The Sixteenth Chapter. Concerning the Sending Them Away

THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER.

CONCERNING THE SENDING THEM AWAY.

ONCERNING the sending away of the Spirits as well during the Three Days, as hereafter:--

It is not necessary to observe many Ceremonies in order to send away the Spirits, ² because they themselves are only too glad to be

p. 98

far away from you. This is wherefore you need not otherwise I cense them to depart; that is to say that during the Three Days, having finished speaking with the Four Sovereign Princes, and afterwards with the Eight Sub-Princes, and received their Oath (of allegiance), you shall say unto them that for the present they can go unto their destined place; and that every time that they shall be summoned, let them remember their Oath made upon the Symbols.

(And you shall send away) the Familiar Spirits and all other Spirits with the aforesaid words.

It is true, however, that as regardeth the Familiar Spirits you shall tell them that at the time when they are on guard-duty they shall remain near you visible or invisible, in whatever form shall please you, in order to serve you during the destined Six Hours.

Footnotes

97:2 However in all Magical Works great stress is laid on the importance of licensing a Spirit invoked in the Operation to depart, and if he be unwilling, of even compelling him against his will to return to his place. It must be remembered here, in this Operation of Abraham the Jew, that not only his Oratory but his Bed-chamber also is kept pure and consecrated, and therefore- it would be next to impossible for an Evil Spirit to break through to attack him. But in all Magical Evocations by the Circle, the Magician should never quit the same, without having licensed and even forced the Evil Spirits to depart; as cases are on record of the Operator experiencing sudden p. 98 death. I myself was present on an occasion when in the Evocation by the Circle, the Magician incautiously having stooped forward and outward just over the limit of the Circle, received a shock like that from a powerful electric battery, which nearly threw him down, struck the Magical Sword from his hand, and sent him staggering back to the centre of the Circle. Compare also with this incident Allan Fenwick's experience in the Strange Story, when his hand accidentally went beyond the limits of the Circle when he was replenishing the Lamps during the Evocation.