Book 4 (Part II)

i67 In this smoke illusions arise. We sought the light, and behold the Temple is darkened! In the darkness this smoke seems to take strange shapes, and we may hear the crying of beasts. The thicker the smoke, the darker grows tlie Universe. Wc gasp and tremble, beholding what foul and unsubstantial things we have evoked! Yet we cannot do without the Incense! Unless our aspiration took form it could not influence form. This also is the niyster)- of in- carnation. This Incense is based upon Gum Olibanum, the sacrifice of the human will of the heart. This olibanum has been mixed with half its weight of storax, the earthly desires, dark, sweet, and clinging; and this again with half its weight of lignum aloes, which symbolizes Sagittarius, the arrow,' and so represents the aspiration itself; it is the arrow that cleaves the rainbow. This arrow is "Temperance" in the Taro; it is a life equally balanced and direct which makes our work possible; yet this life itself must be sacrificed! In the burning up of these things arise in our imagination those terrifying or alluring phantasms which throng the " Astral Plane." This smoke represents the " Astral Plane," which lies between the ( . j ' Note that there are two arrows: the Divine shot downward, the human upward. I The former is the Oil, the latter the Incense, or rather the finest pari of it. See Liber I CD.WIII, Fifth Aethyr.