Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

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. 21