Magick Without Tears

INTRODUCTION 15 I think I am fair if I say that the first step on the Qabalah which may be called success, is when you make an actual discovery which throws light on some problem which has been troubling you. A quarter of a century ago I was in New Orleans, and very puzzled about my immediate course of action; in fact I may say I was very much distressed. There seemed literally nothing that I could do, so I bethought myself that I had better invoke Mercury. As soon as I got into the appropriate frame of mind, it naturally occurred to me, with a sort of joy, "But I am Mercury." I put it into Latin-Mercurius sum, and suddenly something struck me, a sort of nameless reaction, which said: "That's not quite right." Like a flash it came to me to put it into Greek, which gave me Hermes Eimi, and adding that up rapidly, I got the number 418, with all the marvellous correspondences which had been so abundantly useful to me in the past. (See Equinox of the Gods, p. 138.) My troubles disappeared like a flash of lightning. Now to answer your questions ad seriatim; it is quite all right to put questions to me about The Book of the Law; a very extended commentary has been written, but it is not yet published.3 I shall probably be able to answer any of your questions from that manuscript, but you cannot go on after that when it would become a discussion; as they say in the "You must take the witness's answer." 2. The Qabalah, both Greek and Hebrew, also very likely Arabic, was used by the author of The Book of the Law. I have explained above the proper use of the Qabalah. I cannot tell you how the early Rosicrucians used it, but I think one may assume that their methods were not dissimilar to our own. Incidentally, it is not very safe to talk about Rosicrucians, because their name has become a signal for letting loose the most devastating floods of nonsense. What is really known about the original Rosicrucians is practially confined to the three documents which they issued. The eighteenth century Rosicrucians may, or may not, have 'been