14 
Noise 
Cara Soror, 
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 
You ask me what is, at the present time, the greatest 
obstacle to human progress. 
I answer in one word: NOISE. 
You will recall that in Yoga the concise compendium of 
Initiated Instruction is: 
Sit still 
Stop thinking 
Shut up, and 
Get out. 
The second of these postulates the third; for one can 
neither think nor stop thinking with all that row going on. 
Then again, the Fourth Power of the Sphinx is Silence; on 
this subject I must refer you to Little Essays Toward Truth 
(No. 14, p. 75). 
We are really trying to discuss something totally different; 
something practical in daily life. Very well, then; you remark 
that Goetia actually means "howling," that we use officially 
the Bell, the Tom-Tom, the Incantations, the Mantras, and so 
on. All quite true, about Magick; but none of it applies to 
Yoga, for even with the Mantra the practice is to go faster 
and more quietly as one proceeds, until it becomes "Mental 
Muttering:" M is the letter that is pronounced with the lips 
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