the Equinox - The Hermetic Library

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
quickly enough the gross breaks, but lets the minor ones dart
away from his grasp, like the small fry which with ease swim
in and out of the fisherman’s net. Further, though in twelve
meditations the number of breaks may be identical, yet the
class of the breaks, much more so than the actual number,
will tell the meditator, more certainly than anything else,
whether he has progressed or has retrograded.
Thus at first, should the meditator practise with his eyes
open, the number of breaks will in their swift succession form
almost one unbroken interruption. Again, should the eyes be
closed, then the ears detecting the slightest sound, the flow of
the will will be broken, just as the faintest zephyr, on a still
evening, will throw out of the perpendicular an ascending
column of smoke. But presently, as the will gains power, the
sense of hearing, little by little, as it comes under control, is
held back from hearing the lesser sounds, then the greater, then
at length all sounds. The vibrations of the will having repelled
the sound vibrations of the air, and brought the sense
of hearing into Equilibrium. Now the upward mountain filament
of smoke has become the ascending columns of a great
volcano, there is a titanic blast behind it,—a will to ascend.
And as the smoke and flame is belched forth, so terrific is its
strength, that even a hurricane cannot shake it or drive it
from its course.
As the five senses become subdues, fresh hosts of difficulties
spring up irrationally from the brain itself. And,
whichever way we turn, a mob of subconscious thoughts pull
us this way and that, and our plight in this truculent multitude
is a hundred times worse than when we commenced to
wrestle with the five senses. Like wandering comets and
185