Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 4)

nothing until brought into relation with other things. The first step is to distinguish one thought from another; this is the condi¬ tion of recognizing it. To define it, we must perceive its orientation to ali our other ideas. The extent of our knowledge of any one thing varies therefore with the number of ideas with which we can compare it. Every new fact not only adds itself to our universe, but increases the value of what we already possess. In AL this “The” or “God” arranges for “Countenance to behold countenance”, by establishing itself as an equilibrium, A the One- Naught conceived as L the Two-Naught. This L is the Son- Daughter Horus-Harpocrates just as the other L was the Father- Mother Set-Isis. Here then is Tetragrammaton once more, but expressed in identical équations in which every term is perfect in itself as a mode of Naught. ShT supplies the last element; making the Word of either five or six letters, according as we regard ShT as one letter or two. Thus the Word affirms the Great Work accomplished : 5° = 6D- ShT is moreover a necessary resolution of the apparent opposi¬ tion of LA and AL, for one could hardly pass to the other without the catalytic action of a third identical expression whose function should be to transmute them. Such a term must be in itself a mode of Naught, and its nature cannot encroach on the perfections of Not-Being, LA, or of Being, AL. It must be purely Nothing- Matter, so as to create a Matter-in-Motion which is a function of “Something”. Thus ShT is Motion in its double phase, an inertia composed of two opposite currents, and each current is also thus polarized. Sh is Heaven and Earth, T Male and Female j ShT is Spirit and Matter- one is the Word of Liberty and Love flashing its Light to restore Life to Earth j the other is the act by which Life daims that Love is Light and Liberty. And these are Two-in-One, the divine letter of Silence-in-Speech whose Symbol is the Sun in the arms of the Moon. But Sh and T are alike formulae of force in action as opposed to entities; they are not States of existence, but modes of motion. They are verbs, not nouns. Sh is the Holy Spirit as a “tongue of fire” manifest in triplicity, — 337 —