Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

unshakeable mental picture of the god is présent to the mind. Similarly, the attributes of the god are enshrined in speech, and such speeches are committed perfectly to memory. The invoca¬ tion will then begin with a prayer to the god, commemorating his physical attributes, always with profound understanding of their real meaning. In the second fart of the invocation, the voice of the god is heard, and His characteristic utterance is recited. In the thirâ fortion of the invocation the magician asserts the identity of himself with the god. In the fourth fortion the god is again invoked, but as if by Himself, as if it were the utterance of the will of the god that He should manifest in the magician. At the conclusion of this, the original object of the invocation is stateci. Th us, in the invocation of Thoth which is to be found in the rite of Mercury (Equinox I, VI) and in Liber LXIV, the first part begins with the words “Majesty of Godhead, wisdom- crowned TAHUTI, Thee, Thee I invoke. Oh Thou of the Ibis head, Thee, Thee I invoke”$ and so on. At the conclusion of this a mental image of the God, infinitely vast and infinitely splendid, should be perceived, in just the same sense as a man might see the Sun. The second part begins with the words: '“Behold! I am yesterday, to~day, and the brother of to- morrow.” The magician should imagine that he is hearing this voice, and at the same time that he is echoing it, that it is true also of himself. This thought should so exalt him that he is able at its conclusion to utter the sublime words which open the third part: “Behold! he is in me, and I am in him.” At this moment, he loses con- sciousness of his mortal being; he is that mental image which he previously but saw. This consciousness is only complété as he goes on: “Mine is the radiance wherein Ptah floateth over his firmament. I travel upon high. I tread upon the firmament of Nu. I raise a flashing flame with the lightnings of mine eye: ever rushing on in the splendour of the daily glorified Ra — giving my life to the treaders of Earth ! ” This thought gives the relation of God and Man from the divine point of view. The magician is only recalled to himself at the conclusion of the — 18 —