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Page 1 of 21930 · PDF PAGE 58
…man Catholic Church by a man who, being the son of an ordained Priest, was magicaliy an incarnation of the Being of that Priest, and was therefore congenitally possessed of the powers thereto appurtenant. This cock, “Peter Paul,” was consequently a baptized Christian for ail magical purposes. Order was then taken to imprison the bird; which done, the Magicians assuming respectively the characters of Herod, Herodias, Salome, and the Execu- •tioner, acted out the scene of the dance and the beheading, on the lines of Oscar Wilde’s drama, “Peter Pa…
1930 · PDF PAGE 36
intelligences demands elaborate préparation, even after years of successful performance. It is therefore useful to possess an art by which one can obtain at a moments notice any information that may be necessary. This art is divination. The answers to one’s questions in divination are not conveyed directly but through the medium of a suitable sériés of symbols. These symbols must be interpreted by the diviner in terms of his problem. It is not practicable to construct a lexicon in which the solution of every difficulty is given in so many words…
1930 · PDF PAGE 51
…n curl-papers, or complain of the cook’s impertinence, if one wants to make the most of the honeymoon. 1 To the Adept divination becomes therefore a secondary consid¬ ération, although he can now employ it with absolute confidence, and probably use it with far greater frequency than before his attainment. Indeed, this is likely in proportion as he learns that resort to divination (on every occasion when his Will does not mstantly instruct him) with implicit obedience to its counsels careless as to whether or no they may land him in disaster, is…
1930 · PDF PAGE 41
…Tarot, on the other hand, being a book, is under Mercury, and the intelligence of each card is fundamentally Mercurial. Such symbols are therefore peculiarly proper to communicate thought. Ihey are not gross, like the geomantic daemons; but, as against this, they are unscrupulous in deceiving the diviner.1 The Y i King is served by beings free from these defects. The intense purity of the symbols prevent them from being usurped by intelligences with an axe of their own to grind.2 It is always essential lor the diviner to obtain absolute magical…
1930 · PDF PAGE 5
Oath of love, and therefore would never be able to murder her later, as we find to be the not uncommon case. The explanation is as follows. It is perfectly true that when Bill Sykes desires to possess Nancy, he does in fact evoke a spirit of the nature of Venus, constraining him by his Oath of Love (and by his magical power as a man) to bring him the girl. So also, when he wants to kiJl her, he evokes a Martial or Saturnian spirit, with an Oath of hâte. But these are not pure planetary spints, moving in well- dehned spneres by rigidlv righteous…
1930 · PDF PAGE 33
…e in (fortiheci with that memory) would not be the same atom; yet it is, because it has gained nothing from anywhere except this memory. Therefore, by the lapse of time, and by virtue of memory, a thing could become something more than itself; and thus a real development is possible. One can then see a reason for any element deciding to go through this sériés of incarnations; because so, and only so, can he go; and he suffers the lapse of memory which he has during these incarnations, because he knows he will corne through unchanged. “Therefore…
1930 · PDF PAGE 57
…hem is almost invariably1 the invocation of a God, that God conceived in a more or less material and personal fashion. These Rituals are therefore well suited for such persons as are capable of understanding the spirit of Magick as opposed to the letter. One of the great advantages of them is that a large number of persons may take part, so that there is consequently more force available; but it is important that they should ail be initiâtes of the same mysteries, bound by the same oaths, and filled with the same aspirations. They should be ass…
1930 · PDF PAGE 15
and God above him. It is therefore better to repeat the Invo¬ cations than to proceed at once to curses. The Magician should also consider 1 whether die évoca¬ tion be in trnth a necessary part of the Karma of the Universe, as he has stated in his own Oath (See Cap. XVI. i), For if this be a delusion, success is impossible. It will then be best to go back to the beginning, and recapitulate with greater intensity and power of analysis the Oath and the Invocations. And this may be done thrice. But if this be satisfactorily accomplished, and the s…
1930 · PDF PAGE 16
…cisé meaning of these phrases is at first sight obscure. The spirit is merely a récalcitrant part of one’s own organism. To evoke him is therefore to become conscious of some part of one’s own character; to command and constrain him is to bring that part into subjection. This is best understood by the analogy of teaching oneself some mental-physical accomplishment (e. g. billiards), by persistent and patient study and practice, which often involves considérable pain as well as trouble. 136 —
1930 · PDF PAGE 47
…antness, and to breathe on the tiniest spark that promises to kindle the tinder — the rotten rags! —of hope. The concluding operation is therefore to obtain a judgment of the figure, independent of ail iutellectual or moral restraint. One must endeavour to appreliend it as a thing absolute in itself. One must treat it, in short, very much the same as one did the question $ as a mystical entity, till now unrelated with other phenomena. One must, so to speak, adore it as a god, uncritically: aSpeak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” Il must be allo…
1930 · PDF PAGE 39
…es years of work to erect a worthy building. Such a building is never finished; every day spent on it adds new ornaments. The Qabalah is therefore a living Temple of the Holy Ghost. It is the man himseif and his universe expressed in terms of thought whose 1. Both these subjects may be studied in the Equinox in several articles appearing in several numbers. 2. It is easy to teach the General Princi.ples of exegesis, and the main doctrines. There is a vast body of knowledge common to ail cases; but this is no more than the basis on which the stu…
1930 · PDF PAGE 14
…ipotent will were being baulked. But His Will and your will together make up that one will, because you and He are one. That one will is therefore divided against itself, so long as your will fails to aspire steadfastly. Also, His will cannot constrain yours. He is so much one with you that even your will to separate is His will. He is so certain of you that He delights in your perturbation and coquetry no less than in your surrender. These relations are fully explained in Liber LXV. See also Liber Aleph CXI. ~ 134 —
1930 · PDF PAGE 20
…is own habits. Of course it is the very condition of progress to build up ideas into the subconscious. The necessity of sélection should therefore be obvious. True, there cornes a time when ail éléments soever must be thus assimilated. Samadhi is, by définition, that very process. But, from the point of view of the young magician, there is a right wav — strait and difficult •— of performing ail this. One cannot too frequently repeat that what is lawful and proper to one Path is alien to another. Immediately after the License to Départ, and the …
1930 · PDF PAGE 35
…e technique of Magick should he perfected. The Body of Light nmst be rendered capable of going every- where and doing everything. It is, therefore, always the question of drill which is of importance. You hâve got to go out Rising on the Planes every day of your life, year after year. You are not to be disheartened by failure, or too much encouraged by success, in any one practice or set of practices. What you are doing is what will be of real value to you in the end j and that is, developing a character, creating a Karma, which will give you t…
1930 · PDF PAGE 76
… he who' “destroys” any being must accept it, with ail the responsibilities attached, as part of himself. The Adept here in question was therefore obliged to incorporate the elemental spirit of the girl — she was not human, the sheath of a Star, but an advanced planetary daemon, whose rash ambition had captured a body beyond its capacity -to conduct — in his own magical vehicîe. He thereby pledged himself to subordinate ail the sudden accession of qualities — pas- sionate, capricious, impulsive, irrational, selfish, short-sightedness, sensual, …
1930 · PDF PAGE 49
… their Master5 for he is their God; they know themselves to be part of him, their aim is to attain to absorption in him. They understand therefore that his interests are theirs. Care must be taken to employ none but spirits who are fit for the purpose, not only by reason of their capacity to supply information, but for their sym- pathy with the personality of the Magician. Any attempt to coerce unwilling spirits is dangerous. They obey from fear; their fear makes them flatter, and tell amiable falsehoods. It also créâtes phantasmal projections …
1930 · PDF PAGE 69
serve as an element in some Sacrament; also, each spiritual Grâce should possess its peculiar form of Mass, and therefore its own “materia magica77. It is utterly unscientific to treat “God77 as a universal homogeneity, and use the same means to prolong life as to bewitch cattle. One does not invoke “Electricity77 indiscrimi- nately to light one7s house and to propel one’s brougham; one Works by measured application of one7s powers to intelligent analytical compréhension of the conditions of each separate case. There is a Eucharist for every Gr…
1930 · PDF PAGE 42
…ut the image itself is confused by a thousand cross-currents set in motion by the various complexes and inhibitions of his character. If therefore one consults the oracle, one must take sure that one is not consciously or uncons- ciously bringing pressure to bear upon it. It is just as when an Englishman cross-examines a Hindu, the ultimate answer will be what the Hindu imagines will best please the inquirer. The same difficulty appears in a grosser form when one receives a perfectly true reply, but insists on interpreting it so as to suit one’…
1930 · PDF PAGE 48
…g even the cleverest angel a question outside his ambit. A heart specialist should not prescribe for throat trouble. The Magician ouglit therefore to make himself master of several methods of divination; using one or the other as the purpose of the moment dictâtes. He should make a point of organizing a staff of such spiriis to suit varions 168
1930 · PDF PAGE 73
…s xv, which is Yod Hé, the Monogram of the Eternal, the Father one with the Mother, the Virgin Seed one with all-containing Space. He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is Ayin, the Eye; he is Light, and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty. (Note that the “Jéhovah” of the Hebrews is etymologically connected with these. The classical example of such antinomy, one which has led to such disastrous misunderstandings, is that between Nu and HAD,North and South, Jésus and John. The subject…