415
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given in three ways. The gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in intellect, and the 
lofty chosen ones in the highest. ... (V.50) 
The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the blind ones. Refuse none, but thou shalt know 
& destroy the traitors. I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am powerful to protect my servant. ... (cap. III, 
v.42) 
These "blind" ordeals presumably refer to such tests of fitness as that of which we have been telling. 
In the ancient mysteries it was possible to appoint formal ordeals. A young man would go into the 
Temple to be initiated and he would know perfectly well that his life might depend on his proving 
himself worthy. Nowadays he candidate knows that his initiators will not murder him, and any 
ordeal proposed by them obviously appears a pure formality. In Freemasons' Hall he can swear quite 
cheerfully to keep silence under the penalty of having his throat cut across, his tongue torn out, and 
all the rest of it; the oath becomes a farce. 
In the A.'. A.'., which is a genuinely Magical Order, there are no extravagant oaths. The candidate is 
pledged quite simply to himself only, and his obligation binds him merely "to obtain the scientific 
knowledge of the nature and powers of my own being". There is no penalty attached to the breach 
of this resolution; yet, just as this resolution is in contrast with the oaths of other orders in respect 
of simplicity and naturalness, so also with regard to the penalties. To break away from the A.'. A.'. 
does actually involve the most frightful dangers to life, liberty and reason. The slightest mistake is 
visited with the most inexorable justice. 
What actually happens is this. When a man ceremonially affirms his connection with the A.'. A.'. he 
acquires the full powers of the whole Order. He is enabled from that moment to do his true will to 
the utmost without interference. He enters a sphere in which every disturbance is directly and 
instantly compensated. He reaps the reward of every action on the spot. This is because he has 
entered what I may call a fluid world, where every stress is adjusted automatically and at once. 
Thus, normally, suppose a man like Sir Robert Chiltern (in An Ideal Husband) acts venally. His sin is 
visited upon him, not directly, but after many years and in a manner which has no evident logical 
connection with his offence. If Chiltern had been a probationer of A.'. A.'. his action would have 
been balanced at once. He had sold an official secret for money. He would have found within a few 
days that one of his own secrets had been betrayed, with disastrous consequence to himself. But 
furthermore, having switched on a current of disloyalty, so to speak, he would have found disloyalty 
damaging him again and again, until he had succeeded in destroying in himself the very possibility 
of ever again being disloyal. It would be superficial to regard this apparently exaggerated penalty as 
unjust. It is not sufficient 
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to pay and eye for an eye. If you have lost your sight, you do not stumble over something once; you 
keep on stumbling, again and again, until you recover your sight. 
The penalties of wrong-doing are applied not by the deliberate act of the Chiefs of the order; they 
occur in the natural course of events. I should not even care to say that these events were arranged 
by the Secret Chiefs. The method, if I understand it correctly, may perhaps be illustrated by an 
analogy. Suppose that I had been warned by Eckenstein always to test the firmness of a rock before 
trusting my weight to it. I neglect this instruction. It is quite unnecessary for Eckenstein to go all 
over the world and put unreliable rocks in my way --- they are there; and I shall come across them 
almost every time I go out climbing, and come to more or less grief whenever I meet them. In the 
same way, if I omit some magical precaution, or make some magical blunder, my own weakness will 
punish me whenever the circumstances determine the appropriate issue. 
It may be said that this doctrine is not a matter of Magick by of common sense. True, but Magick "is" 
common sense. What, then, is the difference between the Magician and the ordinary man? This,