MAGICKAL MEMORY 
245 
There is one Oath more important than all the rest put 
together, from the point of view of the A :. A: .. You swear 
to refuse all the "rewards," to acquire your new vehicle 
without a moment's delay, so that you may carry on your 
work of helping Mankind with the minimum of interruption. 
Like all true Magical Oaths, it is certain of success. 
So then we have a man not only very well prepared to 
reincarnate at once-this means about six months after his 
death, for his vehicle will be a foetus about three months old, 
but to extirpate more deliberately all impressions that may 
assail its integrity. 
Alternatively, there may be something in the nature of 
such impressions that is unsuitable for carrying over into the 
conscious mind of the new man. Or there may be a rule-e.g., 
the draught of the waters of the River Lethe-and it might be 
possible for some Adept (whose initiation is of a higher 
degree than, or of a different type to, mine) to make his way 
through that particular barrier. 
Enough of may, might, perhaps, and all that harpy brood! 
The plain fact is that I remember nothing at all of any Post 
Mortem experiences, and I have never known anyone else 
who does. 
There is one exception. I do remember the first, almost 
momentary, reaction . I am in my Astral Form, in my best 
Sunday-go-to-meeting Ceremonial Vestments, and with my 
Wand-I seem to hold this raised, attaching great importance 
to the act-looking down upon the corpse, exactly as one 
does at the outset of an "Astral Journey" in one's days of 
learning how to do it. 
I recall no impression at all made by this sight; neither 
regret nor relief nor even surprise. 
But there is one intensely strong reaction-I fancy I have 
mentioned this already-when 
one first remembers one of 
one's deaths: "By Jove! that was a narrow squeak!" 
What was it that one feared? I haven't the foggiest. 
And that is what I had to tell you about the Magical 
Memory.