Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 3)

is impossible to lay down précisé rules by which a man may attain to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel ; for that is the particular secret of each one of us; a secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother’s God, or the Rite that invokes Him. The Masters of the A A .*. hâve therefore made no attempt to institute any regular ritual for this central Work of their Order, save the generalised instructions in Liber 418 (the 8th Aethyr) and the detailed Canon and Rubric of the Mass actually used with suc- cess by Frater Perdurabo in His attainment. This has been written down by Himself in Liber Samekh. But they hâve published such accounts as those in The Terrifie of Solomon the King and in John St. John. They hâve taken the only proper course; to train aspirants to this attainment in the theory and prac¬ tice of the whole of Magick and Mysticism, so that each man may be expert in the handling of ail known weapons, and free to choose and to use those which his own expérience and instinct dictate as proper when he essays the Great Experiment. He is furthermore trained to the one habit essential to Member- ship of the A.'. A.'.; he must regard ail his attainments as primarily the property of those less advanced aspirants who are confided to his charge. No attainment soever is officially recognised by the A.*. A.*, unless the immédiate inferior of the person in question has been fitted by him to take his place. The rule is not rigidly applied in ail cases, as it would lead to congestion, especially in the lower grades where the need is greatest, and the conditions most confused; but it is never relaxed in the Order of the R. C. or of the S. S. : save only in One Case. There is also a rule that the Members of the A A shall not know each other officially, save only each Member his superior who introduced him and his inferior whom he has himself introduced. This rule has been relaxed, and a “Grand Néophyte” appointed to superintend ail Members of the Order of the G. D. The real object of the rule was to prevent Members of the same Grade — 239 —