"To obtain magical power, one must strengthen the will. Let there be no confusion between will and desire. You cannot will too strongly, so do not attempt to will two things at once, and while willing one thing do not desire others."
Have you ever experienced a situation where you pass some and have a feeling of some sort of attraction and turn around only to find the other person has also turned around? Or you begin to speak simultaneous the same words with another? Usually we call this synchronicity, but it is an act of the untrained will.
If you experience this and decide to practice the act of Willing again, untrained, you will find that you fail. Why would this be so? Because the desire of gratifying your curiosity has weakened the force of your will.
"Before even strength of will, you will must have purity of body, mind, intellect and of emotion if you hope for magical power.
The spiritual powers will flourish only as you starve the animal soul, and the animal soul is largely dependent on the state and treatment of the animal body. The animal man is to be cared for and protected, kept in health and strength.
Be moderate in all things human. Extreme ascetic habits are a source of another danger, they may lead only to a contemplation of your own Heroism and in being abstinent in life."
William Wynn Westcott
The Will force is often depicted as the color red - geburah, mars, fire, aries, the red lion of alchemy. The will is the highest power of the adept and it must be purified to be wielded properly. this purification is depicted as whiteness obtained through heat violently increased until "the redness of perfection strength manifests itself".
The danger of trying to wield this power before the purification process is complete is falling into ignorance and darkness. many do accidental harm in the workings of magick because they do not understand the spiritual laws.
He who is ignorant of the laws of his physical body incurs illness. He who is ignorant of the laws governing acquisition remains in poverty. He who is ignorant of the social laws of his land is likely to be deprived of his liberty. So it is also with things spiritual. Only through a knowledge of spiritual laws can man mold his spiritual environment and enjoy, while yet on earth, spiritual powers. Only through knowledge of himself, and of the powers and forces by which he is environed, can he expect to progress. And it is for this reason that the occultist applies himself to the acquisition of such knowledge.
"Until we know we must refrain from doing. This sounds as if the case was pretty hopeless; but we have each in our own persons all the materials for experiment, and as long as we desire light, and do all we know to obtain it, we are not likely to do ourselves permanent harm; but at the same time we cannot be too careful in applying the very superficial magical knowledge we have at present to others, especially to those who are uninitiated. The danger I have found is that though the first step is most difficult, I mean it is extremely difficult to gain control over another’s will so as to alter their natural tendencies; yet this is done the force you have set in motion becomes almost uncontrollable, the other individual seems sometimes to only live in your presence, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. This is a noticeable feature in the cases of those who have been cured by faith healers; or professional hypnotists.
Having explained these dangers, the method I advise for cultivation of will is, to imagine your head as centre of attraction with thoughts like rays radiating out in a vast globe. To want or desire a thing is the first step in the exercise of Will; get a distinct image of the thing you desire placed, as it were, in your heart, concentrate all your wandering rays of thought upon this image until you feel it to be one glowing scarlet ball of compacted force. Then project this concentrated force on the subject you wish to affect."
Florence Farr
Before bringing the scarlet ray into such intense action in the Heart, as explained above, the Adept should elevate his thought and idea to the contemplation of the Divine Light in Kether, and considering Kether as the crown of the head, to endeavour to bring a ray from thence, into his heart—his Tiphereth through his path of Gimel and then to send the scarlet ray into action; the effect will be powerful and the process safer: otherwise there is a risk to the heart, and a risk of fever, if it be frequently done.
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