The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

EDITORIAL Secret Chief 8°=3° to publish the knowledge and rituals of the Order (a) in order to destroy the value of that knowledge, so that the new knowledge to be revealed by himself might have room to grow (6) in order to stop the frauds of Mathers, which were a disgrace to arcane science. The secrecy of his rituals, and of the MSS. in the custody of Dr. Wynn Westcott, was essential to the carrying on of these frauds. (8) I was unable to comply with these orders until I had found a person competent to edit the enormous mass of papers. I showed my hand to some extent, how- ever, in various references to the Order in my books. And now the task is accomplished. (9) My defence against the accusation of having revealed secrets entrusted to me is then threefold. (a) Secrets cannot be revealed, or even com- municated from one person to another. (4) One is not bound by an oath taken to any person who is a swindler trading upon the sanctity of one’s oath to carry on his frauds. Especially is this the case when the person responsible for administering the oath assures you that it is “in no way contrary to your civil, moral, and religious obligations.” (c) I was not, in any case, bound to Mathers, but to the Secret Chiefs, by whose direct orders I caused the rituals to be published. I wish expressly to dissociate from my strictures on 5