276 
MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS 
God peculiar to yourself, who appears in one of the 
Darshanas; some Individual constructed from the material 
listed above; are these all one? If not, is the difference 
between them more than a quibble? 
Really, all these speculations are based on a priori 
considerations; we had better drop the whole argument as 
little better than a waste of time; nay, as worse, for it 
encourages one in loose thinking, and especially in clinging to 
names which have no counterpart in things. 
There is only one point of theory which matters to our 
practice. We may readily concur that the Augoeides, the 
"Genius" of Socrates, and the "Holy Guardian Angel" of 
Abramelin the Mage, are identical. But we cannot include this 
"Higher Self'; for the Angel is an actual Individual with his 
own Universe, exactly as a man is; or, for the matter of that, 
a bluebottle. He is not a mere abstraction, a selection from, 
and exaltation 
of, one's own favourite qualities, as the 
"Higher Self" seems to be. The trouble is (I think) that the 
Hindu passion for analysis makes them philosophize any 
limited being out of existence. 
This matter is of importance, because it influences one's 
attitude to invocation. I can, for instance, work myself up to 
a "Divine Consciousness," in which I can understand, and 
act, as I cannot in my normal state. I become "inspired"; I 
feel, and I express, ideas of almost illimitable exaltation. But 
this is totally 
different 
from the "Knowledge and 
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel," which is the 
special aim of the Adeptus Minor. It is ruin to that Work if 
one deceives oneself by mistaking one's own "energized 
enthusiasm" for external communication. The parallel on the 
physical plane is the difference between Onanism and Sexual 
Intercourse. 
Probably, my reason for insistence on this point is my 
antipathy to introversion in any form. The "mystic path" 
itself 
is packed 
with dangers. Unless the strongest 
counter-irritants are exhibited, the process is almost certain 
to become morbid. It is only one step from the Invocation of