Magick Without Tears

158 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS You must lay most closely to your heart the theory of the Magical Link (see Magick, pp. 107-122) and see well to it that it rings true; for without this your talisman is worse than useless. It is dangerous; for all that Energy is bound to expend itself somehow; it will make its own links with anything handy that takes its fancy; and you can get into any sort of the most serious kind of trouble. There is a great deal of useful stuff in Magick, pp. 92-100, and pp. 179-189. I could go on all night doing nothing but indicating sources of information. Then comes the question of how to "charge" the Talisman, of how to evoke or to invoke the Beings concerned, and of-oh! of so much that you need a lifetime merely to master the theory. Remember, too, please, what I have pointed out elsewhere, that the greatest Masters have quite often not been Magicians at all, technically; they have used such devices as Secret Societies, Slogans, and Books. If you are so frivolous as to try to exclude these from our discourse, it is merely evidence that you have not understood a single word of what I have been trying to tell you these last few hundred years! May I close with a stray example or so? The Equinox. Vol. III, No. I, has the Neophyte's Pantacle of Frater O.I.V.V.I.O. The Frontispiece of the original (4 volume) edition of Magick, the colours vilely reproduced, is a Lamen of my own Magick, or a Pantacle of the Science, I'm sure I'm not sure which! Most of my Talismans, like my Invocations, have been poems. This letter must be like The Iliad in at least one respect; it does not end; it stops. Love is the law. love under will. Yours fraternally, 666