Magick Without Tears

LAMENS AND PANTACLES 157 engraved it neatly on his arm. I don't know how he proceeded to set to work; but his wife came back all right, and a very short time afterwards he killed himself. Then there are the Elemental Tablets of Sir Edward Kelly and Dr. John Dee. From these you can extract a square to perform almost any conceivable operation, if you understand the virtue of the various symbols which they manifest. They are actually an expansion of the Tarot . (Obviously, the Tarot itself as a whole is an universal Pantacle-forgive the pleonasm! Each card, especially is this true of the Trumps, is a talisman; and the whole may also be considered as the Lamen of Mercury. It is evidently an Idea far too vast for any human mind to comprehend in its entirety. For it is "the Wisdom whereby He created the worlds.") The decisive advantage of this system is not that its variety makes it so adaptable to our needs, but that we already possess the Invocations necessary to call forth the Energies required. What is perhaps still more to the point , they work without putting the Magician to such severe toil and exertion as is needed when he has to write them out from his own ingenium. Yes! This is weakness on my part, and I am very naughty to encourage you to shirk the hardest path. I used often to make the background of my Talismans of four concentric circles, painting them, the first (inmost) in the King (or Knight) scale, the second in the Queen, the third in the Prince, and the outermost in the Princess scale, of the Sign, Planet, or Element to which I was devoting it. On this, preferably in the "flashing" colours , I would paint the appropriate Names and Figures. Lastly, the Talisman may be surrounded with a band inscribed with a suitable "versicle" chosen from some Holy Book, or devised by the Magician to suit the case. In the British Museum (and I suppose elsewhere) you may see the medal struck to commemorate the victory over the Armada. This is a reproduction, perhaps modified, of the Talisman· used by Dee to raise the storm which scattered the enemy fleet.