Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 3)

himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the order to which he aspires. He must then décidé upon the critical adventure of our Order ; the absolute abandonment of himself and his attainments. He can- not remain indefinitely an Exempt Adept; he is pushed onward by the irrésistible momentum that he has generated. Should he fail, by will or weakness, to make his self-annihilation absolute, he is none the less thrust forth into the Abyss; but instead of being received and reconstructed in the Third Order, as a Babe in the womb of our Lady Babalon, under the Night of Pan, to grow up to be Himself wholly and truly as He was not previously, he remains in the Abyss, secreting his éléments round his Ego as if isolated from the Universe, and becomes what is called a “Black Brother”. Such a being is gradually disintegrated from lack of nourishment and the slow but certain action of the attraction of the rest of the Universe, despite his now desperate efforts to insulate and protect himself, and to aggrandise himself by predatory practices. He may indeed prosper for a while, but in the end he must perish, especially when with a new Aeon a new Word is pro- claimed which he cannot and will not hear, so that he is handi- capped by trying to use an obsolète method of Magick, like a man with a boomerang in a battle where every one else has a rifle. 9. The Grade of Adeptus Major confers Magical Powers (strictly so-called) of the second rank. His work is to use these to support the authority of the Exempt Adept his superior. (This is not to be understood as an obligation of personal subservience or even loyalty; but as a neces- sary part of his duty to assist his inferiors. For the authority of the Teaching and Governing Adept is the basis of ail orderly work. ) To attain the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus, he must accomplish Three Tasks; the acquisition of absolute Self-Reliance, working in complété isolation, yet transmitting the word of his superior clearly, forcibly and subtlv; and the compréhension and use of the Révolution of the wheel of force, under its three successive forms of Radiation, Conduction and Convection (Mercury, Sulphur, Sait ; or Sattvas, Rajas, Tamas), with their corresponding natures on ~ 237 —