Magick Without Tears

Cara Soror , 6 The Three Schools of Magick (1) Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Here is the ftrst section of M. Gerard Aumont's promised essay;! it was originally called The Three Schools of Magick. (Don't be cross, please, because it is not in the form of a personal letter!) There is to-day much misunderstanding of the meaning of the term 'Magick'. Many attempts have been made to deftne it, but perhaps the best for our present purpose of historical-ideological exposition will be this-Magick is the Science of the Incommensurables. This is one of the many restricted uses of the word; one suited to the present purpose. It is particularly to be noted that Magick, so often mixed up in the popular idea of religion, has nothing to do with it. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of religion; it is, even more than Physical Science, its irreconcilable enemy. Let us define this difference clearly. Magick investigates the laws of Nature with the idea of making use of them. It only differs from 'profane' science by always keeping ahead of it. As Fraser has shown, Magick is science in the tentative stage; but it may be, and often is, more than this. It is science which, for one reason or another, cannot be declared to the profane. Religion, on the contrary, seeks to ignore the laws of 1. A few amendments-very few-have been necessitated by the lapse of time. 64