35 lines
1.8 KiB
Plaintext
35 lines
1.8 KiB
Plaintext
ab:ordeal.txt 16jan90
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Of the Ordeal of the Art Magical
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Learn of the spirit that goeth with burdens that have not honour, for
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'tis the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders and not the weight. Armour
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is heavy, yet it is a proud burden and a man standeth upright in it.
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Limiting and constraining any of the senses serves to increase the
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concentration of another. Shutting the eyes aids the hearing. So the
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binding of the Initiate's hands increases the mental perception, while
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the scourge increaseth the inner vision. So the Initiate goeth through
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it proudly, like a princess, knowing it but serves to increase her
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glory.
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But this can only be done by the aid of another intelligence and in a
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circle, to prevent the power thus generated being lost. Priests attempt
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to do the same with their scourgings and mortifications of the flesh.
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But lacking the aid of bonds and their attention being distracted by
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their scourging themselves and what little power they do produce being
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dissipated, as they do not usually work within a circle, it is little
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wonder that they oft fail. Monks and hermits do better, as they are apt
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to work in tiny cells and caves, which in some ways act as circles. The
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Knights of the Temple, who used mutually to scourge each other in an
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octagon, did better stil; but they apparently did not know the virtue
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of bonds and did evil, man to man.
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But perhaps some did know. What of the Church's charge that they wore
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girdles or cords ?
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----------
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-Published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's
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Text B/C BOS.
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