Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 3)

Lastly, Magick is a Pyramid, built layer by layer. The work of the Body of Light — with the technique of Yoga — is the foundation of the whole. One’s appréhension of the Astral Plane must be accurate, for Angels, Archangels, and Gods are derived therefrom by analysis. One must hâve pure materials if one wishes to brew pure beer. If one hâve an incomplète and incorrect view of the uni verse, how can one find out its laws? Thus, original omission or error tends to extend to the higher planes. Suppose a Magician, invoking Sol, were persuaded by a plausible spirit of Saturn that he was the Solar Intelligence required, and bade him eschew human love if he would attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel; and suppose that his will, and that AngePs nature, were such that the Crux of their Formula was Lyrical Exaltation! Apart from the regular tests —- made at the time — of the integrity of any spirit, the Magician must make a careful record of every vision, omitting no detail ; he must then make sure that it tallies in every point with the correspondences in Book 777 and in Liber D. Should he find (for instance) that, having invoked Mercury, his vision contains names whose numbers are Martial, or éléments proper to Pisces, let him set himself most earnestly to discover the source of error, to correct it, and to prevent its récurrence. But these tests, as implied above, will not serve to detect personation by self-suggested phantasms. Unless one’s aura be a welter of muddled symbols beyond récognition, the more auto- hypnotic the vision is, the more smoothly it satisfies the seer’s standards. There is nothing to puzzle him or oppose him; so he spins out his story with careless contempt of criticism. He can always prove himself right; the Qabalah can always be stretched; and Red being so nearly Orange, which is really a shade of Yellow, and Yellow a component of Green which merges into Blue, what harm if a Fiend in Vermilion appears instead of an Angel in Azuré? The true, the final test, of the Truth of one’s visions is their Value. The most glorious expérience on the Astral plane, let it dazzle and thrill as it may, is not necessarily in accordance with - 254