To Main Page Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE by The Master Therion Aleister Crowley {Based on the Castle Books edition of New York} HYMN TO PAN epsilon-phi-rho-iota-xi epsilon-rho-omega-tau-iota pi-epsilon-rho-iota-alp ha-rho-chi-eta-sigma delta alpha-nu-epsilon-pi-tau-omicron-mu-alpha-nu iota-omega iota-omega pi-alpha-nu pi-alpha-nu omega -pi-alpha-nu pi-alpha-nu alpha-lambda-iota-pi-lambda-alpha-gamma-chi -tau-epsilon, chi-upsilon-lambda-lambda-alpha-nu-iota-alpha-sigma chi-iota-om icron-nu-omicron-chi-tau-upsilon-pi-omicron-iota pi-epsilon-tau-rho-alpha-iota-alpha-sigma alpha-pi-omicron delta-epsilon-io ta-rho-alpha-delta-omicron-sigma phi-alpha-nu-eta-theta, omega theta-epsilon-omega-nu chi-omicron-rho-omicron-pi-omicron-iota alpha-nu-alp ha-xi SOPH. AJ. Thrill with lissome lust of the light, O man! My man! Come careering out of the night Of Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea From Sicily and from Arcady! Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards, On a milk-white ass, come over the sea To me, to me, Come with Apollo in bridal dress (Shepherdess and pythoness) Come with Artemis, silken shod, And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God, In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount, The dimpled dawn of the amber fount! Dip the purple of passionate prayer In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare, The soul that startles in eyes of blue {V} To watch thy wantonness weeping through The tangled grove, the gnarled bole Of the living tree that is spirit and soul And body and brain --- come over the sea, (Io Pan! Io Pan!) Devil or god, to me, to me, My man! my man! Come with trumpets sounding shrill Over the hill! Come with drums low muttering From the spring! Come with flute and come with pipe! Am I not ripe? I, who wait and writhe and wrestle With air that hath no boughs to nestle My body, weary of empty clasp, Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp --- Come, O come! I am numb With the lonely lust of devildom. Thrust the sword through the galling fetter, All-devourer, all-begetter; Give me the sign of the Open Eye, And the token erect of thorny thigh, And the word of madness and mystery, O Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan, I am a man: Do as thou wilt, as a great god can, O Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awake in the grip of the snake. The eagle slashes with beak and claw; The gods withdraw: The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borne To death on the horn Of the Unicorn. I am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! {VI} I am thy mate, I am thy man, Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god, Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod. With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks Through solstice stubborn to equinox. And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend Everlasting, world without end, Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man, In the might of Pan. Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan! ------------- {VII} {Illustration on page VIII described: This is the set of photos originally published facing page 12 in EQUINOX I, 2 and titled there: "The Signs of the Grades." These are arranged as ten panels: * * * * * * * * * * In this re-publication, the original half-tones have been redone as line cop y. Each panel consists of an illustration of a single human in a black Tau rob e, barefoot with hood completely closed over the face. The hood displays a six -pointed figure on the forehead --- presumably the radiant eye of Horus of the A.'. A.'., but the rendition is too poor in detail. There is a cross pendant o ver the heart. The ten panels are numbered in black in the lower left corner. The panels are identified by two columns of numbered captions, 1 to 6 to the le ft and 7 to 10 to the right. The description is bottom to top and left to righ t: "1. Earth: the god Set fighting." Frontal figure. Rt. foot pointed to the fore and angled slightly outward with weight on ball of foot. Lf. heel almost touc hing Rt. heel and foot pointed left. Arms form a diagonal with body, right abo ve head and in line with left at waist height. Hands palmer and open with fing ers outstretched and together. Head erect. "2. Air: The god Shu supporting the sky." Frontal. Heels together and slightl y angled apart to the front, flat on floor. Head down. Arms angled up on eith er side of head about head 1.5 ft. from head to wrist and crooked as if support ing a ceiling just at head height with the finger tips. The palms face upward and the backs of the hands away from the head. Thumbs closed to side of palms. Fingers straight and together. "3. Water: the goddess Auramoth." Same body and foot position as #2, but head e rect. Arms are brought down over the chest so that the thumbs touch above the heart and the backs of the hands are to the front. The fingers meet below the heart, forming between thumbs and fingers the descending triangle of water. "4. Fire: the goddess Thoum-aesh-neith." Frontal. Head and body like #3. Arm s are angled so that the thumbs meet in a line over the brow. Palmer side faci ng. Fingers meet above head, forming between thumbs and fingers the ascending triangle of fire. "5,6. Spirit: the rending and closing of the veil." Head erect in both. #5 ha s the same body posture as #1, except that the left and right feet are counterc harged and flat on the floor with the heels in contact. Arms and hands are cro oked forward at shoulder level such that the hands appear to be clawing open a split veil --- hands have progressed to a point that the forearms are invisibl e, being directly pointed at the front. Lower arms are flat and horizontal in the plain of the image. #6. has the same body posture as #1, feet in same position as #5. The arms are elbow down against abdomen, with hands forward over heart in claws such that t he knuckles are touching. Passing from #5 to #6 or vice versa is done by motio n of shoulders and rotation of wrists. This is different from the other sign o f opening the veil, the Sign of the Enterer, which is done with hands flat palm to palm and then spread without rotation of wrists. "7-10. The L V X signs." "7. + Osiris slain --- the cross." Body and feet as in #2. Head bowed. Arms d irectly horizontal from the shoulders in the plane of the image. Hands with fi ngers together, thumbs to side of palm and palmer side forward. The tau shape of the robe dominates the image. "8. L Isis mourning --- the Svastica." The body is in semi-profile, head down slightly and facing right of photograph. The arms, hands, legs and feet are po sitioned to define a swastika. Left foot flat, carrying weight and angled towa rd the right of the photo. Right foot toe down behind the figure to the left i n the photo. Right upper arm due left in photo and forearm vertical with finge rs closed and pointing upward. Left arm smoothly canted down to the right of th e panel, with fingers closed and pointed down. "9. V Typhon --- the Trident." Figure frontal and standing on tip toe, toes fo rward and heels not touching. Head back. Arms angled in a "V" with the body t o the top and outward in the plain of the photo. Fingers and thumbs as #7, but continuing the lines of the arms. "10. X Osiris risen --- the Pentagram." Body and feet as in #7. Head directly frontal and level. Arms crossed over heart, right over left with hands extend ed, fingers closed and thumb on side such that the palms rest on the two opposi te shoulders.} INTRODUCTION "Epsilon-sigma-sigma-epsilon-alpha-iota alpha-theta-alpha-nu-alpha-tau-omicro n-sigma theta-epsilon-omicron-sigma, alpha-mu-beta-rho-omicron-tau-omicron-si gma, omicron-upsilon-chi epsilon-tau-iota theta-nu-eta-tau-omicron-sigma Pythagoras. "Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural P hilosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understand ing of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applie d to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shal l seem to be a miracle." "The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon." "Wherever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated form, it is assum ed that in nature one event follows another necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency. Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of modern science; un derlying the whole system is a faith, implicit but real and firm, in the order and uniformity of nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes wil l always produce the same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony accompanied by the appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desire d results, unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be thwarted and fo iled by the more potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher p ower: he sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself befo re no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by no mean s arbitrary and unlimited. He can wield it only so long as he strictly conform s to the rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conce ived by {IX} him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws in the smallest particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskilful practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a sovereignty over nature, it is a c onstitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in its scope and exercised in exac t conformity with ancient usage. Thus the analogy between the magical and the scientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the succession o f events is perfectly regular and certain, being determined by immutable laws, the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely; the elements o f caprice, of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature. Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him who kn ows the causes of things and can touch the secret springs that set in motion th e vast and intricate mechanism of the world. Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful s timulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in t he present by their endless promises of the future: they take him up to he top of an exceeding high mountain and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists at his feet, a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radi ant with unearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams." Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough"." "So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has been one of the ro ads by which men have passed to supreme power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, free r life, with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small service rendered to humanity. And when we remember further that in another direction magic has paved the way for science, we are forced to admit that if the black art has do ne much evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the child of error, it has yet been the mother of freedom and truth." Ibid. {X} "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." St. Paul. "Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand a nd the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach." "He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals." "The word of the Law is Theta-epsilon-lambda-eta-mu-alpha." LIBER AL vel xxxi: The Book of the Law. ------------- This book is for ALL: for every man, woman, and child. My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of t echnical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics, weak lings seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first consciousl y drawn to the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientif ic and practical minds, such as I most designed to influence. But MAGICK is for ALL. I have written this book to help the Banker, the Pugilist, the Biologist, th e Poet, the Navvy, the Grocer, the Factory Girl, the Mathematician, the Stenogr apher, the Golfer, the Wife, the Consul --- and all the rest --- to fulfil them selves perfectly, each in his or her own proper function. Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned the word MAGICK upon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life. Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was THE BEAST whose nu mber is 666. I did not understand in the least {XI} what that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity. In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Wor k, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions of material existence. I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just as H. P. Blav atsky some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritualism", "Occultism", "Mysticism" , all involved undesirable connotations. I chose therefore the name. "MAGICK" as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the available terms. I swore to rehabilitate MAGICK to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my Word. But the time is now come for me to carry my banner into the thick of the pre ss of human life. I must make MAGICK the essential factor in the life of ALL. In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my pos ition by formulating a definition of MAGICK and setting forth its main principles in such a way that ALL may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon MAGICK and the right comprehension and right application thereof. I. "DEFINITION." MAGICK is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will. {XII} (Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "i ncantations" --- these sentences --- in the "magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is t hus an act of MAGICK by which I cause changes to take place in conformity with my Will>) II. "POSTULATE." ANY required Change may be effected by the application of the proper kind an d degree of force in the proper manner through the proper medium to the proper object. (Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other, in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a vessel which will not break, leak , or corrode, in such a manner as will not produce undesirable results, with th e necessary quantity of Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own condition s. In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes are not possibl e in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance, or transform lead into t in, or create men from mushrooms. But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature; and the condi tions are covered by the above postulate.) III. "THEOREMS." (1) Every intentional act is a Magical Act.> (Illustration: See "Definition" above.) {XIII} (2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate. (3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postulate have not been fulfilled. (Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures his patient. There may be f ailure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as wh en a wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of the Bank . There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable ob ject, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.) (4) The first requisite for causing any change is through qualitative and qu antitative understanding of the conditions. (Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one' s own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfil that Will. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may be reall y a painter, and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculia r to that career.) (5) The second requisite of causing any change is the practical ability to s et in right motion the necessary forces. (Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given situation, yet l ack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary to take advantage of it.) (6) "Every man and every woman is a star." That is to say, every human bein g is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion. (7) Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or thr ough external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, a nd suffers accordingly. {XIV} (Illustration: A man may think it his duty to act in a certain way, through having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of investigating his actual nat ure. For example, a woman may make herself miserable for life by thinking that she prefers love to social consideration, or "vice versa". One woman may stay with an unsympathetic husband when she would really be happy in an attic with a lover, while another may fool herself into a romantic elopement when her only true pleasures are those of presiding at fashionable functions. Again, a boy' s instinct may tell him to go to sea, while his parents insists on his becoming a doctor. In such a case, he will be both unsuccessful and unhappy in medicin e.) (8) A Man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence his environment efficiently. (Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in no condition to un dertake the invasion of other countries. A man with cancer employs his nourish ment alike to his own use and to that of the enemy which is part of himself. H e soon fails to resist the pressure of his environment. In practical life, a m an who is doing what his conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very clums ily. At first!) (9) A man who is doing this True Will has the inertia of the Universe to ass ist him. (Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that the indiv idual should be true to his own nature, and at the same time adapt himself to h is environment.) (10) Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we do not know in all cases h ow things are connected. (Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of protoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical conditions peculiar to t his planet; and this planet is determined by the mechanical balance of the whol e universe of matter. We may then say that our consciousness is causally conne cted with the remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from --- or with --- the molecular changes in the brain.) (11) Science enables us to take advantage of the continuity of Nature by the empirical application of certain {XV} principles whose interplay involves diffe rent orders of idea connected with each other in a way beyond our present compr ehension. (Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is connected with muscular action; wh at electricity is or how it is connected with the machines that generate it; an d our methods depend on calculations involving mathematical ideas which have no correspondence in the Universe as we know it.>) (12) Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his id ea of his limitations is based on experience of the past, and every step in his progress extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign theoretic al limits> to what he may be, or to what he may do. (Illustration: A generation ago it was supposed theoretically impossible tha t man should ever know the chemical composition of the fixed stars. It is know n that our senses are adapted to receive only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration. Modern instruments have enabled us to detect some of these suprasensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar qu alities in the service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and Rontgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to perceive and utilise vibrat ions of all conceivable and inconceivable kinds. The question of Magick is a q uestion of discovering and employing hitherto unknown forces in nature. We kno w that they exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical in struments capable of bringing us into relation with them.) (13) Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises sever al orders of existence, even when he maintains that his subtler principles are merely symptomatic of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be assumed to extend throughout nature. (Illustration: One does not confuse the pain of toothache with {XVI} the dec ay which causes it. Inanimate objects are sensitive to certain physical forces , such as electrical and thermal conductivity; but neither in us nor in them -- - so far as we know --- is there any direct conscious perception of these force s. Imperceptible influences are therefore associated with all material phenome na; and there is no reason why we should not work upon matter through those sub tle energies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we use magnetic f orce to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce images.) (14) Man is capable of being, and using, anything which he perceives, for ev erything that he perceives is in a certain sense a part of his being. He may t hus subjugate the whole Universe of which he is conscious to his individual Wil l. (Illustration: Man has used the idea of God to dictate his personal conduct, to obtain power over his fellow, to excuse his crimes, and for innumerable oth er purposes, including that of realizing himself as God. He has used the irrat ional and unreal conceptions of mathematics to help him in the construction of mechanical devices. He has used his moral force to influence the actions even of wild animals. He has employed poetic genius for political purposes.) (15) Every force in the Universe is capable of being transformed into any ot her kind of force by using suitable means. There is thus an inexhaustible supp ly of any particular kind of force that we may need. (Illustration: Heat may be transformed into light and power by using it to d rive dynamos. The vibrations of the air may be used to kill men by so ordering them in speech as to inflame war-like passions. The hallucinations connected with the mysterious energies of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.) (16) The application of any given force affects all the orders of being whic h exist in the object to which it is applied, whichever of those orders is dire ctly affected. (Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness, not his bod y only, is affected by my act; although the dagger, as such, has no direct rela tion therewith. Similarly, the power of {XVII} my thought may so work on the m ind of another person as to produce far-reaching physical changes in him, or in others through him.) (17) A man may learn to use any force so as to serve any purpose, by taking advantage of the above theorems. (Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant over his speec h, but using it to cut himself whenever he unguardedly utters a chosen word. H e may serve the same purpose by resolving that every incident of his life shall remind him of a particular thing, making every impression the starting point o f a connected series of thoughts ending in that thing. He might also devote hi s whole energies to some one particular object, by resolving to do nothing at v ariance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage of that object.) (18) He may attract to himself any force of the Universe by making himself a fit receptacle for it, establishing a connection with it, and arranging condit ions so that its nature compels it to flow toward him. (Illustration: If I want pure water to drink, I dig a well in a place where there is underground water; I prevent it from leaking away; and I arrange to ta ke advantage of water's accordance with the laws of Hydrostatics to fill it.) (19) Man's sense of himself as separate from, and oppose to, the Universe is a bar to his conducting its currents. It insulates him. (Illustration: A popular leader is most successful when he forgets himself, and remembers only "The Cause". Self-seeking engenders jealousies and schism. When the organs of the body assert their presence otherwise than by silent sat isfaction, it is a sign that they are diseased. The single exception is the or gan of reproduction. Yet even in this case its self-assertion bears witness to its dissatisfaction with itself, since it cannot fulfil its function until com pleted by its counterpart in another organism. (20) Man can only attract and employ the forces for which he is really fitte d. (Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A {XVIII} tr ue man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature is dumb to the hypo crite; for in her there is nothing false.>) (21) There is no limit to the extent of the relations of any man with the Un iverse in essence; for as soon as man makes himself one with any idea the means of measurement cease to exist. But his power to utilize that force is limited by his mental power and capacity, and by the circumstances of his human enviro nment. (Illustration: When a man falls in love, the whole world becomes, to him, no thing but love boundless and immanent; but his mystical state is not contagious ; his fellow-men are either amused or annoyed. He can only extend to others th e effect which his love has had upon himself by means of his mental and physica l qualities. Thus, Catullus, Dante and Swinburn made their love a mighty mover of mankind by virtue of their power to put their thoughts on the subject in mu sical and eloquent language. Again, Cleopatra and other people in authority mo ulded the fortunes of many other people by allowing love to influence their pol itical actions. The Magician, however well he succeed in making contact with t he secret sources of energy in nature, can only use them to the extent permitte d by his intellectual and moral qualities. Mohammed's intercourse with Gabriel was only effective because of his statesmanship, soldiership, and the sublimit y of his command of Arabic. Hertz's discovery of the rays which we now use for wireless telegraphy was sterile until reflected through the minds and wills of the people who could take his truth, and transmit it to the world of action by means of mechanical and economic instruments.) (22) every individual is essentially sufficient to himself. But he is unsat isfactory to himself until he has established himself in his right relation wit h the Universe. (Illustration: A microscope, however perfect, is useless in the {XIX} hands of savages. A poet, however sublime, must impose himself upon his generation i f he is to enjoy (and even to understand) himself, as theoretically should be t he case.) (23) Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one's conditions. I t is the Art of applying that understanding in action. (Illustration: A golf club is intended to move a special ball in a special w ay in special circumstances. A Niblick should rarely be used on the tee, or a Brassie under the bank of a bunker. But also, the use of any club demands skil l and experience.) (24) Every man has an indefeasible right to be what he is. (Illustration: To insist that any one else shall comply with one's own stand ards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both parties are equally b orn of necessity.) (25) Every man must do Magick each time that he acts or even thinks, since a t hought is an internal act whose influence ultimately affects action, thought it may not do so at the time. (Illustration: The least gesture causes a change in a man's own body and in the air around him; it disturbs the balance of the entire Universe, and its eff ects continue eternally throughout all space. Every thought, however swiftly s uppressed, has its effect on the mind. It stands as one of the causes of every subsequent thought, and tends to influence every subsequent action. A golfer may lose a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and third, he may lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole; but the net result of these trifling mishaps is the difference of a whole stroke, and so probably bet ween halving and losing the hole.) (26) Every man has a right, the right of self-preservation, to fulfil himsel f to the utmost.> (Illustration: A function imperfectly preformed injures, not {XX} only itsel f, but everything associated with it. If the heart is afraid to beat for fear of disturbing the liver, the liver is starved for blood, and avenges itself on the heart by upsetting digestion, which disorders respiration, on which cardiac welfare depends.) (27) Every man should make Magick the keynote of his life. He should learn its laws and live by them. (Illustration: The Banker should discover the real meaning of his existence, the real motive which led him to choose that profession. He should understand banking as a necessary factor in the economic existence of mankind, instead of as merely a business whose objects are independent of the general welfare. He should learn to distinguish false values from real, and to act not on accident al fluctuations but on considerations of essential importance. Such a banker w ill prove himself superior to others; because he will not be an individual limi ted by transitory things, but a force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial and e ternal as gravitation, as patient and irresistible as the tides. His system wi ll not be subject to panic, any more than the law of Inverse Squares is disturb ed by Elections. He will not be anxious about his affairs because they will no t be his; and for that reason he will be able to direct them with the calm, cle ar-headed confidence of an onlooker, with intelligence unclouded by self-intere st and power unimpaired by passion.) (28) Every man has a right to fulfil his own will without being afraid that it may interfere with that of others; for if he is in his proper place, it is t he fault of others if they interfere with him. (Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed by destiny to co ntrol Europe, he should not be blamed for exercising his rights. To oppose him would be an error. Any one so doing would have made a mistake as to his own d estiny, except in so far as it might be necessary for him to learn to lessons o f defeat. The sun moves in space without interference. The order of Nature pr ovides an orbit for each star. A clash proves that one or the other has straye d from his course. But as to each man that keeps his true course, the more fir mly he acts, the less likely are others to get in his way. His example will he lp {XXI} them to find their own paths and pursue them. Every man that becomes a Magician helps others to do likewise. The more firmly and surely men move, a nd the more such action is accepted as the standard of morality, the less will conflict and confusion hamper humanity.) -------------- I hope that the above principles will demonstrate to ALL that their welfare, their very existence, is bound up in MAGICK. I trust that they will understand, not only the reasonableness, but the necessi ty of the fundamental truth which I was the means of giving to mankind: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." I trust that they will assert themselves as individually absolute, that they wi ll grasp the fact that it is their right to assert themselves, and to accomplis h the task for which their nature fits them. Yea, more, that this is their dut y, and that not only to themselves but to others, a duty founded upon universal necessity, and not to be shirked on account of any casual circumstances of the moment which may seem to put such conduct in the light of inconvenience or eve n of cruelty. I hope that the principles outlined above will help them to understand this book, and prevent them from being deterred from its study by the more or less t echnical language in which it is written. The essence of MAGICK is simple enough in all conscience. It is not otherwise with the art of govern ment. The Aim is simply prosperity; but the theory is tangled, and the practic e beset with briars. In the same way MAGICK is merely to be and to do. I should add: "to suffer". For Magick is the verb; and it is part of the Training to use the passive voice. This is, however, a matter of Initiation rather than of Magick in {XXII} its ordinary sense. It is not my fault if being is baffling, and doing desperate! Yet, once the above principles are firmly fixed in the mind, it is easy enou gh to sum up the situation very shortly. One must find out for oneself, and ma ke sure beyond doubt, "who" one is, "what" one is, "why" one is. This done, on e may put the will which is implicit in the "Why" into words, or rather into On e Word. Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one m ust eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and devel op those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid c onditions. Let us make an analogy. A nation must become aware of its own character bef ore it can be said to exist. From that knowledge it must divine its destiny. It must then consider the political conditions of the world; how other countrie s may help it or hinder it. It must then destroy it itself any elements discor dant with its destiny. Lastly, it must develop in itself those qualities which will enable it to combat successfully the external conditions which threaten t o oppose is purpose. We have had a recent example in the case of the young Ger man Empire, which, knowing itself and its will, disciplined and trained itself so that it conquered the neighbours which had oppressed it for so many centurie s. But after 1866 and 1870, 1914! It mistook itself for superhuman, it willed a thing impossible, it failed to eliminate its own internal jealousies, it fai led to understand the conditions of victory,> it did not train itself to hold t he sea, and thus, having violated every principle of MAGICK, it was pulled down and broken into pieces by provincialism and democracy, so th at neither individual excellence nor civic virtue has yet availed to raise it a gain to that majestic unity which made so bold a bid for the mastery of the rac e of man. The sincere student will discover, behind the symbolic technicalities of his book, a practical method of making himself a {XXIII} Magician. The processes described will enable him to discriminate between what he actually is, and what he has fondly imagined himself to be>. He must behold his soul in all its awf ul nakedness, he must not fear to look on that appalling actuality. He must di scard the gaudy garments with which his shame has screened him; he must accept the fact that nothing can make him anything but what he is. He may lie to hims elf, drug himself, hide himself; but he is always there. Magick will teach him that his mind is playing him traitor. It is as if a man were told that tailor s' fashion-plates were the canon of human beauty, so that he tried to make hims elf formless and featureless like them, and shuddered with horror at the idea o f Holbein making a portrait of him. Magick will show him the beauty and majest y of the self which he has tried to suppress and disguise. Having discovered his identity, he will soon perceive his purpose. Another process will show him how to make that purpose pure and powerful. He may then learn how to estimate his environment, learn how to make allies, how to make hi mself prevail against all powers whose error has caused them to wander across h is path. In the course of this Training, he will learn to explore the Hidden Mysterie s of Nature, and to develop new senses and faculties in himself, whereby he may communicate with, and control, Beings and Forces pertaining to orders of exist ence which {XXIV} have been hitherto inaccessible to profane research, and avai lable only to that unscientific and empirical MAGICK (of tradition) which I came to destroy in order that I might fulfil. I send this book into the world that every man and woman may take hold of li fe in the proper manner. It does not matter of one's present house of flesh be the hut of a shepherd; by virtue of my MAGICK he shall be such a shepherd as David was. If it be the studio of a sculptor, h e shall so chisel from himself the marble that masks his idea that he shall be no less a master than Rodin. Witness mine hand: Tau-Omicron Mu-Epsilon-Gamma-Alpha Theta-Eta-Rho-Iota-Omicron-Nu (Taw-Res h-Yod-Vau-Nunfinal ): The Beast 666; MAGUS 9 Degree = 2Square A.'. A.'. who is The Word of the Aeon THELEMA; whose name is called V.V.V.V.V. 8 Degree = 3Squar e A.'. A.'. in the City of the Pyramids; OU MH 7 Degree = 4Square A.'. A.'.; OL SONUF VAORESAGI 6 Degree = 5Square, and ... ... 5 Degree = 6Square A.'. A.'. i n the Mountain of Abiegnus: but FRATER PERDURABO in the Outer Order or the A.'. A.'. and in the World of men upon the Earth, Aleister Crowley of Trinity Colle ge, Cambridge. ----------- {XXV} CONTENTS ------- (This portion of the Book should be studied in connection with its Parts I. an d II.) 0 The Magical Theory of the Universe. I The Principles of Ritual. II The Formulae of the Elemental Weapons. III The Formula of Tetragrammaton. IV The Formula of Alhim: also that of Alim. V The Formula of I. A. O. VI The Formula of the Neophyte. VII The Formula of the Holy Graal, of Abrahadabra, and of Certain Other Words; with some remarks on the Magical Memory. VIII Of Equilibrium: and of the General and Particular Method of Preparation of the Furniture of the Temple and the Instruments of Art. IX Of Silence and Secrecy: and of the Barbarous names of Evocation. X Of the Gestures. XI Of Our Lady BABALON and of The Beast whereon she rideth: also concerning Transformations. XII Of the Bloody Sacrifice and Matters Cognate. XIII Of the Banishings, and of the Purifications. XIV Of the Consecrations: with an Account of the Nature and Nurture of the Magical Link. XVI (1) Of the Oath. XV Of the Invocation. XVI (2) Of the Charge to the Spirit: with some Account of the Constrains and Curses occasionally necessary. XVII Of the License to Depart. XVIII Of Clairvoyance: and of the Body of Light, its Powers and its Development. Also concerning Divinations. XIX Of Dramatic Rituals. XX Of the Eucharist: and of the Art of Alchemy. XXI Of Black Magick: of the Main Types of the Operations of Magick Art: and of the Powers of the Sphinx. {XXVII} CHAPTER 0 THE MAGICAL THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE There are three main theories of the Universe; Dualism, Monism and Nihilism. It is impossible to enter into a discussion of their relative merits in a pop ular manual of this sort. They may be studied in Erdmann's "History of Philoso phy" and similar treatises. All are reconciled and unified in the theory which we shall now set forth. The basis of this Harmony is given in Crowley's "Berashith" --- to which reference should be made. Infinite space is called the goddess NUIT, while the infinitely small and at omic yet omnipresent point is called HADIT.> These are unmanifest. One conjun ction of these infinites is called RA-HOOR-KHUIT,> a unity which includes and h eads all things.> (There is also a particular Nature of Him, in certain condit ions, such as have obtained since the Spring of 1904, e.v.) This profoundly my stical conception {1} is based upon actual spiritual experience, but the traine d reason> can reach a reflection of this idea by the method of logical contradi ction which ends in reason transcending itself. The reader should consult "The Soldier and the Hunchback" in Equinox I, I, and Konx Om Pax. "Unity" transcends "consciousness". It is above all division. The Father o f thought --- the Word --- is called Chaos --- the dyad. The number Three, the Mother, is called Babalon. In connection with this the reader should study "T he Temple of Solomon the King" in Equinox I, V, and Liber 418. This first triad is essentially unity, in a manner transcending reason. The comprehension of this Trinity is a matter of spiritual experience. All true g ods are attributed to this Trinity.> An immeasurable abyss divides it from all manifestations of Reason or the lo wer qualities of man. In the ultimate analysis of Reason, we find all reason i dentified with this abyss. Yet this abyss is the crown of the mind. Purely in tellectual faculties all obtain here. This abyss has no number, for in it all is confusion. Below this abyss we find the moral qualities of Man, of which there are six. The highest is symbolised by the number Four. Its nature is fatherly>; Mercy and Authority are the attributes of its dignity. The number Five is balanced against it. The attributes of Five are Energy a nd Justice. Four and Five are again combined and harmonized in the number Six, whose nature is beauty and harmony, mortality and immortality. In the number Seven the feminine nature is again predominant, {2} but it is the masculine type of female, the Amazon, who is balanced in the number Eight b y the feminine type of male. In the number Nine we reach the last of the purely mental qualities. It ide ntifies change with stability. Pendant to this sixfold system is the number Ten> which includes the whole of Matter as we know it by the senses. It is impossible here to explain thoroughly the complete conception; for it cannot be too clearly understood that this is a "classification" of the Univers e, that there is nothing which is not comprehended therein. The Article on the Qabalah in Vol. I, No. V of the Equinox is the best which has been written on the subject. It should be deeply studied, in connection w ith the Qabalistic Diagrams in Nos. II and III: "The Temple of Solomon the King ". Such is a crude and elementary sketch of this system. The formula of Tetragrammaton is the most important for the practical magici an. Here Yod = 2, He = 3, Vau = 4 to 9, He final = 10. The Number Two represents Yod, the Divine or Archetypal World, and the Number One is only attained by the destruction of the God and the Magician in Samadhi. The world of Angels is under the numbers Four to Nine, and that of spirits un der the {3} number Ten.> All these numbers are of course parts of the magician himself considered as the microcosm. The microcosm is an exact image of the M acrocosm; the Great Work is the raising of the whole man in perfect balance to the power of Infinity. The reader will remark that all criticism directed against the Magical Hiera rchy is futile. One cannot call it incorrect --- the only line to take might b e that it was inconvenient. In the same way one cannot say that the Roman alph abet is better or worse than the Greek, since all required sounds can be more o r less satisfactorily represented by either; yet both these alphabets were foun d so little satisfactory when it came to an attempt at phonetic printing of Ori ental languages, that the alphabet had to be expanded by the use of italics and other diacritical marks. In the same way our magical alphabet of the Sephirot h and the Paths (thirty-two letters as it were) has been expanded into the four worlds corresponding to the four letters of the name Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh; and each Sephira is supposed to contain a Tree of Life of its own. Thus we obtain four hundred Sephiroth instead of the original ten, and the Paths being capable of similar multiplications, or rather of subdivision, the number is still further extended. Of course this process might be indefinitely continued without destr oying the original system. The Apologia for this System is that our purest conceptions {4} are symbolize d in Mathematics. "God is the Great Arithmetician." "God is the Grand Geomete r." It is best therefore to prepare to apprehend Him by formulating our minds according to these measures.> To return, each letter of this alphabet may have its special magical sigil. The student must not expect to be given a cut-and-dried definition of what exa ctly is meant by any of all this. On the contrary, he must work backwards, put ting the whole of his mental and moral outfit into these pigeon-holes. You wou ld not expect to be able to buy a filing cabinet with the names of all your pas t, present and future correspondents ready indexed: your cabinet has a system o f letters and numbers meaningless in themselves, but ready to take on a meaning to you, as you fill up the files. As your business increased, each letter and number would receive fresh accessions of meaning for you; and by adopting this orderly arrangement you would be able to have a much more comprehensive grasp of your affairs than would otherwise be the case. By the use of this system th e magician is able ultimately to unify the whole of his knowledge --- to transm ute, even on the Intellectual Plane, the Many into the One. The Reader can now understand that the sketch given above of the magical Hie rarchy is hardly even an outline of the real theory of the Universe. This theo ry may indeed be studied in the article already referred to in No. V of the Equ inox, and, more deeply in the Book of the Law and the Commentaries thereon: but the true understanding depends entirely upon the work of the Magician himself. Without magical experience it will be meaningless. In this there is nothing peculiar. It is so with all scientific knowledge. A blind man might cram up astronomy for the purpose of passing examinations, b ut his knowledge would be {5} almost entirely unrelated to his experience, and it would certainly not give him sight. A similar phenomenon is observed when a gentleman who has taken an "honours degree" in modern languages at Cambridge a rrives in Paris, and is unable to order his dinner. To exclaim against the Mas ter Therion is to act like a person who, observing this, should attack both the professors of French and the inhabitants of Paris, and perhaps go on to deny t he existence of France. Let us say, once again, that the magical language is nothing but a convenien t system of classification to enable the magician to docket his experiences as he obtains them. Yet this is true also, that, once the language is mastered, one can divine t he unknown by study of the known, just as one's knowledge of Latin and Greek en ables one to understand some unfamiliar English word derived from those sources . Also, there is the similar case of the Periodic Law in Chemistry, which enab les Science to prophesy, and so in the end to discover, the existence of certai n previously unsuspected elements in nature. All discussions upon philosophy a re necessarily sterile, since truth is beyond language. They are, however, use ful if carried far enough --- if carried to the point when it become apparent t hat all arguments are arguments in a circle.> But discussions of the details o f purely imaginary qualities are frivolous and may be deadly. For the great da nger of this magical theory is that the student may mistake the alphabet for th e things which the words represent. An excellent man of great intelligence, a learned Qabalist, once amazed the Master Therion by stating that the Tree of Life was the framework of the Univer se. It was as if some one had seriously maintained that a cat was a creature c onstructed by placing the letters C. A. T. in that order. It is no wonder that Magick has excited the ridicule of the unintelligent, since even its {6} educa ted students can be guilty of so gross a violation of the first principles of c ommon sense.> A synopsis of the grades of the A.'. A.'. as illustrative of the Magical Hie rarchy in Man is given in Appendix 2 "One Star in Sight." This should be read before proceeding with the chapter. The subject is very difficult. To deal wi th it in full is entirely beyond the limits of this small treatise. "FURTHER CONCERNING THE MAGICAL UNIVERSE" All these letters of the magical alphabet --- referred to above --- are like so many names on a map. Man himself is a complete microcosm. Few other being s have this balanced perfection. Of course every sun, every planet, may have b eings similarly constituted.> But when we speak of dealing with the planets in Magick, {7} the reference is usually not to the actual planets, but to parts o f the earth which are of the nature attributed to these planets. Thus, when we say that Nakhiel is the "Intelligence" of the Sun, we do not mean that he live s in the Sun, but only that he has a certain rank and character; and although w e can invoke him, we do not necessarily mean that he exists in the same sense o f the word in which our butcher exists. When we "conjure Nakhiel to visible appearance," it may be that our process re sembles creation --- or, rather imagination --- more nearly than it does callin g-forth. The aura of a man is called the "magical mirror of the universe"; and , so far as any one can tell, nothing exists outside of this mirror. It is at least convenient to represent the whole as if it were subjective. It leads to less confusion. And, as a man is a perfect microcosm,> it is perfectly easy to re-model one's conception at any moment. Now there is a traditional correspondence, which modern experiment has shown to be fairly reliable. There is a certain natural connexion between certain l etters, words, numbers, gestures, shapes, perfumes and so on, so that any idea or (as we might call it) "spirit", may be composed or called forth by the use o f those things which are harmonious with it, and express particular parts of it s nature. These correspondences have been elaborately mapped in the Book 777 i n a very convenient and compendious form. It will be necessary for the student to make a careful study of this book in connexion with some actual rituals of Magick, for example, {8} that of the evocation of Taphtatharath printed in Equi nox I, III, pages 170-190, where he will see exactly why these things are to be used. Of course, as the student advances in knowledge by experience he will f ind a progressive subtlety in the magical universe corresponding to his own; fo r let it be said yet again! not only is his aura a magical mirror of the univer se, but the universe is a magical mirror of his aura. In this chapter we are only able to give a very thin outline of magical theo ry --- faint pencilling by weak and wavering fingers --- for this subject may a lmost be said to be co-extensive with one's whole knowledge. The knowledge of exoteric science is comically limited by the fact that we h ave no access, except in the most indirect way, to any other celestial body tha n our own. In the last few years, the semi-educated have got an idea that they know a great deal about the universe, and the principal ground for their fine opinion of themselves is usually the telephone or the airship. It is pitiful t o read the bombastic twaddle about progress, which journalists and others, who wish to prevent men from thinking, put out for consumption. We know infinitesi mally little of the material universe. Our detailed knowledge is so contemptib ly minute, that it is hardly worth reference, save that our shame may spur us t o increased endeavour. Such knowledge> as we have got is of a very general and abstruse, of a philosophical and almost magical character. This consists prin cipally of the conceptions of pure mathematics. It is, therefore, almost legit imate to say that pure mathematics is our link with the rest of the universe an d with "God". Now the conceptions of Magick are themselves profoundly mathematical. The w hole basis of our theory is the Qabalah, which corresponds to mathematics and g eometry. The method of operation in Magick is based on this, in very much the same way as the laws of mechanics are based on mathematics. So far, therefore as we can be said to possess a magical theory of the universe, it must be a mat ter solely of fundamental law, with a {9} few simple and comprehensive proposit ions stated in very general terms. I might expend a life-time in exploring the details of one plane, just as an explorer might give his life to one corner of Africa, or a chemist to one subg roup of compounds. Each such detailed piece of work may be very valuable, but it does not as a rule throw light on the main principles of the universe. Its truth is the truth of one angle. It might even lead to error, if some inferior person were to generalize from too few facts. Imagine an inhabitant of Mars who wished to philosophise about the earth, an d had nothing to go by but the diary of some man at the North Pole! But the wo rk of every explorer, on whatever branch of the Tree of Life the caterpillar he is after may happen to be crawling, is immensely helped by a grasp of general principles. Every magician, therefore, should study the Holy Qabalah. Once he has mastered the main principles, he will find his work grow easy. "Solvitur ambulando" which does not mean: "Call the Ambulance!" -------------- {10} CHAPTER I THE PRINCIPLES OF RITUAL. There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritu al is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel;> or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.> All other magical Rituals are particular cases of this general principle, an d the only excuse for doing them is that it sometimes occurs that one particula r portion of the microcosm is so weak that its imperfection of impurity would v itiate the Macrocosm of which it is the image, Eidolon, or Reflexion. For exam ple, God is above sex; and therefore neither man nor woman as such can be said fully to understand, much less to represent, God. It is therefore incumbent on the male magician to cultivate those female virtues in which he is deficient, and this task he must of course accomplish without in any way impairing his vir ility. It will then be lawful for a magician to invoke Isis, and identify hims elf with her; if he fail to do this, his apprehension of the Universe when he a ttains Samadhi will lack the conception of maternity. The result will be a met aphysical and --- by corollary --- ethical limitation in the Religion which he founds. Judaism and Islam are striking example of this failure. To take another example, the ascetic life which devotion to {11} magick so o ften involves argues a poverty of nature, a narrowness, a lack of generosity. Nature is infinitely prodigal --- not one in a million seeds ever comes to frui tion. Whoso fails to recognise this, let him invoke Jupiter.> The danger of ceremonial magick --- the sublest and deepest danger --- is th is: that the magician will naturally tend to invoke that partial being which mo st strongly appeals to him, so that his natural excess in that direction will b e still further exaggerated. Let him, before beginning his Work, endeavour to map out his own being, and arrange his invocations in such a way as to redress the balance.> This, of course, should have been done in a preliminary fashion during the preparation of the weapons and furniture of the Temple. To consider in a more particular manner this question of the Nature of Ritua l, we may suppose that he finds himself lacking in that perception of the value of Life and Death, alike of individuals and of races, which is characteristic of Nature. He has perhaps a tendency to perceive the "first noble truth" utter ed by Buddha, that Everything is sorrow. Nature, it seems, is a tragedy. He h as perhaps even experienced the great trance called Sorrow. He should then con sider whether there is not some Deity who expresses this Cycle, and yet whose n ature is joy. He will find what he requires in Dionysus. There are three main methods of invoking any Deity. The "First Method" consists of devotion to that Deity, and, being mainly mys tical in character, need not be dealt with in this place, especially as a perfe ct instruction exists in Liber 175 ("See" Appendix). The "Second method"is the straight forward ceremonial invocation. It is the method which was usually employed in the Middle Ages. Its advantage is its di rectness, its disadvantage its {12} crudity. The "Goetia" gives clear instruct ion in this method, and so do many other rituals, white and black. We shall pr esently devote some space to a clear exposition of this Art. In the case of Bacchus, however, we may roughly outline the procedure. We f ind that the symbolism of Tiphareth expresses the nature of Bacchus. It is the n necessary to construct a Ritual of Tiphareth. Let us open the Book 777; we s hall find in line 6 of each column the various parts of our required apparatus. Having ordered everything duly, we shall exalt the mind by repeated prayers o r conjurations to the highest conception of the God, until, in one sense or ano ther of the word, He appears to us and floods our consciousness with the light of His divinity. The "Third Method is the Dramatic," perhaps the most attractive of all; cert ainly it is so to the artist's temperament, for it appeals to his imagination t hrough his aesthetic sense. Its disadvantage lies principally in the difficulty of its performance by a single person. But it has the sanction of the highest antiquity, and is probab ly the most useful for the foundation of a religion. It is the method of Catho lic Christianity, and consists in the dramatization of the legend of the God. The Bacchae of Euripides is a magnificent example of such a Ritual; so also, th rough in a less degree, is the Mass. We may also mention many of the degrees i n Freemasonry, particularly the third. The 5 Degree = 6Square Ritual published in No. III of the Equinox is another example. In the case of Bacchus, one commemorates firstly his birth of a mortal mothe r who has yielded her treasure-house to the Father of All, of the jealousy and rage excited by this incarnation, and of the heavenly protection afforded to th e infant. Next should be commemorated the journeying westward upon an ass. No w comes the great scene of the drama: the gentle, exquisite youth with his foll owing (chiefly composed of women) seems to threaten the established order of th ings, and that Established Order takes steps to put an end to the upstart. We find Dionysus confronting the angry King, not with defiance, but with meekness; yet with a subtle confidence, an underlying laughter. His forehead is wreathe d with vine tendrils. He is an effeminate figure with those broad leaves clust ered upon his brow? But those leaves hide {13} horns. King Pentheus, represen tative of respectability,> is destroyed by his pride. He goes out into the mou ntains to attack the women who have followed Bacchus, the youth whom he has moc ked, scourged, and put in chains, yet who has only smiled; and by those women, in their divine madness, he is torn to pieces. It has already seemed impertinent to say so much when Walter Pater has told the story with such sympathy and insight. We will not further transgress by dw elling upon the identity of this legend with the course of Nature, its madness, its prodigality, its intoxication, its joy, and above all its sublime persiste nce through the cycles of Life and Death. The pagan reader must labour to unde rstand this in Pater's "Greek Studies", and the Christian reader will recognise it, incident for incident, in the story of Christ. This legend is but the dra matization of Spring. The magician who wishes to invoke Bacchus by this method must therefore arra nge a ceremony in which he takes the part of Bacchus, undergoes all His trials, and emerges triumphant from beyond death. He must, however, be warned against mistaking the symbolism. In this case, for example, the doctrine of individua l immortality has been dragged in, to the destruction of truth. It is not that utterly worthless part of man, his individual consciousness as John Smith, whi ch defies death --- that consciousness which dies and is reborn in every though t. That which persists (if anything persist) is his real John Smithiness, a qu ality of which he was probably never conscious in his life.> Even that does not persist unchanged. It is always growing. The Cross is a barren stick, and the petals of the Rose fall and decay; but in the union of t he Cross and the Rose is a constant {14} succession of new lives.> Without thi s union, and without this death of the individual, the cycle would be broken. A chapter will be consecrated to removing the practical difficulties of this method of Invocation. It will doubtless have been noted by the acumen of the reader that in the great essentials these three methods are one. In each case the magician identifies himself with the Deity invoked. To "invoke" is to "cal l in", just as to "evoke" is to "call forth". This is the essential difference between the two branches of Magick. In invocation, the macrocosm floods the c onsciousness. In evocation, the magician, having become the macrocosm, creates a microcosm. You "in"voke a God into the Circle. You "e"voke a Spirit into t he Triangle. In the first method identity with the God is attained by love and by surrender, by giving up or suppressing all irrelevant (and illusionary) par ts of yourself. It is the weeding of a garden. In the second method identity is attained by paying special attention to the desired part of yourself: positive, as the first method is negative. It is th e potting-out and watering of a particular flower in the garden, and the exposu re of it to the sun. In the third, identity is attained by sympathy. It is very difficult for th e ordinary man to lose himself completely in the subject of a play or of a nove l; but for those who can do so, this method is unquestionably the best. Observe: each element in this cycle is of equal value. It is wrong to say t riumphantly "Mors janua vitae", unless you add, with equal triumph, "Vita janua mortis". To one who understands this chain of the Aeons from the point of vie w alike of the sorrowing Isis and of the triumphant Osiris, not forgetting thei r link in the destroyer Apophis, there remains no secret veiled in Nature. He cries that name of God which throughout History has been echoed by one religion to another, the infinite swelling paean I.A.O.!> {15} CHAPTER II THE FORMULAE OF THE ELEMENTAL WEAPONS. Before discussing magical formulae in detail, one may observe that most ritu als are composite, and contain many formulae which must be harmonized into one. The first formula is that of the Wand. In the sphere of the principle which the magician wishes to invoke, he rises from point to point in a perpendicular line, and then descends; or else, beginning at the top, he comes directly down , "invoking" first the god of that sphere by "devout supplication"> that He may deign to send the appropriate Archangel. He then "beseeches" the Archangel to send the Angel or Angels of that sphere to his aid; he "conjures" this Angel o r Angels to send the intelligence in question, and this intelligence he will "c onjure with authority" to compel the obedience of the spirit and his manifestat ion. To this spirit he "issues commands". It will be seen that this is a formula rather of evocation than of invocatio n, and for the latter the procedure, though apparently the same, should be conc eived of in a different manner, which brings it under another formula, that of Tetragrammaton. The essence of the force invoked is one, but the "God" represe nts the germ or beginning of the force, the "Archangel" its development; and so on, until, with the "Spirit", we have the completion and perfection of that fo rce. {16} The formula of the Cup is not so well suited for Evocations, and the magical Hierarchy is not involved in the same way; for the Cup being passive rather th an active, it is not fitting for the magician to use it in respect of anything but the Highest. In practical working it consequently means little but prayer, and that prayer the "prayer of silence".> The formula of the dagger is again unsuitable for either purpose, since the na ture of the dagger is to criticise, to destroy, to disperse; and all true magic al ceremonies tend to concentration. The dagger will therefore appear principa lly in the banishings, preliminary to the ceremony proper. The formula of the pantacle is again of no particular use; for the pantacle is inert. In fine, the formula of the wand is the only one with which we need more particularly concern ourselves.> Now in order to invoke any being, it is said by Hermes Trismegistus that the magi employ three methods. The first, for the vulgar, is that of supplication . In this the crude objective theory is assumed as true. There is a god named A, whom you, B, proceed to petition, in exactly the same sense as a boy might ask his father for pocket-money. The second method involves a little more subtlety, inasmuch as the magician endeavours to harmonize himself with the nature of the god, and to a certain ex tent exalts himself, in the course of the ceremony; but the third method is the only one worthy of our consideration. This consists of a real identification of the magician and the god. Note th at to do this in perfection involves the attainment of a species of Samadhi: an d this fact alone suffices to link irrefragably magick with mysticism. Let us describe the magical method of identification. The symbolic form of the god is first studied with as much care as an artist would bestow upon his m odel, so that a perfectly clear and {17} unshakeable mental picture of the god is presented to the mind. Similarly, the attributes of the god are enshrined i n speech, and such speeches are committed perfectly to memory. The invocation will then begin with a prayer to the god, commemorating his physical attributes , always with profound understanding of their real meaning. In the "second par t" of the invocation, the voice of the god is heard, and His characteristic utt erance is recited. In the "third portion" of the invocation the magician asserts the identity o f himself with the god. In the "fourth portion" the god is again invoked, but as if by Himself, as if it were the utterance of the will of the god that He sh ould manifest in the magician. At the conclusion of this, the original object of the invocation is stated. Thus, in the invocation of Thoth which is to be found in the rite of Mercury (Equinox I, VI) and in Liber LXIV, the first part begins with the words "Majes ty of Godhead, wisdom-crowned TAHUTI, Thee, Thee I invoke. Oh Thou of the Ibis head, Thee, Thee I invoke"; and so on. At the conclusion of this a mental ima ge of the God, infinitely vast and infinitely splendid, should be perceived, in just the same sense as a man might see the Sun. The second part begins with the words: "Behold! I am yesterday, today, and the brother of tomorrow." The magician should imagine that he is hearing this voice, and at the same t ime that he is echoing it, that it is true also of himself. This thought shoul d so exalt him that he is able at its conclusion to utter the sublime words whi ch open the third part: "Behold! he is in me, and I am in him." At this moment , he loses consciousness of his mortal being; he is that mental image which he previously but saw. This consciousness is only complete as he goes on: "Mine i s the radiance wherein Ptah floateth over his firmament. I travel upon high. I tread upon the firmament of Nu. I raise a flashing flame with the lightnings of mine eye: ever rushing on in the splendour of the daily glorified Ra --- gi ving my life to the treaders of Earth!" This thought gives the relation of God and Man from the divine point of view. The magician is only recalled to himself at the conclusion of the {18} third p art; in which occur, almost as if by accident, the words: "Therefore do all thi ngs obey my word." Yet in the fourth part, which begins: "Therefore do thou co me forth unto me", it is not really the magician who is addressing the God; it is the God who hears the far-off utterance of the magician. If this invocation has been correctly performed, the words of the fourth part will sound distant and strange. It is surprising that a dummy (so the magus now appears to Himsel f) should be able to speak! The Egyptian Gods are so complete in their nature, so perfectly spiritual an d yet so perfectly material, that this one invocation is sufficient. The God b ethinks him that the spirit of Mercury should now appear to the magician; and i t is so. This Egyptian formula is therefore to be preferred to the Hierarchica l formula of the Hebrews with its tedious prayers, conjurations, and curses. It will be noted, however, that in this invocation of Thoth which we have su mmarized, there is another formula contained, the Reverberating or Reciprocatin g formula, which may be called the formula of Horus and Harpocrates. The magic ian addresses the God with an active projection of his will, and then becomes p assive while the God addresses the Universe. In the fourth part he remains sil ent, listening, to the prayer which arises therefrom. The formula of this invocation of Thoth may also be classed under Tetragramm aton. The first part is fire, the eager prayer of the magician, the second wat er, in which the magician listens to, or catches the reflection of, the god. T he third part is air, the marriage of fire and water; the god and the man have become one; while the fourth part corresponds to earth, the condensation or mat erialization of those three higher principles. With regard to the Hebrew formulae, it is doubtful whether most magicians wh o use them have ever properly grasped the principles underlying the method of i dentity. No passage which implies it occurs to mind, and the extant rituals ce rtainly give no hint of such a conception, or of any but the most personal and material views of the nature of things. They seem to have thought that there w as an Archangel named Ratziel in exactly the same sense as there was a statesma n named Richelieu, an individual being living in a definite place. He had poss ibly certain powers of a somewhat metaphysical order --- he might be {19} in tw o places at once,> for example, though even the possibility of so simple a feat (in the case of spirits) seems to be denied by certain passages in extant conj urations which tell the spirit that if he happens to be in chains in a particul ar place in Hell, or if some other magician is conjuring him so that he cannot come, then let him send a spirit of similar nature, or otherwise avoid the diff icultly. But of course so vulgar a conception would not occur to the student o f the Qabalah. It is just possible that the magi wrote their conjurations on this crude hypothesis in order to avoid the clouding of the mind by doubt and m etaphysical speculation. He who became the Master Therion was once confronted by this very difficulty . Being determined to instruct mankind, He sought a simple statement of his ob ject. His will was sufficiently informed by common sense to decide him to teac h man "The Next Step", the thing which was immediately above him. He might hav e called this "God", or "The Higher Self", or "The Augoeides", or "Adi-Buddha", or 61 other things --- but He had discovered that these were all one, yet that each one represented some theory of the Universe which would ultimately be sha ttered by criticism --- for He had already passed through the realm of Reason, and knew that every statement contained an absurdity. He therefore said: "Let me declare this Work under this title: 'The obtaining of the Knowledge and Conv ersation of the Holy Guardian Angel'", because the theory implied in these word s is so patently absurd that only simpletons would waste much time in analysing it. It would be accepted as a convention, and no one would incur the grave da nger of building a philosophical system upon it. With this understanding, we may rehabilitate the Hebrew system of invocations. The mind is the great enemy; so, by invoking enthusiastically a person whom w e know not to exist, we are rebuking that mind. Yet we should not refrain alto gether from philosophising in the light of the Holy Qabalah. We should accept the Magical Hierarchy as a more or less convenient classification of the facts of the Universe as they are {20} known to us; and as our knowledge and understa nding of those facts increase, so should we endeavour to adjust our idea of wha t we mean by any symbol. At the same time let us reflect that there is a certain definite consensus o f experience as to the correlation of the various beings of the hierarchy with the observed facts of Magick. In the simple matter of astral vision, for examp le, one striking case may be quoted. Without telling him what it was, the Master Therion once recited as an invoc ation Sappho's "Ode to Venus" before a Probationer of the A.'. A.'. who was ign orant of Greek, the language of the Ode. The disciple then went on an "astral journey," and everything seen by him was without exception harmonious with Venu s. This was true down to the smallest detail. He even obtained all the four c olour-scales of Venus with absolute correctness. Considering that he saw somet hing like one hundred symbols in all, the odds against coincidence are incalcul ably great. Such an experience (and the records of the A.'. A.'. contain dozen s of similar cases) affords proof as absolute as any proof can be in this world of Illusion that the correspondences in Liber 777 really represent facts in Na ture. It suggests itself that this "straightforward" system of magick was perhaps never really employed at all. One might maintain that the invocations which ha ve come down to us are but the ruins of the Temple of Magick. The exorcisms mi ght have been committed to writing for the purpose of memorising them, while it was forbidden to make any record of the really important parts of the ceremony . Such details of Ritual as we possess are meagre and unconvincing, and though much success has been attained in the quite conventional exoteric way both by FRATER PERDURABO and by many of his colleagues, yet ceremonies of this characte r have always remained tedious and difficult. It has seemed as if the success were obtained almost in spite of the ceremony. In any case, they are the more mysterious parts of the Ritual which have evoked the divine force. Such conjur ations as those of the "Goetia" leave one cold, although, notably in the second conjuration, there is a crude attempt to use that formula of Commemoration of which we spoke in the preceding Chapter. {21} CHAPTER III THE FORMULA OF TETRAGRAMMATON.> This formula is of most universal aspect, as all things are necessarily comp rehended in it; but its use in a magical ceremony is little understood. The climax of the formula is in one sense before even the formulation of the Yod. For the Yod is the most divine aspect of the Force --- the remaining let ters are but a solidification of the same thing. It must be understood that we are here speaking of the whole ceremony considered as a unity, not merely of t hat formula in which "Yod" is the god invoked, "He" the Archangel, and so on. In order to understand the ceremony under this formula, we must take a more ext ended view of the functions of the four weapons than we have hitherto done. The formation of the "Yod" is the formulation of the first creative force, o f that father who is called "self-begotten", and unto whom it is said: "Thou ha s formulated thy Father, and made fertile thy Mother". The adding of the "He" to the "Yod" is the marriage of that Father to the great co-equal Mother, who i s a reflection of Nuit as He is of Hadit. Their union brings forth the son "Va u" who is the heir. Finally the daughter "He" is produced. She is both the tw in sister and the daughter of "Vau".> His mission is to redeem her by making her his bride; the result of this is to set her upon the throne of her mother, and it is only she whose youthful emb race can reawaken the eld of the {22} All-Father. In this complex family relat ionship> is symbolised the whole course of the Universe. It will be seen that (after all) the Climax is at the end. It is the second half of the formula whi ch symbolises the Great Work which we are pledged to accomplish. The first ste p of this is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guard ian Angel, which constitutes the Adept of the Inner Order. The re-entry of these twin spouses into the womb of the mother is that initi ation described in Liber 418, which gives admission to the Inmost Order of the A.'. A.'. Of the last step we cannot speak. It will now be recognised that to devise a practical magical ceremony to cor respond to Tetragrammaton in this exalted sense might be difficult if not impos sible. In such a ceremony the Rituals of purification alone might occupy many incarnations. It will be necessary, therefore, to revert to the simpler view of Tetragramm aton, remembering only that the "He" final is the Throne of the Spirit, of the Shin of Pentagrammaton. The Yod will represent a swift and violent creative energy; following this w ill be a calmer and more reflective but even more powerful flow of will, the ir resistible force of a mighty river. This state of mind will be followed by an expansion of the consciousness; it will penetrate all space, and this will fina lly undergo a crystallization resplendent with interior light. Such modificati ons of the original Will may be observed in the course of the invocations when they are properly performed. The peculiar dangers of each are obvious --- that of the first is a flash in the pan --- a misfire; that of the second, a falling into dreaminess or reveri e; that of the third, loss of concentration. A mistake in any of these points will prevent, or injure the proper formation of, the fourth. In the expression which will be used in Chapter XV: "Enflame thyself", etc., only the first stage is specified; but if that is properly done the other stag es will follow as if by necessity. So far is it written concerning the formul a of Tetragrammaton. {23} CHAPTER IV. THE FORMULA OF ALHIM, AND THAT OF ALIM. "ALHIM", (Elohim) is the exoteric word for Gods.> It is the masculine plural of a feminine noun, but its nature is principally feminine.> It is a perfect h ieroglyph of the number 5. This should be studied in "A Note on Genesis" (Equi nox I, II). The Elements are all represented, as in Tetragrammaton, but there is no deve lopment from one into the others. They are, as it were, thrown together --- un tamed, only sympathising by virtue of their wild and stormy but elastically re sistless energy. The Central letter is "He" --- the letter of breath --- and r epresents Spirit. The first letter "Aleph" is the natural letter of Air, and t he Final "Mem" is the natural letter of Water. Together, "Aleph" and "Mem" mak e "Am" --- the mother within whose womb the Cosmos is conceived. But "Yod" is not the natural letter of Fire. Its juxtaposition with "He" sanctifies that fi re to the "Yod" of Tetragrammaton. Similarly we find "Lamed" for Earth, where we should expect Tau --- in order to emphasize the influence of Venus, who rule s Libra. "ALHIM", therefore, represents rather the formula of Consecration than that of a complete ceremony. It is the breath of benediction, yet so potent that it can give life to clay and light to darkness. In consecrating a weapon, "Aleph" is the whirling force of the thunderbolt, the lightning which flameth out of the East even {24} into the West. This is t he gift of the wielding of the thunderbolt of Zeus or Indra, the god of Air. " Lamed" is the Ox-goad, the driving force; and it is also the Balance, represent ing the truth and love of the Magician. It is the loving care which he bestows upon perfecting his instruments, and the equilibration of that fierce force wh ich initiates the ceremony.> "Yod" is the creative energy -- the procreative power: and yet "Yod" is the solitude and silence of the hermitage into which the Magician has shut himself. "Mem" is the letter of water, and it is the Mem final, whose long flat lines suggest the Sea at Peace HB:Mem-final ; not the ordinary (initial and medial) M em whose hieroglyph is a wave HB:Mem.> And then, in the Centre of all, broods Spirit, which combines the mildness of the Lamb with the horns of the Ram, and is the letter of Bacchus or "Christ".> After the magician has created his instrument, and balanced it truly, and fill ed it with the lightnings of his Will, then is the weapon laid away to rest; and in this Silence, a true Consecration comes. THE FORMULA OF ALIM It is extremely interesting to contrast with the above the formula of the el emental Gods deprived of the creative spirit. One {25} might suppose that as A LIM, is the masculine plural of the masculine noun AL, its formula would be mor e virile than that of ALHIM, which is the masculine plural of the feminine noun ALH. A moment's investigation is sufficient to dissipate the illusion. The w ord masculine has no meaning except in relation to some feminine correlative. The word ALIM may in fact be considered as neuter. By a rather absurd conve ntion, neuter objects are treated as feminine on account of their superficial r esemblance in passivity and inertness with the unfertilized female. But the fe male produces life by the intervention of the male, while the neuter does so on ly when impregnated by Spirit. Thus we find the feminine AMA, becoming AIMA>, through the operation of the phallic Yod, while ALIM, the congress of dead elem ents, only fructifies by the brooding of Spirit. This being so, how can we describe ALIM as containing a Magical Formula? Inqui ry discloses the fact that this formula is of a very special kind. The word adds up to 81, which is a number of the moon. It is thus the formula of witchcraft, which is under Hecate.> It is only the romantic mediaeval perv ersion of science that represents young women as partaking in witchcraft, which is, properly speaking, restricted to the use of such women as are no longer wo men in the Magical sense of the word, because thy are no longer capable of corr esponding to the formula of the male, and are therefore neuter rather than femi nine. It is for this reason that their method has always been referred to the moon, in that sense of the term in which she appears, not as the feminine corre lative of the sun, but as the burnt-out, dead, airless satellite of earth. No true Magical operation can be performed by the formula of ALIM. All the works of witchcraft are illusory; and their apparent effects depend on the idea that it is possible to alter things by the mere rearrangement of them. One {2 6} must not rely upon the false analogy of the Xylenes to rebut this argument. It is quite true that geometrical isomers act in different manners towards the substance to which they are brought into relation. And it is of course necess ary sometimes to rearrange the elements of a molecule before that molecule can form either the masculine or the feminine element in a true Magical combination with some other molecule. It is therefore occasionally inevitable for a Magician to reorganize the str ucture of certain elements before proceeding to his operation proper. Although such work is technically witchcraft, it must not be regarded as undesirable on that ground, for all operations which do not transmute matter fall strictly sp eaking under this heading. The real objection to this formula is not inherent in its own nature. Witch craft consists in treating it as the exclusive preoccupation of Magick, and esp ecially in denying to the Holy Spirit his right to indwell His Temple.> {27} CHAPTER V The Formula of I.A.O. This formula is the principal and most characteristic formula of Osiris, of the Redemption of Mankind. "I" is Isis, Nature, ruined by "A", Apophis the De stroyer, and restored to life by the Redeemer Osiris.> The same idea is expres sed by the Rosicrucian formula of the Trinity: "Ex Deo nascimur. In Jesu Morimur Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus." This is also identical with the Word Lux, L.V.X., which is formed by the arms of a cross. It is this formula which is implied in those ancient and modern mo numents in which the phallus is worshipped as the Saviour of the World. The doctrine of resurrection as vulgarly understood is false and absurd. It is not even "Scriptural". St. Paul does not identify the glorified body which rises with the mortal body which dies. On the contrary, he repeatedly insists on the distinction. The same is true of a magical ceremony. The magician who is destroyed by ab sorption in the Godhead is really destroyed. The {28} miserable mortal automat on remains in the Circle. It is of no more consequence to Him that the dust of the floor.> But before entering into the details of "I.A.O." as a magick formula it shou ld be remarked that it is essentially the formula of Yoga or meditation; in fac t, of elementary mysticism in all its branches. In beginning a meditation practice, there is always> a quiet pleasure, a gentl e natural growth; one takes a lively interest in the work; it seems easy; one i s quite pleased to have started. This stage represents Isis. Sooner or later it is succeeded by depression --- the Dark Night of the Soul, an infinite weari ness and detestation of the work. The simplest and easiest acts become almost impossible to perform. Such impotence fills the mind with apprehension and des pair. The intensity of this loathing can hardly be understood by any person wh o has not experienced it. This is the period of Apophis. It is followed by the arising not of Isis, but of Osiris. The ancient condi tion is not restored, but a new and superior condition is created, a condition only rendered possible by the process of death. The Alchemists themselves taught this same truth. The first matter of the w ork was base and primitive, though "natural". After passing through various st ages the "black dragon" appeared; but from this arose the pure and perfect gold . Even in the legend of Prometheus we find an identical formula concealed; and a similar remark applies to those of Jesus Christ, and of many other mythical go d-men worshipped in different countries.> A magical ceremony constructed on this formula is thus in close essential ha rmony with the natural mystic process. We find it the {29} basis of many impor tant initiations, notably the Third Degree in Masonry, and the 5 Degree = 6Squa re ceremony of the G.'. D.'. described in Equinox I, III. A ceremonial self-in itiation may be constructed with advantage on this formula. The essence of it consists in robing yourself as a king, then stripping and slaying yourself, and rising from that death to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel>. There is an etymological identity between Tetragrammaton and "I A O", but the magical formulae are entirely different, as the descriptions here given have schewn. Professor William James, in his "Varieties of Religious Experience," has wel l classified religion as the "once-born" and the "twice-born"; but the religion now proclaimed in Liber Legis harmonizes these by transcending them. There is no attempt to get rid of death by denying it, as among the once-born; nor to a ccept death as the gate of a new life, as among the twice-born. With the A.'. A.'. life and death are equally incidents in a career, very much like day and n ight in the history of a planet. But, to pursue the simile, we regard this pla net from afar. A Brother of A.'. A.'. looks at (what another person would call ) "himself", as one --- or, rather, some --- among a group of phenomena. He is that "nothing" whose consciousness is in one sense the universe considered as a single phenomenon in time and space, and in another sense is the negation of that consciousness. The body and mind of the man are only important (if at all ) as the telescope of the astronomer to him. If the telescope were destroyed i t would make no appreciable difference to the Universe which that telescope rev eals. It will now be understood that this formula of I A O is a formula of Tiphare th. The magician who employs it is conscious of himself as a man liable to suf fering, and anxious to transcend that state by becoming one with god. It will appear to him as the Supreme Ritual, as the final step; but, as has already bee n {30} pointed out, it is but a preliminary. For the normal man today, however , it represents considerable attainment; and there is a much earlier formula wh ose investigation will occupy Chapter VI. THE MASTER THERION, in the Seventeenth year of the Aeon, has reconstructed t he Word I A O to satisfy the new conditions of Magick imposed by progress. The Word of the Law being Thelema, whose number is 93, this number should be the c anon of a corresponding Mass. Accordingly, he has expanded I A O by treating t he O as an Ayin, and then adding Vau as prefix and affix. The full word is the n Vau Yod Aleph Ayin Vau whose number is 93. We may analyse this new Word in detail and demonstrate tha t it is a proper hieroglyph of the Ritual of Self-Initiation in this Aeon of Ho rus. For the correspondence in the following note, see Liber 777. The princip al points are these: {31} --------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------ : : : : : Atu :No.: Hebrew :No.:Correspondence: Other :of : :of : : (Tarot Trump) :Atu: letters :let: in Nature : Correspondences : : :ter: : --------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------ : : : : : : : : : : The Hiero- : V :Vau (a nail) : 6 :Taurus (An :The Sun. The son in Te- phant. (Osi-: : English V, : : earthy sign : tragrammaton. (See Cap. ris throned : : W, or vo- : : ruled by : III). The Pentagram & crowned, : : wel between : : Venus; the : which shows Spirit with Wand. : : O and U- : : Moon exalt- : master & reconciler of : : ma'ajab and : : ed therein. : the Four Elements. : : ma'aruf. : : but male.) : Four Wor- : : : : Liberty,i.e.:The Hexagram which un- shippers;the: : : : free will. : God and Man. The cons- four ele- : : : : : sciousness or Ruach. ments. : : : : : : : : : :Parzival as the Child in : : : : : his widowed mother's : : : : : care: Horus, son of : : : : : Isis and the slain : : : : : Osiris. : : : : : : : : : :Parzival as King & : : : : : Priest in Montsalvat : : : : : performing the mir- : : : : : acle of redemption; : : : : : Horus crowned and : : : : : conquering, taking the : : : : : place of his father. : : : : : : : : : :Christ-Bacchus in Hea- : : : : : ven-Olympus saving the : : : : : world. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : The Hermit :IX :Yod (a hand) : 10:Virgo (an :The root of the Alphabet (Hermes : : English I : : earthy sign : The Spermatozoon. The with Lamp, : : or Y. : : ruled by : youth setting out on Wings, : : : : Mercury : his adventures after Wand, : : : : exalted : receiving the Wand. Cloak, and : : : : therein; : Parzival in the desert Serpent). : : : : sexually : Christ taking refuge : : : : ambivalent) : in Egypt, and on : : : : Light, i.e. : the Mount tempted by : : : : of Wisdom, : the Devil. The uncon- : : : : the Inmost. : scious Will, or Word. {32} --------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------ : : : : : Atu :No.: Hebrew :No.:Correspondence: Other :of : : of: : (Tarot Trump) :Atu: letters :let: in Nature : Correspondences : : :ter: : --------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------ : : : : : : : : : : The Fool : O :Aleph (an ox): 1 :Air (The con- :The free breath. The (The Babe : : English A, : : dition of : Svastika. The Holy in the Egg : : more or : : all Life, : Ghost. The Virgin's on the Lo- : : less : : the impar- : Womb. Parzial as "der tus, Bacchus: : : : tial vehicle: reine Thor" who knows Diphues, : : : : Sexually : nothing. Horus. etc. : : : : undevelop- : Christ-Bacchus as the : : : : ed). Life; : innocent babe, pursued : : : : i.e. the : by Herod-Here. : : : : organ of : Hercules strangling : : : : possible : the serpents. The : : : : expression. : Unconscious Self not : : : : : yet determined in any : : : : : direction. : : : : : : : : : : The Devil :XV :Ayin (an : 70:Capricornus :Parzival in Black Armour, (Baphomet : : eye) En- : : (an earthy : ready to return to throned & : : glish A, or: : sign ruled : Montsalvat as Redeemer- adored by : : O more or : : by Saturn; : King: Horus come to Male & Fe- : : less: the : : Mars exalt- : full growth. Christ- male. See : : bleat of a : : ed therein. : Bacchus with Calvary- Eliphas : : goat, A'a. : : Sexually : Cross Kithairon --- Levi's de- : : : : male) : Thyrsus. sign.) : : : : love: i.e. : : : : : the instinct: : : : : to satisfy : : : : : Godhead by : : : : : uniting it : : : : : with the : : : : : Universe. : : : : : : Iota-Alpha-Digamma varies in significance with successive Aeons. {33} "Aeon of Isis." Matriarchal Age. The Great Work conceived as a straightforw ard simple affair. We find the theory reflected in the customs of Matriarchy. Parthenogenesis is supposed to be true. The Virgin (Yod-Virgo) contains in herself the Princip le of Growth --- the epicene Hermetic seed. It becomes the Babe in the Egg (A --- Harpocrates) by virtue of the Spirit (A = Air, impregnating the Mother---Vu lture) and this becomes the Sun or Son ( Digamma = the letter of Tiphareth, 6, even when spelt as Omega, in Coptic. See 777). "Aeon of Osiris." Patriarchal age. Two sexes. I conceived as the Father-W and. (Yod in Tetragrammaton). A the Babe is pursued by the Dragon, who casts a flood from his mouth to swallow it. See "Rev." VII. The Dragon is also the Mother --- the "Evil Mother" of Freud. It is Harpocrates, threatened by the cr ocodile in the Nile. We find the symbolism of the Ark, the Coffin of Osiris, e tc. The Lotus is the Yoni; the Water the Amniotic Fluid. In order to live his own life, the child must leave the Mother, and overcome the temptation to retu rn to her for refuge. Kundry, Armida, Jocasta, Circe, etc., are symbols of thi s force which tempts the Hero. He may take her as his servant> when he has mas tered her, so as to heal his father (Amfortas), avenge him (Osiris), or pacify him (Jehovah). But in order to grow to manhood, he must cease to depend on her , earning the Lance (Parzival), claiming his arms (Achilles), or making his clu b (Hercules)>, and wander in the waterless wilderness like Krishna, Jesus, Oedi pus, chi. tau. lambda. --- until the hour when, as the "King's Son" or knigh t-errant, he must win the Princess, and set himself upon a strange throne. Alm ost all the legends of heroes imply this formula in strikingly similar symbols. Digamma. Vau the Sun --- Son. He is supposed to be mortal; but how is this shewn? It seems an absolute perversion of truth: the sacred symbols have no h int of it. This lie is the essence of the Great Sorcery. Osirian religion is a Freudian phantasy fashioned of man's dread of death and ignorance of nature. The parthenogenesis-idea {34} persists, but is now the formula for incarnating demi-gods, or divine kings; these must be slain and raised from the dead in on e way or another.> "Aeon of Horus." Two sexes in one person. Digamma Iota Alpha Omicron Digamma: 93, the full formula, recognizing the Sun as the Son (Star), as the pre-existent manifested Unit from which all springs and to which all returns. The Great Work is to make the initial Digamma Digam ma of Assiah (The world of material illusion) into the final Digamma Iota Diga mma of Atziluth,> the world of pure reality. Spelling the Name in full, Digamma Digamma + Iota Digamma Delta + Alpha Lamb da Pi + Omicron Iota Nu + Digamma Iota = 309 = Sh T = XX + XI = 31 the secret Key of the Law. Digamma is the manifested Star. Iota is the secret Life .............. Serpent --- Light ............. Lamp --- Love .............. Wand --- Liberty ........... Wings --- Silence ........... Cloak These symbols are all shewn in the Atu "The Hermit". They are the powers of the Yod, whose extension is the Vau. Yod is the Hand wherewith man does his Will. It is also The Virgin; his essence is inviolate. Alpha is the Babe "who has formulated his Father, and made fertile his Mother" --- Harpocrates, etc., as before; but he develops to Omicron The exalted "Devil" (also the "other" secret Eye) by the formula of the Initiation of Horus elsewhere described in detail. This "Devil" is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with ho rror by people who are ignorant of his formula, and, imagining themselves to be evil, accuse Nature herself of their own phantasmal crime. Satan is Saturn, S et, Abrasax, Adad, Adonis, Attis, Adam, Adonai, etc. The most serious charge a gainst him is that he is the Sun in the South. The Ancient Initiates, {35} dwe lling as they did in lands whose blood was the water of the Nile or the Euphrat es, connected the South with life-withering heat, and cursed that quarter where the solar darts were deadliest. Even in the legend of Hiram, it is at high no on that he is stricken down and slain. Capricornus is moreover the sign which the sun enterers when he reaches his extreme Southern declination at the Winter Solstice, the season of the death of vegetation, for the folk of the Northern hemisphere. This gave them a second cause for cursing the south. A third; the tyranny of hot, dry, poisonous winds; the menace of deserts or oceans dreadful because mysterious and impassable; these also were connected in their minds wi th the South. But to us, aware of astronomical facts, this antagonism to the S outh is a silly superstition which the accidents of their local conditions sugg ested to our animistic ancestors. We see no enmity between Right and Left, Up and Down, and similar pairs of opposites. These antitheses are real only as a statement of relation; they are the conventions of an arbitrary device for repr esenting our ideas in a pluralistic symbolism based on duality. "Good" must be defined in terms of human ideals and instincts. "East" has no meaning except with reference to the earth's internal affairs; as an absolute direction in spa ce it changes a degree every four minutes. "Up" is the same for no two men, un less one chance to be in the line joining the other with the centre of the eart h. "Hard" is the private opinion of our muscles. "True" is an utterly unintel ligible epithet which has proved refractory to the analysis of our ablest philo sophers. We have therefore no scruple in restoring the "devil-worship" of such ideas as those which the laws of sound, and the phenomena of speech and hearing, comp el us to connect with the group of "Gods" whose names are based upon Sht, or D, vocalized by the free breath A. For these Names imply the qualities of courag e, frankness, energy, pride, power and triumph; they are the words which expres s the creative and paternal will. Thus "the Devil" is Capricornus, the Goat who leaps upon the loftiest mountain s, the Godhead which, if it become manifest in man, makes him Aegipan, the All. The Sun enters this sign when he turns to renew the year in the North. He i s also the vowel O, proper to roar, to boom, and {36} to command, being a forci ble breath controlled by the firm circle of the mouth. He is the Open Eye of the exalted Sun, before whom all shadows flee away: al so that Secret Eye which makes an image of its God, the Light, and gives it pow er to utter oracles, enlightening the mind. Thus, he is Man made God, exalted, eager; he has come consciously to his full stature, and so is ready to set out on his journey to redeem the world. But he may not appear in this true form; the Vision of Pan would drive men mad with f ear. He must conceal Himself in his original guise. He therefore becomes apparently the man that he was at the beginning; he lives the life of a man; indeed, he is wholly man. But his initiation has made him master of the Event by giving him the understanding that whatever happens to hi m is the execution of this true will. Thus the last stage of his initiation is expressed in our formula as the final: Digamma --- The series of transformations has not affected his identity; but it has explained him to himself. Similarly, Copper is still Copper after Cu+O = CuO:+H SO =CuS O(H O):+K S=CuS(K SO ): 2 4 4 2 2 2 4 + blowpipe and reducing agent = Cu(S). It is the same copper, but we have learnt some of its properties. We observ e especially that it is indestructible, inviolably itself throughout all its ad ventures, and in all its disguises. We see moreover that it can only make use of its powers, fulfill the possibilities of its nature, and satisfy its equatio ns, by thus combining with its counterparts. Its existence as a separate subst ance is evidence of its subjection to stress; and this is felt as the ache of a n incomprehensible yearning until it realises that every experience is a relief , an expression of itself; and that it cannot be injured by aught that may befa ll it. In the Aeon of Osiris it was indeed realised that Man must die in order to live. But now in the Aeon of Horus we know that every event is a death; su bject and object slay each other in "love under will"; each such death is itsel f life, the means by which one realises oneself in a series of episodes. The second main point is the completion of the A babe Bacchus by the O Pan ( Parzival wins the Lance, etc.). {37} The first process is to find the I in the V --- initiation, purification, fi nding the Secret Root of oneself, the epicene Virgin who is 10 (Malkuth) but sp elt in full 20 (Jupiter). This Yod in the "Virgin" expands to the Babe in the Egg by formulating the S ecret Wisdom of Truth of Hermes in the Silence of the Fool. He acquires the Ey e-Wand, beholding the acting and being adored. The Inverted Pentagram --- Baph omet --- the Hermaphrodite fully grown --- begets himself on himself as V again . Note that there are now two sexes in one person throughout, so that each ind ividual is self-procreative sexually, whereas Isis knew only one sex, and Osiri s thought the two sexes opposed. Also the formula is now Love in all cases; an d the end is the beginning, on a higher plane. The I is formed from the V by removing its tail, the A by balancing 4 Yods, the O by making an inverted triangle of Yods, which suggests the formula of Nui t --- Hadit --- Ra-Hoor-Khuit. A is the elements whirling as a Svastika --- th e creative Energy in equilibrated action.> -------------- {38} CHAPTER VI THE FORMULA OF THE NEOPHYTE>. This formula has for its "first matter" the ordinary man entirely ignorant o f everything and incapable of anything. He is therefore represented as blindfo lded and bound. His only aid is his aspiration, represented by the officer who is to lead him into the Temple. Before entering, he must be purified and cons ecrated. Once within the Temple, he is required to bind himself by an oath. H is aspiration is now formulated as Will. He makes the mystic circumambulation of the Temple for the reasons to be described in the Chapter on "Gesture". Aft er further purification and consecration, he is allowed for one moment to see t he Lord of the West, and gains courage> to persist. For the third time he is p urified and consecrated, and he sees the Lord of the East, who holds the balanc e, keeping him in a straight line. In the West he gains energy. In the East h e is prevented from dissipating the same. So fortified, he may be received int o the Order as a neophyte by the three principal officers, thus uniting the Cro ss with the Triangle. He may then be placed between the pillars of the Temple, to receive the fourth and final consecration. In this position the secrets of the grade are communicated to him, and the last of his fetters is removed. Al l this is sealed by the sacrament of the Four Elements. It will be seen that the effect of this whole ceremony is to endow a thing i nert and impotent with balanced motion in a given direction. Numerous example of this formula are given {39} in Equinox I, Nos. II and III. It is the formul a of the Neophyte Ceremony of G.'. D.'. It should be employed in the consecrat ion of the actual weapons used by the magician, and may also be used as the fir st formula of initiation. In the book called Z 2> (Equinox I, III) are given full details of this form ula, which cannot be too carefully studied and practised. It is unfortunately, the most complex of all of them. But this is the fault of the first matter of the work, which is so muddled that many operations are required to unify it. ------------ {40} CHAPTER VII THE FORMULA OF THE HOLY GRAAL: OF ABRAHADABRA: "and of certain other Words." Also: THE MAGICAL MEMORY. The Hieroglyph shewn in the Seventh Key of the Tarot (described in the 12th Aethyr, Liber 418, Equinox I, V) is the Charioteer of OUR LADY BABALON, whose C up or Graal he hears. Now this is an important formula. It is the First of the Formulae, in a sen se, for it is the formula of Renunciation.> It is also the Last! This Cup is said to be full of the Blood of the Saints; that is, every "sain t" or magician must give the last drop of his life's blood to that cup. It is the original price paid for magick power. And if by magick power we mean the t rue power, the assimilation of all force with the Ultimate Light, the true Brid al of the Rosy Cross, then is that blood the offering of Virginity, the sole sa crifice well-pleasing to the Master, the sacrifice whose only reward is the pai n of child-bearing unto him. But "to sell one's soul to the devil", to renounce no matter what for an equiv alent in personal gain>, is black magic. You are no longer a noble giver of yo ur all, but a mean huckster. {41} This formula is, however, a little different in symbolism, since it is a Wom an whose Cup must be filled. It is rather the sacrifice of the Man, who transf ers life to his descendants. For a woman does not carry in herself the princip le of new life, except temporarily, when it is given her. But here the formula implies much more even than this. For it is his whole life that the Magus offers to OUR LADY. The Cross is both Death and Generation , and it is on the Cross that the Rose blooms. The full significance of these symbols is so lofty that it is hardly fitted for an elementary treatise of this type. One must be an Exempt Adept, and have become ready to pass on, before o ne can see the symbols even from the lower plane. Only a Master of the Temple can fully understand them. (However, the reader may study Liber CLVI, in Equinox I, VI, the 12th and 2n d Aethyrs in Liber 418 in Equinox I, V, and the Symbolism of the V Degree and V I Degree in O.T.O.) Of the preservation of this blood which OUR LADY offers to the ANCIENT ONE, CHAOS> the All-Father, to revive him, and of how his divine Essence fills the D aughter (the soul of Man) and places her upon the Throne of the Mother, fulfill ing the Economy of the Universe, and thus ultimately rewarding the Magician (th e Son) ten thousandfold, it would be still more improper to speak in this place . So holy a mystery is the Arcanum of the Masters of the Temple, that it is he re hinted at in order to blind the presumptuous who may, unworthy, seek to lift the veil, and at the same time to lighten the darkness of such as may be requi ring only one ray of the Sun in order to spring into life and light. II ABRAHADABRA is a word to be studied in Equinox I, V., "The Temple of Solomon the King". It represents the Great Work complete, and it is therefore an arch etype of all lesser magical operations. It is in a way too perfect to be appli ed in {42} advance to any of them. But an example of such an operation may be studied in Equinox I, VII, "The Temple of Solomon the King", where an invocatio n of Horus on this formula is given in full. Note the reverberation of the ide as one against another. The formula of Horus has not yet been so fully worked out in details as to justify a treatise upon its exoteric theory and practice; but one may say that it is, to the formula of Osiris, what the turbine is to th e reciprocating engine. III There are many other sacred words which enshrine formulae of great efficacit y in particular operations. For example, V.I.T.R.I.O.L. gives a certain Regimen of the Planets useful in Alchemical work. Ararita is a formula of the macrocosm potent in certain very lofty Operations of the Magick of the Inmost Light. (See Liber 813.) The formula of Thelema may be summarized thus: Theta "Babalon and the Beast conjoined" --- epsilon unto Nuith (CCXX, I, 51) --- lambda The Work accomplishe d in Justice --- eta The Holy Graal --- mu The Water therein --- alpha The Babe in the Egg (Harpocrates on the Lotus.) That of "Agape" is as follows: Dionysus (Capital Alpha) --- The Virgin Earth gamma --- The Babe in the Egg (small alpha --- the image of the Father) --- The Massacre of the Innocents, pi (winepress) --- The Draught of Ecstasy, eta. The student will find it well worth his while to seek out these ideas in det ail, and develop the technique of their application. There is also the Gnostic Name of the Seven Vowels, which gives a musical fo rmula most puissant in evocations of the Soul of Nature. There is moreover ABR AXAS; there is XNOUBIS; there is MEITHRAS; and indeed it may briefly be stated that every true name of God gives the formula of the invocation of that God.> It would therefore be impossible, even were it desirable, to analyse all such n ames. The general method of doing so has been {43} given, and the magician mus t himself work out his own formula for particular cases.> IV. It should also be remarked that every grade has its peculiar magical formula . Thus, the formula of Abrahadabra concerns us, as men, principally because ea ch of us represents the pentagram or microcosm; and our equilibration must ther efore be with the hexagram or macrocosm. In other words, 5 Degree = 6Square is the formula of the Solar operation; but then 6 Degree = 5Square is the formula of the Martial operation, and this reversal of the figures implies a very diff erent Work. In the former instance the problem was to dissolve the microcosm i n the macrocosm; but this other problem is to separate a particular force from the macrocosm, just as a savage might hew out a flint axe from the deposits in a chalk cliff. Similarly, an operation of Jupiter will be of the nature of the equilibration of him with Venus. Its graphic formula will be 7 Degree = 4Squa re, and there will be a word in which the character of this operation is descri bed, just as Abrahadabra describes the Operation of the Great Work. It may be stated without unfairness, as a rough general principle, that the farther from original equality are the two sides of the equation, the more diff icult is the operation to perform. Thus, to take the case of the personal operation symbolized by the grades, i t is harder to become a Neophyte, 1 Degree = 10Square, than to pass from that g rade to Zelator, 2 Degree = 9Square. Initiation is, therefore, progressively easier, in a certain sense, after th e first step is taken. But (especially after the passing of Tiphareth) the dis tance between grade and grade increases as it were by a geometrical progression with an enormously high factor, which itself progresses.> {44} It is evidently impossible to give details of all these formulae. Before be ginning any operation soever the magician must make a through Qabalistic study of it so as to work out its theory in symmetry of perfection. Preparedness in Magick is as important as it is in War. V It should be profitable to make a somewhat detailed study of the strange-looki ng word AUMGN, for its analysis affords an excellent illustration of the princi ples on which the Practicus may construct his own Sacred Words. This word has been uttered by the MASTER THERION himself, as a means of declar ing his own personal work as the Beast, the Logos of the Aeon. To understand i t, we must make a preliminary consideration of the word which it replaces and f rom which it was developed: the word AUM. The word AUM is the sacred Hindu mantra which was the supreme hieroglyph of Truth, a compendium of the Sacred Knowledge. Many volumes have been written wi th regard to it; but, for our present purpose, it will be necessary only to exp lain how it came to serve for the representation of the principal philosophical tenets of the Rishis. {45} Firstly, it represents the complete course of sound. It is pronounced by fo rcing the breath from the back of the throat with the mouth wide open, through the buccal cavity with the lips so shaped as to modify the sound from A to O (o r U), to the closed lips, when it becomes M. Symbolically, this announces the course of Nature as proceeding from free and formless creation through controll ed and formed preservation to the silence of destruction. The three sounds are harmonized into one; and thus the word represents the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva; and the operations in the Universe of their triune energy. It is thus the formula of a Manvantara, or period of manifested existence, whi ch alternates with a Pralaya, during which creation is latent. Analysed Qabalistically, the word is found to possess similar properties. A is the negative, and also the unity which concentrates it into a positive form . A is the Holy Spirit who begets God in flesh upon the Virgin, according to t he formula familiar to students of "The Golden Bough". A is also the "babe in the Egg" thus produced. The quality of A is thus bisexual. It is the original being --- Zeus Arrhenothelus, Bacchus Diphues, or Baphomet. U or V is the manifested son himself. Its number is 6. It refers therefore , to the dual nature of the Logos as divine and human; the interlacing of the u pright and averse triangles in the hexagram. It is the first number of the Sun , whose last number> is 666, "the number of a man". The letter M exhibits the termination of this process. It is the Hanged Man of the Tarot; the formation of the individual from the absolute is closed by h is death. We see accordingly how AUM is, on either system, the expression of a dogma w hich implies catastrophe in nature. It is cognate with the formula of the Slai n God. The "resurrection" and "ascension" are not implied in it. They are lat er inventions without basis in necessity; they may be described indeed as Freud ian phantasms conjured up by the fear of facing reality. To {46} the Hindu, in deed, they are still less respectable. in his view, existence is essentially o bjectionable>; and his principle concern is to invoke Shiva> to destroy the ill usion whose thrall is the curse of the Manvantara. The cardinal revelation of the Great Aeon of Horus is that this formula AUM does not represent the facts of nature. The point of view is based upon misapp rehension of the character of existence. It soon became obvious to The Master Therion that AUM was an inadequate and misleading hieroglyph. It stated only p art of the truth, and it implied a fundamental falsehood. He consequently dete rmined to modify the word in such a manner as to fit it to represent the Arcana unveiled by the Aeon of which He had attained to be the Logos. The essential task was to emphasize the fact that nature is not catastrophic, but proceeds by means of undulations. It might be suggested that Manvantara an d Pralaya are in reality complementary curves; but the Hindu doctrine insists s trongly on denying continuity to the successive phases. It was nevertheless im portant to avoid disturbing the Trinitarian arrangement of the word, as would b e done by the addition of other letters. It was equally desirable to make it c lear that the letter M represents an operation which does not actually occur in nature except as the withdrawal of phenomena into the absolute; which process, even when so understood, is not a true destruction, but, on the contrary, the emancipation of anything from the modifications which it had mistaken for itsel f. It occurred to him that the true nature of Silence was to permit the uninte rrupted vibration of the undulatory energy, free from the false conceptions att ached to it by the Ahamkara or Ego-making facility, whose assumption that consc ious individuality constitutes existence let it to consider its own apparently catastrophic character as pertaining to the order of nature. {47} The undulatory formula of putrefaction is represented in the Qabalah by the letter N, which refers to Scorpio, whose triune nature combines the Eagle, Snak e and Scorpion. These hieroglyphs themselves indicate the spiritual formulae o f incarnation. He was also anxious to use the letter G, another triune formula expressive of the aspects of the moon, which further declares the nature of hu man existence in the following manner. The moon is in itself a dark orb; but a n appearance of light is communicated to it by the sun; and it is exactly in th is way that successive incarnations create the appearance, just as the individu al star, which every man is, remains itself, irrespective of whether earth perc eives it or not. Now it so happens that the root GN signifies both knowledge and generation c ombined in a single idea, in an absolute form independent of personality. The G is a silent letter, as in our word Gnosis; and the sound GN is nasal, suggest ing therefore the breath of life as opposed to that of speech. Impelled by the se considerations, the Master Therion proposed to replace the M of AUM by a com pound letter MGN, symbolizing thereby the subtle transformation of the apparent silence and death which terminates the manifested life of Vau by a continuous vibration of an impersonal energy of the nature of generation and knowledge, th e Virgin Moon and the Serpent furthermore operating to include in the idea a co mmemoration of the legend so grossly deformed in the Hebrew legend of the Garde n of Eden, and its even more malignantly debased falsification in that bitterly sectarian broadside, the Apocalypse. Sound work invariable vindicates itself by furnishing confirmatory corollari es not contemplated by the Qabalist. In the present instance, the Master Theri on was delighted to remark that his compound letter MGN, constructed on theoret ical principles with the idea of incorporating the new knowledge of the Aeon, h ad the value of 93 (M = 40, G = 3, N = 50). 93 is the number of the word of th e Law --- Thelema --- Will, and of Agape --- Love, which indicates the nature o f Will. It is furthermore the number of the Word which overcomes death, as mem bers of the degree of M M of the O.T.O. are well aware;> and it is also that of the complete formula of existence as expressed in the {48} True Word of the Ne ophyte,> where existence is taken to import that phase of the whole which is th e finite resolution of the Qabalistic Zero. Finally, the total numeration of the Word AUMGN is 100, which, as initiates of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of the O.T.O.> are taught, expresses the unity u nder the form of complete manifestation by the symbolism of pure number, being Kether by Aiq Bkr>; also Malkuth multiplied by itself>, and thus established in the phenomenal universe. But, moreover, this number 100 mysteriously indicate s the Magical formula of the Universe as a reverberatory engine for the extensi on of Nothingness through the device of equilibrated opposites.> It is moreover the value of the letter Qoph, which means "the back of the he ad", the cerebellum, where the creative or reproductive force is primarily situ ated. Qoph in the Tarot is "the Moon", a card suggesting illusion, yet shewing counterpartal forces operating in darkness, and the Winged Beetle or Midnight Sun in his Bark travelling through the Nadir. Its Yetziratic attribution is Pi sces, symbolic of the positive and negative currents of fluidic energy, the mal e Ichthus or "Pesce" and the female Vesica, seeking respectively the anode and kathode. The number 100 is therefore a synthetic glyph of the subtle energies employed in creating the Illusion, or Reflection of Reality, which we call mani fested existence. The above are the principal considerations in the matter of AUMGN. They sho uld suffice to illustrate to the student the methods employed in the constructi on of the hieroglyphics of Magick, and to arm him with a mantra of terrific pow er by virtue whereof he may apprehend the Universe, and control in himself i ts Karmic consequences. {49} VI THE MAGICAL MEMORY.> I There is no more important task than the exploration of one's previous incarna tions>. As Zoroaster says: "Explore the river of the soul; whence and in what order thou has come." One cannot do one's True Will intelligently unless one kn ows what it is. Liber Thisarb, Equinox I, VII, give instructions for determini ng this by calculating the resultant of the forces which have made one what one is. But this practice is confined to one's present incarnation. If one were to wake up in a boat on a strange river, it would be rash to con clude that the direction of the one reach visible was that of the whole stream. It would help very much if one remembered the bearings of previous reaches tr aversed before one's nap. It would further relieve one's anxiety when one beca me aware that a uniform and constant force was the single determinant of all th e findings of the stream: gravitation. We could rejoice "that even the wearies t river winds somewhere safe to sea." Liber Thisarb describes a method of obtaining the Magical Memory by learning t o remember backwards. But the careful {50} practice of Dharana is perhaps more generally useful. As one prevents the more accessible thoughts from arising, we strike deeper strata --- memories of childhood reawaken. Still deeper lies a class of thoughts whose origin puzzles us. Some of these apparently belong t o former incarnations. By cultivating these departments of one's mind we can d evelop them; we become expert; we form an organized coherence of these original ly disconnected elements; the faculty grows with astonishing rapidity, once the knack of the business is mastered. It is much easier (for obvious reasons) to acquire the Magical Memory when o ne has been sworn for many lives to reincarnate immediately. The great obstacl e is the phenomenon called Freudian forgetfulness; that is to say, that, though an unpleasant event may be recorded faithfully enough by the mechanism of the brain, we fail to recall it, or recall it wrong, because it is painful. "The P sychopathology of Everyday Life" analyses and illustrates this phenomenon in de tail. Now, the King of Terrors being Death, it is hard indeed to look it in th e face. Mankind has created a host of phantastic masks; people talk of "going to heaven", "passing over", and so on; banners flaunted from pasteboard towers of baseless theories. One instinctively flinches from remembering one's last, as one does from imagining one's next, death.> The point of view of the initia te helps one immensely. As soon as one has passed this Pons Asinorum, the practice becomes much easier . It is much less trouble to reach the life before the last; familiarity with death breeds contempt for it. It is a very great assistance to the beginner if he happens to have some int ellectual grounds for identifying himself with some definite person in the imme diate past. A brief account of Aleister Crowley's good fortune in this matter should be instructive. It will be seen that the points of contact vary greatly in character. 1. The date of Eliphas Levi's death was about six months previous to that of Aleister Crowley's birth. The reincarnating ego is supposed to take possessio n of the foetus at about this stage of development. {51} 2. Eliphas Levi had a striking personal resemblance to Aleister Crowley's fa ther. This of course merely suggests a certain degree of suitability from a ph ysical point of view. 3. Aleister Crowley wrote a play called "The Fatal Force" at a time when he had not read any of Eliphas Levi's works. The motive of this play is a Magical Operation of a very peculiar kind. The formula which Aleister Crowley suppose d to be his original idea is mentioned by Levi. We have not been able to trace it anywhere else with such exact correspondence in every detail. 4. Aleister Crowley found a certain quarter of Paris incomprehensibly famili ar and attractive to him. This was not the ordinary phenomenon of the "deja vu ", it was chiefly a sense of being at home again. He discovered long after tha t Levi had lived in the neighbourhood for many years. 5. There are many curious similarities between the events of Eliphas Levi's life and that of Aleister Crowley. The intention of the parents that their son should have a religious career; the inability to make use of very remarkable t alents in any regular way; the inexplicable ostracism which afflicted him, and whose authors seemed somehow to be ashamed of themselves; the events relative t o marriage>: all these offer surprisingly close parallels. 6. The characters of the two men present subtle identities in many points. Both seem to be constantly trying to reconcile insuperable antagonisms. Both f ind it hard to destroy the delusion that men's fixed beliefs and customs may be radically altered by a few friendly explanations. Both show a curious fondnes s for out-the-way learning, preferring recondite sources of knowledge they adop t eccentric appearances. Both inspire what can only be called panic fear in ab solute strangers, who can give no reason whatever for a repulsion which sometim es almost amounts to {52} temporary insanity. The ruling passion in each case is that of helping humanity. Both show quixotic disregard of their personal pr osperity, and even comfort, yet both display love of luxury and splendour. Bot h have the pride of Satan. 7. When Aleister Crowley became Frater Omicron-Upsilon Mu-Eta and had to wr ite his thesis for the grade of Adeptus Exemptus, he had already collected his ideas when Levi's "Clef des Grands Mysteres" fell into his hands. It was remar kable that he, having admired Levi for many years, and even begun to suspect th e identity, had not troubled (although an extravagant buyer of books) to get th is particular work. He found, to his astonishment, that almost everything that he had himself intended to say was there written. The result of this was that he abandoned writing his original work, and instead translated the masterpiece in question. 8. The style of the two men is strikingly similar in numerous subtle and dee p-seated ways. The general point of view is almost identical. The quality of the irony is the same. Both take a perverse pleasure in playing practical joke s on the reader. In one point, above all, the identity is absolute --- there i s no third name in literature which can be put in the same class. The point is this: In a single sentence is combined sublimity and enthusiasm with sneering bitterness, scepticism, grossness and scorn. It is evidently the supreme enjoy ment to strike a chord composed of as many conflicting elements as possible. T he pleasure seems to be derived from gratifying the sense of power, the power t o compel every possible element of thought to contribute to the spasm. If the theory of reincarnation were generally accepted, the above considerat ions would make out a strong case. FRATER PERDURABO was quite convinced in one part of his mind of this identity, long before he got any actual memories as s uch.> II Unless one has a groundwork of this sort to start with, one must get back to one's life as best one can by the methods above indicated. {53} It may be of some assistance to give a few characteristics of genuine Magical Memory; to men tion a few sources of error, and to lay down critical rules for the verificatio n of one's results. The first great danger arises from vanity. One should always beware of "rem embering" that one was Cleopatra or Shakespeare. Again, superficial resemblances are usually misleading. One of the great tests of the genuineness of any recollection is that one re members the really important things in one's life, not those which mankind comm only classes as such. For instance, Aleister Crowley does not remember any of the decisive events in the life of Eliphas Levi. He recalls intimate trivialit ies of childhood. He has a vivid recollection of certain spiritual crises; in particular, one which was fought out as he paced up and down a lonely stretch o f road in a flat and desolate district. He remembers ridiculous incidents, suc h as often happen at suppers when the conversation takes a turn such that its g aiety somehow strikes to the soul, and one receives a supreme revelation which is yet perfectly inarticulate. He has forgotten his marriage and its tragic re sults>, although the plagiarism which Fate has been shameless enough to perpetr ate in this present life, would naturally, one might think, reopen the wound. There is a sense which assures us intuitively when we are running on a scent breast high. There is an "oddness" about the memory which is somehow annoying . It gives a feeling of shame and guiltiness. There is a tendency to blush. One feels like a schoolboy caught red-handed in the act of writing poetry. The re is the same sort of feeling as one has when one finds a faded photograph or a lock of hair twenty years old among the rubbish in some forgotten cabinet. T his feeling is independent of the question whether the thing remembered was in itself a source of pleasure or of pain. Can it be that we resent the idea of o ur "previous condition of servitude"? We want to forget the past, however good reason we may have to be proud of it. It is well known that many men are emba rrassed in the presence of a monkey. {54} When the "loss of face" does not occur, distrust the accuracy of the item wh ich you recall, The only reliable recollections which present themselves with serenity are invariably connected with what men call disasters. Instead of the feeling of being caught in the slips, one has that of being missed at the wick et. One has the sly satisfaction of having done an outrageously foolish thing and got off scot free. When one sees life in perspective, it is an immense rel ief to discover that things like bankruptcy, wedlock, and the gallows made no p articular difference. They were only accidents such as might happen to anybody ; they had no real bearing on the point at issue. One consequently remembers h aving one's ears cropped as a lucky escape, while the causal jest of a drunken skeinsmate in an all-night cafe stings one with the shame of the parvenu to who m a polite stranger has unsuspectingly mentioned "Mine Uncle". The testimony of intuitions is, however, strictly subjective, and shrieks fo r collateral security. It would be a great error to ask too much. In conseque nce of the peculiar character of the recollections which are under the microsco pe, anything in the shape of gross confirmation almost presumes perjury. A pat hologist would arouse suspicion if he said that his bacilli had arranged themse lves on the slide so as to spell Staphylococcus. We distrust an arrangement of flowers which tells us that "Life is worth living in Detroit, Michigan". Supp ose that Aleister Crowley remembers that he was Sir Edward Kelly. It does not follow that he will be able to give us details of Cracow in the time of James I of England. Material events are the words of an arbitrary language; the symbo ls of a cipher previously agreed on. What happened to Kelly in Cracow may have meant something to him, but there is no reason to presume that it has any mean ing for his successor. There is an obvious line of criticism about any recollection. It must not c lash with ascertained facts. For example --- one cannot have two lives which o verlap, unless there is reason to suppose that the earlier died spiritually bef ore his body ceased to breathe. This might happen in certain cases, such as in sanity. It is not conclusive against a previous incarnation that the present should be inferior to the past. One's life may represent the full possibilities of a certain partial Karma. One may have {55} devoted one's incarnation to discharg ing the liabilities of one part of one's previous character. For instance, one might devote a lifetime to settling the bill run up by Napoleon for causing un necessary suffering, with the object of starting afresh, clear of debt, in a li fe devoted to reaping the reward of the Corsican's invaluable services to the r ace. The Master Therion, in fact, remembers several incarnations of almost uncomp ensated wretchedness, anguish and humiliation, voluntarily undertaken so that he might resume his work unhampered by spiritual creditors. These are the stigmata. Memory is hall-marked by its correspondence with th e facts actually observed in the present. This correspondence may be of two ki nds. It is rare (and it is unimportant for the reasons stated above) that one' s memory should be confirmed by what may be called, contemptuously, external ev idence. It was indeed a reliable contribution to psychology to remark that an evil and adulterous generation sought for a sign. (Even so, the permanent value of the observation is to trace the genealogy o f the Pharisee --- from Caiaphas to the modern Christian.) Signs mislead, from "Painless Dentistry" upwards. The fact that anything is intelligible proves that it is addressed to the wrong quarter, because the ver y existence of language presupposes impotence to communicate directly. When Wa lter Raleigh flung his cloak upon the muddy road, he merely expressed, in a cip her contrived by a combination of circumstances, his otherwise inexpressible wi sh to get on good terms with Queen Elizabeth. The significance of his action w as determined by the concourse of circumstances. The reality can have no reaso n for reproducing itself exclusively in that especial form. It can have no rea son for remembering that so extravagant a ritual happened to be necessary to wo rship. Therefore, however well a man might remember his incarnation as Julius Caesar, there is no necessity for his representing his power to set all upon th e hazard of a die by imagining the Rubicon. Any spiritual state can be symboli zed by an infinite variety of actions in an infinite variety of circumstances. One should recollect only those events which happen to {56} be immediately lin ked with one's peculiar tendencies to imagine one thing rather than another.> Genuine recollections almost invariably explain oneself to oneself. Suppose , for example, that you feel an instinctive aversion to some particular kind of wine. Try as you will, you can find no reason for your idiosyncrasy. Suppose , then, that when you explore some previous incarnation, you remember that you died by a poison administered in a wine of that character, your aversion is exp lained by the proverb, "A burnt child dreads the fire." It may be objected tha t in such a case your libido has created a phantasm of itself in the manner whi ch Freud has explained. The criticism is just, but its value is reduced if it should happen that you were not aware of its existence until your Magical Memor y attracted your attention to it. In fact, the essence of the test consists in this: that your memory notifies you of something which is the logical conclusi on of the premisses postulated by the past. As an example, we may cite certain memories of the Master Therion. He follo wed a train of thought which led him to remember his life as a Roman named Mari us de Aquila. It would be straining probability to presume a connection betwee n (alpha) this hieroglyphically recorded mode of self-analysis and (beta) ordin ary introspection conducted on principles intelligible to himself. He remember s directly various people and various events connected with this incarnation; a nd they are in themselves to all appearance actual. There is no particular rea son why they, rather than any others, should have entered his sphere. In the a ct of remembering them, they are absolute. He can find no reason for correlati ng them with anything in the present. But a subsequent examination of the reco rd shows that the logical result of the Work of Marius de Aquila did not occur to that romantic reprobate; in point of fact, he died before anything could hap pen. Can we suppose that any cause can be baulked of effect? The Universe is unanimous in rebuttal. If then the exact effects which might be expected to re sult from these causes are manifested in the career {57} of the Master Therion, it is assuredly the easiest and most reasonable explanation to assume an ident ity between the two men. Nobody is shocked to observe that the ambition of Nap oleon has diminished the average stature of Frenchmen. We know that somehow or other every force must find its fulfilment; and those people who have grasped the fact that external events are merely symptoms of external ideas, cannot fin d any difficulty in attributing the correspondences of the one to the identitie s of the other. Far be it from any apologist for Magick to insist upon the objective validit y of these concatenations! It would be childish to cling to the belief that Ma rius de Aquila actually existed; it matters no more that it matters to the math ematician whether the use of the symbol X to the 22 power involves the "realit y" of 22 dimension of space. The Master Therion does not care a scrap of yeste rday's newspaper whether he was Marius de Aquila, or whether there ever was suc h a person, or whether the Universe itself is anything more than a nightmare cr eated by his own imprudence in the matter of rum and water. His memory of Mari us de Aquila, of the adventures of that person in Rome and the Black Forest, ma tters nothing, either to him or to anybody else. What matters is this: True or false, he has found a symbolic form which has enabled him to govern himself to the best advantage. "Quantum nobis prodest hec fabula Christi!" The "falsity" of Aesop's Fables does not diminish their value to mankind. The above reduction of the Magical Memory to a device for externalizing one's interior wisdom need not be regarded as sceptical, save only in the last resort . No scientific hypothesis can adduce stronger evidence of its validity than t he confirmation of its predictions by experimental evidence. The objective can always be expressed in subjective symbols if necessary. The controversy is ul timately unmeaning. However we interpret the evidence, its relative truth depe nds in its internal coherence. We may therefore say that any magical recollect ion is genuine if it gives the explanation of our external or internal conditio ns. Anything which throws light upon the Universe, anything which reveals us t o ourselves, should be welcome in this world of riddles. As our record extends into the past, the evidence of its truth is cumulative . Every incarnation that we remember must increase {58} our comprehension of o urselves as we are. Each accession of knowledge must indicate with unmistakabl e accuracy the solution of some enigma which is propounded by the Sphynx of our own unknown birth-city, Thebes. The complicated situation in which we find ou rselves is composed of elements; and no element of it came out of nothing. New ton's First Law applies to every plane of thought. The theory of evolution is omniform. There is a reason for one's predisposition to gout, or the shape of one's ear, in the past. The symbolism may change; the facts do not. In one fo rm or another, everything that exists is derived from some previous manifestati on. Have it, if you will, that the memories of other incarnations are dreams; but dreams are determined by reality just as much as the events of the day. Th e truth is to be apprehended by the correct translation of the symbolic languag e. The last section of the Oath of the Master of the Temple is: "I swear to in terpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my soul." The Mag ical Memory is (in the last analysis) one manner, and, as experience testifies, one of the most important manners, of performing this vow. ------------- {59} CHAPTER VIII OF EQUILIBRIUM, AND OF THE GENERAL AND PARTICULAR METHOD OF PREPARATION OF THE FURNITURE OF THE TEMPLE AND OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF ART. I "Before there was equilibrium, countenance beheld not countenance."> So say eth the holiest of the Books of the ancient Qabalah. (Siphra Tzeniutha 1. 2.) One countenance here spoken of is the Macrocosm, the other the Microcosm.> As said above, the object of any magick ceremony is to unite the Macrocosm a nd the Microcosm. It is as in optics; the angles of incidence and reflection are equal. You m ust get your Macrocosm and Microcosm exactly balanced, vertically and horizonta lly, or the images will not coincide. This equilibrium is affirmed by the magician in arranging the Temple. Nothi ng must be lop-sided. If you have anything in the North, you must put somethin g equal and opposite to it in the South. The importance of this is so great, a nd the truth of it so obvious, that no one with the most mediocre capacity {60} for magick can tolerate any unbalanced object for a moment. His instinct inst antly revolts.>. For this reason the weapons, altar, circle, and magus are all carefully proportioned one with another. It will not do to have a cup like a thimble and a wand like a weaver's beam.> Again, the arrangement of the weapons of the altar must be such that they "l ook" balanced. Nor should the magician have any unbalanced ornament. If he ha ve the wand in his right hand, let him have the Ring> on his left, or let him t ake the Ankh, or the Bell, or the Cup. And however little he move to the right , let him balance it by an equivalent movement to the left; or if forwards, bac kwards; and let him correct each idea by implying the contradictory contained t herein. If he invoke Severity, let him recount that Severity is the instrument of Mercy;> if Stability, let him show the basis of that Stability to be consta nt change, just as the stability of a molecule is secured by the momentum of th e swift atoms contained in it.> In this way let every idea go forth as a triangle on the base of two opposit es, making an apex transcending their contradiction in a higher harmony. It is not safe to use any thought in Magick, unless that thought has been th us equilibrated and destroyed. Thus again with the instruments themselves; the Wand must be ready to change into a Serpent, the Pantacle into the whirling Svastika or Disk of Jove, as if to fulfil the functions of the Sword. {61} The Cross is both the death of the "Saviour"> and the Phallic symbol of Resurrection. Will itself must be ready to culminate in the surrender of that Will:> the aspiration's arrow that is sho t against the Holy Dove must transmute itself into the wondering Virgin that re ceives in her womb the quickening of that same Spirit of God. Any idea that is thus in itself positive and negative, active and passive, m ale and female, is fit to exist above the Abyss; any idea not so equilibrated i s below the Abyss, contains in itself an unmitigated duality or falsehood, and is to that extent qliphotic> and dangerous. Even an idea like "truth" is unsaf e unless it is realized that all Truth is in one sense falsehood. For all Trut h is relative; and if it be supposed absolute, will mislead.> "The Book of Lie s falsely so called" (Liber 333) is worthy of close and careful study in this r espect. The reader should also consult Konx Om Pax, "Introduction", and "Thien Tao" in the same volume. All this is to be expressed in the words of the ritual itself, and symbolise d in every act performed. II It is said in the ancient books of Magick that everything used by the Magici an must be "virgin". That is: it must never have been used by any other person or for any other purpose. The {62} greatest importance was attached by the Ad epts of old to this, and it made the task of the Magician no easy one. He want ed a wand; and in order to cut and trim it he needed a knife. It was not suffi cient merely to buy a new knife; he felt that he had to make it himself. In or der to make the knife, he would require a hundred other things, the acquisition of each of which might require a hundred more; and so on. This shows the impo ssibility of disentangling one's self from one's environment. Even in Magick w e cannot get on without the help of others.> There was, however, a further object in this recommendation. The more troub le and difficulty your weapon costs, the more useful you will find it. "If you want a thing well done, do it yourself." It would be quite useless to take th is book to a department store, and instruct them to furnish you a Temple accord ing to specification. It is really worth the while of the Student who requires a sword to go and dig out iron ore from the earth, to smelt it himself with ch arcoal that he has himself prepared, to forge the weapon with his own hand: and even to take the trouble of synthesizing the oil of virtiol with which it is e ngraved. He will have learnt a lot of useful things in his attempt to make a r eally virgin sword; he will understand how one thing depends upon another; he w ill begin to appreciate the meaning of the words "the harmony of the Universe", so often used so stupidly and superficially by the ordinary apologist for Natu re, and he will also perceive the true operation of the law of Karma.> Another notable injunction of the ancient Magick was that whatever appertained to the Work should be "single". The Wand was to be cut with a single stroke o f the knife. There must be no {63} boggling and hacking at things, no clumsine ss and no hesitation. If you strike a blow at all, strike with your strength! "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might!" If you are goi ng to take up Magick, make no compromise. You cannot make revolutions with ros e-water, or wrestle in a silk hat. You will find very soon that you must eithe r lose the hat or stop wrestling. Most people do both. They take up the magic al path without sufficient reflection, without that determination of adamant wh ich made the author of this book exclaim, as he took the first oath, "PERDURABO " --- "I will endure unto the end!"> They start on it at a great pace, and the n find that their boots are covered with mud. Instead of persisting, they go b ack to Piccadilly. Such persons have only themselves to thank if the very stre et-boys mock at them. Another recommendation was this: buy whatever may be necessary without haggl ing! You must not try to strike a proportion between the values of incommensurabl e things.> The least of the Magical Instruments is worth infinitely more than all that you possess, or if you like, than all that you stupidly suppose yourse lf to possess. Break this rule, and the usual Nemesis of the half-hearted awai ts you. Not only do you get inferior instruments, but you lose in some other w ay what you thought you were so clever to have saved. Remember Ananias!> On the other hand, if you purchase without haggling you will find that along with your purchase the vendor has thrown in {64} the purse of Fortunatus. No matter in what extremity you may seem to be, at the last moment your difficulti es will be solved. For there is no power either of the firmament of the ether, or of the earth or under the earth, on dry land or in the water, of whirling a ir or of rushing fire, or any spell or scourge of God which is not obedient to the necessity of the Magician! That which he has, he has not; but that which h e is, he is; and that which he will be, he will be. And neither God nor Man, n or all the malice of Choronzon, can either check him, or cause him to waver for one instant upon the Path. This command and this promise have been given by a ll the Magi without exception. And where this command has been obeyed, this pr omise has been most certainly fulfilled. III In all actions the same formulae are applicable. To invoke a god, i.e. to r aise yourself to that godhead, the process is threefold, PURIFICATION, CONSECRA TION and INITIATION. Therefore every magical weapon, and even the furniture of the Temple, must b e passed through this threefold regimen. The details only vary on inessential points. E.G. to prepare the magician, he purifies himself by maintaining his c hastity> and abstaining from any defilement. But to do the same with, let us s ay, the Cup, we assure ourselves that the metal has never been employed for any other purpose --- we smelt virgin ore, and we take all possible pains in refin ing the metal --- it must be chemically pure. To sum up this whole matter in a phrase, every article employed is treated as if it were a candidate for initiation; but in those parts of the ritual in whic h the candidate is blindfolded, we wrap the weapon in a black cloth>. The oath which he takes is replaced by a "charge" in similar terms. The details of the preparation of each weapon should be thought out carefully by the magician. { 65} Further, the attitude of the magician to his weapons should be that of the G od to the suppliant who invokes Him. It should be the love of the father for h is child, the tenderness and care of the bridegroom for his bride, and that pec uliar feeling which the creator of every work of art feels for his masterpiece. Where this is clearly understood, the magician will find no difficulty in obse rving the proper ritual, not only in the actual ceremonial consecration of each weapon, but in the actual preparation, a process which should adumbrate this c eremony; e.g., the magician will cut the wand from the tree, will strip it of l eaves and twigs, will remove the bark. He will trim the ends nearly, and smoot h down the knots: --- this is the banishing. He will then rub it with the consecrated oil until it becomes smooth and gli stening and golden. He will then wrap it in silk of the appropriate colour: -- - this is the Consecration. He will then take it, and imagine that it is that hollow tube in which Prome theus brought down fire from heaven, formulating to himself the passing of the Holy Influence through it. In this and other ways he will perform the initiati on; and, this being accomplished, he will repeat the whole process in an elabor ate ceremony.> To take an entirely different case, that of the Circle; the magician will sy nthesize the Vermilion required from Mercury an Sulphur which he has himself su blimated. This pure {66} vermilion he will himself mix with the consecrated oi l, and as he uses this paint he will think intently and with devotion of the sy mbols which he draws. This circle may then be initiated by a circumambulation, during which the magician invokes the names of God that are on it. Any person without sufficient ingenuity to devise proper methods of preparat ion for the other articles required is unlikely to make much of a magician; and we shall only waste space if we deal in detail with the preparation of each in strument. There is a definite instruction in Liber A vel Armorum, in the Equinox, Volu me I, Number IV, as to the Lamp and the Four Elemental Weapons. ------------- {67} CHAPTER IX OF SILENCE AND SECRECY: AND OF THE BARBAROUS NAMES OF EVOCATION. It is found by experience (confirming the statement of Zoroaster) that the m ost potent conjurations are those in an ancient and perhaps forgotten language, or even those couched in a corrupt and possibly always meaningless jargon. Of these there are several main types. The "preliminary invocation" in the "Goet ia" consists principally of corruptions of Greek and Egyptian names. For examp le, we find "Osorronnophris" for "Asor Un-Nefer".> The conjurations given by D r. Dee (vide Equinox I, VIII) are in a language called Angelic, or Enochian. I ts source has hitherto baffled research, but it is a language and not a jargon, for it possesses a structure of its own, and there are traces of grammar and s yntax. However this may be, it "works". Even the beginner finds that "things happe n" when he uses it: and this is an advantage --- or disadvantage! ---- shared b y no other type of language,. The rest need skill. This needs Prudence! The Egyptian Invocations are much purer, but their meaning has not been suff iciently studied by persons magically competent. We possess a number of Invoca tions in Greek of every degree of excellence; in Latin but few, and those of in ferior quality. It will be noticed that in every case the conjurations are ver y sonorous, {68} and there is a certain magical voice in which they should be r ecited. This special voice was a natural gift of the Master Therion; but it ca n be easily taught --- to the right people. Various considerations impelled Him to attempt conjurations in the English l anguage. There already existed one example, the charm of the witches in Macbet h; although this was perhaps not meant seriously, its effect is indubitable.> He has found iambic tetrameters enriched with many rimes both internal an exte rnal very useful. "The Wizard Way" (Equinox I,I) gives a good idea of the sort of thing. So does the Evocation of Bartzabel in Equinox I,IX. There are many extant invocations throughout his works, in many kinds of metre, of many kinds of being, and for many kinds of purposes. (See Appendix). Other methods of incantation are on record as efficacious. For instance Fra ter I.A., when a child, was told that he could invoke the devil by repeating th e "Lord's Prayer" backwards. He went into the garden and did so. The Devil ap peared, and almost scared him out of his life. It is therefore not quite certain in what the efficacy of conjurations really lies. The peculiar mental excitement required may even be aroused by the perce ption of the absurdity of the process, and the persistence in it, as when once FRATER PERDURABO (at the end of His magical resources) recited "From Greenland' s Icy Mountains", and obtained His result.> It may be conceded in any case that the long strings of formidable words whi ch roar and moan through so many conjurations have a real effect in exalting th e consciousness of the magician to the proper pitch --- that they should do so is no more extraordinary than music of any kind should do so. Magicians have not confined themselves to the use of the human voice. The Pan -pipe with its seven stops, corresponding to the seven planets, the bull-roarer , the tom-tom, and even the violin, have all been used, as well as many others, of which the {69} most important is the bell>, though this is used not so much for actual conjuration as to mark stages in the ceremony. Of all these the to m-tom will be found to be the most generally useful. While on the subject of barbarous names of evocation we should not omit the utterance of certain supreme words which enshrine (alpha) the complete formula of the God invoked, or (beta) the whole ceremony. Examples of the former kind are Tetragrammaton, I.A.O., and Abrahadabra. An example of the latter kind is the great word StiBeTTChePhMeFSHiSS, which is a line drawn on the Tree of Life (Coptic attributions) in a certain manner.> With all such words it is of the utmost importance that they should never be spoken until the supreme moment, and even then they should burst from the magi cian almost despite himself --- so great should be his reluctance> to utter the m. In fact, they should be the utterance of the God in him at the first onset of the divine possession. So uttered, they cannot fail of effect, for they hav e become the effect. Every wise magician will have constructed (according to the principles of th e Holy Qabalah) many such words, and he should have quintessentialised them all in one Word, which last Word, once he has formed it, he should never utter con sciously even in thought, until perhaps with it he gives up the ghost. Such a Word should in fact be so potent that man cannot hear it and live. {70} Such a word was indeed the lost Tetragrammaton>. It is said that at the utt erance of this name the Universe crashes into dissolution. Let the Magician ea rnestly seek this Lost Word, for its pronunciation is synonymous with the accom plishment of the Great Work.> In this matter of the efficacity of words there are again two formulae exactly opposite in nature. A word may become potent and terrible by virtue of consta nt repetition. It is in this way that most religions gain strength. At first the statement "So and so is God" excites no interest. Continue, and you meet s corn and scepticism: possibly persecution. Continue, and the controversy has s o far died out that no one troubles to contradict your assertion. No superstition is so dangerous and so lively as an exploded superstition. The newspapers of to-day (written and edited almost exclusively by men without a spark of either religion or morality) dare not hint that any one disbelieves in the ostensibly prevailing cult; they deplore Atheism --- all but universal i n practice and implicit in the theory of practically all intelligent people --- as if it were the eccentricity of a few negligible or objectionable persons. This is the ordinary story of advertisement; the sham has exactly the same chan ce as the real. Persistence is the only quality required for success. The opposite formula is that of secrecy. An idea is perpetuated because it must never be mentioned. A freemason never forgets the secret words entrusted to him, thought these words mean absolutely nothing to him, in the vast majorit y of cases; the only reason for this is that he has been forbidden to mention t hem, although they have been published again and again, and are as accessible t o the profane as to the initiate. In such a work of practical Magick as the preaching of a new {71} Law, these methods may be advantageously combined; on the one hand infinite frankness and readiness to communicate all secrets; on the other the sublime and terrible kn owledge that all real secrets are incommunicable.> It is, according to tradition, a certain advantage in conjurations to employ more than one language. In all probability the reason of this is than any cha nge spurs the flagging attention. A man engaged in intense mental labour will frequently stop and walk up and down the room --- one may suppose for this caus e --- but it is a sign of weakness that this should be necessary. For the begi nner in Magick, however, it is permissible> to employ any device to secure the result. Conjurations should be recited, not read:> and the entire ceremony should be so perfectly performed that one is hardly conscious of any effort of memory. The ceremony should be constructed with such logical fatality that a mistake is impossible.> The conscious ego of the Magician is to be destroyed to be absor bed in that of the God whom he invokes, and the process should not interfere wi th the automation who is performing the ceremony. But this ego of which it is here spoken is the true ultimate ego. The autom aton should possess will, energy, intelligence, reason, and resource. This aut omaton should be the perfect man far more {72} than any other man can be. It i s only the divine self within the man, a self as far above the possession of wi ll or any other qualities whatsoever as the heavens are high above the earth, t hat should reabsorb itself into that illimitable radiance of which it is a spar k.> The great difficulty for the single Magician is so to perfect himself that t hese multifarious duties of the Ritual are adequately performed. At first he w ill find that the exaltation destroys memory and paralyses muscle. This is an essential difficulty of the magical process, and can only be overcome by practi ce and experience.> In order to aid concentration, and to increase the supply of Energy, it has been customary for the Magician to employ assistants or colleagues. It is doub tful whether the obvious advantages of this plan compensate the difficulty of p rocuring suitable persons>, and the chance of a conflict of will or a misunders tanding in the circle itself. On one occasion FRATER PERDURABO was disobeyed b y an assistant, and had it not been for His promptitude in using the physical c ompulsion of the sword, it is probable that the circle would have been broken. As it was, the affair fortunately terminated in nothing more serious than the destruction of the culprit. However, there is no doubt that an assemblage of persons who really are in h armony can much more easily produce an effect than a magician working by himsel f. The psychology of "Revival meetings" will be familiar to almost every one, and though such {73} meetings> are the foulest and most degraded rituals of bla ck magic, the laws of Magick are not thereby suspended. The laws of Magick are the laws of Nature. A singular and world-famous example of this is of sufficiently recent date t o be fresh in the memory of many people now living. At a nigger camp meeting i n the "United" States of America, devotees were worked up to such a pitch of ex citement that the whole assembly developed a furious form of hysteria. The com paratively intelligible cries of "Glory" and "Hallelujah" no longer expressed t he situation. Somebody screamed out "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!", and this was taken up by the whole meeting and yelled continuously, until reaction set in. The a ffair got into the papers, and some particularly bright disciple of John Stuart Mill, logician and economist, thought that these words, having set one set of fools crazy, might do the same to all the other fools in the world. He accordi ngly wrote a song, and produced the desired result. This is the most notorious example of recent times of the power exerted by a barbarous name of evocation. A few words may be useful to reconcile the general notion of Causality with that of Magick. How can we be sure that a person waving a stick and howling th ereby produces thunderstorms? In no other way than that familiar to Science; w e note that whenever we put a lighted match to dry gunpowder, an unintelligibly arbitrary phenomenon, that of sound, is observed; and so forth. We need not dwell upon this point; but it seems worth while to answer one of the objections to the possibility of Magick, chosing one which is at first sig ht of an obviously "fatal" character. It is convenient to quote verbatim from the Diary> of a distinguished Magician and philosopher. "I have noticed that the effect of a Magical Work has followed {74} it so cl osely that it must have been started before the time of the Work. E.g. I work to-night to make X in Paris write to me. I get the letter the next morning, so that it must have been written before the Work. Does this deny that the Work caused the effect? "If I strike a billiard-ball and it moves, both my will and its motion are d ue to causes long antecedent to the act. I may consider both my Work and its r eaction as twin effects of the eternal Universe. The moved arm and ball are pa rts of a state of the Cosmos which resulted necessarily from its momentarily pr evious state, and so, back for ever. "Thus, my Magical Work is only one of the cause-effects necessarily concomit ant with the case-effects which set the ball in motion. I may therefore regard the act of striking as a cause-effect of my original Will to move the ball, th ough necessarily previous to its motion. But the case of magical Work is not q uite analogous. For my nature is such that I am compelled to perform Magick in order to make my will to prevail; so that the cause of my doing the Work is al so the cause of the ball's motion, and there is no reason why one should preced e the other. (CF. "Lewis Carroll," where the Red Queen screams before she pric ks her finger.) "Let me illustrate the theory by an actual example. "I write from Italy to a man in France and another in Australia on the same day, telling them to join me. Both arrive ten days later; the first in answer to my letter, which he received, the second on "his own initiative", as it woul d seem. But I summoned him because I wanted him; and I wanted him because he w as my representative; and his intelligence made him resolve to join me because it judged rightly that the situation (so far as he knew it) was such as to make me desire his presence. "The same cause, therefore, which made me write to him made him come to me; and though it would be improper to say that the writing of the letter was the d irect cause of his arrival, it is evident that if I had not written I should ha ve been different from what I actually am, and therefore my relations with him would have been otherwise than they are. In this sense, therefore, the letter and the journey are causally connected. "One cannot go farther, and say that in this case I ought to write the lette r even if he had arrived before I did so; for it {75} is part of the whole set of circumstance that I do not use a crowbar on an open door. "The conclusion is that one should do one's Will 'without lust of result'. If one is working in accordance with the laws of one's own nature, one is doing 'right'; and no such work can be criticised as 'useless', even in cases of the character here discussed. So long as one's Will prevails, there is no cause f or complaint. "To abandon one's Magick would shew lack of self-confidence in one's powers, and doubt as to one's inmost faith in Self and in Nature.> Of course one chan ges one's methods as experience indicates; but there is no need to change them on any such ground as the above. "Further, the argument here set forth disposes of the need to explain the "m odus operandi" of Magick. A successful operation does not involve any theory s oever, not even that of the existence of causality itself. The whole set of ph enomena may be conceived as single. "For instance, if I see a star (as it was years ago) I need not assume causa l relations as existing between it, the earth, and myself. The connexion exist s; I can predicate nothing beyond that. I cannot postulate purpose, or even de termine the manner in which the event comes to be. Similarly, when I do Magick , it is in vain to inquire why I so act, or why the desired result does or does not follow. Nor can I know how the previous and subsequent conditions are con nected. At most I can describe the consciousness which I interpret as a pictur e of the facts, and make empirical generalizations of the superficial aspects o f the case. "Thus, I have my own personal impressions of the act of telephoning; but I can not be aware of what consciousness, electricity, mechanics, sound, etc., actual ly are in themselves. And although I can appeal to experience to lay down 'law s' as to what {76} conditions accompany the act, I can never be sure that they have always been, or ever will again be, identical. (In fact, it is certain th at an event can never occur twice in precisely the same circumstances.)> "Further, my 'laws; must always take nearly all the more important elements of knowledge for granted. I cannot say --- finally --- how an electric current i s generated. I cannot be sure that some totally unsuspected force is not at wo rk in some entirely arbitrary way. For example, it was formerly supposed that Hydrogen and Chlorine would unite when an electric spark was passed through the mixture; now we 'know' that the presence of a minute quantity of aqueous vapou r (or some tertium quid) is essential to the reaction. We formulated before th e days of Ross the 'laws' of malarial fever, without reference to the mosquito; we might discover one day that the germ is only active when certain events are transpiring in some nebula>, or when so apparently inert a substance as Argon is present in the air in certain proportions. "We may therefore admit quite cheerfully that Magick is as mysterious as mat hematics, as empirical as poetry, as uncertain as golf, and as dependent on the personal equation as Love. "That is no reason why we should not study, practice and enjoy it; for it is a Science in exactly the same sense as biology; it is no less an Art that Scul pture; and it is a Sport as much as Mountaineering. "Indeed, there seems to be no undue presumption in urging that no Science po ssesses equal possibilities of deep and important Knowledge;>that no Art offers such opportunities to the ambition {77} of the Soul to express its Truth, in E cstasy, through Beauty; and that no Sport rivals its fascinations of danger and delight, so excites, exercises, and tests its devotees to the uttermost, or so rewards them by well-being, pride, and the passionate pleasures of personal tr iumph. "Magick takes every thought and act for its apparatus; it has the Universe f or its Library and its Laboratory; all Nature is its Subject; and its Game, fre e from close seasons and protective restrictions, always abounds in infinite va riety, being all that exists.> {78} CHAPTER X OF THE GESTURES This chapter may be divided into the following parts: 1. Attitudes. 2. Circumambulations (and similar movements). 3. Changes of position (This depends upon the theory of the construction of the circle). 4. The Knocks or Knells. I Attitudes are of two Kinds: natural and artificial. Of the first kind, pros tration is the obvious example. It comes natural to man (poor creature!) to th row himself to the ground in the presence of the object of his adoration.> Intermediate between this and the purely artificial form of gesture comes a class which depends on acquired habit. Thus it is natural to an European offic er to offer his sword in token of surrender. A Tibetan would, however, squat, put out his tongue, and place his hand behind his right ear. Purely artificial gestures comprehend in their class the majority of definit ely magick signs, though some of these simulate a natural action --- e.g. the s ign of the Rending of the Veil. But the sign of Auramoth (see Equinox I, II, I llustration "The Signs of the Grades") merely imitates a hieroglyph which has o nly a remote connection with any fact in nature. All signs must of course be s tudied with infinite patience, and practised until the connection {79} between them and the mental attitude which they represent appears "necessary." II The principal movement in the circle is circumambulation.> This has a very definite result, but one which is very difficult to describe. An analogy is th e dynamo. Circumambulation properly performed in combination with the Sign of Horus (or "The Enterer") on passing the East is one of the best methods of arou sing the macrocosmic force in the Circle. It should never be omitted unless th ere be some special reason against it. A particular tread seems appropriate to it. This tread should be light and stealthy, almost furtive, and yet very purposeful. It is the pace of the tiger who stalks the deer. The number of circumambulations should of course correspond to the nature of the ceremony. Another important movement is the spiral, of which there are two principal f orms, one inward, one outward. They can be performed in either direction; and, like the circumambulation, if performed deosil> they invoke --- if widdershins > they banish>. In the spiral the tread is light and tripping, almost approxim ating to a dance: while performing it the magician will usually turn on his own axis, either in the same direction as {80} the spiral, or in the opposite dire ction. Each combination involves a different symbolism. There is also the dance proper; it has many different forms, each God having his special dance. One of the easiest and most effective dances is the ordina ry waltz-step combined with the three signs of L.V.X. It is much easier to att ain ecstasy in this way than is generally supposed. The essence of the process consists in the struggle of the Will against giddiness; but this struggle must be prolonged and severe, and upon the degree of this the quality and intensity of ecstasy attained may depend. With practice, giddiness is altogether conquered; exhaustion then takes its place and the enemy of Will. It is through the mutual destruction of these ant agonisms in the mental and moral being of the magician that Samadhi is begotten . III Good examples of the use of change of position are given in the manuscripts Z. 1 and Z.3;> explanatory of the Neophyte Ritual of the G.'. D.'., where the cand idate is taken to various stations in the Temple, each station having a symboli c meaning of its own; but in pure invocation a better example is given in Liber 831>. In the construction of a ceremony an important thing to decide is whether yo u will or will not make such movements. For every Circle has its natural symbo lism, and even if no use is to be made of these facts, one must be careful not to let anything be inharmonious with the natural attributions.> For the sensit ive aura of the magician might be disturbed, and the value of the ceremony comp letely destroyed, by the embarrassment caused by the discovery of some such err or, just as if a pre-occupied T-totaller found that he had strayed into a Templ e of the Demon Rum! It is therefore impossible to neglect the theory of the Ci rcle. {81} To take a simple example, suppose that, in an Evocation of Bartzabel, the pl anet Mars, whose sphere is Geburah (Severity) were situated (actually, in the h eavens) opposite to the Square of Chesed (Mercy) of the Tau in the Circle, and the triangle placed accordingly. It would be improper for the Magus to stand o n that Square unless using this formula, "I, from Chesed, rule Geburah through the Path of the Lion"; while --- taking an extreme case --- to stand on the squ are of Hod (which is naturally dominated by Geburah) would be a madness which o nly a formula of the very highest Magick could counteract. Certain positions, however, such as Tiphareth>, are so sympathetic to the Ma gus himself that he may use them without reference to the nature of the spirit, or of the operation; unless he requires an exceptionally precise spirit free o f all extraneous elements, or one whose nature is difficulty compatible with Ti phareth. To show how these positions may be used in conjunction with the spirals, sup pose that you are invoking Hathor, Goddess of Love, to descend upon the Altar. Standing on the square of Netzach you will make your invocation to Her, and th en dance an inward spiral deosil ending at the foot of the altar, where you sin k on your knees with your arms raised above the altar as if inviting Her embrac e.> To conclude, one may add that natural artistic ability, of you possess it, for ms an excellent guide. All Art is Magick. Isadora Duncan has this gift of gesture in a very high degree. Let the read er study her dancing; if possible rather in private than in public, and learn t he superb "unconsciousness" --- which is magical consciousness --- with which s he suits the action to the melody.> There is no more potent means than Art of calling forth true Gods to visible appearance. {82} IV. The knocks or knells are all of the same character. They may be described c ollectively --- the difference between them consists only in this, that the ins trument with which they are made seals them with its own special properties. I t is of no great importance (even so) whether they are made by clapping the han ds or stamping the feet, by strokes of one of the weapons, or by the theoretica lly appropriate instrument, the bell. It may nevertheless be admitted that the y become more important in the ceremony if the Magician considers it worth whil e to take up> an instrument whose single purpose is to produce them. Let it first be laid down that a knock asserts a connection between the Magici an and the object which he strikes. Thus the use of the bell, or of the hands, means that the Magician wishes to impress the atmosphere of the whole circle w ith what has been or is about to be done. He wishes to formulate his will in s ound, and radiate it in every direction; moreover, to influence that which live s by breath in the sense of his purpose, and to summon it to bear witness to hi s Word. The hands are used as symbols of his executive power, the bell to repr esent his consciousness exalted into music. To strike with the wand is to utte r the fiat of creation; the cup vibrates with his delight in receiving spiritua l wine. A blow with the dagger is like the signal for battle. The disk is use d to express the throwing down of the price of one's purchase. To stamp with t he foot is to declare one's mastery of the matter in hand. Similarly, any othe r form of giving knocks has its own virtue. From the above examples the intell igent student will have perceived the method of interpreting each individual ca se that may come in question. As above said, the object struck is the object impressed. Thus, a blow upon the altar affirms that he has complied with the laws of his operation. To str ike the lamp is to summon the Light divine. Thus for the rest. It must also be observed that many combinations of ideas are made possible b y this convention. To strike the wand within the cup is to apply the creative will to its proper complement, and so {83} perform the Great Work by the formul a of Regeneration. To strike with the hand on the dagger declares that one dem ands the use of the dagger as a tool to extend one's executive power. The read er will recall how Siegfried smote Nothung, the sword of Need, upon the lance o f Wotan. By the action Wagner, who was instructed how to apply magical formula e by one of the heads of our Order, intended his hearers to understand that the reign of authority and paternal power had come to an end; that the new master of the world was intellect. The general object of a knock or a knell is to mark a stage in the ceremony. Sasaki Shigetz tells us in his essay on Shinto that the Japanese are accustom ed to clap their hands four times "to drive away evil spirits". He explains th at what really happens is that the sudden and sharp impact of the sound throws the mind into an alert activity which enables it to break loose from the obsess ion of its previous mood. It is aroused to apply itself aggressively to the id eals which had oppressed it. There is therefore a perfectly rational interpret ation of the psychological power of the knock. In a Magical ceremony the knock is employed for much the same purpose. The Magician uses it like the chorus in a Greek play. It helps him to make a clean cut, to turn his attention from one part of his work to the next. So much for the general character of the knock or knell. Even this limited point of view offers great opportunities to the resourceful Magician. But furt her possibilities lie to our hand. It is not usually desirable to attempt to c onvey anything except emphasis, and possibly mood, by varying the force of the blow. It is obvious, moreover, that there is a natural correspondence between the hard loud knock of imperious command on the one hand, and the soft slurred knock of sympathetic comprehension on the other. It is easy to distinguish bet ween the bang of the outraged creditor at the front, and the hushed tap of the lover at the bedroom, door. Magical theory cannot here add instruction to inst inct. But a knock need not be single; the possible combinations are evidently infi nite. We need only discuss the general principles of determining what number o f strokes will be proper in any case, {84} and how we may interrupt any series so as to express our idea by means of structure. The general rule is that a single knock has no special significance as such, because unity is omniform. It represents Kether, which is the source of all t hings equally without partaking of any quality by which we discriminate one thi ng from another. Continuing on these lines, the number of knocks will refer to the Sephira or other idea Qabalistically cognate with that number. Thus, 7 kn ocks will intimate Venus, 11 the Great Work, 17 the Trinity of Fathers, and 19 the Feminine Principle in its most general sense. Analyzing the matter a little further, we remark firstly that a battery of t oo many knocks is confusing, as well as liable to overweight the other parts of the ritual. In practice, 11 is about the limit. It is usually not difficult to arrange to cover all necessary ground with that number. Secondly, each is so extensive in scope, and includes aspects so diverse fro m a practical standpoint that our danger lies in vagueness. A knock should be well defined; its meaning should be precise. The very nature of knocks suggest s smartness and accuracy. We must therefore devise some means of making the se quence significant of the special sense which may be appropriate. Our only res ource is in the use of intervals. It is evidently impossible to attain great variety in the smaller numbers. But this fact illustrates the excellence of our system. There is only one way of striking 2 knocks, and this fact agrees with the nature of Chokmah; there is only one way of creating. We can express only ourselves, although we do so in duplex form. But there are three ways of striking 3 knocks, and these 3 ways correspond to the threefold manner in which Binah can receive the creative idea . There are three possible types of triangle. We may understand an idea eithe r as an unity tripartite, as an unity dividing itself into a duality, or as a d uality harmonized into an unity. Any of these methods may be indicated by 3 eq ual knocks; 1 followed, after a pause, by 2; and 2 followed, after a pause, by 1. As the nature of the number becomes more complex, the possible varieties inc rease rapidly. There are numerous ways of striking 6, each of which is suited to the nature of the several {85} aspects of Tiphareth. We may leave the deter mination of these points to the ingenuity of the student. The most generally useful and adaptable battery is composed of 11 strokes. The principal reasons for this are as follows: "Firstly", 11 is the number of M agick in itself. It is therefore suitable to all types of operation. "Secondl y", it is the sacred number par excellence of the new Aeon. As it is written i n the Book of the Law: "...11, as all their numbers who are of us." "Thirdly", it is the number of the letters of the word ABRAHADABRA, which is the word of the Aeon. The structure of this word is such that it expresses the great Work, in every one of its aspects. "Lastly", it is possible thereby to express all possible spheres of operation, whatever their nature. This is effected by maki ng an equation between the number of the Sephira and the difference between tha t number and 11. For example, 2 Degree=9Square is the formula of the grade of initiation corresponding to Yesod. Yesod represents the instability of air, th e sterility of the moon; but these qualities are balanced in it by the stabilit y implied in its position as the Foundation, and by its function of generation. This complex is further equilibrated by identifying it with the number 2 of C hokmah, which possesses the airy quality, being the Word, and the lunar quality , being the reflection of the sun of Kether as Yesod is the sun of Tiphareth. It is the wisdom which is the foundation by being creation. This entire cycle of ideas is expressed in the double formula 2 Degree = 9Square, 9 Degree = 2Squ are; and any of these ideas may be selected and articulated by a suitable batte ry. We may conclude with a single illustration of how the above principles may b e put into practice. Let us suppose that the Magician contemplates an operatio n for the purpose of helping his mind to resist the tendency to wander. This w ill be a work of Yesod. But he must emphasize the stability of that Sephira as against the Airy quality which it possesses. His first action will be to put the 9 under the protection of the 2; the battery at this point will be 1-9-1. But this 9 as it stands is suggestive of the changefulness of the moon. It may occur to him to divide this into 4 and 5, 4 being the number of fixity, law, a nd authoritative power; and 5 that of courage, energy, and triumph of the spiri t {86} over the elements. He will reflect, moreover, that 4 is symbolic of the stability of matter, while 5 expresses the same idea with regard to motion. A t this stage the battery will appear as 1-2-5-2-1. After due consideration he will probably conclude that to split up the central 5 would tend to destroy the simplicity of his formula, and decide to use it as it stands. The possible al ternative would be to make a single knock the centre of his battery as if he ap pealed to the ultimate immutability of Kether, invoking that unity by placing a fourfold knock on either side of it. In this case, his battery would be 1-4-1 -4-1. He will naturally have been careful to preserve the balance of each part of the battery against the corresponding part. This would be particularly nec essary in an operation such as we have chosen for our example. ----------- {87} CHAPTER XI OF OUR LADY BABALON AND OF THE BEAST WHEREON SHE RIDETH. ALSO CONCERNING TRANSFORMATIONS. I The contents of this section, inasmuch as they concern OUR LADY, are too imp ortant and too sacred to be printed. They are only communicated by the Master Therion to chosen pupils in private instruction. II The essential magical work, apart from any particular operation, is the prop er formation of the Magical Being or Body of Light. This process will be discu ssed at some length in Chapter XVIII. We will here assume that the magician has succeeded in developing his Body o f Light until it is able to go anywhere and do anything. There will, however, be a certain limitation to his work, because he has formed his magical body fro m the fine matter of his own element. Therefore, although he may be able to pe netrate the utmost recesses of the heavens, or conduct vigorous combats with th e most unpronounceable demons of the pit, it may be impossible for him to do as much as knock a vase from a mantelpiece. His magical body is composed of matt er too tenuous to affect directly the gross matter of which illusions such as t ables and chairs are made.> {89} There has been a good deal of discussion in the past within the Colleges of the Holy Ghost, as to whether it would be quite legitimate to seek to transcend this limitation. One need not presume to pass judgment. One can leave the de cision to the will of each magician. The Book of the Dead contains many chapters intended to enable the magical e ntity of a man who is dead, and so deprived (according to the theory of death t hen current) of the material vehicle for executing his will, to take on the for m of certain animals, such as a golden hawk or a crocodile, and in such form to go about the earth "taking his pleasure among the living."> As a general rule , material was supplied out of which he could construct the party of the second part aforesaid, hereinafter referred to as the hawk. We need not, however, consider this question of death. It may often be conv enient for the living to go about the world in some such incognito. Now, then, conceive of this magical body as creative force, seeking manifestation; as a G od, seeking incarnation. There are two ways by which this aim may be effected. The first method is to build up an appropriate body from its elements. This is, generally speaking, a very hard thing to do, because the physical constitution of any material being with much power is, or at least should be, the outcome of ages of evolution. However, there is a lawful method of producing an homunculus which is taught in a certain secret organization, perhaps known to some of those who may read thi s, which could very readily be adapted to some such purpose as we are now discu ssing. The second method sounds very easy and amusing. You take some organism alre ady existing, which happens to be suitable to your purpose. You drive out the magical being {89} which inhabits it, and take possession. To do this by force is neither easy nor justifiable, because the magical being of the other was in carnated in accordance with its Will. And "... thou hast no right but to do th y will." One should hardly strain this sentence to make one's own will include the will to upset somebody else's will!> Moreover, it is extremely difficult thus to expatriate another magical being; for though, unless it is a complete m icrocosm like a human being, it cannot be called a star, it is a little bit of a star, and part of the body of Nuit. But there is no call for all this frightfulness. There is no need to knock the girl down, unless she refuses to do what you want, and she will always comp ly if you say a few nice things to her.> You can always use the body inhabited by an elemental, such as an eagle, hare, wolf, or any convenient animal, by ma king a very simple compact. You take over the responsibility for the animal, t hus building it up into your own magical hierarchy. This represents a tremendo us gain to the animal.> It completely fulfils its ambition by an alliance of t his extremely intimate sort with a Star. The magician, on the other hand, is a ble to transform and retransform himself in a thousand ways by accepting a reti nue of such adherents. In this way the projection of the "astral" or Body of L ight may be made absolutely tangible and practical. At the same time, the magi cian must realise that in undertaking the Karma of any elemental, he is assumin g a very serious responsibility. The bond which unites him with that elemental is love; and, though it is only a small part of the outfit of a magician, it i s the whole of the outfit of the elemental. He will, therefore, suffer intense ly in case of any error or misfortune occurring to his protegee. This feeling is rather peculiar. It is quite instinctive with the best men. They {90} hear of the destruction of a city of a few thousand inhabitants with entire callous ness, but then they hear of a dog having hurt its paw, they feel Weltschmertz a cutely. It is not necessary to say much more than this concerning transformations. Those to whom the subject naturally appeals will readily understand the importa nce of what has been said. Those who are otherwise inclined may reflect that a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. ------- {91} CHAPTER XII OF THE BLOODY SACRIFICE: AND MATTERS COGNATE. It is necessary for us to consider carefully the problems connected with the bloody sacrifice, for this question is indeed traditionally important in Magic k. Nigh all ancient Magick revolves around this matter. In particular all the Osirian religions --- the rites of the Dying God --- refer to this. The slayi ng of Osiris and Adonis; the mutilation of Attis; the cults of Mexico and Peru; the story of Hercules or Melcarth; the legends of Dionysus and of Mithra, are all connected with this one idea. In the Hebrew religion we find the same thin g inculcated. The first ethical lesson in the Bible is that the only sacrifice pleasing to the Lord is the sacrifice of blood; Abel, who made this, finding f avour with the Lord, while Cain, who offered cabbages, was rather naturally con sidered a cheap sport. The idea recurs again and again. We have the sacrifice of the Passover, following on the story of Abraham's being commanded to sacrif ice his firstborn son, with the idea of the substitution of animal for human li fe. The annual ceremony of the two goats carries out this in perpetuity. And we see again the domination of this idea in the romance of Esther, where Haman and Mordecai are the two goats or gods; and ultimately in the presentation of t he rite of Purim in Palestine, where Jesus and Barabbas happened to be the Goat s in that particular year of which we hear so much, without agreement on the da te. This subject must be studied in the "Golden Bough", where it is most learnedly set forth by Dr. J. G. Frazer. Enough has now been said to show that the bloody sacrifice has from time imm emorial been the most considered part of Magick. {92} The ethics of the thing appear to have concerned no one; nor, to tell the truth, need they do so. As S t. Paul says, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission"; and who are we to argue with St. Paul? But, after all that, it is open to any one to have an y opinion that he likes upon the subject, or any other subject, thank God! At the same time, it is most necessary to study the business, whatever we may be g oing to do about it; for our ethics themselves will naturally depend upon our t heory of the universe. If we were quite certain, for example, that everybody w ent to heaven when he died, there could be no serious objection to murder or su icide, as it is generally conceded --- by those who know neither --- that earth is not such a pleasant place as heaven. However, there is a mystery concealed in this theory of the bloody sacrifice which is of great importance to the student, and we therefore make no further apology, We should not have made even this apology for an apology, had it not been for the solicitude of a pious young friend of great austerity of character who insisted that the part of this chapter which now follows --- the part whic h was originally written --- might cause us to be misunderstood. This must not be. The blood is the life. This simple statement is explained by the Hindus by saying that the blood is the principal vehicle of vital Prana.> There is some ground for the belief that there is a definite substance>, not isolated as yet, whose presence makes all {93} the difference between live and dead matter. We pass by with deserved contempt the pseudo-scientific experiments of American c harlatans who claim to have established that weight is lost at the moment of de ath, and the unsupported statements of alleged clairvoyants that they have seen the soul issuing like a vapour from the mouth of persons "in articulo mortis"; but his experiences as an explorer have convinced the Master Therion that meat loses a notable portion of its nutritive value within a very few minutes after the death of the animal, and that this loss proceeds with ever-diminishing rap idity as time goes on. It is further generally conceded that live food, such a s oysters, is the most rapidly assimilable and most concentrated form of energy .> Laboratory experiments in food-values seem to be almost worthless, for reas ons which we cannot here enter into; the general testimony of mankind appears a safer guide. It would be unwise to condemn as irrational the practice of those savages wh o tear the heart and liver from an adversary, and devour them while yet warm. In any case it was the theory of {94} the ancient Magicians, that any living be ing is a storehouse of energy varying in quantity according to the size and hea lth of the animal, and in quality according to its mental and moral character. At the death of the animal this energy is liberated suddenly. The animal should therefore be killed> within the Circle, or the Triangle, a s the case may be, so that its energy cannot escape. An animal should be selec ted whose nature accords with that of the ceremony --- thus, by sacrificing a f emale lamb one would not obtain any appreciate quantity of the fierce energy us eful to a Magician who was invoking Mars. In such a case a ram> would be more suitable. And this ram should be virgin --- the whole potential of its origina l total energy should not have been diminished in any way.> For the highest sp iritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the grea test and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence > is the most satisfactory and suitable victim. {95} For evocations it would be more convenient to place the blood of the victim in the Triangle --- the idea being that the spirit might obtain from the blood th is subtle but physical substance which was the quintessence of its life in such a manner as to enable it to take on a visible and tangible shape.> Those magicians who abject to the use of blood have endeavored to replace it with incense. For such a purpose the incense of Abramelin may be burnt in lar ge quantities. Dittany of Crete is also a valuable medium. Both these incense s are very catholic in their nature, and suitable for almost any materializatio n. But the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is more efficacious; and fo r nearly all purposes human sacrifice is the best. The truly great Magician wi ll be able to use his own blood, or possibly that of a disciple, and that witho ut sacrificing the physical life irrevocably.> An example of this sacrifice is given in Chapter 44 of Liber 333. This Mass may be recommended generally for daily practice. One last word on this subject. There is a Magical operation of maximum impo rtance: the Initiation of a New Aeon. When it becomes necessary to utter a Wor d, the whole Planet must be bathed in blood. Before man is ready to accept the Law of Thelema, the Great War must be fought. This Bloody Sacrifice is the cr itical point of the World-{96}Ceremony of the Proclamation of Horus, the Crowne d and conquering Child, as Lord of the Aeon.> This whole matter is prophesied in the Book of the Law itself; let the stude nt take note, and enter the ranks of the Host of the Sun. II There is another sacrifice with regard to which the Adepts have always maint ained the most profound secrecy. It is the supreme mystery of practical Magick . Its name is the Formula of the Rosy Cross. In this case the victim is alway s --- in a certain sense --- the Magician himself, and the sacrifice must coinc ide with the utterance of the most sublime and secret name of the God whom he w ishes to invoke. Properly performed, it never fails of its effect. But it is difficult for t he beginner to do it satisfactorily, because it is a great effort for the mind to remain concentrated upon the purpose of the ceremony. The overcoming of thi s difficulty lends most powerful aid to the Magician. It is unwise for him to attempt it until he has received regular initiation in the true> Order of the Rosy Cross, {97} and he must have taken the vows with the fullest comprehension and experience of their meaning. It is also extreme ly desirable that he should have attained an absolute degree of moral emancipat ion>, and that purity of spirit which results from a perfect understanding both of the differences and harmonies of the planes upon the Tree of Life. For this reason FRATER PERDURABO has never dared to use this formula in a fu lly ceremonial manner, save once only, on an occasion of tremendous import, whe n, indeed, it was not He that made the offering, but ONE in Him. For he percei ved a grave defect in his moral character which he has been able to overcome on the intellectual plane, but not hitherto upon higher planes. Before the concl usion of writing this book he will have done so.> The practical details of the Bloody Sacrifice may be studied in various ethn ological manuals, but the general conclusions are summed up in Frazer's "Golden Bough", which is strongly recommended to the reader. Actual ceremonial details likewise may be left to experiment. The method of killing is practically uniform. The animal should be stabbed to the heart, or its throat severed, in either case by the knife. All other methods of killing are less efficacious; even in the case of Crucifixion death is given by stabbi ng.> One may remark that warm-blooded animals only are used as victims: with two principal exceptions. The first is the serpent, which is only used in a very s pecial Ritual;> the second the magical beetles of Liber Legis. (See Part IV.) {98} One word of warning is perhaps necessary for the beginner. The victim must be in perfect health --- or its energy may be as it were poisoned. It must als o not be too large:> the amount of energy disengaged is almost unimaginably gre at, and out of all anticipated proportion to the strength of the animal. Conse quently, the Magician may easily be overwhelmed and obsessed by the force which he has let loose; it will then probably manifest itself in its lowest and most objectionable form. The most intense spirituality of purpose> is absolutely e ssential to safety. In evocations the danger is not so great, as the Circle forms a protection; but the circle in such a case must be protected, not only by the names of God a nd the Invocations used at the same time, but by a long habit of successful def ence.> If you are easily disturbed or alarmed, or if you have not yet overcome the tendency of the mind to wander, it is not advisable for you to perform {99 } the "Bloody Sacrifice".> Yet it should not be forgotten that this, and that other art at which we have dared darkly to hint, are the supreme formulae of Pr actical Magick. You are also likely to get into trouble over this chapter unless you truly c omprehend its meaning.> --------- {100} CHAPTER XIII OF THE BANISHINGS: AND OF THE PURIFICATIONS. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and had better come first. Purity means sin gleness. God is one. The wand is not a wand if it has something sticking to i t which is not an essential part of itself. If you wish to invoke Venus, you d o not succeed if there are traces of Saturn mixed up with it. That is a mere logical commonplace: in magick one must go much farther than this. One finds one's analogy in electricity. If insulation is imperfect, the whole current goes back to earth. It is useless to plead that in all those mi les of wire there is only one-hundredth of an inch unprotected. It is no good building a ship if the water can enter, through however small a hole. That first task of the Magician in every ceremony is therefore to render hi s Circle absolutely impregnable.> If one littlest thought intrude upon the min d of the Mystic, his concentration is absolutely destroyed; and his consciousne ss remains on exactly the same level as the Stockbroker's. Even the smallest b aby is incompatible with the virginity of its mother. If you leave even a sing le spirit within the circle, the effect of the conjuration will be entirely abs orbed by it.> {101} The Magician must therefore take the utmost care in the matter of purificati on, "firstly", of himself, "secondly", of his instruments, "thirdly", of the pl ace of working. Ancient Magicians recommended a preliminary purification of fr om three days to many months. During this period of training they took the utm ost pains with diet. They avoided animal food, lest the elemental spirit of th e animal should get into their atmosphere. They practised sexual abstinence, l est they should be influenced in any way by the spirit of the wife. Even in re gard to the excrements of the body they were equally careful; in trimming the h air and nails, they ceremonially destroyed> the severed portion. They fasted, so that the body itself might destroy anything extraneous to the bare necessity of its existence. They purified the mind by special prayers and conservations . They avoided the contamination of social intercourse, especially the conjuga l kind; and their servitors were disciples specially chosen and consecrated for the work. In modern times our superior understanding of the essentials of this process enables us to dispense to some extent with its external rigours; but the inter nal purification must be even more carefully performed. We may eat meat, provi ded that in doing so we affirm that we eat it in order to strengthen us for the special purpose of our proposed invocation.> {102} By thus avoiding those actions which might excite the comment of our neighbo urs we avoid the graver dangers of falling into spiritual pride. We have understood the saying: "To the pure all things are pure", and we hav e learnt how to act up to it. We can analyse the mind far more acutely than co uld the ancients, and we can therefore distinguish the real and right feeling f rom its imitations. A man may eat meat from self-indulgence, or in order to av oid the dangers of asceticism. We must constantly examine ourselves, and assur e ourselves that every action is really subservient to the One Purpose. It is ceremonially desirable to seal and affirm this mental purity by Ritual , and accordingly the first operation in any actual ceremony is bathing and rob ing, with appropriate words. The bath signifies the removal of all things extr aneous to antagonistic to the one thought. The putting on of the robe is the p ositive side of the same operation. It is the assumption of the fame of mind s uitable to that one thought. A similar operation takes place in the preparation of every instrument, as h as been seen in the Chapter devoted to that subject. In the preparation of the place of working, the same considerations apply. We first remove from that pl ace all objects; and we then put into it those objects, and only those {103} ob jects, which are necessary. During many days we occupy ourselves in this proce ss of cleansing and consecration; and this again is confirmed in the actual cer emony. The cleansed and consecrated Magician takes his cleansed and consecrated ins truments into that cleansed and consecrated place, and there proceeds to repeat that double ceremony in the ceremony itself, which has these same two main par ts. The first part of every ceremony is the banishing; the second, the invokin g. The same formula is repeated even in the ceremony of banishing itself, for in the banishing ritual of the pentagram we not only command the demons to depa rt, but invoke the Archangels and their hosts to act as guardians of the Circle during our pre-occupation with the ceremony proper. In more elaborate ceremonies it is usual to banish everything by name. Each element, each planet, and each sign, perhaps even the Sephiroth themselves; al l are removed, including the very one which we wished to invoke, for that force s as existing in Nature is always impure. But this process, being long and wea risome, is not altogether advisable in actual working. It is usually sufficien t to perform a general banishing, and to rely upon the aid of the guardians inv oked. Let the banishing therefore be short, but in no wise slurred --- for it is useful as it tends to produce the proper attitude of mind for the invocation s. "The Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram" (as now rewritten, Liber 333, Cap. XXV) is the best to use.> Only the four elements are specifically mentioned, b ut these four elements contain the planets and the signs> --- the four elements are Tetragrammaton; and Tetragrammaton is the Universe. This special precauti on is, however, necessary: make exceedingly sure that the ceremony of banishing is effective! {104} Be alert and on your guard! Watch before you pray! The feeling of success in banishing, once acquired, is unmistakable. At the conclusion, it is usually well to pause for a few moments, and to mak e sure once more that every thing necessary to the ceremony is in its right pla ce. The Magician may then proceed to the final consecration of the furniture o f the Temple.> --------- {105} Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley 1988 e.v. key entry and proof reading with re-format and conversion from XYWrit e to 7-bit ASCII on 10/14/90 e.v. done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. (further proof reading desirable) disk 2 of 4 Copyright (c) O.T.O. O.T.O. P.O.Box 430 Fairfax, CA 94930 USA (415) 454-5176 ---- Messages only. LIMITED LICENSE Except for notations added to the history of modification, the text on this d iskette down to the next row of asterisks must accompany all copies made of thi s file. In particular, this paragraph and the copyright notice are not to be d eleted or changed on any copies or print-outs of this file. With these proviso s, anyone may copy this file for personal use or research. Copies may be made for others at reasonable cost of copying and mailing only, no additional charge s may be added. ************************************************************************* Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number} Comments and notes not in the original are identified with the initials of the source: AC note = Crowley note. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc. All footnotes have been moved up to the place in text indexed and set off in do uble wedge brackets, viz. > ************************************************************************** CHAPTER XIV OF THE CONSECRATIONS: WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE NATURE AND NURTURE OF THE MAGICAL LINK. I Consecration is the active dedication of a thing to a single purpose. Banis hing prevents its use for any other purpose, but it remains inert until consecr ated. Purification is performed by water, and banishing by air, whose weapon i s the sword. Consecration is performed by fire, usually symbolised by the holy lamp.> In most extant magical rituals the two operations are performed at once; or (at least) the banishing has the more important place, and greater pains seem t o be taken with it; but as the student advances to Adeptship the banishing will diminish in importance, for it will no longer be so necessary. The Circle of the Magician will have been perfected by his habit of Magical work. In the tru est sense of that word, he will never step outside the Circle during his whole life. But the consecration, being the application of a positive force, can alw ays be raised to a closer approximation to perfection. Complete success in ban ishing is soon attained; but there can be no completeness in the advance to hol iness. {106} The method of consecration is very simple. Take the wand, or the holy oil, and draw upon the object to be consecrated the supreme symbol of the force to w hich you dedicate it. Confirm this dedication in words, invoking the appropria te God to indwell that pure temple which you have prepared for Him. Do this wi th fervour and love, as if to balance the icy detachment which is the proper me ntal attitude for banishing.> The words of purification are: Asperges me, Therion, hyssopo, et mundabor; lav abis me, et super nivem dealbabor. Those of consecration are: Accendat in nobis Therion ignem sui amoris et fla mmam aeternae caritatis.> These, as initiates of the VII Degree of O.T.O. are aware, mean more than ap pears. II It is a strange circumstance that no Magical writer has hitherto treated the immensely important subject of the Magical Link. It might almost be called th e Missing Link. It has apparently always been taken for granted, only lay writ ers on Magick like Dr. J. G. Frazer have accorded the subject its full importan ce. Let us try to make considerations of the nature of Magick in a strictly scie ntific spirit, as well as, deprived of the guidance of antiquity, we may. What is a Magical Operation? It may be defined as any event in nature which is brought to pass by Will. We must not exclude potato-growing or banking fro m our definition. {107} Let us take a very simple example of a Magical Act: that of a man blowing hi s nose. What are the conditions of the success of the Operation? Firstly, that the man's Will should be to blow his nose; secondly, that he should have a nos e capable of being blown; thirdly, that he should have at command an apparatus capable of expressing his spiritual Will in terms of material force, and applyi ng that force to the object which he desires to affect. His Will may be as str ong and concentrated as that of Jupiter, and his nose may be totally incapable of resistance; but unless the link is made by the use of his nerves and muscles in accordance with psychological, physiological, and physical law, the nose wi ll remain unblown through all eternity. Writers of Magick have been unsparing in their efforts to instruct us in the preparation of the Will, but they seem to have imagined that no further precau tion was necessary. There is a striking case of an epidemic of this error whos e history is familiar to everybody. I refer to Christian Science, and the cogn ate doctrines of "mental healing" and the like. The theory of such people, str ipped of dogmatic furbelows, is perfectly good Magic of its kind, its negroid k ind. The idea is correct enough: matter is an illusion created by Will through mind, and consequently susceptible of alteration at the behest of its creator. But the practice has been lacking. They have not developed a scientific tech nique for applying the Will. It is as if they expected the steam of Watts' ket tle to convey people from place to place without the trouble of inventing and u sing locomotives. Let us apply these considerations to Magick in its restricted sense, the sen se in which it was always understood until the Master Therion extended it to co ver the entire operations of Nature. What is the theory implied in such rituals as those of the Goetia? What doe s the Magician do? He applies himself to invoke a God, and this God compels th e appearance of a spirit whose function is to perform the Will of the magician at the moment. There is no trace of what may be called machinery in the method . The exorcist hardly takes the pains of preparing a material basis for the sp irit to incarnate except the bare connection {108} of himself with his sigil. It is apparently assumed that the spirit already possesses the means of working on matter. The conception seems to be that of a schoolboy who asks his father to tell the butler to do something for him. In other words, the theory is gro ssly animistic. The savage tribes described by Frazer had a far more scientifi c theory. The same may be said of witches, who appear to have been wiser than the thaumaturgists who despised them. They at least made waxen images --- iden tified by baptism --- of the people they wished to control. They at least used appropriate bases for Magical manifestations, such as blood and other vehicles of animal force, with those of vegetable virtue such as herbs. They were also careful to put their bewitched products into actual contact --- material or as tral --- with their victims. The classical exorcists, on the contrary, for all their learning, were careless about this essential condition. They acted as s tupidly as people who should write business letters and omit to post them. It is not too much to say that this failure to understand the conditions of success accounts for the discredit into which Magick fell until Eliphas Levi un dertook the task of re-habilitating it two generations ago. But even he (profo undly as he studied, and luminously as he expounded, the nature of Magick consi dered as a universal formula) paid no attention whatever to that question of th e Magical Link, though he everywhere implies that it is essential to the Work. He evaded the question by making the "petitio principii" of assigning to the A stral Light the power of transmitting vibrations of all kinds. He nowhere ente rs into detail as to how its effects are produced. He does not inform us as to the qualitative or quantitative laws of this light. (The scientifically train ed student will observe the analogy between Levi's postulate and that of ordina ry science "in re" the luminiferous ether.) It is deplorable that nobody should have recorded in a systematic form the r esults of our investigations of the Astral Light. We have no account of its pr operties or of the laws which obtain in its sphere. Yet these are sufficiently remarkable. We may briefly notice that, in the Astral Light, two or more obje cts can {109} occupy the same space at the same time without interfering with e ach other or losing their outlines. In that Light, objects can change their appearance completely without suffer ing change of Nature. The same thing can reveal itself in an infinite number o f different aspects; in fact, it identifies itself by so doing, much as a write r or a painter reveals himself in a succession of novels or pictures, each of w hich is wholly himself and nothing else, but himself under varied conditions, t hough each appears utterly different from its fellows. In that Light one is "s wift without feet and flying without wings"; one can travel without moving, and communicate without conventional means of expression. One is insensible to he at, cold, pain, and other forms of apprehension, at least in the shapes which a re familiar to us in our bodily vehicles. They exist, but they are appreciated by us, and they affect us, in a different manner. In the Astral Light we are bound by what is, superficially, an entirely different series of laws. We meet with obstacles of a strange and subtle character; and we overcome them by an e nergy and cunning of an order entirely alien to that which serves us in earthly life. In that Light, symbols are not conventions but realities, yet (on the c ontrary) the beings whom we encounter are only symbols of the realities of our own nature. Our operations in that Light are really the adventures of our own personified thoughts. The universe is a projection of ourselves; an image as u nreal as that of our faces in a mirror, yet, like that face, the necessary form of expression thereof, not to be altered save as we alter ourselves.> The mir ror may {110} be distorted, dull, clouded, or cracked; and to this extent, the reflection of ourselves may be false even in respect of its symbolic presentati on. In that Light, therefore, all that we do is to discover ourselves by means of a sequence of hieroglyphics, and the changes which we apparently operate ar e in an objective sense illusions. But the Light servers us in this way. It enables us to see ourselves, and t herefore to aid us to initiate ourselves by showing us what we are doing. In t he same way a watchmaker uses a lens, though it exaggerates and thus falsifies the image of the system of wheels which he is trying to adjust. In the same wa y, a writer employs arbitrary characters according to a meaningless convention in order to enable his reader by retranslating them to obtain an approximation to his idea. Such are a few of the principal characteristics Astral Light. Its quantitat ive laws are much less dissimilar from those of material physics. Magicians ha ve too often been foolish enough to suppose that all classes of Magical Operati ons were equally easy. They seem to have assumed that the "almighty power of G od" was an infinite quantity in presence of which all finites were equally insi gnificant. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years" is their first law o f Motion. "Faith can move mountains" they say, and disdain to measure either t he faith or the mountains. If you can kill a chicken by Magick, why not destro y an army with equal exertion? "With God all things are possible." This absurdity is an error of the same class as that mentioned above. The f acts are wholly opposed. Two and two make four in the Astral as rigorously as anywhere else. The distance of one's Magical target and the accuracy of one's Magical rifle are factors in the success of one's Magical shooting in just the same way as at Bisley. The law of Magical gravitation is as rigid as that of N ewton. The law of Inverse Squares may not apply; but some {111} such law does apply. So it is for everything. You cannot produce a thunderstorm unless the materials exist in the air at the time, and a Magician who could make rain in C umberland might fail lamentably in the Sahara. One might make a talisman to wi n the love of a shop-girl and find it work, yet be baffled in the case of a cou ntess; or vice versa. One might impose one's Will on a farm, and be crushed by that of a city; or vice versa. The MASTER THERION himself, with all his succe sses in every kind of Magick, sometimes appears utterly impotent to perform fea ts which almost any amateur might do, because He has matched his Will against t hat of the world, having undertaken the Work of a Magus to establish the word o f His Law on the whole of mankind. He will succeed, without doubt, but He hard ly expects to see more than a sample of His product during His present incarnat ion. But He refuses to waste the least fraction of His force on works foreign to His WORK, however obvious it may seem to the onlooker that His advantage lie s in commanding stones to become bread, or otherwise making things easy for Him self. These considerations being thoroughly understood we may return to the questi on of making the Magical Link. In the case above cited FRATER PERDURABO compos ed His talisman by invoking His Holy Guardian Angel according to the Sacred Mag ick of Abramelin the Mage. That Angel wrote on the lamen the Word of the Aeon. The Book of the Law is this writing. To this lamen the Master Therion gave l ife by devoting His own life thereto. We may then regard this talisman, the La w, as the most powerful that has been made in the world's history, for previous talismans of the same type have been limited in their scope by conditions of r ace and country. Mohammed's talisman, Allah, was good only from Persia to the Pillars of Hercules. The Buddha's, Anatta, operated only in the South and East of Asia. The new talisman, Thelema, is master of the planet. But now observe how the question of the Magical Link arises! No matter how mighty the truth of Thelema, it cannot prevail unless it is applied to any by m ankind. As long as the Book of the Law was in Manuscript, it could only affect the small group amongst whom it was circulated. It had to be put into action by {112} the Magical Operation of publishing it. When this was done, it was do ne without proper perfection. Its commands as to how the work ought to be done were not wholly obeyed. There were doubt and repugnance in FRATER PERDURABO's mind, and they hampered His work. He was half-hearted. Yet, even so then int rinsic power of the truth of the Law and the impact of the publication were suf ficient to shake the world so that a critical war broke out, and the minds of m en were moved in a mysterious manner. The second blow was struck by the re-pub lication of the Book in September 1913, and this time the might of this Magick burst out and caused a catastrophe to civilization. At this hour, the MASTER T HERION is concealed, collecting his forces for a final blow. When The Book of the Law and its Comment is published, with the forces of His whole Will in perf ect obedience to the instructions which have up to now been misunderstood or ne glected, the result will be incalculably effective. The event will establish t he kingdom of the Crowned and Conquering Child over the whole earth, and all me n shall bow to the Law, which is "love under will". This is an extreme case; but there is one law only to govern the small as th e great. The same laws describe and measure the motions of the ant and the sta rs. Their light is no swifter than that of a spark. In every operation of Mag ick the link must be properly made. The first requisite is the acquisition of adequate force of the kind required for the purpose. We must have electricity of a certain potential in sufficient amount if we wish to heat food in a furnac e. We shall need a more intense current and a greater supply to light a city t han to charge a telephone wire. No other kind of force will do. We cannot use the force of steam directly to impel an aeroplane, or to get drunk. We must a pply it in adequate strength in an appropriate manner. It is therefore absurd to invoke the spirit of Venus to procure us the love of an Empress, unless we take measures to transmit the influence of our work to the lady. We may for example consecrate a letter expressing our Will; or, if we know how, we may use some object connected with the person whose acts we are attempting to control, such as a lock of hair or a handkerchief {113} once bel onging to her, and so in subtile connection with her aura. But for material en ds it is better to have material means. We must not rely on fine gut in trolli ng for salmon. Our will to kill a tiger is poorly conveyed by a charge of smal l shot fired at a range of one hundred yards. Our talisman must, therefore, be an object suitable to the nature of our Operation, and we must have some such means of applying its force to such a way as will naturally compel the obedienc e of the portion of Nature which we are trying to change. If one will the deat h of a sinner, it is not sufficient to hate him, even if we grant that the vibr ations of thought, when sufficiently powerful and pure, may modify the Astral l ight sufficiently to impress its intention to a certain extent on such people a s happen to be sensitive. It is much surer to use one's mind and muscle in ser vice of that hate by devising and making a dagger, and then applying the dagger to the heart of one's enemy. One must give one's hate a bodily form of the sa me order as that which one's enemy has taken for his manifestation. Your spiri t can only come into contact with his by means of this magical manufacture of p hantoms; in the same way, one can only measure one's mind (a certain part of it ) against another man's by expressing them in some such form as the game of che ss. One cannot use chessmen against another man unless he agree to use them in the same sense as you do. The board and men form the Magical Link by which yo u can prove your power to constrain him to yield. The game is a device by whic h you force him to turn down his king in surrender, a muscular act made in obed ience to your will, thought he may be twice your weight and strength. These general principles should enable the student to understand the nature of the work of making the Magical Link. It is impossible to give detailed inst ructions, because every case demands separate consideration. It is sometimes e xceedingly difficult to devise proper measures. Remember that Magick includes all acts soever. Anything may serve as a Magi cal weapon. To impose one's Will on a nation, for instance, one's talisman may be a newspaper, one's triangle a church, or one's circle a Club. To win a wom an, one's {114} pantacle may be a necklace; to discover a treasure, one's wand may be a dramatist's pen, or one's incantation a popular song. Many ends, many means: it is only important to remember the essence of the o peration, which is to will its success with sufficiently pure intensity, and to incarnate that will in a body suitable to express it, a body such that its imp act on the bodily expression of the idea one wills to change is to cause it to do so. For instance, is it my will to become a famous physician? I banish all "hostile spirits" such as laziness, alien interests, and confliction pleasures , from my "circle" the hospital; I consecrate my "weapons" (my various abilitie s) to the study of medicine; I invoke the "Gods" (medical authorities) by study ing and obeying their laws in their books. I embody the "Formulae" (the ways i n which causes and effects influence disease) in a "Ritual" (my personal style of constraining sickness to conform with my will). I persist in these conjurat ions year after year, making the Magical gestures of healing the sick, until I compel the visible appearance of the Spirit of Time, and make him acknowledge m e his master. I have used the appropriate kind of means, in adequate measure, and applied them in ways pertinent to my purpose by projecting my incorporeal i dea of ambition in a course of action such as to induce in others the incorpore al idea of satisfying mine. I made my Will manifest to sense; sense swayed the Wills of my fellowmen; mind wrought on mind through matter. I did not "sit for" a medical baronetcy by wishing I had it, or by an "act o f faith", or by praying to God "to move Pharaoh's heart", as our modern mental, or our mediaeval, mystic, miracle-mongers were and are muddlers and maudlin en ough to advise us to do. A few general observations on the Magical Link may not be amiss, in default of details; one cannot make a Manual of How to Go Courting, with an Open-Sesame to each particular Brigand's Cavern, any more than one can furnish a budding b urglar with a directory containing the combination of every existing safe. But one can point out the broad distinctions between women who yield, some to flat tery, some to eloquence, some to appearance, some to rank, some to wealth, some to ardour, and some to authority. We {115} cannot exhaust the combinations of Lover's Chess, but we may enumerate the principal gambits: the Bouquet, the Ch ocolates, the Little Dinner, the Cheque-Book, the Poem, the Motor by Moonlight, the Marriage Certificate, the Whip, and the Feigned Flight. The Magical Link may be classified under three main heads; as it involves (1 ) one plane and one person, (2) one plane and two or more persons, (3) two plan es. In class (1) the machinery of Magick --- the instrument --- already exists. Thus, I may wish to heal my own body, increase my own energy; develop my own m ental powers, or inspire my own imagination. Here the Exorcist and the Demon a re already connected, consciously or subconsciously, by an excellent system of symbols. The Will is furnished by Nature with an apparatus adequately equipped to convey and execute its orders. It is only necessary to inflame the Will to the proper pitch and to issue it s commands; they are instantly obeyed, unless --- as in the case of organic dis ease --- the apparatus is damaged beyond the art of Nature to repair. It may b e necessary in such a case to assist the internal "spirits" by the "purificatio n" of medicines, the "banishing" of diet, or some other extraneous means. But at least there is no need of any special device "ad hoc" to effect conta ct between the Circle and the Triangle. Operations of this class are therefore often successful, even when the Magician has little or no technical knowledge of Magick. Almost any duffer can "pull himself together", devote himself to st udy, break off a bad habit, or conquer a cowardice. This class of work, althou gh the easiest, is yet the most important; for it includes initiation itself in its highest sense. It extends to the Absolute in every dimension; it involves the most intimate analysis, and the most comprehensive synthesis. In a sense, it is the sole type of Magick either necessary or proper to the Adept; for it includes both the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guar dian Angel, and the Adventure of the Abyss. The second class includes all operations by which the Magician strives to im pose his Will upon objects outside his own control, but within that of such oth er wills as are symbolised by means of {116} a system similar to his own. That is, they can be compelled naturally by cognate consciousness. For instance, one may wish to obtain the knowledge put forth in this book. Not knowing that such a book exists, one might yet induce some one who knows of it to offer a copy. Thus one's operation would consist in inflaming one's Wil l to possess the knowledge to the point of devoting one's life to it, in expres sing that will by seeking out people who seem likely to know what is needed, an d in imposing it on them by exhibiting such enthusiastic earnestness that they will tell the enquirer that this book will meet his needs. Does this sound too simple? Can this obvious common-sense course be really that marvellous Magick that frightens folk so? Yes, even this triviality is on e instance of how Magick works. But the above practical programme may be a fiasco. One might then resort to Magick in the conventional sense of the word, by constructing and charging a P antacle appropriate to the object; this Pantacle should then cause a strain in the Astral Light such that the vibrations would compel some alien consciousness to restore equilibrium by bringing the book. Suppose a severer and more serious aim; suppose that I wish to win a woman w ho dislikes me and loves somebody else. In this case, not only her Will, but h er lover's must be overcome by my own. I have no direct control of either. Bu t my Will is in touch with the woman's by means of our minds; I have only to ma ke my mind the master of hers by the existing means of communication; her mind will then present its recantation to her Will, her Will repeal its decision, an d her body submit to mine as the seal of her surrender. Here the Magical Link exists; only it is complex instead of simple as in the First Class. There is opportunity for all kinds of error in the transmission of the Will; m isunderstanding may mar the matter; a mood may make mischief; external events m ay interfere; the lover may match me in Magick; the Operation itself may offend nature in many ways; for instance, if there is a subconscious incompatibility between myself and the woman, I deceive myself into thinking {117} that I desir e her. Such a flaw is enough to bring the whole operation to naught, just as n o effort of Will can make oil mix with water. I may work "naturally" by wooing, of course. But, magically, I may attack h er astrally so that her aura becomes uneasy, responding no longer to her lover. Unless they diagnose the cause, a quarrel may result, and the woman's bewilde red and hungry Body of Light may turn in its distress to that of the Magician w ho has mastered it. Take a third case of this class 2. I wish to recover my watch, snatched fro m me in a crowd. Here I have no direct means of control over the muscles that could bring bac k my watch, or over the mind that moves these muscles. I am not even able to i nform that mind of my Will, for I do not know where it is. But I know it to be a mind fundamentally like my own, and I try to make a Magical Link with it by advertising my loss in the hope of reaching it, being careful to calm it by pro mising it immunity, and to appeal to its own known motive by offering a reward. I also attempt to use the opposite formula; to reach it by sending my "famili ar spirits", the police, to hunt it, and compel its obedience by threats.> Again, a sorcerer might happen to possess an object belonging magically to a rich man, such as a compromising letter, which is really as much part of him a s his liver; he may then master the will of that man by intimidating his mind. His power to publish the letter is as effective as if he could injure the man' s body directly. These "natural" cases may be transposed into subtler terms; for instance, on e might master another man, even a stranger, by sheer concentration of will, ce remonially or otherwise wrought up to the requisite potential. But in one way or another that will must be {118} made to impinge on the man; by the normal me ans of contact if possible, if not, by attacking some sensitive spot in his sub conscious sensorium. But the heaviest rod will not land the smallest fish unle ss there be a line of some sort fixed firmly to both. The Third Class is characterized by the absence of any existing link between the Will of the Magician and that controlling the object to be affected. (The Second Class may approximate to the Third when there is no possibility of appr oaching the second mind by normal means, as sometimes happens). This class of operations demands not only immense knowledge of the technique of Magick combined with tremendous vigour and skill, but a degree of Mystical attainment which is exceedingly rare, and when found is usually marked by an ab solute apathy on the subject of any attempt to achieve any Magick at all. Supp ose that I wish to produce a thunderstorm. This event is beyond my control or that of any other man; it is as useless to work on their minds as my own. Natu re is independent of, and indifferent to, man's affairs. A storm is caused by atmospheric conditions on a scale so enormous that the united efforts of all us Earth-vermin could scarcely disperse one cloud, even if we could get at it. H ow then can any Magician, he who is above all things a knower of Nature, be so absurd as to attempt to throw the Hammer of Thor? Unless he be simply insane, he must be initiated in a Truth which transcends the apparent facts. He must b e aware that all nature is a continuum, so that his mind and body are consubsta ntial with the storm, are equally expressions of One Existence, all alike of th e self-same order of artifices whereby the Absolute appreciates itself. He mus t also have assimilated the fact that the Quantity is just as much a form as Qu ality; that as all things are modes of One Substance, so their measures are mod es of their relation. Not only are gold and lead mere letters, meaningless in themselves yet appointed to spell the One Name; but the difference between the bulk of a mountain and that of a mouse is no more than one method of differenti ating them, just as the letter "m" is not bigger than the letter "i: in any rea l sense of the word.> {119} Our Magician, with this in his mind, will most probably leave thunderstorms to stew in their own juice; but, should he decide (after all) to enliven the af ternoon, he will work in the manner following. First, what are the elements necessary for his storms? He must have certain stores of electrical force, and the right kind of clouds to contain it. He must see that the force does not leak away to earth quietly and slyly. He must arrange a stress so severe as to become at last so intolerable that it will disrupt explosively. Now he, as a man, cannot pray to God to cause them, for the Gods are but nam es for the forces of Nature themselves. But, "as a Mystic", he knows that all things are phantoms of One Thing, and th at they may be withdrawn therein to reissue in other attire. He knows that all things are in himself, and that he is All-One with the All. There is therefor e no theoretical difficulty about converting the illusion of a clear sky into t hat of a tempest. On the other hand, he is aware, "as a Magician", that illusi ons are governed by the laws of their nature. He knows that twice two is four, although both "two" and "four" are merely properties pertaining to One. He ca n only use the Mystical identity of all things in a strictly scientific sense. It is true that his experience of clear skies and storms proves that his natur e contains elements cognate with both; for it not, they could not affect him. He is the Microcosm of his own Macrocosm, whether or no either one or the other extend beyond his knowledge of them. He must therefore arouse in himself thos e ideas which are clansmen of the Thunderstorm, collect all available objects o f the same nature for talismans, and proceed to excite all these to the utmost by a Magical ceremony; that is, by insisting on their godhead, so that they fla me within and without him, his ideas vitalising the talismans. There is thus a vivid vibration of high potential in a certain group {121} of sympathetic subs tances and forces; and this spreads as do the waves from a stone thrown into a lake, widening and weakening; till the disturbance is compensated. Just as a h andful of fanatics, insane with one over-emphasised truth, may infect a whole c ountry for a time by inflaming that thought in their neighbours, so the Magicia n creates a commotion by disturbing the balance of power. He transmits his par ticular vibration as a radio operator does with his ray; rate-relation determin es exclusive selection. In practice, the Magician must "evoke the spirits of the storm" by identifyi ng himself with the ideas of which atmospheric phenomena are the expressions as his humanity is of him; thus achieved, he must impose his Will upon them by vi rtue of the superiority of his intelligence and the integration of his purpose to their undirected impulses and uncomprehending interplay. All such Magick demands the utmost precision in practice. It is true that t he best rituals give us instructions in selecting our vehicles of force. In 77 7 we find "correspondences" of many classes of being with the various types of operation, so that we know what weapons, jewels, figures, drugs, perfumes, name s, etc. to employ in any particular work. But it has always been assumed that the invoked force is intelligent and competent, that it will direct itself as d esired without further ado, by this method of sympathetic vibrations. The necessity of timing the force has been ignored; and so most operations, even when well performed as far as invocation goes, are as harmless as igniting loose gunpowder. But, even allowing that Will is sufficient to determine the direction, and p revent the dispersion of the force, we can hardly be sure that it will act on i ts object, unless that object be properly prepared to receive it. The Link mus t be perfectly made. The object must possess in itself a sufficiency of stuff sympathetic to our work. We cannot make love to a brick, or set an oak to run errands. We see, then, that we can never affect anything outside ourselves save only as it is also within us. Whatever I do to another, I do also to myself. If I kill a man, I destroy my own life at the same time. That is the magical meanin g of the so-called {121} "Golden Rule", which should not be in the imperative b ut in the indicative mood. Every vibration awakens all others of its particula r pitch. There is thus some justification for the assumption of previous writers on M agick that the Link is implicit, and needs no special attention. Yet, in pract ice, there is nothing more certain than that one ought to confirm one's will by all possible acts on all possible planes. The ceremony must not be confined t o the formally magical rites. We must neglect no means to our end, neither des pising our common sense, nor doubting our secret wisdom. When Frater I. A. was in danger of death in 1899 e.v. Frater V. N. and FRAT ER PERDURABO did indeed invoke the spirit Buer to visible manifestation that th e might heal their brother; but also one of them furnished the money to send hi m to a climate less cruel than England's. He is alive to day>; who cares wheth er spirits or shekels wrought that which these Magicians willed? Let the Magical Link be made strong! It is "love under will"; it affirms the identity of the Equation of the work; it makes success Necessity. ------- {122} CHAPTER XVI "(Part I)" OF THE OATH The third operation in any magical ceremony is the oath or proclamation. Th e Magician, armed and ready, stands in the centre of the Circle, and strikes on ce upon the bell as if to call the attention of the Universe. He then declares "who he is", reciting his magical history by the proclamation of the grades wh ich he has attained, giving the signs and words of those grades.> He then states the purpose of the ceremony, and proves that it is necessary to perform it and to succeed in its performance. He then takes an oath before the Lord of the Universe (not before the particular Lord whom he is invoking) a s if to call Him to witness to the act. He swears solemnly that he will perfor m it --- that nothing shall prevent him from performing it --- that he will not leave the operation until it is successfully performed --- and once again he s trikes upon the bell. Yet, having demonstrated himself in that position at once infinitely lofty a nd infinitely unimportant, the instrument of destiny, he balances this by the " Confession", in which there is again an infinite exaltation harmonised with an infinite humility. He admits himself to be a weak human being humbly aspiring to something higher; a creature of circumstance utterly dependent --- even for the breath of life --- upon a series of fortunate accidents. {123} He makes th is confession prostrate> before the altar in agony and bloody sweat. He trembl es at the thought of the operation which he has dared to undertake, saying, "Fa ther, if it be Thy Will, let this cup pass from me! Nevertheless not my will b ut Thine be done!"> The dread answer comes that It Must Be, and this answer so fortifies him wit h holy zeal that it will seem to him as if he were raised by divine hands from that prostrate position; with a thrill of holy exaltation he renews joyfully th e Oath, feeling himself once again no longer the man but the Magician, yet not merely the Magician, but the chosen and appointed person to accomplish a task w hich, however apparently unimportant, is yet an integral part of universal dest iny, so that if it were not accomplished the Kingdom of Heaven would be burst i n pieces. He is now ready to commence the invocations. He consequently pauses to cast a last glance around the Temple to assure himself of the perfect readiness of all things necessary, and to light the incense. --------- The Oath is the foundation of all Work in Magick, as it is an affirmation of the Will. An Oath binds the Magician for ever. In Part II of Book 4 somethin g has already been said on this subject; but its importance deserves some furth er elaboration. Thus, should one, loving a woman, make a spell to compel her e mbraces, and tiring of her a little later, evoke Zazel to kill her; he will fin d that the implications of his former Oath conflict with those proper to invoke the Unity of the Godhead of Saturn. Zazel will refuse to obey him in the case of the woman whom he has sworn that he loves. To this some may object that, s ince all acts are magical, every man who loves a woman implicitly takes an {124 } Oath of love, and therefore would never be able to murder her later, as we fi nd to be the not uncommon case. The explanation is as follows. It is perfectl y true that when Bill Sykes desires to possess Nancy, he does in fact evoke a s pirit of the nature of Venus, constraining him by his Oath of Love (and by his magical power as a man) to bring him the girl. So also, when he wants to kill her, he evokes a Martial or Saturnian spirit, with an Oath of hate. But these are not pure planetary spirits, moving in well-defined spheres by rigidly right eous laws. They are gross concretions of confused impulses, "incapable of unde rstanding the nature of an oath". They are also such that the idea of murder i s nowise offensive to the Spirit of Love. It is indeed the criterion of spiritual "caste" that conflicting elements sh ould not coexist in the same consciousness. The psalm-singing Puritan who pers ecutes publicans, and secretly soaks himself in fire-water; the bewhiskered phi lanthropist in broadcloth who swindles his customers and sweats his employees: these men must not be regarded as single-minded scoundrels, whose use of religi on and respectability to cloke their villainies is a deliberate disguise dictat ed by their criminal cunning. Far from it, they are only too sincere in their "virtues"; their terror of death and of supernatural vengeance is genuine; it p roceeds from a section of themselves which is in irreconcilable conflict with t heir rascality. Neither side can conciliate, suppress, or ignore the other; ye t each is so craven as to endure its enemy's presence. Such men are therefore without pure principles; they excuse themselves for every dirty trick that turn s to their apparent advantage. The first step of the Aspirant toward the Gate of Initiation tells him that purity --- unity of purpose --- is essential above all else. "Do what thou Wil t" strikes on him, a ray of fierce white flame consuming all that is not utterl y God. Very soon he is aware that he cannot consciously contradict himself. H e develops a subtle sense which warns him that two trains of thought which he h ad never conceived as connected are incompatible. Yet deeper drives "Do what t hou wilt"; subconscious oppositions are evoked to visible appearance. The secr et sanctuaries of the soul are cleansed. "Do What thou Wilt" purges his every part. He has become One, one only. His Will is consequently released from {12 5} the interference of internal opposition, and he is a Master of Magick. But for that very reason he is now utterly impotent to achieve anything that is not in absolute accordance with his Original Oath, with his True Will, by virtue w hereof he incarnated as a man. With Bill Sykes love and murder are not mutuall y exclusive, as they are with King Arthur. The higher the type of man, the mor e sensitive he becomes; so that the noblest love divines intuitively when a car eless word or gesture may wound, and, vigilant, shuns them as being of the fami ly of murder. In Magick, likewise, the Adept who is sworn to attain to the Kno wledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel may in his grosser days have been expert as a Healer, to find that he is now incapable of any such work. H e will probably be puzzled, and wonder whether he has lost all his power. Yet the cause may be no more than that the Wisdom of his Angel depreciates the inte rference of ignorant kindliness with diseases which may have been sent to the s ufferer for a purpose profoundly important to his welfare. In the case of THE MASTER THERION, he had originally the capacity for all clas ses of Orgia. In the beginning, He cured the sick, bewitched the obstinate, al lured the seductive, routed the aggressive, made himself invisible, and general ly behaved like a Young-Man-About-town on every possible plane. He would affli ct one vampire with a Sending of Cats, and appoint another his private Enchantr ess, neither aware of any moral oxymoron, nor hampered by the implicit incongru ity of his oaths. But as He advanced in Adeptship, this coltishness found its mouth bitted; as soon as He took serious Oaths and was admitted to the Order which we name not, those Oaths prevented him using His powers as playthings. Trifling operations , such as He once could do with a turn of the wrist, became impossible to the m ost persistent endeavour. It was many years before He understood the cause of this. But little by little He became so absorbed in the Work of His true Will that it no longer occurred to Him to indulge in capricious amusements. Yet even at this hour, though He be verily a Magus of A.'. A.'., though His Word be the Word of the Aeon, though He be the Beast 666, the Lord of the Scarl et Woman "in whom is all power {126} given", there are still certain Orgia beyo nd Him to perform, because to do so would be to affirm what He hath denied in t hose Oaths by whose virtue He is That He is. This is the case, even when the s pirit of such Orgia is fully consonant with His Will. The literal sense of His original Oath insists that it shall be respected. The case offers two instances of this principle. FRATER PERDURABO specifica lly swore that he would renounce His personal possessions to the last penny; al so that He would allow no human affection to hinder Him. These terms were acce pted; He was granted infinitely more than He had imagined possible to an incarn ated Man. On the other hand, the price offered by Him was exacted as strictly as if it had been stipulated by Shylock. Every treasure that he had on earth w as taken away, and that, usually, in so brutal or cruel a manner as to make the loss itself the least part of the pang. Every human affection that He had in His heart --- and that heart aches for Love as few hearts can ever conceive --- was torn out and trampled with such infernal ingenuity in intensifying torture that His endurance is beyond belief. Inexplicable are the atrocities which ac companied every step in His Initiation! Death dragged away His children with s low savagery; the women He loved drank themselves into delirium and dementia be fore His eyes, or repaid His passionate devotion with toad-cold treachery at th e moment when long years of loyalty had tempted Him to trust them. His friend, that bore the bag, stole that which was put therein, and betrayed his Master a s thoroughly as he was able. At the first distant rumour that the Pharisees we re out, his disciples "all forsook Him and fled". His mother nailed Him with h er own hands to the cross, and reviled Him as nine years He hung thereupon. Now, having endured to the end, being Master of Magick, He is mighty to Work H is true Will; which Will is, to establish on Earth His Word, the Law of Thelema . He hath none other Will than this; so all that He doth is unto this end. Al l His Orgia bear fruit; what was the work of a month when He was a full Major A dept is to day wrought in a few minutes by the Words of Will, uttered with the right vibrations into the prepared Ear. {127} But neither by the natural use of His abilities, though they have made Him fam ous through the whole world, nor by the utmost might of his Magick, is He able to acquire material wealth beyond the minimum necessary to keep Him alive and a t work. It is in vain that He protests that not He but the Work is in need of money; He is barred by the strict letter of His Oath to give all that He hath f or His magical Attainment. Yet more awful is the doom that He hath invoked upon Himself in renouncing H is right as a man to enjoy the Love of those whom He loves with passion so self less, so pure, and so intense in return for the power so to love Mankind that H e be chosen to utter the Word of the Aeon for their sake, His reward universal abhorrence, bodily torment, mental despair, and moral paralysis. Yet He, who hath power over Death, with breath to call back health, with a t ouch to beckon life, He must watch His own child waste away month by month, awa re that His Art may not anywise avail, who hath sold the signet ring of his per sonal profit to buy him a plain gold band for the felon finger of his bride, th at worn widow, the World! ---------- {128} CHAPTER XV I OF THE INVOCATION In the straightforward or "Protestant" system of Magick there is very littl e to add to what has already been said. The Magician addresses a direct petiti on to the Being invoked. But the secret of success in invocation has not hithe rto been disclosed. It is an exceedingly simple one. It is practically of no importance whatever that the invocation should be "right". There are a thousan d different ways of compassing the end proposed, so far as external things are concerned. The whole secret may be summarised in these four words: "Enflame th yself in praying."> The mind must be exalted until it loses consciousness of self. The Magician must be carried forward blindly by a force which, though in him and of him, is by no means that which he in his normal state of consciousness calls I. Just as the poet, the lover, the artist, is carried out of himself in a creative fre nzy, so must it be for the Magician. It is impossible to lay down rules for the obtaining of this special stimulu s. To one the mystery of the whole ceremony may appeal; another may be moved b y the strangeness of the words, even by the fact that the "barbarous names" are unintelligible to him. Some times in the course of a ceremony the true meanin g of some barbarous name that has hitherto baffled his analysis may flash upon him, luminous and splendid, so that he is caught up unto {129} orgasm. The sme ll of a particular incense may excite him effectively, or perhaps the physical ecstasy of the magick dance. Every Magician must compose his ceremony in such a manner as to produce a dr amatic cilmax. At the moment when the excitement becomes ungovernable, when th en the whole conscious being of the Magician undergoes a spiritual spasm, at th at moment must he utter the supreme adjuration. One very effective method is to stop short, by a supreme effort of will, again and again, on the very brink of that spasm, until a time arrives when the idea of exercising that will fails to occur>. Inhibition is no longer possible or even thinkable, and the whole being of the Magician, no minutest atom saying na y, is irresistibly flung forth. In blinding light, amid the roar of ten thousa nd thunders, the Union of God and man is consummated. If the Magician is still seen standing in the Circle, quietly pursuing his i nvocations, it is that all the conscious part of him has become detached from t he true ego which lies behind that normal consciousness. But the circle is who lly filled with that divine essence; all else is but an accident and an illusio n. The subsequent invocations, the gradual development and materialization of t he force, require no effort. It is one great mistake of the beginner to concen trate his force upon the actual stated purpose of the ceremony. This mistake i s the most frequent cause of failures in invocation. A corollary of this Theorem is that the Magician soon discards evocation alm ost altogether --- only rare circumstances demand any action what ever on the m aterial plane. The Magician devotes himself entirely to the invocation of a go d; and as soon as his balance approaches perfection he ceases to invoke any par tial god; only that god vertically above him is in his path. And so a man who perhaps took up Magick merely with the idea of acquiring knowledge, love, or we alth, finds himself irrevocably committed to the performance of "The Great Work ." {130} It will now be apparent that there is no distinction between magick and medi tation except of the most arbitrary and accidental kind.> II Beside these open methods thee are also a number of mental methods of Invoca tion, of which we may give three. The first method concerns the so-called astral body. The Magician should pr actise the formation of this body as recommended in Liber O, and learn to rise on the planes according to the instruction given in the same book, though limit ing his "rising" to the particular symbol whose God he wishes to invoke. The second is to recite a mantra suitable to the God. The third is the assumption of the form of the God --- by transmuting the as tral body into His shape. This last method is really essential to all proper i nvocation, and cannot be too sedulously practised. There are many other devices to aid invocation, so many that it is impossibl e to enumerate them; and the Magician will be wise to busy himself in inventing new ones. We will give one example. Suppose the Supreme Invocation to consist of 20 to 30 barbarous names, let him imagine these names to occupy sections of a vertical column, each double the l ength of the preceding one; and let him imagine that his consciousness ascends the column with each name. The mere multiplication will then produce a feeling of awe and bewilderment which is the proper forerunner of exstasy. In the essay "Energized Enthusiasm" in No. IX, Vol. I of the Equinox> is giv en a concise account of one of the classical methods of arousing Kundalini. Th is essay should be studied with care and determination. {131} ------------- {132} CHAPTER XVI ("Part II") OF THE CHARGE TO THE SPIRIT WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CONSTRAINTS AND CURSES OCCASIONALLY NECESSARY I On the appearance of the spirit, or the manifestation of the force in the ta lisman which is being consecrated, it is necessary to bind it by an Oath or Cha rge. A spirit should be made to lay its hand visibly on the weapon by whose mi ght it has been evoked, and to "swear obedience and faith to Him that liveth an d triumpheth, that regneth above him in His palaces as the Balance of Righteous ness and Truth" by the names used in the evocation. It is then only necessary to formulate the Oath or Charge in language harmon ious with the previously announced purpose of the operation. The precaution indicated is not to let oneself sink into one's humanity whil e the weapon is extended beyond the Circle. Were the force to flow from it to you instead of from you to it, you would be infallibly blasted, or, at the leas t, become the slave of the spirit. At no moment is it more important that the Divine Force should not only fill , but radiate from, the aura of the Magician. II Occasionally it may happen that the spirit is recalcitrant, and refuses to a ppear. Let the Magician consider the cause of such disobedience! {133} It may be that the place or time is wrong. One cannot easily evoke water-sp irits in the Sahara, or salamanders in the English Lake District. Hismael will not readily appear when Jupiter is below the horizon.> In order to counteract a natural deficiency of this sort, one would have to supply a sufficient quant ity of the proper kind of material. One cannot make bricks without straw. With regard to invocations of the Gods, such considerations do not apply. T he Gods are beyond most material conditions. It is necessary to fill the "hear t" and "mind" with the proper basis for manifestation. The higher the nature o f the God, the more true this is. The Holy Guardian Angel has always the neces sary basis. His manifestation depends solely on the readiness of the Aspirant, and all magical ceremonies used in that invocation are merely intended to prep are that Aspirant; not in any way to attract or influence Him. It is His const ant and eternal Will> to become one with the Aspirant, and the moment the condi tions of the latter make it possible, That Bridal is consummated. III The obstinacy of a spirit (or the inertial of a talisman) usually implies a defect in invocation. The spirit cannot resist even for a moment the constrain t of his Intelligence, when that Intelligence is working in accordance with the Will of the Angel, Archangel {134} and God above him. It is therefore better to repeat the Invocations than to proceed at once to curses. The Magician should also consider> whether the evocation be in truth a neces sary part of the Karma of the Universe, as he has stated in his own Oath (See C ap. XVI, I). For if this be a delusion, success is impossible. It will then b e best to go back to the beginning, and recapitulate with greater intensity and power of analysis the Oath and the Invocations. And this may be done thrice. But if this be satisfactorily accomplished, and the spirit be yet disobedien t, the implication is that some hostile force is at work to hinder the operatio n. It will then become advisable to discover the nature of that force, and to attack and destroy it. This makes the ceremony more useful than ever to the Ma gician, who may thereby be led to unveil a black magical gang whose existence h e had not hitherto suspected. His need to check the vampiring of a lady in Paris by a sorceress once led FR ATER PERDURABO to the discovery of a very powerful body of black magicians, whi ch whom he was obliged to war for nearly 10 years before their ruin was complet e and irremediable as it now is. Such a discovery will not necessarily impede the ceremony. A general curse may be pronounced against the forces hindering the operation (for "ex hypothesi " no divine force can be interfering) and having thus temporarily dislodged the m --- for the power of the God invoked will suffice for this purpose --- one ma y proceed with a certain asperity to conjure the spirit, for that he has done i ll to bend before the conjurations of the Black Brothers. Indeed, some demons are of a nature such that they only understand curses, are not amenable to courteous command: --- "a slave Whom stripes may move, not kindness." Finally, as a last resource, one may burn the Sigil of the {135} Spirit in a black box with stinking substances, all having been properly prepared beforeha nd, and the magical links properly made, so that he is really tortured by the O peration.> This is a rare event, however. Only once in the whole of his magical career was FRATER PERDURABO driven to so harsh a measure. IV In this connexion, beware of too ready a compliance on the part of the spiri t. If some Black Lodge has got wind of your operation, it may send the spirit, full of hypocritical submission, to destroy you. Such a spirit will probably pronounce the oath amiss, or in some way seek to avoid his obligations. It is a dangerous trick, though, for the Black Lodge to play; for if the spi rit come properly under your control, it will be forced to disclose the transac tion, and the current will return to the Black Lodge with fulminating force. T he liars will be in the power of their own lie; their own slaves will rise up a nd put them into bondage. The wicked fall into the pit that they themselves di gged. And so perish all the King's enemies! V The charge to the spirit is usually embodied, except in works of pure evocat ion, which after all are comparatively rare, in some kind of talisman. In a ce rtain sense, the talisman is the Charge expressed in hieroglyphics. Yet, every object soever is a talisman, for the definition of a talisman is: something up on which an act of will (that is, of Magick) has been performed in order to fit it for a purpose. Repeated acts of will in respect of {136} any object consec rate it without further ado. One knows what miracles can be done with one's fa vourite mashie! One has used the mashie again and again, one's love for it gro wing in proportion to one's success with it, and that success again made more c ertain and complete by the effect of this "love under will", which one bestows upon it by using it. It is, of course, very important to keep such an abject away from the contac t of the profane. It is instinctive not to let another person use one's fishin g rod or one's gun. It is not that they could do any harm in a material sense. It is the feeling that one's use of these things has consecrated them to one' s self. Of course, the outstanding example of all such talismans is the wife. A wife may be defined as an object specially prepared for taking the stamp of one's cr eative will. This is an example of a very complicated magical operation, exten ding over centuries. But, theoretically, it is just an ordinary case of talism anic magick. It is for this reason that so much trouble has been taken to prev ent a wife having contact with the profane; or, at least, to try to prevent her . Readers of the Bible will remember that Absalom publicly adopted David's wiv es and concubines on the roof of the palace, in order to signify that he had su cceeded in breaking his father's magical power. Now, there are a great many talismans in this world which are being left lyi ng about in a most reprehensibly careless manner. Such are the objects of popu lar adoration, as ikons, and idols. But, it is actually true that a great deal of real magical Force is locked up in such things; consequently, by destroying these sacred symbols, you can overcome magically the people who adore them. It is not at all irrational to fight for one's flag, provided that the flag is an object which really means something to somebody. Similarly, with the mos t widely spread and most devotedly worshipped talisman of all, money, you can evidently break the magical will of a worshipper of money by taking his money a way from him, or by destroying its value in some way or another. But, in the c ase of money, general experience tells us that there is very little of it lying about loose. In this case, above all, {137} people have recognised its talism anic virtue, that is to say, its power as an instrument of the will. But with many ikons and images, it is easy to steal their virtue. This can be done sometimes on a tremendous scale, as, for example, when all the images o f Isis and Horus, or similar mother-child combinations, were appropriated whole sale by the Christians. The miracle is, however, of a somewhat dangerous type, as in this case, where enlightenment has come through the researches of archae ologists. It has been shown that the so-called images of Mary and Jesus are re ally nothing but imitations of those of Isis and Horus. Honesty is the best po licy in Magick as in other lines of life. --------- {138} CHAPTER XVII OF THE LICENSE TO DEPART After a ceremony has reached its climax, anti-climax must inevitably follow. But if the ceremony has been successful this anti-climax is merely formal. T he Magician should rest permanently on the higher plain to which he has aspired .> The whole force of the operation should be absorbed; but there is almost ce rtain to be a residuum, since no operation is perfect: and (even if it were so) there would be a number of things, sympathetic to the operation, attracted to the Circle. These must be duly dispersed, or they will degenerate and become e vil. It is always easy to do this where invocations are concerned; the mere re moval of the strain imposed by the will of the magician will restore things to their normal aspects, in accordance with the great law of inertia. In a badly- managed evocation, however, this does not always obtain; the spirit may refuse to be controlled, and may refuse to depart --- even after having sworn obedienc e. In such a case extreme danger may arise. In the ordinary way, the Magician dismisses the spirit with these words: "An d now I say unto thee, depart in peace unto thine habitations and abodes --- an d may the blessing of the Highest be upon thee in the name of (here mention the divine name suitable to the operation, or a Name appropriate to redeem that sp irit); and let there be peace between thee and me; and be thou very ready to co me, whensoever thou are invoked and called!"> {139} Should he fail to disappear immediately, it is a sign that there is somethin g very wrong. The Magician should immediately reconsecrate the Circle with the utmost care. He should then repeat the dismissal; and if this does not suffic e, he should then perform the banishing ritual suitable to the nature of the sp irit and, if necessary, add conjurations to the same effect. In these circumst ances, or if anything else suspicious should occur, he should not be content wi th the apparent disappearance of the spirit, who might easily make himself invi sible and lie in ambush to do the Magician a mischief when he stepped out of th e Circle --- or even months afterwards. Any symbol which has once definitely entered your environment with your own consent is extremely dangerous; unless under absolute control. A man's friends are more capable of working him harm than are strangers; and his greatest dang er lies in his own habits. Of course it is the very condition of progress to build up ideas into the su bconscious. The necessity of selection should therefore be obvious. True, there comes a time when all elements soever must be thus assimilated. Samadhi is, by definition, that very process. But, from the point of view of the young magician, there is a right way --- strait and difficult --- of perfor ming all this. One cannot too frequently repeat that what is lawful and proper to one Path is alien to another. Immediately after the License to Depart, and the general closing up of the wo rk, it is necessary that the Magician should sit down and write up his magical record. However much he may have been tired> by the ceremony, he ought to forc e himself to do this until it becomes a habit. Verily, it is better to fail in the magical ceremony than to fail in writing down an accurate record of it. O ne need not doubt the propriety of this remark. Even if one is eaten alive by Malkah be-Tarshishim ve-Ruachoth ha-Schehalim, it does not matter very much, fo r it is over so very quickly. But the record of the transactions is {140} othe rwise important. Nobody cares about Duncan having been murdered by Macbeth. I t is only one of a number of similar murders. But Shakespeare's account of the incident is a unique treasure of mankind. And, apart from the question of the value to others, there is that of the value to the magician himself. The reco rd of the magician is his best asset. It is as foolish to do Magick without method, as if it were anything else. To do Magick without keeping a record is like trying to run a business without book-keeping. There are a great many people who quite misunderstand the nature of Magick. They have an idea that it is something vague and unreal, instead o f being, as it is, a direct means of coming into contact with reality. It is t hese people who pay themselves with phrases, who are always using long words wi th no definite connotation, who plaster themselves with pompous titles and deco rations which mean nothing whatever. With such people we have nothing to do. But to those who seek reality the Key of Magick is offered, and they are hereby warned that the key to the treasure-house is no good without the combination; and the combination is the magical record. From one point of view, magical progress actually consists in deciphering on e's own record.> For this reason it is the most important thing to do, on stri ctly magical grounds. But apart from this, it is absolutely essential that the record should be clear, full and concise, because it is only by such a record that your teacher can judge how it is best to help you. Your magical teacher h as something else to do besides running around after you all the time, and the most important of all his functions is that of auditor. Now, if you call in an auditor to investigate a business, and when he asks for the books you tell him that you have not thought it worth while to keep any, you need not be surprise d if he thinks you every kind of an ass. It is --- at least, it was --- perfectly incredible to THE MASTER THERION th at people who exhibit ordinary common sense in {141} the other affairs of life should lose it completely when they tackle Magick. It goes far to justify the belief of the semi-educated that Magick is rather a crazy affair after all. Ho wever, there are none of these half-baked lunatics connected with the A.'. A.'. , because the necessity for hard work, for passing examinations at stated inter vals, and for keeping an intelligible account of what they are doing, frightens away the unintelligent, idle and hysterical. There are numerous models of magical and mystical records to be found in the various numbers of the "Equinox", and the student will have no difficulty in a cquiring the necessary technique, if he be diligent in practice. --------- {142} CHAPTER XVIII OF CLAIRVOYANCE AND THE BODY OF LIGHT ITS POWER AND ITS DEVELOPMENT ALSO CONCERNING DIVINATION I Within the human body is another body of approximately the same size and shape ;> but made of a subtler and less illusory material. It is of course not "real "; but then no more is the other body! Before treating of clairvoyance one mus t discuss briefly this question of reality, for misapprehension on the subject has given rise to endless trouble. There is the story of the American in the train who saw another American car rying a basket of unusual shape. His curiosity mastered him, and he leant acro ss and said: "Say, stranger, what you got in that bag?" The other, lantern-ja wed and taciturn, replied: "mongoose". The first man was rather baffled, as he had never heard of a mongoose. After a pause he pursued, at the risk of a reb uff: "But say, what is a Mongoose?" "Mongoose eats snakes", replied the other. This was another poser, but he pursued: "What in hell do you want a Mongoose for?" "Well, you see", said the second man (in a confidential whisper) "my bro ther sees snakes". The first man was more puzzled than ever; but after a long think, he continued rather pathetically: "But say, them ain't real snakes". "S ure", said the man with the basket, "but this Mongoose ain't real either". This is a perfect parable of Magick. There is no such thing {143} as truth in the perceptible universe; every idea when analysed is found to contain a con tradiction. It is quite useless (except as a temporary expedient) to set up on e class of ideas against another as being "more real". The advance of man towa rds God is not necessarily an advance towards truth. All philosophical systems have crumbled. But each class of ideas possesses true relations within itself . It is possible, with Berkeley,> to deny the existence of water and of wood; but, for all that, wood floats on water. The Magician becomes identical with t he immortal Osiris, yet the Magician dies. In this dilemma the facts must be r estated. One should preferably say that the Magician becomes conscious of that part of himself which he calls the immortal Osiris; and that Part does not "di e". Now this interior body of the Magician, of which we spoke at the beginning o f this chapter, does exist, and can exert certain powers which his natural body cannot do. It can, for example, pass through "matter", and it can move freely in every direction through space. But this is because "matter", in the sense in which we commonly use the word, is on another plane>. Now this fine body perceives a universe which we do not ordinarily perceive. It does not necessarily perceive the universe which we do normally perceive, so although in this body I can pass through the roof, it does not follow that I shall be able to tell what the weather is like. I might do so, or I might not : but if I could not, it would not prove that I was deceiving myself in supposi ng that I had passed through the roof. This body, which is called by various a uthors the Astral double, body of Light, body of fire, body of desire, fine bod y, scin-laeca and numberless other names is naturally fitted to perceive object s of its own class ... in particular, the phantoms of the astral plane. {144} There is some sort of vague and indeterminate relation between the Astrals a nd the Materials; and it is possible, with great experience, to deduce facts ab out material things from the astral aspect which they present to the eyes of th e Body of Light.> This astral plane is so varied and so changeable that severa l clairvoyants looking at the same thing might give totally different accounts of what they saw; yet they might each make correct deductions. In looking at a man the first clairvoyant might say: "The lines of force are all drooping"; th e second: "It seems all dirty and spotty"; a third; "The Aura looks very ragged ." Yet all might agree in deducing that the man was in ill-health. In any case all such deductions are rather unreliable. One must be a highly skilled man b efore one can trust one's vision. A great many people think that they are extr emely good at the business, when in fact they have only made some occasional sh rewd guesses (which they naturally remember) in the course of hundreds of forgo tten failures. The only way to test clairvoyance is to keep a careful record of every exper iment made. For example, FRATER O. M. once gave a clairvoyant a waistcoat to p sychometrize. He made 56 statements about the owner of the waistcoat; of these 4 were notably right; 17, though correct, were of that class of statement whic h is true of almost everybody. The remainder were wrong. It was concluded fro m this that he showed no evidence of any special power. In fact, his bodily ey es, --- if he could discern Tailoring --- would have served him better, for he thought the owner of the vest was a corn-chandler, instead of an earl, as he is . The Magician can hardly take too much trouble to develop this power in himse lf. It is extremely useful to him in guarding himself against attack; in obtai ning warnings, in judging character, and especially in watching the process of his Ceremonies. {145} There are a great many ways of acquiring the power. Gaze into a crystal, or into a pool of ink in the palm of the hand, or into a mirror, or into a teacup . Just as with a microscope the expert operator keeps both eyes open, though s eeing only through the one at the eye-piece of the instrument, so the natural e yes, ceasing to give any message to the brain, the attention is withdrawn from them, and the man begins to see through the Astral eyes. These methods appear to The MASTER THERION to be unsatisfactory. Very often they do not work at all. It is difficult to teach a person to use these metho ds; and, worst of all, they are purely passive! You can see only what is shewn you, and you are probably shewn things perfectly pointless and irrelevant. The proper method is as follows: --- Develop the body of Light until it is jus t as real to you as your other body, teach it to travel to any desired symbol, and enable it to perform all necessary Rites and Invocations. In short, educat e it. Ultimately, the relation of that body with your own must be exceedingly intimate; but before this harmonizing takes place, you should begin by a carefu l differentiation. The first thing to do, therefore, is to get the body outsid e your own. To avoid muddling the two, you begin by imagining a shape resembli ng yourself standing in front of you. Do not say: "Oh, it's only imagination!" The time to test that is later on, when you have secured a fairly clear menta l image of such a body. Try to imagine how your own body would look if you wer e standing in its place; try to transfer your consciousness to the Body of Ligh t. Your own body has its eyes shut. Use the eyes of the Body of Light to desc ribe the objects in the room behind you. Don't say. "It's only an effort of su bconscious memory" ... the time to test that is later on. As soon as you feel more or less at home in the fine body, let it rise in th e air. Keep on feeling the sense of rising; keep on looking about you as you r ise until you see landscapes or beings of the astral plane. Such have a qualit y all their own. They are not like material things --- they are not like menta l pictures --- they seem to lie between the two. After some practice has made you adept, so that in the course {146} of any h our's journey you can reckon on having a fairly eventful time, turn your attent ion to reaching a definite place on the astral plane; invoke Mercury, for examp le, and examine carefully your record of the resulting vision --- discover whet her the symbols which you have seen correspond with the conventional symbols of Mercury. This testing of the spirits is the most important branch of the whole tree o f Magick. Without it, one is lost in the jungle of delusion. Every spirit, up to God himself, is ready to deceive you if possible, to make himself out more important than he is; in short to lay in wait for your soul in 333 separate way s. Remember that after all the highest of all the Gods is only the Magus,> May an, the greatest of all the devils. You may also try "rising on the planes".> With a little practice, especiall y if you have a good Guru, you ought to be able to slip in and out of your astr al body as easily as you slip in and out of a dressing-gown. It will then no l onger be so necessary for your astral body to be sent far off; without moving a n inch you will be able to "turn on" its eyes and ears --- as simply as the man with the microscope (mentioned above) can transfer his complete attention from one eye to the other. Now, however unsuccessful your getting out the body may apparently have been, it is most necessary to use every effort to bring it properly back. Make the B ody of Light coincide in space with the physical body, assume the God-Form, and vibrate the name of Harpocrates with the utmost energy; then recover unity of consciousness. If you fail to do this properly you may find yourself in seriou s trouble. Your Body of Light may wander away uncontrolled, and be attacked an d obsessed. You will become aware of this through the occurrence of headache, bad dreams, or even more serious signs such as hysteria, fainting fits, possibl y madness or paralysis. Even the worst of these attacks will probably wear off , but it may leave you permanently damaged to a greater or less extent. {147} A great majority of "spiritualists", "occultists", "Toshosophists", are piti able examples of repeated losses from this cause. The emotional type of religionist also suffers in this way. Devotion projec ts the fine body, which is seized and vampirized by the demon masquerading as " Christ" or "Mary", or whoever may be the object of worship. Complete absence o f all power to concentrate thought, to follow an argument, to formulate a Will, to hold fast to an opinion or a course of action, or even to keep a solemn oat h, mark indelibly those who have thus lost parts of their souls. They wander f rom one new cult to another even crazier. Occasionally such persons drift for a moment into the surrounding of The MASTER THERION, and are shot out by the si mple process of making them try to do a half-hour's honest work of any kind. In projecting the Astral, it is a valuable additional safeguard to perform t he whole operation in a properly consecrated circle. Proceed with great caution, then, but proceed. In time your Body of Light wil l be as strong against spirits as your other body against the winds of Heaven. All depends upon the development of that Body of Light. It must be furnished with an organism as ramified and balanced as its shadowy brother, the material body. To recapitulate once more, then, the first task is to develop your own Body of light within your own circle without reference to any other inhabitants of t he world to which it belongs. That which you have accomplished with the subject you may now proceed to do wi th the object. You will learn to see the astral appearance of material things; and although this does not properly belong to pure clairvoyance, one may here again mention that you should endeavour to the utmost to develop and fortify th is Body of Light. The best and simplest way to do this is to use it constantly , to exercise it in every way. In particular it may be employed in ceremonies of initiation or of invocation --- while the physical body remains silent and s till. In doing this it will often be necessary to create a Temple on the astral pl ane. It is excellent practice to create symbols. This one precaution is neede d: after using them, they should be reabsorbed. {148} Having learned to create astral forms, the next step will be at first very d ifficult. Phantasmal and fleeting as the astral is in general, those forms whi ch are definitely attached to the material possess enormous powers of resistanc e, and it consequently requires very high potential to influence them. The mat erial analogues seem to serve as a fortress. Even where a temporary effect is produced, the inertia of matter draws it back to the normal; yet the power of t he trained and consecrated will in a well-developed astral body is such that it can even produce a permanent change in the material upon whose Body of Light y ou are working, e.g.; one can heal the sick by restoring a healthy appearance t o their astral forms. On the other hand, it is possible so to disintegrate the Body of Light even of a strong man that he will fall dead. Such operations demand not only power, but judgment. Nothing can upset the sum total of destiny --- everything must be paid for the uttermost farthing. F or this reason a great many operations theoretically possible cannot be perform ed. Suppose, for example, you see two men of similarly unhealthy astral appear ance. In one case the cause may be slight and temporary. Your help suffices t o restore him in a few minutes. The other, who looks no worse, is really oppre ssed by a force incalculably greater than you could control, and you would only damage yourself by attempting to help him. The diagnosis between the two case s could be made by an investigation of the deeper strata of the astral, such as compose the"causal body". A body of black magicians under Anna Kingsford> once attempted to kill a viv isector who was not particularly well known; and they succeeded in making him s eriously ill. But in attempting the same thing with Pasteur they produced no e ffect whatever, because Pasteur was a great genius --- an adept in his own line far greater than she in hers --- and because millions of people were daily ble ssing him. It cannot be too clearly understood that magical force is subject t o the same laws of proportion as any other kind of force. It is useless for a mere millionaire to try to bankrupt a man who has the Bank of England behind hi m. {149} To sum up, the first task is to separate the astral form from the physical b ody, the second to develop the powers of the astral body, in particular those o f sight, travel, and interpretation; third, to unify the two bodies without mud dling them. This being accomplished, the magician is fitted to deal with the invisible. II It is now useful to contine with considerations of other planes, which have commonly been classed under the Astral. There is some reason for this, as the delimitations are somewhat vague. Just as the vegetable kingdom merges into th e animal, and as the material plane has beings which encroach upon the boundari es of the astral, so do we find it in the higher planes. The mental images which appear during meditation are subjective, and pertain not at all to the astral plane. Only very rarely do astral images occur durin g meditation. It is a bad break in the circle, as a rule, when they do. There is also a Magical Plane. This touches the material, and even includes a portion of it. It includes the Astral, chiefly a full-blooded type of the A stral. It reaches to and includes most, if not all, of the spiritual planes. The Magical plane is thus the most comprehensive of all. Egyptian Gods are typical inhabitants of this plane, and it is the home of every Adept. The spiritual planes are of several types, but are all distinguished by a re ality and intensity to be found nowhere else. Their inhabitants are formless, free of space and time, and distinguished by incomparable brilliance. There are also a number of sub-planes, as, for example, the Alchemical. Thi s plane will often appear in the practice of "Rising on the Planes"; its images are usually those of gardens curiously kept, mountains furnished with peculiar symbols, hieroglyphic animals, or such figures as that of the "Hermetic Arcanu m", and pictures like the "Goldseekers" and the "Massacre of the Innocents" of Basil Valentine. There is a unique quality about the alchemical Plane which re nders its images immediately recognizable. {150} There are also planes corresponding to various religions past and present, a ll of which have their peculiar unity. It is of the utmost importance to the "Clairvoyant" or "traveler in the fine body" to be able to find his way to any desired plane, and operate therein as its ruler. The Neophyte of A.'. A.'. is examined most strictly in this practice before he is passed to the degree of Zelator. In "Rising on the Planes" one must usually pass clear through the Astral to the Spiritual. Some will be unable to do this. The "fine body" which is good enough to subsist on lower planes, a shadow among shadows, will fail to penetra te the higher strata. It requires a great development of this body, and an int ense infusion of the highest spiritual constituents of man, before he can pierc e the veils. The constant practice of Magick is the best preparation possible. Even though the human consciousness fail to reach the goal, the consciousness of the fine body itself may do so, wherefore whoso travels in that body on a s ubsequent occasion may be found worthy; and its success will react favourably o n the human consciousness, and increase its likelihood of success in its next m agical operation. Similarly, the powers gained in this way will strengthen the magician in his mediation-practices. His Will becomes better able to assist the concentration , to destroy the mental images which disturb it, and to reject the lesser rewar ds of that practice which tempt, and too often stop the progress of, the mystic . Although it is said that the spiritual lies "beyond the astral", this is the oretical;> the advanced Magician will not find it to be so in practice. He wil l be able by suitable invocation to travel directly to any place desired. In L iber 418 an example of perfection is given. The Adept who explored these Aethy rs did not have to pass through and beyond the Universe, the whole of which yet lies within even the inmost (30th) Aethyr. He was able to summon the Aethyrs he wanted, and His chief difficulty was that sometimes {151} He was at first un able to pierce their veils. In fact, as the Book shows, it was only by virtue of successive and most exalted initiations undergone in the Aethyrs themselves that He was able to penetrate beyond the 15th. The Guardians of such fortresse s know how to guard. The MASTER THERION has published the most important practical magical secret s in the plainest language. No one, by virtue of being clever or learned, has understood one word; and those unworthy who have profaned the sacrament have bu t eaten and drunken damnation to themselves. One may bring down stolen fire in a hollow tube from Heaven, as The MASTER T HERION indeed has done in a way that no other adept dared to do before him. Bu t the thief, the Titan, must foreknow and consent to his doom to be chained upo n a lonely rock, the vulture devouring his liver, for a season, until Hercules, the strong man armed by virtue of that very fire, shall come and release him. The TEITAN> --- whose number is the number of a man, six hundred and three s core and six --- unsubdued, consoled by Asia and Panthea, must send forth const ant showers of blessing not only upon Man whose incarnation he is, but upon the tyrant and the persecutor. His infinite pain must thrill his heart with joy, since every pang is but the echo of some new flame that leaps upon the earth li t by his crime. For the Gods are the enemies of Man; it is Nature that Man must overcome ere he enter into his kingdom.> The true God {152} is man. In man are all things hidden. Of these the Gods, Nature, Time, all the powers of the universe are r ebellious slaves. It is these that men must fight and conquer in the power and in the name of the Beast that hath availed them, the Titan, the Magus, the Man whose number is six hundred and three score and six. III The practice of Rising on the Planes is of such importance that special atte ntion must be paid to it. It is part of the essential technique of Magick. In struction in this practice has been given with such conciseness in Liber O, tha t one cannot do better than quote verbatim (the "previous experiment" referred to in the first sentence is the ordinary astral journey.): "1. The previous experiment has little value, and leads to few results of i mportance. But it is susceptible of a development which merges into a form of Dharana --- concentration --- and as such may lead to the very highest ends. T he principal use of the practice in {153} the last chapter is to familiarise th e student with every kind of obstacle and every kind of delusion, so that he ma y be perfect master of every idea that may arise in his brain, to dismiss it, t o transmute it, to cause it instantly to obey his will. "2. Let him then begin exactly as before; but with the most intense solemni ty and determination. "3. Let him be very careful to cause his imaginary body to rise in a line e xactly perpendicular to the earth's tangent at the point where his physical bod y is situated (or, to put it more simply, straight upwards). "4. Instead of stopping, let him continue to rise until fatigue almost over comes him. If he should find that he has stopped without willing to do so, and that figures appear, let him at all costs rise above them. Yea, though his ve ry life tremble on his lips, let him force his way upward and onward! "5. Let him continue in this so long as the breath of life is in him. What ever threatens, whatever allures, though it were Typhon and all his hosts loose d from the pit and leagued against him, though it were from the very Throne of God himself that a voice issues bidding him stay and be content, let him strugg le on, ever on. "6. At last there must come a moment when his whole being is swallowed up i n fatigue, overwhelmed by its own inertia. Let him sink (when no longer can he strive, though his tongue be bitten through with the effort and the blood gush from his nostrils) into the blackness of unconsciousness; and then on coming t o himself, let him write down soberly and accurately a record of all that hath occurred: yea, a record of all that hath occurred." Of course, the Rising may be done from any starting pint. One can go (for e xample) into the circle of Jupiter, and the results, especially in the lower pl anes, will be very different to those obtained from a Saturnian starting point. The student should undertake a regular series of such experiments, in order to familiarise himself not only with the nature of the different spheres, but w ith the inner meaning of each. Of course, it is not necessary in every case to push the {154} practice to exhaustion, as described in the instructions, but t his is the proper thing to do whenever definitely practising, in order to acqui re the power of Rising. But, having obtained this power, it is, of course, leg itimate to rise to any particular plane that may be necessary for the purpose o f exploration, as in the case of the visions recorded in Liber 418, where the m ethod may be described as mixed. In such a case, it is not enough to invoke th e place you wish to visit, because you may not be able to endure its pressure, or to breathe its atmosphere. Several instances occur in that record where the seer was unable to pass through certain gateways, or to remain in certain cont emplations. He had to undergo certain Initiations before he was able to procee d. Thus, it is necessary that the technique of Magick should be perfected. Th e Body of Light must be rendered capable of going everywhere and doing everythi ng. It is, therefore, always the question of drill which is of importance. Yo u have got to go out Rising on the Planes every day of your life, year after ye ar. You are not to be disheartened by failure, or too much encouraged by succe ss, in any one practice or set of practices. What you are doing is what will b e of real value to you in the end; and that is, developing a character, creatin g a Karma, which will give you the power to do your will. IV Divination is so important a branch of Magick as almost to demand a separate treatise. Genius is composed of two sides; the active and the passive. The power to exe cute the Will is but blind force unless the Will be enlightened. At every stag e of a Magical Operation it is necessary to know what one is doing, and to be s ure that one is acting wisely. Acute sensitiveness is always associated with g enius; the power to perceive the universe accurately, to analyse, coordinate, a nd judge impressions is the foundation of all great Work. An army is but a blu ndering brute unless its intelligence department works as it should. The Magician obtains the transcendental knowledge necessary to an intelligen t course of conduct directly in consciousness by clairvoyance and clairaudience ; but communication with superior {155} intelligences demands elaborate prepara tion, even after years of successful performance. It is therefore useful to possess an art by which one can obtain at a moment 's notice any information that may be necessary. This art is divination. The answers to one's questions in divination are not conveyed directly but through the medium of a suitable series of symbols. These symbols must be interpreted by the diviner in terms of his problem. It is not practicable to construct a l exicon in which the solution of every difficulty is given in so many words. It would be unwieldy; besides, nature does not happen to work on those lines. The theory of any process of divination may be stated in a few simple terms. 1. We postulate the existence of intelligences, either within or without the diviner, of which he is not immediately conscious. (It does not matter to the theory whether the communicating spirit so-called is an objective entity or a c oncealed portion of the diviner's mind.) We assume that such intelligences are able to reply correctly --- within limits --- to the questions asked. 2. We postulate that it is possible to construct a compendium of hieroglyphs sufficiently elastic in meaning to include every possible idea, and that one o r more of these may always be taken to represent any idea. We assume that any of these hieroglyphics will be understood by the intelligences with whom we wis h to communicate in the same sense as it is by ourselves. We have therefore a sort of language. One may compare it to a "lingua franca" which is perhaps def ective in expressing fine shades of meaning, and so is unsuitable for literatur e, but which yet serves for the conduct of daily affairs in places where many t ongues are spoken. Hindustani is an example of this. But better still is the analogy between the conventional signs and symbols employed by mathematicians, who can thus convey their ideas perfectly> without speaking a word of each othe r's languages. {156} 3. We postulate that the intelligences whom wish to consul are willing, or m ay be compelled, to answer us truthfully. Let us first consider the question of the compendium of symbols. The alphab et of a language is a more or less arbitrary way of transcribing the sounds emp loyed in speaking it. The letters themselves have not necessarily any meaning as such. But in a system of divination each symbol stands for a definite idea. It would not interfere with the English language to add a few new letters. I n fact, some systems of shorthand have done so. But a system of symbols suitab le for divination must be a complete representation of the Universe, so that ea ch is absolute, and the whole insusceptible to increase or diminution. It is ( in fact) technically a pantacle in the fullest sense of the word. Let us consider some prominent examples of such system. We may observe that a common mode of divination is to inquire of books by placing the thumb at ran dom within the leaves. The Books of the Sybil, the works of Vergil, and the Bi ble have been used very frequently for this purpose. For theoretical justifica tion, one must assume that the book employed is a perfect representation of the Universe. But even if this were the case, it is an inferior form of construct ion, because the only reasonable conception of the Cosmos is mathematical and h ieroglyphic rather than literary. In the case of a book, such as the Book of t he Law which is the supreme truth and the perfect rule of life, it is not repug nant to good sense to derive an oracle from its pages. It will of course be re marked that the Book of the Law is not merely a literary compilation but a comp lex mathematical structure. It therefore fulfils the required conditions. The principal means of divination in history are astrology, geomancy, the Ta rot, the Holy Qabalah, and the Yi King. There are hundreds of others; from pyr omancy, oneiromancy, auguries from sacrifices, and the spinning-top of some anc ient oracles to the omens drawn from the flight of birds and the prophesying of tea-leaves. It will be sufficient for our present purpose to discuss only the five systems first enumerated. ASTROLOGY is theoretically a perfect method, since the symbols employed actu ally exist in the macrocosm, and thus possess a {157} natural correspondence wi th microcosmic affairs. But in practice the calculations involved are overwhel mingly complicated. A horoscope is never complete. It needs to be supplemente d by innumerable other horoscopes. For example, to obtain a judgment on the si mplest question, one requires not only the nativities of the people involved, s ome of which are probably inaccessible, but secondary figures for directions an d transits, together with progressed horoscopes, to say nothing of prenatal, mu ndane, and even horary figures. To appreciate the entire mass of data, to bala nce the elements of so vast a concourse of forces, and to draw a single judgmen t therefrom, is a task practically beyond human capacity. Besides all this, th e actual effects of the planetary positions and aspects are still almost entire ly unknown. No two astrologers agree on all points; and most of them are at od ds on fundamental principles.> This science had better be discarded unless the student chances to feel strongly drawn toward it. It is used by the MASTER TH ERION Himself with fairly satisfactory results, but only in special cases, in a strictly limited sphere, and with particular precautions. Even so, He feels g reat diffidence in basing His conduct on the result so obtained. GEOMANCY has the advantage of being rigorously mathematical. A hand-book of the science is to be found in Equinox I, II. The objection to its use lies in the limited number of the symbols. To represent the Universe by no more than 16 combinations throws too much work upon them. There is also a great restrict ion arising from the fact that although 15 symbols appear in the final figure, there are, in reality, but 4, the remaining 11 being drawn by an ineluctable pr ocess from the "Mothers". It may be added that the tables given in the handboo k for the interpretation of the figure are exceedingly vague on the one hand, a nd insufficiently comprehensive on the other. Some Adepts, however, appear to find this system admirable, and obtain great satisfaction from its use. Once m ore, the personal equation must be allowed full weight. At one time the MASTER THERION employed it extensively; but He was never wholly at ease with it; He f ound the {158} interpretation very difficult. Moreover, it seemed to Him that the geomantic intelligences themselves were of a low order, the scope of which was confined to a small section of the things which interested Him; also, they possessed a point of view of their own which was far from sympathetic with His, so that misunderstanding constantly interfered with the Work. THE TAROT and THE HOLY QABALAH may be discussed together. The theoretical bas is of both is identical: The Tree of Life.> The 78 symbols of the Tarot are adm irably balanced and combined. They are adequate to all demands made upon them; each symbol is not only mathematically precise, but possesses an artistic sign ificance which helps the diviner to understand them by stimulating his aestheti c perceptions. The MASTER THERION finds that the Tarot is infallible in materi al questions. The successive operations describe the course of events with ast onishing wealth of detail, and the judgments are reliable in all respects. But a proper divination means at least two hours' hard work, even by the improved method developed by Him from the traditions of initiates. Any attempt to short en the proceedings leads to disappointment; furthermore, the symbols do not len d themselves readily to the solution of spiritual questions. The Holy Qabalah, based as it is on pure number, evidently possesses an infi nite number of symbols. Its scope is conterminous with existence itself; and i t lacks nothing in precision, purity, or indeed in any other perfection. But i t cannot be taught;> each man must select for himself the materials for the mai n structure of his system. It requires years of work to erect a worthy buildin g. Such a building is never finished; every day spent on it adds new ornaments . The Qabalah is therefore a living Temple of the Holy Ghost. It is the man h imself and his universe expressed in terms of thought whose {159} language is s o rich that even the letters of its alphabet have no limit. This system is so sublime that it is unsuited to the solution of the petty puzzles of our earthly existence. In the light of the Qabalah, the shadows of transitory things are instantly banished. The YI KING is the most satisfactory system for general work. The MASTER TH ERION is engaged in the preparation of a treatise on the subject, but the labou r involved is so great that He cannot pledge Himself to have it ready at any de finite time. The student must therefore make his own investigations into the m eaning of the 64 hexagrams as best he can. The Yi King is mathematical and philosophical in form. Its structure is cog nate with that of the Qabalah; the identity is so intimate that the existence o f two such superficially different systems is transcendent testimony to the tru th of both. It is in some ways the most perfect hieroglyph ever constructed. It is austere and sublime, yet withal so adaptable to every possible emergency that its figures may be interpreted to suit all classes of questions. One may resolve the most obscure spiritual difficulties no less than the most mundane d ilemmas; and the symbol which opens the gates of the most exalted palaces of in itiation is equally effective when employed to advise one in the ordinary busin ess of life. The MASTER THERION has found the Yi King entirely satisfactory in every respect. The intelligences which direct it show no inclination to evade the question or to mislead the querent. A further advantage is that the actua l apparatus is simple. Also the system is easy to manipulate, and five minutes is sufficient to obtain a fairly detailed answer to any but the most obscure q uestions. With regard to the intelligences whose business it is to give information to the diviner, their natures differ widely, and correspond more or less to the c haracter of the medium of divination. Thus, the geomantic intelligences are gn omes, spirits of an earthy nature, distinguished from each other by the modific ations due to the various planetary and zodiacal influences which pertain to th e several symbols. The intelligence governing Puella is not to be confused wit h that of Venus or of Libra. It is simply a particular terrestrial daemon whic h partakes of those natures. {160} The Tarot, on the other hand, being a book, is under Mercury, and the intell igence of each card is fundamentally Mercurial. Such symbols are therefore pec uliarly proper to communicate thought. They are not gross, like the geomantic daemons; but, as against this, they are unscrupulous in deceiving the diviner.> The Yi King is served by beings free from these defects. The intense purity of the symbols prevent them from being usurped by intelligences with an axe of their own to grind.> It is always essential for the diviner to obtain absolute magical control ov er the intelligences of the system which he adopts. He must not leave the smal lest loop-hole for being tricked, befogged, or mocked. He must not allow them to use casuistry in the interpretation of his questions. It is a common knaver y, especially in geomancy, to render an answer which is literally true, and yet deceives. For instance, one might ask whether some business transaction would be profitable, and find, after getting an affirmative answer, that it really r eferred to the other party to the affair! There is, on the surface, no difficulty at all in getting replies. In fact, the process is mechanical; success is therefore assured, bar a stroke of apopl exy. But, even suppose we are safe from deceit, how can we know that the quest ion has really been put to another mind, understood rightly, and answered from knowledge? It is obviously possible to check one's operations by clairvoyance, but this is rather like buying a safe to keep a brick in. Experience is the o nly teacher. One acquires what one may almost call a new sense. One feels in one's self whether one is right or not. The diviner must develop this sense. It resembles the exquisite sensibility of touch which is found in the great bil liard player whose fingers can estimate infinitesimal degrees of force, {161} o r the similar phenomenon in the professional taster of tea or wine who can dist inguish fantastically subtle differences of flavour. It is a hard saying; but in the order to divine without error, one ought to be a Master of the Temple. Divination affords excellent practice for those who a spire to that exalted eminence, for the faintest breath of personal preference will deflect the needle from the pole of truth in the answer. Unless the divin er have banished utterly from his mind the minutest atom of interest in the ans wer to his question, he is almost certain to influence that answer in favour of his personal inclinations. The psycho-analyst will recall the fact that dreams are phantasmal represent ations of the unconscious Will of the sleeper, and that not only are they image s of that Will instead of representations of objective truth, but the image its elf is confused by a thousand cross-currents set in motion by the various compl exes and inhibitions of his character. If therefore one consults the oracle, o ne must take sure that one is not consciously or unconsciously bringing pressur e to bear upon it. It is just as when an Englishman cross-examines a Hindu, th e ultimate answer will be what the Hindu imagines will best please the inquirer . The same difficulty appears in a grosser form when one receives a perfectly true reply, but insists on interpreting it so as to suit one's desires. The va st majority of people who go to "fortunetellers" have nothing else in mind but the wish to obtain supernatural sanction for their follies. Apart from Occulti sm altogether, every one knows that when people ask for advice, they only want to be told how wise they are. Hardly any one acts on the most obviously common sense counsel if it happens to clash with his previous intentions. Indeed, who would take counsel unless he were warned by some little whisper in his heart t hat he was about to make a fool of himself, which he is determined to do, and o nly wants to be able to blame his best friend, or the oracle, when he is overta ken by the disaster which his own interior mentor foresees? Those who embark on divination will be wise to consider the foregoing remark s very deeply. They will know when they are getting deep enough by the fact of the thought beginning to hurt them. It is essential to explore oneself to the utmost, to analyse {162} one's mind until one can be positive, beyond the poss ibility of error, that one is able to detach oneself entirely from the question . The oracle is a judge; it must be beyond bribery and prejudice. It is impossible in practice to lay down rules for the interpretation of sym bols. Their nature must be investigated by intellectual methods such as the Qa balah, but the precise shape of meaning in any one case, and the sphere and ten dency of its application, must be acquired by experience, that is, but inductio n, by recording and classifying one's experiments over a long period; and --- t his is the better part --- by refining one's ratiocination to the point where i t becomes instinct or intuition, whichever one likes to call it. It is proper in cases where the sphere of the question is well marked to beg in the divination by invocations of the forces thereto appropriate. An error o f judgment as to the true character of the question would entail penalties prop ortionate to the extent of that error; and the delusions resulting from a divin ation fortified by invocation would be more serious than if one had not employe d such heavy artillery.> There can, however, be no objection to preparing oneself by a general purifi cation and consecration devised with the object of detaching oneself from one's personality and increasing the sensitiveness of one's faculties. All divination comes under the general type of the element Air. The peculia r properties of air are in consequence its uniform characteristics. Divination is subtle and intangible. It moves with mysterious ease, expanding, contracti ng, flowing, responsive to the slightest stress. It receives and transmits eve ry vibration without retaining any. It becomes poisonous when its oxygen is de filed by passing through human lungs. There is a peculiar frame of mind necessary to successful divination. The con ditions of the problem are difficult. It is obviously necessary for the mind o f the diviner to be concentrated absolutely upon his question. Any intrusive t hought will confuse the oracle as certainly as the reader of a newspaper is con fused {163} when he reads a paragraph into which a few lines have strayed from another column. It is equally necessary that the muscles with which he manipul ates the apparatus of divination must be entirely independent of any volition o f his. He must lend them for the moment to the intelligence whom he is consult ing, to be guided in their movement to make the necessary mechanical actions wh ich determine the physical factor of the operation. It will be obvious that th is is somewhat awkward for the diviner who is also a magician, for as a magicia n he has been constantly at work to keep all his forces under his own control, and to prevent the slightest interference with them by any alien Will. It is, in fact, commonly the case, or so says the experience of The MASTER THERION, th at the most promising Magicians are the most deplorable diviners, and vice vers a. It is only when the aspirant approaches perfection that he becomes able to reconcile these two apparently opposing faculties. Indeed, there is no surer s ign of all-round success than this ability to put the whole of one's powers at the service of any type of task. With regard to the mind, again, it would seem that concentration on the ques tion makes more difficult the necessary detachment from it. Once again, the di viner stands in need of a considerable degree of attainment in the practices of meditation. He must have succeeded in destroying the tendency of the ego to i nterfere with the object of thought. He must be able to conceive of a thing ou t of all relation with anything else. The regular practice of concentration le ads to this result; in fact, it destroys the thing itself as we have hitherto c onceived it; for the nature of things is always veiled from us by our habit of regarding them as in essential relation without ourselves and our reactions tow ard them. One can hardly expect the diviner to make Samadhi with his question --- that w ould be going too far, and destroy the character of the operation by removing t he question from the class of concatenated ideas. It would mean interpreting t he question in terms of "without limit", and this imply an equally formless ans wer. But he should approximate to this extreme sufficiently to allow the quest ion entire freedom to make for itself its own proper links with the intelligenc e directing the answer, {164} preserving its position on its own plane, and evo king the necessary counterpoise to its own deviation from the norm of nothingne ss. We may recapitulate the above reflections in a practical form. We will supp ose that one wishes to divine by geomancy whether or no one should marry, it be ing assumed that one's emotional impulses suggest so rash a course. The man ta kes his wand and his sand; the traces the question, makes the appropriate penta gram, and the sigil of the spirit. Before tracing the dashes which are to dete rmine the four "Mothers", he must strictly examine himself. He must banish fro m his mind every thought which can possibly act as an attachment to his propose d partner. He must banish all thoughts which concern himself, those of apprehe nsion no less than those of ardour. He must carry his introspection as far as possible. He must observe with all the subtlety at his command whether it pain s him to abandon any of these thoughts. So long as his mind is stirred, howeve r slightly, by one single aspect of the subject, he is not fit to begin to form the figure. He must sink his personality in that of the intelligence hearing the question propounded by a stranger to whom he is indifferent, but whom it is his business to serve faithfully. He must now run over the whole affair in hi s mind, making sure of this utter aloofness therefrom. He must also make sure that his muscles are perfectly free to respond to the touch of the Will of that intelligence. (It is of course understood that he has not become so familiar with geomancy by dint of practice as to be able to calculate subconsciously wha t figures he will form; for this would vitiate the experiment entirely. It is, in fact, one of the objections to geomancy that sooner or later one does becom e aware at the time of tracing them whether the dots are going to be even or od d. This needs a special training to correct). Physio-psychological theory will probably maintain that the "automatic" acti on of the hand is controlled by the brain no less than in the case of conscious volition; but this is an additional argument for identifying the brain with th e intelligence invoked. Having thus identified himself as closely as possible with that intelligence , and concentrated on the question as if the "prophesying spirit" were giving i ts whole attention thereto, he must {165} await the impulse to trace the marks on the sand; and, as soon as it comes let it race to the finish. Here arises a nother technical difficulty. One has to make 16 rows of dots; and, especially for the beginner, the mind has to grapple with the apprehension lest the hand f ail to execute the required number. It is also troubled by fearing to exceed; but excess does not matter. Extra lines are simply null and void, so that the best plan is to banish that thought, and make sure only of not stopping too soo n.> The lines being traced, the operation is over as far as spiritual qualities are required, for a time. The process of setting up the figure for judgment is purely mechanical. But, in the judgment, the diviner stands once more in need of his inmost and utmost attainments. He should exhaust the intellectual sources of information at his disposal, and form from them his judgment. But having done this, he sh ould detach his mind from what it has just formulated, and proceed to concentra te it on the figure as a whole, almost as if it were the object of his meditati on. One need hardly repeat that in both these operations detachment from one's personal partialities is as necessary as it was in the first part of the work. In setting up the figure, bias would beget a Freudian phantasm to replace the image of truth which the figure ought to be; and it is not too much to say tha t the entire subconscious machinery of the body and mind lends itself with horr id willingness to this ape-like antic of treason. But now that the figure stan ds for judgment, the same bias would tend to form its phantasm of wish-fulfilme nt in a different manner. It would act through the mind to bewray sound judgme nt. It might, for example, induce one to emphasize the Venereal element in Pue lla at the expense of the Saturnian. It might lead one to underrate the influe nce of a hostile figure, or to neglect altogether some element of importance. The MASTER THERION has known cases where the diver was so afraid of an unfavour able answer that he made actual mistakes in the simple mechanical construction of the figure! Finally, in the {166} summing up; it is fatally easy to slur ov er unpleasantness, and to breathe on the tiniest spark that promises to kindle the tinder --- the rotten rags! --- of hope. The concluding operation is therefore to obtain a judgment of the figure, in dependent of all intellectual or moral restraint. One must endeavour to appreh end it as a thing absolute in itself. One must treat it, in short, very much t he same as one did the question; as a mystical entity, till now unrelated with other phenomena. One must, so to speak, adore it as a god, uncritically: "Spea k, Lord, for thy servant heareth." It must be allowed to impose its intrinsic individuality on the mind, to put its fingers independently on whatever notes i t pleases. In this way one obtains an impression of the true purport of the answer; and one obtains it armed with a sanction superior to any sensible suggestions. It comes from and to a part of the individual which is independent of the influen ce of environment; is adjusted to that environment by true necessity, and not b y the artifices of such adaptations as our purblind conception of convenience i nduces us to fabricate. The student will observe from the above that divination is in one sense an art entirely separate from that of Magick; yet it interpenetrates Magick at eve ry point. The fundamental laws of both are identical. The right use of divina tion has already been explained; but it must be added that proficiency therein, tremendous as is its importance in furnishing the Magician with the informatio n necessary to his strategical and tactical plans, in no wise enables him to a ccomplish the impossible. It is not within the scope of divination to predict the future (for example) with the certainty of an astronomer in calculating the return of a comet.> There is always much virtue in divination; for (Shakespea re assures us!) there is "much virtue in IF"! In estimating the ultimate value of a divinatory judgment, one must allow fo r more than the numerous sources of error inherent {167} in the process itself. The judgment can do no more than the facts presented to it warrant. It is na turally impossible in most cases to make sure that some important factor has no t been omitted. In asking, "shall I be wise to marry?" one leaves it open for wisdom to be defined in divers ways. One can only expect an answer in the sens e of the question. The connotation of "wise" would then imply the limitations "in your private definition of wisdom", "in reference to your present circumsta nces." It would not involve guarantee against subsequent disaster, or pronounc e a philosophical dictum as to wisdom in the abstract sense. One must not assu me that the oracle is omniscient. By the nature of the case, on the contrary, it is the utterance of a being whose powers are partial and limited, though not to such an extent, or in the same directions, as one's own. But a man who is advised to purchase a certain stock should not complain if a general panic knoc ks the bottom out of it a few weeks later. The advice only referred to the pro spects of the stock in itself. The divination must not be blamed any more than one would blame a man for buying a house at Ypres there years before the World -War. As against this, one must insist that it is obviously to the advantage of the diviner to obtain this information from beings of the most exalted essence avai lable. An old witch who has a familiar spirit of merely local celebrity such a s the toad in her tree, can hardly expect him to tell her much more of private matters than her parish magazine does of public. It depends entirely on the Ma gician how he is served. The greater the man, the greater must be his teacher. It follows that the highest forms of communicating daemons, those who know, s o to speak, the court secrets, disdain to concern themselves with matters which they regard as beneath them. One must not make the mistake of calling in a fa mous physician to one's sick Pekinese. One must also beware of asking even the cleverest angel a question outside his ambit. A heart specialist should not p rescribe for throat trouble. The Magician ought therefore to make himself master of several methods of di vination; using one or the other as the purpose of the moment dictates. He sho uld make a point of organizing a staff of such spirits to suit various {168} oc casions. These should be "familiar"spirits, in the strict sense; members of hi s family. He should deal with them constantly, avoiding whimsical or capriciou s changes. He should choose them so that their capacities cover the whole grou nd of his work; but he should not multiply them unnecessarily, for he makes him self responsible for each one that he employs. Such spirits should be ceremoni ally evoked to visible or semi-visible appearance. A strict arrangement should be made and sworn. This must be kept punctiliously by the Magician, and its i nfringement by the spirit severely punished. Relations with these spirits shou ld be confirmed and encouraged by frequent intercourse. They should be treated with courtesy, consideration, and even affection. They should be taught to lo ve and respect their master, and to take pride in being trusted by him. It is sometimes better to act on the advice of a spirit even when one knows it to be wrong, though in such a case one must take the proper precautions agai nst an undesirable result. The reason for this is that spirits of this type ar e very sensitive. They suffer agonies of remorse on realising that they have i njured their Master; for he is their God; they know themselves to be part of hi m, their aim is to attain to absorption in him. They understand therefore that his interests are theirs. Care must be taken to employ none but spirits who a re fit for the purpose, not only by reason of their capacity to supply informat ion, but for their sympathy with the personality of the Magician. Any attempt to coerce unwilling spirits is dangerous. They obey from fear; their fear make s them flatter, and tell amiable falsehoods. It also creates phantasmal projec tions of themselves to personate them; and these phantasms, besides being worth less, become the prey of malicious daemons who use them to attack the Magician in various ways whose prospect of success is enhanced by the fact that he has h imself created a link with them. One more observation seems desirable while on this subject. Divination of a ny kind is improper in matters directly concerning the Great Work itself. In t he Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, the adept is possesse d of all he can possibly need. To consult any other is to insult one's {169} A ngel. Moreover, it is to abandon the only person who really knows, and really cares, in favour of one who by the nature of the case, must be ignorant> of the essence of the matter --- one whose interest in it is no more (at the best) th an that of a well-meaning stranger. It should go without saying that until the Magician has attained to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian A ngel he is liable to endless deceptions. He does not know Himself; how can he explain his business to others? How can those others, though they do their bes t for him, aid in anything but trifles? One must therefore be prepared for dis appointment at every stage until one attains to adeptship. This is especially true of divination, because the essence of the horror of not knowing one's Angel is the utter bewilderment and anguish of the mind, comp licated by the persecution of the body, and envenomed by the ache of the soul. One puts the wrong questions, and puts them wrong; gets the wrong answers, jud ges them wrong, and acts wrongly upon them. One must nevertheless persist, asp iring with ardour towards one's Angel, and comforted {170} by the assurance tha t He is guiding one secretly towards Himself, and that all one's mistakes are n ecessary preparations for the appointed hour of meeting Him. Each mistake is t he combing-out of some tangle in the hair of the bride as she is being coiffed for marriage. On the other hand, although the adept is in daily communication with his Ang el, he ought to be careful to consult Him only on questions proper to the digni ty of the relation. One should not consult one's Angel on too many details, or indeed on any matters which come within the office of one's familiar spirits. One does not go the the King about petty personal trifles. The romance and ra pture of the ineffable union which constitutes Adeptship must not be profaned b y the introduction of commonplace cares. One must not appear with one's hair i n curl-papers, or complain of the cook's impertinence, if one wants to make the most of the honeymoon.> To the Adept divination becomes therefore a secondary consideration, althoug h he can now employ it with absolute confidence, and probably use it with far g reater frequency than before his attainment. Indeed, this is likely in proport ion as he learns that resort to divination (on every occasion when his Will doe s not instantly instruct him) with implicit obedience to its counsels careless as to whether or no they may land him in disaster, is a means admirably efficac ious of keeping his mind untroubled by external impressions, and therefore in t he proper condition to receive the reiterant strokes of rapture with which the love of his Angel ravishes him. We have now mapped out the boundaries of possibility and propriety which def ine the physical and political geography of divination. The student must guard himself constantly against supposing that this art affords any absolute means of discovering "truth", or indeed, of using that word as if it meant more than the {171} relation of two ideas each of which is itself as subject to "change w ithout notice" as a musical programme. Divination, in the nature of things, can do no more than put the mind of the querent into conscious connection with another mind whose knowledge of the sub ject at issue is to his own as that of an expert to a layman. The expert is no t infallible. The client may put his question in a misleading manner, or even base it on a completely erroneous conception of the facts. He may misunderstan d the expert's answer, and he may misinterpret its purport. Apart from all thi s, excluding all error, both question and answer are limited in validity by the ir own conditions; and these conditions are such that truth may cease to be tru e, either as time goes on, or if it be flawed by the defect of failure to consi der some circumstances whose concealed operation cancels the contract. In a word, divination, like any other science, is justified of its children. It would be extraordinary should so fertile a mother be immune from still-bir ths, monstrosities, and abortions. We none of us dismiss our servant science with a kick and a curse every time the telephone gets out of order. The telephone people make no claim that it a lways works and always works right.> Divination, with equal modesty, admits th at "it often goes wrong; but it works well enough, all things considered. The science is in its infancy. All we can do is our best. We no more pretend to i nfallibility than the mining expert who considers himself in luck if he hits th e bull's eye four times in ten." The error of all dogmatists (from the oldest prophet with his "literally-ins pired word of God" to the newest German professor with his single-track explana tion of the Universe) lies in trying to prove too much, in defending themselves against critics by stretching a probably excellent theory to include all the f acts and the fables, until it bursts like the overblown bladder it is. Divination is no more than a rough and ready practical method which we under stand hardly at all, and operate only as empirics. Success for the best divine r alive is no more certain in any particular instance than a long putt by a cha mpion golfer. Its calculations {172} are infinitely more complex than Chess, a Chess played on an infinite board with men whose moves are indeterminate, and made still more difficult by the interference of imponderable forces and unform ulated laws; while its conduct demands not only the virtues, themselves rare en ough, of intellectual and moral integrity, but intuition combining delicacy wit h strength in such perfection and to such extremes as to make its existence app ear monstrous and miraculous against Nature. To admit this is not to discredit oracles. On the contrary, the oracles fel l into disrepute just because they pretended to do more than they could. To di vine concerning a matter is little more than to calculate probabilities. We ob tain the use of minds who have access to knowledge beyond ours, but not to omni science. HRU, the great angel set over the Tarot, is beyond us as we are beyon d the ant; but, for all we know, the knowledge of HRU is excelled by some might ier mind in the same proportion. Nor have we any warrant for accusing HRU of i gnorance or error if we read the Tarot to our own delusion. He may have known, he may have spoken truly; the fault may lie with our own insight.> The MASTER THERION has observed on innumerable occasions that divinations, m ade by him and dismissed as giving untrue answers, have justified themselves mo nths or years later when he was able to revise his judgment in perspective, unt roubled by his personal passion. It is indeed surprising how often the most careless divinations give accurat e answers. When things go wrong, it is almost always possible to trace the err or to one's own self-willed and insolent presumption in insisting that events s hall accommodate themselves to our egoism and vanity. It is comically unscient ific to adduce {173} examples of the mistakes of the diviners as evidence that their art is fatuous. Every one knows that the simplest chemical experiments o ften go wrong. Every one knows the eccentricities of fountain pens; but nobody outside Evangelical circles makes fun of the Cavendish experiment, or asserts that, if fountain pens undoubtedly work now and then, their doing so is merely coincidence. The fact of the case is that the laws of nature are incomparably more subtle than even science suspects. The phenomena of every plane are intimately inter woven. The arguments of Aristotle were dependent on the atmospheric pressure w hich prevented his blood from boiling away. There is nothing in the universe w hich does not influence every other thing in one way or another. There is no r eason in Nature why the apparently chance combination of half-a dozen sticks of tortoise-shell should not be so linked both with the human mind and with the e ntire structure of the Universe that the observation of their fall should not e nable us to measure all things in heaven and earth. With one piece of curved glass we have discovered uncounted galaxies of suns ; with another, endless orders of existence in the infinitesimal. With the pri sm we have analysed light so that matter and force have become intelligible onl y as forms of light. With a rod we have summoned the invisible energies of ele ctricity to be our familiar spirit serving us to do our Will, whether it be to outsoar the condor, or to dive deeper into the demon world of disease than any of our dreamers dared to dream. Since with four bits of common glass mankind has learnt to know so much, ach ieved so much, who dare deny that the Book of Thoth, the quintessentialized wis dom of our ancestors whose civilizations, perished though they be, have left mo numents which dwarf ours until we wonder whether we are degenerate from them, o r evolved from Simians, who dare deny that such a book may be possessed of unim aginable powers? It is not so long since the methods of modern science were scoffed at by the whole cultured world. In the sacred halls themselves the roofs rang loud with the scornful laughter of the high priests as each new postulant approached wit h his unorthodox offering. {174} There is hardly a scientific discovery in hist ory which was not decried as quackery by the very men whose own achievements we re scarce yet recognized by the world at large. Within the memory of the present generation, the possibility of aeroplanes w as derisively denied by those very engineers accounted most expert to give thei r opinions. The method of divination, the "ratio" of it, is as obscure to-day as was tha t of spectrum analysis a generation ago. That the chemical composition of the fixed stars should become known to man seemed an insane imagining too ridiculou s to discuss. To-day it seems equally irrational to enquire of the desert sand concerning the fate of empires. Yet surely it, if any one knows, should know! To-day it may sound impossible for inanimate objects to reveal the inmost se crets of mankind and nature. We cannot say why divination is valid. We cannot trace the process by which it performs it marvels.> But the same objections ap ply equally well to the telephone. No man knows what electricity is, or the na ture of the forces which determine its action. We know only that by doing cert ain things we get certain results, and that the least error {175} on our part w ill bring our work to naught. The same is exactly true of divination. The dif ference between the two sciences is not more than this: that, more minds having been at work on the former we have learnt to master its tricks with greater su ccess than in the case of the latter. ----------- {176} CHAPTER XIX OF DRAMATIC RITUALS. The Wheel turns to those effectual methods of invocation employed in the an cient Mysteries and by certain secret bodies of initiates to-day. The object o f them is almost invariably> the invocation of a God, that God conceived in a m ore or less material and personal fashion. These Rituals are therefore well su ited for such persons as are capable of understanding the spirit of Magick as o pposed to the letter. One of the great advantages of them is that a large numb er of persons may take part, so that there is consequently more force available ; but it is important that they should all be initiates of the same mysteries, bound by the same oaths, and filled with the same aspirations. They should be associated only for this one purpose. Such a company being prepared, the story of the God should be dramatised by a well-skilled poet accustomed to this form of composition. Lengthy speeches a nd invocations should be avoided, but action should be very full. Such ceremon ies should be carefully rehearsed; but in rehearsals care should be taken to om it the climax, which should be studied by the principal character in private. The play should be so arranged that this climax depends on him alone. By this means one prevents the ceremony from becoming mechanical or hackneyed, and the element of surprise. {177} assists the lesser characters to get out of themselv es at the supreme moment. Following the climax there should always be an unreh earsed ceremony, an impromptu. The most satisfactory form of this is the dance . In such ceremonies appropriate libations may be freely used. The Rite of Luna (Equinox I. VI) is a good example of this use. Here the cl imax is the music of the goddess, the assistants remaining in silent ecstasy. In the rite of Jupiter the impromptu is the dance, in that of Saturn long pe riods of silence. It will be noticed that in these Rites poetry and music were largely employe d --- mostly published pieces by well-known authors and composers. It would be better> to write and compose specially for the ceremony>. --------- {178} CHAPTER XX OF THE EUCHARIST AND OF THE ART OF ALCHEMY I One of the simplest and most complete of Magick ceremonies is the Eucharist. It consists in taking common things, transmuting them into things divine, an d consuming them. So far, it is a type of every magick ceremony, for the reabsorption of the f orce is a kind of consumption; but it has a more restricted application, as fol lows. Take a substance> symbolic of the whole course of nature, make it God, and c onsume it. There are many ways of doing this; but they may easily be classified accordi ng to the number of the elements of which the sacrament is composed. The highest form of the Eucharist is that in which the Element consecrated i s One. It is one substance and not two, not living and not dead, neither liquid nor solid, neither hot nor cold, neither male nor female. This sacrament is secret in every respect. For those who may be worthy, alt hough not officially recognized as such, this Eucharist has been described in d etail and without concealment, "somewhere" in the published writings of the MAS TER THERION. But He has told no one where. It is reserved for the highest ini tiates, and is synonymous with the Accomplished Work on the {179} material plan e. It is the Medicine of Metals, the Stone of the Wise, the Potable Gold, the Elixir of Life that is consumed therein. The altar is the bosom of Isis, the e ternal mother; the chalice is in effect the Cup of our Lady Babalon Herself; th e Wand is that which Was and Is and Is To Come. The Eucharist of "two" elements has its matter of the passives. The wafer ( pantacle) is of corn, typical of earth; the wine (cup) represents water. (Ther e are certain other attributions. The Wafer is the Sun, for instance: and the wine is appropriate to Bacchus). The wafer may, however, be more complex, the "Cake of Light" described in Li ber Legis. This is used in the exoteric Mass of the Phoenix (Liber 333, Cap: 44) mixed with the blood of the Magus. This mass should be performed daily at sunset by every magician. Corn and wine are equivalent to flesh and blood; but it is easier to convert live substances into the body and blood of God, than to perform this miracle u pon dead matter. The Eucharist of "three" elements has for basis the symbols of the three Gun as. For Tamas (darkness) take opium or nightshade or some sleepy medicine; for Rajas (activity) take strychnine or other excitant; for Sattvas (calm) the cak es of Light may again be suitable.> The Eucharist of "four" elements consists of fire, air, water, and earth. T hese are represented by a flame for fire, by incense or roses for air, by wine for water, and by bread and salt for earth. The Eucharist of "five" has for basis wine for taste, a rose for smell, a fl ame for sight, a bell for sound, and a dagger for touch. This sacrament is imp lied in the Mass of the Phoenix in a slightly different form. {180} The Eucharist of "six" elements has Father, Son, and Holy Spirit above; brea th, water, and blood beneath. It is a sacrament reserved for high initiates.> The Eucharist of "seven" elements is mystically identical with that of one. Of the method of consecrating the elements it is only necessary to say that they should be treated as talismans. The circle and other furniture of the Tem ple should receive the usual benefit of the banishings and consecrations. The Oath should be taken and the Invocations made. When the divine force manifests in the elements, they should be solemnly consumed. There is also a simpler me thod of consecration reserved for initiates of high rank, of which it is here u nlawful to speak. According to the nature of the Sacrament, so will its results be. In some one may receive a mystic grace, culminating in Samadhi; in others a simpler and mo re material benefit may be obtained. The highest sacrament, that of One element, is universal in its operation; a ccording to the declared purpose of the work so will the result be. It is a un iversal Key of all Magick. These secrets are of supreme practical importance, and are guarded in the Sa nctuary with a two-edged sword flaming every way>; for this sacrament is the Tr ee of Life itself, and whoso partaketh of the fruit thereof shall never die>. Unless he so will. Who would not rather work through incarnation; a real rene wal of body and brain, than content himself with a stagnant immortality upon th is mote in the Sunlight of the Universe which we call earth? {181} With regard to the preparations for such Sacraments, the Catholic Church has m aintained well enough the traditions of the true Gnostic Church in whose keepin g the secrets are.> Chastity> is a condition; fasting for some hours previous is a condition; an earnest and continual aspiration is a condition. Without these antecedents ev en the Eucharist of the One and Seven is partially --- though such is its intri nsic virtue that it can never be wholly --- baulked of its effect. A Eucharist of some sort should most assuredly be consummated daily by every m agician, and he should regard it as the main sustenance of his magical life. I t is of more importance than any other magical ceremony, because it is a comple te circle. The whole of the force expended is completely re-absorbed; yet the virtue is that vast gain represented by the abyss between Man and God. The magician becomes filled with God, fed upon God, intoxicated with God. L ittle by little his body will become purified by the internal lustration of God ; day by day his mortal frame, shedding its earthly elements, will become in ve ry truth the Temple of the Holy Ghost. Day by day matter is replaced by Spirit , the human by the divine; ultimately the change will be complete; God manifest in flesh will be his name. This is the most important of all magical secrets that ever were or are or c an be. To a Magician thus renewed the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversa tion of the Holy Guardian Angel becomes an inevitable task; every force of his nature, unhindered, tends to that aim and goal of whose nature neither man nor god may speak, for that it is infinitely beyond speech or thought or {182} ecst asy or silence. Samadhi and Nibbana are but its shadows cast upon the universe . II If the Master Therion effects by this book nothing else but to demonstrate t he continuity of nature and the uniformity of Law, He will feel that His work h as not been wasted. In his original design of Part III he did not contemplate any allusion to alchemy. It has somehow been taken for granted that this subje ct is entirely foreign to regular Magick, both in scope and method. It will be the main object of the following description to establish it as essentially a branch of the subject, and to show that it may be considered simply as a partic ular case of the general proposition --- differing from evocatory and talismani c Magick only in the values which are represented by the unknown quantities in the pantomorphous equations. There is no need to make any systematized attempt to decipher the jargon of Hermetic treatises. We need not enter upon an historical discussion. Let it s uffice to say that the word alchemy is an Arabic term consisting of the article "al" and the adjective "khemi" which means "that which pertains to Egypt">. A rough translation would be "The Egyptian matter". The assumption is that the Mohammedan grammarians held traditionally that the art was derived from that wi sdom of the Egyptians which was the boast of Moses, Plato, and Pythagoras, and the source of their illumination. Modern research (by profane scholars) leaves it still doubtful as to whether Alchemical treatises should be classified as mystical, magical, medical, or ch emical. The most reasonable opinion is that all these objects formed the pre-o ccupation of the alchemists in varying proportions. Hermes is alike the god of Wisdom, Thaumaturgy, therapeutics, and physical science. All these may conseq uently claim the title Hermetic. It cannot be doubted that such writers as Flu dd aspired to spiritual perfection. It is equally sure that Edward Kelly wrote primarily from the point of view {183} of a Magician; that Paracelesus applied himself to the cure of disease and the prolongation of life as the first consi deration, although his greatest achievements seem to modern thinkers to have be en rather his discoveries of opium, zinc, and hydrogen; so that we tend to thin k of him as a chemist no less than we do of Van Helmont, whose conception of ga s ranks him as one of those rare geniuses who have increased human knowledge by a fundamentally important idea. The literature of Alchemy is immense. Practically all of it is wholly or pa rtially unintelligible. Its treatises, from the "Asch Metzareph" of the Hebrew s to the "Chariot of Antimony" are deliberately couched in hieratic riddles. E cclesiastical persecution, and the profanation of the secrets of power, were eq ually dreaded. Worse still, from our point of view, this motive induced writer s to insert intentionally misleading statements, the more deeply to bedevil unw orthy pretenders to their mysteries. We do not propose to discuss any of the actual processes. Most readers will be already aware that the main objects of alchemy were the Philosopher's Stone , the Medicine of Metals, and various tinctures and elixirs possessing divers v irtues; in particular, those of healing disease, extending the span of life, in creasing human abilities, perfecting the nature of man in every respect, confer ring magical powers, and transmuting material substances, especially metals, in to more valuable forms. The subject is further complicated by the fact that many authors were unscru pulous quacks. Ignorant of the first elements of the art, they plagiarized wit hout shame, and reaped a harvest of fraudulent gain. They took advantage of th e general ignorance, and the convention of mystery, in just the same way as the ir modern successors do in the matter of all Occult sciences. But despite all this, one thing is abundantly clear; all serious writers, th ough they seem to speak of an infinity of different subjects, so much so that i t has proved impossible for modern analytic research to ascertain the true natu re of any single process, were agreed on the fundamental theory on which they b ased their practices. It appears at first sight as if hardly any two of them w ere in accord as to the nature of the "First Matter of the work". {184} They d escribe this in a bewildering multiplicity of unintelligible symbols. We have no reason to suppose that they were all talking of the same thing, or otherwise . The same remarks apply to every reagent and every process, no less than to t he final product or products. Yet beneath this diversity, we may perceive an obscure identity. They all b egin with a substance in nature which is described as existing almost everywher e, and as universally esteemed of no value. The alchemist is in all cases to t ake this substance, and subject it to a series of operations. By so doing, he obtains his product. This product, however named or described, is always a sub stance which represents the truth or perfection of the original "First Matter"; and its qualities are invariably such as pertain to a living being, not to an inanimate mass. In a word, the alchemist is to take a dead thing, impure, valu eless, and powerless, and transform it into a live thing, active, invaluable an d thaumaturgic. The reader of this book will surely find in this a most striking analogy wit h what we have already said of the processes of Magick. What, by our definitio n, is initiation? The First Matter is a man, that is to say, a perishable para site, bred of the earth's crust, crawling irritably upon it for a span, and at last returning to the dirt whence he sprang. The process of initiation consist s in removing his impurities, and finding in his true self an immortal intellig ence to whom matter is no more than the means of manifestation. The initiate i s eternally individual; he is ineffable, incorruptible, immune from everything. He possesses infinite wisdom and infinite power in himself. This equation is identical with that of a talisman. The Magician takes an idea, purifies it, i ntensifies it by invoking into it the inspiration of his soul. It is no longer a scrawl scratched on a sheep-skin, but a word of Truth, imperishable, mighty to prevail throughout the sphere of its purport. The evocation of a spirit is precisely similar in essence. The exorcist takes dead material substances of a nature sympathetic to the being whom he intends to invoke. He banishes all im purities therefrom, prevents all interference therewith, and proceeds to give l ife to the subtle substance thus prepared by instilling his soul. {185} Once again, there is nothing in this exclusively "magical". Rembrandt van R yn used to take a number of ores and other crude objects. From these he banish ed the impurities, and consecrated them to his work, by the preparation of canv asses, brushes, and colours. This done, he compelled them to take the stamp of his soul; from those dull, valueless creatures of earth he created a vital and powerful being of truth and beauty. It would indeed be surprising to anybody who has come to a clear comprehension of nature if there were any difference in the essence of these various formulas. The laws of nature apply equally in ev ery possible circumstance. We are now in a position to understand what alchemy is. We might even go fu rther and say that even if we had never heard of it, we know what it must be. Let us emphasize the fact that the final product is in all cases a living th ing. It has been the great stumbling block to modern research that the stateme nts of alchemists cannot be explained away. From the chemical standpoint it ha s seemed not "a priori" impossible that lead should be turned into gold. Our r ecent discovery of the periodicity of the elements has made it seem likely, at least in theory, that our apparently immutable elements should be modifications of a single one.> Organic Chemistry, with its metatheses and syntheses depend ent on the conceptions of molecules as geometrical structures has demonstrated a praxis which gives this theory body; and the properties of Radium have driven the Old Guard from the redoubt which flew the flag of the essential heterogene ity of the elements. The doctrines of Evolution have brought the alchemical an d monistic theory of matter into line with our conception of life; the collapse of the wall between the animal and vegetable kingdoms has shaken that which di vided them from the mineral. But even though the advanced chemist might admit the possibility of transmut ing lead into gold, he could not conceive of that {186} gold as other than meta llic, of the same order of nature as the lead from which it had been made. Tha t this gold should possess the power of multiplying itself, or of acting as a f erment upon other substances, seemed so absurd that he felt obliged to conclude that the alchemists who claimed these properties for their Gold must, after al l, have been referring not to Chemistry, but to some spiritual operations whose sanctity demanded some such symbolic veil as the cryptographic use of the lang uage of the laboratory. The MASTER THERION is sanguine that his present reduction of all cases of th e art of Magick to a single formula will both elucidate and vindicate Alchemy, while extending chemistry to cover all classes of Change. There is an obvious condition which limits our proposed operations. This is that, as the formula of any Work effects the extraction and visualization of t he Truth from any "First Matter", the "Stone" or "Elixir" which results from ou r labours will be the pure and perfect Individual originally inherent in the su bstance chosen, and nothing else. The most skilful gardener cannot produce lil ies from the wild rose; his roses will always be roses, however he have perfect ed the properties of this stock. There is here no contradiction with our previous thesis of the ultimate unit y of all substance. It is true that Hobbs and Nobbs are both modifications of the Pleroma. Both vanish in the Pleroma when they attain Samadhi. But they ar e not interchangeable to the extent that they are individual modifications; the initiate Hobbs is not the initiate Nobbs any more than Hobbs the haberdasher i s Nobbs of "the nail an sarspan business as he got his money by". Our skill in producing aniline dyes does not enable us to dispense with the original anilin e, and use sugar instead. Thus the Alchemists said: "To make gold you must tak e gold"; their art was to bring each substance to the perfection of its own pro per nature. No doubt, part of this process involved the withdrawal of the essence of the "First Matter" within the homogeneity of "Hyle", just as initiation insists on the annihilation of the individual in the Impersonal Infinity of Existence to emerge once more as a less confused and deformed Eidolon of the Truth of Himsel f. This is the guarantee that he is uncontaminated by alien elements. The {18 7} "Elixir" must possess the activity of a "nascent" substance, just as "nascen t" hydrogen combines with arsenic (in "Marsh's test") when the ordinary form of the gas is inert. Again, oxygen satisfied by sodium or diluted by nitrogen wi ll not attack combustible materials with the vehemence proper to the pure gas. We may summarize this thesis by saying that Alchemy includes as many possibl e operations as there are original ideas inherent in nature. Alchemy resembles evocation in its selection of appropriate material bases f or the manifestation of the Will; but differs from it in proceeding without per sonification, or the intervention of alien planes.> It may be more closely com pared with Initiation; for the effective element of the Product is of the essen ce of its own nature, and inherent therein; the Work similarly consists in isol ating it from its accretions. Now just as the Aspirant, on the Threshold of Initiation, finds himself assa iled by the "complexes" which have corrupted him, their externalization excruci ating him, and his agonized reluctance to their elimination plunging him into s uch ordeals that he seems (both to himself and to others) to have turned from a noble and upright man into an unutterable scoundrel; so does the "First Matter " blacken and putrefy as the Alchemist breaks up its coagulations of impurity. The student may work out for himself the various analogies involved, and dis cover the "Black Dragon", the "Green Lion", the "Lunar Water", the "Raven's Hea d", and so forth. The indications above given should suffice all who possess a ptitude for Alchemical Research. Only one further reflection appears necessary; namely, that the Eucharist, w ith which this chapter is properly preoccupied, must be conceived as one case - -- as the critical case --- of the Art of the Alchemist. The reader will have observed, perhaps with surprise, that The MASTER THERIO N describes several types of Eucharist. The reason is that given above; there is no substance incompetent to {188} serve as an element in some Sacrament; als o, each spiritual Grace should possess its peculiar form of Mass, and therefore its own "materia magica". It is utterly unscientific to treat "God" as a univ ersal homogeneity, and use the same means to prolong life as to bewitch cattle. One does not invoke "Electricity" indiscriminately to light one's house and t o propel one's brougham; one works by measured application of one's powers to i ntelligent analytical comprehension of the conditions of each separate case. There is a Eucharist for every Grace that we may need; we must apprehend the essential characters in each case, select suitable elements, and devise proper processes. To consider the classical problems of Alchemy: The Medicine of Metals must be the quintessence of some substance that serves to determine the structure (o r rate of vibration) whose manifestation is in characteristic metallic qualitie s. This need not be a chemical substance at all in the ordinary sense of the w ord. The Elixir of Life will similarly consist of a living organism capable of gr owth, at the expense of its environment; and of such a nature that its "true Wi ll" is to cause that environment to serve it as its means of expression in the physical world of human life. The Universal Medicine will be a menstruum of such subtlety as to be able to penetrate all matter and transmute it in the sense of its own tendency, while of such impartial purity as to accept perfectly the impression of the Will of t he Alchemist. This substance, properly prepared, and properly charged, is able to perform all things soever that are physically possible, within the limits o f the proportions of its momentum to the inertia of the object to which it is a pplied. It may be observed in conclusion that, in dealing with forms of Matter-Motio n so subtle as these, it is not enough to pass the Pons Asinorum of intellectua l knowledge. The MASTER THERION has possessed the theory of these Powers for many years; but His practice is still in progress towards perfection. Even efficiency in t he preparation is not all; there is need to be judicious in the manipulation, a nd adroit in the administration, of the product. He does not perform haphazard miracles, but applies His science and skill in conformity with the laws of nat ure. {189} CHAPTER XXI OF BLACK MAGIC OF THE MAIN TYPES OF THE OPERATIONS OF MAGICK ART AND OF THE POWERS OF THE SPHINX I As was said at the opening of the second chapter, the Single Supreme Ritual is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. "It is the raising of the complete man in a vertical straight line." Any deviation from this line tends to become black magic. Any other operati on is black magic. In the True Operation the Exaltation is equilibrated by an expansion in the other three arms of the Cross. Hence the Angel immediately gives the Adept pow er over the Four Great Princes and their servitors.> If the magician needs to perform any other operation than this, it is only law ful in so far as it is a necessary preliminary to That One Work. There are, however many shades of grey. It is not every magician who is well armed with theory. Perhaps one such may invoke Jupiter, with the wish to heal others of their physical ills. This sort of thing is harmless,> or almost so. It is not evil in {190} itself. It arises from a defect of understanding. Un til the Great Work has been performed, it is presumptuous for the magician to p retend to understand the universe, and dictate its policy. Only the Master of the Temple can say whether any given act is a crime. "Slay that innocent child? " (I hear the ignorant say) "What a horror!" "Ah!" replies the Knower, with f oresight of history, "but that child will become Nero. Hasten to strangle him! " There is a third, above these, who understands that Nero was as necessary as Julius Caesar. The Master of the Temple accordingly interferes not with the scheme of thing s except just so far as he is doing the Work which he is sent to do. Why shoul d he struggle against imprisonment, banishment, death? It is all part of the g ame in which he is a pawn. "It was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer thes e things, and to enter into His glory." The Master of the Temple is so far from the man in whom He manifests that al l these matters are of no importance to Him. It may be of importance to His Wo rk that man shall sit upon a throne, or be hanged. In such a case He informs h is Magus, who exerts the power intrusted to HIm, and it happens accordingly. Y et all happens naturally, and of necessity, and to all appearance without a wor d from Him. Nor will the mere Master of the Temple, as a rule, presume to act upon the U niverse, save as the servant of his own destiny. It is only the Magus, He of t he grade above, who has attained to Chokhmah, Wisdom, and so dare act. He must dare act, although it like Him not. But He must assume the Curse of His grade , as it is written in the Book of the Magus.> There are, of course, entirely black forms of magic. To him who has not giv en every drop of his blood for the cup of BABALON {191} all magic power is dang erous. There are even more debased and evil forms, things in themselves black. Such is the use of spiritual force to material ends. Christian Scientists, M ental Healers, Professional Diviners, Psychics and the like, are all "ipso fact o" Black Magicians. They exchange gold for dross. They sell their higher powers for gross and t emporary benefit. That the most crass ignorance of Magick is their principal characteristic is no excuse, even if Nature accepted excuses, which she does not. If you drink poison in mistake for wine, your "mistake" will not save your life. Below these in one sense, yet far above them in another, are the Brothers of the Left Hand Path>. These are they who "shut themselves up", who refuse thei r blood to the Cup, who have trampled Love in the Race for self-aggrandisment. As far as the grade of Exempt Adept, they are on the same path as the White Brotherhood; for until that grade is attained, the goal is not disclosed. Then only are the goats, the lonely leaping mountain-masters, separated from the gr egarious huddling valley-bound sheep. Then those who have well learned the les sons of the Path are ready to be torn asunder, to give up their own life to the Babe of the Abyss which is --- and is not --- they. The others, proud in their purple, refuse. They make themselves a false cro wn of the Horror of the Abyss; they set the Dispersion of Choronzon upon their brows; they clothe themselves in the poisoned robes of Form; they shut themsel ves up; and when the force that made them what they are is exhausted, their str ong towers fall, they become the Eaters of Dung in the Day of Be-with-us, and t heir shreds, strewn in the Abyss, are lost. Not so the Masters of the Temple, that sit as piles of dust in the City of t he Pyramids, awaiting the Great Flame that shall consume that dust to ashes. F or the blood that they have surrendered is treasured in the Cup of OUR LADY BAB ALON, a mighty {192} medicine to awake the Eld of the All-Father, and redeem th e Virgin of the World from her virginity. II Before leaving the subject of Black Magic, one may touch lightly on the ques tion of Pacts with the Devil. The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had uni ty would be a God>. It was said by the Sorcerer of the Jura that in order to invoke the Devil it is only necessary to call him with your whole will. This is an universal magical truth, and applies to every other being as much as to the Devil. For the whole will of every man is in reality the whole will of the Universe. It is, however, always easy to call up the demons, for they are always calli ng you; and you have only to step down to their level {193} and fraternize with them. They will tear you in pieces at their leisure. Not at once; they will wait until you have wholly broken the link between you and your Holy Guardian A ngel before they pounce, lest at the last moment you escape. Anthony of Padua and (in our own times) "Macgregor" Mathers are examples of such victims. Nevertheless, every magician must firmly extend his empire to the depth of hel l. "My adepts stand upright, their heads above the heavens, their feet below t he hells."> This is the reason why the magician who performs the Operation of the "Sacre d Magic of Abramelin the Mage", immediately after attaining to the Knowledge an d Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, must evoke the Four Great Princes of the Evil of the World. "Obedience and faith to Him that liveth and triumpheth, that reigneth above you in your palaces as the Balance of Righteousness and Truth" is your duty to your Holy Guardian Angel, and the duty of the demon world to you. These powers of "evil" nature are wild beasts; they must be tamed, trained t o the saddle and the bridle; they will bear you well. There is nothing useless in the Universe: do not wrap up your Talent in a napkin, because it is only "d irty money"! With regard to Pacts, they are rarely lawful. There should be no bargain st ruck. Magick is not a trade, and no hucksters need apply. Master everything, but give generously to your servants, once they have unconditionally submitted. There is also the questions of alliances with various Powers. These again a re hardly ever allowable.> No Power which is not {194} a microcosm in itself - -- and even archangels reach rarely to this centre of balance --- is fit to tre at on an equality with Man. The proper study of mankind is God; with Him is hi s business; and with Him alone. Some magicians have hired legions of spirits f or some special purpose; but it has always proved a serious mistake. The whole idea of exchange is foreign to magick. The dignity of the magician forbids co mpacts. "The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof". III The operations of Magick art are difficult to classify, as they merge into eac h other, owing to the essential unity of their method and result. We may menti on: 1. Operations such as evocation, in which a live spirit is brought from dea d matter. 2. Consecrations of talismans in which a live spirit is bound into "dead" m atter and vivifies the same. 3. Works of divination, in which a live spirit is made to control operation s of the hand or brain of the Magician. Such works are accordingly most danger ous, to be used only by advanced magicians, and then with great care. 4. Works of fascination, such as operations of invisibility, and transforma tions of the apparent form of the person or thing concerned. This consists alm ost altogether in distracting the attention, or disturbing the judgment, of the person whom it is wished to deceive. There are, however, "real" transformatio ns of the adept himself which are very useful. See the Book of the Dead for me thods. The assumption of God-Forms can be carried to the point of actual trans formation. 5. Works of Love and Hate, which are also performed (as {195} a rule) by fa scination. These works are too easy; and rarely useful. They have a nasty tri ck of recoiling on the magician. 6. Works of destruction, which may be done in many different ways. One may fascinate and bend to one's will a person who has of his own right the power t o destroy. One may employ spirits or talismans. The more powerful magicians o f the last few centuries have employed books. In private matters these works are very easy, if they be necessary. An adep t known to The MASTER THERION once found it necessary to slay a Circe who was b ewitching brethren. He merely walked to the door of her room, and drew an Astr al T ("traditore", and the symbol of Saturn) with an astral dagger. Within 48 hours she shot herself.> 7. Works of creation and dissolution, and the higher invocations. There are also hundreds of other operations;> to bring wanted objects --- go ld, books, women and the like; to open locked doors, to discover treasure; to s wim under water; to have armed men at command --- etc., etc. All these are rea lly matters of detail; the Adeptus Major will easily understand how to perform them if necessary.> {196} It should be added that all these things happen "naturally".> Perform an oper ation to bring gold --- your rich uncle dies and leaves you his money; books -- - you see the book wanted in a catalogue that very day, although you have adver tised in vain for a year; woman --- but if you have made the spirits bring you enough gold, this operation will become unnecessary.> It must further be remarked that it is absolute Black Magic to use any of th ese powers if the object can possibly be otherwise attained. If your child is drowning, you must jump and try to save him; it won't do to invoke the Undines. Nor is it lawful in all circumstances to invoke those Undines even where the case is hopeless; maybe it is necessary to you and to the child that it should die. An Exempt Adept on the right road will make no error here --- an Adept M ajor is only too likely to do so. A through apprehension of this book will arm adepts of every grade against all the more serious blunders incidental to thei r unfortunate positions. IV Necromancy is of sufficient importance to demand a section to itself. It is justifiable in some exceptional cases. Suppose the magician fail to o btain access to living Teachers, or should he need some {197} especial piece of knowledge which he has reason to believe died with some teacher of the past, i t may be useful to evoke the "shade" of such a one, or read the "Akasic record" of his mind.> If this be done it must be done properly very much on the lines of the evoca tion of Apollonius of Tyana, which Eliphas Levi performed.> The utmost care must be taken to prevent personation of the "shade". It is o f course easy, but can rarely be advisable, to evoke the shade of a suicide, or of one violently slain or suddenly dead. Of what use is such an operation, sa ve to gratify curiosity or vanity? One must add a word on spiritism, which is a sort of indiscriminate necromancy --- one might prefer the word necrophilia --- by amateurs. They make themselv es perfectly passive, and, so far from employing any methods of protection, del iberately invite all and sundry spirits, demons, shells of the dead, all the ex crement and filth of earth and hell, to squirt their slime over them. This inv itation is readily accepted, unless a clean man be present with an aura good en ough to frighten these foul denizens of the pit. No spiritualistic manifestation has ever taken place in the {198} presence e ven of FRATER PERDURABO; how much less in that of The MASTER THERION!> Of all the creatures He ever met, the most prominent of English spiritists ( a journalist and pacifist of more than European fame) had the filthiest mind an d the foulest mouth. He would break off any conversation to tell a stupid smut ty story, and could hardly conceive of any society assembling for any other pur pose than "phallic orgies", whatever they may be. Utterly incapable of keeping to a subject, he would drag the conversation down again and again to the sole subject of which he really thought --- sex and sex-perversions and sex and sex and sex and sex again. This was the plain result of his spiritism. All spiritists are more or less similarly afflicted. They feel dirty even across the street; their auras are ragged, muddy and malodorous; they ooze the slime of putrefying corpses. No spiritist, once he is wholly enmeshed in sentimentality and Freudian fear -phantasms, is capable of concentrated thought, of persistent will, or of moral character. Devoid of every spark of the divine light which was his birthright , a prey before death to the ghastly tenants of the grave, the wretch, like the mesmerized and living corpse of Poe's Monsieur Valdemar, is a "nearly liquid m ass of loathsome, of detestable putrescence." The student of this Holy Magick is most earnestly warned against frequenting their seances, or even admitting them to his presence. They are contagious as Syphilis, and more deadly and disgusting. Unless you r aura is strong enough to inhibit any manifestation of the loathly larvae that have taken up their habitation in them, shun them as you need not mere lepers! > {199} V Of the powers of the Sphinx much has been written.> Wisely they have been ke pt in the forefront of true magical instruction. Even the tyro can always ratt le off that he has to know, to dare to will and to keep silence. It is difficu lt to write on this subject, for these powers are indeed comprehensive, and the interplay of one with the other becomes increasingly evident as one goes more deeply into the subject. But there is one general principle which seems worthy of special emphasis in this place. These four powers are thus complex because they are the powers of the Sphinx, that is, they are functions of a single organism. Now those who understand the growth of organisms are aware that evolution de pends on adaptation to environment. If an animal which cannot swim is occasion ally thrown into water, it may escape by some piece of good fortune, but if it is thrown into water continuously it will drown sooner or later, unless it lear ns to swim. Organisms being to a certain extent elastic, they soon adapt themselves to a new environment, provided that the change is not so sudden as to destroy that elasticity. Now a change in environment involves a repeated meeting of new conditions, and if you want to adapt yourself to any given set of conditions, the best thing y ou can do is to place yourself cautiously and persistently among them. That is the foundation of all education. The old-fashioned pedagogues were not all so stupid as some modern educators would have us think. The principle of the system was to strike the brain a se ries of constantly repeated blows until the proper reaction became normal to th e organism. It is not desirable to use ideas which excite interest, or may come {200} in handy later as weapons, in this fundamental training of the mind. It is much better to compel the mind to busy itself with root ideas which do not mean very much to the child, because you are not trying to excite the brain, but to dril l it. For this reason, all the best minds have been trained by preliminary stu dy of classics and mathematics. The same principle applies to the training of the body. The original exerci ses should be of a character to train the muscles generally to perform any kind of work, rather than to train them for some special kind of work, concentratio n of which will unfit them for other tasks by depriving them of the elasticity which is the proper condition of life.> In Magick and meditation this principle applies with tremendous force. It i s quite useless to teach people how to perform magical operations, when it may be that such operations, when they have learned to do them, are not in accordan ce with their wills. What must be done is to drill the Aspirant in the hard ro utine of the elements of the Royal Art. So far as mysticism is concerned, the technique is extremely simple, and has been very simply described in Part I of this Book 4. It cannot be said too st rongly that any amount of mystical success whatever is no compensation for slac kness with regard to the technique. There may come a time when Samadhi itself is no part of the business of the mystic. But the character developed by the o riginal training remains an asset. In other words, the person who has made him self a first-class brain capable of elasticity is competent to {201} attack any problem soever, when he who has merely specialized has got into a groove, and can no longer adapt and adjust himself to new conditions. The principle is quite universal. You do not train a violinist to play the Beethoven Concerto; you train him to play every conceivable consecution of note s with perfect ease, and you keep him at the most monotonous drill possible for years and years before you allow him to go on the platform. You make of him a n instrument perfectly able to adjust itself to any musical problem that may be set before him. This technique of Yoga is the most important detail of all ou r work. The MASTER THERION has been himself somewhat to blame in representing this technique as of value simply because it leads to the great rewards, such a s Samadhi. He would have been wiser to base His teaching solely on the ground of evolution. But probably He thought of the words of the poet: "You dangle a carrot in front of her nose, And she goes wherever the carrot goes." For, after all, one cannot explain the necessity of the study of Latin either t o imbecile children or to stupid educationalists; for, not having learned Latin , they have not developed the brains to learn anything. The Hindus, understanding these difficulties, have taken the God-Almighty at titude about the matter. If you go to a Hindu teacher, he treats you as less t han an earthworm. You have to do this, and you have to do that, and you are no t allowed to know why you are doing it.> After years of experience in teaching, The MASTER THERION is not altogether convinced that this is not the right attitude. {202} When people begin to argu e about things instead of doing them, they become absolutely impossible. Their minds begin to work about it and about, and they come out by the same door as in they went. They remain brutish, voluble, and uncomprehending. The technique of Magick is just as important as that of mysticism, but here we have a very much more difficult problem, because the original unit of Magick , the Body of Light, is already something unfamiliar to the ordinary person. N evertheless, this body must be developed and trained with exactly the same rigi d discipline as the brain in the case of mysticism. The essence of the techniq ue of Magick is the development of the body of Light, which must be extended to include all members of the organism, and indeed of the cosmos. The most important drill practices are: 1. The fortification of the Body of Light by the constant use of rituals, b y the assumption of god-forms, and by the right use of the Eucharist. 2. The purification and consecration and exaltation of that Body by the use of rituals of invocation. 3. The education of that Body by experience. It must learn to travel on ev ery plane; to break down every obstacle which may confront it. This experience must be as systematic and regular as possible; for it is of no use merely to t ravel to the spheres of Jupiter and Venus, or even to explore the 30 Aethyrs, n eglecting unattractive meridians.> {203} The object is to possess a Body which is capable of doing easily any particu lar task that may lie before it. There must be no selection of special experie nce which appeals to one's immediate desire. One must go steadily through all possible pylons. FRATER PERDRABO was very unfortunate in not having magical teachers to expla in these things to Him. He was rather encouraged in unsystematic working. Ver y fortunate, on the other hand, was He to have found a Guru who instructed Him in the proper principles of the technique of Yoga, and He, having sufficient se nse to recognize the universal application of those principles, was able to som e extent to repair His original defects. But even to this day, despite the fac t that His original inclination is much stronger towards Magick than towards my sticism, he is much less competent in Magick.> A trace of this can be seen eve n in His method of combining the two divisions of our science, for in that meth od He makes concentration bear the Cross of the work. This is possibly an error, probably a defect, certainly an impurity of thoug ht, and the root of it is to be found in His original bad discipline with regar d to Magick. If the reader will turn to the account of his astral journeys in the Second Number of the First Volume of the Equinox, he will find that these experiments were quite capricious. Even when, in Mexico, He got the idea of exploring the 30 Aethyrs systematically, He abandoned the vision after only 2 Aethyrs had bee n investigated. {204} Very different is His record after the training in 1901 e.v. had put Him in the way of discipline.> At the conclusion of this part of this book, one may sum up the whole matter in these words: There is no object whatever worthy of attainment but the regul ar development of the being of the Aspirant by steady scientific work; he shoul d not attempt to run before he can walk; he should not wish to go somewhere unt il he knows for certain whither he wills to go. --------- {205} APPENDIX I. The reader will find excellent classical examples of rituals of Magick in Th e Equinox, Volume I, in the following places --- "Number I." --- The supplement contains considerations for preparing a ritual of self-initiation. The supplement is also a perfect model of what a magical record should be, in respect of the form. "Number II." --- On pages 244-288 are given several rituals of Initiation. Pages 302-317 give an account of certain astral visions. Pages 326-332 give a formula for Rising on the Planes. "Number III." --- Pages 151-169 give details of certain magical formulae. Pages 170-190 are a very perfect example --- classical, old style --- of a magical ritual for the evocation of the spirit of Mercury. Pages 190-197 --- a ritual for the consecration of a talisman. A very perfect example. Pages 198-205 --- a very fine example of a ritual to invoke the Higher Genius. Pages 208-233 --- Ritual of Initiation, with explanation of the same. Pages 269-272 --- Ritual of obtaining the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel by the formula of I.A.O. Pages 272-278 --- Ritual to make one's self invisible. "Number IV." --- Pages 43-196 --- Treatise, with model Records, of Mental Training appropriate to the Magician. {207} "Number V." --- The supplement is the most perfect account of visions extant. They explore the farthest recesses of the magical universe. "Number VI." --- the Supplement gives seven rituals of the dramatic order, as described in Chapter XIX. Pages 29-32 --- A highly important magical ritual for daily use and work. "Number VII." --- Pages 21-27 --- Classical ritual to invoke Mercury; for daily use and work. Pages 117-157 --- Example of a dramatic ritual in modern style. Pages 229-243 --- An elaborate magical map of the universe on particular principles. Pages 372-375 --- Example of a seasonal ritual. Pages 376-383 --- Ritual to invoke Horus. "Number VIII." --- Pages 99-128 --- The conjuration of the elemental spirits. "Number IX." --- Pages 117-136 --- Ritual for invoking the spirit of Mars. "Number X." --- Pages 57-79 --- Modern example of a magical ritual in dramatic form, commemorating the return of Spring. Pages 81-90 --- Fragment of ritual of a very advanced character. VOL. III. No. I. --- This volume contains an immense number of articles of primary importance to every student of magick. The rituals of The Book of Lies and the Goetia are also to be studied. The "preliminary invocation" of the Goetia is in particular recommended for daily use and work. Orpheus, by Aleister Crowley, contains a large number of magical invocations in verse. There are also a good many others in other parts of his poetical works. The following is a complete curriculum of reading officially approved by the A.'. A.'. {208} CURRICULUM OF A.'. A.'. COURSE I. GENERAL READING. SECTION 1. --- Books for Serious Study: The Equinox. The standard Work of Reference in all occult matters. The Enc yclopaedia of Initiation. Collected Works of A. Crowley. These works contain many mystical and magica l secrets, both stated clearly in prose, and woven into the robe of sublimest p oesy. The Yi King. (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press.) The "Classic of Ch anges"; gives the initiated Chinese system of Magick. The Tao Teh King. (S.B.E. Series.) gives the initiated Chinese system of M ysticism. Tannhauser, by A. Crowley. An allegorical drama concerning the Progress of the soul; the Tannhauser story slightly remodelled. The Upanishads. (S.B.E. Series.) The Classical Basis of Vedantism, the best -known form of Hindu Mysticism. The Bhagavad-Gita. A dialogue in which Krishna, the Hindu "Christ", expound s a system of Attainment. The Voice of the Silence, by H. P. Blavatsky, with an elaborate commentary b y Frater O. M. The Goetia. The most intelligible of the mediaeval rituals of Evocation. C ontains also the favorite Invocation of the Master Therion. The Shiva Sanhita. A famous Hindu treatise on certain physical practices. The Hathayoga Pradipika. Similar to The Shiva Sanhita. Erdmann's "History of Philosophy". A compendious account of philosophy from the earliest times. Most valuable as a general education of the mind. {209} The Spiritual Guide of Molinos. A simple manual of Christian mysticism. The Star of the West. (Captain Fuller.) An introduction to the study of the Works of Aleister Crowley. The Dhammapada. (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press.) The best of the B uddhist classics. The Questions of King Milinda. (S.B.E. Series.) Technical points of Buddhis t dogma, illustrated by dialogues. Varieties of Religious Experience. (James.) Valuable as showing the unifor mity of mystical attainment. Kabbala Denudata, von Rosenroth: also the Kabbalah Unveiled, by S. L. Mather s. The text of the Kabalah, with commentary. A good elementary introduction to the subject. Konx om Pax. Four invaluable treatises and a preface on Mysticism and Magick. The Pistis Sophia. An admirable introduction to the study of Gnosticism. The Oracles of Zoroaster. An invaluable collection of precepts mystical and magical. The Dream of Scipio, by Cicero. Excellent for its Vision and its Philosophy . The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, by Fabre d'Olivet. An interesting study of the exoteric doctrines of this Master. The Divine Pymander, by Hermes Trismegistus. Invaluable as bearing on the G nostic Philosophy. The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, reprint of Franz Hartmann. An inval uable compendium. Scrutinium Chymicum, by Michael Maier. One of the best treatises on alchemy. Science and the Infinite, by Sidney Klein. One of the best essays written in recent years. Two Essays of the Worship of Priapus, by Richard Payne Knight. Invaluable t o all students. {210} The Golden Bough, by J. G. Frazer. The Text-Book of folk Lore. Invaluable to all students. The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine. Excellent, though elementary, as a corr ective to superstition. Rivers of Life, by General Forlong. An invaluable text-book of old systems of initiation. Three Dialogues, by Bishop Berkeley. The Classic of subjective idealism. Essays of David Hume. The Classic of Academic Scepticism. First Principles, by Herbert Spencer. The Classic of Agnosticism. Prolegomena, by Emanuel Kant. The best introduction to Metaphysics. The Canon. The best text-book of Applied Qabalah. The Fourth Dimension, by H. Hinton. The text-book on this subject. The Essays of Thomas Henry Huxley. Masterpieces of philosophy, as of prose. The object of this course of reading is to familiarize the student with all that has been said by the Great Masters in every time and country. He should m ake a critical examination of them; not so much with the idea of discovering wh ere truth lies, for he cannot do this except by virtue of his own spiritual exp erience, but rather to discover the essential harmony in those varied works. H e should be on his guard against partisanship with a favourite author. He shou ld familiarize himself thoroughly with the method of mental equilibrium, endeav ouring to contradict any statement soever, although it may be apparently axioma tic. The general object of this course, besides that already stated, is to assure sound education in occult matters, so that when spiritual illumination comes i t may find a well-built temple. Where the mind is strongly biased towards any special theory, the result of an illumination is often to inflame that portion of the mind which is thus overdeveloped, with the result that the aspirant, ins tead of becoming an Adept, becomes a bigot and fanatic. {211} The A.'. A.'. does not offer examination in this course, but recommends thes e books as the foundation of a library. SECTION 2. --- Other books, principally fiction, of a generally suggestive and helpful kind: Zanoni, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. Valuable for its facts and suggestions about Mysticism. A Strange Story, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. Valuable for its facts and sugg estions about Magick. The Blossom and the Fruit, by Mabel Collins. Valuable for its account of th e Path. Petronius Arbiter. Valuable for those who have wit to understand it. The Golden Ass, by Apuleius. Valuable for those who have wit to understand it. Le Comte de Gabalis. Valuable for its hints of those things which it mocks. The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope. Valuable for its account of elemen tals. Undine, by de la Motte Fouque. Valuable as an account of elementals. Black Magic, by Marjorie Bowen. An intensely interesting story of sorcery. Le Peau de Chagrin, by Honore de Balzac. A magnificent magical allegory. Number Nineteen, by Edgar Jepson. An excellent tale of modern magic. Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Valuable for its account of legends concerning vam pires. Scientific Romances, by H. Hinton. Valuable as an introduction to the study of the Fourth Dimension. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Valuable to those who understand the Qabalah. {212} Alice Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll. Valuable to those who un derstand the Qabalah. The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll. Valuable to those who understan d the Qabalah. The Arabian Nights, translated by either Sir Richard Burton or John Payne. Valuable as a storehouse of oriental magick-lore. Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Mallory. Valuable as a storehouse of occident al Magick-lore. The Works of Francois Rabelais. Invaluable for Wisdom. The Kasidah, by Sir Richard Burton. Valuable as a summary of philosophy. The Song Celestial, by Sir Edwin Arnold. "The Bagavad-Gita" in verse. The Light of Asia, by Sir Edwin Arnold. An account of the attainment of Got ama Buddha. The Rosicrucians, by Hargrave Jennings. Valuable to those who can read betw een the lines. The Real History of the Rosicrucians, by A. E. Waite. A good vulgar piece o f journalism on the subject. The Works of Arthur Machen. Most of these stories are of great magical inte rest. The Writings of William O'Neill (Blake). Invaluable to all students. The Shaving of Shagpat, by George Meredith. An excellent allegory. Lilith, by George MacDonald. A good introduction to the Astral. La-Bas, by J. K. Huysmans. An account of the extravagances caused by the Si n-complex. The Lore of Proserpine, by Maurice Hewlett. A suggestive enquiry into the Hermetic Arcanum. En Route, by J. K. Huysmans. An account of the follies of Christian mystici sm. Sidonia the Sorceress, by Wilhelm Meinhold. {213} The Amber Witch, by Wilhelm Meinhold. These two tales are highly informative. Macbeth; Midsummer Night's Dream; The Tempest, by W. Shakespeare. Interesti ng for traditions treated. Redgauntlet, by Sir Walter Scott. Also one or two other novels. Interestin g for traditions treated. Rob Roy, by James Grant. Interesting for traditions treated. The Magician, by W. Somerset Maugham. An amusing hotchpot of stolen goods. The Bible, by various authors unknown. The Hebrew and Greek Originals are o f Qabalistic value. It contains also many magical apologues, and recounts many tales of folk-lore and magical rites. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling. An admirable study of Eastern thought and life. M any other stories by this author are highly suggestive and informative. For Mythology, as teaching Correspondences: Books of Fairy Tales generally. Oriental Classics generally. Sufi Poetry generally. Scandinavian and Teutonic Sagas generally. Celtic Folk-Lore generally. This course is of general value to the beginner. While it is not to be take n, in all cases, too seriously, it will give him a general familiarity with the mystical and magical tradition, create a deep interest in the subject, and sug gest many helpful lines of thought. It has been impossible to do more, in this list, than to suggest a fairly co mprehensive course of reading. SECTION 3. --- Official publications of the A.'. A.'. "Liber I. "Liber B vel Magi." An account of the Grade of Magus, the highest grade which {214} it is ever possible to manifest in any way whatever upon this plane. Or so it is said by the Masters of the Temple. Equinox VII, p. 5. "Liber II." The Message of the Master Therion. Explains the Essence of the new law in a very simple manner. Equinox XI (Vol. III, No. 1), p. 39. "Liber III. Liber Jugorum." An instruction for the control of speech, action and thought. Equinox IV, p. 9 & Appendix VI of this book. "Liber IV. ABA." A general account in elementary terms of magical and mystical powers. Part. 1. "Mysticism" --- published. 2. "Magick" (Elementary Theory) --- published. 3. "Magick in Theory and Practice" (this book). 4. "The Law." Not yet completed. "Liber VI. Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae." Instructions given for elementary study of the Qabalah, Assumption of God forms, vibration of Divine Names, the Rituals of Pentagram and Hexagram, and their uses in protection and invocation, a method of attaining astral visions so-called, and an instruction in the practice called Rising on the Planes. Equinox II, p. 11 and appendix VI in this book. "Liber VII. Liber Liberi vel Lapis Lazuli, Adumbratio Kabbalae Aegyptiorum." sub Figura VII. Being the Voluntary Emancipation of a certain exempt Adept from his Adeptship. These are the Birth Words of a Master of the Temple. {215} Its 7 chapters are referred to the 7 planets in the following order: Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Sol, Mercury, Luna, Venus. "Liber VIII." See CCCCXVIII. "Liber IX. Liber E vel Exercitiorum." Instructs the aspirant in the necessity of keeping a record. Suggests methods of testing physical clairvoyance. Gives instruction in Asana, Pranayama and Dharana, and advises the application of tests to the physical body, in order that the student may thoroughly understand his own limitations. Equinox I, p. 25 & Appendix VI of this Book. "Liber X." "Liber Porta Lucis." An account of the sending forth of the Master Therion by the A.'. A.'. and an explanation of His mission. Equinox VI, p. 3. "Liber XI. Liber NV." An Instruction for attaining Nuit. Equinox VII, p. 11. "Liber XIII. Graduum Montis Abiegni." An account of the task of the Aspirant from Probationer to Adept. Equinox III, p. 3. "Liber XV. Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae Cannon Missae." Represents the original and true pre-Christian Christianity. Equinox XI (vol. iii, part 1) And Appendix VI of this book. {216} "Liber XVI. Liber Turris vel Domus Dei." An Instruction for attainment by the direct destruction of thoughts as they arise in the mind. Equinox VI, p. 9. "Liber XVII. Liber I.A.O." Gives three methods of attainment through a willed series of thoughts. Unpublished. It is the active form of Liber CCCLXI. "Liber XXI. The Classic of Purity," by Ko Hsuen. A new translation from the Chinese by the Master Therion. Unpublished. "Liber XXV. The Ritual of the Star Ruby." An improved form of the lesser ritual of the Pentagram, Liber CCCXXXIII, The Book of Lies, pp. 34 & 35. Also Appendix VI of this book. "Liber XXVII. Liber Trigrammaton, being a book of Trigrams of the Mutations of the Tao with the Yin and Yang." An account of the cosmic process: corresponding to the stanzas of Dzyan in another system. Unpublished. "Liber XXX. "Liber Librae." An elementary course of morality suitable for the average man. Equinox I, p. 17. "Liber XXXIII." An account of A.'. A.'. first written in the Language of his {217} period by the Councillor Von Eckartshausen and now revised and rewritten in the Universal Cipher. Equinox I, p. 4. "Liber XXXVI. The Star Sapphire." An improved ritual of the Hexagram. Liber CCCXXXIII (The Book of Lies), p.p. 46 & 7, and Appendix VI of this book. "Liber XLI. Thien Tao." An Essay on Attainment by the Way of Equilibrium. Knox Om Pax, p. 52 "Liber XLIV" "The Mass of the Phoenix." A Ritual of the Law. Liber CCCXXXIII (The Book of Lies), pp. 57-7, and Appendix VI in this book. "Liber XLVI." "The Key of the Mysteries." A Translation of "La Clef des Grands Mysteres", by Eliphas Levi. Specially adapted to the task of the Attainment of Bhakta- Yoga. Equinox X, Supplement. "Liber XLIX. Shi Yi Chien." An account of the divine perfection illustrated by the seven- fold permutation of the Dyad. Unpublished. "Liber LI. The Lost Continent." An account of the continent of Atlantis: the manners and customs, magical rites and opinions of its people, together {218} with a true account of the catastrophe, so called, which ended in its disappearance. Unpublished. "Liber LV. The Chymical Jousting of Brother Perardua with the seven Lances that he brake." An account of the Magical and Mystic Path in the language of Alchemy. Equinox I, p. 88. "Liber LVIII." An article on the Qabalah in Equinox V, p. 65. "Liber LIX. Across the Gulf." A fantastic account of a previous Incarnation. Its principal interest lies in the fact that its story of the overthrowing of Isis by Osiris may help the reader to understand the meaning of the overthrowing of Osiris by Horus in the present Aeon. Equinox VII, p. 293. "Liber LXI. Liber Causae." Explains the actual history and origin of the present move- ment. Its statements are accurate in the ordinary sense of the word. The object of the book is to discount Mythopeia. Equinox XI, p. 55. "Liber LXIV. Liber Israfel," formerly called "Anubis." An instruction in a suitable method of preaching. Unpublished. "Liber LXV. Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente." An account of the relations of the Aspirant with his Holy Guardian Angel. Equinox XI (vol. iii, part 1), p. 65. {219} "Liber LXVI. Liber Stellae Rubeae." A secret ritual, the Heart of IAO-OAI, delivered unto V.V.V.V.V. for his use in a certain matter of "Liber Legis." See Liber CCCXXXIII (The Book of Lies), pp. 34-5. Also Appendix VI in his book. "Liber LXVII. The Sword of Song." A critical study of various philosophies. An account of Buddhism. A. Crowley, Collected Works, Vol. ii, pp. 140-203. "Liber LXXI. The Voice of the Silence, the Two Paths, the Seven Portals," by H. P. Blavatsky, with an elaborate commentary by Frater O. M. Equinox III, I. Supplement. "Liber LXXXIII. --- The Urn." This is the sequel to "The Temple of Solomon the King," and is the Diary of a Magus. This book contains a detailed account of all the experiences passed through by the Master Therion in his attainment of this grade of Initiation, the highest possible to any manifested Man. Unpublished. "Liber LXXVIII." A complete treatise on the Tarot giving the correct designs of the cards with their attributions and symbolic meanings on all the planes. Part-published in Equinox VII, p.143. "Liber LXXXI. The Butterfly Net." An account of a magical operation, particularly concerning the planet Luna, written in the form of a novel. Published under the title "Moon-child" by the Mandrake Press, 41, Museum St., London, W.C.1. {220} "Liber LXXXIV. Vel Chanokh." A brief abstraction of the Symbolic representation of the Universe derived by Dr. John Dee through the Scrying of Sir Edward Kelly. Part-published in Equinox VII, p. 229 & VIII, p. 99. "Liber XC. Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus." An account of Initiation, and an indication as to those who are suitable for the same. Equinox VI, p. 17. "Liber XCV. The Wake-World." A poetical allegory of the relations of the soul and the Holy Guardian Angel. Knox Om Pax, p. 1. "Liber XCVI. Liber Gaias." A Handbook of Geomancy. Equinox II, p. 137. "Liber CVI. A Treatise on the Nature of Death, and the proper attitude to be taken towards it." Published in "The International", New York, 1917. "Liber CXI (Aleph). The Book of Wisdom or Folly." An extended and elaborate commentary on the Book of the Law, in the form of a letter from the Master Therion to his magical son. Contains some of the deepest secrets of initiation, with a clear solution of many cosmic and ethical problems. Unpublished. "Liber CL. De Lege Libellum." {221} A further explanation of the Book of the Law, with special reference to the Powers and Privileges conferred by its acceptance. Equinox III, part 1, p. 99. "Liber CLVI. Liber Cheth, vel Vallum Abiegni." A perfect account of the task of the Exempt Adept considered under the symbols of a particular plane, not the intellectual. Equinox VI, p. 23. "Liber CLVII. The Tao Teh King." A new translation, with a commentary, by the Master Therion. Unpublished. "Liber CLXV. A Master of the Temple," Being an account of the attainment of Frater Unus In Omnibus. The record of a man who actually attained by the system taught by the A.'. A.'. Part-published in Equinox III, I, p. 127. "Liber CLXXV. Astarte vel Liber Berylli." An instruction in attainment by the method of devotion, or Bhakta-Yogi. Equinox VII, p. 37. "Liber CLXXXV. Liber Collegii Sancti." Being the tasks of the Grades and their Oaths proper to Liber XIII. This is the official paper of the various grades. It includes the Task and Oath of a Probationer. Unpublished. "Liber CXCVII. The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight and of his following of the Questing Beast." {222} A poetic account of the Great Work and enumeration of many obstacles. Equinox IV, Special Supplement. "Liber CC. Resh vel Helios." An instruction for the adoration of the Sun four times daily, with the object of composing the mind to meditation, and of regularising the practices. Equinox VI, p. 29. "Liber CCVI. Liber RU vel Spiritus." Full instruction in Pranayama. Equinox VII, p. 59. "Liber CCVII. Syllabus." An enumeration of the Official publications of A.'. A.'. with a brief description of the contents of each book. Equinox XI (vol. iii part 1), p. 11. This appendix is extracted therefrom. "Liber CCXX (L vel Legis). The Book of the Law," which is the foundation of the whole work. Text in Equinox X, p. 9. Short commentary in Equinox VII, p. 378. Full commentary by the Master Therion through whom it was given to the world, will be published shortly. "Liber CCXVI. The Yi King." A new translation, with a commentary by the Master Therion. Unpublished. "Liber CCXXXI. Liber Arcanorum" GR:tau-omega-nu ATU GR:tau-omicron-upsilon TAHUTI quas vidit ASAR in AMENNTI sub figura CCXXXI. Liber Carcerorum GR:tau-omega-nu QLIPHOTH cum suis Geniis. Adduntur Sigilla et Nomina Eorum. {223} An account of the cosmic process so far as it is indicated by the Tarot Trumps. Equinox VII, p. 69. "Liber CCXLII." AHA! An exposition in poetic language of several of the ways of attainment and the results obtained. Equinox III, p. 9 "Liber CCLXV. The Structure of the Mind." A Treatise on psychology from the mystic an magical stand- point. Its study will help the aspirant to make a detailed scientific analysis of his mind, and so learn to control it. Unpublished. "Liber CCC. Khabs am Pekht." A special instruction for the Promulgation of the Law. This is the first and most important duty of every Aspirant of whatever grade. It builds up in him the character and Karma which forms the Spine of Attainment. Equinox III, I, p. 171 "Liber CCCXXXIII. The Book of Lies falsely so-called." Deals with many matters on all planes of the very highest importance. It is an official publication for Babes of the Abyss, but is recommended even to beginners as highly suggestive. Published. "Liber CCCXXXV. Adonis." An account in poetic language of the struggle of the human and divine elements in the consciousness of man, giving their harmony following on the victory of the latter. Equinox VII, p. 117. "Liber CCCLXI. Liber H.H.H." {224} Gives three methods of attainment through a willed series of thoughts. "Liber CCCLXV, vel CXX. The Preliminary Invocation of the Goetia" so-called, with a complete explanation of the barbarous names of evocation used therein, and the secret rubric of the ritual, by the Master Therion. This is the most potent invocation extant, and was used by the Master Himself in his attainment. See p. 265 of this book. "Liber CD. Liber TAU vel Kabbalae Truium Literarum sub figura CD." A graphic interpretation of the Tarot on the plane of initiation. Equinox VII, p. 75. "Liber CCCCXII. A vel Armorum." An instruction for the preparation of the elemental Instruments. Equinox IV, p. 15. "Liber CCCCXVIII. Liber XXX AERUM vel Saeculi." Being of the Angels of the Thirty Aethyrs, the Vision and the Voice. Besides being the classical account of the thirty Aethyrs and a model of all visions, the cries of the Angels should be regarded as accurate, and the doctrine of the function of the Great White Brotherhood understood as the foundation of the Aspiration of the Adept. The account of the Master of the Temple should in particular be taken as authentic. Equinox V, Special Supplement. "Liber CDLXXIV. Os Abysmi vel Da'ath." An instruction in a purely intellectual method of entering the Abyss. Equinox VII, p. 77. "Liber D. Sepher Sephiroth." A dictionary of Hebrew words arranged according to their {225} numerical value. This is an Encyclopaedia of the Holy Qabalah, which is a Map of the Universe, and enables man to attain Perfect Understanding. Equinox VIII, Special Supplement. "Liber DXXXVI. A complete Treatise on Astrology." This is the only text book on astrology composed on scientific lines by classifying observed facts instead of deducting from "a priori" theories. Unpublished. "Liber DXXXVI." GR:Beta-Alpha-Tau-Rho-Alpha-Chi-Omicron-Phi-Rho-Epsilon-Nu-Omicron-Beta-Omicr on-Omicron GR:Kappa-Omicron-Sigma-Mu-Omicron-Mu-Alpha-Chi-Iota-Alpha. An instruction in expansion of the field of the mind. Equinox X, p. 35. "Liber DLV. LIBER HAD." An instruction for attaining Hadit. Equinox VII, p. 83. "Liber DCXXXIII. De Thaumaturgia." A statement of certain ethical considerations concerning Magick. Unpublished. "Liber DCLXVI. The Beast." An account of the Magical Personality who is the Logos of the present Aeon. Unpublished. "Liber DCCLXXVII. (777). Vel Prolegomena Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicandae, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicorum sanctissimorum Scientae Summae." A complete Dictionary of the Correspondences of all magical elements, reprinted with extensive additions, making it the {226} only standard comprehensive book of reference ever published. It is to the language of Occultism what Webster or Murray is to the English Language. The reprint with additions will shortly be published. "Liber DCCCXI. Energised Enthusiasm" Specially adapted to the task of Attainment of Control of the Body of Light, development of Intuition and Hathayoga. Equinox IX, p. 17. "Liber DCCCXIII. vel ARARITA." An account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it to the Unity, and Beyond. Unpublished. "Liber DCCCXXXI. Liber IOD, formerly called VESTA." An instruction giving three methods of reducing the manifold consciousness to the Unity. Adapted to facilitate the task of the Attainment of Raja-Yoga and of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Equinox VII, p. 101. "Liber DCCCXXXVII. The Law of Liberty." This is a further explanation of the Book of the Law in reference to certain Ethical problems. Equinox XI (vol. III, No. 1), p. 45. "Liber DCCCLX. John St. John." The Record of the Magical Retirement of G. H. Frater O.'. M.'. A model of what a magical record should be, so far as accurate analysis and fullness of description are concerned. Equinox I, Supplement. {227} "Liber DCCCLXVIII. Liber Viarum Viae." A graphical account of magical powers classified under the Tarot Trumps. Equinox VII, p. 101. "Liber DCCCLXXXVIII." A complete study of the origins of Christianity. Unpublished. "Liber CMXIII. Liber Viae Memoriae." Gives methods for attaining the magical memory, or memory of past lives, and an insight into the function of the Aspirant in this present life. Equinox VII, p. 105. "Liber CMXXXIV. The Cactus." An elaborate study of the psychological effects produced by "Anhalonium Lewinii" (Mescal Buttons), compiled from the actual records of some hundreds of experiments. Unpublished. "Liber DCCCCLXIII. The Treasure House of Images." A superb collection of Litanies appropriate to the Signs of the Zodiac. Equinox III, Supplement. "Liber MMCCMXI. A Note on Genesis." A model of Qabalistic ratiocination. Specially adapted to Gana Yoga. "Liber MCCLXIV. The Greek Qabalah." A complete dictionary of all sacred and important words and phrases given in the Books of the Gnosis and other important writings both in the Greek and the Coptic. Unpublished. {228} APPENDIX II. ONE STAR IN SIGHT. Thy feet in mire, thine head in murk, O man, how piteous thy plight, The doubts that daunt, the ills that irk, Thou hast nor wit nor will to fight --- How hope in heart, or worth in work? No star in sight! Thy gods proved puppets of the priest. "Truth? All's relation!" science sighed. In bondage with thy brother beast, Love tortured thee, as Love's hope died And Lover's faith rotted. Life no least Dim star descried. Thy cringing carrion cowered and crawled To find itself a chance-cast clod Whose Pain was purposeless; appalled That aimless accident thus trod Its agony, that void skies sprawled On the vain sod! All souls eternally exist, Each individual, ultimate, Perfect --- each makes itself a mist Of mind and flesh to celebrate With some twin mask their tender tryst Insatiate. {229} Some drunkards, doting on the dream, Despair that it should die, mistake Themselves for their own shadow-scheme. One star can summon them to wake To self; star-souls serene that gleam On life's calm lake. That shall end never that began. All things endure because they are. Do what thou wilt, for every man And every woman is a star. Pan is not dead; he liveth, Pan! Break down the bar! To man I come, the number of A man my number, Lion of Light; I am The Beast whose Law is Love. Love under will, his royal right --- Behold within, and not above, One star in sight! ONE STAR IN SIGHT. A glimpse of the structure and system of the Great White Brotherhood. A.'. A.'.>. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 1. The Order of the Star called S. S. is, in respect of its existence upon the Earth, an organized body of men and women distinguished among their fellows by the qualities here enumerated. They exist in their own Truth, which is bot h universal and unique. {230} They move in accordance with their own Wills, wh ich are each unique, yet coherent with the universal will. They perceive (that is, understand, know, and feel) in love, which is both u nique and universal. 2. The order consists of eleven grades or degrees, and is numbered as follo ws: these compose three groups, the Orders of the S. S., of the R. C., and of t he G. D. respectively. "The Order of the S. S." Ipsissimus .................. 10 Degree = 1Square Magus ....................... 9 Degree = 2Square Magister Templi ............. 8 Degree = 3Square "The Order of the R. C." (Babe of the Abyss --- the link) Adeptus Exemptus ............ 7 Degree = 4Square Adeptus Major ............... 6 Degree = 5Square Adeptus Minor ............... 5 Degree = 6Square "The Order of the G. D." (Dominus Liminis --- the link) Philosophus ................. 4 Degree = 7Square Practicus ................... 3 Degree = 8Square Zelator ..................... 2 Degree = 9Square Neophyte .................... 1 Degree = 10Square Probationer ................. 0 Degree = 0Square (These figures have special meanings to the initiated and are commonly emplo yed to designate the grades.) The general characteristics and attributions of these Grades are indicated b y their correspondences on the Tree of Life, as may be studied in detail in the Book 777. Student. --- His business is to acquire a general intellectual knowledge of all systems of attainment, as declared in the prescribed books. (See curriculum in Appendix I.) {231} Probationer. --- His principal business is to begin such practices as he my prefer, and to write a careful record of the same for one year. Neophyte. --- Has to acquire perfect control of the Astral Plane. Zelator. --- His main work is to achieve complete success in Asana and Pranayama. He also begins to study the formula of the Rosy Cross. Practicus. --- Is expected to complete his intellectual training, and in particular to study the Qabalah. Philosophus. --- Is expected to complete his moral training. He is tested in Devotion to the Order. Dominus Liminis. --- Is expected to show mastery of Pratyahara and Dharana. Adeptus (without). --- is expected to perform the Great Work and to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Adeptus (within). --- Is admitted to the practice of the formula of the Rosy Cross on entering the College of the Holy Ghost. Adeptus (Major). --- Obtains a general mastery of practical Magick, though without comprehension. Adeptus (Exemptus). --- Completes in perfection all these matters. He then either ("a") becomes a Brother of the Left Hand Path or, ("b") is stripped of all his attainments and of himself as well, even of his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes a babe of the Abyss, who, having transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in the womb of its mother. It then finds itself a Magister Templi. --- (Master of the Temple): whose functions are fully described in Liber 418, as is this whole initiation from Adeptus Exemptus. See also "Aha!". His principal business is to tend his "garden" of disciples, and to obtain a perfect understanding of the Universe. He is a Master of Samadhi. {232} Magus. --- Attains to wisdom, declares his law (See Liber I, vel Magi) and is a Master of all Magick in its greatest and highest sense. Ipsissimus. --- Is beyond all this and beyond all comprehension of those of lower degrees. But of these last three Grades see some further account in "The Temple of So lomon the King", Equinox I to X and elsewhere. It should be stated that these Grades are not necessarily attained fully, an d in strict consecution, or manifested wholly on all planes. The subject is ve ry difficult, and entirely beyond the limits of this small treatise. We append a more detailed account. 3. "The Order of the S. S." is composed of those who have crossed the Abyss ; the implications of this expression may be studied in Liber 418, the 14th, 13 th, 12th, 11th, 10th, and 9th Aethyrs in particular. All members of the Order are in full possession of the Formulae of Attainmen t, both mystical or inwardly-directed and Magical or outwardly-directed. They have full experience of attainment in both these paths. They are all, however, bound by the original and fundamental Oath of the Ord er, to devote their energy to assisting the Progress of their Inferiors in the Order. Those who accept the rewards of their emancipation for themselves are n o longer within the Order. Members of the Order are each entitled to found Orders dependent on themselv es on the lines of the R. C. and G. D. orders, to cover types of emancipation a nd illumination not contemplated by the original (or main) system. All such or ders must, however, be constituted in harmony with the A.'. A.'. as regards the essential principles. All members of the Order are in possession of the Word of the existing Aeon, and govern themselves thereby. They are entitled to communicate directly with any and every member of the O rder, as they may deem fitting. Every active Member of the Order has destroyed all that He is and all that h e has on crossing the Abyss; but a star is cast forth in {233} the Heavens to e nlighten the Earth, so that he may possess a vehicle wherein he may communicate with mankind. The quality and position of this star, and its functions, are d etermined by the nature of the incarnations transcended by him. 4. The Grade of Ipsissimus is not to be described fully; but its opening is indicated in Liber I vel Magi. There is also an account in a certain secret document to be published when pro priety permits. Here it is only said this: The Ipsissimus is wholly free from all limitations soever, existing in the nature of all things without discrimin ations of quantity or quality between them. He has identified Being and not-Be ing and Becoming, action and non-action and tendency to action, with all other such triplicities, not distinguishing between them in respect of any conditions , or between any one thing and any other thing as to whether it is with or with out conditions. He is sworn to accept this Grade in the presence of a witness, and to expres s its nature in word and deed, but to withdraw Himself at once within the veils of his natural manifestation as a man, and to keep silence during his human li fe as to the fact of his attainment, even to the other members of the Order. The Ipsissimus is pre-eminently the Master of all modes of existence; that i s, his being is entirely free from internal or external necessity. His work is to destroy all tendencies to construct or to cancel such necessities. He is t he Master of the Law of Unsubstantiality (Anatta). The Ipsissimus has no relation as such with any Being: He has no will in any direction, and no Consciousness of any kind involving duality, for in Him all is accomplished; as it is written "beyond the Word and the Fool, yea, beyond th e Word and the Fool". 5. The Grade of Magus is described in Liber I vel Magi, and there are accou nts of its character in Liber 418 in the Higher Aethyrs. There is also a full and precise description of the attainment of this Grade in the Magical Record of the Beast 666. The essential characteristic of the Grade is that its possessor utters a Cre ative Magical Word, which transforms the planet on {234} which he lives by the installation of new officers to preside over its initiation. This can take pla ce only at an "Equinox of the Gods" at the end of an "Aeon"; that is, when the secret formula which expresses the Law of its action becomes outworn and useles s to its further development. (Thus "Suckling" is the formula of an infant: when teeth appear it marks a new "Aeon", whose "Word" is "Eating"). A Magus can therefore only appear as such to the world at intervals of some centuries; accounts of historical Magi, and their Words, are given in Liber Ale ph. This does not mean that only one man can attain this Grade in any one Aeon, so far as the Order is concerned. A man can make personal progress equivalent to that of a "Word of an Aeon"; but he will identify himself with the current w ord, and exert his will to establish it, lest he conflict with the work of the Magus who uttered the Word of the Aeon in which He is living. The Magus is pre-eminently the Master of Magick, that is, his will is entire ly free from internal diversion or external opposition; His work is to create a new Universe in accordance with His Will. He is the Master of the Law of Chan ge (Anicca). To attain the Grade of Ipsissimus he must accomplish three tasks, destroying the Three Guardians mentioned in Liber 418, the 3rd Aethyr; Madness, and False hood, and Glamour, that is, Duality in Act, Word and Thought. 6. The Grade of Master of the Temple is described in Liber 418 as above ind icated. There are full accounts in the Magical Diaries of the Beast 666, who w as cast forth into the Heaven of Jupiter, and of Omnia in Uno, Unus in Omnibus, who was cast forth into the sphere of the Elements. The essential Attainment is the perfect annihilation of that personality whi ch limits and oppresses his true self. The Magister Templi is pre-eminently the Master of Mysticism, that is, His U nderstanding is entirely free from internal contradiction or external obscurity ; His word is to comprehend the existing Universe in accordance with His own M ind. He is the Master of the Law of Sorrow (Dukkha). To attain the grade of Magus he must accomplish Three 235} Tasks; the renun ciation of His enjoyment of the Infinite so that he may formulate Himself as th e Finite; the acquisition of the practical secrets alike of initiating and gove rning His proposed new Universe and the identification of himself with the impe rsonal idea of Love. Any neophyte of the Order (or, as some say, any person so ever) possesses the right to claim the Grade of Master of the Temple by taking the Oath of the Grade. It is hardly necessary to observe that to do so is the most sublime and awful responsibility which it is possible to assume, and an un worthy person who does so incurs the most terrific penalties by his presumption . 7. "The Order of the R. C." The Grade of the Babe of the Abyss is not a Gr ade in the proper sense, being rather a passage between the two Orders. Its ch aracteristics are wholly negative, as it is attained by the resolve of the Adep tus Exemptus to surrender all that he has and is for ever. It is an annihilati on of all the bonds that compose the self or constitute the Cosmos, a resolutio n of all complexities into their elements, and these thereby cease to manifest, since things are only knowable in respect of their relation to, and reaction o n, other things. 8. The Grade of Adeptus Exemptus confers authority to govern the two lower Orders of R. C. and G. D. The Adept must prepare and publish a thesis setting forth His knowledge of t he Universe, and his proposals for its welfare and progress. He will thus be k nown as the leader of a school of thought. (Eliphas Levi's "Clef des Grands Mysteres," the works of Swedenborg, von Eck arshausen, Robert Fludd, Paracelsus, Newton, Bolyai, Hinton, Berkeley, Loyola, etc., etc., are examples of such essays.) He will have attained all but the supreme summits of meditation, and should be already prepared to perceive that the only possible course for him is to dev ote himself utterly to helping his fellow creatures. To attain the Grade of Magister Templi, he must perform two tasks; the emanc ipation from thought by putting each idea against its opposite, and refusing to prefer either; and the consecration of {236} himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the order to which he aspires. He must then decide upon the critical adventure of our Order; the absolute a bandonment of himself and his attainments. He cannot remain indefinitely an Ex empt Adept; he is pushed onward by the irresistible momentum that he has genera ted. Should he fail, by will or weakness, to make his self-annihilation absolute, he is none the less thrust forth into the Abyss; but instead of being received and reconstructed in the Third Order, as a Babe in the womb of our Lady BABALO N, under the Night of Pan, to grow up to be Himself wholly and truly as He was not previously, he remains in the Abyss, secreting his elements round his Ego a s if isolated from the Universe, and becomes what is called a "Black Brother". Such a being is gradually disintegrated from lack of nourishment and the slow but certain action of the attraction of the rest of the Universe, despite effor ts to insulate and protect himself, and to aggrandise himself by predatory prac tices. He may indeed prosper for a while, but in the end he must perish, espec ially when with a new Aeon a new word is proclaimed which he cannot and will no t hear, so that he is handicapped by trying to use an obsolete method of Magick , like a man with a boomerang in a battle where every one else has a rifle. 9. The Grade of Adeptus Major confers Magical Powers (strictly so-called) o f the second rank. His work is to use these to support the authority of the Exempt Adept his su perior. (This is not to be understood as an obligation of personal subservienc e or even loyalty; but as a necessary part of his duty to assist his inferiors. For the authority of the Teaching and governing Adept is the basis of all ord erly work.) To attain the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus, he must accomplish Three Tasks; the acquisition of absolute Self-Reliance, working in complete isolation, yet tran smitting the word of his superior clearly, forcibly and subtly; and the compreh ension and use of the Revolution of the wheel of force, under its three success ive forms of Radiation, Conduction and Convection (Mercury, Sulphur, Salt; or S attvas, Rajas, Tamas), with their corresponding natures on {237} other planes. Thirdly, he must exert his whole power and authority to govern the Members of lower Grades with balanced vigour and initiative in such a way as to allow no d ispute or complaint; he must employ to this end the formula called "The Beast c onjoined with the Woman" which establishes a new incarnation of deity; as in th e legends of Leda, Semele, Miriam, Pasiphae, and others. He must set up this i deal for the orders which he rules, so that they may possess a not too abstract rallying point suited to their undeveloped states. 10. The Grade of Adeptus Minor is the main theme of the instructions of the A.'. A.'. It is characterised by the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversa tion of the Holy Guardian Angel. (See the Equinox, "The Temple of Solomon the King;" "The Vision and the Voice" 8th Aethyr; also "Liber Samekh", etc. etc.) This is the essential work of every man; none other ranks with it either for pe rsonal progress or for power to help one's fellows. This unachieved, man is no more than the unhappiest and blindest of animals. He is conscious of his own incomprehensible calamity, and clumsily incapable of repairing it. Achieved, h e is no less than the co-heir of gods, a Lord of Light. He is conscious of his own consecrated course, and confidently ready to run it. The Adeptus Minor ne eds little help or guidance even from his superiors in our Order. His work is to manifest the Beauty of the Order to the world, in the way tha t his superiors enjoin, and his genius dictates. To attain the Grade Adeptus Major, he must accomplish two tasks; the equilib ration of himself, especially as to his passions, so that he has no preference for any one course of conduct over another, and the fulfilment of every action by its complement, so that whatever he does leaves him without temptation to wa nder from the way of his True Will. Secondly, he must keep silence, while he nails his body to the tree of his c reative will, in the shape of that Will, leaving his head and arms to form the symbol of Light, as if to make oath that his every thought, word and deed shoul d express the Light derived from the God with which he has identified his life, his love and his liberty --- symbolised by his heart, his phallus, and his leg s. It {238} is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel; for that is the p articular secret of each one of us; as secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother's God, or the Rit e that invokes Him. The Masters of the A.'. A.'. have therefore made no attempt to institute any regular ritual for this central Work of their Order, save the generalised inst ructions in Liber 418 (the 8th Aethyr) and the detailed Canon and Rubric of the Mass actually used with success by FRATER PERDURABO in His attainment. This h as been written down by Himself in Liber Samekh. But they have published such accounts as those in "The Temple of Solomon the King" and in "John St. John." T hey have taken the only proper course; to train aspirants to this attainment in the theory and practice of the whole of Magick and Mysticism, so that each man may be expert in the handling of all known weapons, and free to choose and to use those which his own experience and instinct dictate as proper when he essay s the Great Experiment. He is furthermore trained to the one habit essential to Membership of the A. '. A.'.; he must regard all his attainments as primarily the property of those less advanced aspirants who are confided to his charge. No attainment soever is officially recognised by the A.'. A.'. unless the im mediate inferior of the person in question has been fitted by him to take his p lace. The rule is not rigidly applied in all cases, as it would lead to congestion , especially in the lower grades where the need is greatest, and the conditions most confused; but it is never relaxed in the Order of the R. C. or of the S. S.: save only in One Case. There is also a rule that the Members of the A.'. A.'. shall not know each o ther officially, save only each Member his superior who introduced him and his inferior whom he has himself introduced. This rule has been relaxed, and a "Grand Neophyte" appointed to superintend all Members of the Order of the G. D. The real object of the rule was to preve nt Members of the same Grade {239} working together and so blurring each other' s individuality; also to prevent work developing into social intercourse. The Grades of the Order of the G. D. are fully described in Liber 185>, and there is no need to amplify what is there stated. It must however, be carefull y remarked that in each of these preliminary Grades there are appointed certain tasks appropriate, and that the ample accomplishment of each and every one of these is insisted upon with the most rigorous rigidity.> Members of the A.'. A.'. of whatever grade are not bound or expected or even encouraged to work on any stated lines, or with any special object, save as ha s been above set forth. There is however an absolute prohibition to accept mon ey or other material reward, directly or indirectly, in respect of any service connected with the Order, for personal profit or advantage. The penalty is imm ediate expulsion, with no possibility of reinstatement on any terms soever. But all members must of necessity work in accordance with the facts of Natur e, just as an architect must allow of the Law of Gravitation, or a sailor recko n with currents. So must all Members of the A.'. A.'. work by the Magical Formula of the Aeon . They must accept the Book of the Law as the Word and the Letter of Truth, an d the sole Rule of Life.> They must acknowledge the Authority of the Beast 666 and of the Scarlet Woman as {240} in the book it is defined, and accept Their Will> as concentrating the Will of our Whole Order. They must accept the Crown ed and Conquering Child as the Lord of the Aeon, and exert themselves to establ ish His reign upon Earth. They must acknowledge that "The word of the Law is GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha." and that "Love is the law, love under wi ll." Each member must make it his main work to discover for himself his own true will, and to do it, and do nothing else.> He must accept those orders in the Book of the Law that apply to himself as being necessarily in accordance with his own true will, and execute the same to the letter with all the energy, courage, and ability that he can command. Thi s applies especially to the work of extending the Law in the world, wherein his proof is his own success, the witness of his Life to the Law that hath given h im light in his ways, and liberty to pursue them. Thus doing, he payeth his de bt to the Law that hath freed him by working its will to free all men; and he p roveth himself a true man in our Order by willing to bring his fellows into fre edom. By thus ordering his disposition, he will fit himself in the best possible m anner for the task of understanding and mastering the divers technical methods prescribed by the A.'. A.'. for Mystical and Magical attainment. He will thus prepare himself properly for the crisis of his career in the Or der, the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Ange l. His Angel shall lead him anon to the summit of the Order of the R. C. and make him ready to face the unspeakable terror of the Abyss which lies between Manho od and Godhead; teach him to Know that agony, to Dare that destiny, to Will tha t catastrophe, {241} and to keep Silence for ever as he accomplishes the act of annihilation. From the Abyss comes No Man forth, but a Star startles the Earth, and our Or der rejoices above that Abyss that the Beast hath begotten one more Babe in the Womb of Our Lady, His concubine, the Scarlet Woman, BABALON. There is not need to instruct a Babe thus born, for in the Abyss it was puri fied of every poison of personality; its ascent to the highest is assured, in i ts season, and it hath no need of seasons for it is conscious that all conditio ns are no more than forms of its fancy. Such is a brief account, adapted as far as may be to the average aspirant to Adeptship, or Attainment, or Initiation, or Mastership, or Union with God, or Spiritual Development, or Mahatmaship, or Freedom, or Occult Knowledge, or what ever he may call his inmost need of Truth, of our Order of A.'. A.'. It is designed principally to awake interest in the possibilities of human p rogress, and to proclaim the principles of the A.'. A.'. The outline given of the several successive steps is exact; the two crises - - the Angel and the Abyss --- are necessary features in every career. The othe r tasks are not always accomplished in the order given here; one man, for examp le, may acquire many of the qualities peculiar to the Adeptus Major, and yet la ck some of those proper to the Practicus.> But the system here given shows {24 3} the correct order of events, as they are arranged in Nature; and in no case is it safe for a man to neglect to master any single detail, however dreary and distasteful it may seem. It often does so, indeed; that only insists on the n ecessity of dealing with it. The dislike and contempt for it bear witness to a weakness and incompleteness in the nature which disowns it; that particular ga p in one's defences may admit the enemy at the very turning-point of some battl e. Worse, one were shamed for ever if one's inferior should happen to ask for advice and aid on that subject and one were to fail in service to him! His fai lure --- one's own failure also! No step, however well won for oneself, till h e is ready for his own advance! Every Member of the A.'. A.'. must be armed at all points, and expert with e very weapon. The examinations in every Grade are strict and severe; no loose o r vague answers are accepted. In intellectual questions, the candidate must di splay no less mastery of his subject than if he were entered in the "final" for Doctor of Science or Law at a first class University. In examination of physical practices, there is a standardised test. In Asan a, for instance, the candidate must remain motionless for a given time, his suc cess being gauged by poising on his head a cup filled with water to the brim; i f he spill one drop, he is rejected. He is tested in "the Spirit Vision" or "Astral Journeying" by giving him a s ymbol unknown and unintelligible to him, and he must interpret its nature by me ans of a vision as exactly as if he had read its name and description in the bo ok when it was chosen. The power to make and "charge" talismans is tested as if they were scientifi c instruments of precision, as they are. In the Qabalah, the candidate must discover for himself, and prove to the ex aminer beyond all doubt, the properties of a number never previously examined b y any student. {243} In invocation the divine force must be made as manifest and unmistakable as the effects of chloroform; in evocation, the spirit called forth must be at lea st as visible and tangible as the heaviest vapours; in divination, the answer m ust be as precise as a scientific thesis, and as accurate as an audit; in medit ation, the results must read like a specialist's report of a classical case. But such methods, the A.'. A.'. intends to make occult science as systematic and scientific as chemistry; to rescue it from the ill repute which, thanks bo th to the ignorant and dishonest quacks that have prostituted its name, and to the fanatical and narrow-minded enthusiasts that have turned it into a fetish, has made it an object of aversion to those very minds whose enthusiasm and inte grity make them most in need of its benefits, and most fit to obtain them. It is the one really important science, for it transcends the conditions of material existence and so is not liable to perish with the planet, and it must be studied as a science, sceptically, with the utmost energy and patience. The A.'. A.'. possesses the secrets of success; it makes no secret of its kn owledge, and if its secrets are not everywhere known and practised, it is becau se the abuses connected with the name of occult science disincline official inv estigators to examine the evidence at their disposal. This paper has been written not only with the object of attracting individua l seekers into the way of Truth, but of affirming the propriety of the methods of the A.'. A.'. as the basis for the next great step in the advance of human k nowledge. Love is the law, love under will. O. M. 7 Degree= 4Square A.'. A.'. Praemonstrator of the Order of the R... C... Given from the Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalu, Sicily, in the Seventeen th Year of the Aeon of Horus, the Sun being in 23 Degree Virgo and the Moon in 14 Degree Pisces. {244} Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley December 22, 1988 e.v. key entry and proof reading with re-format 10/31/90 e.v. done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. (further proof reading desirable) disk 3 of 4 Copyright (c) O.T.O. O.T.O. P.O.Box 430 Fairfax, CA 94930 USA (415) 454-5176 ---- Messages only. Note: This file may benefit from further proofreading, but care should be take n with citations of Liber AL --- most of Crowley's errors have been corrected. LIMITED LICENSE Except for notations added to the history of modification, the text on this d iskette down to the next row of asterisks must accompany all copies made of thi s file. In particular, this paragraph and the copyright notice are not to be d eleted or changed on any copies or print-outs of this file. With these proviso s, anyone may copy this file for personal use or research. Copies may be made for others at reasonable cost of copying and mailing only, no additional charge s may be added. ************************************************************************* Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number} Comments an d notes not in the original are identified with the initials of the source: AC note = Crowley note. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc. All footnotes have been moved up to the place in text indexed and set off in do uble wedge brackets, viz. > ************************************************************************ APPENDIX III Notes on the nature of the "Astral Plane">. 1) What are "Astral" and "Spiritual Beings? Man is one: it is a case of any consciousness assuming a sensible form. Microcosms and elementals. Maybe an elemental (e.g. a dog) has a cosmic con ception in which he is a microcosm and man incomplete. No means of deciding sa me, as in case of kinds of space.> Similarly, our gross matter may appear unreal to Beings clad in fine matter. Thus, science thinks vulgar perceptions "error". We cannot perceive at all e xcept within our gamut; as, concentrated perfumes, which seem malodorous, and t ime-hidden facts, such as the vanes of a revolving fan, which flies can disting uish. "Hence:" no "a priori" reason to deny the existence of conscious intelligenc es with insensible bodies. Indeed we know of other "orders" of mind (flies, et c., possibly vegetables) thinking by means of non-human brain-structures. But the fundamental problem of Religion is this: Is there any praeter-human Intelligence, of the same order as our own, {245} which is not dependent on cer ebral structures consisting of matter in the vulgar sense of the word? 2) "Matter" includes all that is movable. Thus, electric waves are "matter" . There is no reason to deny the existence of Beings who perceive by other mea ns those subtle forces which we only perceive by our instruments. 3) We can influence other Beings, conscious or no, as lion-tamers, gardeners , etc., and are influenced by them, as by storms, bacilli, etc. 4) There is an apparent gap between our senses and their correspondences in consciousness. Theory needs a medium to join matter and spirit, just as physic s once needed an "ether" to transmit and transmute vibrations. 5) We may consider all beings as parts of ourselves, but it is more convenie nt to regard them as independent. Maximum Convenience is our cannon of "Truth" .> We may thus refer {246} psychical phenomena to the intention of "Astral" Be ings, without committing ourselves to any theory. Coherence is the sole qualit y demanded of us. 6) Magick enables us to receive sensible impressions of worlds other than t he "physical" universe (as generally understood by profane science). These wor lds have their own laws; their inhabitants are often of quasi-human intelligenc e; there is a definite set of relations between certain "ideas" of ours, and th eir expressions, and certain types of phenomena. (Thus symbols, the Qabalah, et c. enable us to communicate with whom we choose.) 7) "Astral" Beings possess knowledge and power of a different kind from our own; their "universe" is presumably of a different kind from ours, in some res pects. (Our idea "bone" is not the same as a dog's; a short-sighted man sees t hings differently to one of normal vision.) It is more convenient to assume th e objective existence of an "Angel" who gives us new knowledge than to allege t hat our invocation has awakened a supernormal power in ourselves. Such inciden ts as "Calderazzo"> and "Jacob"> make this more cogent. {247} 8) The Qabalah maps ourselves by means of a convention. Every aspect of ev ery object may thus be referred to the Tree of Life, and evoked by using the pr oper keys. 9) Time and Space are forms by which we obtain (distorted) images of Ideas. Our measures of Time and Space> are crude conventions, and differ widely for different Beings. (Hashish shows how the same mind may vary.) 10) We may admit that any aspect of any object or idea may be presented to u s in a symbolic form, whose relation to its Being is irrational. (Thus, there i s no rational link between seeing a bell struck and hearing its chime. Our not ion of "bell" is no more than a personification of its impressions on our sense s. And our wit and power to make a bell "to order" imply a series of correspon dences between various orders of nature precisely analogous to Magick, when we obtain a Vision of Beauty by the use of certain colours, forms, sounds, etc.) 11) "Astral" Beings may thus be defined in the same way as "material objects "; they are the Unknown Causes of various observed effects. They may be of any order of existence. We give a physical form and name to a bell but not to its tone, though in each case we know nothing but our own impressions. But we rec ord musical sounds by a special convention. We may therefore call a certain se t of qualities "Ratziel", or describe an impression as "Saturnian" without pret ending to know what anything is in itself. All we need is to know how to cast a bell that will please our ears, or how to evoke a "spirit" that will tell us things that are hidden from our intellectual faculties. 12) (a) Every object soever may be considered as possessed of an "Astral sha pe", sensible to our subtle perceptions. This "astral shape" is to its materia l basis as our human character is to our physical appearance. We may imagine t his astral shape: e.g. we may "see" a jar of opium as a soft seductive woman wi th a cruel smile, just as we see in the face of a cunning and dishonest man the features of some animal, such as a fox. {248} (b) We may select any particular property of any object, and give it an astra l shape. Thus, we may take the tricky perils of a mountain, and personify them as "trolls", or the destructive energies of the simoom, as "Jinn". (c) We may analyse any of these symbols, obtaining a finer form; thus the "s pirit" contains an "angel", the angel an "archangel", etc. (d) We may synthesize any set of symbols, obtaining a more general form. Thu s we may group various types of earth-spirit as gnomes. (e) All these may be attributed to the Tree of Life, and dealt with according ly. (f) The Magician may prepare a sensible body for any of these symbols, and ev oke them by the proper rites. 13) The "reality" or "objectivity" of these symbols is not pertinent to the d iscussion. The ideas of X to the 4 power and Sq.Rt.of subscript -1 have prov ed useful to the progress of mathematical advance toward Truth; it is no odds w hether a Fourth Dimension "exists", or whether Sq.Rt.of subscript -1 has "mean ing" in the sense that Sq.Rt.of subscript 4 has, the number of units in the s ide of a square of 4 units. The Astral Plane --- real or imaginary --- is a danger to anybody who takes it without the grain of salt contained in the Wisdom of the above point of view ; who violates its laws either wilfully, carelessly, ignorantly, or by presumin g that their psychological character differentiates them from physical laws in the narrower sense; or who abdicates his autonomy, on the ground that the subtl er nature of astral phenomena guarantees their authority and integrity. (14) The variety of the general character of the "planes" of being is indefin itely large. But there are several main types of symbolism corresponding to th e forms of plastic presentation established by the minds of Mankind. Each such "plane" has its special appearances, inhabitants, and laws --- special cases o f the general proposition. Notable among these are the "Egyptian" plane, which conforms with the ideas and methods of magick once in vogue in the Nile valley ; the "Celtic" plane, close akin to {249} "Fairyland", with a Pagan Pantheism a s its keynote, sometimes concealed by Christian nomenclature: the "Alchemical" plane, where the Great Work is often presented under the form of symbolically c onstructed landscapes occupied by quasi-heraldic animals and human types hierog lyphically distinguished, who carry on the mysterious operations of the Hermeti c Art. There are also "planes" of Parable, of Fable, and of Folk-lore; in short, ev ery country, creed, and literature has given its characteristic mode of present ation to some "plane" or other. But there are "planes" proper to every clairvoyant who explores the Astral L ight without prejudice; in such case, things assume the form of his own mind, a nd his perception will be clear in proportion to his personal purity. On the higher planes, the diversity of form, due to grossness, tends to disa ppear. Thus, the Astral Vision of "Isis" is utterly unlike that of "Kali". Th e one is of Motherhood and Wisdom, ineffably candid, clear, and loving; the oth er of Murder and madness, blood-intoxicated, lust-befogged, and cruel. The sol e link is the Woman-symbol. But whoso makes Samadhi on Kali obtains the self-s ame Illumination as if it had been Isis; for in both cases he attains identity with the Quintessence of the Woman-Idea, untrammelled by the qualities with whi ch the dwellers by the Nile and the Ganges respectively disguised it. Thus, in low grades of initiation, dogmatic quarrels are inflamed by astral experience; as when Saint John distinguishes between the Whore BABALON and the Woman clothed with the Sun, between the Lamb that was slain and the Beast 666 w hose deadly wound was healed; nor understands that Satan, the Old Serpent, in t he Abyss, the Lake of Fire and Sulphur, is the Sun-Father, the vibration of Lif e, Lord of Infinite Space that flames with His Consuming Energy, and is also th at throned Light whose Spirit is suffused throughout the City of Jewels. Each "plane" is a veil of the one above it; the original individual Ideas be come diversified as they express their elements. Two men with almost identical ideas on a subject would write two totally different treatises upon it. 15) The general control of the Astral Plane, the ability to find {250} one's way about it, to penetrate such sanctuaries as are guarded from the profane, to make such relations with its inhabitants as may avail to acquire knowledge and power, or to command service; all this is a question of the general Magical at tainment of the student. He must be absolutely at ease in his Body of Light, and have made it invulne rable. He must be adept in assuming all God-forms, in using all weapons, sigil s, gestures, words, and signs. He must be familiar with the names and numbers pertinent to the work in hand. He must be alert, sensitive, and ready to exert his authority; yet courteous, gracious, patient, and sympathetic. 16) There are two opposite methods of exploring the Astral Plane. (a). One may take some actual object in Nature, and analyse it by evoking its astral form, thus bringing it into knowledge and under control by applying the keys of the Qabalah and of Magick. (b). One may proceed by invoking the required idea, and giving body to the sa me by attracting to it the corresponding elements in Nature. 17) Every Magician possesses an Astral Universe peculiar to himself, just as no man's experience of the world is coterminous with that of another. There wi ll be a general agreement on the main points, of course; and so the Master Ther ion is able to describe the principal properties of these "planes", and their l aws, just as he might write a geography giving an account of the Five Continent s, the Oceans and Seas, the most notable mountains and rivers; he could not pre tend to put forth the whole knowledge that any one peasant possesses in respect of his district. But, to the peasant, these petty details are precisely the m ost important items in his daily life. Likewise, the Magician will be grateful to the Master Therion for the Compass that guides him at night, the Map that e xtends his comprehension of his country, and shows him how best he may travel a field, the advice as to Sandals and Staff that make surer his feet, and the Boo k that tells him how, splitting open his rocks with an Hammer, he may be master of their Virgin Gold. But he will understand that his own {251} career on ear th is his kingdom, that even the Master Therion is no more than a fellow man in another valley, and that he must explore and exploit his own inheritance with his own eyes and hands. The Magician must not accept the Master Therion's account of the Astral Plan e, His Qabalistic discoveries, His instructions in Magick. They may be correct in the main for most men; yet they cannot be wholly true for any save Him, eve n as no two artists can make identical pictures of the same subject. More, even in fundamentals, though these things be Truth for all Mankind, as we carelessly say, any one particular Magician may be the one man for whom the y are false. May not the flag that seems red to ten thousand seem green to som e one other? Then, every man and every woman being a Star, that which is green to him is verily green; if he consent to the crowd and call it red, hath he no t broken the Staff of Truth that he leaneth upon? Each and every man therefore that will be a Magician must explore the Univer se for himself. This is pre-eminently the case in the matter of the Astral Pla ne, because the symbols are so sensitive. Nothing is easier than to suggest vi sions, or to fashion phantasms to suit one's ideas. It is obviously impossible to communicate with an independent intelligence --- the one real object of ast ral research --- if one allows one's imagination to surround one with courtiers of one's own creation. If one expects one's visions to resemble those of the Master Therion, they are only too likely to do so; and if one's respect for Him induces one to accept such visions as authentic, one is being false to one's s oul; the visions themselves will avenge it. The true Guide being gone, the see r will stray into a wilderness of terror where he is tricked and tortured; he w ill invoke his idol the Master Therion, and fashion in His image a frightful ph antasm who will mock him in his misery, until his mind stagger and fall; and, M adness swooping upon his carrion, blast his eyes with the horror of seeing his Master dissolve into that appalling hallucination, the "Vision of THE DEMON CRO WLEY!" Remember, then, always, but especially when dealing with the Astral Plane, t hat man's breath stirs the Feather of Truth. What {252} one sees and hears is "real" in its way, whether it be itself, or distorted by one's desires, or crea ted by one's personality. There is no touchstone of truth: the authentic Nakhi el is indistinguishable from the image of the Magician's private idea of Nakhie l, so far as he is concerned. The stronger one is to create, the more readily the Astral Light responds, and coagulates creatures of this kind. Not that suc h creation is necessarily an error; but it is another branch of one's Work. On e cannot obtain outside help from inside sources. One must use precautions sim ilar to those recommended in the chapter of Divination. The Magician may go on for a long time being fooled and flattered by the Ast rals that he has himself modified or manufactured. Their natural subservience to himself will please him, poor ape! They will pretend to show him marvellous mysteries, pageants of beauty and w onder unspeakably splendid; he will incline to accept them as true, for the ver y reason that they are images of himself idealized by the imagination. But his real progress will stop dead. These phantasms will prevent him from coming into contact with independent intelligences, from whom alone he can lea rn anything new. He will become increasingly interested in himself, imagine himself to be att aining one initiation after another. His Ego will expand unchecked, till he se em to himself to have heaven at his feet. Yet all this will be nothing but his fool's face of Narcissus smirking up from the pool that will drown him. Error of this kind on the Astral Plane --- in quite ordinary visions with no apparent moral import --- may lead to the most serious mischief. Firstly, mis takes mislead; to pollute one's view of Jupiter by permitting the influence of Venus to distort it may end in finding oneself at odds with Jupiter, later on, in some crisis of one's work. Secondly, the habit of making mistakes and leaving them uncorrected grows up on one. He who begins by "spelling Jeheshua with a 'Resh'" may end by writing the name of the Dweller on the Threshold by mistake for that of his Angel. {25 3} Lastly, Magick is a Pyramid, built layer by layer. The work of the Body of Light --- with the technique of Yoga --- is the foundation of the whole. One's apprehension of the Astral Plane must be accurate, for Angels, Archangels, and Gods are derived therefrom by analysis. One must have pure materials if one w ishes to brew pure beer. If one have an incomplete and incorrect view of the universe, how can one fi nd out its laws? Thus, original omission or error tends to extend to the higher planes. Supp ose a Magician, invoking Sol, were persuaded by a plausible spirit of Saturn th at he was the Solar Intelligence required, and bade him eschew human love if he would attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel; and suppose that his will, and that Angel's nature, were such that the Crux of the ir Formula was Lyrical Exaltation! Apart from the regular tests --- made at the time --- of the integrity of an y spirit, the Magician must make a careful record of every vision, omitting no detail; he must then make sure that it tallies in every point with the correspo ndences in Book 777 and in Liber D. Should he find (for instance) that, having invoked Mercury, his vision contains names whose numbers are Martial, or eleme nts proper to Pisces, let him set himself most earnestly to discover the source of error, to correct it, and to prevent its recurrence. But these tests, as implied above, will not serve to detect personation by s elf-suggested phantasms. Unless one's aura be a welter of muddled symbols beyo nd recognition, the more autohypnotic the vision is, the more smoothly it satis fies the seer's standards. There is nothing to puzzle him or oppose him; so he spins out his story with careless contempt of criticism. He can always prove himself right; the Qabalah can always be stretched; and Red being so nearly Ora nge, which is really a shade of Yellow, and Yellow a component of Green which m erges into Blue, what harm if a Fiend in Vermilion appears instead of an Angel in Azure? The true, the final test, of the Truth of one's visions is their Value. The most glorious experience on the Astral plane, let it dazzle and thrill as it m ay, is not necessarily in accordance with {254} the True Will of the seer; if n ot, though it be never so true objectively, it is not true for him, because not useful for him. (Said we not a while ago that Truth was no more than the Most Convenient Manner of Statement?) It may intoxicate and exalt the Seer, it may inspire and fortify him in ever y way, it may throw light upon most holy mysteries, yet withal be no more than an interpretation of the individual to himself, the formula not of Abraham but of Onan. These plastic "Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man" are well enough for t hose who have heard "Know Thyself". They are necessary, even, to assist that a nalysis of one's nature which the Probationer of A.'. A.'. is sworn to accompli sh. But "Love is the law, love under will." And Our Lady Nuit is "... divide d for love's sake, for the chance of union." These mirror-mirages are therefor e not Works of Magick, according to the Law of Thelema: the true Magick of Horu s requires the passionate union of opposites. Now the proof that one is in contact with an independent entity depends on a sensation which ought to be unmistakeable if one is in good health. One ought not to be liable to mistake one's own sensible impressions for somebody else's ! It is only Man's incurable vanity that makes the Astral "Strayed Reveller" o r the mystic confuse his own drunken babble with the voice of the Most High. The essence of the right sensation consists in recognition of the reality of the other Being. There will be as a rule some element of hostility, even when the reaction is sympathetic. One's "soul-mate" (even) is not thought of as on eself, at first contact. One must therefore insist that any real appearance of the Astral Plane gives the sensation of meeting a stranger. One must accept it as independent, be it Archangel or Elf, and measure one's own reaction to it. One must learn from it , though one despise it; and love it, however one loathe it. One must realize, on writing up the record, that the meeting has effected a definite change in oneself. One must have known and felt something alien, and not merely tried on a new dress. {255} There must always be some slight pang of pain in a true Astral Vision; it hu rts the Self to have to admit the existence of a not-Self; and it taxes the bra in to register a new thought. This is true at the first touch, even when exalt ation and stimulation result from the joy of making an agreeable contact. There is a deeper effect of right reaction to a strange Self: the impact inv ariable tends to break up some complex in the Seer. The class of ideas concern ed has always been tied up, labelled, and put away. It is now necessary to unp ack it, and rearrange its contents. At least, the annoyance is like that of a man who has locked and strapped his bag for a journey, and then finds that he h as forgotten his pyjamas. At most, it may revolutionise his ideas of the busin ess, like an old bachelor with settled plans of life who meets a girl once too often. Any really first-class Astral Vision, even on low planes, should therefore b oth instruct the Seer, and prepare him for Initiation. Those failing to pass t his test are to be classed as "practice". One last observation seems fit. We must not assert the "reality" or "object ivity" of an Astral Being on no better evidence than the subjective sensation o f its independent existence. We must insist on proof patient to all qualified observers if we are to establish the major premiss of Religion: that there exis ts a Conscious Intelligence independent of brain and nerve as we know them. If it have also Power, so much the better. But we already know of inorganic forc es; we have no evidence of inorganic conscious Mind. How can the Astral Plane help us here? It is not enough to prove, as we eas ily do, the correspondences between Invocation and Apparition>. We must exclud e concidence>, telepathy>, and subconscious knowledge.> Our praeter-human Inte lligence {256} must convey a Truth not known to any human mind, past or present . Yet this Truth must be verifiable. There is but one document in the world which presents evidence that fully sa tisfies these conditions. This is LIBER AL vel LEGIS the Book of the Law. of this New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child, the Aeon whose Log os is THE BEAST 666, whose name in the Outer Order was FRATER PERDURABO. The nature of the proof of the separate existence of praeterhuman Intelligen ce, independent of bodily form, is extremely complicated. Its main divisions m ay be briefly enumerated. {257} AIWAZ, the name of the Intelligence in question, proves: (a) His power to pre-arrange events unconnected with His scribe so that they should fit in with that scribe's private calculations. E.g. The Stele which reveals the Theogony of the Book was officially number ed 666, in the Boulak Museum. The scribe had adopted 666 as His magical number , many years previously. Again, the scribe's magical House, bought years earli er, had a name whose value was 418. The scribe had calculated 418 as the {258} number of the Great Work, in 1901 e.v. He only discovered that 418 was the nu mber of his house in consequence of AIWAZ mentioning the fact. (b) His power to conceal a coherent system of numbers and letters in the text of a rapidly-written document, containing riddles and ciphers opening to a Mas ter-Key unknown to the scribe, yet linked with his own system; this Key and its subordinates being moreover a comment on the text. {259} E.g. "The word of the Law is GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha." (Will); this word has the value of 93. "Love is the law, love under will." Love, GR:Alpha-gamma-alpha-pi-eta, lik e GR:Theta-epsilon-lambda-eta-mu-alpha, adds to 93. AIWAZ itself adds to 93.> This was all strange to the scribe; yet years later he discovered the "Lost Word" of one of his own Orders: it was 93 also.> The Word of His most holy Order proved equally to count up {260} to 93.> No w 93 is thrice 31; 31 is LA, "Not" and AL, "The" or "God"; these words run thro ughout the Book, giving a double meaning to many passages. A third 31 is the c ompound letter ShT, the two hieroglyphs of Sh and T (many centuries old) being pictures of the "Dramatis Personae" of the Book; and ShT being a haphazard line scrawled on the MS. touch letters which added to 418, valuing "this circle squ ared in its failure" as GR:pi correct to six places of decimals, etc. Again: "thou shalt know not">, meaning "thou shalt know LA"; and "he shall d iscover the Key of it all">, "id est," the Key AL. (c) His power to combine subsequent events beyond the control of the scribe o r his associates, so that they confirmed statements in the Book. Or, per contr a, to predict such events. E.g. The first Scarlet Woman proved unworthy, and suffered the exact penalt ies predicted. Again, "one cometh after thee; he shall discover the key."> This one was to be the "child" of the scribe, "and that strangely">. Nine months after THE BEAST 666 had gotten a Magical "child" upon His concub ine Jane Foster, a "Babe of the Abyss" was born, Frater Achad asserting his rig ht to that grade, and thus "coming after" THE BEAST 666, who had been the last Adept to do so. And this "child" was definitely "one", since "one" is the mean ing of his motto Achad. Finally, he did in fact "discover the key of it all"> after THE BEAST Himself had failed to do so in 14 years of study. (d) His power to conceive and express in concise terms true solutions of the main problems of the Universe. E.g. The formula of Nuith and Hadith explain Existence in the terms of Mathe matical-Logical Philosophy, so as to satisfy the difficulties of reconciling Du alism, Monism and Nihilism; all {261} antinomies in all spheres; and the Origin al Perfection with the Manifest Imperfection of Things. Again "Do that thou wilt...", the most sublimely austere ethical precept eve r uttered, despite its apparent licence, is seen on analysis to be indeed "...t he whole of the Law.", the sole and sufficient warrant for human action, the se lf-evident Code of Righteousness, the identification of Fate with Freewill, and the end of the Civil War in Man's nature by appointing the Canon of Truth, the conformity of things with themselves, to determine his every act. "Do what th ou wilt..." is to bid Stars to shine, Vines to bear grapes, Water to seek its l evel; man is the only being in Nature that has striven to set himself at odds w ith himself. (e) His power to interpret the Spirit of the New Aeon, the relapse into ruthl ess savagery of the most civilized races, at a time when war was discredited by most responsible men. (f) His power to comprehend and control these various orders of ideas and eve nts, demonstrating thereby a mind and a means of action intelligible to, yet im mensely above, all human capacity; to bind the whole into a compact cryptograph displaying mastery of English, of mathematical and philosophical conceptions, of poetic splendour and intense passion, while concealing in the letters and wo rds a complex cipher involving the knowledge of facts never till than existing in any human mind, and depending on the control of the arm of the scribe, thoug h He thought He was writing consciously from dictation; and to weave into a sin gle pattern so many threads of proof of different orders that every type of min d, so it be but open and just, may be sure of the existence of AIWAZ as a being independent of body, conscious and individual, with a mind mightier than man's , and a power beyond man's set in motion by will. In a word, the Book of the Law proves the prime postulate of Religion. The Magician may therefore be confident that Spiritual Beings exist, and see k the Knowledge and conversation of His own Holy Guardian Angel with the same a rdour as that of FRATER PERDURABO when He abandoned all: love, wealth, rank, fa me, to seek Him. Nay, this he must do or condemn himself to be {262} torn asun der by the Maenads of his insensate impulses; he hath no safety save he himself be Bacchus! Bacchus, divine and human! Bacchus, begotten on Semele of Zeus, the adulterous Lord of Thunder ravishing, brutally, his virginal victim! Bacch us, babe hidden from hate in the most holy of holies, the secret of thy sire, i n the Channel of the Star-Spate, Whereof one Serpent is thy soul! Bacchus, twy -formed, man-woman, Bacchus, whose innocence tames the Tiger, while yet thy hor ns drip blood upon thy mouth, and sharpen the merriment of wine to the madness of murder! Bacchus, Thy thyrsus oozes sap; thine ivy clings to it; thy Lion-ski n slips from thy sleek shoulders, slips from thy lissome loins; drunk on deligh t of the godly grape, thou knowest no more the burden of the body and the vexat ion of the spirit. Come, Bacchus, come thou hither, come out of the East; come out of the East, astride the Ass of Priapus! Come with thy revel of dancers and singers! Who followeth thee, forbearing to laugh and to leap? Come, in thy name Dionysus, t hat maidens be mated to God-head! Come, in thy name Iacchus, with thy mystical fan to winnow the air, each gust of thy Spirit inspiring our Soul, that we bea r to thee Sons in Thine Image! Verily and Amen! Let not the Magician forget for a single second what is hi s one sole business. His uninitiated "self" (as he absurdly thinks it) is a mo b of wild women, hysterical from uncomprehended and unstated animal instinct; t hey will tear Pentheus, the merely human king who presumes to repress them, int o mere shreds of flesh; his own mother, Nature, the first to claw at his windpi pe! None but Bacchus, the Holy Guardian Angel, hath grace to be God to this ri ot of maniacs; he alone can transform the disorderly rabble into a pageant of h armonious movements, tune their hyaena howls to the symphony of a paean, and th eir reasonless rage to self-controlled rapture. It is this Angel whose nature is doubly double, that He may partake of every sacrament. He is at once a God who is drunken with the wine of earth, and the mammal who quaffs the Blood of G od to purge him of mortality. He is a woman as he accepts all impulses, are th ey not His? He is a man to stamp Himself upon whatever would hallow itself to Him. He wields the Wand, {263} with cone of pine and ivy tendrils; the Angel c reates continually, wreathing His Will in clinging beauty, imperishably green. The Tiger, the symbol of the brutal passions of man, gambols about its maste r's heels; and He bestrides the Ass of Priapus; he makes his sexual force carry him whither He wills to go. Let the Magician therefore adventure himself upon the Astral Plane with the declared design to penetrate to a sanctuary of discarnate Beings such as are ab le to instruct and fortify him, also to prove their identity by testimony beyon d rebuttal. All explanations other than these are of value only as extending a nd equilibrating Knowledge, or possibly as supplying Energy to such Magicians a s may have found their way to the Sources of Strength. In all cases, naught is worth an obol save as it serve to help the One Great Work. He who would reach Intelligences of the type under discussion may expect extr eme difficulty. The paths are guarded; there is a lion in the way. Technical expertness will not serve here; it is necessary to satisfy the Warders of one's right to enter the presence of the Master. Particular pledges may be demanded , ordeals imposed, and initiations conferred. These are most serious matters; the Body of Light must be fully adult, irrevocably fixed, or it will be disinte grated at the outset. But, being fit to pass through such experiences, it is b ound utterly to its words and acts. It cannot even appear to break an oath, as its fleshly fellow may do. Such, then is a general description of the Astral Plane, and of the proper c onduct of the Magician in his dealings therewith. ----------- {264} APPENDIX IV LIBER SAMEKH Theurgia Goetia Summa (CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE) sub figura DCCC being the Ritual employed by the Beast 666 for the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel during the Semester of His performa nce of the Operation of the Sacred Magick of ABRAMELIN THE MAGE. (Prepared An X VII Sun in Virgo at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephalaedium by the Beast 666 in se rvice to FRATER PROGRADIOR.) OFFICIAL PUBLICATION of A.'. A.'. Class D for the Grade of Adeptus Minor. {265} POINT I EVANGELII TEXTUS REDACTUS "The Invocation." Magically restored, with the significance of the BARBAROUS NAMES Etymologically or Qabalistically determined and paraphrased in English. Section A. The Oath. 1. Thee I invoke, the Bornless One. 2. Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens. 3. Thee, that didst create the Night and the Day. 4. Thee, that didst create the darkness and the Light. 5. Thou art ASAR UN-NEFER ("Myself made Perfect"): Whom no man hath seen at any time. 6. Thou art IA-BESZ ("the Truth in Matter"). 7. Thou art IA-APOPHRASZ ("the Truth in Motion"). 8. Thou hast distinguished between the Just and the Unjust. 9. Thou didst make the Female and the Male. 10. Thou didst produce the Seeds and the Fruit. 11. Thou didst form Men to love one another, and to hate one another. Section Aa. 1. I am ANKH - F - N - KHONSU thy Prophet, unto Whom Thou didst commit Thy Mysteries, the Ceremonies of KHEM. 2. Thou didst produce the moist and the dry, and that which nourisheth all created Life. 3. Hear Thou Me, for I am the Angel of PTAH - APO - PHRASZ - RA (vide the Rubric): this is Thy True Name, handed down to the Prophets of KHEM. {266} Section B. Air. Hear Me: --- AR "O breathing, flowing Sun!" ThIAF> "O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The Beast that whirlest forth, a thunder- bolt, begetter of Life!" RhEIBET "Thou that flowest! Thou that goest!" A-ThELE-BER-SET "Thou Satan-Sun Hadith that goest without Will!" A "Thou Air! Breath! Spirit! Thou without bound or bond!" BELAThA "Thou Essence, Air Swift-streaming, Elasticity!" ABEU "Thou Wanderer, Father of All!" EBEU "Thou Wanderer, Spirit of All!" PhI-ThETA-SOE "Thou Shining Force of Breath! Thou Lion-Serpent Sun! Thou Saviour, save!" IB "Thou Ibis, secret solitary Bird, inviolate Wisdom, whose Word in Truth, creating the World by its Magick!" ThIAF "O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The Beas that whirlest forth, a thunder- bolt, begetter of Life!" (The conception is of Air, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Bird, "the Hol y Ghost", of a Mercurial Nature.) Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me; so that every Spirit of the Firm ament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth, on dry land and in the water; of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. {267} Section C. Fire. I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible God: Who dwellest in the Void Place o f the Spirit: --- AR-O-GO-GO-RU-ABRAO "Thou spiritual Sun! Satan, Thou Eye, Thou Lust! Cry aloud! Cry aloud! Whirl the Wheel, O my Father, O Satan, O Sun!" SOTOU "Thou, the Saviour!" MUDORIO "Silence! Give me Thy Secret!" PhALARThAO "Give me suck, Thou Phallus, Thou Sun!" OOO "Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" "Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" "Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" AEPE "Thou self-caused, self-determined, exalted, Most High!" The Bornless One. (Vide supra). (The conception is of Fire, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Lion of a Ura nian nature.) Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firm ament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. Section D. Water. Hear Me: --- RU-ABRA-IAF> "Thou the Wheel, thou the Womb, that containeth the Father IAF!" MRIODOM "Thou the Sea, the Abode!" BABALON-BAL-BIN-ABAFT "Babalon! Thou Woman of Whoredom" {268} "Thou, Gate of the Great God ON! Thou Lady of the Understanding of the Ways!" ASAL-ON-AI "Hail Thou, the unstirred! Hail, sister and bride of ON, of the God that is all and is none, by the Power of Eleven!" APhEN-IAF "Thou Treasure of IAO!" I "Thou Virgin twin-sexed! Thou Secret Seed! Thou inviolate Wisdom!" PhOTETh "Abode of the Light ................. ABRASAX "......of the Father, the Sun, of Hadith, of the spell of the Aeon of Horus!" AEOOU "Our Lady of the Western Gate of Heaven!" ISChURE "Mighty art Thou!" Mighty and Bornless One! (Vide Supra) (The conception is of Water, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Dragon-Serpe nt, of a Neptunian nature.) Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firm ament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. Section E. Earth. I invoke Thee: --- MA "O Mother! O Truth!" BARRAIO "Thou Mass!"> IOEL "Hail, Thou that art!" KOThA "Thou hollow one!" {269} AThOR-e-BAL-O "Thou Goddess of Beauty and Love, whom Satan, beholding, desireth!" ABRAFT "The Fathers, male-female, desire Thee!" (The conception is of Earth, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Hippopotamus > of a Venereal nature.) Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firm ament, and of the Ether: upon The Earth and under the Earth: on dry land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge o f God may be obedient unto Me. Section F. Spirit. Hear Me: AFT "Male-Female Spirits!" ABAFT "Male-Female Sires!" BAS-AUMGN "Ye that are Gods, going forth, uttering AUMGN. (The Word that goeth from (A) Free Breath. (U) through Willed Breath. (M) and stopped Breath. (GN) to Continuous Breath. thus symbolizing the whole course of spiritual life. A is the formless Hero; U is the six-fold solar sound of physical life, the triangle of Soul being entwined with that of Body; M is the silence of "death"; GN is the nasal sound of generation & knowledge. ISAK "Identical Point!" SA-BA-FT "Nuith! Hadith! Ra-Hoor-Khuit!" "Hail, Great Wild Beast!" "Hail, IAO!" {270} Section Ff. 1. This is the Lord of the Gods: 2. This is the Lord of the Universe: 3. This is He whom the Winds fear. 4. This is He, Who having made Voice by His commandment is Lord of all Thing s; King, Ruler and Helper. Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so t hat every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under th e Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: an d every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. Section G. Spirit. Hear Me: IEOU "Indwelling Sun of Myself" PUR "Thou Fire! Thou Sixfold Star initiator compassed about with Force and Fire!" IOU "Indwelling Soul of Myself" PUR (Vide Supra) IAFTh "Sun-lion Serpent, hail! All Hail, thou Great Wild Beast, thou I A O!" IAEO "Breaths of my soul, breaths of mine Angel." IOOU "Lust of my soul, lust of mine Angel!" ABRASAX (Vide Supra). SABRIAM "Ho for the Sangraal! Ho for the Cup of Babalon! Ho for mine Angel pouring Himself forth within my Soul!" OO "The Eye! Satan, my Lord! The Lust of the goat!" FF "Mine Angel! Mine initiator! Thou one with me --- the Sixfold Star!" {271} AD-ON-A-I> "My Lord! My secret self beyond self, Hadith, All Father! Hail, ON, thou Sun, thou Life of Man, thou Fivefold Sword of Flame! Thou Goat exalted upon Earth in Lust, thou Snake extended upon Earth in Life! Spirit most holy! Seed most Wise! Innocent Babe. Inviolate Maid! Begetter of Being! Soul of all Souls! Word of all Words, Come forth, most hidden Light!" EDE "Devour thou me!" EDU "Thou dost devour Me!" ANGELOS TON ThEON "Thou Angel of the Gods!" ANLALA "Arise thou in Me, free flowing, Thou who art Naught, who art Naught, and utter thy Word!" LAI "I also am Naught! I Will Thee! I behold Thee! My nothingness!" GAIA "Leap up, thou Earth!" (This is also an agonising appeal to the Earth, the Mother; for at this point of the ceremony the Adept should be torn from his mortal attachments, and {272} die to himself in the orgasm of his operation.>) AEPE "Thou Exalted One! It (i.e. the spritual 'semen', the Adept's secret ideas, drawn irresistibly from their "Hell"> by the love of his Angel) leaps up; it leaps forth!> DIATHARNA THORON "Lo! the out-splashing of the seeds of Immortality" Section Gg. The Attainment. 1. I am He! the Bornless Spirit! having sight in the feet: Strong, and the Immortal Fire! 2. I am He! the Truth! 3. I am He! Who hate that evil should be wrought in the World! 4. I am He, that lighteneth and thundereth! 5. I am He, from whom is the Shower of the Life of Earth! 6. I am He, whose mouth ever flameth! 7. I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light! 8. I am He, The Grace of the Worlds! 9. "The Heart Girt with a Serpent" is my name! Section H. The "Charge to the Spirit". Come thou forth, and follow me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that ev ery Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether, upon the Earth and under the Ear th: on dry Land, or in the Water: of Whirling Air or of rushing Fire, and every Spell and scourge of God, may be obedient unto me! Section J. The Proclamation of the Beast 666. IAF: SABAF> Such are the Words! {273} POINT II ARS CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE. SECTION A Let the Adeptus Minor be standing in this circle on the square of Tiphereth, armed with his Wand and Cup; but let him perform the Ritual throughout in his Body of Light. He may burn the Cakes of Light, or the Incense of Abramelin; he may be prepared by Liber CLXXV, the reading of Liber LXV, and by the practices of Yoga. He may invoke Hadit by "... wine and strange drugs" if he so will.> He prepares the circle by the usual formulae of Banishing and Consecration, etc. He recites Section A as a rehearsal before His Holy Guardian Angel of the attributes of that Angel. Each phrase must be realized with full concentration of force, so as to make Samadhi as perfectly as possible upon the truth proclaimed. "Line 1" He identifies his Angel with the Ain Soph, and the Kether thereof; one formulation of Hadit in the boundless Body of Nuith. "Line 2,3,4" He asserts that His Angel has created (for the purpose of self-realization through projection in conditioned Form) three pairs of opposites: (a) The Fixed and the Volatile; (b) The Unmanifested and the Manifest; and (c) the Unmoved and the Moved. Otherwise, the Negative and the Positive in respect of Matter, Mind and Motion. "Line 5" He acclaims his Angel as "Himself Made Perfect"; adding that this Individuality is inscrutable in inviolable. In the Neophyte Ritual of {274} G.'. D.'. (As it is printed in Equinox I, II, for the old aeon) the Hierophant is the perfected Osiris, who brings the candidate, the natural Osiris, to identity with himself. But in the new Aeon the Hierophant is Horus (Liber CCXX, I, 49) therefore the Candidate will be Horus too. What then is the formula of the initiation of Horus? It will no longer be that of the Man, through Death. It will be the natural growth of the Child. His experiences will no more be regarded as catastrophic. Their hieroglyph is the Fool: the innocent and impotent Harpocrates Babe becomes the Horus Adult by obtaining the Wand. "Der reine Thor" seizes the Sacred Lance. Bacchus becomes Pan. The Holy Guardian Angel is the Unconscious Creature Self --- the Spiritual Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes occult puberty. It is therefore advisable to replace the name Asar Un-nefer by that of Ra-Hoor-Khuit at the outset, and by that of one's own Holy Guardian Angel when it has been communicated. "Line 6" He hails Him as BESZ, the Matter that destroys and devours Godhead, for the purpose of the Incarnation of any God. "Line 7" He hails Him as APOPHRASZ, the Motion that destroys and devours Godhead, for the purpose of the Incarnation of any God. The combined action of these two DEVILS is to allow the God upon whom they prey to enter into enjoyment of existence through the Sacrament of dividual "Life" (Bread --- the flesh of BESZ) and "Love" (Wine --- the blood or venom of AOPHRASZ). "Line 8" He acclaims His Angel as having "eaten of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil"; otherwise, having become wise (in the {275} Dyad, Chokmah) to apprehend the formula of Equilibrium which is now His own, being able to apply Himself accurately to His self-appointed environment. "Line 9" He acclaims His Angel as having laid down the Law of Love as the Magical formula of the Universe, that He may resolve the phenomenal again into its noumenal phase by uniting any two opposites in ecstasic passion. "Line 10" He acclaims His Angel as having appointed that this formula of Love should effect not only the dissolution of the separateness of the Lovers into His own impersonal Godhead, but their co-ordination in a "Child" quintessentialized from its parents to constitute a higher order of Being than theirs, so that each generation is an alchemical progress towards perfection in the direction of successive complexities. As Line 9 asserts Involution, Line 10 asserts Evolution. "Line 11" He acclaims His Angel as having devised this method of self-realization; the object of Incarnation is to obtain its reactions to its relations with other incarnated Beings and to observe theirs with each other. ---------- Section Aa. "Line 1" The Adept asserts his right to enter into conscious communication with His Angel, on the ground that that Angel has Himself taught him the Secret Magick by which he may make the proper link. "Mosheh" is M H, the formation in Jechidah, Chiah, Neshamah, Ruach, --- The Sephiroth from Kether to Yesod --- since 45 is GR:Sigma{=summation} 1-9 while Sh, 300, is GR:Sigma{=summation} 1-24, which superadds to these Nine an extra Fifteen numbers. (See in Liber D {276} the meanings an correspondences of 9, 15, 24, 45, 300, 345.) 45 is moreover A D M, man. "Mosheh" is thus the name of man as a God-concealing form. But in the Ritual let the Adept replace this "Mosheh" by his own motto as Adeptus Minor. For "Ishrael" let him prefer his own Magical Race, according to the obligations of his Oaths to Our Holy Order! (The Beast 666 Himself used "Ankh-f-n-Khonsu" and "Khem" in this section.) "Line 2" The Adept reminds his Angel that He has created That One Substance of which Hermes hath written in the Table of Emerald, whose virtue is to unite in itself all opposite modes of Being, thereby to serve as a Talisman charged with the Spiritual Energy of Existence, an Elixir or Stone composed of the physical basis of Life. This Commemoration is placed between the two personal appeals to the Angel, as if to claim privilege to partake of this Eucharist which createth, sustaineth and redeemeth all things. "Line 3" He now asserts that he is himself the "Angel" or messenger of his Angel; that is, that he is a mind and body whose office is to receive and transmit the Word of his Angel. He hails his Angel not only as "un-nefer" the Perfection of "Asar" himself as a man, but as Ptah-Apophrasz-Ra, the identity (Hadit) wrapped in the Dragon (Nuit) and thereby manifested as a Sun (Ra-Hoor-Khuit). The "Egg" (or Heart) "girt with a Serpent" is a cognate symbol; the idea is thus expressed later in the ritual. (See Liber LXV. which expands this to the uttermost.) Section B The Adept passes from contemplation to action in the sections now following B to Gg. He is to travel astrally around the circle, making the appropriate pentagrams, sigils, and signs. His direction {277} is widdershins. He thus makes three curves, each covering three-fourths of the circle. He should give the sign of the Enterer on passing the Kiblah, or Direction of Boleskine. This picks up the force naturally radiating from that point> and projects it in the direction of the path of the Magician. The sigils are those given in the Equinox Vol. I, No. 7, Plate X outside the square; the signs those shewn in Vol. I, No. 2, Plate "The Signs of the Grades". In these invocations he should expand his girth and his stature to the utmost>, assuming the form and th e consciousness of the Elemental God of the quarter. After this, he begins to vibrate the "Barbarous Names" of the Ritual. Now let him not only fill his whole being to the uttermost with the force of the Names; but let him formulate his Will, understood thoroughly as the dynamic aspect of his Creative Self, in an appearance symbolically apt, I say not in the form of a Ray of Light, of a Fiery Sword, or of aught save that bodily Vehicle of the Holy Ghost which is sacred to BAPHOMET, by its virtue that concealeth the Lion and the Serpent that His Image may appear adorably upon the Earth for ever. Let then the Adept extend his Will beyond the Circle in this imagined Shape and let it radiate with the Light proper to the element invoked, and let each Word issue along the Shaft with passionate impulse, as if its voice gave command thereto that it should thrust itself leapingly forward. Let also each Word accumulate authority, so that the Head of the Shaft may plunge twice as far for the Second Word as for the First, and Four Times for {278} the Third as the Second, and thus to the end. Moreover, let the Adept fling forth his whole consciousness thither. Then at the final Word, let him bring rushing back his Will within himself, steadily streaming, and let him offer himself to its point, as Artemis to PAN, that this perfectly pure concentration of the Element purge him thoroughly, and possess him with its passion. In this Sacrament being wholly at one with that Element, let the Adept utter the Charge "Hear me, and make", etc. with strong sense that this unity with that quarter of the Universe confers upon him the fullest freedom and privilege appurtenant thereto. Let the Adept take note of the wording of the Charge. The "Firmament" is the Ruach, the "mental plane"; it is the realm of Shu, or Zeus, where revolves the Wheel of the Gunas, the Three forms> of Being. The Aethyr is the {279} "akasha", the "Spirit", the Aethyr or physics, which is the framework on which all forms are founded; it receives, records and transmits all impulses without itself suffering mutation thereby. The "Earth" is the sphere wherein the operation of these "fundamental" and aethyric forces appears to perception. "Under the Earth" is the world of those phenomena which inform those perceived projections, and determine their particular character. "Dry land" is the place of dead "material things", dry (i.e. unknowable) because unable to act on our minds. "Water" is the vehicle whereby we feel such things; "air" their menstruum wherein these feelings are mentally apprehended. It is called "whirling" because of the instability of thought, and the fatuity of reason, on which we are yet dependent for what we call "life". "Rushing Fire" is the world in which wandering thought burns up to swift-darting Will. These four stages explain how the non-Ego is transmuted into the {280} Ego. A "Spell" of God is any form of consciousness, and a "Scourge" any form of action. The Charge, as a whole, demands for the Adept the control of every detail of the Universe which His Angel has created as a means of manifesting Himself to Himself. It covers command of the primary projection of the Possible in individuality, in the antithetical artifice which is the device of Mind, and in a balanced triplicity of modes or states of being whose combinations constitute the characteristics of Cosmos. It includes also a standard of structure, a rigidity to make reference possible. Upon these foundations of condition which are not things in themselves, but the canon to which things conform, is builded the Temple of Being, whose materials are themselves perfectly mysterious, inscrutable as the Soul, and like the Soul imagining themselves by symbols which we may feel, perceive, and adapt to our use without ever knowing the whole Truth about them. The Adept sums up all these items by claiming authorit