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Page 1 of 21913 · PDF PAGE 58
…g, and only one of hitting. To avoid eating beef is easy; to eat nothing but pork is very diffi- cult. Levi recommends that at times the Magical Will itself should be cut off, on the same principle as one can always work better after a " com- plete change." Levi is doubtless right, but he must be understood as saying this " for the hardness of men's hearts." The turbine is more efficient than a reciprocating engine ; and his counsel is only good for the beginner. Ultimately the Magical Will so identifies itself with the man's whole being that i…
1913 · PDF PAGE 71
59 You will cease to be interested in controversies; politics, ethics, religion will seem so many toys, and your Magical Will will be free from these inhibitions. In Burma there is only one animal which the people will kill, Russell's Viper; 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 un…
1913 · PDF PAGE 73
…e statement that the Probationer can resign when he chooses is in truth only for those who have taken the oath but superficially. A real Magical Oath cannot be broken: you think it can, but it can't. This is the advantage of a real Magical Oath. However far you go around, you arrive at the end just the same, and all you have done by attempting to break your oath is to involve your- self in the most frightful trouble. It cannot be too clearly understood that such is the nature of things: it does not depend upon the will of any persons, however p…
1913 · PDF PAGE 54
42 This Magical Will is the wand in your hand by which the Great Work is accomplished, by which the Daughter is not merely set upon the throne of the Mother, but assumed into the Highest.^ The Magick Wand is thus the principal weapon of the Magus; and the name of that wand is the Magical Oath. The will being twofold is in Chokmah, who is the Logos, the word; hence some have said that the word is the will. Thoth the Lord of Magic is also the Lord of Speech; Hermes the messenger bears the Caduceus. Word should express will: hence the Mystic Name …
1913 · PDF PAGE 62
… destined not to catch it; he just runs, and if he could spare breath would say " Blow destiny! " It has been said earlier that the real Magical Will must be toward the highest attainment, and this can never be until the flowering of the Magical Understanding. The Wand must be made to grow in length as well as in strength ; it need not do so of its own nature.
1913 · PDF PAGE 129
… The Pantacle is flat like the fertile plains of earth. The name Pantacle implies an image of the All, 07n?ie in paruo; but this is by a magical transformation of the Pantacle. Just as we made the Sword symbolical of everything by the force of our Magick, so do we work upon the Pantacle. That which is merely a piece of common bread shall be the body of God ! The Wand was the will of man, his wisdom, his word ; the Cup was his understanding, the vehicle of grace; the Sword was his reason; and the Pantacle shall be his body, the temple of the Hol…
1913 · PDF PAGE 145
…epresentation of the Universe is to be approved by the Superior of the Magician. To this rule the Lamp is an exception; it is said : " A Magical Lamp that shall burn without wick or oil, being fed by the Aethyr. This shall he accomplish secretly and apart, without asking the advice or approval of his Adeptus Minor." This Lamp is the light of the pure soul; it hath no need of fuel, it is the Burning Bush inconsumable that Moses saw, the image of the Most High. This Lamp hangeth above the Altar, it hath no support from below; its light illumines …
1913 · PDF PAGE 51
CHAPTER VI THE WAND THE Magical Will is in its essence twofold, for it presupposes a beginning and an end; to will to be a thing is to admit that you are not that thing. Hence to will anything but the supreme thing, is to wander still further from it— any will but that to give up the self to the Beloved is Black Magick —yet this surrender is so simple an act that to our complex minds it is the most difficult of all acts; and hence training is necessary. Further, the Self surrendered must not be less than the All-Self; one must not come before t…
1913 · PDF PAGE 167
CHAPTER XIV THE BELL THE Magical 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 i…
1913 · PDF PAGE 93
AN INTERLUDE' EVERY nursery rime contains profound magical secrets which are open to every one who has made a study of the correspondences of the Holy Qabalah. To puzzle out an imaginary meaning for this "nonsense" sets one thinking of the Mysteries; one enters into deep contemplation of holy things, and God Himself leads the soul to a real illumination. Hence also the necessity of Incarnation: the soul must descend into all falsity in order to attain All-Truth. For instance: Old Mother Hubbard Went to her cupboard To get her poor dog a bone ; …
1913 · PDF PAGE 153
… head and shoot forth venom, there is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one." The serpent is also the Kundalini serpent, the Magical force itself, the manifesting side of the Godhead of the Magician, whose unmani- fested side is peace and silence, of which there is no symbol. In the Hindu system the Great Work is represented by saying that this serpent, which is normally coiled at the base of the spine, rises with her hood over the head of the Yogi, there to unite with the Lord of all. The serpent is also he who poisons. It is that …
1913 · PDF PAGE 41
… made of steel inlaid with gold; and the hilt is also golden. The chain is made of soft iron. It has t,^^ links. ^ 1 This is true of all magical instruments. The Hill of Golgotha is the circle, and the Cross the Tau. Christ had robe, crown, sceptre, etc. ; this thesis should one day be fully worked out. " See The Equinox, No. V, " The Vision and the Voice '': Xth Aethyr.
1913 · PDF PAGE 108
…uch lower sense. The hilt is of Venus, for Love is the motive of this ruthless analysis — if this were not so the sword would be a Black Magical weapon. The pommel of the Sword is in Death, the guard extends to Chesed and Geburah; the point is in jNIalkuth. Some magi make the three spheres of lead, tin, and gold respectively; the moons are silver, and the grip contains quicksilver, thus making the Sword symbolic of the seven planets. But this is a phantasy and affectation. " Whoso taketh the sword shall perish by the sword," is not a mystical t…
1913 · PDF PAGE 14
…ds about the " Saint " being tempted by the " Devil." Con- sider the parable of Christ in the Wilderness, where he is tempted to use his magical power, to do anything but the thing that should be done. These attacks on the will are as bad as the thoughts which intrude upon Dharana. It would almost seem as if one could not suc- cessfully practice meditation until the will had become so strong that no force in the Universe could either bend or break it. Before con- centrating the lower principle, the mind, one must con- centrate the higher princi…
1913 · PDF PAGE 168
…Bell. Let this be that which is written. Liber VII, v, 31 : "There is a solemnity of the silence. There is no more voice at all." As the Magical Book was the record of the past, so is the Magick Bell the prophecy of the future. The manifested shall repeat itself again and again, always a clear thin note, always a sim- plicity of music, yet ever less and less disturbing the infinite silence until the end.
1913 · PDF PAGE 56
…pping himself of energy, causing him to waste his time over trifles. There is no power which cannot be pressed into the ser- vice of the Magical Will: it is only the temptation to value that power for itself which offends. One does not say: "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" unless repeated prunings have convinced the gardener that the growth must always be a rank one. " If thine hand offend thee, cut it off! " is the scream of a weakling. If one killed a dog the first time it misbehaved itself, not many would pass the stage of puppyho…
1913 · PDF PAGE 74
…orce, the force of Their great oaths, avail against the weakest oath of the most trivial of beginners. The attempt to interfere with the Magical Will of another person would be wicked, if it were not absurd. One may attempt to build up a Will when before nothing existed but a chaos of whims; but once organization has taken place it is sacred. As Blake says: "Everything that lives is holy"; and hence the creation of life is the most sacred of tasks. It does not matter very much to the creator what it is that he creates; there is room in the univ…
1913 · PDF PAGE 55
43 It is convenient therefore for the student to express his will by taking Magical Oaths. Since such an oath is irrevocable it should be well considered; and it is better not to take any oath permanently; because with increase of understanding may come a perception of the incompatibility of the lesser oath with the greater. This is indeed almost certain to occur, and it must be remembered that as the whole essence of the will is its one-pointedness,^ a dilemma of this sort is the worst in which the Magus can find himself. Another great point i…
1913 · PDF PAGE 57
…bedience follows command without reference to what that command may be; as Loyola wrote: "perinde ac cadaver." No one has understood the Magical Will better than Loyola; in his system the individual was forgotten. The will of the General was in- stantly echoed by every member of the Order; hence the Society of Jesus became the most formidable of the religious organizations of the world. That of the Old Man of the Mountains was perhaps the next best. The defect in Loyola's system is that the General was not God, and that owing to various other c…
1913 · PDF PAGE 53
…Special practices fortraining the memory may be of some use as a preliminary for persons whose memory is naturally poor. In any case the Magical Record prescribed for Probationers by the A. -.A.-, is useful and necessary. Above all the practices of Liber III must be done again and again, for these practices develop not only vigilance but those inhibiting centres in the brain which are, according to some psychologists, the mainspring of the mechanism by which civilized man has raised himself above the savage. So far it has been spoken, as it wer…