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looked. No villa was visible. I said so. She had to agree; yet stuck to her point that she saw it. I 
subsequently returned to that spot and found that a short section of wall, perhaps fifteen feet of 
narrow edge of masonry, is just perceptible through a gap in the vegetation. We drove on; we came 
to a tiny piazza, on one side of which was a church. "That is the square and the church", she 
exclaimed, "that I saw in my dream!" 
We drove on. The lane became narrower, rougher and steeper. Little more than a hundred yards 
ahead it was completely "up", blocked with heaps of broken stone. The chauffeur protested that he 
would be able neither to turn the car nor to back it up to the square. Virakam, in a violent rage, 
insisted on proceeding. I shrugged my shoulders. I had got accustomed to these typhoons. 
We drove on a few yards. Then the chauffeur made up his mind to revolt and stopped the car. On 
the left was a wide open gate through which we could see a gang of workmen engaged in pretending 
to repair a ramshackle villa. Virakam called the foreman and asked in broken Italian if the place was 
to let. He told her no; it was under repair. With crazy confidence she dragged him within and forced 
him to show her over the house. I sat in resigned disgust, not deigning to follow. Then my eyes 
suddenly saw down the garden, two trees close together. I stooped. Their tops appeared. They were 
Persian nuts! The stupid coincidence angered me, and yet some irresistible instinct compelled me to 
take out my notebook and pencil and jot down the name written over the gate --- Villa Caldarazzo. 
Idly, I added up the letters 6 + 10 + 30 + 30 + 1 and 20 + 1 + 30 + 4 + 1 + 200 + 1 + 7 + 7 + 70. Their 
sum struck me like a bullet in my brain. It was 418, the number of the Magical Formula of the Aeon, 
a numerical hieroglyph of the Great Work! Ab-ul-Diz had made no mistake. My recognition of the 
right place was not to depend on a mere matter of trees, which might be found almost anywhere. 
Recognition beyond all possibility of doubt was what he promised. He had been as good as his word. 
I was entirely overwhelmed. I jumped out of the car and ran up to the house. I found Virakam in the 
main room. The instant I entered I understood that it was entirely suited for a Temple. The walls 
were decorated with crude frescoes which somehow suggested the exact atmosphere proper to the 
Work. The very shape of the room seemed somehow significant. Further, it seemed as if it were 
filled with a peculiar emanation. This impression must not be dismissed as sheer fancy. Few men 
but are sufficiently sensitive to distinguish the spiritual aura of certain buildings. It is impossible not 
to feel reverence in certain cathedrals and temples. The most ordinary 
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dwelling-houses often possess an atmosphere of their own; some depress, some cheer; some 
disgust, others strike chill to the heart. 
Virakam of course was entirely certain that this was the villa for us. Against this was the positive 
statement of the people in charge that it was not to be let. We refused to accept this assertion. We 
took the name and address of the owner, dug him out, and found him willing to give us immediate 
possession at a small rent. We went in on the following day and settled down almost at once to 
consecrate the Temple and begin the book. 
The idea was a follows. I was to dictate; Virakam to transcribe, and if at any point there appeared 
the slightest obscurity --- obscurity from the point of view of the entirely ignorant and not 
particularly intelligent reader; in a word, the average lower-class man in the street --- I was to 
recast my thoughts in plainer language. By this means we hoped to write a book well within the 
compass of the understanding of even the simplest- minded seeker after spiritual enlightenment. 
Part One of Book Four expounds the principles and practice of mysticism in simple scientific terms 
stripped of all sectarian accretion, superstitious enthusiasms or other extraneous matter. It proved 
completely successful in this sense. 
Part Two deals with the principles and practice of Magick. I explained the real meaning and modus 
operandi of all the apparatus and technique of Magick. Here, however, I partially failed. I was 
stupid enough to assume that my readers were already acquainted with the chief classics of Magick. 
I consequently described each Weapon, explained it and gave instructions for its use, without