known to us; and as our knowledge and understanding of those 
facts increase, so should we endeavour to adjust our idea of what 
we mean by any symbol. 
At the same time let us reflect that there is a certain definite 
consensus of expérience as to the corrélation of the various 
beings of the hierarchy with the observed facts of Magick. 
In the simple matter of astral vision, for example, one striking 
case may be quoted. 
Without telling him what it was, the Master Therion once 
recited as an invocation Sappho’s “Ode to Venus” before a Proba- 
tioner of the A.-. A.\ who was ignorant of Greek, the language 
of the Ode. The disciple then went on an “astral journey,” and 
everything seen by him was without exception harmonious with 
Venus. This was true down to the smallest detail. He even 
obtained ail the four colour-scales of Venus with absolute 
correctness. Considering that he saw something like one hundred 
symbols in ail, the odds against coincidence are incalculably great. 
Such an expérience (and the records of the A.’. A.*, contain dozens 
cf similar cases) alfords proof as absolute as any proof can be in 
this world of Illusion that the correspondences in Liber 777 really 
represent facts in Nature. 
It suggests itself that this “straightforward” System of magick 
was perhaps never really employed at ail. One might maintain 
that the invocations which hâve corne down to us are but the ruins 
of the Temple of Magick. The exorcisms might hâve been 
committed to writing for the purpose of memorising them, while 
it was forbidden to make any record of the really important parts 
of the ceremony. Such details of Ritual as we possess are meagre 
and unconvincing, and though much success h as been attained in 
the quite conventional exoteric way both by Frater Perdu- 
rabo and by many of his colleagues, yet ceremonies of this 
character hâve always remained tedious and difficult. It lias 
seemed as if the success were obtained almost in spite of the 
ceremony. In any case, they are the more mysterious parts of the 
Ritual which hâve evoked the divine force. Such conjurations as 
those of the “Goetia” leave one cold, although, notably in the 
second conjuration, there is a crude attempt to use that formula 
of Commémoration of which we spoke in the preceding Chapter. 
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