon the forces but upon human and superhuman intelligences 34 the black magician is one who learns to manipulate these forces for selfish and destructive purposes his own aggrandizement of the fulfillment of desire while the white magician prays that he may learn to manipulate them as god would have been manipulated for the salvation of the divine creation the powers are in the hands of those capable of invoking them it makes no difference whether for good or ill for this reason the schools of white magic conceal these powers from man until through growth purification and unfoldment he gains the proper incentive for using them the power of black magic thirty five we must disabuse our minds of the idea that the black magician cannot injure us because we are in the right or that he is weak because he is evil this is a foolish concept taught to prevent man from strengthening himself and his propaganda of the black path itself it is just as foolish as to say that if a prize fighter were boxing a baby the baby would win the fight because he had no ulterior motive or because his soul is undefiled thousands of people have not enough ambition to develop the necessary strength in fact they do not even know that their soul is worth saving they are living honestly they are good christian people but so purely negative that they are positively advertising the fact that they are easy marks for anyone desiring to avail himself of the opportunity they are not black themselves but they are the type that helps to make possible the perpetuation of black magic 36 that right will ultimately triumph is undeniable and that the black magician will fall victim to his own excess is a literal truth but many must bow their heads to the tyrant while he passes and only those who are strong are in safety individuals who have mastered nature's forces to such a degree that they can stop the heartbeat of a person on the other side of the earth with a mental ray or burn a two-inch hole through a foot and a half of ebony with astral fire a dangerous wherever met and the average so-called good person has absolutely no chance of withstanding the blows of black magic only fools underestimate this danger wise men protect themselves against it for an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure the white ray places the shield of david between them and the dark forces and in this way they protect themselves 37 we have reached a period in the history of the world when ignorance is criminal and deserves the heaviest penalty ignorance is not black magic but it is the greatest ally that the black magician has in the world today people who do not know any better are constantly doing someone else's dirty work that is the fruitage of their indolence when we attempt to break nature's laws we tear down our bodies and render our consciousness negative in this way opening those centers of our being through which we can be influenced and often obsessed by the black forces this is almost as great a crime as perpetrating black magic yourself people must realize that they cannot straddle the fence between right and wrong they are either on one side or the other and while doubt remains we can count them as being on the black side four doubt itself is an attribute of saturn satan those who are not striving for the highest partake of the lowest 38 let us meet this problem fairly neither with fear nor with too much confidence in humility and contrition of spirit let us realize that the work being done in the world by the black forces all the time is very real recognizing this let us band ourselves together and join in this righteous war standing side by side with the brothers of light in the battle for human souls 39 when light comes the shadow goes where the sword of enlightened spirit strikes the hosts of darkness and negation are dissolved but remove the light for only a second and they return as powerful as before the powers of darkness work alike through the thoughtless and the silly the arrogant and self righteous and many of our most earnest truth seekers are unconscious channels for the forces of evil since in moments of weakness they allow the beast to attain mastery over them and through them to attack the world 40 learn to discriminate between light and darkness in the world you live in and watch your heart night and day that there may issue from it nothing that can be used as a weapon for the destruction of light do not worry over your past misdeeds for worry itself breeds demons but eliminate them from your aura planting instead good seeds with constructive labors feel your own personal responsibility in this problem for the realization of responsibility is good for the soul demonstrate this acceptance of responsibility to the higher powers of cosmos for when your light shines out the spirits of evil must slink into the corners and cover their faces with the shadow of their cloaks the demonical powers of the ancients 41 let us now consider those strange creatures of other planes some said to be souls lost from our own life waves whom black magicians use in their conjurations many of the transcendentalists of the past have forced these elementals and nature spirits to serve them as in the days of the lost atlantis but the true black magician does not work through the ethers which are the home of the etheric elementals he works through the entities who dwell in the astral light or the animal magnetism of the lower astral plane the true black magician can become and usually is clairvoyant but he can never go any higher than the astral world to this plane he is tied by his passions hates incantations and the animal nature which is the basis of black magic 42 the ancients claimed that there was a hierarchy of demons for each of the sins of man and that in reality the demons were in most cases the incarnated principles of these sins by this it is understood that the animal excesses of man built on the lower plains of the astral world strange creatures some resembling debased human beings and others shaped like animals lizards snakes and other reptiles the power of the black magician lies in his ability to direct the soulless creatures which while not in reality individualized things still have tremendous power over their own essences both in the body of nature and of individuals 43 we seldom realize that our passions and hate create these demonical beings in the super physical world but this is one of the secrets of black magic every evil order based thought and emotion of man helps to build these tearing rending creatures the innate qualities of which become in the hands of those who know agencies for the destruction of the powers of light it also seems part of the plan that those who chain these demons shall themselves fall victims to their own slaves for one after another the black magicians are sucked into the maelstrom of the astral hell the lower plains of the astral world are the three hells of religion and other homes of these excess created beings that battle each other with never-ending fury 44 the black magician becoming a conscious channel for these forces launches a stream of heldement into the world in so doing he sells his own soul for these forces must pass through his own astral body in exchange for the powers that these demons will give him over his fellow men the powers of these elemental creatures are practically unlimited and there are many depraved souls who are glad to barter their immortal spirits for the power which these demons give them over the material world 45 there are two kinds of black magicians one those who use the demons of the astral plane for their villainy which they invoke through necromancy and invocation and two those who create their own demons and launch them against the world the first group does the greatest harm to the world but the second injure themselves more the first group is composed mostly of conscious black magicians while there are many in the second group who are totally ignorant of what they are doing some never learn their mistake until the demons they have created come back to the persons who sent them forth 46 the white magician uses none of the powers of the animal world in his work but rather seeks to transmute the poles of the beast within himself into higher and finer qualities the white magician labors entirely with the finer forces of the elemental planes he is a builder not a destroyer and seeks to liberate rather than to dominate his fellow creatures the white magician has dedicated his soul to the immortal light while the black magician has sold his for mortal glory the grimoires of the middle ages are filled with chants and charms for the invoking of spirits history is filled with stories of black magicians but the true student of occult science must have nothing to do with these things other than to protect himself against them spiritual research 47 do not experiment in spiritual things experimentation is usually fatal and unnumbered students have gone to untimely graves and lunatic asylums or have become obsessed while they were trying something keep away from the phenomenalism there is nothing in it for the true student he is not seeking to gain salvation through his eyes but through his soul phenomenalism never appeals to the higher side of the nature but at most satisfies only inquisitiveness as of old so today the cry is seldom save souls but is usually show us miracles 48 have you ever felt that a person you have met is evil have you ever felt a strange repugnance for a certain person these are the elementals and thought forms which permeate the aura of the person in question these elementals are drawn by the law of attraction if you have similar qualities within your own soul these creatures will leave others and flock to you to live like leeches off the best that is in you often when people leave a mediumistic scenes they carry away with them dozens of these demon forms that entered their organisms when they made their willpower negative and thus opened the door others carry from the place many of these elementals who unable to penetrate the aura of a positive person still flutter around it awaiting the opportunity the first time they lose their temper or do a destructive act the door is opened and the elemental enters 49 if any of these demonical creatures were to confront a person on the physical plane it would scare him to death but because the unfortunate person does not see them he does not worry it would be wise if people did consider them however as they will find out if they do not fortify themselves by taking the white path 50 man is a tiny germ floating on a sea of criss-crossing impulses and if he allows his own protecting aura to be broken down these forces will rush in from every direction and so confuse and waterlog him that he will lose all chance for higher understanding idleness and negativity are cardinal sins and the devil of all religions will find work for hands that are not laboring for the white masters 51 in this day and age the light must shine forth and the rulership of demons must be terminated a large percentage of man spiritual intellectual and physical affairs are today in the hands of elementals brainless creatures and their masters the black magicians whose minds are dense of iniquity out of this world must come a few who with hearts and souls undefiled will keep the light burning that the powers of darkness shall not triumph 52 the false dominion of demons must fall and with it the goat of mendes the prince baphomet of the world the false light and the false darkness must pass away that the light of truth and the true darkness may come into its own 53 from the passions of man they're poor into the world streams of living death from the hearts and mouths of men sin and death are launched into being these will go forth slaying and to be slain bringing down upon civilization the curse of the gods black magic will sink our continent as it has those that have gone before it for it launches upon us the furies of the elements and the holocaust of earth only one procedure can prevent this cataclysm these demons must be starved all passion must be transmuted into compassion and the black magician must be brought into the light of truth that the law may be fulfilled go thou and labour in the vineyard in the name of jesus christ our lord part three the mechanics of magic 54 man is composed of three principal parts spirit mind and body body in turn is divided into vehicles and essences the essences are divided into two distinct divisions a distillation of body consciousness commonly called the soul and the archetypes or molds these molds are often referred to as patterns trestle boards and architectural plants after which the bodies are shaped and fanned 55 the vehicles or bodies of man are four in number each having its respective mold into which it is cast while in a fluidic or mutable condition these bodies are named the physical body composed of solids liquids and gases the vital body composed of two atomic substances and two elemental essences the astral or emotional body composed of seven strata of volatile fire atoms called asteroids and the mental body composed of two major divisions designated as rupa and arupa by the hindus and more commonly known as the worlds of formed and unformed thought or concrete and abstract mind these four bodies constitute both the chain of vehicles which we know as the inferior nature of man and the invisible causal bodies which act and react in all through physical substance in india these bodies are called a string of beads through which the life thread or consciousness runs connecting them all together this thought is beautifully expressed by krishna in the bhagavad gita 56 from the macrocosmic man radiate the four areas of activity which result in the forming of the body chain from the mouth of the adamic prototype was ejected brahma the mind born as a personification of the ancient element of air without the element of fire and light its manifestation air was colorless and was referred to by the ancients as the true blackness this was called the crown of chaos by the great robert flood it is the true darkness which precedes light and may be truly called the womb of cosmos it should be remembered that this figure merely represents brahma in the aspect of shiva or the creator of the form world he becomes the four-headed cherubim described by josephus and also the hindu brahmin in his four-headed aspect after his fifth head okocho had been destroyed by shiva in simpler words the figure represents the lower planes of our planetary and solar systems those rates of vibratory force which react tangibly or intangibly upon the substances cognized by intelligence sense or sensation 57 we know that our scheme of worlds began as thought forms or a science pleases to call them dark nebulae this darkness is the substance from which were differentiated the mind bodies of the present human race the word substance in this case refers to the intangible mass of mentoids which compose the mind body of the archetypal atom at the present time the lords of mind or the formless air davis function in bodies composed of this attenuated substance which herbert spencer defines as the basis of thought power it was from the darkness of this premium heil that the visible universe was differentiated when the dark nebulae in the process of their strivings to use the terminology of jacob burma were brought into visibility through the glowing light created by the friction of the dark atoms 58 thought awoke feeling and the fire worlds were born and our system celestial and terrestrial existed as a flaming nebula the occult philosophers agree partly with the theory now known as the nebula hypothesis concerning the origin of our solar system they teach however that the planets are never actually thrown from the parent sun or nucleus but really remain as individualizing centers within the auric body of the parent globe the fire worlds according to the brahmins were born from the arms and shoulders of the archetypal man they were called the red suns or the fireborn and the twisting and seeding of flame was considered symbolic of their strivings they represent the astral or emotional body of man for all of the fire in human nature is an expression of the eternal principle of fire in the cosmic man 59 feeling gave birth to impulse vitality was established and the brown man was born from the viscera of the divine prototype he was the waterborne he was ordained to labor in the fields and stores for he was the principle of strength and energy geologists know and so do astronomers that when the planets were in process of cooling great clouds of mist sir rounded the molten globe this humid ether was regarded by the ancients as the veils of the world virgin under its influences were individualized the moon faced gods or shades and shadows it corresponds with the vital body of man finally the crystallization of humidity resulted in the formation of the solid earth referred to as the black man often called in india the sudra or the creature born into slavery doomed to live in chains until the night of the gods dissolved its shackles this is the physical body of all things which bears witness through its functions and powers to its quaternary constitution sixty it is interesting to see how closely the mythology of the brahmins coincides with the latest discoveries of science in the ancient buddhist hymns we find many references to the unfolding atoms thousands of years before the christian era the tibetans knew that an atom was a solar system but because ideas were expressed symbolically the oriental minds have never received proper credit for their philosophical penetration 61 as the universe began as a dark nebula of mind stuff so man the little universe built in the image of his father and bearing witness to the functions of his creative pattern also began his physical manifestation as a mineral thought form later he appeared as a fiery plant and gradually after many ages of transition this plant became a sacred animal composed of a body of humid ether later like his celestial archetype he incarnated into physical substance as a human creature 62 as a thought form he had but one body as an astral plant he had two bodies one composed of mind ether and the other of fire ether as an etheric sacred animal he added to these two a body of water ether and as a human being he adds a fourth composed of chemical dense physical ether 63 man remains in the physical world according to the ancient wisdom for approximately 800 earth lives during which time he passes through an infinite diversity of human forms and environments and learns to master the various organic qualities from which dense physical vehicles are manufactured his great work during that time is to master the element of earth and gradually to incorporate into his water fire and air bodies the qualities and essences which he extracts from his experiences in substance 64 man still has the three higher bodies which are invisible but nevertheless all powerful without the vital body he would be a mineral for the stones and metals have not individualized any of the vehicles above the physical dense structure at the present time the fire air and water bodies of man are manifesting only through the physical earthy organism where the air body gives the power of thought the fire body the power of motion and emotion and the water body the power of reproduction and growth therefore while unseen there are many manifestations and functions which bear witness to the power of man's invisible constitution 65 occultists call the dark air body the mental sheath the flaming fire body the astral sheath the humid water body the vital sheath and the physical body the dense chemical sheath these bodies one within the other and interpenetrating each other compose what the human mind recognizes as its vehicle of consciousness through the mental body man secures that reflection and thought which make him greater than the animal through the astral body he secures those qualities of motion and emotion sense color and feeling and any other qualities their expression of which makes the animal superior to the plant through the etheric body he gains the power of reproducing his species and also the functions of assimilation and excretion for in these things the plant is greater than the mineral of course the mineral by its actual existence proves its superiority over the myriads of swirling gaseous formless essences which have not yet even the power of appearing in the physical world 66 through the channels offered by this quaternary constitution the consciousness or ego or spirit views cognizes senses and reflects upon its environments the bodies may be called the hands and feet of spirit they are tools by means of which the abstract workman produces a concrete result the physical and etheric bodies may be called the feet for they are the foundation and the base the astral and mental bodies may be called the hands for they are vehicles of attraction repulsion and ingenuity the spirit while superior to all of its bodies is incapable of manifesting without its chain of vehicles this di vine spark must always be limited by the quality of its bodies in all too many cases it is the servant of its own dependencies instead of ruling its world by apostolic succession the spirit is generally bowed and broken by the endless demands of the lower nature the appetites desires and selfish propensities cast the spirit into a dungeon while a false and cruel monarch rules the empire in his stead 67 some of the ancient greek symbolized man and his body by the human hand the four fingers represented the body with its four major divisions while the thumb which works with none of the fingers but is useful because it is against the fingers in all of its functions is used to symbolize the consciousness in scripture it is stated that god has set himself against his children it is also interesting to note that man is the only creature that has a thumb working against the fingers in even the highest simians the thumb works with the fingers being in reality only an extra digit 68 some ancient students have even correlated the three phalanges of the thumb with the trinity the first or distal phalanx including the nail was held sacred to the father and its size and shape was used in determining will power the second phalanx was considered when analyzing the mental and reflective powers of the subject while the third phalanx which is usually large and forms part of the palm of the hand when overdeveloped was considered a symbol of a strong animal or physical nature being sacred to the holy ghost or the east indian shiva 69 these five parts the consciousness and its four bodies were symbolized by the five-point star or pentagram this was known to medieval alchemy as the sign of the cloven hoof and also as the star of bethlehem according to the pythagorean system of geometry the masonic apron with its four points or square and the descending point of its triangular flap symbolized the same thing the lower flap conceals the mystery of the murder of hiram the raising of the flap symbolizes his resurrection 70 the average individual does not realize that life consciousness and intelligence are separate and apart from physical substance merely functioning through chemical bodies during the temporary span which we call life in the chemical world one of the great occult laws is that to function in any sphere or plane of substance in nature you must have a body sensitive to incapable of adjustment with that plane of substance the student must realize that each body is capable of domineering over the others and also being dominated by superior or stronger forces to abnormally develop any phase of the nature is to create a tyrant that because of superior strength will vampirize and tyrannize over all other parts of the nature 71 it is the power given by wisdom and knowledge that makes the occultist superior to his fellow man his superiority being proportionate to his superior intelligence in every walk of life the uninitiated will be confronted with mysteries to the average person the working of a gasoline engine is just as mysterious as calculus would be to a kindergarten child but intimate relationship and study result in that familiarity which gives ease in handling and intelligence in directing it has been well said that no man is a stranger to his own valet the philosopher is a servant of god and by perfect serving soon becomes capable of thoroughly understanding the desires and dictates of his divine master 72 there is a real science even in pegging shoes only after years of apprenticeship can man hope to master any craft in spite of the terrible caste system in india it is interesting to note that an individual who excels even in the simplest thing is given recognition and may mingle with those of superior caste there are but few who excel in anything while of mediocre people in all walks of life the number is legion have you ever watched an individual who is handling with impunity tremendous units of electrical energy if so you realize that knowledge is power the electrician is safe because he knows the laws governing the thing with which he is working but should the electrician become careless for a moment or a person who knows nothing of electricity attempt to do the same thing he caught instant destruction 73 the laws of nature obey no man they know neither virtue nor vice like the one-eyed cyclopes of the greeks they are giants that fulfill their predestined work unmoved by the right or wrong use of their forces the wise man obeys the laws of the substances with which he works and thereby causes these substances to work for him but let him for one instant break the laws of the energies which he is controlling and they destroy him without compunction or discrimination 74 an occultist is an expert in the science of life as an operative magician he is able to manipulate the forces of nature to the gratification of whatever and he may desire but woe to him if those ends are not in harmony with the natural plan by means of his knowledge he may work miracles like the magicians of india but his feats are miraculous only to those who do not know as much as he does concerning the subtle forces of nature 75 the control which knowledge gives over ignorance on the spiritual planes of nature is very much like the control that wealth gives over poverty in the physical world wealth may be a blessing or a curse so may knowledge which is mental wealth the wise man will always be master of the fall for he has a mentality which is capable of demanding respect and the fall must bow down to that thing which he cannot comprehend in every age a few have come into the realization of nature's tremendous powers and in one way or another legitimate or otherwise have become temporary wielders of the serpent scepter as a man can steal money and remain wealthy until the law dispossesses him so may a black magician steal a certain amount of divine power and manipulate it to the gratification of his own ends until at last his misuse of power destroys him 76 during the later atlantean world and again in our own modern civilization there have been in our minds powerful but not virtuous these two words are not always synonymous some of these perverted beings were actual demigods as glorious as satan himself but their misdeeds and falsity sent them hurling into oblivion like planets gone wrong these demon gods bred black magic the perversion of power in the minds of men and to this time it has remained nurtured by man's besetting sin selfishness 77 evil will never cease to exist until selfishness and greed are overcome as factors in dictating the attitudes of men it is the common thing for the concrete mind to sacrifice the eternal to the temporal man concentrating upon the limited area of the gnome loses sight of the effect of his actions upon the limitless area of the unknown short-sightedness consequently is the cause of endless misery moral short-sightedness results in vice philosophical short-sightedness in materialism religious short-sightedness in bigotry rational short-sightedness in fanaticism 78 wise is the man who serves the greatest end whatever be the cost the thing which men have called harmony and which nature knows as perfect adjustment is worth all that must be paid for it adjustment is the establishment of harmonious relationships between the universal planes of nature and the centers of body consciousness in man 79 selfishness promotes self-interest and self-gratification slowly the world about vanishes the soul lives more and more to the attainment of its own desires and before long the rule of mammon is complete in that life this means that the best dies and only the shell of material personality remains it means that the urge of aspiration is no longer felt and that the spirit immortal and superior lives as the drudge of appetite and the bond servant of an animal organism doomed to martyrdom within the prison walls of perversion eighty we live in an age enlightened in those things pertaining to the body but woefully ignorant concerning those things which are divine every day the spirit of commercialism is fed with the lifeblood of millions every day the struggle of competition takes more of man's time and energy until the finer nature dies for want of consideration and virtue is deemed an impediment to the progress of the material juggernaut this turbidity of mental and moral outlook is the breeding place for the larvae of black magic the curse of the human race 81 black magic is a disease it is a racial cancer its long tendrils are like those of an octopus it infests church and state alike it enters the hubble of the poor as false hope leading him to crime and self-destruction it enters the salons of the wealthy end as ambition turns the heart of man into a scheming organ for the accumulation of opulence black magic is bred in selfishness nursed by greed and tolerated only by hypocrisy but nevertheless is a most common efflorescence of a commercial age 82 magic is not a medieval superstition tutored by the spirit of ignorance it is a very material fact this so-called age of enlightenment is in reality only a transference of emphasis from one mental function to another and while the spirit of arrogance and selfishness remains in the souls of men they will sell their immortal spirits as did faust for the gratification of self or more correctly than not self honesty is a jewel of priceless value and the forces of evil have little power over a life lived true to principle man by his covetousness must first offer his soul for sale before the devil is in a position to buy it 83 nature is an endless area of criss-crossing energies those who have power can demand that these energies obey them whether for good or ill and senseless force must obey but force also has its laws and penalties and man must obey the laws of force or suffer the consequences of his folly the black magician in his selfish egotism thinks himself greater than god or law and continually breaks the rules of force but sooner or later like faust again he is destroyed by his own servant we are told that dr faustus actually lived in germany in the early middle ages he had a familiar spirit who served him one day dr faustus was found dead with a knife in his back and the townsfolk claimed that his elemental spirit had killed him 84 in our modern world black magic finds a fertile breeding ground in man's desires age after age the wants of man destroy him in ignorance he plays with fire in thoughtlessness he ignores the immutable laws of nature and then wonders why the tempest break about his head why lava and ashbury his cities why wars lay waste his lands and mighty upheavals of the earth caused continents and nations to vanish in a single day he neither obeys the laws of force nor recognizes that cause and effect rule all things that day after day he reaps misery as the harvest of thoughtlessness 85 the white magician consecrates his life to study meditation and service that he may know the law and may direct force to its appointed ends he molds himself into the plan becoming part of the divine rhythm by sacrificing himself and his wishes to the will of the infinite asking only to know where in his duty lies and how he may be of the greatest service to the greatest number 86 on the other hand the black magician is firmly of the belief that he knows what he needs when in reality he only knows what he wants he seeks to mold the plan into his own desires he believes that the universe wants him to be greater than his fellow men when the cosmic all does not know that he exists other than a tiny atom passing with myriads of similar things to an appointed end 87 now let us see how the magician with his knowledge of the invisible side of nature is able to manipulate the unseen forces of nature first the student must be impressed with the fact that the wise man is seeking to know what nature desires him to do while the foolish man knows already and tries to force nature to act as the servant of his whims 88 nowhere is black magic more apparent than in the modern phases of religion in both the new and old doctrines instead of emphasizing the will of the logos as the law of men students have been taught to demand of the infinite and that he will obey no man may justifiably demand anything except the fruitage of his own labors today however millions are seeking by the root of psychology and metaphysics to reap where they have not sown believing that the possession of a knowledge which makes them greater than their brethren entitles them to enslave the weaker and uninformed 89 let us now consider the four bodies of man as elements in magic and differentiate clearly between the right and the wrong function of these bodies ninety first we will study the bodies as a group we may say that they were created to be the helpmate of their lord and master spirit for in truth they symbolize you've taken from the side of adam the attributes of these bodies are legion for each has a character of its own we may say of the bodies of man as of children train them when they are young in the way they should go and when they are grey they will not depart there from our natures cannot be allowed to just grow like topsy any more than children can be allowed to run around promiscuously and then be expected to amount to anything our natures must be trained and there must be a definite understanding of who is master and who is servant 91 a near philosopher allows his mind to ramble thus creating a host of abominable and absurd concoctions of witless thought he involves himself and those about him in argument dissension and never-ending streams of self-contradiction he tries to solve the economic situation creates new religions without learning the old and buys his thoughts at pawn shops his general purpose in life being to tear down something he is like some of the writers of medieval literature who strove to give the impression that other authors were liars 92 his mind which should clarify the issues of life does nothing but complicate them and is used only as a means of finding gratification for the senses and thrills for the nervous system his emotional organism is a massive appetites and whims he mistakes ambition for aspiration cowardice for prudence greed for economy and lust for love so we may repeat that through all this chain of bodies we see that the consciousness instead of being clarified by its bodies becomes more hopelessly involved by them every day we may say by way of definition that white magic is the service of the real the consecration of life to the protection and unfoldment of the real it is the use of the forces of nature for the good of all black magic is the use of wisdom and its accompanying power to gratify sensation ambition desires greed and that medley of function which we call the personality its inevitable result is the destruction of the entire spiritual and physical structure 93 the white magician seeks to gain control over himself the black magician seeks to obtain control over others man has four centers of consciousness four tangible assets which he may consecrate to the attainment of reality his mind his heart his vitality and his physical body a man may be forced to serve another if that one can temporarily or permanently secure dominion over any of these four centers to secure dominion over the physical body of another is to make that person a slave to secure control over the vital body is to steal the vitality of another person as in vampirization where one person lives off the life essences of another a common example of this can be seen when young people are brought up in the association of elderly people the radiant energy of the child is sapped by the older person as a result such children are usually very nervous and seldom strong another example of the control of the vital system is to be found in mediumship when decarnate spirits take ectoplasm from the spleen of a medium in order to materialize this usually results in the nervous and physical exhaustion of the medium for he has given his own life as a vehicle to the outside intelligence 94 the astral body is usually attacked through an excessive feeling such as religious frenzy grief fear or hate when a person realizes that he can influence others while they are incapable of reasoning because of emotional excess and awakens these emo tional excesses for the purpose of influencing the weaker ones as in the case of an evangelistic revival such an instigating mind is a black magician the sending of love hate or similar feelings to another in the hope of awakening a similar condition in them for selfish or personal reasons is also black magic 95 mental black magic is far more complicated for it includes practically all prosperity metaphysics auto suggestion mental suggestion occult treatments demonstration over environment and conditions the misuse of hypnosis mesmerism personality culture and other varieties too numerous to mention in one way or another it includes practically all religious and economic graft in fact every method in which the power of one person over another is used for the aggrandizement of the stronger it covers every method of gaining superiority except those based on an honest use of the merit system those who can do a certain thing better than others do not need black magic in order to excel at all we find under perversions of this idea such business subjects as psychological salesmanship and the like the systems advocated work admirably but they bring endless sorrow to whoever attempts to use them 96 people who use these false systems vindicate themselves for the most part on two unsound hypotheses one that god has intended man to have whatever his puny intellect desires two that man knows what he needs both of these are false assumptions man was not intended by god to be rich wise beautiful healthy witty of charming personality or happily married this does not mean that the lord has any objection to any of these things or all of them it merely means that if man desires these things he must go forth as adam was directed to do earning his bread by the sweat of his brow and not by the sweat of somebody else's 97 the aura of man's consciousness is his dwelling place it is his feudal castle though he be driven from his home from his world that is his sanctuary none has a right for good or ill to enter that sanctuary other than by the door any more than one would have a right to enter another's home by the kitchen window the door of the sanctuary in this case is the physical world because here all men have the privilege of knowing their opponent here all have an opportunity to struggle against the thing they do not desire he your brother has the privilege of rejecting your proposition or of accepting it if such be his pleasure he may let you into his house or keep you out as he may see fit for here at least there is one equality men may say yes or no according to their moral dictates and may have the privilege of defending their integrity with their lives 98 you may go up to your friend john and say i wish you would stop smoking you ought not to do it but you have no right regardless of how virtuous or altruistic your desire may be to sneak into the brain of john and implant there's something which he cannot combat because he does not know that it exists any person who does such a thing assumes the responsibility for the life that he has led out of its natural course 99 the masters themselves our elder brothers will enter no man's house unless invited for they accord all creatures the privilege of living their own lives if an occultist were to break both legs and should ask in whatever way he knows that one of the great healers should mend his left leg the healer would come labor with that leg and go away even though he knew the right were broken also he will not touch it for he has been given permission to work upon only one 100 wisdom is given to no man until he asks for it for in nature every creature is accorded the privilege of unfolding its own destiny guarded and protected legitimately by those intelligences placed there by nature for that purpose those about us in the world who seek to assume the lives of others and set aside the law of individual completeness always injure and seldom do good 101 an aged and wise chinese one set out to visit a distant place he sent a messenger ahead to tell the good folks of the house to prepare him no food save rice but when he arrived he found a many course dinner awaiting him for the good family felt that they must so honor his presence the philosopher proved them saying i asked for rice you have given me fish i asked for rice you have given me corn i asked for rice you have given me meat i asked for rice and you have given me sweets and among all these things you have given me no rice observing that the family was hurt by the words the philosopher added i have lived these many years and after studying carefully this body which god has given me i have found that it doth flourish nobly upon rice it was with wisdom that i ordered rice it was with folly that you insulted me by offering other foods you say that i am a great philosopher that i am wiser than all other men and yet you did not think me wise enough to order my own meal in the same way when our brother asks for rice we have no right to give him meat because we think he ought to have it it matters not whether the meat be physical or spiritual whether the rice be literal or allegorical 102 no man who is sick should be healed merely because he is ailing he should learn the lesson that accompanies the disease that he has brought upon himself to affirm health is foolishness to find out the reason for the ailment make right the wrong and become healthy again is wise and proper to be so moderate so wise so thoughtful as not to become sick is still better philosophy it is black magic of the worst kind to interfere in any way with the individuality and mental independence of any human being if this individual becomes a menace to society it may become necessary to incarcerate him for the good of the community but this does not in any way interfere with the conscious functioning of his mind 103 if the incident shows such a one the error of his ways it is well but whatever the result he has been permitted to remain the maker of his own destiny and the captain of his own soul he is at least living his own life and dying in the way that he chooses he has been reasoned with and it has failed he has scorned pleadings and prayers all has been done that man can do let no one enter the sanctuary even of the criminal soul for as his spirit is a part of god endowed with the inalienable prerogative of choice so the vengeance of god will descend upon him who seeks to steal in and cloud that brain or influence the divine spark against its own will many an individual has played havoc with the laws of nature by not allowing the individual to fulfill his own destiny 104 we cannot always tell why souls come into the world rich or poor some to grow strong and survive others to become weak and succumb but this we do know that the law of karma directs these things placing each life where it will best learn the lesson needed for its growth some must learn in sickness and pain others in laughter and joy some must learn to be exalted others to humble themselves but all are here to save their souls by the sweat of their brows to need the bread of their own existence even though they must mix it with their own lifeblood 105 what man of myopic vision dares to ordain health for the sick or illness for the strong who dares to say this poor man should be rich or this man should be poor does he know the reason for his coming does he know the virtues and vices which line hidden in the past are the invisible causes of his present condition does he know the reason for the environment wherein he dwells or the urges that have led him to his present state if not then he should be silent 106 by this we do not mean that the world should be un sympathetic or unready to help we do mean however that the help should be given and not forced upon the other it means we should serve each other help each other and love each other but we should never try to obtain the whip hand over another or over nature 107 what right has anyone to believe that man was born into the world to be happy in the arabian nights it is written happiness must be earned we are born with a divine birthright a mind a heart two hands and two feet if any of these be missing at the time of our appearance we have some other function proportionately developed to take its place with these tools we may go forth and earn happiness but we have no right to assume that someone is going to thrust it upon us we have come here for experience as a child who goes to school we may be happy in our studies or we may curse them all the days of our lives the wise are happy in doing the thing that should be done when we command the universe to make well the sick or to make the rich poor we know not where of we speak for in our zeal and ignorance we may be doing an irreparable injury to the one we love like a parent who cannot deny his children the sweet meats that they want in granting their desires we endanger both their lives and their future efficiency 108 let us rather assist all to adjust themselves to things as they are helping to build a more noble destiny for themselves not trying to give them something or force the unknown upon them but rather assisting all to develop those faculties which will make them worthy to have things which they desire and that great peace which all the world is seeking when we ask the infinite father to give us those blessings which we lack or to straighten the crooked paths wherein we walk let us always add this stipulation to our endless string of desires let these things be if they are best for me if not thy will not mine be done let us always qualify our will to achieve by such deference to the divine will that alone does all things well in this we make safe the course of our procedure this humility will save us from the great adversary who under the guise of egotism whispers to us that we are greater than the infinite time and time again as milton said we are hurled flaming from the ethereal skies when we seek to be greater than that power which is the cause of all things 109 we all want the good things of life we all desire to be surrounded by friends but we have no right to expect to attract any of these things except when our own lives have earned us the right to be honored respected and admired the struggle of modern competitive ethics is very keen but it offers to the winner a prize in keeping with the intensity of the strife the environment of modern social conditions was created by human qualities and temperaments and man has placed himself therein in order to learn how to adjust himself to its complications and uncertainties the victory lies in the control he gains over himself his viewpoint his temperament and his idiosyncrasies 110 man has long considered happiness to lie in dominating others or in keeping up with the standards of the joneses all through the ages he has striven either to imitate or control others instead of acquiring self-control and unfolding the individuality which makes him different from all other things and gives him the power of excelling in something when man exchanges his daily life of service for mental shortcuts and excuses his vices instead of mastering them he is falling under the influence of black magic a subtle power which caters to the worst in him people are eternally trying to walk out of difficulties instead of trying to work out of them the result is always fatal for the problem evaded must be forever the problem unmastered one eleven in the picture on page six we see the auric bodies of man in the center is the physical the stone above and around this radiate the line to force which we call the finer bodies these bodies are urges to mastery and also endless causes of slavery depending upon whose shoulders the responsibility rests sir rounding this black physical form is man's disease armor called the vital aura shown diagrammatically in the drawing as a checkered area because of the interpenetrations and criss-crossings of the two higher ethers with the two lower under normal conditions this etheric body radiates through the pores of the skin in a form resembling fine fur extending several inches beyond the body our cultism teaches that germs are more astral and metaphysical than substantial as a result while this vital aura radiates from the body it protects man against evil forces and influences from both the physical and etheric worlds if he is run down debilitated or his vital force depleted this aura loses its power and allows a thousand external influences to tear down his strength and courage it also permits disease elements to enter and the result is often fatal 112 outside the aura is the egg-shaped astral body with its center in the liver and its large and downward surrounding the areas of the greatest sensation it is ever changing in color and through it past endless shadow forms which express in panorama the emotions and feelings of man it is glorious radiant opaline never appearing twice the same outside this is the mental body as it would appear in a highly developed adept as an egg-shaped vehicle with its large end upward bulging through the area of greatest intelligence it is the midnight blue of the dark nebula referred to on page 34. these bodies are visible clairvoyantly also physically with the aid of the killer screens as interpenetrating globes of light and constitute the causal bodies lying behind emotion emotion and rationality expressed by the dense physical envelope 113 at a point between the eyes in the forehead dwells the human consciousness in the holy place of his tabernacle enthroned among the globes which form his bodies man by his actions is gradually unfolding the possibilities lying latent in his physical body by his conservation of energy he is gradually unfolding sequentially the centers of his vital consciousness this end can be attained only through intelligent living for the vitality is extracted from the atmosphere from the sun's rays from our food and from other sources through gradual purification and regeneration of his emotions and feelings control of his fire missed body with its outbursts and excesses man gradually raises the vibratory rates and unfolds the latent possibilities of the astral body thus redeeming the animal soul by his thoughts ideals and aspirations aided by the twin faculties of logic and reason man gradually gains control of that seething mental vortex which will later put him in harmony with the divine mind of the solar god 114 the occultist is taught that the so-called worlds of nature are the bodies of the solar man and that each of these bodies corresponds with the lesser vehicles within man himself thus adjustment of his mental body to the mental plane of nature makes him one with the mind of god and all the other bodies follow the same procedure 115 each thought emotion and action accordingly is important bringing ever closer the day of individual liberation any power or quality which paralyzes or even delays this process is detrimental to man and anyone who consciously seeks to improve himself to the detriment of his brother is unfit to live yet such a system forms the keynote of modern ethics if man would only learn to be honest realizing that the universe is honest and that we are rewarded according to our motives as well as our works we would rid the world of much that is undesirable 116 black magic appeals to the mass mind it appeals to the principles of our civilization it offers something for nothing as long as there is cupidity in the human heart it will remain as a menace to the honesty and integrity of our race if occult students will only remember that honesty is the deadly enemy of black magic and that it holds no terrors for the individual who is true to himself and true to the golden rule he can protect his own soul and those he loves from its insidious and unnatural influences