Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

lt should be added that ail these things happen “naturally”. 1 Perform an operation to bring Gold — your rich uncle dies and leaves you his moneyj books — you see the book wanted in a catalogue that very day, although you hâve advertised in vain for a year; woman — but if you hâve made the spirits bring you enough gold, this operation will become unnecessary. 2 It must further be remarked that it is absolute Black Magic to use any of these powers if the object can possibly be otherwise attained. If your child is drowning, you must jump and try to save him; it won’t do to invoke the Undines. Nor is it lawful in ail circumstances to invoke those Undines even where the case is hopeless; maybe it is necessary to ycu and to the child that it should die. An Exempt Adept on the right road will make no error here — an Adept Major is only too likely to do so. A through appréhension of this book will arm adepts of every grade against ail the more serious blunders incidental to their unfortunate positions. IV Necromancy is of sufficient importance to demand a section to itself. It is justifiable in some exceptional cases. Suppose the magician fail to obtain. access to living Teachers, or should he need some 1. The value of the evidence that your operations hâve influenced the course of events is only to be assessed by the application of the Laws of probability. The Master Therion would not accept any one single case as conclusive, however improbable it might be. A man might make a correct guess at one chance in ten million, no less than at one in three. If one pick up a pebble, the chance was infinitely great against that particular pebble; yet whichever one was chosen, the same chance “came off”. It requires a sériés of events antecedently unlikely to deduce that design is a work, that the observed changes are causally, not casually, produced. The prédiction of events is further evidence that they are effected by will. Thus, any man may fluke a ten shot at billiard, or even make a break of a few strokes. But chance cannot account for consistent success, even if moderate, when it extends over a long period of time. And the ability of the expert to “name his shot” manifests a knowledge of the relations of cause and effect which confirms the testimony of his empirical skill that his success is not chance and coincidence. 2. This cynical statement is an absurdity of Black Magic. ï97 —