Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

y te assurance that He is guiding one secretly towards Himself, and ihat ail one’s mistakes are necessary préparations for the appointed hour of meeting Him. Each mistake is the combing-out oi some tangle in the hair of the bride as she is being coiffed for marriage. On the other hand, although the adept is in daily communica¬ tion with his Angel, he ought to be careful to consult Him only on questions proper to the dignity of the relation. One should not consult one s Angel on too many details, or indeed on any matters vvhich corne within the office of one’s familiar spirits. One does not to go the King about petty personal trifles. The romance and rapture of the ineffable union which consentes Adeptship must not be profaned by the introduction of eommonplace cares. One must not appear with one’s hair in 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 a means admirably efficacious of keeping his mind untroubled by external impressions, and therefore in the proper condition to receive the réitérant strokes of rapture with which the love of his Angel ravishes him. We hâve now mapped out the boundaries of possibility and propnety which define the physical and political geography of divination. The student must guard himself constantly against supposing that this art affords any absolute means of discovering “truth”, or indeed, of using that Word as if it meant more than the i. As the poet puts it; “Psyché, beware how thou disclose Thy tricks of toilet to Eros, Or let him learn that those love-breathing Lyrical lins that whisper, wreathing His brows with sense-bewitching gold, Are equally expert to scold; 1 hat those caressing hands will maybe Yet box his ears and slap the baby ! ”