Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 4)

4- Ascertain how far you can walk without once stopping; likewise with dancing, swimming, running, etc. 5. Ascertain for how many hours you can do without sleep. 6. Test your endurance with various gymnastic exercises, club swinging, and so on. 7. Ascertain for how long you can keep silence. 8. Investigate any other capacities and aptitudes which may occur to you. 9. Let ail these things be carefully and conscientiously recordedj for according to your powers will it be demanded of you. VIL A Course of Reading. 1. The object of most of the foregoing practices will not at first be clear to you; but at least (who will deny it?) they hâve trained you in détermination, accuracy, introspection, and many other qualities which are valuable to ail men in their ordinary avocations, so that in no case will your time hâve been wasted. 2. That you may gain some insight into the nature of the Great Work which lies beyond these elementary trifles, however, we should mention that an intelligent person may gather more than a hint of its nature from the following books, which are to be taken as serious and learned contributions to the study of Nature, though not necessarily to be implicitly relied upon. aThe Yi King” (S.B.E. Sériés, Oxford University Press.) “The Tao Teh King” (S.B.E. Sériés.) “Tannh'âuser”, by A. Crowley. “The Upanishads”. “The Bhagavad-Gita”. “The Voice of the Silence”. “Raja Yoga”, by Swami Vivekananda. “The Shiva Sanhita”. “The Aphorisms of Patanjali”. “The Sword of Song”. “The Book of the Dead”. “Rituel et Dogme de la Haute Magie”. — 373 —