Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

Such a word was indeed the lost Tetragrammaton \ It is said that at the utterance of this name the Universe crashes into dis¬ solution. Let the Magician eamestly seek this Lost Word, for its pronunciation is synonymous with the accomplish- ment of the Great Work. 1 2 In this matter of the efficacity of words there are again two formulæ exactly opposite in nature. A word may become potent and terrible by virtue of constant répétition. It is in this way that most religions gain strength. At first the statement “So and so is God” excites no interest. Continue, and you meet scora and scepticism: possibly persécution. Continue, and the controversy has so far died out that no one troubles to contradict your assertion. No superstition is so dangerous and so lively as an exploded superstition. The newspapers of to-day (written and edited almost exclusively by men without a spark of either religion or morality) dare not hint that any one disbelieves in the ostensibly prevailing cuit j they déploré Atheism — ail but universal in practice and implicit in the theory of practically ail intelligent people — as if it were the eccentricity of a few negligible or objectionable persons. This is the ordinary story of advertisement ; the sham has exactly the same chance as the real. Persistence is the only quality required for success. The opposite formula is that of secrecy. An idea is perpetuated because it must never be mentioned. A Freemason never forgets the secret words entrusted to him, though these words mean, absolutely nothing to him, in the vast majority of cases; the only reason for this is that he has been forbidden to mention them, although they hâve been published again and again, and are as accessible to the profane as to the initiate. In such a work of practical Magick as the preaching of a new 1. The Master Therion has received this Word; it is communicated by Him to the proper postulants, at the proper time and place, in the proper circumstances. 2. Each man has a different Great Work, just as no two points on the circumference of a circle are connected with the centre by the same radius. The Word will be correspondingly unique. 71 —