Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

the référencé is usually not to the actual planets, but to parts of the earth which are of the nature attributed to these planets. Thus, when we say that Nakhiel is the “Intelligence” of the Sun, we do not mean that he lives in the Sun, but only that he has a certain rank and character; and although we can invoke hinij we do not necessarily mean that he exists in the same sense of the Word in which our butcher exists. When we “conjure Nakhiel to visible appearance,” it may be that our process resembles création — or, rather imagination — more nearly than it does calling-forth. The aura of a man is called the “magical mirror of the universe”; and, so far as any one can tell, nothing exists outside of this mirror. It is at least convenient to represent the whole as if it were subjective. It leads to less confusion. And, as a man is a perfect microcosm,1 it is perfectly easy to re-model one’s conception at any moment. Now there is a traditional correspondance, which modem experiment has shown to be fairly reliable. There is a certain natural connexion between certain letters, words, numbers, gestures, sliapes, perfumes and so on, so that any idea or (as we might call it) “spirit”, may be com- posed or called forth by the use of those things which are harmonious with it, and express particular parts of its nature. These correspondences hâve been elaborately mapped in the Book 777 in a very convenient and compendious form. It will be necessary for the student to make a careful study of this book in connexion with some actual rituals of Magick, for example, I. He is this only by définition. The universe may contain an infinité variety of worlds inaccessible to human appréhension. Yet, for this very reason, they do not exist for the purposes of the argument. Man has, how- ever, some instruments of knowledge; we may, therefore, define the Macro- cosm as the totality of things possible to his perception. As évolution deve- lops those instruments, the Macrocosm and the Microcosm extend; but they always maintain their mutual relation. Neither can possess any meaning except in terrns o£ the other. Our ^d^^veries^ are exactly as much of ourselves as they are of Nature. America and Electricity did, in a sense, exist before we were aware of them; but they are even now no more than incomplète ideas, expressed in symbolic terrns of a sériés of relations between two sets of inscrutable phenomena. 8