Magick Without Tears

160 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS much; but, secondly, which is of supreme importance, there is a definite connection between the personal appearance and manner of the native, and the Sign of the Zodiac which was rising when he first drew air into his lungs. Let me add, to strengthen the argument , that on the few occasions where I have erred there has been a good astrological reason for it. E.g., I might plump for Pisces rising when it was actually Capricornus; but in that case Saturn would have been afflicted by being in Cancer, with bad aspects from Venus and the Moon, thus taking away aU his rugged, male, laborious qualities, and in the Ascendant might have been Jupiter, suggesting many of the qualities of Pisces: and so forth. Now let me start! You want me to explain the system-or no-system-which I use. I do not "move in a mysterious way My wonders to perform"; for nothing could be simpler. For its origin I have to thank Abramelin the Mage, who empties the vials of his scorn upon the astrologers of his time with their meticulous calculations of "the hours of the planets" and so on. I think he goes too far when he says that a planet can have no influence at all, or very little, unless it is above the horizon; but he meant well, bless him! And, though he does not say so, I believe that I do my stuff in very much the same way as he did. Here is my system in a Number 000 Ampoule. Put up the figure at birth: study it, make notes of the aspects and dignities, concentrate - and turn on the Magical Tap! Occasionally, when I began, I set up the "progressed figure" to see how the patient was doing this week, but it never seemed to help enough to compensate for the distraction caused by the complication. What I do observe to examine the situation of to-day is Transits. These I have found very reliable; but even with these I usually ignore aspects of minor importance. Truth to tell, conjunctions mean very much more than the rest put together. Thousands of books have been written on Astrology;