The Goetia

PREFATORY NOTE. A.G.R.C. A.R.C.G. Tus translation of the First Book of the “ Lemegeton ” (now for the first time made accessible to English adepts and students of the Mysteries) was done, after careful collation and edition, from numer- ous MSS. in Hebrew, Latin, French and English, by G. H. Fra. D.D.C.F., by the order of the Secret Chief of the Rosicrucian Order... The G. H. Fra., having succumbed unhappily to the assaults of the Four Great Princes (acting notably under Martial influences), it seemed expedient that the work should be brought to its conclusion by another hand. ‘The investigations of a com- petent Skryer into the house of our unhappy Fra., confirmed this divination; neither our Fra. nor his Hermetic Mul. were there seen; but only the terrible shapes of the evil Adepts S.V.A.? and 1 Mr. A. E. Waite writes (“Real History of the Rosicrucians,” p. 426): “I beg leave to warn my readers that all persons who proclaim themselves to be Rosicrucians are simply members of pseudo-fraternities, and that there is that difference between their assertion and the fact of the case in which the essence of a lie consists!” It is within the Editor’s personal knowledge that Mr. Waite was (and still is probably) a member of a society claiming to be the R.C. fraternity. As Mr. Waite constantly hints in his writings that he is in touch with initiated centres, I think the syllogism, whose premisses are given above, is fair, if not quite formal.—ED. 2 It was owing to our Fra. receiving this $.V.A. as his Superior, and giving up the Arcana of our Fraternity into so unhallowed a power, that We decided no longer to leave Our dignity and authority in the hands of one who could be thus easily imposed upon. (For bya childish and easy magical trick did S.V.A. persuade D.D.C.F. of that lie.) Vv