第45章
We have now the original, therefore real, meaning of the words Magic Wand; thus an object that sets in motion the powers of the magician, and the magician, an Initiate of the sacred rites--A MASTER OF WISDOM, possessing all the resources that enable him TO BUILD mould, and form; to create in fact, by virtue of his knowledge of the secret powers of mental imagery and the potential use of his own imagination.He is both Mental Mason and learned philosopher.
The student may doubtless ask, why all this care and labor regarding mere definitions? We reply that, it is because, the real meaning of the words we have purposely selected for the title of our studies are, in themselves, a far better revelation than we could possibly have written.
Originally, ideas and words were related as absolute expressions or correspondences, of each other.This is not so now.As the different races became interblended, the purity of both language and morals retrograded, and the people grew more to the external.The intuitions and spirit were compelled to retreat, giving place to only the intellectual and mental.The blending of the languages gave birth to many words wherein different meanings were transmitted; hence, the trouble arising to-day over the numerous interpretations of a single word.
Hybrid races have no such thing as a pure language.Their ideas and language, like their blood, is badly mixed up, confusing, and unsatisfactory, so far as the real meaning of the words are concerned.For this very reason we find so many different meanings for the same word; and also for this reason, we cannot formulate a legal enactment in the Anglo-Saxon tongue that, a learned lawyer, versed in this senseless jugglery of words, cannot demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the courts, means something the very opposite of the real intentions-- the spirit-- which the framers thereof, intended it to convey.Anciently, it required no artful cunning of the lawyer to interpret the laws.The words had only one simple and obvious meaning.If a language could be so constructed to-day, and the antiquated precedents of the courts annihilated; the legal profession would be exterminated inside of twelve months, and an affliction removed from the people.
The philosophy of the Magic Wand is this.It is a magnetic, electric conductor for the magician's will.It directs the flow of his thought and concentrates it upon a given point in space or an object.It is, magically, what the sights of a rifle are to a sportsman.It enables him to focus his powers with exact precision upon the mark against which, or upon which, his will is directed.Apart from this there is no power, per se, in the Wand itself, any more than there is in a lightning conductor without the electric storm.Ergo, the Wand is the conductor, in the magician's hand, for the lightnings of the soul; and just as the lightning rod is most useful and most powerful to protect, when the storm is the strongest; so is the Wand most powerful in the hands of the most potential magician.We can only transmit through this Wand the degree of force we may happen to possessin the soul.
In a properly prepared Wand lies the most powerful weapon, to protect or destroy, that can be placed within a magician's hands.With his own spiritual force and knowledge, combined with the magic power attached to the instrument, nothing can withstand its power, when directed with a determined and powerful will.
Many substances have been employed in the manufacture of these Magic Wands.Metals or stones will not serve this purpose, unless covered with some organic matter.In any case stones are worthless.The very finest Wands are made from the live ivory of a female elephant.A short Wand, twenty-one inches long, tipped with gold at the largest end and silver or copper at the other, is very powerful.Next to these costly articles are Wands with a gold or copper core, a wire, in fact, cased with ebony, boxwood, rosewood, cedar or sandalwood.English yew also serves the purpose; so does almond wood.Simpler, less expensive, and almost as effective, are Wands made of witch-hazel.In fact, apart from the Wands of live ivory, I consider that witch-hazel is as powerful as the golden Wand.Next in force to this witch-hazel are the shoots of the almond tree, and, lastly, the peach and swamp willow.
The proper time to manufacture a Magic Wand is whenever you can find the person who is able to do the work.But after it is constructed it must be thoroughly magnetized, with proper ceremony and aspiration, the first or the second full Moon after the Sun enters Capricorn, at midnight, when the Moon will be culminating in her own sign upon the mid-heaven.
The best time TO CUT a shoot of witch-hazel or other material for a Wand is the first full Moon after the Sun's entry into Capricorn, at midnight, and then magnetize it upon the next full Moon at the same hour.
In conclusion, let us repeat that, the Magic Wand is but the highly sensitive magical medium for transmitting and concentrating the force of the learned magician; that it is equally powerful under great excitement of mind, WHETHER USED CONSCIOUSLY OR NOT.The stream of mental fire will go in the direction the Wand happens to be pointed, and, therefore, should never be in the hands of the wicked or foolish, any more than firearms.It is potential or otherwise, in exact proportion to the artist'swisdom and dynamic mentality, and is useless in the hands of the idiotic or weak-minded.A Magic Wand requires brains and vigorous mental force to make it effective, just as the steam engine requires an apparatus for generating the steam, that moves it.With a determined will, and a mental conception of one's inward power, any man or woman can, by means of this sensitive Wand, defy all the legionaries of Hell, and quickly disperse every form of spiritual iniquity.