CHAPTER XXVII

Psycnrc Rrsrpurs

Tsr last point mentioned in connection with " shanan-ism " needs to be clarified, for it contains the main reasonfor the introduction of the subject; for this purpose itmust be made clear that the case of the persistent vestigesof a degenerate tradition that has lost its superior or" spiritual " part is fully comparable to the case of thepsychic remains left behind by a human being in passingto another state, for these remains can be used for anypurpos once they have been abandoned by the " spirit ",Whether they be made use of consciously by a magicianor a sorcerer, or unconsciously by spiritualists, the moreor less maleficent effects which can accrue have evidentlynothing to do with the inherent character of the beingto whom they belonged before; they are no longeranything but a special category of "wandering infuences"to use the terminology of the Far-Eastern tradition, andthey have kept at the most a purely illusory likeness tothe said being, Comparisons of this kind can only befully understood if it is remembered that even spiritualinfluences thcmselves must necessatily, if they are tocome into action in our world, take appropriate " sup-ports ", first of all in the psychic order, then in thecorporeal order itseli so that the result is somethinganalogous to the constitution of a human being. If lateron the spiritual influences for any reason withdraw them-selves, their former corporeal supports, whether places

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THE REIGN OF QUANTITYor objects (and when places are in question their situationis naturally connected with the " sacred geography "mentioned earlier) will none the less remain charged withpsychic elements which will be all the stronger and morepersistent through having previously srved as theintermediaries and the instruments of a yet more powerfulaction. It would be logical to conclude that imPortanttraditional and initiatic centres, more or less long sinceextinct, must in general be the most important potentialsources of danger, whether arising from violent reactionsFrovokd in the psychic conglomerates persisting, in suchplaces by sheer imprudence, or more especially from theseizure of these elements by " black magicians ") to usethe accepted expression, who could thn manceuvre themat will in order to obtain results conforming to a Plan'

The existence of the first of these two sources of dangergoes a long way tow-ards explaining the harmful characterof certain vestiges of extinct civilizations, when they cometo be exhumed by people who, like the modern archeolo-gists, know nothing of such matters' and so inevitablyfail to act with prudence. That is not to say that theremay not somtimes be other factors in the situation: forinstance, a particular ancient civilization may havedegenerated through an excessive development of magicin its final phases,"a and its remains will naturally alwaysbear the imprint of that development, in the shape ofpsychic influences of a very inferior order. It is alsopossible, even in the absence of any degeneration of thatsort, that places or objects may have been speciallyprepared by way of defensive action against anyone whomight touch them improperly, for precautions of this kind

"r";n no way illegitimate as such, although the fact of

attaching too great an importance to them is none too222

PSYCHIC RESIDUESfavourable an indication, for it affords evidence of pre-occupations rather remote from pure spirituality, andeven perhaps of a certain lack of knowledge of the powerpossessed by pure spirituality, which should make itunncessary to resort to such " extras ". But apart fromall this, persistent psychic influences, when deprived ofthe " spirit " which formerly directed them, are reducedto a sort of " larval " state, and can easily by themselvesreact to a particular provocation, however involuntary itmay be, in a more or less disordered manner, and in anycase in a manner quite unrelated to the intentions of thosewho used them formerly for purposes of quite anotherorder. Just in the same way the gruesome manifesta-tions of psychic " corpses " which sometimes occur inspiritualist sdances, have absolutely no relation in anycircumstances whatever to the possibilities of action or ofdesire of the individualities whose subtle forms they were,and whose posthumous " identity " they imitate more orless badly, to the great amazement of the ingenuous whoare all too ready to take them for " spirits ".

So under many conditions the influences in questioncan be quite pernicious enough, even when they aresimply left to themselves; this fact is merely a result ofthe inherent nature of the forces of the " intermediateworld ", about which nobody can do anything, any morethan they can prvent " physical " forces, meaning theforces belonging to the corporeal order studied by thephysicists, from acting in cerrain circumstances so as tocause accidents for which no human will can be heldresponsible; what is revealed by all this is the truesignificance of modern antiquarian researches, and thepart they actually plav in opening up some of the" fissures " previously referred to. But in addition,

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THE REIGN OF OUANTITYthese same influences are at the mercy of anyone whoknows how to " capture " them, just as are " physical "forces; it goes without saying that either can be madeto serve the nost diverse and even the most contradictoryends, according to the intentions of whoever has takencontrol ofthem and can direct them to his chosen purpose;and, when subtle influences are involved, iftheir controllerhappens to be a " black magician ", it is obvious thatthey will be used by him for a purpose quite contraryto that for which they might have been used in earliertimes by the qualified representatives ofa regular tradition.

All that has been said so far relates to the vestiges leftby an entirely extinct tradition; but there is another caseto be considered alongside this one: that of an ancienttraditional civilization which lives on so to speak foritself alone, in the sense that its degeneration has pro-ceeded to such a point that the " spirit " has at lastwithdrawn entirely from it. Certain kinds ofknowledge,having nothing of the spiritual in them and belongingonly to the order of contingent applications, may stillcontinue to be transmitted, particularly the more inferioramong them, but they will naturally therafter be liableto every kind of deviation, for they themselves representnothing more than " residues " of another kind, the puredoctrine on which they ought norrnally to depend havingdisappeared. In this sort of case of " survival " thepsychic influences st to work in earlier times by therepresentatives of the tradition will again be liable to be" captured ", even without the knowledge of theirapparent guardians, who will thenceforth be illegitimateand entirely without real authority; those who reallymake use of the influences through them will thus havethe advantage of having at their disposal not only so-called

PSYCHIC RE S IDUES" inanimate " objects as unconscious instruments of theaction they want to exercise, but also living men whoserye no less well as " supports " to the influences, andwhose real existence confers on them a much gratervitaliry. Exactly this sort of thing was in view in quotingan example like that of " shamanism ", but of coursewith the reservation that it must not be held to applyindisuiminately to all the things that are commonlygrouped under that rather conventional heading, for theymay not all have arrived at an equal degree of de-cadence.

A tradition deviated to that extent is really dead assuch, just as dead as a tradition which no longer evenappears to be in existence; if there were any life left init, however little, no such subversion could in any eventtake place, for it consists in nothing but a reversal ofwhat remains of the tradition so as to make it work in adirection by definition anti-traditional. It is however aswell to add that before things reach that point, and assoon as traditional organizations are so diminished andenfeebled as no longer to be capable of adequate resist-ance, the more or less direct agents of the " adversary "rrrcan begin to work their way in with a view to hasteningthe time when " subversion " will become possible; theyare not always sure to succed, for whatever still has somelife can always recover itself; but if death takes place,the enemy will then be found to be as it were in possessionand ready to take advantage of his position and to usethe " corpse " for his own purposes. The reprsenta-tives of everything in the Western world that still retainsan authentically traditional character, in the exoteric as*ell as in the initiatic domain, might be thought to havethe strongst possible interest in paying attention to this

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THE RE iGN OF SUANTITYlast observation while there rs still time, for all aroundthem the menacing signs indicating " infiltrations " ofthis kind are unfortunately by no means indiscernableby anyone who knows how to find them.

Another consideration having its own importance isthis: if the " adversary ", (as to whose nature some moreexact indications will follow) has something to gain bytaking possession of places which were the seat of formerspiritual centres, it is not solely because of the psychicinfluences accumulated in them and more or less free tobe made use of, but it is also for the very reason that thplaces are where they are, for of course they were notchosen arbitrarily for the part they had to play at onetim or another, and in connection with one traditionalform or another. " Sacred geography ", the knowledgeof which determines the choice in question, is susceptible,like every other traditional science of a contingnt order,of being diverted from its legitimate purpose and of beingapplied " inversely ". If a place is " privileged " toserve for the emission and direction of psychic influenceswhen they are acting as vehicles of a spiritual action, itwill be no less so when these same psychic influences areused in quite another way and for ends opposed to allspirituality. It may be observed in passing that thedanger of the misdirection of certain kinds of knowledge,of which this last is a very clear example, accounts formuch of the secrecy that is quite natural in a normalcivilization, but the moderns show themselves to beentirely incapable of understanding it, for they commonlymistake what is really a measure designed as far aspossible to prvent the misuse of knowledge for a desireto monopolize that knowledge. And in truth secrecy onlyceases to be effective when the orsanizations which are

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PSYCHIC RESIDUESthe repositories of the knowledge in question allow un-qualified individuals to pntrate into their ranks, forthese individuals may even be agents of the " adversary ",and if they are so one of their first objects will be to dis-cover the secrets. All this has of course no direct relationto the tru initiatic secret, which resides, as explainedearlier, exclusively in the " inef,able " and " incom-municable ", and is therefore evidently protected fromall indiscreet research; nevertheless, although none butcontingent matters are in question here, it must be recog-nized that the precautions that may be taken within thecontingent order with a view to avoiding all deviation,and thus all harmful action which might arise from it, arefar from having in practice only a relatively negligibleinterest,

In any case, whether it be a question of the placesthemselves, of the influences remaining attachd to them,or again of knowledge of the kind just mentioned, theold adage: " corruptio optimi pessima " may be recalled,and may be applied perhaps more accurately here thanin any other case; and moreover " corruption " is justthe right word, even in its most literal sense, for the" residues " here concerned are, as stated at the begin-ning, comparable to the products of the decompositionof a once living being; and as all corruption is more orIess contagious, these products of the dissolution ofthingspast will themselves exercise, wherever they may be" projected ", a particularly dissolving and disaggregatingaction, especially if they are made use of by a willclearly conscious of its objectives, All this may belikened to a sort of " necromancy ", making use of psychicremains quite other than those of human individuals, andit is by no means th least redoubtable sort, for it has

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TTIE REIGN OF QUANTITYby its nature a 6eld of action far more extensive t}.an thatof common witchcraft, indeed no comparison betweenthe two is possible in t}rat respect: matters have reachedsuch a point nowadays that our contemporaries mustindeed be blind not to have even ttre least susoicion ofwhere thw stand I

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