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Page 1 of 31929 · PDF PAGE 111
…hus, my Magical Work is only one of the cause-effects necessarily concomitant with the cause-effects which set the bail in motion. I may therefore regard the act of striking as a cause- effect of my original Will to move the bail, though necessarily previous to its motion. But the case of magical Work is not quite analogous. For my nature is such that I am compelled to perform Magick in order to make my will to prevail; so that the cause of my doing the Work is also the cause of the balPs motion, and there is no reason why one should précédé th…
1929 · PDF PAGE 114
…Eleusis , and elsewhere); (4) that a Continuum requires a Continuum to be commensurable with it: (5) that Empiricism is inéluctable, and therefore that adjustment is the only possible method of action; and (6) that error may be avoided by opposing no résistance to change, and registering observed phenomena in their own language. 1. The elasticity of Magick makes it equal to ail possible kinds of environment, and therefore biologically perfect. “Do what thou wilt” implies self-adjustment, so that failure cannot occur. One’s true Will is necessar…
1929 · PDF PAGE 55
third part; in which occur, almost as if by accident, the words: ‘‘Therefore do ail things obey my word.” Yet in the fourth part, which begins: “Therefore do thou corne forth unto me”, it is not really the magician who is addressing the God; it is the God who hears the far-off utterance of the magician. If this invocation has been correctly performed, the words of the fourth part will Sound distant and strange. It is surprising that a dummy (so the magus now appears to Himself) should be able to speak! The Egyptian Gods are so complété in their…
1929 · PDF PAGE 47
…imperfection of impurity would vitiate the Macrocosm of which it is the image, Eidolon, or Reflexion. For example, God is above sex; and therefore neither man nor woman as such can be said fully to understand, much less to represent, God. It is therefore incumbent on the male magician to cultivate those female virtues in which he is déficient, and this task he must of course accomplish without in any way impairing his virility. It will then be lawful for a magician to invoke Isis, and identify himself with her; if he fail to do this, his appréh…
1929 · PDF PAGE 80
…la of Abrahadabra concerns us, as men, principally because each of us represents the pentagram or microcosm ; and our équilibration must therefore be with the hexa- gram or macrocosm. In other words, 50 = 6° is the formula of the Solar operation $ but then 6°=5° is the formula of the Martial operation, and this reversai of the figures implies a very different Work. In the former instance the problem was to dissolve the microcosm in the macrocosm 5 but this other problem is to separate a particular force from the macrocosm, just as a savage migh…
1929 · PDF PAGE 45
…and abstruse, of a philosopliical and almost magical character. This consists principally of the conceptions of pure mathematics. It is, therefore, almost legitimate to say that pure mathematics is our link with the rest of the universe and with “God”. Now the conceptions of Magick are themselves profoundly mathematical. The whole basis of our theory is the Qabalah, which corresponds to mathematics and geometry. The method of operation in Magick is based on this, in very much the same way as the laws of mechanics are based on mathematics. So fa…
1929 · PDF PAGE 147
…, or cracked j and to tins extrait, due reflection of ourselves may be false even in respect of its symbolk présentation. In that Light, therefore, ail that we do is to discover ourselves by means of a sequence of hieroglyphics, and the changes which we apparently operate are in an objective sense illusions. But the Light serves us in this way. It enables us to see ourselves, and therefore to aid us to initiate ourselves by showing us what we are doing. In the same way a watchmaker uses a lens, though it exaggerates and thus falsifies the image…
1929 · PDF PAGE 131
… in quality according to its mental and moral character. At the death of the animal this energy is liberated suddenly. The animal should therefore be killed 1 within the Circle, or the Triangle, as the case may be. so that its energy cannot escape. An animal should be selected whose nature accords with that of the ceremony — thus, by sacrificing a female lamb one would not obtain any appreciate quantity of the fierce energy useful to a Magician who was invoking Mars. In such a case a ram 2 3 would be more suitable. And this ram should be virgin…
1929 · PDF PAGE 46
…ree of Life the Caterpillar he is after may happen to be crawling, is immensely helped by a grasp of general principles. Every magician, therefore, should study the Holy Qabalah. Once he has mastered the main principles, he will find his work grow easy. Solvitur ambulando: which does not mean: 46Call the Ambulance!” io
1929 · PDF PAGE 18
… Blavatsky some years earlier. “Theosophy”, “Spiritua- lism”, “Occultism”, “Mysticism”, ail involved undesirable con¬ notations. I chose therefore the name. “MAGICK” as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of ail the available terms. I swore to rehabilitate MAGICK, to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I hâve kept my Word. But the time is now corne for me to carry my banner into the thick of the press of human life. I must make …
1929 · PDF PAGE 124
…here will, however, be a certain limitation to his work, because he has formed his magical body from the fine matter of his own element. Therefore, although he may be able to penetrate the utmost recesses of the heavens, or conduct vigorous combats with the most unpronounceable démons cf the pit, it may be impossible for him to do as much as knock a vase from a mantel- piece. His magical body is composed of matter too tenuous to affect directly the gross matter of which illusions such as tables and chairs are made.1 I. The one really easy “phys…
1929 · PDF PAGE 137
… It is no good building a ship if the water can enter, through however small a hole. The first task of the Magician in every ceremony is therefore to render his Circle absolutely impregnable. 1 If one littlest thought intrude upon the mind of the Mystic, his concentration is absolutely destroyed; and his consdousness remains on exactly the same level as the Stockbroker’s. Even the smallest baby is incompatible with the virginity of its mother. If you leave even a single spirit within the circle, the effect of the conjuration will be entirely ab…
1929 · PDF PAGE 60
…n. Similarly we find Lamed for Earth, where we should expect Tau — in order to emphasize the influence of Venus, who rules Libra. ALHIMy therefore, represents rather the formula of Consécra¬ tion than that of a complété ceremony. It is the breath of bénédiction, yet so potent that it can give life to clay and light to darkness. In consecrating a weapon, Aleph is the whirling force of the thunderbolt, the lightning which flameth out of the East even 1. “Gods” are the Forces of Nature; their “Names” are the Laws of Nature. Thus They are eternal, …
1929 · PDF PAGE 75
…the Néophyte \ This formula has for its “first matter” the ordinary man entirely ignorant of everything and incapable of anything. He is therefore represented as blindfolded and bound. His only aid is his aspira¬ tion, represented by the officer who is to lead him into the Temple. Before entering, he must be purified and consecrated. Once within the Temple, he is required to bind himself by an oath. His aspiration is now formulated as Will. He makes the mystic circumambulation of the Temple for the reasons to be described in the Chapter on “Ges…
1929 · PDF PAGE 19
(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take “magical weapons”, pen, ink, and paper ; I Write “incantations” — these sentences — in the “magical language” i.e. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth “spirits”, such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of __ . MAGICK by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with …
1929 · PDF PAGE 85
…ents of fluidic energy, the male Ichthus or “Pesce” and the female Vesica, seeking respectively the anode and kathode. The number ioo is therefore a synthetic glyph of the subtle energies employed in creating the Illusion, or Reflection of Reality, which we call manifested existence. The above are the principal considérations in the matter of AUMGN. They should suffice to illustrate to the student the methods employed in the construction of the hieroglyphics of Magick, and to arm him with a mantra of terrifie power by virtue whereof he may appr…
1929 · PDF PAGE 22
…powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on expérience of the past, and every step in his progress extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign theoretical limits 1 2 to what lie may be, or to what he may do. (Illustration: A génération ago it was supposed theoretically impossible that man should ever know the Chemical composition of the fixed stars. It is known that our senses are adapted to receive only an infinitésimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration. Modem instruments hâve enabled us to detect some of thes…
1929 · PDF PAGE 23
…t neither in us nor in them — so far as we know — is there any direct conscious perception of these forces. Imperceptible influences are therefore associated with ail material phenomena; and there is no reason why we should not work upon matter through those subtle energies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we use magnetic force to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce images.) (14) Man is capable of being, and using, anytbing which he perçoives, for everything thaï he perçoives is in a certain sense a part of his being. He …
1929 · PDF PAGE 92
…clusively in that especial form. It can hâve no reason for remembering that so extravagant a ritual happened to be necessary to worship. Therefore, however well a man might remember his incarnation as Julius Caesar, there is no necessity for his representing his power to set ail upon the hazard of a die by imagining the Rubicon. Any spiritual State can be symbolized by an infinité variety of actions in an infinité variety of circum¬ stances. One should recollect only those events which happen to 56 —
1929 · PDF PAGE 53
…e nature of the dagger is to criticise, to destroy, to disperse j and ail true magical ceremonies tend to concentration. The dagger will therefore appear principally in the banishings, preliminary to the ceremony proper. The formula of the pantacle is again of no particular use; for the pantacle is inert. In fine, the formula of the wand is the only one with which we need more particularly concern ourselves.2 Now in order to invoke any being, it is said by Hermes Tris- megistus that the magi employ three methods. The first, for the vulgar, is t…