ab:ordeal.txt                                                         16jan90


                        Of the Ordeal of the Art Magical


    Learn of the spirit that goeth with burdens that have not honour, for 
    'tis the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders and not the weight. Armour 
    is heavy, yet it is a proud burden and a man standeth upright in it.  
    Limiting and constraining any of the senses serves to increase the 
    concentration of another. Shutting the eyes aids the hearing. So the 
    binding of the Initiate's hands increases the mental perception, while 
    the scourge increaseth the inner vision. So the Initiate goeth through 
    it proudly, like a princess, knowing it but serves to increase her 
    glory.  

    But this can only be done by the aid of another intelligence and in a 
    circle, to prevent the power thus generated being lost. Priests attempt 
    to do the same with their scourgings and mortifications of the flesh. 
    But lacking the aid of bonds and their attention being distracted by 
    their scourging themselves and what little power they do produce being 
    dissipated, as they do not usually work within a circle, it is little 
    wonder that they oft fail. Monks and hermits do better, as they are apt 
    to work in tiny cells and caves, which in some ways act as circles. The 
    Knights of the Temple, who used mutually to scourge each other in an 
    octagon, did better stil; but they apparently did not know the virtue 
    of bonds and did evil, man to man.  
    
    But perhaps some did know. What of the Church's charge that they wore 
    girdles or cords ?  
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    -Published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's 
     Text B/C BOS.

