"EVIL" - читать интересную книгу автора (McIntyre Vonda N)

ed, fingers closed and thumb on side such that the palms rest on the two opposi
te shoulders.}





INTRODUCTION


"Epsilon-sigma-sigma-epsilon-alpha-iota alpha-theta-alpha-nu-alpha-tau-omicro
n-sigma theta-epsilon-omicron-sigma, alpha-mu-beta-rho-omicron-tau-omicron-si
gma, omicron-upsilon-chi epsilon-tau-iota theta-nu-eta-tau-omicron-sigma
Pythagoras.

"Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural P
hilosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understand
ing of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applie
d to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced.
Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because
of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shal
l seem to be a miracle."

"The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon."

"Wherever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated form, it is assum
ed that in nature one event follows another necessarily and invariably without
the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency.
Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of modern science; un
derlying the whole system is a faith, implicit but real and firm, in the order
and uniformity of nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes wil
l always produce the same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony
accompanied by the appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desire
d results, unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be thwarted and fo
iled by the more potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher p
ower: he sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself befo
re no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by no mean
s arbitrary and unlimited. He can wield it only so long as he strictly conform
s to the rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conce
ived by {IX} him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws in the smallest
particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskilful practitioner
himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a sovereignty over nature, it is a c
onstitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in its scope and exercised in exac
t conformity with ancient usage. Thus the analogy between the magical and the
scientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the succession o
f events is perfectly regular and certain, being determined by immutable laws,
the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely; the elements o
f caprice, of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature.
Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him who kn
ows the causes of things and can touch the secret springs that set in motion th