Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

VI The M agi cal Memory. I There is no more important task than the exploration of one’s previous incarnations \ As Zoroaster says: “Explore the river of the soûl; whence and in what order thou hast corne.” One cannot do one’s True Will intelligently unless one knows what it is. Liber Thisarb, Equinox I, VII, gives instructions for determining this by calculating the résultant of the forces which hâve made one what one is. But this practice is confined to one’s présent incarnation. If one were to wake up in a boat on a strange river, it would be rash to conclude that the direction of the one reach visible was that of the whole stream. It would help very much if one remembered the bearings of previous reaches traversed before one’s nap. It would further relieve one’s anxiety when one became aware that a uniform and constant force was the single déterminant of ail the flindings of the stream: gravitation. We could rejoice “that even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea.” Liber Thisarb describes a method of obtaining the Magical Memory by learning to remember backwards. But the careful I. It has been objected to reincarnation that the population of this planet has been increasing rapidly. Where do the new soûls corne from? It is not necessary to invent théories about other planets; it is enough to say that the earth is passing through a period when human units are being built up from the éléments with increased frequency. The evidence for this theory springs to the eye: in what other âge was there such puerility, such lack of race-experience, such reliance upon incohérent formulas? (Contrast the infantile emotionalism and credulity of the average “well-educated” Anglo-Saxon with the shrewd common sense of the normal illiterate peasant.) A large proportion of mankind to-day is composed of “soûls’ who are living the human life for the fîrst time. Note especially the incredible spread of congénital homosexuality and other sexual deficiencies in many forms. These are the people who hâve not understood, accepted, and used even the Formula of Osiris. Kin to them are the ‘once-born’ of William James, who are incapable of philosophy, magick, or even religion, but seek instinctively a refuge from the horror of contemplating Nature, which they do not comprehend, in soothing-syrup affirmations such as those of Christian Science, Spiritualism, and ail the sham ‘occult’ creeds, as well as the emasculated forms of so-called Christianity. 50