I cannot here enter into either the precautions to be taken against untoward happenings in practical occult work, nor the remedies to apply if they take place; I will merely indicate the signs by which such an eventuality may be recognised.
This is all that can be done, and all that is necessary in a book of this type; the initiate knows what to do without need of guidance from me; the non-initiate cannot do anything, and must seek assistance.
It is enough for him if he knows when such assistance is needed.
If things go wrong in the course of a magical ceremonial, the power “shorts,” and someone, it may be the operator, or it may be the weakest person in the team, gets ” knocked out ” as if he had received a punch from an invisible pugilist.
When picked up, he will be very dazed and badly shaken, and will certainly be some days, possibly weeks, before he gets over it.
He will be in a state of complete prostration and considerable mental confusion, which will gradually wear off.
Unless there is some organic defect, such as hereditary mental instability, a bad heart, or hardened arteries, there will be a complete recovery, given time; but naturally it is a bad outlook should one of these conditions be present, and those who have them should not take part in occult experiments.
Personally, I do not believe that the invisible forces alone will ever actually cause the loss of life or permanent disability in the absence of any physical lesion.
The person who goes out of his mind as the result of a psychic shock would have gone out of his mind if he had been in a railway disaster or any other drastic emotional experience.
Unless the psychic atmosphere indicates otherwise, it is not necessary to do any banishings, or take precautions against obsession, because the power has dispersed itself in the very act of inflicting the shock.
During my early days of occultism I developed my powers very rapidly because I recovered the memories of previous incarnations en bloc, and with them the capacities acquired in previous lives, and I shook myself up severely on numerous occasions before I learnt the technique of handling the invisible forces.
I never experienced any permanent ill-effects from my mishaps, though I admit that upon occasion I have been extricated by my friends from a considerable amount of debris.
During the early days of my occult career a girl was brought to me by a mutual friend, who told me that the mother of this girl, an ardent student of occultism, seemed to have a terrible effect upon her daughter.
The mother was a widow, and mother and daughter lived together under very comfortable material circumstances; but whenever the girl made a friend, or showed any desire to leave home, the mother performed extraordinary antics, coming to the daughter’s room at night and drawing signs in the air about her bed.
The effect of all this upon the girl was most peculiar.
She felt unable to free herself from the mental domination the mother had obtained over her, and she was wasting away in a most curious fashion.
When I saw her, although able to get about, she looked like nothing I have ever seen save a famine victim.
I made a psychic investigation, and formed the opinion that the mother was working by means of an entity of which she had obtained possession.
How this had been accomplished in the present instance, I do not know, but such things are common in occultism.
I determined to take on the case, and to chase and, if possible, break up this artificial elemental.
I was away from the group I was accustomed to work with, but among people keenly interested in occultism of every sort, size and description, and I had no difficulty in picking up a team to help me with the undertaking.
I had no qualms about the undertaking.
A second-hand elemental, directed by a woman with only a rule-of-thumb knowledge of magic, did not appear to me to be a formidable opponent.
The magical manufacture of a semi-autonomous entity from the operator's own creative mind-stuff, formulated with sufficient force and sustained attention that it acquires a distinct, independent life of its own beyond an ordinary passing thought-form — directable as tool, weapon, or guardian, but capable of escaping the operator's control if mishandled. Distinct from spirit_conjuration (binding a spirit that already exists, rather than manufacturing one) and from word_power_incantation (the causal force of the spoken word itself, rather than the sustained mental construction of an entity).
The author explicitly identifies the entity controlling the mother as an 'artificial elemental' created through magical means.
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 author describes taking on a case to 'chase and, if possible, break up' an artificial elemental possessing the mother.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The author states that precautions and remedies are not entered into because the initiate knows them without guidance, implying esoteric knowledge reserved for the initiated.
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 text distinguishes between the 'initiate' who knows what to do and the 'non-initiate' who must seek assistance.
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 passage describes a mother who has obtained possession by an entity which she uses to dominate her daughter.
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 passage describes a magical ceremonial where power 'shorts' and knocks someone out like an invisible pugilist, and discusses the mother's mental domination over her daughter.