17. Methods Of Defence I-e

The methods of occult attack employed in modern Europe are exclusively mental, so far as my experience of them has gone at any rate. That is to say, they work by the mind on the mind, and only affect physical conditions incidentally. In the East and among primitive people, however, other aspects have to be considered, as a much more etheric type of magic is in use under primitive conditions of life and upon virgin soils. For these etheric operations, material sub stances are required in order that the magnetism attached to them may be made use of. Hair-combings, nail-parings, cast-off clothes, objects in familiar use, all contain magnetism. Consequently care should be taken to see that such things are effectually disposed of when discarded. Combings and nail-parings should be promptly burnt. Cast-off clothing should never be allowed to go out of the possession of the owner till it has had at least three days’ exposure to sun and air in the open. The magnetism will be more effectually dispelled if the garments be laid on the earth, especially freshly turned earth, than if hung on a line. The same applies to furniture. The chair that has been the accustomed seat and, above all things, the bedding, should be thoroughly aired and sunned before they are parted with. The same precautions are useful if any second-hand article has been purchased. The disposal of night-soil should also be carefully arranged for and entrusted to reliable servants, abundant disinfectants and deodorants being constantly in use. Precautions should be observed to prevent any native obtaining access to fresh excreta. After the animal heat has gone out of it, its magical value has greatly decreased. A dirty handkerchief, too, is an effectual magnetic link, and so are dressings from a wound. Anything, in fact, that bears traces of any of the by-products of the body. But apart from any question of psychic attack, there are two substances which are especially prized for purposes of magic, and these are seminal fluid and menstrual blood. The former is used in fertility rites and the latter in certain forms of evocation. These substances are exceedingly hard to come by in primitive lands, because the natives, knowing their significance, guard them most scrupulously; but the mem-sahib has no suspicions, and allows stained garments and bed linen to go into the hands of the washerman to be disposed of at his discretion, satisfied so long as the garments themselves return safely at the end of the week, and never thinking to enquire what becomes of the water in which they were washed. There are many parts of the world in which the sale of these magical substances is a profitable side-line of the laundering business. In Europe, menstrual blood and feces are part of the magical substances of the Black Mass, being made up into patens with wheat flour. A time-honoured method of clearing a bad psychic atmosphere out of a house, and one which I have known in my own experience to be effectual, is to strew garlic about the place, leave it overnight and then take it up and burn it. Among country people, an onion is sometimes placed in a vase on the mantelpiece as if it were a hyacinth bulb when unpleasant visitors are expected, and solemnly burnt in the kitchen fire as soon as they have departed, it being believed that the onion tribe have the property of absorbing noxious emanations. It is curious to note in this respect that in one coal mine to my knowledge the miners are forbidden to take onions down into the workings as part of their dinners because the onions absorb the underground gases and become poisonous. My informant told me that he and others had smuggled onions down and learnt from bitter experience the wisdom of this rule.