Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

Angel. Moreover, it is to abandon the only person who really knows, and really cares, in favour of one who by the nature of the case, must be ignorant1 of the essence of the matter — one whose interest in it is no more (at the best) than that of a well- meaning stranger. It should go without saying that until the Magician has attained to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel he is liable to endless déceptions. He does not know Himself; how can he explain his business to others ? How can those others, though they do their best for him, aid in anything but tri fies ? One must therefore be prepared for dis- appointment at every stage until one attains to adeptship. This is especially true of divination, because the essence of the horror of not knowing one’s Angel is the utter bewilderment and anguish of the mind, complicated by the persécution of the body, and envenomed by the ache of the soûl. One puts the wrong ques¬ tions, and puts them wrong 3 gets the wrong answers, judges them wrong, and acts wrongly upon them. One must nevertheless persist, aspiring with ardour towards one’s Angel, and comforted I. No intelligence of the type that opérâtes divination is a complété Microscosm as Man is. He knows in perfection what lies within his own Sphere, and little or nothing beyond it. Graphiel knows ail that is know- able about Martial matters, as no Man can possibly do. For even the most Martial man is limited as to Madim by the fact that Mars is only one element in his molécule; the other éléments both inhibit concentration on their colleague, and veil him by insisting on his being interpreted in refer- ence to themselves. No entity whose structure does not include the entire Tree of Life is capable of the Formulae of Initiation. Graphiel, consulted by the Aspirants to Adeptship, would be bound to regard the Great Work as purely a question of Combat, and ignore ail other considérations. His advice wouid be absolute on technical points of this kind; but its very perfection would persuade the Aspirant to an unbalanced course of action which would entail failure and destruction. It is pertinent to mention in this connection that one must not expect absolute information as to what is going to happen. “Fortune-telling” is an abuse of divination. At the utmost one can only ascertain what may reasonably be expected. The proper function of the process is to guide one’s judgrnent. Diagnosis is fairly reliable; advice may be trusted, generally speaking; but prognosis should always be cautious. The essence of the business is the consultation of specialists.