In the Name of God the Father Almighty, Who decreed a firmament in the midst of the waters, and of Jesus Christ His Son our Saviour, I consecrate thee (+) to the service of God, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.” “(Casting the salt into the water.) We pray Thee, O God, Lord of Heaven and earth, and of all that in them is, both visible and invisible, that Thou mayest stretch forth the right hand of Thy power upon these creatures of the elements and hallow them in Thy holy Name.
Grant that this salt may make for health of body and this water for health of soul, and that there may be banished from the place where they are used every power of adversity and every illusion and artifice of evil, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen.” The water thus consecrated may be used as a bath, or for making the Sign of Cross upon the forehead, or for sprinkling about a place.
When thus using it, the following prayer may be employed.
“In the Name which is above every other name, and in the power of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, I exorcise all influences and seeds of evil; I lay upon them the spell of Christ’s Holy Church, that they may be bound fast as with chains and cast into outer darkness, that they trouble not the servants of God.” In pointing or making the Sign of the Cross (+) , the first and second fingers are extended and the third and fourth are bent towards the palm of the hand and the thumb laid upon their nails.
When the hand is extended in blessing over the salt and water, it is held flat, fingers together and parallel, and thumb stretched at right angles to the fore finger.
If there is sufficient occult force at work to produce physical phenomena, it is very advisable to take precautions to prevent materialisations taking place.
The physical phenomena are of several types.
They may take the form of noises, usually creakings, thuds, or more rarely bell-like notes or wailing sounds.
If actual words are heard, auditory hallucinations should be suspected, for in the absence of a medium, spirit messages are given to the inner ear, not to the auditory nerve.
Lights may also be seen, usually taking the form of dim balls of luminous mist drifting like soap-bubbles.
They may be any size from mere points of light to considerable dimensions, some six feet or more in diameter.
In these spheres of dim luminosity psychics can generally see forms, sometimes human, sometimes from the animal kingdom.
Whitish-grey clouds can also sometimes be seen, rising pillar-wise from the floor like smoke.
These are usually fixed to one place and do not move about the room as do the spheres of light, such movement as occurs being within themselves, like the eddyings of smoke caught under a tumbler.
More rarely a distinctive odour may be noticed, and still more rarely there may be precipitations of powdery substances or slime.
Light objects also may be overturned or thrown about the room.
There are certain substances which experience has proved to be effectual in preventing the condensation of etheric energy from taking place.
Camphor dissolved in vinegar and placed in saucers about the room will cope effectually with low degrees of force, but for higher potencies nitric acid is the best thing to use, a small quantity being poured into a saucer and exposed to the air.
It is best to use it well diluted to prevent accidents, for it is not the strength of the acid in the saucer that is efficacious, but its evaporation into the air, and it will evaporate just as well when diluted as when neat.
In what manner it works I have not the slightest idea, but its value is well known among psychic experimenters.
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 discusses 'etheric energy' condensing into physical phenomena and the use of substances to prevent this, implying a medium of occult force.
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 passage details prayers and rituals specifically designed to banish evil influences and seeds of evil from a place or person.
The interference of a discarnate human soul, or the lingering condition of a particular place, with the living — Dion Fortune's distinction between a soul in distress that clings out of ignorance and ties itself to a person or locality, versus deliberate malice. Distinct from animism (indwelling nature-spirits inherent to a place by nature, not a specific dead individual's soul) and from psychopomp_journey and ancestor_veneration (guiding the dead onward, or the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the honoured dead) in naming the pathological case: a soul that has NOT been guided onward and instead interferes, whether with a person or a place.
The passage describes physical phenomena (noises, lights, moving objects) associated with occult forces in a place, which aligns with the concept of haunting or spirit interference.
The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.
The consecration of salt and water is intended to banish evil and ensure health of body and soul, implying a state of ritual cleanliness or protection.
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 text describes ritual actions (consecrating salt and water, specific hand gestures) intended to engage divine power for a practical effect.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The passage explicitly invokes the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost multiple times in prayers and consecrations.
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 asserts that spoken prayers and names have the power to bind evil and consecrate matter.