Magick Without Tears

THE LEFT -HAND PATH 111 everything, and what is Knowledge but the very soul of Illusion? Refusing thus the true nourishment of all his faculties, they lose their structural unity, and must be fortified by continuous doses of dope in anguished self-preservation. Thus all its chemical equations become endothermic. To describe the alternative attitude should clarify, by dint of contrast; at least the contemplation should be a pleasant change. Every accretion must modify me. I want it to do so. I want to assimilate it absolutely. I want to make it a permanent feature of my Temple. I am not afraid of losing myself to it, if only because it also is modified by myself in the act of union. I am not afraid of its being the 'wrong' thing, because every experience is a "play of Nuit," and the worst that can happen is a temporary loss of balance, which is instantly adjusted, as soon as it is noticed, by recalling and putting into action the formula of contradiction. Remember the Fama Fraternitatis: when they opened the Vault which held the Pastos of our Father Christian Rosencreutz, "all these colours were brilliant and flashing." That is, if one panel measured 20" by 40", the symbol (say, yellow) would occupy 400 square inches, and the background (in that case, violet) the other 400 square inches. Hence they dazzled; the limitation, restriction, demarcation, disappeared; and the result was an equable idea of form and colour which is beyond physical understanding. (At one time Picasso tried to work out this idea on canvas.) Destroy that eqUilibrium by one ten-millionth of an inch, and the effect is lost. The unbalanced item stands out like a civilian in the middle of a regiment. True, this faculty, this feeling for equilibrium must be acquired; but once you have done so, it is an unerring guide. Instant discomfort warns one; the impulse to scratch it (the analogy is too apt to reject!) is irresistible. Andoh! how imperative this is!