Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 3)

The effect of the Ritual has been (a) to keep them so busy with their own work that they cease to distract him; (b) to separate them so completely that his soûl is stripped of its sheaths ; (c) to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and anaesthetize him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual vivisection, just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order to brazen out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their desire ; (d) to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and fling them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel ; and (e) to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which invokes Him. The method of the Ritual is thus manifold. There is firstly an analysis of the Adept, which enables him to calculate his course of action. He can décidé what must be banished, what purified, what concentrated. He can then con¬ centrate his will upon its one essential element, over-coming its résistance — which is automatic, like a physiological reflex — by destroying inhibitions through his ego-overwhelming enthusiasm.1 The other half of the work needs no such complex effort ; for his Angel is simple and unperplexed, ready at ail times to respond to rightly ordered approach. I. A high degree of initiation is required. This means that the process of analysis must hâve been carried out very thoroughly. The Adept must hâve become aware of his deepest impulses, and understood their true significance. The “résistance” here mentioned is automatic; it increases indefinitely against direct pressure. It is useless to try to force oneself in these matters; the uninitiated Aspirant, however eager he may be, is sure to fail. One must know how to deal with each internai idea as it arises. It is impossible to overcome one’s inhibitions by conscious effort; their existence justifies them. God is on their side, as on that of the victim in Browning’s înstans Tyrannus. A man cannot compel himself to love, however much he may want to, on various rational grounds. But on the other hand, when the true impulse cornes, it overwhelms ail its critics; they are powrerless either to make or break a genius; it can only testify to the fact that it has met its master. 295 —