Sepharial

“ Humanity holds us all within the bonds of a single nature. Yet, despite this fact, we have differences of opinion, of emotion, of sympathy and antipathy, of taste, and so forth, Therefore it would appear that the soul images projected by the magical power of the mind must have different significations with each of us, their interpretation being in some peculiar way in agreement with the nature of the person who sees them. Necessarily no definite rule can be laid down as to interpretation, but it is advisable that the seer or seeress should be his or her own interpreter. ”

“ Therefore, above all things it is essential for the investigator to have an unflinching love of truth, to be resigned to the will of Heaven, to accept the revelations accorded in a spirit of grateful confidence, and finally to dispel all doubt and controversy by appeal to the eyes of one's own immortal soul. These are qualifications with which the seer or seeress should be invested, and if with these the quest is unsuccessful after a period of earnest trial, it must be taken as sufficient warrant that the faculty is not in the category of one's individual powers. ”

“ All overloading of the stomach with indigestible food and addiction to alcoholic drinks tends to cloud the spiritual perception, It depletes the brain-centres, gives the heart too much work, and overthrows the equilibrium of the system. Ill-health follows; the mind is centred upon the suffering body, spiritual aspiration ceases, and the soul folds its wings and falls into the sleep of oblivion. The consciousness of man works from a centre, which co-ordinates and includes all the phenomena of thought, feeling, and volition. ”

“ In the early stages of development the crystal will begin to cloud over, first becoming dull, then suffused with milky clouds, among which sparkle a large number of little specks of light like gold dust in the sunlight. The focus of the eyes is inconstant, the pupil rapidly expanding and contracting, the crystal at times disappearing entirely in a haze or film which seems to pass before the eyes. Then the haze will disappear, and the crystal will loom up into full view again, accompanied by a lapse of the seer into full consciousness. ”

“ The vision is produced. The faculty of clairvoyance has become more or less under the control of the mind. New difficulties arise, and, of these, two will be conspicuous. The first is that of time-measure, and the other is that of interpretation. The former is peculiar to both orders of vision, the direct and the symbolic. The difficulty of interpretation is, of course, peculiar to the latter order of vision.
Time-measure is, perhaps, the greatest difficulty encountered by the seer. It is sometimes impossible to determine whether a vision relates to the past, the present, or the future. ”

“ For similar reasons the room in which the sitting is conducted should be only moderately warm and shady as possible, provided it be not actually dark. A light by which one can just see to read average print is sufficient for the purpose in view. The crystal with which we have had the most satisfactory and surprising results is a cube of fine azure beryl, the deep blue of its serene depths being peculiarly restful and inspiring. But, as we have said, nothing is more effective than the white quartz crystal when found suitable. ”

“ The seer or seeress must not be disheartened if at the first few sittings nothing of any moment takes place, but must persevere, with patience and self-control. Indeed, when one comes to consider the fact that for hundreds of generations the psychic faculties inherent in mankind have lain in absolute neglect, that perhaps the faculty of "clear vision" has never yet been brought into activity by any save the most remote of our ancestors, it will not be thought remarkable that it should be at first difficult get any definite results. ”

“ The sun, shining brightly, denotes prosperity, honours. The moon, when crescent denotes success, increase, and improvement. When gibbous, it denotes sickness, decadence, losses, and trouble. The sun eclipsed shows death or ruin of a man; the moon, similarly afflicted, denotes equal danger to a woman. These are natural interpretations.
Every symbol, however, has a threefold interpretation, and the nature of the inquiry or the purpose for which the vision is sought must determine the meaning of the symbols. ”

“ Having obtained a good Crystal, as free as possible from blemish, care must be taken to keep it is much as possible in a dark place when not in use. The best covering therefore is a black one of soft material, such as velvet, which will not scratch the polished surface of the quartz. [*] Exposure to the sun's rays not only scores the faces of the crystal, but also puts the odylic substance into activity, distributing and dissipating the magnetic force stored up therein. It must not be understood that the visions are in the crystal itself. They are in the soul of the seer. ”

“ It is important that all persons sitting in the same room as the seer should be at arm's length away from him—farther if possible. Silence should be uniformly observed by those present. A recorder should be at hand to set down everything the seer may give voice to. If any questions are addressed to the seer while the sitting is in progress, they should be spoken in an undertone and as nearly a monotone as may be so that the seer is not suddenly surprised into consciousness of his surroundings, and the psychic thread thereby broken. ”

“ Thus, although every symbol has some general signification in agreement with its natural qualities and uses, yet it obtains a particular signification in regard to each person. It is within common experience that this is the case in regard to dreams, wherein the faculty of seership is acting in its normal plane. Every person is a seer in dream-life, but few persons pay that attention to dreams that their origin and nature warrant. The crystal is but a means of bringing this normal faculty of dreaming into activity in the waking life. ”

“ A ship is a symbol of intercourse, of trading, of voyaging, etc. If in full sail it shows that the communication with the spiritual world is increasing, that news from far-off lands will come to hand, that trade will increase, that a voyage will be taken. If aught is written on the sails it will be an additional source of enlightenment. If the symbol of death be written there, it shows speedy translation to a far-off country in which the subject will die. That far-off country may be the spiritual world itself in which case the death would be a natural one. ”

“ The indestructibility of matter, the fact that all nature is convertible, and the absolute association of matter and force, lead to the conclusion that since every change in matter implies a change of force, matter must be ever living and active, and primarily of a spiritual nature. The great Swedenborg, no less a scientist than a spiritual seer, laid down his doctrine of "Correspondences" upon the primary concept of the spiritual origin of all force and matter. ”

“ In most cases, however, the seer learns by experience how to distinguish, and frequently it will be found that an intuitive impression of the period involved comes with the vision itself. In our own experience the foreground, middle distance, and background, mark off the present, the approximate, and the distant future. ”

“ It is advisable not to sit for crystal reading, or indeed for any order of psychic exercise, immediately after or before a meal. The body should be at rest, and the mind contented and tranquil. Again, the attitude of the seer should not be too expectant or over-anxious in regard to the production of the vision. Let the development take its natural course. Do not force the young plant in its growth or it will come to a premature end. Take time, as Nature does. ”

“ This Odyle, then, is particularly potent in the quartz or beryl, when brought into activity by the intention of the seer. It produces and retains more readily in that form the various images communicated to it from the soul of man. And the soul, in this connection, must be regarded as the repository of all that complex mass of emotions, thoughts, impressions, perceptions, feelings, etc., included in the inner life of man; for the soul of man is not the less a scientific fact because there are those who bandy words concerning its origin and nature. ”

“ The acorn becomes the sturdy oak only because Nature is contented with small results, because she can afford to wait and is never in a hurry to see the result of her operations. And because she is patient and careful in her beginnings, her works are wonderfully great and complete in their issues. Above all, they endure. Whoever breathes slowest will live the longest. ”

“ These two types—of which there are many varieties—achieve their psychic development by quite opposite means. The positive seer works with effort, throwing out the soul-images by the power of his will, perceiving them with more or less accuracy, and thereafter turning them over in the mind, reasoning and questioning concerning their import and meaning. The passive seer, on the contrary, works not at all and makes no effort, the visions coming slowly, almost imperceptibly, and in most cases having a literal interpretation. ”

“ First, in regard to the subject, medium or seer. There are two distinct temperament in which the faculty is likely to be dominant, and capable of high and rapid culture. There is the nervous temperament associated, with a high muscular development, classified as the "mental-motive" temperament. It is characterized by extreme activity of body and mind, a certain nervous excitability, prominent features, full osseous development, prominent brows, intent gaze, and generally a swarthy complexion. This type represents the positive seers, in whom the mind goes out towards the images of the soul. ”

“ Nature has never produced a desire she could not satisfy. There is no hope, however vague, that the soul cannot define, and no aspiration, however high, that the wings of the spirit cannot reach. Therefore be patient and strive.
That there are some in whom the psychic faculties are more prone to activity than in others is certain, as also some in whom these powers are native, by spiritual or hereditary succession ”

“ Hence it follows that when one part of our nature is active another is dormant as happens in sleeping and waking, dream-life being that wherein the centre of consciousness hovers between the body and the soul.
With these considerations in mind it will be obvious to every one that a condition in which the consciousness is held in bondage by the infirmities of the body is not one conducive to psychic development. The constitution need not be robust, but it should at all events be free from disorder and pain. ”

“ Genius, far from being a condition bordering on neurosis or other nervous ailments—as Lombroso and Nordau have erroneously taught—is an exaltation of faculty which brings its subject into relations with a plane of life possibly far in advance of one's normal experience; so that while new centres of activity are as yet under imperfect control, the normal functions of the brain and other centres of action are left in neglect. ”

“ It need not, then, be a matter of surprise to learn that the Crystal exerts a very definite and sensible effect upon the nervous system of a certain order of subjects. It does not affect all alike, nor act in exactly the same way on those whom it does so affect. Where its action is more or less rapid and remarkable, the quartz or beryl Crystal may be taken as the most effective medium for producing the vision. ”

“ Every person whose life is not wholly sunk in selfish and material pleasures, but in whom the aspiration to a nobler and purer life is a hunger the world cannot satisfy, has within himself the power to see and know that which he seeks behind the veil of his earthly senses. ”

“ The nightingale may sing to the stars, humming-bird to the flowers, but the eagle, whose tireless eyes gaze into the heart of day, is uncompanioned in its lofty loneliness in the barren mountain-tops. ”

“ All actions tend to repeat themselves, to become automatic, to pass from the purposive into the habitual, and hence the psychic faculties will, if actuated at any set time and place, tend to bestir themselves towards the same end as that to which they were first moved by the conscious will and intention of the seer. ”

“ Steady gazing in complete silence is absolutely necessary, for unlike other occult phenomena, the distraction the attention of primary (ordinary) consciousness is a great disadvantage. Success depends chiefly upon idiosyncrasy or faculty in the gazers, for "Seers" are very often men and women of imperfect education, in fact they seem "born rather than made" but the faculty may be developed in many people, seemingly at first insensitive, by frequent short trials, say fifteen to twenty minutes at a time, or less if the get tired. ”

“ Rather should it be a matter of surprise that the power is still with us, that it is not wholly irresponsive to the voice of the soul. While, in the course of physical evolution, many important functions have undergone remarkable changes, and organs, once active and useful, have become stunted, impotent, and in some cases extinct ”

“ In just the same way the opening up of new centres of activity in the psychic nature of man is frequently attended by temporary loss of control over the normal brain functions. Loss of memory, hysteria, absentmindedness, unconscious utterance of one's thoughts, illusions and hallucinations, irritability, indifference to one's surroundings, and similar perversions, are among the products of the newly-evolved psychic faculty. ”

“ Yet, as stated above, the differences of import or meaning, even in the dream-world, of any particular symbol is a common experience. Thus one person will dream to be wading in water whenever there is trouble ahead. Another will dream of a naked child when similar troubles are about to occur, Butcher's meat will signify financial troubles to one person, to another a fortunate speculation. ”