66
In
the beginning
the Cup of the student
is almost
empty;
and even
such truth
as he receives may leak away, and be lost.
They
say
that
the Venetians
made
glasses which
changed
colour
if
poison
was put into them; of such a glass must the student
make his Cup.
Very little experience
on the mystic
path will show him that of all the
impressions
he receives
none
is
true.
Either
they
are false in them-
selves, or they are wrongly
interpreted
in his mind.
There is one truth,
and only one.
All other thoughts are
false.
And
as he advances
in
the knowledge
of his
mind
he will
come to
understand
that its whole
structure
is so faulty that it is quite incapable,
even in its most exalted moods, of truth.
He will recognize
that any thought
merely
establishes
a relation
be-
tween the Ego and the non-Ego.
Kant has
shown
that even the laws of nature
are but
the
conditions
of thought.
And
as the current
of thought
is the blood of the
mind,
it
is said that the Magick Cup is filled
with
the blood of the Saints.
All
thought must be offered up as a sacrifice.
The Cup can hardly
be described
as a weapon.
It is round
like the
pantacle — not
straight
like the wand
and
the
dagger.
Reception,
not
projection,
is its nature.^
1 As the Magician
is in the position
of God
towards
the Spirit
that he evokes, he