Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

Oath of love, and therefore would never be able to murder her later, as we find to be the not uncommon case. The explanation is as follows. It is perfectly true that when Bill Sykes desires to possess Nancy, he does in fact evoke a spirit of the nature of Venus, constraining him by his Oath of Love (and by his magical power as a man) to bring him the girl. So also, when he wants to kiJl her, he evokes a Martial or Saturnian spirit, with an Oath of hâte. But these are not pure planetary spints, moving in well- dehned spneres by rigidlv righteous laws. They are gross concré¬ tions of confused impulses, “incapable of understanding the nature of an oath”. They are also such that the idea of murder is nowise offensive to the Spirit of Love. It is indeed the cntenon of spiritual caste that conflicting éléments should not coexist in the same consciousness. The psalm- singing Puritan who persécutes publicans, and secretly soaks himself in hre-water; the bewhiskered philanthropist in broad- cloth who swindles his customers and sweats his employées: these men must not be regarded as single-minded scoundrels, whose use of religion and respectability to cioke their villainies is a deliberate disguise dictated by their criminal cunning. Far from it, they are only too sincere in their “virtues”; their terror of death and of supernatural vengeance is genuine; it proceeds from a section of themselves which is in irreconcilable conflict with their rascality. Neither si de can conciliate, suppress, or ignore the other; yet each is so craven as to endure its enemy’s presence. Such men are therefore without pure principles; they excuse themselves for every dirty trick that turns to their apparent advantage. The first step of the Aspirant toward the Gâte of Initiation tells him that purity — unity of purpose — is essential above ail else. “Do what thou Wilt” strikes on him, a ray of berce white flame consuming ail that is not utterly God. Very soon he is aware that he cannot consciously contradict himself. He develops a subtle sense which warns him that two trains of thought which he had never conceived as connected are incompatible. Yet deeper drives “Do what thou wiit”$ subconscious oppositions are evoked to visible appearance. The secret sanctuaries of the soûl are cleansed. “Do What thou Wilt” purges his every part. He has become One, one only. His Will is consequently released from 125 —