Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

It wiJl now be apparent that there is no distinction between magick and méditation except of the most arbitrary and accidentai kind. 1 II Beside these open methods there 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 recom- mended in Liber O, and learn to rise on the planes according to the instruction given in the same book, though limiting his arising” 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 LIis shape. This last method îs really essential to ail 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 Suprême Invocation to consist of 20 or 30 barbarous liâmes, let hirn imagine these liâmes to occupy sections of a vertical column, each double the length of the preceding one 5 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 ecstasy. I11 the essay “Energized Enthusiasm” in No. IX, Vol. 1 of the Equinox 2 is given a concise account of one of the classical methods of arousing Kundalini. This essay should be studied with care and détermination. 1. There is the general metaphysical antithesis that Magick is the Art of the Will-to-Live, Mysticism of the Will-to-Die; but—“Truth cornes bubbling to my brim; Life and Death are one to Him!”. 2. The earliest and truest Christians used what is in ail essentials this method. See “Fragments of a Faith Forgotten” by G. R. S. Mead, Esa. B. A., pp. 80-81. There is a real connexion between what the vulgar call blasphemy and 131 —