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Page 1 of 21929 · PDF PAGE 20
… being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion. ( 7 ) Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, cornes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly. XVIII
1929 · PDF PAGE 59
All-Father. In this complex family relationship1 is sym¬ bolisée! the whole course of the Universe. It will be seen that (after ail) the Climax is at the end. It is the second half of the formula which symbolises the Great Work which we are pledged to accomplish. The first step of this is the attainment of th^ Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, which constitutes the Adept of the Inner Order. The re-entry of these twin spouses into the womb of the mother is that initiation described in Libe»* 418, which gives admission to the…
1929 · PDF PAGE 27
…ace without interférence. The order of Nature provides an orbit for each star. A clash proves that one or the other has strayed from its course. But as to each man that keeps his true course, the more firmly he acts, the Jess likely are others to get in his way . His example will help XXV
1929 · PDF PAGE 82
Firstly, it represents the complété course of sound. It is pro- nounced by forcing the breath from the back of the throat with the mouth wide open, through the buccal cavity with the lips so shaped as to modify the sound from A to O (or U), to the closed lips, when it becomes M. Symbolically, this announces the course of Nature as proceeding from free and formless création through controlled and formed préservation to the silence of destruction. The three sounds are harmonized into one; and thus the Word represents the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, …
1929 · PDF PAGE 40
number len. * Ail these numbers are o£ course parts of the mogician himself considérée! as the microcosm. The microcosm is an exact image o£ the Macrocosm; the Great Work is the raising of the whole man in perfect balance to the power of ïnfinity. The reader will remark that ail criticism directed against the Magical Hierarchy is futile. One cannot call it incorrect — the only line to take might be that it was inconvénient. In the same way one çannot say that the Roman alphabet is better or worse than the Greek, since ail required sounds can be…
1929 · PDF PAGE 43
…rred to above — are like so many names on a map. Man himself is a complété microcosm. Few other beings hâve this balanced perfection. Of course every sun, every planet, may hâve beings similarly consti- tuted.2 But when we speak of dealing with the planets in Magick, 1. Long since writing the above, an even grosser imbecility bas been perpetrated. One who ought to hâve known better tried to improve the Tree of Life by turning the Serpent of Wisdom upside down! Yet he could not even make his scheme symmetrical: bis little remaining good sense re…
1929 · PDF PAGE 115
…on “The Signs of the Grades”) merely imitâtes a hieroglyph which has only a remote connection with any fact in nature. Ail signs must of course be studied with infinité patience, and practised until the connection 1. The Magician must eschew prostration, or even the “bending of the knee in supplication”, as infamous and ignominious, an abdication of his sovereignty. 79 —
1929 · PDF PAGE 47
…God. It is therefore incumbent on the male magician to cultivate those female virtues in which he is déficient, and this task he must of course accomplish without in any way impairing his virility. It will then be lawful for a magician to invoke Isis, and identify himself with her; if he fail to do this, his appréhension of the Universe when he attains Samadhi will lack the conception of maternity. The resuit will be a metaphysical and — by corollary — ethical limita¬ tion in the Religion which he founds. Judaism and Islam are striking examples…
1929 · PDF PAGE 48
… beginning his Work, endeavour to map out his own being, and arrange his invocations in such a way as to redress the balance. 2 This, of course, should hâve been done in a preliminary fashion during the préparation of the weapons and furniture of the Temple. To consider in a more particular mammer this question of the Nature of Ritual, we may suppose that he finds himself lacking in that perception of the value of Life and Death, alike of individuals and of races, which is characteristic of Nature. He has perhaps a tendency to perceive the ‘fir…
1929 · PDF PAGE 53
…ety, inasmuch as the magician endeavours to harmonize himself with the nature of the god, and to a certain extent exalts himself, in the course of the ceremony; but the third method is the only one worthy of our considération. This consists of a real identification of the magician and the god. Note that to do this in perfection involves the attain- ment of a species of Samadhi; and this fact alone suffices to link irrefragably magie k with mysticism. Let us describe the magical method of identification. The symbolic form of the god is first stu…
1929 · PDF PAGE 16
…e operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely; the éléments of caprice, of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature. Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him who knows the causes of things and can touch the secret springs that set in motion the vast and intncate mechanism of the worid. Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike hâve exercised on the human mindj hence the powerful stimulus that both hâve given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enq…
1929 · PDF PAGE 116
…thy, almost furtive, and yet very purposeful. It is the pace of the tiger who stalks the deer. The number of circumambulations should of course correspond to the nature of the ceremony. Another important movement is the spiral, of which there are two principal forms, one inward, one outward. They can be performed in either direction ; and, like the circumambulation, if performed deosil2 they invoke — if widdershins 3 they banish 4. In the spiral the tread is light and tripping, almost approximating to a dance : while performing it the magician …
1929 · PDF PAGE 50
… has told the story with such sympathy and insight. We will not further transgress by dwelling upon the identity of this legend with the course of Nature, its madness, its prodigality, its intoxication, its joy, and above ali its sublime persistence through the cycles of Life and Death. The pagan reader must labour to understand this in Pater’s “Greek Studies”, and the Christian reader will recognise it, incident for incident, in the story of Christ. This legend is but the dramatization of Spring. The magician who wishes to invoke Bacchus by th…
1929 · PDF PAGE 88
2. Eliphas Levi had a striking personal resemblarice td Aleister Growley’s father. This of course merely suggests a certain degree of suitability from a physical point of view. 3. Aleister Crowley wrote a play called “The Fatal Force” at a time when he had not read any of Eliphas Levi’s Works. The motive of this play is a Magical Operation of a very peculiar kincl The formula which Aleister Crowley supposed to be his original idea is mentioned by Levi. We hâve not been able to trace it anywhere else with such exact correspondent in every dtail.…
1929 · PDF PAGE 29
…. This done, one may put the Will which is implicit in the “Why” into words, or rather into One Word. Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are spécially needed to control the aforesaid conditions. Let us make an analogy. A nation must become aware of its own character before it can be said to exist. From that knowledge it must…
1929 · PDF PAGE 80
…tly been made that the Hierarchy of the Grades should be “destroyed, and replaced by”—a ring System of 13 grades ail equal. There is, of course, one sense in which every grade is a Th in g-in-Itself. But the Hierarchy is only a convenient method 44
1929 · PDF PAGE 45
…f the évocation of Taphtatharath printed in Equinox I, III, pages 170-190, where he will see exactîy why these things are to be used. Of course, as the student advances in knowledge by expérience he will find a progressive subtlety in the magical universe corresponding to his own; for let it be said yet again! not only is his aura a magical mirror of the universe, but the universe is a magical mirror of his aura. In this chapter we are only able to give a very thin outline of magical theory — faint pencilling by weak and wavering fingers — for …
1929 · PDF PAGE 140
… 1. See also the Ritual called “The Mark of the Beast” given in an Appendix. But this is pantomorphous. 2. The signs and the planets, of course, contain, the éléments. It is important to remember this fact, as it helps one to grasp what ail these terms really mean. None of the “Thirty-two Paths” is a simple idea; each one is a combination, differentiated from the others by its structure smd proportions. The chemical éléments are similarly constituted, as the critics of Magick hâve at last been compelled to admit. 104 —
1929 · PDF PAGE 153
…rnestness that they will tell the enquirer that this book will meet his needs. Does this Sound too simple? Can this obvious common-sense course be really that marvellous Magick that frightens folk so? Yes, even this triviality is one instance of how Magick Works. But the above practical programme may be a fiasco. One might then resort to Magick in the conventional sense of the Word, by constructing and charging a Pantacle appropriate to the object; this Pantacle should then cause a strain in the Astral Light such that the vibrations would compe…
1929 · PDF PAGE 154
…ough to bring the whole operation to naught, just as no effort of Will can make oil mix with water. I may work “naturally” by wooing, of course. But, magically, I may attack her astrally so that her aura becomes uneasy, respond- ing no longer to her lover. Unless they diagnose the cause, a quarrel may resuit, and the woman’s bewildered and hungry Body of Light may turn in its distress to that of the Magician who has mastered it. Take a third case of this class 2. I wish to recover my watch, snatched from me in a crowd. Here I hâve no direct mea…