Magick Without Tears

494 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS by the exaltation (? = intoxication? Yes, of a sublime sort) of the consciousness to identify oneself with those 'celestial' Beings. In Yoga, various practices prevent the body and its functions from interrupting the mental process. Then, one inhibits that process itself; the stilling of "thoughts" allows one to become aware of mental functions beyond the intellectual; these functions have their own peculiar properties and powers. Each sheath, as one goes deeper, is discarded as 'unreal'; finally one apprehends that Nothing which is the only true and real form of existence. (But then it does not exist : in these regions of thought words always become nightmares of self-contradiction. This is as it should be.) In Magick, on the contrary, one passes through the veil of the exterior world (which, as in Yoga, but in another sense, becomes 'unreal' by comparison as one passes beyond,) one creates a subtle body (instrument is a better term) called the Body of Light; this one develops and controls; it gains new powers as one progresses, usually by means of what is called 'initiation'; finally, one carries on almost one's whole life in this Body of Light, and achieves in its own way the mastery of the Universe. The first step in Yoga is "Keep still." The first step in Magick is "Travel beyond the world of the senses." There, that is the whole business in a nutshell, and expressed so that anyone, however ignorant of the subject, may grasp the essentials (I hope). Love is the law, love under will. Yours fraternally, 666