Applied Magic by Dion Fortune

States reincarnation is a fundamental principle in the occult, and that one should view their lives as due
to previous lives combined with the affairs in this life
By a study of their life one can see trends, such as certain inner states which cause a recurring problem.
By meditation, building thought-forms, or by destroying though-forms which are the cause of the
undesirable trends or things in your life you can improve and change your life.
States everyone is always creating thought-forms i.e. creating energies analogous to their thoughts
which affect their lives on the planes to some e!tent", that influence us, and form channels of ingress-
repulsion and attraction to corresponding forces in the cosmos.
#hus, do not dwell on self-defeating thoughts. $f you do then the thought-forms or thought
energies will become so strong that they will cause you problems corresponding to them. #his
would be part of the reasons for meditations, banishment and purification rituals or wor%ings,
invocation of forces that will cancel them out and improve us, etc.
#hus, there is a very real chance that forces corresponding to your thoughts may be attracted to
them, and thus intensify the energies, thus either improving or negatively affecting your lives.
We are making thought-forms one way or the other all the time. Our
thoughts not only infuence us, they form channels of ingress and
attract
the corresponding forces in the Cosmos itself. If you surround yourself
with hate-thoughts, you will be attracting a son of Cosmic hate to
yourself.
he occultist has a system of labeling these forces, he works all these
things out. We ha!e such a system in the "abalistic ree of #ife and
the beliefs underlying it can be !ery !aluable in life$ they teach the
tremendous power of mind and the strict limits in which it works, with
which we can do so much.% - &ion 'ortune
States that a thought form built up by continual visuali&ation and concentration, and concerning which
a strong emotion is felt, becomes charged with that emotion and is capable of living independent of its
creator. A more pronounced type of thought form is from a group such as a mob. #he same principle is
involved in its creation, and it does not have be deliberate, it happens automatically. 'hen a bunch of
people are focused on the same thing, especially with a strong emotion they ma%e a thought form,
whose power is in proportion to the si&e of the crowd, their emotion, and the (uantity of thought
energies on the thing of focus. #his thought-form is capable of giving telepathic suggestions to the
people who are on the same wavelength, i.e. focused on the thing concerned that created it, and
intensifies their emotions, corresponding mental forces, attention, etc. #he more the crowd focuses the
stronger it gets. And this is partially the reason that mobs are capable of deeds they would normally
shrin% in horror from.
#his, thus, e!plains the power of religion, of the type of action at concerts, the power of people
focused on the same thing especially with the same associated emotions such as hatred towards
a certain person, etc.
She also states however, that mob thought-forms disperse rapidly however, because mobs have no
continuity of e!istence, and disperse as soon as the ob)ect of their focus goes away.
States these are also called elementals.
#hus, there are fundamentally two types of elementals* +" A #hought Form ," A being made up
of a specific or couple of elements such as a gnome or dryad
She further states to build up a group-mind mob or group thought-form or current" of any endurance or
lasting e!istence some method of ensuring community or group attention and feeling is essential.
#his is then the real use of the use of group rituals such as in religions prayer meetings, group
meditation or wor% on some common goal, worship, etc." and occult groups. $t also shows the
dangers however. Because religions tend to believe in the inherent validity of their religion and
religious views, despite historical inaccuracy, and not %nowing the power and laws involved in
the creation of thought-forms problems are apt to come about, such as, for instance, in the
middle ages common ideas in religion was that if you did not follow it you were evil and it was
good to destroy such people and thus there definitely thought-forms or currents that at least
partially pushed believers and followers and participants in such directions thus leading to such
sic% periods as the in(uisition. $t is also at least partially the reason why it can be so hard for
members of occult groups and certain religious institutions to leave. And why members of
certain religious groups such as certain types of -hristians tend to e!perience some serious
problems when practicing the occult. Furthermore, it is not always necessary that some be a
member to suffer from a thought form, for instance, sic% thought-forms have been created by
certain -hristian groups, and these thought forms have been %nown to attac% and hinder
occultists who are practicing and performing great wor%. #his would be because the groups that
spawned the particular thought forms believed or reinforced ideas such as the e!istence of
certain beings, the .evilness. of magic, e!istence of beings who enforce so-called .good.
-hristianity, etc.
/uc%ily, such fanatical and oppressive ideas are not so enforced in modern times.
A level of training for the occultist is to be able to protect him or herself from such thought-
forms, to destroy them, change them, banish them, and to even master them.
Whene!er such continuity of attention and feeling has been brought
about, a group mind, or group (lemental, is formed which with the
passage of time de!elops an indi!iduality of its own, and ceases to be
dependent for its e)istence upon the attention and emotion of the
crowd
that ga!e it birth. Once this occurs, the crowd no longer possesses the
power to withdraw its attention or to disperse$ the group (lemental
has
it in its grip. he attention of each indi!idual is attracted and held in
spite of himself$ feelings are stirred within him e!en if he does not
wish
to feel them.
(ach newcomer to the group enters into this potent atmosphere and
either accepts it, and is absorbed into the group, or re*ects it, and is
himself
re*ected. +o member of a group with a strong atmosphere, group
mind,
or (lemental ,according to which term we prefer-, is at liberty to think
without bias upon the ob*ects of group concentration and emotion. It
is for this reason that reforms are so hard to bring about.
he !aster the organi.ation that needs reforming the harder it is to
mo!e, and the stronger must be the personality that attempts the
task.
/et once that forceful personality has begun to make an impression he
speedily 0nds that a group is gathering under his leadership, and that
this in its turn is de!eloping an (lemental, and the momentum he has
originated has begun to push him along When he fags in his
leadership
the mo!ement he created forces him forward.0 - Dion Fortune Applied Magic"
States that an adept can wor% on the astral with picture consciousness, and does not have to leave his
meditation posture, and the ritual will be effective. 1owever, if he desires to grow beyond what his will
can ma%e come about and go beyond his unaided vision, or to create an atmosphere that will benefit his
students, and will ma%e use of the power of the laws involved in a group mind or thought-form.
#hus, one can use the group-mind to go further than one can immediately progress on one.s
own. $t is most li%ely, beneficial that first the magician develop in his training on his own a bit
and attain some success on his own before ma%ing use of a group-mind or group thought-form.
She states that the group-mind of an ritual order affects the members of the group in the same way as
that of a mob which induces such insanity as that of collectively %illing a hated person. 2!cept in an
ritual or occult order the group-mind tends to have been created through focus on progress in magic
and attaining god-li%e power, and so it lifts consciousness, grants or aids in the attaining of power, etc.