EPISTOLA ULTIMA 
505 
becomes a discredited instrument, and one attains to a totally 
different and much more exalted type of mind, and the same 
destructive criticism which one applied to the original 
consciousness applies equally to this higher consciousness; 
and one gets to one higher still which !s again destroyed. In 
The Equinox, Vol I there is an essay called The Soldier and 
the Hunchback : ! and ? In Liber Aleph too there are several 
chapters about attainment by what is called the Method of 
Ladders. 
All these operations are equally valid and equally invalid, 
and the result of this is that the whole subject of Yoga leads 
to constantly increasing confusion. The fineness of the 
analytical instrument seems to defeat its own purpose and it 
is perhaps because of that confusion that I have always felt in 
my deepest consciousness that the method of Magick is on 
the whole less dangerous than that of Yoga. This is 
particularly the case when discussing these matters with a 
Western mind. 
It is true that our 0 = 2 formula remains infinitely useful 
because it is of such potency in destroying the scepticism 
which so often disheartens one, especially in the highest 
realms of Magick. The criticism which the enemy directs 
against your sun-kissed tower is thrown back from those 
glittering walls. You accept the criticism at the same time as 
you dismiss it with a laugh. 
On the whole therefore I continue to regard the discipline 
of Yoga as its most valuable feature. The results attained by 
pushing Yoga to its end are on their own showing worthless, 
whereas the attainment of Magick, however lofty, is still 
immune 
to all criticism and at every period of its 
construction has been perfectly sympathetic with the normal 
consciousness of man. 
On this view indeed, one might laughingly remark that 
Yoga at its best is a smoke-screen thrown out by a battleship 
in self-protection. 
It may seem to you strange as you read this letter to have 
watched how the pendulum has swung always a little more