Magick Without Tears

216 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS the point of it? They say "Not that , not that!" denying to Him all attributes; He is "that which is without quantity or quality." They contradict themselves at every turn; seeking to remove limit , they remove definition . Their only refuge is in "superconsciousness." Splendid! but now 'belief has disappeared altogether; for the word has no sense unless it is subject to the laws of normal thought ... Tut! you must be feeling it yourself ; the further one goes, the darker the path. All I have written is somehow muddled and obscure, maugre my frenzied struggle for lucidity, simplicity . . . Is this the fault of my own sophistication? I asked myself. Tell you what! I'll trot round to my masseuse, and put it up to her. She is a simple country soul, by no means over-educated, but intelligent; capable of a firm grasp of the principles of her job; a steady church-goer on what she considers worthwhile occasions; dislikes the rector, but praises his policy of keeping his discourse within bounds. She has done quite a lot of thinking for herself ; distrusts and despises the Press and the Radio , has no use for ready-made opinions. She shares with the flock their normal prejudices and phobias, but is not bigoted about them, and follows readily enough a line of simply-expressed destructive criticism when it is put to her. This is, however, only a temporary reaction ; a day later she would repeat the previous inanities as if they had never been demolished . In the late fifties, at a guess. I sprang your question on her out of the blue, a la "doodle-bug"; premising merely that I had been asked the question , and was puzzled as to how to answer it. Her reply was curious and surprising: without a moment's hesitation and with great enthusiasm , "Quickly , yes!" The spontaneous reservation struck me as extremely interesting. I said: of course, but suppose you think it over- and out- a bit, what am I to understand? She began glibly "He's a great big-" and broke off, looking foolish. Then , although omnipotent , He needed our help- we were all just as powerful as He, for we were little bits of each other - but