CHAPTER XII

E now, therefore, come to the trance state
itself, and it should by now be abundantly clear that by this we mean the sacred state of divine trance, and not any psychic, somnambulistic or hypnotic states.
The principal characteristic of the mantic trance, as it is frequently called, is that in every stage of it complete self-consciousness and self-control are re- tained, although there is obtained what Plato calls a “* divine release from the ordinary ways of men.”
The earlier stages are sometimes called muesis, from muo, to close the eyes, for, as Synesius says in the Aegyptiacus, “There are two sets of eyes in the Mysteries. “The Lower are closed when the Higher are opened,” a statement that has misled many into speculations regarding hypnotism that we have before mentioned.
These states are connected with the noetic nature and lead naturally to the knowledge of spiritual realities and the acquirement of certain powers; and they are designed to lead up to and culminate in the true re-birth, the birth from above as it is often called.
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Though self-consciousness is maintained, the mind is drawn away from the things of sense, the spiritual sight, hearing and so forth becoming stimulated when, as the Oracle describes it, ‘“‘ No longer are visible unto thee the Vault of the Heavens, the Mass of the Earth ; when for thee the Stars have lost their Light and the | Lamp of the Moon is veiled and around thee is the Lightning Flash.”
Yet until, as we have repeatedly emphasised, the mind and body have been as far as possible purified by ~ prayer and meditation and the pursuance of the Sacred Rites, the danger remains that the phrenic, lower or psychic nature may play an undesired part and lead to illusions and self-deceptions, which are described as intrusive figures from the Underworld, seeking to draw away the attention of the candidate from the truth.
Ancient and medieval writings are full of descriptions of these appearances, which are even said to have material efficacy in Divine works under the guidance of those who understand and can control them ; whence the saying of the Oracle, ‘‘ Nature persuadeth us that there are pure Demons, and that the germinations even of evil matter can be alike useful and good.”
Nevertheless the soul is liable to be led away into oblivion by these in the early stages, so that the further injunction is necessary, ‘‘ Let the immortal depth of thy soul be predominant, and all thine eyes extend
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upwards. Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the Earth, drawing through the ladder which hath seven steps, beneath which is the Throne of dire Necessity.”
This is why Vaughan, speaking of the First Matter, says, “‘ The eye of man never saw her twice under one and the same shape.” And Lully, that the first prin- ciples of the Art are “‘ Fugitive Spirits, condensed in air, in shape like divers monsters, beasts and men, which move like clouds hither and thither.”
But apart from such apparitions, there are more subtle forms of illusion arising from memory, desire, imagination, emotion and so forth, which, while not necessarily alarming, and probably not tending to arouse the suspicions in any way, are at the same time totally inaccurate and misleading.
The following letter quoted by Vaughan in his Lumen de Lumine as being from the Fratres R.C., bears on all these points in a most interesting manner. We give only the middle portion of the letter, which is the part that actually illustrates them. It runs as follows :
‘There is a mountain situated in the midst of the earth or centre of the world, which is both small and great. It is soft, also above measure hard and strong. It is far off and near at hand, but by the providence of God it is invisible. In it are hidden most ample treasures, which the world is not able to value. This mountain, by envy of the devil, who always opposes the 112
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Glory of God and the felicity of man, is compassed about with very cruel beasts and ravenous birds, which make the way thereto both difficult and dangerous ; and therefore hitherto, because the time is not yet come, the way thither could not be sought after nor found out. But now at last the way is to be found by those that are worthy—but notwithstanding by every man’s self-labour and endeavour.
“To this mountain shall you go in a certain night when it comes most long and dark; and see that you prepare yourselves by prayer. Insist upon the way that leads to the mountain, but ask not of any man where it lies, only follow your guide, who will offer himself to you and will meet you in the way. Truly you shall not fail to know him.
“This guide shall bring you to the mountain at midnight, when all things are silent and dark. It is necessary that you arm yourself with a resolute, heroic courage, lest you fear those things that will happen and fall back. You need no sword or other bodily weapons, only call upon your God sincerely and from the depths of your mind.
*“When you have discovered the mountain, the first miracle that will happen is this: A most vehement and very great wind that will shake the whole mountain and shatter the rocks to pieces. You will be encoun- tered then by dragons, lions and other terrible wild beasts ; but fear not any of these things. Be resolute
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and take heed that you return not, for your guide, who brought you hither, will not suffer any evil to befall you. As for the treasure, it is not yet discovered, but it is very near.
“‘ After this wind will come an earthquake, which will overthrow those things that the wind had left, and make all flat. Be sure you fall not off.
"The earthquake being passed there will follow a fire that will consume all the earthly rubbish and discover the treasure. But as yet you cannot see it. After all these things and near daybreak, there shall be a great calm, and you shall see the Day-Star arise and the dawning will appear and you shall perceive a great | treasure.
“The chiefest thing in it and the most perfect, is a certain exalted tincture, with which, if it served God and were worthy of such gifts, the whole world might be tinged and turned into most pure gold.”
Now these states of Manteia were in no sense haphazard or undirected; for before venturing far, if at all, with them, the aspirant was supposed, as we have already indicated, to study carefully the theoret- ical aspects of what he was to do, and to familiarise himself with the systems of cosmogony and cosmology held by the school in which he was studying, as far as any such system could be grasped theoretically. Also it was necessary for him to have some academic acquaintance with the Orders and Hierarchies. of T14
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Essences he was about to encounter, together with the tokens and signs by which he might recognise and be recognised, and by virtue of which he might claim such instruction and enlightenment as his degree of spiritual attainment would enable him to assimilate.
And it should be clearly understood that the Hierophants and candidates of the true Mystery Schools were no mere dilettante dabblers and experi- menters, satisfied with visions of the Astral World, or the planes immediately contiguous to ours, against which they were warned by the Oracle in no un- certain terms :
“Stoop not down into the Darkly Splendid World, wherein continually lieth a faithless depth, and Hades wrapped in clouds, delighting in unintelligible images ; precipitous, winding ; a black ever-rolling abyss, ever espousing a Body unluminous, formless and void.”
They sought to penetrate into the further Worlds, the Yetziratic and even Briatic, and to rise ever higher through them until they beheld the Divine Light, that Light which was formless, which was the true stage of Epopteia or Beholding.
Although we are not considering the Eastern views on these subjects in this short survey, nevertheless the following descriptions of this Light, taken from the _ Bardo Thédol, or Vhibetan Book of the Dead, are so apt that we do not hesitate to give them.
** Thy guru hath set thee face to face before with the
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Clear Light ; and now thou art about to experience it in its Reality in the Bardo state, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like unto a transparent vacuum without circumference or centre. At this moment know thyself and abide in that state... . Now thou art experiencing the Radiance of the Clear Light of Pure Reality. Recognise it. ... Thy present intellect, in real nature void, not formed into anything as regards characteristics or colour, naturally void, is the very Reality, the All-Good. .. . Thine own con- sciousness, shining void and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth nor death and is the Immutable Light.”
But to reach any of these states, or even to assist in the preliminary purifications, the practice of the exercises of the Mysteries was necessary, which were in some measure connected with the process of solution or separation that we have been discussing. And in this connection we ought perhaps to mention an error that appears to be very prevalent concerning them. We have already dealt with it to some extent in Chapters III and IV, though limiting it at the time to sex practices.
We would now, therefore, extend this to physical exercises generally, such as one reads of in certain forms of yoga. ‘The exercises of the Mysteries of
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purely spiritual, and were intimately connected with that ritual which was a preliminary to the earlier mantic states. They were neither physical nor intellectual, but were linked with the Alchemical volatilising of the fixed and fixing of the volatile with which we have all along been dealing, and with which we shall deal again, both in the next stage of the Subtle Work, and in the section on dew which sum- marises the whole procedure.
When Synesius says “Intellect above all things separates whatever is contrary to the true purity of the phantastic Spirit; for it attenuates this spirit in an occult and ineffable manner, and extends it to Divin- ity,’ he is not speaking of the natural intellect, which cannot do this, but of the Mind in the sense which we have previously outlined in Chapter II. And with this clue we must, for the time being, remain content.
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