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…hese phantoms, of whatever nature, must be evoked, examined, and mastered; otherwise we may tind that just when we want it there is some idea with which we have never dealt; and perhaps that idea, springing on us by surprise, and as it were from behind, may strangle us. This is the legend of the sorcerer strangled by the Devil !
…er; because, as they say, "either you must kill it or it will kill you"; and it is a question of which sees the other first. Now any one idea which is not The Idea must be treated in this fashion. When you have killed the snake you can use its skin, but as long as it is alive and free, you are in danger. And unfortunately the ego-idea, which is the real snake, can throw itself into a multitude of forms, each clothed in the most brilliant dress. Thus the devil is said to be able to disguise himself as an angel of light. Under the strain of a mag…
69 H. G. Wells has said that "every word of which a man is ignorant represents an idea of which he is ignorant." And it is impossible per- fectly to understand all things unless all things be first known. Understanding is the structuralization of knowledge. All impressions are disconnected, as the Babe of the Abyss is so terribly aware; and the Master of the Temple must sit for 106 seasons in the City of the Pyramids because this coordination is a tremendous task. There is nothing [)articularly occult in this doctrine concerning know- ledge and…
… of the Rosy Cross, under a slightly different aspect. And since marriage can only take place between one and one, it is evident that no idea can thus be united, unless it is simple. Hence every idea must be analysed by the Sword. Hence, too, there must only be a single thought in the mind of the person meditating. One may now go on to consider the use of the Sword in purifying emotions into perceptions. It was the function of the Cup to interpret the perceptions by the tendencies; the Sword frees the perceptions from the Web of emotion.
…a triangle. The Vesica Piscis is sometimes used instead of the circle, or the circle may be glyphed as a serpent. Time and space and the idea of causality are sometimes represented; so also are the three stages in the history of philosophy, in which the three objects of study were successively Nature, God, and Man. The duality of consciousness is also sometimes represented; and the Tree of Life itself may be figured therein, or the categories. An emblem of the Great Work should be added. But the Pantacle will be im- perfect unless each idea is …
…Sulphur, active, excitable, even fierce; Tamas is Salt, thick, sluggish, heavy, dark.^ But Hindu philosophy is so occupied with the main idea that only the Absolute is worth anything, that it tends to consider these Gunas 1 There is a long description of these tliree Gunas in the Bhagavadgita. 27
…l Bell is best attached to the chain. In some systems of Magick a number of bells have been worn, sewn upon the hem of the robe with the idea of symbolizing that every movement of the Magician should make music. But the Bell of which we shall speak is a more important implement. This Bell summons and alarms; and it is also the Bell which sounds at the elevation of the Host. It is thus also the ''Astral Bell" of the Magician.^ The Bell of which we speak is a disk of some two inches in diameter, very slightly bent into a shape not unlike that of …
…ttempt to terrify, to shock, to disgust, to allure. Against all this he must oppose the Steel of the Sword. If he has got rid of the ego-idea this task will be comparatively easy; unless he has done so it will be almost impossible. So says the Dhammapada: Me he abused, and me he beat, he robbed me, he insuhed me: In whom such thoughts find harbourage, hatred will never cease to be. And this hatred is the thought which inhibits the love whose apothe- osis is Samadhi.
…ble, although so deeply-seated that in normal thought one may not always be aware of it. Buddha, taking the bull by the horns, made this idea the first to be attacked. Each must decide for himself whether this is a wise course to pursue. But it certainly seems easier to strip off first the things which can easily be done without. The majority of people will find most trouble with the Emotions, and thoughts which excite them. But it is both possible and necessary not merely to suppress the emotions, but to turn them into faithful servants. Thus …
…nd that of India has proved strong enough to absorb its many conquerors." The Sword has been the great weapon of the last century. Every idea has been attacked by thinkers, and none has withstood attack. Hence civilization crumbles. No settled principles remain. To-day all constructive statesmanship is empiricism or opportunism. It has been doubted whether there is any real relation between Mother and Child, any real distinction between Male and Female. The human mind, in despair, seeing insanity imminent in the breaking ' It should be noted th…
…exoteric side if necessary the mind should be trained by the study of any well-developed science, such as chemistry, or mathematics. The idea of organization is the first step, that of interpretation the second. The Master of the Temple, whose grade corresponds to Binah, is sworn to "interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with his soul." ^ See the " Interlude " follo\A'ing. ^ See Equinox V, "The Training of the Mind"'; Equinox II, "The Psychology of Hashish"; Equinox VII, "Liber DCCCCXIII."'
…od or as bad; if one is good and the other bad we are back again in that duality, to avoid which we invented the Absolute. The Christian idea that sin was worth while because salvation was so much more worth while, that redemption is so splendid that innocence was well lost, is more satisfactory. St. Paul says : " Where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound. Then shall we do evil that good may come? God forbid." But (clearly!) it is exactly what God Himself did, or why did He create Satan with the germ of his " fall " in him? Instead o…
…ip it, since all truth is worshipful. In such a case he is lost; the phantom will have power over him; it will obsess him. As long as an idea is being examined you are free from
…orn at the marriage feast. One might say that the Pantacle is the bread of life, and the Sword the knife which cuts it up. One must have ideas, but one must criticize them. The Sword, too, is that weapon with which one strikes terror into the demons and dominates them. One must keep the Ego Lord of the impressions. One must not allow the circle to be broken by the demon; one must not allow any one idea to carry one away. It will readily be seen how very elementary and false all this is —but for the beginner it is necessary. In all deahngs with …
…ao Teh King says that the Tao cannot be de- clared either by silence or by speech. In this preliminary task of collecting materials, the idea of the Ego is not of such great moment; all impressions are phases of the non-ego, and the Ego serves merely as a receptacle. In fact, to the well regu- lated mind, there is no question but that the impressions are real, and that the mind, if not a tabula fasa, is only not so because of the "ten- dencies " or " innate ideas " which prevent some ideas from being received as readily as others.' These "tende…
…has properly considered the question as to the amount and quality of the light afforded by candles made by waxed Christians. Who has any idea which joint of the ordinary missionary is preferred by epicures? It is only a matter of conjecture that Catholics are better eating than Presbyterians. Yet these points and their kind are the only ones which have any importance at the time when the events occur. Nero did not consider what unborn posterity might think of him; it is difficult to credit cannibals with the calculation that the recital of thei…
74 And so we find once more that the Ego-idea must be ruthlessly rooted out before Understanding can be attained. There is an apparent contradiction between this attitude and that of the Master of the Temple. What can possibly be more selfish than this interpretation of everything as the dealing of God with the soul? But it is God who is all and not any part; and every "deaHng" must thus be an expansion of the soul, a destruction of its separateness. Every ray of the sun expands the flower. The surface of the water in the Magick Cup is infinite…
6o Just as if you tell a child not to do a thing —no matter what —it will immediately want to do it, though otherwise the idea might never have entered its head, so it is with the saint. "We have all of us these tendencies latent in us; of most of them we might remain uncon- scious all our lives —unless they were awakened by our Magick. They he in ambush. And every one must be av^akened, and every one must be destroyed. Every one who signs the oath of a Proba- tioner is stirring up a hornets' nest. A man has only to affirm his conscious aspirat…
… is only the heap of refuse from which that Self is to be built up. The Magical instruments must be made before they are destroyed. This idea of Karma has been confused by many who ought to have known better, including the Buddha, with the ideas of poetic justice and of retribution. We have the story of one of the Buddha's Arahats, who being blind, in walking up and down unwittingly killed a number of insects. [The Buddhist regards the destruction of life as the most shocking crime.] His brother Arahats inquired as to how this was, and Buddha s…
…n all his toys, he had outgrown them. Karma does not act in this tit-for-tat way. An eye for an eye is a sort of savage justice, and the idea of justice in our human sense is quite foreign to the constitution of the Universe. Karma is the Law of Cause and Effect. There is no propor- tion in its operations. Once an accident occurs it is impossible to say what may happen ; and the Universe is a stupendous accident. We go out to tea a thousand times without mishap, and the thousand- and-first time we meet some one who changes radically the course …