John St. John

PROLOGUE IT hath appeared unto me fitting to make a careful and even an elaborate record of this Great Magical Retirement, for that in the first place I am now certain of obtaining some Result therefrom, as I was never previously certain. Previous records of mine have therefore seemed vague and obscure, even unto the wisest of the scribes; and I am myself afraid that even here all my skill of speech and study may avail me little, so that the most important part of the record will be blank. Now I cannot tell whether it is a part of my personal Kamma, or whether the Influence of the Equinox of Autumn should be the exciting cause; but it has usually been at this part of the year that my best Results have occurred. It may be that the physical health induced by the summer in me, who dislike damp and chill, may bring forth as it were a flower the particular kind of Energy—Sammavayamo—Which gives alike the desire to perform more definitely and exclu- sively the Great Work, and the capacity to achieve success. It is in any case remarkable that I was born in October (IS—); suffered the terrible mystic trance which turned me toward the Path in October (IS—); applied for admission to G D in October (18—); opened my temple at B—e in 7