Fortunately for me I had in my hands a large saucepan full of freshly boiled greens, and I used this as a weapon of defence, and we danced round the kitchen table, slopping hot cabbage-water in all directions.
We neither of us made a sound; I fended her off with the hot and sooty saucepan, and she slashed at me with an unpleasantly large carving-knife.
At a psychological moment in walked the head of the community.
He took in the situation at a glance, and handled it by the tactful method of scolding us both impartially for making so much noise and telling us to get on with our work.
Miss L.
finished whatever she was doing with the carver, I dished up the cabbage, and the incident passed off quietly.
After lunch Miss L.
experienced the reaction from her excitement and went to her room completely prostrated with exhaustion.
I was somewhat perturbed.
Although used to mental cases, and therefore not as disturbed by the recent fracas as anyone else might have been, I did not relish the prospect of being the housemate of a dangerous lunatic who was under no sort of control.
The head of the community, however, said there was no cause for alarm, he would soon have the case in hand.
He went up to the bath room, filled a soap-dish with water from the tap, made certain passes over it, and dipping his finger in the water, proceeded to draw a five-pointed star upon the threshold of Miss L.’s room.
Miss L.
made no attempt to leave her room until forty-eight hours later when he fetched her out himself.
As he had promised, he soon had her in hand.
He had several long talks with her, at which I was not present, and at the end of a few days a very chastened Miss L.
began to go about her household duties again.
There were relapses, and there were struggles, but in the course of a few weeks she became comparatively normal, and when I met her again some eighteen months later there had been no relapse.
Two curious incidents occurred during the period of her treatment at the hands of this man, an adept if ever there was one.
The house in which she had a room was a very old one, and the front door exceedingly massive.
It was secured at night by two enormous bolts that extended right across it, a chain that could have moored a barge, and a huge lock with a key the size of a trowel.
When the door was opened in the morning it acted as an alarm clock for the entire village.
It creaked, it groaned, and it clanged.
Yet night after night we came down in the morning to find this door standing ajar.
We all slept with our doors open on to the small landing.
To go down the ancient, creaking stairs was like walking on organ-stops.
The back door was a modern affair, which could have been opened easily.
The windows were modern casements of the most gimcrack description.
Who opened the heavy front door, and why?
We exchanged recriminations several mornings at break fast as to who had left the door open the night before, but no one could ever be convicted of the blame.
Finally the matter came to the knowledge of the head of the group.
“I will soon put a stop to that,” he said, and each night he re-sealed Miss L.’s room with the pentagram.
We had no more trouble with the front door coming open after that.
While he was dealing with Miss L.
he made a practice of sealing the threshold of his own room in the same way, only in this case he drew the pentagram point outwards, to prevent Miss D.
from coming in; whereas when he sealed her room, he put its point inwards, to prevent her coming out.
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 adept's actions (sealing the room with a pentagram, talks to restore normalcy) function as a ritual to drive out or contain an afflicting influence.
The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.
The adept's ability to control the situation and influence physical events (the door) through specific magical acts demonstrates the doctrine of trained volition having causal power.
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 text is from 'Psychic Self-Defence' and describes a conflict involving mental/psychic forces manifesting as physical violence and door-opening phenomena requiring magical defense.
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 reference to a 'community' and an 'adept' implies an organized group or order distinct from mainstream society holding esoteric knowledge.
The consecration of an inscribed physical object — seal, pentacle, amulet, character, or figure — so that it holds and channels magical power independent of any ongoing spoken formula, protecting, attracting, or acting on its bearer's behalf. Distinct from sacred_names (the power resides in the name itself, spoken or written, not in a dedicated physical vessel) and from spirit_conjuration (the object is not commanding or binding a spirit but is itself the locus of power).
The drawing of the pentagram on the threshold acts as a consecrated symbol holding power to seal the room and prevent entry or exit.