There is a ghost of a moral in the story of a sensual Caliph going to the bad, as represented by his final introduction to the Halls of Eblis.

William Beckford, Vathek

Hermetic quote Beckford Vathek moral

Consider also:

  1. When You Are Engulfed in Flames
  2. “The initiate placed in the N.E. corner is intended to see, then, that on the one side of him is the path that leads to the perpetual light of the East, into which he is encouraged to proceed, and that on the other is that of spiritual obscurity and ignorance into which it is possible for him to remain or relapse.”
  3. “instead of these drugs of despair crippling and weakening my thoughts, instead of forgetting, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, thoughts of her, her limbs, her face, materialized ever stronger before me.”
  4. Shut up! How can you be so bad at secret societies? You’re in two of them!
  5. The Revival of Magick and Other Essays