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Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley
1988 e.v. key entry and proof reading with re-format and conversion from XYWrite
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.
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USA
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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
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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.
Banishing prevents its use for any other purpose, but it remains inert until
consecrated. Purification is performed by water, and banishing by air, whose
weapon is the sword. Consecration is performed by fire, usually symbolised by
the holy lamp.<<The general conception is that the three active elements
co-operate to affect earth; but earth itself may be employed as an instrument.
Its function is solidification. The use of the Pentacle is indeed very
necessary in some types of operation, especially those whose object involves
manifestation in matter, and the fixation in (more or less) permanent form of
the subtle forces of Nature.>>
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
to 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
truest 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 always be raised to a closer approximation to perfection. Complete success
in banishing is soon attained; but there can be no completeness in the advance
to holiness. {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
which you dedicate it. Confirm this dedication in words, invoking the
appropriate God to indwell that pure temple which you have prepared for Him.
Do this with fervour and love, as if to balance the icy detachment which is the
proper mental attitude for banishing.<<The Hebrew legends furnish us with the
reason for the respective virtues of water and fire. The world was purified by
water at the Deluge, and will be consecrated by fire at the last Judgment. Not
until that is finished can the "real ceremony" begin.>>
The words of purification are: Asperges me, Therion, hyssopo, et mundabor;
lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.
Those of consecration are: Accendat in nobis Therion ignem sui amoris et
flammam aeternae caritatis.<<These may now advantageously be replaced by (a)
"... pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is
every way perfect." (CCXX, I, 44) to banish; and (b) "I am uplifted in thine
heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body." (CCXX, II, 62) to
consecrate. For the Book of the Law contains the Supreme Spells.>>
These, as initiates of the VII Degree of O.T.O. are aware, mean more than
appears.
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 the
Missing Link. It has apparently always been taken for granted, only lay writers
on Magick like Dr. J. G. Frazer have accorded the subject its full importance.
Let us try to make considerations of the nature of Magick in a strictly
scientific 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 from
our definition. {107}
Let us take a very simple example of a Magical Act: that of a man blowing his
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 nose
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
applying that force to the object which he desires to affect. His Will may be
as strong 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 will 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
precaution was necessary. There is a striking case of an epidemic of this error
whose history is familiar to everybody. I refer to Christian Science, and the
cognate doctrines of "mental healing" and the like. The theory of such people,
stripped of dogmatic furbelows, is perfectly good Magic of its kind, its negroid
kind. 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
technique for applying the Will. It is as if they expected the steam of Watts'
kettle to convey people from place to place without the trouble of inventing and
using locomotives.
Let us apply these considerations to Magick in its restricted sense, the
sense in which it was always understood until the Master Therion extended it to
cover the entire operations of Nature.
What is the theory implied in such rituals as those of the Goetia? What does
the Magician do? He applies himself to invoke a God, and this God compels the
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 spirit
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 grossly
animistic. The savage tribes described by Frazer had a far more scientific
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 ---
identified 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 astral --- with their victims. The classical exorcists, on the
contrary, for all their learning, were careless about this essential condition.
They acted as stupidly 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
undertook the task of re-habilitating it two generations ago. But even he
(profoundly as he studied, and luminously as he expounded, the nature of Magick
considered as a universal formula) paid no attention whatever to that question
of the 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 Astral Light the power of transmitting vibrations of all kinds. He nowhere
enters 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
trained student will observe the analogy between Levi's postulate and that of
ordinary science "in re" the luminiferous ether.)
It is deplorable that nobody should have recorded in a systematic form the
results of our investigations of the Astral Light. We have no account of its
properties 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 objects can {109} occupy the same space at the same time without
interfering with each other or losing their outlines.
In that Light, objects can change their appearance completely without
suffering change of Nature. The same thing can reveal itself in an infinite
number of different aspects; in fact, it identifies itself by so doing, much as
a writer or a painter reveals himself in a succession of novels or pictures,
each of which is wholly himself and nothing else, but himself under varied
conditions, though each appears utterly different from its fellows. In that
Light one is "swift without feet and flying without wings"; one can travel
without moving, and communicate without conventional means of expression. One
is insensible to heat, cold, pain, and other forms of apprehension, at least in
the shapes which are 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 energy 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 contrary) 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 unreal 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.<<This passage must not be understood as asserting that the
Universe is purely subjective. On the contrary, the Magical Theory accepts the
absolute reality of all things in the most objective sense. But all perceptions
are neither the observer nor the observed; they are representations of the
relation between them. We cannot affirm any quality in an object as being
independent of our sensorium, or as being in itself that which it seems to us.
Nor can we assume that what we cognize is more than a partial phantom of its
cause. We cannot even determine the meaning of such ideas as motion, or
distinguish between time and space, except in relation to some particular
observer. For example, if I fire a cannon twice at an interval of 3 hours, an
observer on the Sun would note a difference of some 200,000 miles in space
between the shots, while to me they seem "in the same place." Moreover, I am
incapable of perceiving any phenomenon except by means of the arbitrary
instruments of my senses; it is thus correct to say that the Universe as I know
it is subjective, without denying its objectivity.>> The mirror 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 presentation. 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 are in an
objective sense illusions.
But the Light servers us in this way. It enables us to see ourselves, and
therefore to aid us to initiate ourselves by showing us what we are doing. In
the 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
way, 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
quantitative laws are much less dissimilar from those of material physics.
Magicians have too often been foolish enough to suppose that all classes of
Magical Operations were equally easy. They seem to have assumed that the
"almighty power of God" was an infinite quantity in presence of which all
finites were equally insignificant. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand
years" is their first law of Motion. "Faith can move mountains" they say, and
disdain to measure either the faith or the mountains. If you can kill a chicken
by Magick, why not destroy 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
facts 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
Newton. 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
Cumberland might fail lamentably in the Sahara. One might make a talisman to
win the love of a shop-girl and find it work, yet be baffled in the case of a
countess; 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
successes in every kind of Magick, sometimes appears utterly impotent to perform
feats which almost any amateur might do, because He has matched his Will against
that of the world, having undertaken the Work of a Magus to establish the word
of His Law on the whole of mankind. He will succeed, without doubt, but He
hardly expects to see more than a sample of His product during His present
incarnation. 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 lies in commanding stones to become bread, or otherwise making things
easy for Himself.
These considerations being thoroughly understood we may return to the
question of making the Magical Link. In the case above cited FRATER PERDURABO
composed His talisman by invoking His Holy Guardian Angel according to the
Sacred Magick 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 life by devoting His own life thereto. We may then regard this
talisman, the Law, 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 race 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
mankind. 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
done 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 intrinsic power of the truth of the Law and the impact of the
publication were sufficient to shake the world so that a critical war broke out,
and the minds of men were moved in a mysterious manner. The second blow was
struck by the re-publication 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 THERION 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 perfect obedience to the instructions which have up to now
been misunderstood or neglected, the result will be incalculably effective. The
event will establish the kingdom of the Crowned and Conquering Child over the
whole earth, and all men 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 the
great. The same laws describe and measure the motions of the ant and the stars.
Their light is no swifter than that of a spark. In every operation of Magick
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
furnace. We shall need a more intense current and a greater supply to light a
city than 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 apply 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
belonging to her, and so in subtile connection with her aura. But for material
ends it is better to have material means. We must not rely on fine gut in
trolling for salmon. Our will to kill a tiger is poorly conveyed by a charge
of small 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 obedience of the portion of Nature which we are trying to change.
If one will the death of a sinner, it is not sufficient to hate him, even if we
grant that the vibrations of thought, when sufficiently powerful and pure, may
modify the Astral light sufficiently to impress its intention to a certain
extent on such people as happen to be sensitive. It is much surer to use one's
mind and muscle in service 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 same order as that which one's enemy has taken for his
manifestation. Your spirit can only come into contact with his by means of this
magical manufacture of phantoms; 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 chess. 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 you can prove your power to constrain him to yield.
The game is a device by which you force him to turn down his king in surrender,
a muscular act made in obedience 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
instructions, because every case demands separate consideration. It is
sometimes exceedingly difficult to devise proper measures.
Remember that Magick includes all acts soever. Anything may serve as a
Magical 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
woman, 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
operation, 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
impact 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
abilities) to the study of medicine; I invoke the "Gods" (medical authorities)
by studying and obeying their laws in their books. I embody the "Formulae" (the
ways in which causes and effects influence disease) in a "Ritual" (my personal
style of constraining sickness to conform with my will). I persist in these
conjurations 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 me 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 idea of ambition in a course of action such as to induce in
others the incorporeal 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
of 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
enough 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
burglar with a directory containing the combination of every existing safe. But
one can point out the broad distinctions between women who yield, some to
flattery, 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
Chocolates, 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 planes.
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
mental powers, or inspire my own imagination. Here the Exorcist and the Demon
are 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 its
commands; they are instantly obeyed, unless --- as in the case of organic
disease --- the apparatus is damaged beyond the art of Nature to repair. It may
be necessary in such a case to assist the internal "spirits" by the
"purification" 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
contact 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 study, break off a bad habit, or conquer a cowardice. This class of
work, although 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 Guardian Angel, and the Adventure of the Abyss.
The second class includes all operations by which the Magician strives to
impose his Will upon objects outside his own control, but within that of such
other 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 Will
to possess the knowledge to the point of devoting one's life to it, in
expressing that will by seeking out people who seem likely to know what is
needed, and 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 one
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
Pantacle 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
who dislikes me and loves somebody else. In this case, not only her Will, but
her lover's must be overcome by my own. I have no direct control of either.
But my Will is in touch with the woman's by means of our minds; I have only to
make 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, and
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;
misunderstanding may mar the matter; a mood may make mischief; external events
may 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 desire
her. Such a flaw is enough to bring the whole operation to naught, just as no
effort of Will can make oil mix with water.
I may work "naturally" by wooing, of course. But, magically, I may attack
her 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 bewildered
and hungry Body of Light may turn in its distress to that of the Magician who
has mastered it.
Take a third case of this class 2. I wish to recover my watch, snatched from
me in a crowd.
Here I have no direct means of control over the muscles that could bring back
my watch, or over the mind that moves these muscles. I am not even able to
inform 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
promising 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
"familiar spirits", the police, to hunt it, and compel its obedience by
threats.<<The ceremonial method would be to transfer to the watch --- linked
naturally to me by possession and use --- a thought calculated to terrify the
thief, and induce him to get rid of it at once. Observing clairsentiently this
effect, suggest relief and reward as the result of restoring it.>>
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
as 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, one
might master another man, even a stranger, by sheer concentration of will,
ceremonially 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
means of contact if possible, if not, by attacking some sensitive spot in his
subconscious sensorium. But the heaviest rod will not land the smallest fish
unless 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
approaching 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
absolute apathy on the subject of any attempt to achieve any Magick at all.
Suppose 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.
Nature 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.
How 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
be aware that all nature is a continuum, so that his mind and body are
consubstantial with the storm, are equally expressions of One Existence, all
alike of the self-same order of artifices whereby the Absolute appreciates
itself. He must also have assimilated the fact that the Quantity is just as
much a form as Quality; that as all things are modes of One Substance, so their
measures are modes 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 differentiating them, just as the letter "m" is not bigger than
the letter "i: in any real sense of the word.<<Professor Rutherford thinks it
not theoretically impracticable to construct a detonator which could destroy
every atom of matter by releasing the energies of one, so that the vibrations
would excite the rest to disintegrate explosively.>> {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
afternoon, 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
names for the forces of Nature themselves.
But, "as a Mystic", he knows that all things are phantoms of One Thing, and
that 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
therefore no theoretical difficulty about converting the illusion of a clear sky
into that of a tempest. On the other hand, he is aware, "as a Magician", that
illusions 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 can 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
nature 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
those ideas which are clansmen of the Thunderstorm, collect all available
objects of 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 flame 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 substances 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 handful of fanatics, insane with one over-emphasised truth, may infect
a whole country for a time by inflaming that thought in their neighbours, so the
Magician creates a commotion by disturbing the balance of power. He transmits
his particular vibration as a radio operator does with his ray; rate-relation
determines exclusive selection.
In practice, the Magician must "evoke the spirits of the storm" by
identifying 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 virtue 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
the best rituals give us instructions in selecting our vehicles of force. In
777 we find "correspondences" of many classes of being with the various types
of operation, so that we know what weapons, jewels, figures, drugs, perfumes,
names, 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 desired 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
prevent the dispersion of the force, we can hardly be sure that it will act on
its object, unless that object be properly prepared to receive it. The Link
must 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 meaning
of the so-called {121} "Golden Rule", which should not be in the imperative but
in the indicative mood. Every vibration awakens all others of its particular
pitch.
There is thus some justification for the assumption of previous writers on
Magick that the Link is implicit, and needs no special attention. Yet, in
practice, 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 to the formally magical rites. We must neglect no means to our end,
neither despising 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
FRATER PERDURABO did indeed invoke the spirit Buer to visible manifestation that
the might heal their brother; but also one of them furnished the money to send
him to a climate less cruel than England's. He is alive to day<<P.S. He died
some months after this passage was written: but he had been enabled to live and
work for nearly a quarter of a century longer than he would otherwise have
done.>>; who cares whether 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. The
Magician, armed and ready, stands in the centre of the Circle, and strikes once
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
which he has attained, giving the signs and words of those grades.<<This is not
merely to prove himself a person in authority. It is to trace the chain of
causes that have let to the present position, so that the operation is seen as
karma.>>
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)
as if to call Him to witness to the act. He swears solemnly that he will
perform 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 strikes upon the bell.
Yet, having demonstrated himself in that position at once infinitely lofty
and 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
this confession prostrate<<Compare the remarks in a previous chapter. But this
is a particular case. We leave its justification as a problem.>> before the
altar in agony and bloody sweat. He trembles at the thought of the operation
which he has dared to undertake, saying, "Father, if it be Thy Will, let this
cup pass from me! Nevertheless not my will but Thine be done!"<<Of course this
is for the beginner. As soon as it is assimilated as true, he will say: "My
will which is thine be done!" And ultimately no more distinguish "mine" from
"thine". A sympathetic change of gesture will accompany the mental change.>>
The dread answer comes that It Must Be, and this answer so fortifies him with
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 the
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
which, however apparently unimportant, is yet an integral part of universal
destiny, so that if it were not accomplished the Kingdom of Heaven would be
burst in 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 something
has already been said on this subject; but its importance deserves some further
elaboration. Thus, should one, loving a woman, make a spell to compel her
embraces, and tiring of her a little later, evoke Zazel to kill her; he will
find 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, since 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 find to be the not uncommon case. The explanation is as follows. It is
perfectly true that when Bill Sykes desires to possess Nancy, he does in fact
evoke a spirit 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
righteous laws. They are gross concretions of confused impulses, "incapable of
understanding the nature of an oath". They are also such that the idea of
murder is nowise offensive to the Spirit of Love.
It is indeed the criterion of spiritual "caste" that conflicting elements
should not coexist in the same consciousness. The psalm-singing Puritan who
persecutes publicans, and secretly soaks himself in fire-water; the bewhiskered
philanthropist in broadcloth who swindles his customers and sweats his
employees: these men must not be regarded as single-minded scoundrels, whose use
of religion and respectability to cloke their villainies is a deliberate
disguise dictated 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 proceeds from a section of themselves which is in irreconcilable
conflict with their rascality. Neither side can conciliate, suppress, or ignore
the other; yet 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 turns 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
Wilt" strikes on him, a ray of fierce white flame consuming all that is not
utterly God. Very soon he is aware that he cannot consciously contradict
himself. He develops a subtle sense which warns him that two trains of thought
which he had never conceived as connected are incompatible. Yet deeper drives
"Do what thou wilt"; subconscious oppositions are evoked to visible appearance.
The secret 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 {125} 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 whereof he incarnated as a man. With Bill Sykes love and murder are
not mutually exclusive, as they are with King Arthur. The higher the type of
man, the more sensitive he becomes; so that the noblest love divines intuitively
when a careless word or gesture may wound, and, vigilant, shuns them as being
of the family of murder. In Magick, likewise, the Adept who is sworn to attain
to the Knowledge 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. He 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 interference of ignorant kindliness with diseases which may have
been sent to the sufferer for a purpose profoundly important to his welfare.
In the case of THE MASTER THERION, he had originally the capacity for all
classes of Orgia. In the beginning, He cured the sick, bewitched the obstinate,
allured the seductive, routed the aggressive, made himself invisible, and
generally behaved like a Young-Man-About-town on every possible plane. He would
afflict one vampire with a Sending of Cats, and appoint another his private
Enchantress, neither aware of any moral oxymoron, nor hampered by the implicit
incongruity 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 most
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
Scarlet Woman "in whom is all power {126} given", there are still certain Orgia
beyond Him to perform, because to do so would be to affirm what He hath denied
in those Oaths by whose virtue He is That He is. This is the case, even when
the spirit 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
specifically swore that he would renounce His personal possessions to the last
penny; also that He would allow no human affection to hinder Him. These terms
were accepted; He was granted infinitely more than He had imagined possible to
an incarnated 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 was 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 accompanied every step in His Initiation! Death dragged away
His children with slow savagery; the women He loved drank themselves into
delirium and dementia before His eyes, or repaid His passionate devotion with
toad-cold treachery at the 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 as thoroughly as he was able. At the first distant
rumour that the Pharisees were out, his disciples "all forsook Him and fled".
His mother nailed Him with her 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
His 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. All His Orgia bear fruit; what was the work of a month when He was a full
Major Adept 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
famous 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 at 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
for His magical Attainment.
Yet more awful is the doom that He hath invoked upon Himself in renouncing
His right as a man to enjoy the Love of those whom He loves with passion so
selfless, so pure, and so intense in return for the power so to love Mankind
that He 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
touch to beckon life, He must watch His own child waste away month by month,
aware that His Art may not anywise avail, who hath sold the signet ring of his
personal profit to buy him a plain gold band for the felon finger of his bride,
that worn widow, the World!
----------
{128}
CHAPTER XV
I
OF THE INVOCATION
In the straightforward or "Protestant" system of Magick there is very little
to add to what has already been said. The Magician addresses a direct petition
to the Being invoked. But the secret of success in invocation has not hitherto
been disclosed. It is an exceedingly simple one. It is practically of no
importance whatever that the invocation should be "right". There are a thousand
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
thyself in praying."<<This is Qabalistically expressed in the old Formula:
Domine noster, audi tuo servo! kyrie Christe! O Christe!>>
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
frenzy, so must it be for the Magician.
It is impossible to lay down rules for the obtaining of this special
stimulus. To one the mystery of the whole ceremony may appeal; another may be
moved by 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 meaning 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 smell 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
dramatic cilmax. At the moment when the excitement becomes ungovernable, when
then the whole conscious being of the Magician undergoes a spiritual spasm, at
that 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<<This forgetfulness must be complete; it
is fatal to try to "let oneself go" consciously.>>. Inhibition is no longer
possible or even thinkable, and the whole being of the Magician, no minutest
atom saying nay, is irresistibly flung forth. In blinding light, amid the roar
of ten thousand thunders, the Union of God and man is consummated.
If the Magician is still seen standing in the Circle, quietly pursuing his
invocations, it is that all the conscious part of him has become detached from
the true ego which lies behind that normal consciousness. But the circle is
wholly filled with that divine essence; all else is but an accident and an
illusion.
The subsequent invocations, the gradual development and materialization of
the force, require no effort. It is one great mistake of the beginner to
concentrate his force upon the actual stated purpose of the ceremony. This
mistake is the most frequent cause of failures in invocation.
A corollary of this Theorem is that the Magician soon discards evocation
almost altogether --- only rare circumstances demand any action what ever on the
material plane. The Magician devotes himself entirely to the invocation of a
god; and as soon as his balance approaches perfection he ceases to invoke any
partial 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 wealth, 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
meditation except of the most arbitrary and accidental kind.<<There is the
general metaphysical antithesis that Magick is the Art of the Will-to-Live,
Mysticism of the Will-to-Die; but --- "Truth comes bubbling to my brim; Life and
Death are one to Him!".>>
II
Beside these open methods thee are also a number of mental methods of
Invocation, of which we may give three.
The first method concerns the so-called astral body. The Magician should
practise 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
limiting 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
astral body into His shape. This last method is really essential to all proper
invocation, and cannot be too sedulously practised.
There are many other devices to aid invocation, so many that it is impossible
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
length 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<<The
earliest and truest Christians used what is in all essentials this method. See
"Fragments of a Faith Forgotten" by G.R.S.Mead, Esq. B. A., pp. 80-81.
There is a real connexion between what the vulgar call blasphemy and what
they call immorality, in the fact that the Christian legend is an echo of a
Phallic rite. There is also a true and positive connexion between the Creative
force of the Macrocosm, and that of the Microcosm. For this reason the latter
must be made a pure and consecrated as the former. The puzzle for most people
is how to do this. The study of Nature is the Key to that Gate.>> is given a
concise account of one of the classical methods of arousing Kundalini. This
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
talisman which is being consecrated, it is necessary to bind it by an Oath or
Charge. A spirit should be made to lay its hand visibly on the weapon by whose
might it has been evoked, and to "swear obedience and faith to Him that liveth
and triumpheth, that regneth above him in His palaces as the Balance of
Righteousness and Truth" by the names used in the evocation.
It is then only necessary to formulate the Oath or Charge in language
harmonious with the previously announced purpose of the operation.
The precaution indicated is not to let oneself sink into one's humanity while
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 least,
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
appear.
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-spirits in the Sahara, or salamanders in the English Lake District.
Hismael will not readily appear when Jupiter is below the horizon.<<It is not
possible in this elementary treatise to explain the exact nature of the
connexion between the rays of the actual planet called Jupiter and the
Jupiterian elements which exist in various degrees in terrestrial objects.>>
In order to counteract a natural deficiency of this sort, one would have to
supply a sufficient quantity of the proper kind of material. One cannot make
bricks without straw.
With regard to invocations of the Gods, such considerations do not apply.
The Gods are beyond most material conditions. It is necessary to fill the
"heart" and "mind" with the proper basis for manifestation. The higher the
nature of the God, the more true this is. The Holy Guardian Angel has always
the necessary basis. His manifestation depends solely on the readiness of the
Aspirant, and all magical ceremonies used in that invocation are merely intended
to prepare that Aspirant; not in any way to attract or influence Him. It is His
constant and eternal Will<<Since this Knowledge and Conversation is not
universal, it seems at first as if an omnipotent will were being baulked. But
His Will and your will together make up that one will, because you and He are
one. That one will is therefore divided against itself, so long as your will
fails to aspire steadfastly.
Also, His will cannot constrain yours. He is so much one with you that even
your will to separate is His will. He is so certain of you that He delights in
your perturbation and coquetry no less than in your surrender. These relations
are fully explained in Liber LXV. See also Liber Aleph CXI.>> to become one
with the Aspirant, and the moment the conditions 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 constraint
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<<Of course this should have been done in
preparing the Ritual. But he renews this consideration from the new standpoint
attained by the invocation.>> whether the evocation be in truth a necessary part
of the Karma of the Universe, as he has stated in his own Oath (See Cap. XVI,
I). For if this be a delusion, success is impossible. It will then be 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
disobedient, the implication is that some hostile force is at work to hinder the
operation. 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 Magician, who may thereby be led to unveil a black magical gang whose
existence he had not hitherto suspected.
His need to check the vampiring of a lady in Paris by a sorceress once led
FRATER PERDURABO to the discovery of a very powerful body of black magicians,
which whom he was obliged to war for nearly 10 years before their ruin was
complete 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 them
--- for the power of the God invoked will suffice for this purpose --- one may
proceed with a certain asperity to conjure the spirit, for that he has done ill
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
beforehand, and the magical links properly made, so that he is really tortured
by the Operation.<<The precise meaning of these phrases is at first sight
obscure. The spirit is merely a recalcitrant part of one's own organism. To
evoke him is therefore to become conscious of some part of one's own character;
to command and constrain him is to being that part into subjection. This is
best understood by the analogy of teaching oneself some mental-physical
accomplishment (e.g. billiards), by persistent and patient study and practice,
which often involves considerable pain as well as trouble.>>
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
spirit. 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
spirit come properly under your control, it will be forced to disclose the
transaction, and the current will return to the Black Lodge with fulminating
force. The liars will be in the power of their own lie; their own slaves will
rise up and put them into bondage. The wicked fall into the pit that they
themselves digged.
And so perish all the King's enemies!
V
The charge to the spirit is usually embodied, except in works of pure
evocation, which after all are comparatively rare, in some kind of talisman.
In a certain sense, the talisman is the Charge expressed in hieroglyphics. Yet,
every object soever is a talisman, for the definition of a talisman is:
something upon 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 consecrate it without further ado. One knows what miracles can be done
with one's favourite mashie! One has used the mashie again and again, one's
love for it growing in proportion to one's success with it, and that success
again made more certain 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 contact
of the profane. It is instinctive not to let another person use one's fishing
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
creative will. This is an example of a very complicated magical operation,
extending over centuries. But, theoretically, it is just an ordinary case of
talismanic magick. It is for this reason that so much trouble has been taken
to prevent 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
wives and concubines on the roof of the palace, in order to signify that he had
succeeded in breaking his father's magical power.
Now, there are a great many talismans in this world which are being left
lying about in a most reprehensibly careless manner. Such are the objects of
popular 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 most
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
away from him, or by destroying its value in some way or another. But, in the
case 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
talismanic 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
of Isis and Horus, or similar mother-child combinations, were appropriated
wholesale by the Christians. The miracle is, however, of a somewhat dangerous
type, as in this case, where enlightenment has come through the researches of
archaeologists. It has been shown that the so-called images of Mary and Jesus
are really nothing but imitations of those of Isis and Horus. Honesty is the
best policy 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. The
Magician should rest permanently on the higher plain to which he has
aspired.<<The rock-climber who relaxes on the face of the precipice falls to
earth; but once he has reached a safe ledge he may sit down.>> The whole force
of the operation should be absorbed; but there is almost certain 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 evil. It is
always easy to do this where invocations are concerned; the mere removal 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 obedience. In
such a case extreme danger may arise.
In the ordinary way, the Magician dismisses the spirit with these words: "And
now I say unto thee, depart in peace unto thine habitations and abodes --- and
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
spirit); and let there be peace between thee and me; and be thou very ready to
come, whensoever thou are invoked and called!"<<It is usual to add "either by
a word, or by a will, or by this mighty Conjuration of Magick Art.">> {139}
Should he fail to disappear immediately, it is a sign that there is something
very wrong. The Magician should immediately reconsecrate the Circle with the
utmost care. He should then repeat the dismissal; and if this does not suffice,
he should then perform the banishing ritual suitable to the nature of the spirit
and, if necessary, add conjurations to the same effect. In these circumstances,
or if anything else suspicious should occur, he should not be content with the
apparent disappearance of the spirit, who might easily make himself invisible
and lie in ambush to do the Magician a mischief when he stepped out of the
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 danger
lies in his own habits.
Of course it is the very condition of progress to build up ideas into the
subconscious. 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
performing 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
work, it is necessary that the Magician should sit down and write up his magical
record. However much he may have been tired<<He ought to be refreshed, more
than after a full night's deep sleep. This forms one test of his skill.>> by
the ceremony, he ought to force 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. One 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, for it is over so very quickly. But the record of
the transactions is {140} otherwise important. Nobody cares about Duncan having
been murdered by Macbeth. It 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 record 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 of
being, as it is, a direct means of coming into contact with reality. It is
these people who pay themselves with phrases, who are always using long words
with no definite connotation, who plaster themselves with pompous titles and
decorations 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
one's own record.<<As one is a Star in the Body of Nuith, every successive
incarnation is a Veil, and the acquisition of the Magical Memory a gradual
Unveiling of that Star, of that God.>> For this reason it is the most important
thing to do, on strictly 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 has 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 surprised if he thinks you every kind of an ass.
It is --- at least, it was --- perfectly incredible to THE MASTER THERION
that 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.
However, there are none of these half-baked lunatics connected with the A.'.
A.'., because the necessity for hard work, for passing examinations at stated
intervals, 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
acquiring 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;<<i.e. as a general rule. It can be altered very greatly in these
respects.>> 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 must 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
carrying a basket of unusual shape. His curiosity mastered him, and he leant
across and said: "Say, stranger, what you got in that bag?" The other,
lantern-jawed 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 rebuff: "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 brother 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". "Sure", 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
contradiction. It is quite useless (except as a temporary expedient) to set up
one class of ideas against another as being "more real". The advance of man
towards 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,<<The real Berkeley did nothing of the
sort: the reference here is to an imaginary animal invented by Dr. Johnson out
of sturdy British ignorance.>> to deny the existence of water and of wood; but,
for all that, wood floats on water. The Magician becomes identical with the
immortal Osiris, yet the Magician dies. In this dilemma the facts must be
restated. 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
"die".
Now this interior body of the Magician, of which we spoke at the beginning
of 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<<We do not call
electrical resistance, or economic laws, unreal, on the ground that they are not
directly perceived by the senses. Our magical doctrine is universally accepted
by sceptics --- only they wish to make Magick itself an exception!>>.
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 supposing
that I had passed through the roof. This body, which is called by various
authors the Astral double, body of Light, body of fire, body of desire, fine
body, scin-laeca and numberless other names is naturally fitted to perceive
objects 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
and the Materials; and it is possible, with great experience, to deduce facts
about material things from the astral aspect which they present to the eyes of
the Body of Light.<<This is because there is a certain necessary correspondence
between planes; as in the case of an Anglo-Indian's liver and this temper. The
relation appears "vague and indeterminate" only in so far as one happens to be
ignorant of the laws which state the case. The situation is analogous to that
of the chemist before the discovery of the law of "Combining Weights", etc.>>
This astral plane is so varied and so changeable that several 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"; the 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 before one
can trust one's vision. A great many people think that they are extremely good
at the business, when in fact they have only made some occasional shrewd guesses
(which they naturally remember) in the course of hundreds of forgotten failures.
The only way to test clairvoyance is to keep a careful record of every
experiment made. For example, FRATER O. M. once gave a clairvoyant a waistcoat
to psychometrize. 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
which is true of almost everybody. The remainder were wrong. It was concluded
from this that he showed no evidence of any special power. In fact, his bodily
eyes, --- 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
himself. It is extremely useful to him in guarding himself against attack; in
obtaining 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
seeing only through the one at the eye-piece of the instrument, so the natural
eyes, 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
methods; 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 just
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, educate 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 careful
differentiation. The first thing to do, therefore, is to get the body outside
your own. To avoid muddling the two, you begin by imagining a shape resembling
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 mental
image of such a body. Try to imagine how your own body would look if you were
standing in its place; try to transfer your consciousness to the Body of Light.
Your own body has its eyes shut. Use the eyes of the Body of Light to describe
the objects in the room behind you. Don't say. "It's only an effort of
subconscious 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 the
air. Keep on feeling the sense of rising; keep on looking about you as you rise
until you see landscapes or beings of the astral plane. Such have a quality all
their own. They are not like material things --- they are not like mental
pictures --- they seem to lie between the two.
After some practice has made you adept, so that in the course {146} of any
hour's journey you can reckon on having a fairly eventful time, turn your
attention to reaching a definite place on the astral plane; invoke Mercury, for
example, and examine carefully your record of the resulting vision --- discover
whether 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
of 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
ways. Remember that after all the highest of all the Gods is only the
Magus,<<See Liber 418, 3rd Aethyr.>> Mayan, the greatest of all the devils.
You may also try "rising on the planes".<<See Infra and Appendix.>> With a
little practice, especially if you have a good Guru, you ought to be able to
slip in and out of your astral body as easily as you slip in and out of a
dressing-gown. It will then no longer be so necessary for your astral body to
be sent far off; without moving an 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
Body 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 serious
trouble. Your Body of Light may wander away uncontrolled, and be attacked and
obsessed. You will become aware of this through the occurrence of headache, bad
dreams, or even more serious signs such as hysteria, fainting fits, possibly
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
pitiable examples of repeated losses from this cause.
The emotional type of religionist also suffers in this way. Devotion
projects 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 of 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 oath, mark indelibly those who have thus lost parts of their souls. They
wander from 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 simple 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
the whole operation in a properly consecrated circle.
Proceed with great caution, then, but proceed. In time your Body of Light will
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
the world to which it belongs.
That which you have accomplished with the subject you may now proceed to do
with 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 this 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 still.
In doing this it will often be necessary to create a Temple on the astral
plane. It is excellent practice to create symbols. This one precaution is
needed: after using them, they should be reabsorbed. {148}
Having learned to create astral forms, the next step will be at first very
difficult. Phantasmal and fleeting as the astral is in general, those forms
which are definitely attached to the material possess enormous powers of
resistance, and it consequently requires very high potential to influence them.
The material 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 the 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 you are working, e.g.; one can heal the sick by restoring a healthy
appearance to 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.
For this reason a great many operations theoretically possible cannot be
performed. Suppose, for example, you see two men of similarly unhealthy astral
appearance. In one case the cause may be slight and temporary. Your help
suffices to restore him in a few minutes. The other, who looks no worse, is
really oppressed 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 cases 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<<Anna Kingsford, so far as her
good work is concerned, was only the rubber stamp of Edward Maitland.>> once
attempted to kill a vivisector who was not particularly well known; and they
succeeded in making him seriously ill. But in attempting the same thing with
Pasteur they produced no effect 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 blessing him. It cannot be too clearly understood that
magical force is subject to 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 him. {149}
To sum up, the first task is to separate the astral form from the physical
body, the second to develop the powers of the astral body, in particular those
of sight, travel, and interpretation; third, to unify the two bodies without
muddling 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 the
animal, and as the material plane has beings which encroach upon the boundaries
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 during
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
Astral. 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
reality 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. This
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
Arcanum", and pictures like the "Goldseekers" and the "Massacre of the
Innocents" of Basil Valentine. There is a unique quality about the alchemical
Plane which renders its images immediately recognizable. {150}
There are also planes corresponding to various religions past and present,
all 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
penetrate the higher strata. It requires a great development of this body, and
an intense infusion of the highest spiritual constituents of man, before he can
pierce 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 subsequent occasion may be found worthy; and its success will react
favourably on the human consciousness, and increase its likelihood of success
in its next magical 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 rewards
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
theoretical;<<The Hon. Bertrand Russell's "Principia Mathematica" may be said
to "lie beyond" Colenso's "School Arithmetic"; but one can take the former book
from one's shelves --- as every one should --- and read it without first going
all through the latter again.>> the advanced Magician will not find it to be so
in practice. He will be able by suitable invocation to travel directly to any
place desired. In Liber 418 an example of perfection is given. The Adept who
explored these Aethyrs 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 unable 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 fortresses know how to guard.
The MASTER THERION has published the most important practical magical secrets
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 but
eaten and drunken damnation to themselves.
One may bring down stolen fire in a hollow tube from Heaven, as The MASTER
THERION indeed has done in a way that no other adept dared to do before him.
But the thief, the Titan, must foreknow and consent to his doom to be chained
upon 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<<GR:Tau-Epsilon-Iota-Tau-Alpha-Nu = 300+5+10+300+1+50 = 666.>> ---
whose number is the number of a man, six hundred and three score and six ---
unsubdued, consoled by Asia and Panthea, must send forth constant 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 lit by his crime.
For the Gods are the enemies of Man; it is Nature that Man must overcome ere
he enter into his kingdom.<<In another sense, a higher sense, Nature is
absolutely right throughout. The position is that the Magician discovers
himself imprisoned in a distorted Nature of Iniquity; and his task is to
disentangle it. This is all to be studied in The Book of Wisdom or Folly (Liber
ALEPH, CXI) and in the Master Therion's edition of the "Tao Teh King". A rough
note from His Magical Diary is appended here:
"All elements must at one time have been separate, --- that would be the case
with great heat. Now when atoms get to the sun, when we get to the sun, we get
that immense, extreme heat, and all the elements are themselves again. Imagine
that each atom of each element possesses the memory of all his adventures in
combination. By the way, that atom (fortified with that memory) would not be
the same atom; yet it is, because it has gained nothing from anywhere except
this memory. Therefore, by the lapse of time, and by virtue of memory, a thing
could become something more than itself; and thus a real development is
possible. One can then see a reason for any element deciding to go through this
series of incarnations; because so, and only so, can he go; and he suffers the
lapse of memory which he has during these incarnations, because he knows he will
come through unchanged.
"Therefore you can have an infinite number of gods, individual and equal though
diverse, each one supreme and utterly indestructible. This is also the only
explanation of how a being could create a war {WEH NOTE: SIC, probably should
be "world"} in which war, evil, etc. exist. Evil is only an appearance,
because, (like "good") it cannot affect the substance itself, but only multiply
its combinations. This is something the same as mystic monotheism, but the
objection to that theory is that God has to create things which are all parts
of himself, so that their interplay is false. If we presuppose many elements,
their interplay is natural. It is no objection to this theory to ask who made
the elements, --- the elements are at least there, and God, when you look for
him, is not there. Theism is "obscurum per obscurius." A male star is built
up from the centre outwards; a female from the circumference inwards. This is
what is meant when we say that woman has no soul. It explains fully the
difference between the sexes.>> 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 rebellious 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
attention must be paid to it. It is part of the essential technique of Magick.
Instruction in this practice has been given with such conciseness in Liber O,
that 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
importance. 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.
The principal use of the practice in {153} the last chapter is to familiarise
the student with every kind of obstacle and every kind of delusion, so that he
may be perfect master of every idea that may arise in his brain, to dismiss it,
to transmute it, to cause it instantly to obey his will.
"2. Let him then begin exactly as before; but with the most intense
solemnity and determination.
"3. Let him be very careful to cause his imaginary body to rise in a line
exactly perpendicular to the earth's tangent at the point where his physical
body is situated (or, to put it more simply, straight upwards).
"4. Instead of stopping, let him continue to rise until fatigue almost
overcomes 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
very 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.
Whatever threatens, whatever allures, though it were Typhon and all his hosts
loosed 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
struggle on, ever on.
"6. At last there must come a moment when his whole being is swallowed up
in 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 to 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
example) into the circle of Jupiter, and the results, especially in the lower
planes, 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
with 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
this is the proper thing to do whenever definitely practising, in order to
acquire the power of Rising. But, having obtained this power, it is, of course,
legitimate to rise to any particular plane that may be necessary for the purpose
of exploration, as in the case of the visions recorded in Liber 418, where the
method may be described as mixed. In such a case, it is not enough to invoke
the 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
contemplations. He had to undergo certain Initiations before he was able to
proceed. Thus, it is necessary that the technique of Magick should be
perfected. The Body of Light must be rendered capable of going everywhere and
doing everything. It is, therefore, always the question of drill which is of
importance. You have got to go out Rising on the Planes every day of your life,
year after year. You are not to be disheartened by failure, or too much
encouraged by success, in any one practice or set of practices. What you are
doing is what will be of real value to you in the end; and that is, developing
a character, creating 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
execute the Will is but blind force unless the Will be enlightened. At every
stage of a Magical Operation it is necessary to know what one is doing, and to
be sure that one is acting wisely. Acute sensitiveness is always associated
with genius; the power to perceive the universe accurately, to analyse,
coordinate, and judge impressions is the foundation of all great Work. An army
is but a blundering brute unless its intelligence department works as it should.
The Magician obtains the transcendental knowledge necessary to an intelligent
course of conduct directly in consciousness by clairvoyance and clairaudience;
but communication with superior {155} intelligences demands elaborate
preparation, 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 lexicon 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
concealed 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 or
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 wish
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
defective in expressing fine shades of meaning, and so is unsuitable for
literature, but which yet serves for the conduct of daily affairs in places
where many tongues 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<<As a matter of fact,
they cannot. The best qualified are the most diffident as to having grasped the
meaning of their colleagues with exactitude; in criticising their writings they
often make a point of apologising for possible misunderstanding.>> without
speaking a word of each other's languages. {156}
3. We postulate that the intelligences whom wish to consul are willing, or
may be compelled, to answer us truthfully.
Let us first consider the question of the compendium of symbols. The
alphabet of a language is a more or less arbitrary way of transcribing the
sounds employed 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. In fact, some systems of shorthand have done so. But a system of
symbols suitable for divination must be a complete representation of the
Universe, so that each 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
random within the leaves. The Books of the Sybil, the works of Vergil, and the
Bible have been used very frequently for this purpose. For theoretical
justification, 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 construction, because the only reasonable conception of the
Cosmos is mathematical and hieroglyphic rather than literary. In the case of
a book, such as the Book of the Law which is the supreme truth and the perfect
rule of life, it is not repugnant to good sense to derive an oracle from its
pages. It will of course be remarked that the Book of the Law is not merely a
literary compilation but a complex mathematical structure. It therefore fulfils
the required conditions.
The principal means of divination in history are astrology, geomancy, the
Tarot, the Holy Qabalah, and the Yi King. There are hundreds of others; from
pyromancy, oneiromancy, auguries from sacrifices, and the spinning-top of some
ancient 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
actually exist in the macrocosm, and thus possess a {157} natural correspondence
with microcosmic affairs. But in practice the calculations involved are
overwhelmingly complicated. A horoscope is never complete. It needs to be
supplemented by innumerable other horoscopes. For example, to obtain a judgment
on the simplest question, one requires not only the nativities of the people
involved, some of which are probably inaccessible, but secondary figures for
directions and transits, together with progressed horoscopes, to say nothing of
prenatal, mundane, and even horary figures. To appreciate the entire mass of
data, to balance the elements of so vast a concourse of forces, and to draw a
single judgment therefrom, is a task practically beyond human capacity. Besides
all this, the actual effects of the planetary positions and aspects are still
almost entirely unknown. No two astrologers agree on all points; and most of
them are at odds on fundamental principles.<<Nearly all professional astrologers
are ignorant of their own subject, as of all others.>> This science had better
be discarded unless the student chances to feel strongly drawn toward it. It
is used by the MASTER THERION Himself with fairly satisfactory results, but only
in special cases, in a strictly limited sphere, and with particular precautions.
Even so, He feels great 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
restriction 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 process from the "Mothers". It may be added that the tables given
in the handbook for the interpretation of the figure are exceedingly vague on
the one hand, and insufficiently comprehensive on the other. Some Adepts,
however, appear to find this system admirable, and obtain great satisfaction
from its use. Once more, 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 found 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
basis of both is identical: The Tree of Life.<<Both these subjects may be
studied in the Equinox in several articles appearing in several numbers.>> The
78 symbols of the Tarot are admirably balanced and combined. They are adequate
to all demands made upon them; each symbol is not only mathematically precise,
but possesses an artistic significance which helps the diviner to understand
them by stimulating his aesthetic perceptions. The MASTER THERION finds that
the Tarot is infallible in material questions. The successive operations
describe the course of events with astonishing 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 shorten the proceedings leads to
disappointment; furthermore, the symbols do not lend themselves readily to the
solution of spiritual questions.
The Holy Qabalah, based as it is on pure number, evidently possesses an
infinite number of symbols. Its scope is conterminous with existence itself;
and it lacks nothing in precision, purity, or indeed in any other perfection.
But it cannot be taught;<<It is easy to teach the General Principles of
exegesis, and the main doctrines. There is a vast body of knowledge common to
all cases; but this is no more than the basis on which the student must erect
his original Research.>> each man must select for himself the materials for the
main structure of his system. It requires years of work to erect a worthy
building. 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 himself and his universe expressed in terms of thought whose {159}
language is so 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
THERION is engaged in the preparation of a treatise on the subject, but the
labour involved is so great that He cannot pledge Himself to have it ready at
any definite time. The student must therefore make his own investigations into
the meaning of the 64 hexagrams as best he can.
The Yi King is mathematical and philosophical in form. Its structure is
cognate with that of the Qabalah; the identity is so intimate that the existence
of two such superficially different systems is transcendent testimony to the
truth 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
dilemmas; and the symbol which opens the gates of the most exalted palaces of
initiation is equally effective when employed to advise one in the ordinary
business 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 actual 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 questions.
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
character of the medium of divination. Thus, the geomantic intelligences are
gnomes, spirits of an earthy nature, distinguished from each other by the
modifications due to the various planetary and zodiacal influences which pertain
to the several symbols. The intelligence governing Puella is not to be confused
with that of Venus or of Libra. It is simply a particular terrestrial daemon
which partakes of those natures. {160}
The Tarot, on the other hand, being a book, is under Mercury, and the
intelligence of each card is fundamentally Mercurial. Such symbols are
therefore peculiarly proper to communicate thought. They are not gross, like
the geomantic daemons; but, as against this, they are unscrupulous in deceiving
the diviner.<<This does not mean that they are malignant. They have a proper
pride in their office as Oracles of Truth; and they refuse to be profaned by the
contamination of inferior and impure intelligences. A Magician whose research
is fully adapted to his Neschamah will find them lucid and reliable.>>
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.<<Malicious or pranksome elementals instinctively avoid the
austere sincerity of the Figures of Fu and King Wan.>>
It is always essential for the diviner to obtain absolute magical control
over the intelligences of the system which he adopts. He must not leave the
smallest 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
knavery, 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 referred 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
apoplexy. But, even suppose we are safe from deceit, how can we know that the
question 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 only 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 billiard player whose fingers can estimate infinitesimal
degrees of force, {161} or the similar phenomenon in the professional taster of
tea or wine who can distinguish 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
aspire 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
diviner have banished utterly from his mind the minutest atom of interest in the
answer 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
representations of the unconscious Will of the sleeper, and that not only are
they images of that Will instead of representations of objective truth, but the
image itself is confused by a thousand cross-currents set in motion by the
various complexes and inhibitions of his character. If therefore one consults
the oracle, one must take sure that one is not consciously or unconsciously
bringing pressure to bear upon it. It is just as when an Englishman
cross-examines a Hindu, the 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
vast majority of people who go to "fortunetellers" have nothing else in mind but
the wish to obtain supernatural sanction for their follies. Apart from
Occultism 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
commonsense 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 that he was about to make a fool of himself, which he is determined
to do, and only wants to be able to blame his best friend, or the oracle, when
he is overtaken by the disaster which his own interior mentor foresees?
Those who embark on divination will be wise to consider the foregoing remarks
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
possibility 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
symbols. Their nature must be investigated by intellectual methods such as the
Qabalah, but the precise shape of meaning in any one case, and the sphere and
tendency of its application, must be acquired by experience, that is, but
induction, by recording and classifying one's experiments over a long period;
and --- this is the better part --- by refining one's ratiocination to the point
where it 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
begin the divination by invocations of the forces thereto appropriate. An error
of judgment as to the true character of the question would entail penalties
proportionate to the extent of that error; and the delusions resulting from a
divination fortified by invocation would be more serious than if one had not
employed such heavy artillery.<<The apparent high sanction for the error would
fortify the obstinacy of the mule.>>
There can, however, be no objection to preparing oneself by a general
purification 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 peculiar
properties of air are in consequence its uniform characteristics. Divination
is subtle and intangible. It moves with mysterious ease, expanding,
contracting, flowing, responsive to the slightest stress. It receives and
transmits every vibration without retaining any. It becomes poisonous when its
oxygen is defiled by passing through human lungs.
There is a peculiar frame of mind necessary to successful divination. The
conditions of the problem are difficult. It is obviously necessary for the mind
of the diviner to be concentrated absolutely upon his question. Any intrusive
thought will confuse the oracle as certainly as the reader of a newspaper is
confused {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
manipulates the apparatus of divination must be entirely independent of any
volition of his. He must lend them for the moment to the intelligence whom he
is consulting, to be guided in their movement to make the necessary mechanical
actions which determine the physical factor of the operation. It will be
obvious that this is somewhat awkward for the diviner who is also a magician,
for as a magician 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, that the most promising Magicians are the most deplorable
diviners, and vice versa. It is only when the aspirant approaches perfection
that he becomes able to reconcile these two apparently opposing faculties.
Indeed, there is no surer sign 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
question makes more difficult the necessary detachment from it. Once again, the
diviner 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
interfere with the object of thought. He must be able to conceive of a thing
out of all relation with anything else. The regular practice of concentration
leads to this result; in fact, it destroys the thing itself as we have hitherto
conceived 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
toward them.
One can hardly expect the diviner to make Samadhi with his question --- that
would be going too far, and destroy the character of the operation by removing
the question from the class of concatenated ideas. It would mean interpreting
the question in terms of "without limit", and this imply an equally formless
answer. But he should approximate to this extreme sufficiently to allow the
question entire freedom to make for itself its own proper links with the
intelligence directing the answer, {164} preserving its position on its own
plane, and evoking the necessary counterpoise to its own deviation from the norm
of nothingness.
We may recapitulate the above reflections in a practical form. We will
suppose that one wishes to divine by geomancy whether or no one should marry,
it being assumed that one's emotional impulses suggest so rash a course. The
man takes his wand and his sand; the traces the question, makes the appropriate
pentagram, and the sigil of the spirit. Before tracing the dashes which are to
determine the four "Mothers", he must strictly examine himself. He must banish
from his mind every thought which can possibly act as an attachment to his
proposed partner. He must banish all thoughts which concern himself, those of
apprehension 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 pains him to abandon any of these thoughts. So long as his mind is stirred,
however 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 his 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 what 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 become aware at the time of tracing them whether the dots are
going to be even or odd. This needs a special training to correct).
Physio-psychological theory will probably maintain that the "automatic"
action 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 the 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 its
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
another 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
fail 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
soon.<<Practice soon teaches one to count subconsciously ... yes, and that is
the other difficulty again!>>
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
should detach his mind from what it has just formulated, and proceed to
concentrate it on the figure as a whole, almost as if it were the object of his
meditation. 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 that the entire subconscious machinery of the body and mind lends itself
with horrid willingness to this ape-like antic of treason. But now that the
figure stands for judgment, the same bias would tend to form its phantasm of
wish-fulfilment in a different manner. It would act through the mind to bewray
sound judgment. It might, for example, induce one to emphasize the Venereal
element in Puella at the expense of the Saturnian. It might lead one to
underrate the influence 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 unfavourable 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 over 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,
independent of all intellectual or moral restraint. One must endeavour to
apprehend it as a thing absolute in itself. One must treat it, in short, very
much the 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:
"Speak, 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 it 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 influence
of environment; is adjusted to that environment by true necessity, and not by
the artifices of such adaptations as our purblind conception of convenience
induces 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
every point. The fundamental laws of both are identical. The right use of
divination has already been explained; but it must be added that proficiency
therein, tremendous as is its importance in furnishing the Magician with the
information necessary to his strategical and tactical plans, in no wise enables
him to accomplish 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.<<The astronomer himself has to enter a
caveat. He can only calculate the probability on the observed facts. Some
force might interfere with the anticipated movement.>> There is always much
virtue in divination; for (Shakespeare assures us!) there is "much virtue in
IF"!
In estimating the ultimate value of a divinatory judgment, one must allow for
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
naturally impossible in most cases to make sure that some important factor has
not 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 sense
of the question. The connotation of "wise" would then imply the limitations "in
your private definition of wisdom", "in reference to your present
circumstances." It would not involve guarantee against subsequent disaster, or
pronounce a philosophical dictum as to wisdom in the abstract sense. One must
not assume 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 knocks the bottom out of it a few weeks later. The advice only referred
to the prospects 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
available. An old witch who has a familiar spirit of merely local celebrity
such as 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 Magician 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, so 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 famous 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
prescribe for throat trouble.
The Magician ought therefore to make himself master of several methods of
divination; using one or the other as the purpose of the moment dictates. He
should make a point of organizing a staff of such spirits to suit various {168}
occasions. These should be "familiar"spirits, in the strict sense; members of
his family. He should deal with them constantly, avoiding whimsical or
capricious changes. He should choose them so that their capacities cover the
whole ground of his work; but he should not multiply them unnecessarily, for he
makes himself responsible for each one that he employs. Such spirits should be
ceremonially 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 infringement by the spirit severely punished. Relations with these spirits
should be confirmed and encouraged by frequent intercourse. They should be
treated with courtesy, consideration, and even affection. They should be taught
to love 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
against an undesirable result. The reason for this is that spirits of this type
are very sensitive. They suffer agonies of remorse on realising that they have
injured their Master; for he is their God; they know themselves to be part of
him, 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 are fit for the purpose, not only by reason of their capacity to supply
information, but for their sympathy with the personality of the Magician. Any
attempt to coerce unwilling spirits is dangerous. They obey from fear; their
fear makes them flatter, and tell amiable falsehoods. It also creates
phantasmal projections of themselves to personate them; and these phantasms,
besides being worthless, 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 himself created a link with them.
One more observation seems desirable while on this subject. Divination of
any kind is improper in matters directly concerning the Great Work itself. In
the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, the adept is
possessed of all he can possibly need. To consult any other is to insult one's
{169} Angel. 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<<No intelligence of the type that operates divination is a complete
Microcosm as Man is. He knows in perfection what lies within his own Sphere,
and little or nothing beyond it. Graphiel knows all that is knowable about
Marital matters, as no Man can possibly do. For even the most Marital man is
limited as to Madim by the fact that Mars is only one element in his molecule;
the other elements both inhibit concentration on their colleague, and veil him
by insisting on his being interpreted in reference to themselves. No entity
whose structure does not include the entire Tree of Life is capable of the
Formulae of Initiation. Graphiel, consulted by the Aspirants to Adeptship,
would be bound to regard the Great Work as purely a question of combat, and
ignore all other considerations. His advice would be absolute on technical
points of this kind; but its very perfection would persuade the Aspirant to an
unbalance course of action which would entail failure and destruction. It is
pertinent to mention in this connection that one must not expect absolute
information as to what is going to happen. "Fortune-telling" is an abuse of
divination. At the utmost one can only ascertain what may reasonably be
expected. The proper function of the process is to guide one's judgment.
Diagnosis is fairly reliable; advice may be trusted, generally speaking; but
prognosis should always be cautious. The essence of the business is the
consultation of specialists.>> of the essence of the matter --- one whose
interest in it is no more (at the best) than 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 Angel 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 best for him, aid in
anything but trifles? One must therefore be prepared for disappointment 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,
complicated 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, judges them wrong, and acts wrongly upon them. One must nevertheless
persist, aspiring with ardour towards one's Angel, and comforted {170} by the
assurance that He is guiding one secretly towards Himself, and that all one's
mistakes are necessary preparations for the appointed hour of meeting Him. Each
mistake is the 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
Angel, he ought to be careful to consult Him only on questions proper to the
dignity 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 rapture of the ineffable union which constitutes Adeptship must not
be profaned by the introduction of commonplace cares. One must not appear with
one's hair in curl-papers, or complain of the cook's impertinence, if one wants
to make the most of the honeymoon.<<As the poet puts it; "Psyche, beware how
thou disclose Thy tricks of toilet to Eros, Or let him learn that those
love-breathing Lyrical lips that whisper, wreathing His brows with
sense-bewitching gold, Are equally expert to scold; That those caressing hands
will maybe Yet box his ears and slap the baby!">>
To the Adept divination becomes therefore a secondary consideration, although
he can now employ it with absolute confidence, and probably use it with far
greater frequency than before his attainment. Indeed, this is likely in
proportion as he learns that resort to divination (on every occasion when his
Will does 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
efficacious of keeping his mind untroubled by external impressions, and
therefore in the 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
define 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 without 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
subject at issue is to his own as that of an expert to a layman. The expert is
not 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 misunderstand
the expert's answer, and he may misinterpret its purport. Apart from all this,
excluding all error, both question and answer are limited in validity by their
own conditions; and these conditions are such that truth may cease to be true,
either as time goes on, or if it be flawed by the defect of failure to consider
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-births, 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
always works and always works right.<<Except in New York City.>> Divination,
with equal modesty, admits that "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 infallibility than the mining expert who considers
himself in luck if he hits the bull's eye four times in ten."
The error of all dogmatists (from the oldest prophet with his
"literally-inspired word of God" to the newest German professor with his
single-track explanation 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 facts 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
understand hardly at all, and operate only as empirics. Success for the best
diviner alive is no more certain in any particular instance than a long putt by
a champion 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 unformulated laws; while its conduct demands not only the virtues,
themselves rare enough, of intellectual and moral integrity, but intuition
combining delicacy with strength in such perfection and to such extremes as to
make its existence appear monstrous and miraculous against Nature.
To admit this is not to discredit oracles. On the contrary, the oracles fell
into disrepute just because they pretended to do more than they could. To
divine concerning a matter is little more than to calculate probabilities. We
obtain the use of minds who have access to knowledge beyond ours, but not to
omniscience. HRU, the great angel set over the Tarot, is beyond us as we are
beyond the ant; but, for all we know, the knowledge of HRU is excelled by some
mightier mind in the same proportion. Nor have we any warrant for accusing HRU
of ignorance 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
question of the sense in which an answer is true arises. One {WEH NOTE: sic,
interpolate "should"} not mix up the planes. Yet as Mr. Russell shows, "Op
Cit. p". 61, the worlds which lie behind phenomena must possess the same
structure as our own. "Every proposition having a communicable significance
must lie in just that essence of individuality which, for that very reason, is
irrelevant to science". Just so: but this is to confess the impotence of
science to attain truth, and to admit the urgency of developing a mental
instrument of superior capacity.>>
The MASTER THERION has observed on innumerable occasions that divinations,
made by him and dismissed as giving untrue answers, have justified themselves
months or years later when he was able to revise his judgment in perspective,
untroubled by his personal passion.
It is indeed surprising how often the most careless divinations give accurate
answers. When things go wrong, it is almost always possible to trace the error
to one's own self-willed and insolent presumption in insisting that events shall
accommodate themselves to our egoism and vanity. It is comically unscientific
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 often
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
interwoven. The arguments of Aristotle were dependent on the atmospheric
pressure which prevented his blood from boiling away. There is nothing in the
universe which does not influence every other thing in one way or another.
There is no reason 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 entire structure of the Universe that the observation of their fall
should not enable 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 prism
we have analysed light so that matter and force have become intelligible only
as forms of light. With a rod we have summoned the invisible energies of
electricity 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,
achieved so much, who dare deny that the Book of Thoth, the quintessentialized
wisdom of our ancestors whose civilizations, perished though they be, have left
monuments which dwarf ours until we wonder whether we are degenerate from them,
or evolved from Simians, who dare deny that such a book may be possessed of
unimaginable 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 with
his unorthodox offering. {174} There is hardly a scientific discovery in history
which was not decried as quackery by the very men whose own achievements were
scarce yet recognized by the world at large.
Within the memory of the present generation, the possibility of aeroplanes
was derisively denied by those very engineers accounted most expert to give
their opinions.
The method of divination, the "ratio" of it, is as obscure to-day as was that
of spectrum analysis a generation ago. That the chemical composition of the
fixed stars should become known to man seemed an insane imagining too ridiculous
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
secrets of mankind and nature. We cannot say why divination is valid. We
cannot trace the process by which it performs it marvels.<<The main difference
between a Science and an Art is that the former admits mensuration. Its
processes must be susceptible of the application of quantitative standards. Its
laws reject imponderable variables. Science despises Art for its refusal to
conform with calculable conditions. But even to-day, in the boasted Age of
Science, man is still dependent on Art as to most matters of practical
importance to him; the arts of Government, of War, of Literature, etc. are
supremely influential, and Science does little more than facilitate them by
making their materials mechanically docile. The utmost extension of Science can
merely organize the household of Art. Art thus progresses in perception and
power by increased control or automatic accuracy of its details. The MASTER
THERION has made an Epoch in the Art of Magick by applying the Method of Science
to its problems. His Work is a contribution of unique value, comparable only
to that of those men of genius who revolutionized the empirical guesswork of
"natural philosophers". The Magicians of to-morrow will be armed with
mathematical theory, organized observation, and experimentally-verified
practice. But their Art will remain inscrutable as ever in essence; talent will
never supplant genius. Education is impotent to produce a poet greater than
Robert Burns; the perfection of laboratory apparatus prepares indeed the path
of a Pasteur, but cannot make masters of mediocrities.>> But the same objections
apply equally well to the telephone. No man knows what electricity is, or the
nature of the forces which determine its action. We know only that by doing
certain things we get certain results, and that the least error {175} on our
part will bring our work to naught. The same is exactly true of divination.
The difference 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 success than in the case of the latter.
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{176}
CHAPTER XIX
OF DRAMATIC RITUALS.
The Wheel turns to those effectual methods of invocation employed in the
ancient Mysteries and by certain secret bodies of initiates to-day. The object
of them is almost invariably<<The word is unwarrantably universal. It would not
be impracticable to adopt this method to such operations as Talismanic Magick.
For example, one might consecrate and charge a Pantacle by the communication by
AIWAZ to the Scribe of the BOOK of the LAW, the Magician representing the Angel,
the Pantacle being the Book, and the person on whom the Pantacle is intended to
act taking the part of the Scribe.>> the invocation of a God, that God conceived
in a more or less material and personal fashion. These Rituals are therefore
well suited for such persons as are capable of understanding the spirit of
Magick as opposed to the letter. One of the great advantages of them is that
a large number 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
and invocations should be avoided, but action should be very full. Such
ceremonies should be carefully rehearsed; but in rehearsals care should be taken
to omit 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
themselves at the supreme moment. Following the climax there should always be
an unrehearsed 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
climax 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
periods of silence.
It will be noticed that in these Rites poetry and music were largely employed
--- mostly published pieces by well-known authors and composers. It would be
better<<"PERHAPS! One can think of certain Awful Consequences". "But, after
all, they wouldn't seem so to the authors!" "But --- pity the poor Gods!"
"Bother the Gods!">> to write and compose specially for the ceremony<<A body of
skilled Magicians accustomed to work in concert may be competent to conduct
impromptu Orgia. To cite an actual instance in recent times; the blood of a
Christian being required for some purpose, a young cock was procured and
baptized into the Roman Catholic Church by a man who, being the son of an
ordained Priest, was magically an incarnation of the Being of that Priest, and
was therefore congenitally possessed of the powers thereto appurtenant. The
cock, "Peter Paul," was consequently a baptized Christian for all magical
purposes. Order was then taken to imprison the bird; which done, the Magicians
assuming respectively the characters of Herod, Herodias, Salome, and the
Executioner, acted out the scene of the dance and the beheading, on the lines
of Oscar Wilde's drama, "Peter Paul" being cast for the part of John the
Baptist. This ceremony was devised and done on the spur of the moment, and its
spontaneity and simplicity were presumably potent factors in its success.
On the point of theology, I doubt whether Dom Gorenflot sucessfully avoided
eating meat in Lent by baptizing the pullet a carp. For as the sacrament ---
by its intention, despite its defects of form --- could not fail of efficacy,
the pullet must have become a Christian, and therefore a human being. Carp was
therefore only its baptized name --- cf. Polycarp --- and Dom Gorenflot ate
human flesh in Lent, so that, for all he became a bishop, he is damned.>>.
---------
{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, and
consuming them.
So far, it is a type of every magick ceremony, for the reabsorption of the
force is a kind of consumption; but it has a more restricted application, as
follows.
Take a substance<<This may be of composite character.>> symbolic of the whole
course of nature, make it God, and consume it.
There are many ways of doing this; but they may easily be classified
according 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
is 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,
although not officially recognized as such, this Eucharist has been described
in detail and without concealment, "somewhere" in the published writings of the
MASTER THERION. But He has told no one where. It is reserved for the highest
initiates, and is synonymous with the Accomplished Work on the {179} material
plane. 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 eternal mother; the chalice is in effect the Cup of our Lady Babalon
Herself; the 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.
(There 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
Liber 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
upon dead matter.
The Eucharist of "three" elements has for basis the symbols of the three
Gunas. For Tamas (darkness) take opium or nightshade or some sleepy medicine;
for Rajas (activity) take strychnine or other excitant; for Sattvas (calm) the
cakes of Light may again be suitable.<<The Cakes of Light are universally
applicable; they contain meal, honey, and oil (carbohydrates, fats, and
proteids, the three necessaries of human nutrition): also perfume of the three
essential types of magical and curative virtue; the subtle principle of animal
life itself is fixed in them by the introduction of fresh living blood.>>
The Eucharist of "four" elements consists of fire, air, water, and earth.
These 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
flame for sight, a bell for sound, and a dagger for touch. This sacrament is
implied in the Mass of the Phoenix in a slightly different form. {180}
The Eucharist of "six" elements has Father, Son, and Holy Spirit above;
breath, water, and blood beneath. It is a sacrament reserved for high
initiates.<<The Lance and the Graal are firstly dedicated to the Holy Spirit of
Life, in Silence. The Bread and Wine are then fermented and manifested by
vibration, and received by the Virgin Mother. The elements are then
intermingled and consumed after the Epiphany of Iacchus, when "Countenance
beholdeth Countenance).>>
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
Temple 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 method of consecration reserved for initiates of high rank, of which it
is here unlawful 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 more
material benefit may be obtained.
The highest sacrament, that of One element, is universal in its operation;
according to the declared purpose of the work so will the result be. It is a
universal Key of all Magick.
These secrets are of supreme practical importance, and are guarded in the
Sanctuary with a two-edged sword flaming every way<<J.K.Husmans, who was afraid
of them, and tried to betray the little he knew of them, became a Papist, and
died of cancer of the tongue.>>; for this sacrament is the Tree of Life itself,
and whoso partaketh of the fruit thereof shall never die<<The use of the Elixir
of Life is only justifiable in peculiar circumstances. To go counter to the
course of natural Change is to approximate perilously to the error of the "Black
Brothers".>>.
Unless he so will. Who would not rather work through incarnation; a real
renewal of body and brain, than content himself with a stagnant immortality upon
this mote in the Sunlight of the Universe which we call earth? {181}
With regard to the preparations for such Sacraments, the Catholic Church has
maintained well enough the traditions of the true Gnostic Church in whose
keeping the secrets are.<<Study, in the Roman Missal, the Canon of the Mass, and
the chapter of "defects".>>
Chastity<<The Word Chastity is used by initiates to signify a certain state
of soul and of mind determinant of a certain habit of body which is nowise
identical with what is commonly understood. Chastity in the true magical sense
of the word is inconceivable to those who are not wholly emancipated from the
obsession of sex.>> is a condition; fasting for some hours previous is a
condition; an earnest and continual aspiration is a condition. Without these
antecedents even the Eucharist of the One and Seven is partially --- though such
is its intrinsic virtue that it can never be wholly --- baulked of its effect.
A Eucharist of some sort should most assuredly be consummated daily by every
magician, and he should regard it as the main sustenance of his magical life.
It is of more importance than any other magical ceremony, because it is a
complete 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.
Little 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
very 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
can be. To a Magician thus renewed the attainment of the Knowledge and
Conversation 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} ecstasy 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
the continuity of nature and the uniformity of Law, He will feel that His work
has 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
subject 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 particular case of the general proposition --- differing from
evocatory and talismanic 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
suffice 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"<<This
etymology differs from that given by Skeat; I can do no more than present my
submission.>>. A rough translation would be "The Egyptian matter". The
assumption is that the Mohammedan grammarians held traditionally that the art
was derived from that wisdom 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
chemical. The most reasonable opinion is that all these objects formed the
pre-occupation of the alchemists in varying proportions. Hermes is alike the
god of Wisdom, Thaumaturgy, therapeutics, and physical science. All these may
consequently claim the title Hermetic. It cannot be doubted that such writers
as Fludd 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
consideration, although his greatest achievements seem to modern thinkers to
have been rather his discoveries of opium, zinc, and hydrogen; so that we tend
to think of him as a chemist no less than we do of Van Helmont, whose conception
of gas 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
partially unintelligible. Its treatises, from the "Asch Metzareph" of the
Hebrews to the "Chariot of Antimony" are deliberately couched in hieratic
riddles. Ecclesiastical persecution, and the profanation of the secrets of
power, were equally dreaded. Worse still, from our point of view, this motive
induced writers to insert intentionally misleading statements, the more deeply
to bedevil unworthy 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
virtues; in particular, those of healing disease, extending the span of life,
increasing human abilities, perfecting the nature of man in every respect,
conferring magical powers, and transmuting material substances, especially
metals, into more valuable forms.
The subject is further complicated by the fact that many authors were
unscrupulous quacks. Ignorant of the first elements of the art, they
plagiarized without shame, and reaped a harvest of fraudulent gain. They took
advantage of the general ignorance, and the convention of mystery, in just the
same way as their modern successors do in the matter of all Occult sciences.
But despite all this, one thing is abundantly clear; all serious writers,
though they seem to speak of an infinity of different subjects, so much so that
it has proved impossible for modern analytic research to ascertain the true
nature of any single process, were agreed on the fundamental theory on which
they based their practices. It appears at first sight as if hardly any two of
them were in accord as to the nature of the "First Matter of the work". {184}
They describe 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 the final product or products.
Yet beneath this diversity, we may perceive an obscure identity. They all
begin with a substance in nature which is described as existing almost
everywhere, and as universally esteemed of no value. The alchemist is in all
cases to take 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 substance 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, valueless, and powerless, and transform it into a live thing,
active, invaluable and thaumaturgic.
The reader of this book will surely find in this a most striking analogy with
what we have already said of the processes of Magick. What, by our definition,
is initiation? The First Matter is a man, that is to say, a perishable
parasite, 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
consists in removing his impurities, and finding in his true self an immortal
intelligence to whom matter is no more than the means of manifestation. The
initiate is 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, intensifies 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 impurities therefrom, prevents all interference
therewith, and proceeds to give life to the subtle substance thus prepared by
instilling his soul. {185}
Once again, there is nothing in this exclusively "magical". Rembrandt van
Ryn used to take a number of ores and other crude objects. From these he
banished the impurities, and consecrated them to his work, by the preparation
of canvasses, 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 every possible circumstance.
We are now in a position to understand what alchemy is. We might even go
further 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
thing. It has been the great stumbling block to modern research that the
statements of alchemists cannot be explained away. From the chemical standpoint
it has seemed not "a priori" impossible that lead should be turned into gold.
Our recent 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.<<See R.K.Duncan, "The New Knowledge", for a
popularisation of recent results.
Aleister Crowley held this doctrine in his teens at a period when it was the
grossest heresy.>> Organic Chemistry, with its metatheses and syntheses
dependent 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
heterogeneity of the elements. The doctrines of Evolution have brought the
alchemical and 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 divided them from the mineral.
But even though the advanced chemist might admit the possibility of
transmuting lead into gold, he could not conceive of that {186} gold as other
than metallic, of the same order of nature as the lead from which it had been
made. That this gold should possess the power of multiplying itself, or of
acting as a ferment upon other substances, seemed so absurd that he felt obliged
to conclude that the alchemists who claimed these properties for their Gold
must, after all, have been referring not to Chemistry, but to some spiritual
operations whose sanctity demanded some such symbolic veil as the cryptographic
use of the language of the laboratory.
The MASTER THERION is sanguine that his present reduction of all cases of the
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 the
Truth from any "First Matter", the "Stone" or "Elixir" which results from our
labours will be the pure and perfect Individual originally inherent in the
substance chosen, and nothing else. The most skilful gardener cannot produce
lilies from the wild rose; his roses will always be roses, however he have
perfected the properties of this stock.
There is here no contradiction with our previous thesis of the ultimate unity
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 are not
interchangeable to the extent that they are individual modifications; the
initiate Hobbs is not the initiate Nobbs any more than Hobbs the haberdasher is
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 aniline,
and use sugar instead. Thus the Alchemists said: "To make gold you must take
gold"; their art was to bring each substance to the perfection of its own proper
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
Himself. This is the guarantee that he is uncontaminated by alien elements.
The {187} "Elixir" must possess the activity of a "nascent" substance, just as
"nascent" 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 will not attack combustible materials with the vehemence proper to the
pure gas.
We may summarize this thesis by saying that Alchemy includes as many possible
operations as there are original ideas inherent in nature.
Alchemy resembles evocation in its selection of appropriate material bases
for the manifestation of the Will; but differs from it in proceeding without
personification, or the intervention of alien planes.<<Some alchemists may
object to this statement. I prefer to express no final opinion on the matter.>>
It may be more closely compared with Initiation; for the effective element of
the Product is of the essence of its own nature, and inherent therein; the Work
similarly consists in isolating it from its accretions.
Now just as the Aspirant, on the Threshold of Initiation, finds himself
assailed by the "complexes" which have corrupted him, their externalization
excruciating him, and his agonized reluctance to their elimination plunging him
into such 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
discover the "Black Dragon", the "Green Lion", the "Lunar Water", the "Raven's
Head", and so forth. The indications above given should suffice all who possess
aptitude for Alchemical Research.
Only one further reflection appears necessary; namely, that the Eucharist,
with 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 THERION
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; also,
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 universal
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 to
propel one's brougham; one works by measured application of one's powers to
intelligent 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 (or
rate of vibration) whose manifestation is in characteristic metallic qualities.
This need not be a chemical substance at all in the ordinary sense of the word.
The Elixir of Life will similarly consist of a living organism capable of
growth, at the expense of its environment; and of such a nature that its "true
Will" 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
the Alchemist. This substance, properly prepared, and properly charged, is able
to perform all things soever that are physically possible, within the limits of
the proportions of its momentum to the inertia of the object to which it is
applied.
It may be observed in conclusion that, in dealing with forms of Matter-Motion
so subtle as these, it is not enough to pass the Pons Asinorum of intellectual
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
the preparation is not all; there is need to be judicious in the manipulation,
and 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
nature.
{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
operation 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
power over the Four Great Princes and their servitors.<<See the Book of the
Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.>>
If the magician needs to perform any other operation than this, it is only
lawful 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,<<There is
nevertheless the general objection to the diversion of channels of Initiation
to the Sea of Attainment, into ditches of irrigation for the fields of material
advantage. It is bad business to pay good coin for perishable products; like
marrying for money, or prostituting poetic genius to political purposes. The
converse course, though equally objectionable as pollution of the purity of the
planes, is at least respectable for its nobility. The ascetic of the Thebaid
or the Trappist Monastery is infinitely worthier than the health-peddler and
success-monger of Boston or Los Angeles; for the one offers temporal trash to
gain eternal wealth, while the other values spiritual substance only as enabling
him to get better bodily conditions, and a firmer grip on the dollars.>> or
almost so. It is not evil in {190} itself. It arises from a defect of
understanding. Until the Great Work has been performed, it is presumptuous for
the magician to pretend 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 foresight 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 things
except just so far as he is doing the Work which he is sent to do. Why should
he struggle against imprisonment, banishment, death? It is all part of the game
in which he is a pawn. "It was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer these
things, and to enter into His glory."
The Master of the Temple is so far from the man in whom He manifests that all
these matters are of no importance to Him. It may be of importance to His Work
that man shall sit upon a throne, or be hanged. In such a case He informs his
Magus, who exerts the power intrusted to HIm, and it happens accordingly. Yet
all happens naturally, and of necessity, and to all appearance without a word
from Him.
Nor will the mere Master of the Temple, as a rule, presume to act upon the
Universe, save as the servant of his own destiny. It is only the Magus, He of
the 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.<<Equinox I, VII, 5-9.>>
There are, of course, entirely black forms of magic. To him who has not
given every drop of his blood for the cup of BABALON {191} all magic power is
dangerous. There are even more debased and evil forms, things in themselves
black. Such is the use of spiritual force to material ends. Christian
Scientists, Mental Healers, Professional Diviners, Psychics and the like, are
all "ipso facto" Black Magicians.
They exchange gold for dross. They sell their higher powers for gross and
temporary 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<<See Liber 418, and study it well, in this matter. Equinox
I, V,
Supplement.>>. These are they who "shut themselves up", who refuse their 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
gregarious huddling valley-bound sheep. Then those who have well learned the
lessons 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
crown 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
themselves up; and when the force that made them what they are is exhausted,
their strong towers fall, they become the Eaters of Dung in the Day of
Be-with-us, and their shreds, strewn in the Abyss, are lost.
Not so the Masters of the Temple, that sit as piles of dust in the City of
the Pyramids, awaiting the Great Flame that shall consume that dust to ashes.
For the blood that they have surrendered is treasured in the Cup of OUR LADY
BABALON, a mighty {192} medicine to awake the Eld of the All-Father, and redeem
the Virgin of the World from her virginity.
II
Before leaving the subject of Black Magic, one may touch lightly on the
question 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 unity
would be a God<<"The Devil" is, historically, the God of any people that one
personally dislikes. This has led to so much confusion of thought that THE
BEAST 666 has preferred to let names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply
that AIWAZ --- the solar-phallic-hermetic "Lucifer" is His own Holy Guardian
Angel, and "The Devil" SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the Starry
Universe. This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods
of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade "Know Thyself!" and taught
Initiation. He is "the Devil" of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET,
the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection. The number of His Atu
is XV, which is Yod He, the Monogram of the Eternal, the Father one with the
Mother, the Virgin Seed one with all-containing Space. He is therefore Life,
and Love. But moreover his letter is Ayin, the Eye; he is Light, and his
Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty.
(Note that the "Jehovah" of the Hebrews is etymologically connected with these.
The classical example of such antinomy, one which has led to such disastrous
misunderstandings, is that between NU and HAD, North and South, Jesus and John.
The subject is too abstruse and complicated to be discussed in detail here. The
student should consult the writings of Sir R. Payne Knight, General Forlong,
Gerald Massey, Fabre d'Olivet; etc. etc., for the data on which these
considerations are ultimately based.)>>.
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
calling 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 Angel 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
hell. "My adepts stand upright, their heads above the heavens, their feet below
the hells."<<Liber XC, verse 40. See The Equinox.>>
This is the reason why the magician who performs the Operation of the "Sacred
Magic of Abramelin the Mage", immediately after attaining to the Knowledge and
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
to 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
"dirty money"!
With regard to Pacts, they are rarely lawful. There should be no bargain
struck. 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
are hardly ever allowable.<<Notwithstanding, there exist certain bodies of
spiritual beings, in whose ranks are not only angelic forces, but elementals,
and even daemons, who have attained to such Right Understanding of the Universe
that they have banded themselves together with the object of becoming
Microcosms, and realize that their best means to this end is devotion to the
service of the true interests of Mankind. Societies of spiritual forces,
organized on these lines, dispose of enormous resources. The Magician who is
himself sworn to the service of humanity may count upon the heartiest help of
these Orders. Their sincerity may always be assured by putting them to the test
of the acceptance of the Law of Thelema. Whoso denies "Do what thou wilt shall
be the whole of the Law" confesses that he still clings to the conflict in his
own nature; he is not, and does not want to be, true to himself. "A fortiori",
he will prove false to you.>> No Power which is not {194} a microcosm in itself
--- and even archangels reach rarely to this centre of balance --- is fit to
treat on an equality with Man. The proper study of mankind is God; with Him is
his business; and with Him alone. Some magicians have hired legions of spirits
for 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
compacts. "The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof".
III
The operations of Magick art are difficult to classify, as they merge into each
other, owing to the essential unity of their method and result. We may mention:
1. Operations such as evocation, in which a live spirit is brought from dead
matter.
2. Consecrations of talismans in which a live spirit is bound into "dead"
matter and vivifies the same.
3. Works of divination, in which a live spirit is made to control operations
of the hand or brain of the Magician. Such works are accordingly most
dangerous, to be used only by advanced magicians, and then with great care.
4. Works of fascination, such as operations of invisibility, and
transformations of the apparent form of the person or thing concerned. This
consists almost altogether in distracting the attention, or disturbing the
judgment, of the person whom it is wished to deceive. There are, however,
"real" transformations of the adept himself which are very useful. See the Book
of the Dead for methods. The assumption of God-Forms can be carried to the
point of actual transformation.
5. Works of Love and Hate, which are also performed (as {195} a rule) by
fascination. These works are too easy; and rarely useful. They have a nasty
trick 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 to
destroy. One may employ spirits or talismans. The more powerful magicians of
the last few centuries have employed books.
In private matters these works are very easy, if they be necessary. An adept
known to The MASTER THERION once found it necessary to slay a Circe who was
bewitching brethren. He merely walked to the door of her room, and drew an
Astral T ("traditore", and the symbol of Saturn) with an astral dagger. Within
48 hours she shot herself.<<As explained above, in another connexion, he who
"destroys" any being must accept it, with all the responsibilities attached, as
part of himself. The Adept here in question was therefore obliged to
incorporate the elemental spirit of the girl --- she was not human, the sheath
of a Star, but an advanced planetary daemon, whose rash ambition had captured
a body beyond its capacity to conduct --- in his own magical vehicle. He
thereby pledged himself to subordinate all the sudden accession of qualities ---
passionate, capricious, impulsive, irrational, selfish, short-sightedness,
sensual, fickle, crazy, and desperate, to his True Will; to discipline,
co-ordinate and employ them in the Great Work, under the penalty of being torn
asunder by the wild horses which he had bound fast to his own body by the act
of "destroying" their independent consciousness and control of their chosen
vehicle. See His Magical Record An XX, Sun in Libra and onward.>>
7. Works of creation and dissolution, and the higher invocations.
There are also hundreds of other operations;<<Examples of Rituals for several
such purposes are given in the Equinox.>> to bring wanted objects --- gold,
books, women and the like; to open locked doors, to discover treasure; to swim
under water; to have armed men at command --- etc., etc. All these are really
matters of detail; the Adeptus Major will easily understand how to perform them
if necessary.<<Moral: become an Adeptus Major!>> {196}
It should be added that all these things happen "naturally".<<The value of the
evidence that your operations have influenced the course of events is only to
be assessed by the application of the Laws of probability. The MASTER THERION
would not accept any one single case as conclusive, however improbable it might
be. A man might make a correct guess at one chance in ten million, no less than
at one in three. If one pick up a pebble, the chance was infinitely great
against that particular pebble; yet whichever one was chosen, the same chance
"came off". It requires a series of events antecedently unlikely to deduce that
design is a work, that the observed changes are causally, not casually,
produced. The prediction of events is further evidence that they are effected
by will. Thus, any man may fluke a ten shot at billiard, or even make a break
of a few strokes. But chance cannot account for consistent success, even if
moderate, when it extends over a long period of time. And the ability of the
expert to "name his shot" manifests a knowledge of the relations of cause and
effect which confirms the testimony of his empirical skill that his success is
not chance and coincidence.>> Perform an operation 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 advertised in vain for a year; woman
--- but if you have made the spirits bring you enough gold, this operation will
become unnecessary.<<This cynical statement is an absurdity of Black Magic.>>
It must further be remarked that it is absolute Black Magic to use any of
these 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
Major 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 their
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
obtain 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,
it may be useful to evoke the "shade" of such a one, or read the "Akasic record"
of his mind.<<The only minds likely to be useful to the Magician belong to
Adepts sworn to suffer reincarnation at short intervals, and the best elements
of such minds are bound up in the "Unconscious Self" of the Adept, not left to
wander idly about the Astral Plane. It will thus be more profitable to try to
get into touch with the "Dead Teacher" in his present avatar. Moreover, Adepts
are at pains to record their teaching in books, monuments, or pictures, and to
appoint spiritual guardians to preserve such heirlooms throughout the
generations. Whenever these are destroyed or lost, the reason usually is that
the Adept himself judges that their usefulness is over, and withdraws the forces
which protected them. The student is therefore advised to acquiesce; the
sources of information available for him are probably selected by the Wardens
of Mankind with a view to his real necessities. One must learn to trust one's
Holy Guardian Angel to shape one's circumstances with skill. If one be but
absorbed in the ardour of one's aspiration toward Him, short indeed is the time
before Experience instils the certain conviction that His works and His ways are
infinitely apt to one's needs.>>
If this be done it must be done properly very much on the lines of the
evocation of Apollonius of Tyana, which Eliphas Levi performed.<<See Rituel et
Dogme de la Haute Magie; Rituel, ch. XIII.>>
The utmost care must be taken to prevent personation of the "shade". It is
of 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,
save 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 themselves
perfectly passive, and, so far from employing any methods of protection,
deliberately invite all and sundry spirits, demons, shells of the dead, all the
excrement and filth of earth and hell, to squirt their slime over them. This
invitation is readily accepted, unless a clean man be present with an aura good
enough to frighten these foul denizens of the pit.
No spiritualistic manifestation has ever taken place in the {198} presence
even of FRATER PERDURABO; how much less in that of The MASTER THERION!<<Even the
earliest Initiations confer protection. Compare the fear felt by D. D. Home for
Eliphas Levi. See Equinox I, X, "The Key of the Mysteries".>>
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
and the foulest mouth. He would break off any conversation to tell a stupid
smutty story, and could hardly conceive of any society assembling for any other
purpose 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 mass 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 your
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!<<It occurs in certain rare cases that a very unusual degree of personal
purity combined with integrity and force of character provides even the ignorant
with a certain natural defence, and attracts into his aura only intelligent and
beneficent entities. Such persons may perhaps practise spiritualism without
obvious bad results, and even with good results, within limits. But such
exceptions in no wise invalidate the general rule, or in any way serve as
argument against the magical theory outlined above with such mild suasion.>>
{199}
V
Of the powers of the Sphinx much has been written.<<In Liber CXI (Aleph) the
subject is treated with profound and all-comprehensive wisdom.>> Wisely they
have been kept in the forefront of true magical instruction. Even the tyro can
always rattle off that he has to know, to dare to will and to keep silence. It
is difficult 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
depends on adaptation to environment. If an animal which cannot swim is
occasionally 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 learns 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 you
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
series of constantly repeated blows until the proper reaction became normal to
the 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 drill
it. For this reason, all the best minds have been trained by preliminary study
of classics and mathematics.
The same principle applies to the training of the body. The original
exercises 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,
concentration of which will unfit them for other tasks by depriving them of the
elasticity which is the proper condition of life.<<Some few forms of exercise
are exempt from these strictures. Rock-climbing, in particular, trains every
muscle in an endless variety of ways. It moreover compels the learner to use
his own judgment, to rely on himself, to develop resource, and to depend upon
his own originality to attack each new problem that presents itself. This
principle may be extended to all departments of the education of children. They
should be put into contact with all kinds of truth, and allowed to make their
own reflections thereon and reactions thereto, without the least attempt to bias
their judgment. Magical pupils should be trained on similar lines. They should
be made to work alone from the first, to cover the whole ground impartially, to
devise their own experiments and draw their own conclusions.>>
In Magick and meditation this principle applies with tremendous force. It
is 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
accordance with their wills. What must be done is to drill the Aspirant in the
hard routine 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
strongly that any amount of mystical success whatever is no compensation for
slackness 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 original training remains an asset. In other words, the person who has
made himself 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 notes
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 an
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 our
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
as 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
to 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
attitude about the matter. If you go to a Hindu teacher, he treats you as less
than an earthworm. You have to do this, and you have to do that, and you are
not allowed to know why you are doing it.<<This does not conflict with the
"go-as-you-please" plan put forward in the previous note. An autocratic Adept
is indeed a blessing to the disciple, not because he is able to guide the pupil
"aright" in the particular path which happens to suit his personality, but
because he can compel the beginner to grind away at the weariest work and thus
acquire all-round ability, and prevent him from picking out the plums which
please him from the Pie of Knowledge, and making himself sick of a surfeit of
sweets to the neglect of a balanced diet of wholesome nourishment.>>
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 argue
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.
Nevertheless, this body must be developed and trained with exactly the same
rigid discipline as the brain in the case of mysticism. The essence of the
technique 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,
by 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
every 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 travel to the spheres of Jupiter and Venus, or even to explore the 30
Aethyrs, neglecting unattractive meridians.<<The Aspirant should remember that
he is a Microcosm. "Universus sum et Nihil universi a me alienum puto" should
be his motto. He should make it his daily practice to travel on the Astral
Plane, taking in turn each of the most synthetic sections, the Sephiroth and the
Paths. These being thoroughly understood, and an Angel in each pledged to guard
or to guide him at need, he should start on a new series of expeditions to
explore the subordinate sections of each. He may then practice Rising on the
Planes from these spheres, one after the other in rotation. When he is
thoroughly conversant with the various methods of meeting unexpected
emergencies, he may proceed to investigate the regions of the Qliphoth and the
Demonic Forces. It should be his aim to obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the
entire Astral Plane, with impartial love of truth for its own sake; just as a
child learns the geography of the whole planet, though he may have no intention
of ever leaving his native land.>> {203}
The object is to possess a Body which is capable of doing easily any
particular task that may lie before it. There must be no selection of special
experience 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
explain these things to Him. He was rather encouraged in unsystematic working.
Very 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
sense to recognize the universal application of those principles, was able to
some extent to repair His original defects. But even to this day, despite the
fact that His original inclination is much stronger towards Magick than towards
mysticism, he is much less competent in Magick.<<Reconsideration of these
remarks, at the request of a loyal colleague, compels Him to admit that this may
not be the case, It is true that He has been granted all Mystical Attainment
that is theoretically possible, while His powers in Magick seem to be uneven and
imperfect. Despite this, it may yet be that He has compassed the Possible. For
Mystical Attainments are never mutually exclusive; the trance of Sorrow (for
example) is not incompatible with the Beatific Vision, or the "Universal Joke".
But in Magick any one Operation debars its performer from accomplishing some
other. The reason of this is that the Oath of any Work bonds the Magician once
and for all to be the principles implied therein. See Chapter XVI Part I.
Further, it is obviously possible to reach the essence of anything without
interfering with other things which obstruct each other. Crosscountry journeys
are often scarcely practicable.>> A trace of this can be seen even in His
method of combining the two divisions of our science, for in that method He
makes concentration bear the Cross of the work.
This is possibly an error, probably a defect, certainly an impurity of
thought, and the root of it is to be found in His original bad discipline with
regard 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 been
investigated. {204}
Very different is His record after the training in 1901 e.v. had put Him in
the way of discipline.<<Recent developments have enabled Him to correct these
conditions,
so that this Book (as now finally revised for the Press) may be considered
practically free from serious defect in this particular.>>
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 regular
development of the being of the Aspirant by steady scientific work; he should
not attempt to run before he can walk; he should not wish to go somewhere until
he knows for certain whither he wills to go.
---------
{205}
APPENDIX I.
The reader will find excellent classical examples of rituals of Magick in The
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
Encyclopaedia of Initiation.
Collected Works of A. Crowley. These works contain many mystical and magical
secrets, both stated clearly in prose, and woven into the robe of sublimest
poesy.
The Yi King. (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press.) The "Classic of
Changes"; gives the initiated Chinese system of Magick.
The Tao Teh King. (S.B.E. Series.) gives the initiated Chinese system of
Mysticism.
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", expounds
a system of Attainment.
The Voice of the Silence, by H. P. Blavatsky, with an elaborate commentary
by Frater O. M.
The Goetia. The most intelligible of the mediaeval rituals of Evocation.
Contains 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
Buddhist classics.
The Questions of King Milinda. (S.B.E. Series.) Technical points of Buddhist
dogma, illustrated by dialogues.
Varieties of Religious Experience. (James.) Valuable as showing the
uniformity of mystical attainment.
Kabbala Denudata, von Rosenroth: also the Kabbalah Unveiled, by S. L.
Mathers.
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
Gnostic Philosophy.
The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, reprint of Franz Hartmann. An
invaluable 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
to 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
corrective 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
make a critical examination of them; not so much with the idea of discovering
where truth lies, for he cannot do this except by virtue of his own spiritual
experience, but rather to discover the essential harmony in those varied works.
He should be on his guard against partisanship with a favourite author. He
should familiarize himself thoroughly with the method of mental equilibrium,
endeavouring to contradict any statement soever, although it may be apparently
axiomatic.
The general object of this course, besides that already stated, is to assure
sound education in occult matters, so that when spiritual illumination comes it
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,
instead of becoming an Adept, becomes a bigot and fanatic. {211}
The A.'. A.'. does not offer examination in this course, but recommends these
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
suggestions about Magick.
The Blossom and the Fruit, by Mabel Collins. Valuable for its account of the
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
elementals.
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
vampires.
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
understand the Qabalah.
The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll. Valuable to those who understand
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
occidental 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
Gotama Buddha.
The Rosicrucians, by Hargrave Jennings. Valuable to those who can read
between the lines.
The Real History of the Rosicrucians, by A. E. Waite. A good vulgar piece
of journalism on the subject.
The Works of Arthur Machen. Most of these stories are of great magical
interest.
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
Sin-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
mysticism.
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.
Interesting for traditions treated.
Redgauntlet, by Sir Walter Scott. Also one or two other novels. Interesting
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
of 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.
Many 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
taken, 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
suggest many helpful lines of thought.
It has been impossible to do more, in this list, than to suggest a fairly
comprehensive 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.'.<<The Name of the Order and those of its
three divisions are not disclosed to the profane. Certain swindlers have
recently stolen the initials A.'. A.'. in order to profit by its reputation.>>.
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 both
universal and unique. {230} They move in accordance with their own Wills, which
are each unique, yet coherent with the universal will.
They perceive (that is, understand, know, and feel) in love, which is both
unique and universal.
2. The order consists of eleven grades or degrees, and is numbered as
follows: these compose three groups, the Orders of the S. S., of the R. C., and
of the 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
employed to designate the grades.)
The general characteristics and attributions of these Grades are indicated
by 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
Solomon the King", Equinox I to X and elsewhere.
It should be stated that these Grades are not necessarily attained fully, and
in strict consecution, or manifested wholly on all planes. The subject is very
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, 13th,
12th, 11th, 10th, and 9th Aethyrs in particular.
All members of the Order are in full possession of the Formulae of
Attainment, 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
Order, 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 no longer within the Order.
Members of the Order are each entitled to found Orders dependent on
themselves on the lines of the R. C. and G. D. orders, to cover types of
emancipation and illumination not contemplated by the original (or main) system.
All such orders 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
Order, as they may deem fitting.
Every active Member of the Order has destroyed all that He is and all that
he has on crossing the Abyss; but a star is cast forth in {233} the Heavens to
enlighten 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
determined 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
propriety permits. Here it is only said this: The Ipsissimus is wholly free
from all limitations soever, existing in the nature of all things without
discriminations of quantity or quality between them. He has identified Being
and not-Being 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 without conditions.
He is sworn to accept this Grade in the presence of a witness, and to express
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 life
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
is, 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
the 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 the
Word and the Fool".
5. The Grade of Magus is described in Liber I vel Magi, and there are
accounts 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
Creative 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
place 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
useless 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
Aleph.
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
word, 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
entirely 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 Change (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
Falsehood, 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
indicated. There are full accounts in the Magical Diaries of the Beast 666, who
was 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
which limits and oppresses his true self.
The Magister Templi is pre-eminently the Master of Mysticism, that is, His
Understanding is entirely free from internal contradiction or external
obscurity; His word is to comprehend the existing Universe in accordance with
His own Mind. He is the Master of the Law of Sorrow (Dukkha).
To attain the grade of Magus he must accomplish Three 235} Tasks; the
renunciation of His enjoyment of the Infinite so that he may formulate Himself
as the Finite; the acquisition of the practical secrets alike of initiating and
governing His proposed new Universe and the identification of himself with the
impersonal idea of Love. Any neophyte of the Order (or, as some say, any person
soever) 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
unworthy 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
Grade in the proper sense, being rather a passage between the two Orders. Its
characteristics are wholly negative, as it is attained by the resolve of the
Adeptus Exemptus to surrender all that he has and is for ever. It is an
annihilation of all the bonds that compose the self or constitute the Cosmos,
a resolution 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 on, 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
the Universe, and his proposals for its welfare and progress. He will thus be
known as the leader of a school of thought.
(Eliphas Levi's "Clef des Grands Mysteres," the works of Swedenborg, von
Eckarshausen, 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
devote himself utterly to helping his fellow creatures.
To attain the Grade of Magister Templi, he must perform two tasks; the
emancipation 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
abandonment of himself and his attainments. He cannot remain indefinitely an
Exempt Adept; he is pushed onward by the irresistible momentum that he has
generated.
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 BABALON,
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 as 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 efforts
to insulate and protect himself, and to aggrandise himself by predatory
practices. He may indeed prosper for a while, but in the end he must perish,
especially when with a new Aeon a new word is proclaimed which he cannot and
will not 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)
of the second rank.
His work is to use these to support the authority of the Exempt Adept his
superior. (This is not to be understood as an obligation of personal
subservience 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 orderly work.)
To attain the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus, he must accomplish Three Tasks; the
acquisition of absolute Self-Reliance, working in complete isolation, yet
transmitting the word of his superior clearly, forcibly and subtly; and the
comprehension and use of the Revolution of the wheel of force, under its three
successive forms of Radiation, Conduction and Convection (Mercury, Sulphur,
Salt; or Sattvas, 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 dispute or complaint; he must employ to this end the formula called
"The Beast conjoined with the Woman" which establishes a new incarnation of
deity; as in the legends of Leda, Semele, Miriam, Pasiphae, and others. He must
set up this ideal 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
Conversation 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 personal 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, he 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 needs 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 that
his superiors enjoin, and his genius dictates.
To attain the Grade Adeptus Major, he must accomplish two tasks; the
equilibration 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 wander from the way of his True Will.
Secondly, he must keep silence, while he nails his body to the tree of his
creative 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 should
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 legs.
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
particular 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
Rite 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
instructions 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
has 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."
They 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
essays 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
immediate inferior of the person in question has been fitted by him to take his
place.
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
other 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
prevent 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<<This
book is published in the Equinox Vol. III No. 2 ---- Addenda by WEH: No, it
isn't. Vol. III, 2 didn't get out of printer's proofs and was not published.
The book in question was finally published in Regardie's "Gems from the
Equinox".>>, and there is no need to amplify what is there stated. It must
however, be carefully 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.<<Liber 185 need not be quoted at length. It is needful only to say
that the Aspirant is trained systematically and comprehensively in the various
technical practices which form the basis of Our Work. One may become expert in
any or all of these without necessarily making any real progress, just as a man
might be first-rate at grammar, syntax, and prosody without being able to write
a single line of good poetry, although the greatest poet in soul is unable to
express himself without the aid of those three elements of literary
composition.>>
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 has
been above set forth. There is however an absolute prohibition to accept money
or other material reward, directly or indirectly, in respect of any service
connected with the Order, for personal profit or advantage. The penalty is
immediate expulsion, with no possibility of reinstatement on any terms soever.
But all members must of necessity work in accordance with the facts of
Nature, just as an architect must allow of the Law of Gravitation, or a sailor
reckon 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, and
the sole Rule of Life.<<This is not in contradiction with the absolute right of
every person to do his own true Will. But any True Will is of necessity in
harmony with the facts of Existence; and to refuse to accept the Book of the Law
is to create a conflict within Nature, as if a physicist insisted on using an
incorrect formula of mechanics as the basis of an experiment.>> 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<<"Their Will" --- not, of course,
their wishes as individual human beings, but their will as officers of the New
Aeon.>> as concentrating the Will of our Whole Order. They must accept the
Crowned and Conquering Child as the Lord of the Aeon, and exert themselves to
establish 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
will."
Each member must make it his main work to discover for himself his own true
will, and to do it, and do nothing else.<<It is not considered "essential to
right conduct" to be an active propagandist of the Law, and so on; it may, or
may not, be the True Will of any particular person to do so. But since the
fundamental purpose of the Order is to further the Attainment of humanity,
membership implies, by definition, the Will to help mankind by the means best
adapted thereto.>>
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. This
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 him
light in his ways, and liberty to pursue them. Thus doing, he payeth his debt
to the Law that hath freed him by working its will to free all men; and he
proveth himself a true man in our Order by willing to bring his fellows into
freedom.
By thus ordering his disposition, he will fit himself in the best possible
manner 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
Order, the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian
Angel.
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 Manhood
and Godhead; teach him to Know that agony, to Dare that destiny, to Will that
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
Order 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
purified of every poison of personality; its ascent to the highest is assured,
in its season, and it hath no need of seasons for it is conscious that all
conditions 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
whatever 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
progress, 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
other tasks are not always accomplished in the order given here; one man, for
example, may acquire many of the qualities peculiar to the Adeptus Major, and
yet lack some of those proper to the Practicus.<<The natural talents of
individual differ very widely. The late Sir Richard Jebb, one of the greatest
classical scholars of modern times, was so inferior to the average mediocrity
in mathematics, that despite repeated efforts he could not pass the "little go"
at Cambridge --- which the dullest minds can usually do. He was so deeply
esteemed for his classics that a special "Grace" was placeted so as to admit him
to matriculation. Similarly a brilliant Exorcist might be an incompetent
Diviner. In such a case the A.'. A.'. would refuse to swerve from Its system;
the Aspirant would be compelled to remain at the Barrier until he succeeded in
breaking it down, though a new incarnation were necessary to permit him to do
so. But no technical failure of any kind soever could necessarily prevent him
from accomplishing the Two Critical Tasks, since the fact of his incarnation
itself proves that he has taken the Oath which entitled him to attain to the
Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, and the annihilation of
this Ego. One might therefore be an Adeptus Minor or even a Magister Templi,
in essence, though refused official recognition by the A.'. A.'. as a Zelator
owing to (say) a nervous defect which prevented him from acquiring a Posture
which was "steady and easy" as required by the Task of that grade.>> But the
system here given shows {243} 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 necessity 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 gap in one's defences may admit the enemy at the very
turning-point of some battle. 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 failure --- one's own failure also! No step, however well
won for oneself, till he is ready for his own advance!
Every Member of the A.'. A.'. must be armed at all points, and expert with
every weapon. The examinations in every Grade are strict and severe; no loose
or vague answers are accepted. In intellectual questions, the candidate must
display 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
Asana, for instance, the candidate must remain motionless for a given time, his
success being gauged by poising on his head a cup filled with water to the brim;
if he spill one drop, he is rejected.
He is tested in "the Spirit Vision" or "Astral Journeying" by giving him a
symbol unknown and unintelligible to him, and he must interpret its nature by
means of a vision as exactly as if he had read its name and description in the
book when it was chosen.
The power to make and "charge" talismans is tested as if they were scientific
instruments of precision, as they are.
In the Qabalah, the candidate must discover for himself, and prove to the
examiner beyond all doubt, the properties of a number never previously examined
by 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
least as visible and tangible as the heaviest vapours; in divination, the answer
must be as precise as a scientific thesis, and as accurate as an audit; in
meditation, 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 both
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 integrity
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
knowledge, and if its secrets are not everywhere known and practised, it is
because the abuses connected with the name of occult science disincline official
investigators to examine the evidence at their disposal.
This paper has been written not only with the object of attracting individual
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
knowledge.
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
Seventeenth Year of the Aeon of Horus, the Sun being in 23 Degree Virgo and the
Moon in 14 Degree Pisces.
{244}