Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

CHAPTER VIII Of Equilibrium, and of the General and Particular Method of Préparation of the Furniture of the Temple and of the Instruments of Art. I “Before there was equilibrium, countenance beheld not count¬ enance.” 1 So sayeth the holiest of the Books of the ancient Qabalah. (Siphra Tzeniutha I. 2.) One countenance here spoken of is the Macrocosm, the other the Microcosm.2 As said above, the object of any magick ceremony is to unité the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. It is as in optics; the angles of incidence and reflection are equal. You must get your Macrocosm and Microcosm exactly balanced, vertically and horizontally, or the images will not coincide. This equilibrium is affirmed by the magician in arranging the Temple. Nothing must be lop-sided. If you hâve anything in the North, you must put something equal and opposite to it in the South. The importance of this is so great, and the truth of it so obvious, that no one with the most médiocre capacity 1. The full significance of this aphorism is an Arcanum of the grade of Ipsissimus. It may, however, be partially apprehended by study of Liber Aleph, and the Book of the Law and the Commentaries thereon. It explains Existence. 2. This is the case because we happen ourselves to be Microcosms whose Law is “love under will”. But it is aîso Magick for an unit which has attained Perfection (in absolute nothingness,0°), to become “divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union”. 6o