Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

gold as other than metallic, of the same order of nature as the lead from which it had been made. That this gold should possess the power of multiplying itself, or of acting as a ferment upon other substances, seemed so absurd that he felt obliged to conclude that the alchemists who claimed these properties for their Gold must, after ail, hâve been referring not to Chemistry, but to some spiritual operations whose sanctity demanded some such symbolic veil as the cryptographie use of the language of the laboratory. The Master Therion is sanguine that his présent réduction of ail cases of the art of Magick to a single formula will both elucidate and vindicate Alchemy, while extending chemistry to cover ail classes of Change. There is an obvious condition which limits our proposed operations. This is that, as the formula of any Work eflfects the extraction and visualization of the Truth from any “First Matter”, the “Stone” or “Elixir” which results from our labours will be the pure and perfect Individual originally inhérent in the substance chosen, and nothing else. The most skilful gardener cannot produce lilies from the wild rose; his roses will always be roses, however he hâve perfected the properties of his stock. There is here no contradiction with our previous thesis of the ultimate unity of ail substance. It is true that Hobbs and Nobbs are both modifications of the Pleroma. Both vanish in the Pleroma when they attain Samadhi. But they are not interchangeable to the extent that they are individual modifications ; the initiate Hobbs is not the initiate Nobbs any more than Hobbs the haberdasher is Nobbs of “the nail and sarspan business as he got his money by”. Our skill in producing aniline dyes does not enable us to dispense with the original aniline, and use sugar instead. Thus the Alchemists said : “To make gold you must take gold”; their art was to bring each substance to the perfection of its own proper nature. No doubt, part of this process involved the withdrawal of the essence of the “First Matter” within the homogeneity of “Hyle”, just as initiation insists on the annihilation of the individual in the Impersonal Infinity of Existence to emerge once more as a less confused and deformed Eidolon of the Truth of Himself. This is the guarantee that he is uncontaminated by alien éléments. The 187 -