Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

The formula of the Cup is not so well suited for Evocations, and the magical Hierarchy is not involved in the same way; for the Cup being passive rather than active, it is not fitting for the magician to use it in respect of anything but the Highest. In practical working it consequently means little but prayer, and that prayer the “prayer of silence”.1 The formula of the dagger is again unsuitable for either pur- pose, since the nature of the dagger is to criticise, to destroy, to disperse j and ail true magical ceremonies tend to concentration. The dagger will therefore appear principally in the banishings, preliminary to the ceremony proper. The formula of the pantacle is again of no particular use; for the pantacle is inert. In fine, the formula of the wand is the only one with which we need more particularly concern ourselves.2 Now in order to invoke any being, it is said by Hermes Tris- megistus that the magi employ three methods. The first, for the vulgar, is that of supplication. In this the crude objective theory is assumed as true. There is a god named A, whom you, B, proceed to pétition, in exactly the same sense as a boy might ask his father for pocket-mcney. The second method involves a little more subtlety, inasmuch as the magician endeavours to harmonize himself with the nature of the god, and to a certain extent exalts himself, in the course of the ceremony; but the third method is the only one worthy of our considération. This consists of a real identification of the magician and the god. Note that to do this in perfection involves the attain- ment of a species of Samadhi; and this fact alone suffices to link irrefragably magie k with mysticism. Let us describe the magical method of identification. The symbolic form of the god is first studied with as much care as an artist would bestow upon his model, so that a perfectly clear and 1. Considérations which might lead to a contrary conclusion are un- suited to this treatise. See Liber LXXXI. 2. Later, these remarks are amplified, and to some extent modified.