Free The Secrets of Dr. Taverner by Dion Fortune Page A

under observation for a time, if you wish," said Taverner. "If the brain is at fault, I can do nothing, but if it is the mind itself that has failed to develop I might attempt the cure. These deficiency cases are so inaccessible--it is like ringing up on the telephone when the subscriber will not answer. If one could attract her attention, something might be done; the crux of the matter lies in the establishment of communications."
     
    When they had gone, I turned to Taverner and said:
     
    "What hope have you in dealing with a case like that?"
     
    "I cannot tell you just yet," he replied; "I shall have to find out what her previous incarnations have been. I invariably find that congenital troubles originate in a former life. Then I shall have to work out her horoscope and see whether the conditions are ripe for the paying off of whatever debt she may have incurred in a previous life. Do you still think I am a queer sort of charlatan, or are you beginning to get used to my ways?"
     
    "I have long ceased to be astonished at anything," I replied. "I should accept the devil, horns, hoofs and tail, if you undertook to prescribe for him."
     
    Taverner chuckled.
     
    "With regard to our present case, I am of the opinion that we shall find the law of reincarnation is the one we
     
    shall have to look to. Now tell me this Rhodes--supposing reincarnation is not a fact, supposing this life is the beginning and end of our existence and at its conclusion we proceed to flames or harps according to the use we have made of it, how do you account for Mona Cailey's condition? What did she do in the few hours between her birth and the onset of her disease to bring down such a judgement on herself? And at the end of her life, can she justly be said to have deserved hell or earned Heaven?"
     
    "I don't know," said I.
     
    "But supposing my theory is right; then, if we can recover the record of her past, we shall be able to find the cause of her present condition, and having found the cause we may be able to remedy it. At any rate, let us try.
     
    "Would you like to see how I recover the records? I use various methods; sometimes I get them by hypnotizing the patients or by crystal-gazing, and sometimes I read them from the subconscious mind of Nature. You know, we believe that every thought and impulse in the world is recorded in the Akashic Records. It is like consulting a reference library. I am going to use the latter method in the present case."
     
    In a few moments, by methods known to himself, Taverner had shut out all outward impressions from his mind, and was concentrated upon the inner vision.
     
    Confused mental pictures evidently danced before his eyes; then he got the focus and began to describe what he saw while I took down notes.
     
    Egyptian and Grecian lives were dismissed with a few words; these were not what he sought; he was merely working his way down through the ages, but I gathered that we were dealing with a soul of ancient lineage and great opportunities. Life after life we heard the tale of royal birth or initiation into the priesthood, and yet, in its present life, the girl's soul was cut off from all communication with its physical vehicle. I wondered what abuse of opportunity had led to such a sentence of solitary confinement in the cell of its body.
     
    Then we came to the level we sought, Italy in the fifteenth century, as it turned out. "Daughter of the reigning duke--." I could not catch the name of his principality. "Her younger sister was beloved by Giovanni Sigmundi; she contrived to win the affections of her sister's lover, and then, a richer suitor offering for her own hand, she betrayed Sigmundi to his enemies in order to be free of his importunities."
     
    "A true daughter of the Renaissance," said Taverner when he had returned to normal consciousness and read my notes, for he seldom retained any memory of what transpired during his subconscious states. "Now I think we can guess the cause of the