by Dion Fortune
Julie found this for me, and I am quite enjoying it - she (?) knows much, and I have always found her books very informative and insightful.
I will post excerpts here and elsewhere.
Nature is an old and subtle woman, jealous of her own way, and she did not reveal to him the meaning of the call that sounded in his ears. It is not her will that any of her children should break from their allegiance ; in humankind she works with the group as her unit, and it is not well that any one individual should liberate himself from the restraints of social life while still free to reap the advantages of the social organization.
...his source of strength had been his complete freedom from all sense of obligation to his kind, and therefore from scruple
or remorse, which naturally placed him at a great advantage in dealing with men who were subject to both ; like an electric filament, the occulist of the left-hand path can only glow in a moral vacuum, and Lucas's soul was no longer Hermetically sealed.
...for a prince of evil must become a slave of good, a slave beaten with many rods, before he can win back to the cross-roads where he turned to the left. Nature had caught Lucas; would he escape from her in time to resume his own dark path, or would
he, swept by her ever-swiftening current, be returned to the pit whence he had issued by unnatural means, to start again the slow and painful ascent, aeons behind the evolution of his race, and suffering acutely because he would retain his consciousness of better things?
Always keep this in mind when dealing with those who have acquired 'power'. Anyone who acquires intrinsic awareness, and deviates to the path of self-delusion of ego flattery, is doomed far more than those who have never begun the path.
Thus always be extremely careful when fraternising with those leaning this way, as your soul can become infected without knowing. Choosing who to spend time with is one of the primary influences upon our spiritual journey - beware the fate of hubris.