CS nightmares usually heralded Mr.
CS attacks.
These occurrences showed a certain cyclic regularity, occurring about once a month.
In the case of a woman this would naturally be referred to the twenty-eight day cycle of her nature, but in the case of a man, no such explanation was forthcoming, and we therefore had to look for another twenty-eight day cycle to explain his periodicity.
The only other cycle of this period is that of the phases of the moon.
We were then confronted by a correlation of epileptiform attacks, which had no organic basis, the nightmares of a second person, and the phases of the moon.
Some theory had to be found which would resume these three and explain their inter-relationship.
A dream is commonly the first way in which psychic manifestations make themselves known, the subconscious perceptions being reflected into consciousness in this form.
It is held by many occultists that congenital epilepsy, as distinguished from that due to tumours of the brain, has its roots in the operations of black magic or witchcraft in which the sufferer participated in a past life, whether as practitioner or victim, the fit being an astral struggle with a discarnate entity, reflected on the physical body by means of the well-known phenomenon of repercussion.
The moon plays a very important part in all occult operations, different tides being available at different phases of her cycle.
Persephone, Diana and Hecate, all aspects of Luna, are three very different persons.
It therefore appeared probable that as the physical investigation had drawn blank, a psychic investigation might yield fruits.
One was performed.
And with the following results.
Nothing at all was discerned with regard to Mrs.
C.
She was merely what lawyers call an accessory after the fact.
But the psychic trail of Mr.
C.
was soon picked up and followed, and it appeared that in his last incarnation he had been associated with two women, mother and daughter, who had practised witchcraft for his benefit.
The younger of the two women had been for a short time his mistress.
Mother and daughter had paid the penalty for their crimes, but their male partner had escaped.
The diagnosis was as follows: It is the younger witch that is at the bottom of the trouble.
It is her astral visits which cause the seizures of Mr.
C.
and the nightmares of Mrs.
C., and they correlate with the phases of the moon because certain phases are favourable for the operation she performs and she therefore takes advantage of them.
The question now remains, is this woman in incarnation or not?
That is to say, is the midnight visit paid in an astral body projected from a living human being, or by an earth-bound spirit which has succeeded in evading the Second Death?
Mrs.
C.
had by now been taken into the confidence of the mutual friend who was concerned for her welfare, and lent a ready ear to the suggestion that some psychic influence might be at the bottom of the trouble, for this explanation coincided with her own intuitions in the matter, intuitions she had not dared to divulge for fear of ridicule.
When asked if she could identify anyone in the circle of her husband’s acquaintances who might prove to be the younger witch, she replied immediately that she could with out any difficulty identify both the women, and told the following curious story.
The older witch she identified as her husband’s mother, an aged lady who occupied a suite of rooms in their house.
For this inoffensive old creature Mrs.
C.
had always had a peculiar horror and repulsion, although admitting there were no rational grounds for it, and honestly endeavouring to do her duty by her.
So great was her horror of the old lady that she would never remain in the house after her husband had left for his office in the morning, but went out herself to her club if she had no other engagement.
Among the frequenters of the house was an intimate friend of the elder Mrs.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text notes the correlation between lunar phases and psychic manifestations, reflecting a cosmic correspondence.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The connection between the phases of the moon and the timing of psychic attacks implies a sympathetic link between celestial cycles and earthly events.
The ritual practice of discerning hidden knowledge — future events, concealed causes, or the will of higher powers — through a structured technique applied to cards, lots, astrological configuration, entrails, oracle, or other sortilege, rather than through direct unmediated insight. Distinct from gnosis_direct_knowledge (unmediated inner apprehension of ultimate truth, not a technique applied to an external medium) and cosmic_sympathy (the underlying doctrine of hidden affinity that many divinatory techniques presuppose, rather than the practice of consulting it).
A psychic investigation was performed to discern the hidden cause of the attacks and identify the source.
The doctrine and practice by which the etheric or astral double separates from the physical body, at will or involuntarily, to act, travel, or encounter other entities on a plane subtler than the physical — remaining tethered to the body by a silver cord, and capable of returning physical injury (bruises, exhaustion) sustained while thus projected. Distinct from linga_sharira (the static doctrine that a subtle form persists as a template) in describing its active operative use, and from shamanic_journey (a trance-journey framed within a shamanic ritual complex, undertaken to return with knowledge, songs, or a recovered soul) in being a Western-esoteric technical practice with its own physiology of cord-attachment and reciprocal wounding.
The text discusses astral bodies projected from living human beings visiting victims at midnight.
The doctrine and practice of one person deliberately inflicting harm on another through trained will, mind-power, or occult technique alone, without physical contact — producing exhaustion, illness, breakdown, or death in the victim; recognised cross-culturally as witchcraft, hexing, or the evil eye, and treated in Western esotericism as a genuine occult hazard requiring diagnosis and defence rather than dismissed as superstition. Distinct from magical_will (the general doctrine that trained volition has causal power, of which this is one malevolent application) and from spirit_conjuration (which subordinates an already-existing summoned spirit, rather than directing the operator's own power at a person).
The entire passage analyzes the nature of psychic attack, specifically black magic and witchcraft causing physical and mental symptoms.