492 
MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS 
The best explanation of how to set about the task is given 
in Liber Thisharb. 
Some of this sounds rather advanced and technical; but it 
ought to give you the general idea. You should begin with 
your parents and the family traditions; the circumstances of 
your birth and education; your social position; your financial 
situation; your physique, health, illnesses; your vita sexualis; 
your hobbies and amusements; what you are good at, what 
not; how you came to be interested in the Great Work; what 
(if you have 
been 
on false 
trails, 
Toshophists, 
Anthroposophagists, sham Rosicrucians, etc.) has been "your 
previous condition of servitude"; how you found me, and 
decided to enlist my aid. 
That, by itself, helps you to understand yourself, and me 
to understand you. 
From that point the keeping of the Record is quite easy. 
All you have to do is to put down what practices you mean 
to begin, how you get on with them from day to day, and (at 
intervals) what I have to say about your progress. 
Remember always that we have no use for piety, for vague 
chatter, 
for guesswork; we are as strictly scientific as 
biologists or chemists. We ban emotion from the start; we 
demand perception; and (as you will see later on) even 
perception is not acceptable until we have made sure of its 
bases by a study of what we call the 'tendencies'. 
That is all about the Magical Record; the way is now clear 
to set forth 
our Method. This is two-fold. (l) Yoga, 
introversion, (2) Magick, extroversion. (These are rough but 
useful connotations.) 
The two seem, at first glance, to be 
opposed; but, when you have advanced a little in both, you 
find that the concentration learnt in Yoga is of immense use 
in attaining the mental powers necessary in Magick; on the 
other hand, the discipline of Magick is of the greatest service 
in Yoga. 
Let me remark, by the way, that to my mind one of the 
greatest beauties, and most encouraging confirmations of the