ab:ordeal.txt 16jan90


Of the Ordeal of the Art Magical


Learn of the spirit that goeth with burdens that have not honour, for
'tis the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders and not the weight. Armour
is heavy, yet it is a proud burden and a man standeth upright in it.
Limiting and constraining any of the senses serves to increase the
concentration of another. Shutting the eyes aids the hearing. So the
binding of the Initiate's hands increases the mental perception, while
the scourge increaseth the inner vision. So the Initiate goeth through
it proudly, like a princess, knowing it but serves to increase her
glory.

But this can only be done by the aid of another intelligence and in a
circle, to prevent the power thus generated being lost. Priests attempt
to do the same with their scourgings and mortifications of the flesh.
But lacking the aid of bonds and their attention being distracted by
their scourging themselves and what little power they do produce being
dissipated, as they do not usually work within a circle, it is little
wonder that they oft fail. Monks and hermits do better, as they are apt
to work in tiny cells and caves, which in some ways act as circles. The
Knights of the Temple, who used mutually to scourge each other in an
octagon, did better stil; but they apparently did not know the virtue
of bonds and did evil, man to man.

But perhaps some did know. What of the Church's charge that they wore
girdles or cords ?
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-Published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's
Text B/C BOS.