Magick Without Tears

WHA T IS MAGICK? 31 of Nature by the empirical application of certain principles whose interplay involves different orders of idea, connected with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension. (Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is connected with muscular action; what electricity is or how it is connected with the machines that generate it; and our methods depend on calculations involving mathematical ideas which have no correspondence in the Universe as we know it. 3 ) 12. Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on experience of the past, and every step in his progress extends his empire. There is, therefore, no reason to assign theoretical limits4 to what he may be, or to what he may do. (Illustration: Two generations ago it was supposed theoretically impossible that man should ever know the chemical composition of the fixed stars. It is known that our senses are adapted to receive only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration. Modem instruments have enabled us to detect some of these suprasensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar qualities in the service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and Roentgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to perceive and utilize vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and employing hitherto unknown forces in nature. We know that exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical instruments capable of bringing us in relation with them.) 13. Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises several orders of existence, even when he maintains 3. For instance, ''irrational,'' "unreal," and "infinite" expressions. 4. i.e. excepf-possibly-in the case of logically absurd questions, such as the schoolmen discussed in connection with "God."