own success, the witness of his Life to the Law that hath given
him light in his ways, and liberty to pursue them. Thus doing, he
payeth his debt to the Law that hath Freed him by working its will
to free all men; and he proveth himself a true man in our Order
by willing to bring his fellows into freedom.
By thus ordering his disposition, he will fit himself in the best
possible manner for the task of understanding and mastering the
divers technical methods prescribed by the A.. A-. for Mystical
and Magical attainment.
He will thus prepare himself properly for the crisis of his career
in the Order, the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation
of his Holy Guardian Angel.
His Angel shall lead him anon to the summit of the Order of
the R. C. and make him ready to face the unspeakable terror of
the Abyss which lies between Manhood and Godhead; teach him
to Know that agony, to Dare that destiny, to Will that catastrophe,
and to keep Silence for ever as he accomplishes the act of annihila-
tion.
From the Abyss comes No Man forth, but a Star startles the
Earth, and our Order rejoices above that Abyss that the Beast hath
begotten one more Babe in the Womb of Our Lady, His concubine,
the Scarlet Woman, BABALON.
There is no need to instruct a Babe thus born, for in the Abyss
it was purified of every poison of personality; its ascent to the
highest is assured, in its season, and it hath no need of seasons for
it is conscious that all conditions are no more than forms of its
fancy.
Such is a brief account, adapted as far as may be to the average
aspirant to Adeptship, or Attainment, or Initiation, or Membership,
or Union with God, or Spiritual Development, or Mahatmaship,
or Freedom, or Occult Knowledge, or whatever he may call his
inmost need of Truth, of our Order of Av. A.
It is designed principally to awake interest in the possibilities of
human progress, and to proclaim the principles of the A-. A..
The outline given of the several successive steps is exact; the
two crises—the Angel and the Abyss—are necessary features in
every career. The other tasks are not always accomplished in the
order given here; one man, for example, may acquire many of the
ualities peculiar to the Adeptus Major, and yet lack some of
those proper to the Practicus. * But the system here given shows
1. The natural talents of individual differ very widely. The late Sir Richard
Jebb, one of the greatest classical scholars of modern times, was so