Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

of the Master Therion, it is assuredly the easiest and most reasona- ble explanation to assume an identity between the two men. Nobodv is shocked to observe that the ambition of Napoléon has diminished the average stature of Frenchmen. We Know that somehow or other every force must find its fulfilment; and those people who hâve grasped the fact that external events are merely symptoms of external ideas, cannot find any difficulty in attributing the correspondences of the one to the identities of the other. Far be it from any apologist for Magick to insist upon the objective validity of these concaténations! It would be childish to cling to the belief that Marius de Aquila actually existed; it matters no more than it matters to the mathematician whether the use of the symbol X22 involves the ‘reality* of 22 dimensions of space. The Master Therion does not care a scrap of yesterday’s newspaper whether he was Marius de Aquila, or whether there ever was such a person, or whether the Universe itself is anything more than a nightmare created by his own imprudence in the matter of rum and water. His memory of Marius de Aquila, of the adventures of that person in Rome and the Black Forest, matters nothing, either to him or to anybody else. What matters is this: True or false, he has found a symbolic form which has enabled him to govern himself to the best advantage. “Quantum nobis prodest haec fabula Christi!” The ‘falsity’ of Aesop’s bables does not diminish their value to mankind. The above réduction of the Magical Memory to a device for externalizing one’s interior wisdom need not be regarded as sceptical, save only in the last resort. No scientific hypothesis can adduce stronger evidence of its validity than the confirmation of its prédictions by experimental evidence. The objective can always be expressed in subjective symbols if necessary. The cori- troversy is ultimately unmeaning. However we interpret the evidence, its relative truth dépends in its internai cohérence. We may therefore say that any magical recollection is genuine if it gives the explanation of our external or internai conditions. Anything which throws light upon the Universe, anything which reveals us to ourselves, should be welcome in this world of riddles. As our record extends into the past, the evidence of its truth is cumulative. Every incarnation that we remember must increase