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and credulity; it is that self-confidence which only conaes when self is forgotten. It is the '^ Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel" which confers this faith. The task of attaining to this Knowledge and Conversation is the sole task of him who would be called Adept. An absolute method for achieving this is given in the Eighth Aethyr (Liber CDXVIII, Equinox V). M
…u are not that thing. Hence to will anything but the supreme thing, is to wander still further from it— any will but that to give up the self to the Beloved is Black Magick —yet this surrender is so simple an act that to our complex minds it is the most difficult of all acts; and hence training is necessary. Further, the Self surrendered must not be less than the All-Self; one must not come before the altar of the Most High with an impure or an imperfect offering. As it is written in Liber LXV, "To await Thee is the end, not the beginning." Thi…
… whether they help or hinder the main purpose, and treated accordingly. Vigilance and courage are obviously required. I was about to add self-denial, in deference to conventional speech; but how could I call that self-denial which is merely denial of those things which hamper the self? It is not suicide to kill the germs of malaria in one's blood. Now there are very great difficulties to be overcome in the training of the mind. Perhaps the greatest is forgetfulness, which is probably the worst form of what theliuddhists call ignorance. Special …
…Karma is all that a man has or is. His ulti- mate object is to get rid of it completely —when it comes to the point of surrendering^ the Self to the Beloved; but in the beginning the Magician is not that Self, he is only the heap of refuse from which that Self is to be built up. The Magical instruments must be made before they are destroyed. This idea of Karma has been confused by many who ought to have known better, including the Buddha, with the ideas of poetic justice and of retribution. We have the story of one of the Buddha's Arahats, who …
…l glow red for the rose, and green for the rose-leaf, so shalt thou abide apart from the Impressions." This great task of separating the self from the impressions or "vrit- ^ The Motto of the Chief of the A.-. A.'., "the Light of the World Him- self.'' - It does not occur to a newly-hatched chicken to behave in the same way as a new-born child.
…individual thing attainment means first and foremost the destruction of the individuality. Each of our ideas must be made to give up the Self to the Beloved, so that we may eventually give up the Self to the Beloved in our turn. It will be remembered in the History Lection ^how the Adepts "who had with smiling faces abandoned their homes and their possessions — could with steady calm and firm correctness abandon the Great Work itself; for this is the last and greatest projection of the Alchemist." The Master of the Temple has crossed the Abyss,…
flections; while the tendencies alter the refractive index, and break up the light. Even consciousness itself is that which distinguishes between the lower and the higher, the waters which are below the firmament from the waters which are above the firmament, that appalling stage in the great curse of creation. Since at the best this water ' is but a reflection, how tremendously important it becomes that it should be still ! If the cup is shaken the light will be broken up. Therefore the Cup is placed upon the Altar, which is foursquare, will m…
…f it. Such difficulties as we have mentioned have been purely natural obstacles. For example, the great question of the surrender of the self, which bulks so largely in most mystical treatises, has not been referred to at ll. We have said only what a man must do ; we have not considered at ill what that doing may involve. The rebellion of the will against the terrible discipline of meditation has not been discussed; one may now devote a few words to it. There is no limit to what theologians call " wickedness." Only by experience can the student…
…rrible of blas- phemies is to attribute any emotion to God in the macrocosm, or to the pure soul in the microcosm. How can that which is self-existent, complete, be moved} It is even written that "torsion about a point is iniquity." But if the point itself could be moved it would cease to be itself, for position is the only attribute of the point. The Magician must therefore make himself absolutely free in this respect. It is the constant practice of Demons to attempt to terrify, to shock, to disgust, to allure. Against all this he must oppose …
…t which conceals, and which protects the Magician from the elements; it is the silence and secrecy with which he works, the hiding of himself in the occult life of Magick and Meditation. This is the "going away into the wilderness " which we find in the lives of all men of the highest types of greatness. And it is also the withdrawing of one's self from life as such. In another sense it is the " Aura " of the Magician, that invisible egg or sheath which surrounds him. This " Aura " must be shining, elastic, impenetrable, even by the light, that…
…: "Believe me!" He says: "Z>^;z'/ believe me!" He does not ask for followers; would despise and refuse them. He wants an independent and self-reliant body of students to follow out their own methods of research. If he can save them time and trouble by giving a few useful "tips," his work will have been done to his own satisfaction. Those who have wished men to believe in them \vere absurd. A per- suasive tongue or pen, or an efficient sword, with rack and stake, pro- duced this "belief," which is contrary to, and destructive of, all real religi…
…wever far you go around, you arrive at the end just the same, and all you have done by attempting to break your oath is to involve your- self in the most frightful trouble. It cannot be too clearly understood that such is the nature of things: it does not depend upon the will of any persons, however powerful or
… of perfection. The three pentagrams symbolize the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, while the hexagram represents the Magician him- self. Ordinarily, pentagrams represent the microcosm, hexagrams the macrocosm; but here the reverse is the case, because in this Crown of Perfection, that which is below has become that which is above, and that which is above has become that which is below. If a diamond be worn, it is for the Light which is before all manifestations in form ; if an opal, it is to commemorate that sublime plan of the All, to fo…
… the same thing when he says that the breastplate is faith, and can withstand the fiery darts of the wicked. This " faith " is not blind self-confidence ^ Some writers have actually confused the Lamen with the Pantacle, usually through a misunderstanding of the nature of the latter. Dr. Dee's " Sigillum Dei Amath " makes a fine pantacle, but it would be useless as a lamen. Eliphas Levi made several attempts to draw one or the other, he never seemed sure which. Fortunately he knows better now. The lamens given in the Lesser and Greater Keys of "…