Magick Without Tears

492 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS The best explanation of how to set about the task is given in Liber Thisharb. Some of this sounds rather advanced and technical; but it ought to give you the general idea. You should begin with your parents and the family traditions; the circumstances of your birth and education; your social position; your financial situation; your physique, health, illnesses; your vita sexualis; your hobbies and amusements; what you are good at, what not; how you came to be interested in the Great Work; what (if you have been on false trails, Toshophists, Anthroposophagists, sham Rosicrucians, etc.) has been "your previous condition of servitude"; how you found me, and decided to enlist my aid. That, by itself, helps you to understand yourself, and me to understand you. From that point the keeping of the Record is quite easy. All you have to do is to put down what practices you mean to begin, how you get on with them from day to day, and (at intervals) what I have to say about your progress. Remember always that we have no use for piety, for vague chatter, for guesswork; we are as strictly scientific as biologists or chemists. We ban emotion from the start; we demand perception; and (as you will see later on) even perception is not acceptable until we have made sure of its bases by a study of what we call the 'tendencies'. That is all about the Magical Record; the way is now clear to set forth our Method. This is two-fold. (l) Yoga, introversion, (2) Magick, extroversion. (These are rough but useful connotations.) The two seem, at first glance, to be opposed; but, when you have advanced a little in both, you find that the concentration learnt in Yoga is of immense use in attaining the mental powers necessary in Magick; on the other hand, the discipline of Magick is of the greatest service in Yoga. Let me remark, by the way, that to my mind one of the greatest beauties, and most encouraging confirmations of the