THE part played by the ex-witch in occult attack is very marked.
Again and again do the investigations of independent psychics point to witchcraft in a previous incarnation when trouble of this sort is afoot.
The motive is nearly always vengeance, but there is also good reason to believe that the projection of the astral body takes place involuntarily during sleep, and is not deliberately willed by the offender.
Very many people who are at present psychics and sensitives got their training in the covens of medieval witchcraft, and for this reason experienced occultists are very wary of the natural psychic, as distinguished from the initiate with his technique of psychism.
Where psychism and mental unbalance are found conjoined with a malevolent disposition, there is strong presumption that the cult of Diabolus is not far to seek.
A curious set of happenings, in which I myself was one of the actors, throws a good deal of light on this by no means uncommon occurrence.
It was in the early days of my interest in occultism, when I was still buying nay experience by the expensive but effectual method of running my head into obstacles, I made the acquaintance of a woman who was interested in psychic matters.
She was a person of the most extreme sensitiveness to anything unclean or ugly, fastidious to a degree in her personal habits, living almost exclusively on uncooked vegetarian foods, even refusing eggs as too stimulating.
Although not an animal lover, she was morbidly humanitarian, reading with gusto those papers which give lurid and detailed descriptions of vivisection experiments.
Had I been older and wiser I should have recognised the significance of her ultra-cleanliness and ultra-sensitiveness as marking the ab-reaction of a sadistic temperament - sadism being a pathology of the emotional nature in which the sex instinct takes the form of an impulse to inflict pain.
Not having learnt then many things which I now know, I looked upon her characteristics as indicative of an exalted spirituality.
At the time I knew her she was verging on a breakdown which was alleged to be due to overwork, and she was very anxious to get away from cities and back to nature.
I was just leaving London to take up my residence at an occult college which was hidden away in the sandy fastnesses of the Hampshire barrens.
In the innocence of my heart I suggested that she might come down there and help with the domestic duties.
The suggestion was acted upon, and a few days after my own arrival Miss L.
joined us.
She seemed quite normal, made herself agreeable, and was well liked.
One incident, however, in the light of subsequent events, was significant.
On getting out of the ancient fly in which she had driven from the station, she immediately went and patted the still more ancient horse that drew it.
That beast, usually sunk in an apathy from which he was with difficulty roused when action was required of him, galvanised into life at her touch as if she had stung him.
He threw up his head, backed, snorted, and nearly turned the equipage over in the ditch, to the amazement of his jehu, who declared he had never been known to do such a thing before, and viewed our visitor with disfavour.
Miss L., however, appeared quite normal, made herself agreeable, and was given a friendly reception by the humans at any rate.
That night I was awakened by nightmare, a thing to which I am not usually subject.
I struggled with a weight on my chest, and even after consciousness had fully returned, the room seemed full of evil.
I performed such simple banishing formula as I knew, and peace was restored.
At breakfast next morning an assembly of blear-eyed people met together, complaining of having passed disturbed nights.
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 passage mentions that 'projection of the astral body takes place involuntarily during sleep' and describes effects felt in the physical room.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
The text describes 'anything unclean or ugly' and 'evil' as negative states or pathologies (sadism, mental unbalance) rather than a positive divine principle.
A ritual intended to drive out an unwanted possessing or afflicting spirit from a person or place, restoring it to its unafflicted state. Distinct from spirit_conjuration (the operator summons and binds a spirit that was not already present, rather than expelling one) and from possession (the affliction this ritual answers, not the ritual itself).
The narrator states 'I performed such simple banishing formula as I knew, and peace was restored', which is a ritual intended to drive out an afflicting presence.
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The passage distinguishes between the 'natural psychic' and the 'initiate with his technique of psychism', implying a formal process of admission or training.
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 is framed around 'occult attack', 'witchcraft', and the mechanics of one person inflicting harm on another through occult means.
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The text references 'covens of medieval witchcraft' and an 'occult college', implying organized groups maintaining esoteric knowledge.