Book 4 (Part II)

lOI The connection between Breath and Mind has been supposed by some to exist merely in etymology. But the connection is a truer one/ In any case there is undoubtedly a connection between the respiratory and mental functions. The Student will find this out by practising Pranayama. By this exercise some thoughts are barred, and those which do come into the mind come more slowly than before, so that the mind has time to perceive their falsity and to destroy them. On the blade of the Magick Sword is etched the name AGLA, a Notariqon formed from the initials of the sentence Ateh Gibor Leolahm Adonai, " To Thee be the Power unto the Ages, O my Lord." And the acid which eats into the steel should be oil of vitriol. Vitriol is a Notariqon of " Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Oc- cultum Lapidem." That is to say: By investigating everything and Sword, the letter H symbolises breath, and H is the letter of Aries— the House of Mars, of the Sword: and H is also the letter of the Mother; this is the link between the Sword and the Cup. ^ It is undoubted that Ruach means primarily "that which moves or revolves," " a going," " a v/heel," " the wind," and that its secondary meaning was mind because of the observed instability of mind, and its tendency to a circular motion. " Spiritus " only came to mean Spirit in the modern technical sense owing to the efforts of the theologians. We have an example of the proper use of the word in the term : Spirit of Wine —the airy portion of wine. But the word " inspire " was perhaps derived from observing the derangement of the breathing of persons in divine ecstasy.