I smashed my way through two entire tea-sets and all the mantelpiece ornaments.
The ornaments just fell off the mantelpiece one by one of their own accord.
I actually saw two of them do it.
I did not know at the time that the Element of Air had this sinister reputation.
I realised that something queer was afoot, however, and asked my teacher about it.
She was much amused, but I was not, because it was my crockery that was supplying the raw material for the phenomena.
She advised me to get into sympathetic touch with the Sylphs, as the initiation had evidently not been altogether successful.
I tried to do this, but I was in London at the time and met with no success, for the elemental contacts, with the exception of Fire, cannot be worked successfully in a city.
The smashing went on, and I was reduced to a tin mug and a tooth-glass, for I saw it was useless to get any more china until things had settled down.
Then I went away for my summer holiday and found myself on the summit of a high and isolated hill on a day of bright sun and high wind.
I was very conscious of the nearness of the elemental kingdoms.
The air seemed full of silver sparkles, which is always a sign that the veil is thin.
There was no one present save some friends who were sympathetic.
I faced into the wind and raised my arms in Invocation.
Suddenly we saw below us a figure bursting through hedges and leaping ditches and running wildly towards it.
We presently recognised it as another of our friends, and when he joined us he told us that he had felt the sudden rush of power while in the valley and on an over powering impulse started for the hill-top.
Then all of us, without any suggestion of leadership, began the Dance of the Elements, whirling like dancing dervishes upon that hill-top.
Fortunately nobody was about, but I do not know that it would have made very much difference if they had been, for we were caught up out of ourselves and the air seemed full of rushing golden flames, lying level in the wind.
For days afterwards we seemed charged with elemental energy by that extraordinary dance.
It may be interesting to note that we danced with a circular movement, each revolving on our own axis at the same time, and that we both danced and revolved deosil, that is, with the sun.
All this occurred spontaneously, the tide of the elements catching us up and away.
I have never known a more glorious experience.
It was indeed the divine inebriation of the Mysteries.
After this there were no more smashings of crockery.
I have already noted my exceptionally bad head for heights.
I have found that it is considerably mitigated, temporarily at any rate, by the Invocation of Air.
I am of the opinion that the curious impulse which causes people for no reason whatsoever to commit suicide by throwing themselves from heights may be due to the same impulse that causes people who are obsessed by the Element of Water to swim out to sea, as I have recorded of Swinburne.
These apparently causeless suicides by Water and Air are, in my opinion, a form of union with the god which is one of the ideas underlying human sacrifice.
There are two types of human sacrifice, the willing and the unwilling.
The unwilling sacrifice, the prisoner struggling or drugged into passivity, is used, not to propitiate the god, as is usually thought, but in order that his vital forces may serve as a basis of manifestation.
The willing sacrifice, in which the victim will be either a priest or a devotee of the god, has for its motive the idea of divine union, not altogether unknown to Christian mystics, who seek its achievement by a living death, whereas the adherents of Juggernaut escape with one brief pang.
The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
The text mentions 'silver sparkles' in the air as a sign the veil is thin and references elemental energy charging the participants, consistent with occult media concepts.
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 friend feels a 'sudden rush of power' in the valley and is drawn to the hill-top, suggesting a hidden affinity or resonance between the ritual and the observer.
Ecstatic, non-rational receptivity to the divine figured as drunkenness — Plato's symposium wine, Rumi's sukr, Eckhart's 'sober drunkenness'; the passive/receptive metaphor for divine encounter, distinct from divine_madness's active possessing rapture.
The passage explicitly uses the phrase 'divine inebriation of the Mysteries' to describe the ecstatic state achieved.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
The text describes 'divine inebriation' and the 'curious impulse' leading to suicide as a form of ecstatic union or madness induced by elemental obsession.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The narrator consults a 'teacher' regarding the phenomena and initiation, implying a master-disciple transmission of knowledge.
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 teacher mentions the 'initiation had evidently not been altogether successful' regarding the contact with Sylphs.
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 narrator attempts to get into 'sympathetic touch' and performs an invocation, implying the use of will to direct elemental forces.
The state of a person being controlled or inhabited by an external spirit or entity — the entity as subject acting through the person's body, rather than merely troubling them from without. Distinct from haunting (a discarnate soul or place-bound presence that interferes without necessarily entering and controlling a living body) and from spirit_conjuration (an operator deliberately commanding a spirit's appearance, the reverse relation — here the spirit is uninvited and in control, not summoned and subordinated).
The narrator describes being 'caught up out of ourselves' and the friend acting on an 'over powering impulse,' suggesting external control or influence by elemental forces.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The dance involves 'circular movement' and revolving 'deosil, that is, with the sun,' reflecting cosmic rhythms and cycles.
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 narrator performs an 'Invocation' and a 'Dance of the Elements' to engage directly with elemental kingdoms, fitting the definition of ritual practice engaging divine powers.