Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 3)

the True WiJl of the seer; if not, though it be never so true objectively, it is not true for him, because not useful for him. (Said we not a while ago that Truth was no more than the Most Convenient Manner of Statement?) . ^ may intoxicate and exalt the Seer, it may inspire and fortify him in every way, it may throw light upon most holy mysteries, yet withal be no more than an interprétation of the individual to himself, the formula not of Abraham but of Onan. These plastic "Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man” are well enough for those who hâve heard “Know Thyself”. They are necessary, even, to assist that analysis of one’s nature which the Probationer of A.-. A.*, is sworn to accomplish. But "Love is the Law, love under Will”. And Our Lady Nuit is “divided for love s sake, for the chance of union.” These mirror-mirages are therefore not Works of Magick, according to the Law of Thelema. the true Magick of Horus requires the passionate union of opposites. Now the proof that one is in contact with an independent entity dépends on a sensation which ought to be unmistakeable if one is in good health. One ought not to be liable to mistake one’s own sensible impressions for somebody else’s! It is only Man’s incurable vanity that makes the Astral "Strayed Reveller” or the mystic confuse his own drunken babble with the voice of the Most High. The essence of the righî sensation consists in récognition of the reality of the other Seing. There will be as a rule some element of hostility, even when the reaction is sympathetic. One s soul-mate” (even) is not thonight of as oneself, at first contact. One must therefore insist that any real appearance on the Astral Plane gives the sensation of meeting a stranger. One must accept it as independent, be it Archangel or Elf, and measure one’s own reaction to it. One must learn from it, though one despise it; and love it, however one loathe it. One must realize, on wnting up the record, that the meeting has effected a definite change in oneself. One must hâve known and felt something a lien, and not merely tried on a new dress. 255 —