the Equinox - The Hermetic Library

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
time one of still greater importance. And this was, that if the
Adept, when once the Siddhis were attained, by a self-control
(a still higher concentration) refused to expend these occult
powers,* by degrees he accumulated within himself a terrific
force; charged like a Leyden jar, instantaneously could he
transmute this power into whatever he willed; but the act
brought with it a recoil, and caused an exhaustion and a void
which nullified the powers gained. Ultimately he proved that
it was rather by the restraint of these occult (mental) powers
than that of the bodily ones that Ojas is produced.†
By now he was beginning to learn that there was more than
one way of opening the Lion’s jaws; and that gentleness and
humlity would often succeed where brutality and much
boasting were sure to fail. The higher he ascended into the
realms of the Ruach the more he realized that the irrational
folly of performing wonders before a mob of gargoyle-headed
apes, of pulling the strings of mystical marionettes and
reducing himself to the level of an occult Punch and Judy
showman. He had attained to powers that were beyond the
normal, and now he carried them secrety like some precious
blade of Damascus steel, hidden in a velvet sheath, concealed
* Nearly all the Masters have been cautious how they handled this power;
generally refusing to expend it at the mere caprice of their followers or opponents.
The Siddhis are like the Gold of the Alchemist. Once discovered it is
kept secret, and the more secretly it is kept and the more it is hoarded the richer
becomes the discoverer, and then one day will come wherein he will be able to
pay his own ransom, and this is the only ransom that is acceptable unto God.
† Possibly the restraint of Brahmachârya produced the Siddhis, and that
further restraint in its turn produced an accumulation of these occult powers,
the benefit accruing from which is again placed to the credit of the bodily
powers.
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