Muziris, Mnizurin, Mnouziris

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Confusing Words Series · 6 pages

The three names of the title are variant forms of one place-name, but the substance of the file is the objection of the Magi and the theurgic philosophers to the evocation of souls. Psellus is quoted twice — "bring her not forth, lest in departing she retain something", and the warning that it does not become you to behold them before your body is initiated, since by always alluring they seduce the souls of the uninitiated.

Two reasons are then given in order. The first is Iamblichus': that it is extremely difficult to distinguish a good daemon from a bad one. The second is the danger to the soul that is summoned — that if a human soul does succeed in penetrating the density of the earth's atmosphere, always oppressive to her and often hateful, she cannot avoid the harm that comes of proximity to the material world, and departing she retains something, contaminating her purity, for which she must suffer afterwards. The conclusion drawn is a rule of practice: the true theurgist will avoid causing any more suffering to a pure denizen of the higher sphere than the interests of humanity absolutely require, and it is only the practitioner of black magic who compels the presence, by the incantations of necromancy, of the tainted souls of those who lived badly and are ready to aid his designs.

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