| 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 |
| 1 | 46 | 93 | 139 | 185 |
|
Fuller's statement is adequate so far as it goes, but he leaves unanswered the question as to whether
there is an authentic relationship between the physical and the astral worlds. Whether, to give a
particular example of such a general relationship, the symbol employed by the seer has a genuine
correspondence with his vision?
It would seem that such a correspondence does exist; for almost all those who have used the technique
of projection-by-symbol have claimed that the visions they have experienced have in some way
correlated with the symbol employed. If, for example, they have used the Tarot card named The
Magician, traditionally attributed to the god Mercury, they have undergone visions of a mercurial
nature in which the plants, animals and entities seen 'have been those traditionally associated with
Mercury'.
-
[
-
---
3] Our italics.
---
A particularly interesting illustration of the relationship between symbol and vision has been given by
the late W.B. ('Willie') Seabrook, a professional journalist who learnt most of his occultism from
Aleister Crowley. In the 1920s and 1930s Seabrook produced well-written, amusing and financially
successful books with an occult slant; these still make enjoyable light reading in spite of Seabrook's
gross inaccuracies and misunderstandings - Magic Island, for example, reveals a total lack of
comprehension of the real nature of the things its author had witnessed and makes hilarious reading
for anyone who knows anything at all about the real nature of the voodoo religion.
It is likely that any casual reader of Seabrook's books would assume their author to have been a
complete sceptic regarding occult matters; in reality he had been a close associate of Crowley's during
the period 1917-19 and the two had participated together in magical rituals. It is likely also that
Seabrook's wife Kate was one of Crowley's mistresses and that Seabrook himself enjoyed some sort of
homosexual relationship with Crowley.
Seabrook made little use of the astral-projection-by-symbol technique until 1922 when he began a
course of experiments employing as symbols the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching. He himself did not
have any particularly interesting experiences on the astral plane. His friends were more fortunate; one
found himself living in the body of a mediaeval Benedictine monk while a staid academic found
himself transformed into an ancient Greek wanton. The most existing experience was undergone by a
White Russian refugee named Nastatia Filipovna.
Nastatia had been for some time experimenting with astral projection quite independently of
Seabrook, using a crystal ball as a means of inducing auto-hypnosis. The results she had achieved had
been disappointing and her experiences had been both boring and unpleasant. Almost always she
found herself in the camp of some primitive tribe engaged in skinning and gutting an animal with a
stone knife.
Page
Quick Jump
|