Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

(2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate. (3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postuîate hâve not been fulfilled. (Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the right manner, as when one présents a chèque at the wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.) (4) The first requisite for causing any change is ihorough qualitative and quantitative understanding of the conditions. (Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one’s own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfil that ill. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to that career.) (5) The second requisite of causing any change is the practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces. (Illustration: A banker may hâve a perfect grasp of a given situation, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary to take advantage of it.) (6) “Every man and every woman is a star’. That is to say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion. ( 7 ) Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, cornes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly. XVIII