1909 · PDF PAGE 3
John St. John
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT JOHN ST. JOHN THE RECORD OF THE MAGICAL RETIREMENT OF G. Η. FRATER, ΟΜ
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Page 1 of 21909 · PDF PAGE 74
John St. John
…Man again. Very Vigorous and good, my willing of Adonai. . . . I should like to explain the difficulty. It would be easy enough to form a magical Image of Adonai; and He would doubtless inform it. But it would only be an Image. This. may be the meaning of the command- ment “Thou shalt not make any graven image,” etc., just as “ Thou shalt not have any other Gods but me" implies single-minded devotion (Ekagrata) to Adonai. So any mental or magical Image must necessarily fall short of the Truth. Consequently one has to will that which is formless …
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1909 · PDF PAGE 139
John St. John
…n the Lamen , . . Chez Lavenue. Certain practical considerations sug— gest themselves. One would have been much better off with a proper Magical Cabinet, a disciple to look after things, proper magical food ceremonially prepared, a private garden to walk in . . . and so on. But at least it is useful and important to know that things can be done at a pinch in a great city and a small room. The lunch is good ; the kidneys were well cooked; the tarte aux {raises was excellent; the Burgundy came straight from the Vat of Bacchus. The Coffee and Cogn…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 53
John St. John
…d the door left open, so that she was inside on my return. Let me get into Asana. The Fifth Day So beginneth the Fifth Day of this great Magical Retirement. With two and twenty breath—cycles did I begin. This practice was a little easier; but not much better. It ought to become quite simple and natural before one devotes the half-minute of Kam- bhakam (breath held-in), when one is rigid to a strong projectionofWill toward Adonai,ashas been mycustom. I hope to-day will be more hard definite magical Work, less discourse, less beatific state of mind…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 110
John St. John
…d will prepare all things for the due performance of the New Ritual which he hath got by heart. Nearly ready. In a state of very intense magical strain—anything might happen. 9.48. Washed, robed, temple in order. Will wait until 10 11.5. 108 o’clock and begin upon the stroke. O.M. 7° = 4" will begin; and then solemnly renounce all his robes, weapons, dignities, etc., renouncing his grades even by giving the Signs of them backwards and downwards toward the outer. He will keep only one thing, the Secret Ring that hath been committed unto him by t…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 85
John St. John
7.32. 7.50- JOHN ST. JOHN How is it that I expect the reward at once? Surely I am presuming on my magical power, which is an active thing, and therefore my passivity is not perfect. Of course, when IT happens, it happens out of time and space—now or ten years hence it is all the same. All the same to IT; not all the same to me, O.M. So 0.M. (the dog I) persists irrationally in wanting IT, here and now. Surely, indeed, it is a lack of faith, a pandering to the time-illusion . . . and so forth. Yes, no doubt it is all magically wrong, even magica…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 11
John St. John
…n the last day of September. How surprised was I—though, had I thought, I should have remembered that it was so—to find all my necessary magical apparatus to my hand! Months before, for quite other reasons, I had moved most of my portable property to Paris; now I go to Paris, not thinking of a Retirement, for I now know enough to trust my destiny to bring all things to pass without anxious forethought on my part—and suddenly, therefore, here do I find myself—and nothing is lacking. I determined therefore to begin steadily and quietly, allow- ing…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 122
John St. John
…ature of the Reasoning Faculty, as applied to Metaphysics—that it would be wiser to drop the whole question, and concentrate on a simple Magical Progress. The Next Step for humanity in general was then “ the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.” One thing at a time. But here he finds himself discussing and disputing with himself the nature of that Knowledge. Better far act as hitherto, and aspire simply and directly, as one person'to another, careless of the critical objec- tions (quite insuperable, of course) to this or any ot…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 58
John St. John
…nife, etc. etc. etc., we can regard the Western system as the essential one. Yet of course Pranayama, for one thing, has its own definite magical effect, apart from teaching the practitioner that he must last out those three seconds—those deadly long last three seconds—even if he burst in the process. All this I am writing during breakfast. My devotees may note, by the way, how the desire to sleep is breaking up. Night I. 7% hours, unbroken from 12.30. ,, II. 7 hours nearly, with dreams. ,, III. 8 hours nearly; but woke three or {our times, and …
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1909 · PDF PAGE 9
John St. John
PROLOGUE IT hath appeared unto me fitting to make a careful and even an elaborate record of this Great Magical Retirement, for that in the first place I am now certain of obtaining some Result therefrom, as I was never previously certain. Previous records of mine have therefore seemed vague and obscure, even unto the wisest of the scribes; and I am myself afraid that even here all my skill of speech and study may avail me little, so that the most important part of the record will be blank. Now I cannot tell whether it is a part of my personal Kam…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 100
John St. John
…assages of a suitable nature to go to sleep upon, I will do so. . . . Now I hope that I shall; surely the Reaction of Nature against the Magical Will must be wearing down at last! I wake. It takes me a little while to shake off the dominion of sleep, very intense and bitter. Thus John St. John—for it is not convenient further to speak as “I"——-performed 45 Breath-cycles; for 20 minutes he had to struggle against the Root of the Powers of Sleep, and the obstruction of his left nostril. During his Kambhakham he willed Adonai with all his might. L…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 12
John St. John
THE EQUINOX bone. I took also the magical knife, and the holy Anointing Oil of Abramelin the Mage. I began then quite casually by performing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, finding to my great joy and some surprise that the Pentagrams instantly formulated themselves, visible to the material eye as it were bars of shining blackness deeper than the night. I then consecrated myself to the Operation; cutting the Tonsure upon my head, a circle, as it were to admit the light of infinity: and cutting the cross of blood upon my breast, thus…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 62
John St. John
… do the second. Have risen, washed, performed the ritual “Thee I invoke, the Bornless One " physically. The result fair. One gets better magical sight and feeling when one is performing a ritual in one’s Astral Body, so called. For one is on the same plane as the things one’s dealing with. If, however, serious work is wanted, one must be all there. To get “ materialised " “spirits "—pardon the absurd language !——one should (nay, must I) work inside
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1909 · PDF PAGE 21
John St. John
…operate as a “ detonator.” I seem to be perfectly ready for illumination, if only because I am so perfectly dark. Yet my power to create magical images is still with me. ' I 1.40— Hanged Man posture. Will invoke Adonai once more 12.0. by pure thought Got into a very curious state indeed ; part of me being quite perfectly asleep, and part quite perfectly awake. . Have slept, and that soundly, though with many dreams. Awaking with the utmost horror and loath- ing of the Path of the VVise—it seemed somehow like a vast dragon—demon with bronze gree…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 95
John St. John
…ote it and never saw the hellish snarel I ought to have risen up and prepared myself cere- monially as a bride, and waited in the proper magical manner. Also I was too pleased with the Heralds of my Lord’s coming—the vision of Khephra, etc. It was perhaps this subtle self-satisfaction that lost me . . . so I fell to the shocking abyss of last night! The Dweller of the Threshold is never visible until after one has fallen; he is a Veiled God and smites like the Evil Knight in Malory, riding and slaying—and no man seeth him. But when you are tumb…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 106
John St. John
… 104 THE EQUINOX not hopelessly, not fearfully, but with an abiding certainty that he would endure unto the end. And now ? In this great Magical Retirement he has struck many rocks, sprung many leaks ; the waters of the False Sea foam over the bow, ride and carry the quarter—is he perchance already wrecked, his hopeless plight con- cealed from him as yet by his own darkness? For, dazzled as he is by the blinding brilliance of this morning’s Spiritual Sun, which yet he beheld but darkly, to him now even the light of earth seems dark. Reason the …
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1909 · PDF PAGE 16
John St. John
… long since“ conquered." For this reason too I cut again the Cross of Blood ; and now a third time will I do it. And I will take out the Magical Knife and sharpen it yet more, so that this body may fear me ; for that I am Horus the terrible, the Avenger, the Lord of the Gate of the West. 4.15— Read Ritual DCLXXI. [The nature of this Ritual is 4.30. explained later.—ED.] 5.10. I have returned from my shopping. Strange how 14 solemn and dignified so trivial a thing becomes, once one has begun to concentrate l I bought two pears, half a pound of Ga…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 44
John St. John
…e in Hindu mystical physiology—ED] and see if that steadies me. (P.S.— Yes: instantly). Notice, please, how in this condition of intense magical strain the most trifling things have a great influence. Normally, I can eat anything in any quantity without the slightest effect of any sort; witness my expeditions and debauches; nothing upsets me. P.S.—But notice, please! Normally half a bottle of Burgundy excites me notably ; while doing this magic it is like so much water. A “transvaluation of all valuesl ” Over a citron pressé I have revised the ne…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 105
John St. John
…ina, John St. John saw at every corner of that swift and dangerous stream a heap of wreckage. . . . He, himself in danger, thought ofhis magical career. Alcoholism, insanity, disease, faddism, death, knavery, prison—every earthly hell, reflection of some spiritual blunder, had seized his companions. By dozens had that band been swept away, dashed to pieces on one rock or another. He, alone almost upon that angry stream, still held on, his life each moment the play- thing of giant forces, so enormous as to be (once they were loose) quite out of p…
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1909 · PDF PAGE 61
John St. John
…ating than Prana Yama, I will begin with that. T!!!: Sixth Day. Thus then—oh ye great gods of Heaven l—begins the Sixth Day of the Great Magical Retirement of that 59
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