Magick Without Tears

INTRODUCfION 21 is simple enough : you happen to be the kind of being that thinks it does matter what course you steer; or, still more haughtily, you enjoy the pleasure of sailing. No, there is this factor in all success: self-confidence. If we analyze this, we find that it means that one is aware that all one's men tal and physical faculties are working harmoniously. The deadliest and subtlest enemy of that feeling is anxiety about the result; the finest gauze of doubt is enough to dim one's vision, to throw the entire field out of focus. Hence, even to be aware that there is a result in prospect must militate against that serenity of spirit which is the essence of self-confidence. As you well know, all our automatic physiological functions are deranged if one is aware of them. This then, is the difficulty, to enjoy consciously while not disturbing the process involved. The obvious physical case is the sexual act: perhaps its chief importance is just that it is a type of this exceptional spiritual-mental condition. I hope, however, that you will remember what I have said on the subject in paragraphs 15-17 of my Third Lecture on "Yoga for Yellowbellies" (pp. 71-72); there is a way of obtaining ecstasy from the most insignificant physiological function. Observe that in transferring the whole consciousness to (say) one's little finger or big toe, one is not trying to interfere with the normal exercise of its activities, but only to realize what is going on in the organism, the exquisite pleasure of a function in its normal activity. With a little imagination one can conceive the analogical case of the Universe itself; one can understand the phrase "The stars of the morning sang together"; and, still less fettered by even the mildest limitation which material symbols necessarily (however little) suggest, "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy." (AL, 11:9.) Is it too bold to suggest that the gradual merging of all these Ways into an interwoven unity may be taken as one mode of presentation of the Accomplishment of the Great Work itself?