Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

summing up; it is fatally easy to slur over unpleasantness, and to breathe on the tiniest spark that promises to kindle the tinder — the rotten rags! —of hope. The concluding operation is therefore to obtain a judgment of the figure, independent of ail iutellectual or moral restraint. One must endeavour to appreliend it as a thing absolute in itself. One must treat it, in short, very much the same as one did the question $ as a mystical entity, till now unrelated with other phenomena. One must, so to speak, adore it as a god, uncritically: aSpeak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” Il must be allowed to impose iis intrinsic individuality on the mind, to put its fingers independently on whatever notes it pleases. In this way one obtains an impression of the true purport of the answerj and one obtains it armed with a sanction superior to any sensible suggestions. It cornes from and to a part of the individual which is independent of the influence of environment ; is adjusted to that environment by true necessity, and not by the artifices of such adaptations as our purblind conception of convenience induces us to fabricate. The student will observe from the above that divination is in one sense an art entirely separate from that of Magick; y et it interpénétrâtes Magick at every point. The fundamental laws of both are identical. The right use of divination has already been explained; but it must be added that proficiency therein, tremendous as is its importance in furnishing the Magician with the information necessary to his strategical and tactical plans, in no wise enables him to accomplish the impossible. It is not within the scope of divination to predict the future (for example) with the certainty of an astronomer in calcuiating the return of a cornet. 1 There is always much virtue in divination ; for (Shakespeare assures us!) there is “much virtue in IF”! In estimating the ultimate value of a divinatory judgment, one must allow for more than the numerous sources of error inhérent I. The astronomer himself has to enter a caveat. He can only calculate the probability on the observed facts. Some force might interfère with the anticipated movement. — 167