It is neither giddiness nor mountain sickness, but a curious oppression of the spirits by the overwhelming grandeur of nature.
The same force, when not at a poisonous concentration, inspires the passion ate love of the hills or of the sea that Kipling has celebrated so gloriously in one of his poems.
The pathologies of the Element of Water may be a fascination so great that a man will walk out into the sea until he drowns.
Swinburne had this peculiarity, and has immortalised it in several of his poems, “Strike out as the heart in us bids and beseeches, athirst for the foam.” On one occasion he was picked up in the open sea by a Breton fishing-smack, swimming tirelessly, many miles from land, borne on the sea by currents, but oblivious of his danger.
Being rescued, he sat upon the deck with his mane of red hair drying in the wind, chanting sea-poems to his rescuers, a spectacle that one would have given much to witness.
Another curious case of water-pathology I knew person ally.
A very level-headed woman, a school teacher, was obsessed by a horror of rough waves.
She always declared that if she went on the sea-front to watch a storm, the waves made a “dead set” at her.
She lived at a seaside place, but so great was her dislike of the waves that she did not care to walk on the promenade when the tide was in.
She was cured of her fear in a curious way.
She took initiation into Co-Masonry, and found to her surprise that from that day forth she was free from her fear of the sea.
I am not a Co-Mason, and speak subject to correction, but I believe I am right in saying that Co-Masonry differs from other forms of Masonry in that Elemental Invocations have been introduced into it.
The Element of Air, as all occultists know, is a very tricky element to deal with.
More initiates turn off the Path in the Grade of Air than in any other, and it is rare to see a Ritual of Air worked without something being dropped or knocked over.
It is a quarrelsome element; when it is being worked, the operators are apt to bicker and squabble.
It is also intimately associated with sex, as is revealed by its symbolism.
If an occultist is making a magic circle, and for any reason wishes to seal it with the Kerubim of the Elements instead of the Archangels, as is more commonly done, and feels himself unequal to the task of drawing a presentable eagle, the symbolic form of the Kerub of Air, he will use the Zodiacal sign for Scorpio.
The evolutionary connection between the snake and the bird is well known to biologists; but long ages before Darwin, initiates used the Serpent and the Eagle to represent the unsublimated and sublimated aspects of the life-force.
The Scorpion connects with the Serpent through the Dragon.
I had a very curious experience myself in connection with the Element of Air.
I am betraying no secrets if I say that certain grades of initiation refer to the elements, for the fact is too generally known, and too obvious, for it to be any more mysterious than the Queen of Spain’s legs.
To begin with, I have an exceptionally bad head for heights, and as the Abyss of Height belongs to the Element of Air, I obviously have no natural affinity with it.
The ceremony went exceptionally badly even for an Air Ritual.
Two of the principal officers, husband and wife, helped to maintain its reputation as a contentious element by having a family jar in the middle of the proceedings, and the usual upsets and smashings occurred on a generous scale.
For the next fortnight I lived in the midst of a cataclysm of crockery.
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 links internal states (fear, obsession) with external elemental forces (Water, Air) and ritual symbols (Scorpio, Eagle), reflecting the Hermetic principle of correspondence.
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 explicitly discusses grades of initiation referring to elements and describes a woman cured through initiation into Co-Masonry.
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 discussion of sealing magic circles and working rituals implies the use of trained volition to direct elemental forces.
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 passage references Co-Masonry and other forms of Masonry as organized groups maintaining esoteric knowledge and practices distinct from public religion.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The passage describes ritual work involving Elemental Invocations and magic circles to engage with elemental forces.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The text mentions 'Elemental Invocations' as a key differentiator of Co-Masonry, implying the use of spoken formulas to engage forces.