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Page 1 of 71954 · PDF PAGE 315
…ed rather heavily that the term "Higher Self' implies "a damnable heresy and a dangerous delusion." If it were not so, there would be no point in "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage." Apart from any theoretical speculation, my Sammasati and analytical work has never led to so much as a hint of the existence of the Guardian Angel. He is not to be found by any exploration of oneself. It is true that the process of analysis leads finally to the realization of oneself as no more than a point of view indistinguishable in itself from any other po…
1954 · PDF PAGE 529
…here are two ways and only two. Imagine for a moment that you are an orphan in the charge of a guardian, inconceivably learned from your point of view. Suppose therefore that you are puzzled by some problem suitable to your childish nature , your obvious and most simple way is to approach your guardian and ask him to enlighten you . It is clearly part of his function as guardian to do his best to help you. Very good, that is the first method, and a close parallel with what we understand by the word Magick. We are bothered by some difficulty abo…
1954 · PDF PAGE 157
…, so that if I acquiesce at all in the system of the O.T.O. so far as the "secret of secrets" of the IXo is concerned, it is really on a point of personal honour. My pledge given to the late Frater Superior and O.H.O., Dr. Theodor Reuss. For all that, in this particular instance it is beyond question a point of common prudence , both because the abuse of the Secret is, at least on the surface, so easy and so tempting, and because, if it became a matter of general knowledge the Order itself might be in danger of calumny and pe:-secution ; for th…
1954 · PDF PAGE 79
… eye to convey an impression to the consciousness (it may alter in 1,000 ways in the process!) all that really exists is a memory of the Point-Event , not the Point-Event itself. What then is this Reality of which we are so sure? Obviously, it has not got a name, since it never happened before, or can happen again! To discuss it at all we must invent a name, and this name (like all names) cannot possibly be anything more than a symbol. Even so, as so often pointed out , all we do is to "record the behaviour of our instruments ." Nor are we much…
1954 · PDF PAGE 141
…ems. Don't say "he passed on" when you mean "he died," and don't call a spade a bloody shovel! I shall break off this brief note at this point , so that you may have time to tell me if what I have so far said covers the whole ground of your enquiry. Love is the law, love under will. Fraternally, 666
1954 · PDF PAGE 284
…re to boast that I had altogether clear in my own mind. Leaving out nearly everything, the only way to simplify it is to call Hadit the "Point-of-View," and "Anywhere" to be the radix of all possible "Point-Events," or "experiences," or "phenomena"; Nuit is the complement, the total possibilities of any such radix. You can only get this properly into that part of your mind which is "above the Abyss," i.e., Neschamah; even so, Neschamah must be very thoroughly fertilized by Chiah, and illuminated by Jechidah, to make any sort of a job of it. But…
1954 · PDF PAGE 187
… of a Magical Operation apply in this as in all cases; your aim must conform with your True Will, and all that; but there is one curious point about an Act of Truth: this , that one should resort to it only when there is no other method possible. In the explorer's case, above, it won't do if he has any means of hurrying up the messenger. It seems to me that the above brief sketch should suffice an intelligent and imaginative student like yourself ; but if any point remains darkling, let me know , and I will follow up with a postscript. Love is …
1954 · PDF PAGE 78
…But this is to jump far ahead: we must first analyze the single, simple impression. "I see a tree." This phenomenon is what is called a "point-event." It is the coming together of the two, the seer and the seen. It is single and simple; yet we cannot conceive of either of them as anything but complex. And the Point-Event tells us nothing whatever about either; both, as Herbert Spencer and God-knows-how-many others have shown, unknowable; it stands by itself, alone and aloof.
1954 · PDF PAGE 489
…u to Mr. J. H. Thomas.) One evil leads to another; the seven devils always take possession of a house that is swept and garnished to the point at which people find it uncomfortable. But is not all this beside the point, you ask? No. It was needful to indicate this cumulative progression to social shipwreck, because, to-day an obvious peril of the most menacing. In 1904 no ordinary sane person foresaw anything of the sort. But special knowledge alters things, and it is certain that the Masters anticipated , with great exactness of calculation, t…
1954 · PDF PAGE 408
POWER AND AUTHORITY 375 elected a cobbler, as it could, it would not empower the New Fellow to perform a boiling-point determination, or read a Vernier. In our own case, though Our authority is at least as absolute as that of the Pope and the Church of Rome, it does not confer upon me any power transferable to others by any act of Our will. Our own authority came to Us because it was earned, and when We confer grades upon other people Our gift is entirely nugatory unless the beneficiary has won his spurs. To put it in a slightly different form …
1954 · PDF PAGE 309
…rse, for it encourages one in loose thinking, and especially in clinging to names which have no counterpart in things. There is only one point of theory which matters to our practice. We may readily concur that the Augoeides, the "Genius" of Socrates, and the "Holy Guardian Angel" of Abramelin the Mage, are identical. But we cannot include this "Higher Self'; for the Angel is an actual Individual with his own Universe, exactly as a man is; or, for the matter of that, a bluebottle. He is not a mere abstraction, a selection from, and exaltation o…
1954 · PDF PAGE 279
246 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS No: just one point to go to sleep on: suppose two or more people claim simultaneously to have been Julius Caesar, or Shakespeare, or-oh! always one very great gun! Well, fifty or sixty years ago or more there was a regular vogue for this sort of thing, especially among women. It was usually Cleopatra or Mary Queen of Scots or Marie Antoinette: something regal and tragic preferred, but un surpassable beauty the prime essential as one would expect. Of the Mary Queen of Scots persuasion was old Lady Caithness, who seems mo…
1954 · PDF PAGE 137
104 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS From one point of view (bless your heart!) you are nothing at all but a bundle of memories. When you say "this is happening now," you are a falsifier of God's sacred truth! When I say "I see a horse," the truth is that "I record in those terms my private hieroglyphic interpretation of the unknown and unknowable phenomenon (or 'point-event') which has more or less recently taken place at the other end of my system of receiving impressions." Well, then! You realize, of course, how many millions or billions of memories the…
1954 · PDF PAGE 470
…ty. It follows that all the best books are those which make no pretence to accuracy: poetry, theatre, fiction. All others date . Another point is that Truth abides above and aloof from intellectual expression, and consequently those books which bear the Magic Keys of the Portal of the Intelligible by dint of inspiration and suggestion come more nearly to grips with Reality than those whose appeal is only to the Intellect. "Didactic" poetry, "realistic" plays and novels, are contradictions in terms. P.P.S. One more effort: the above reminds me t…
1954 · PDF PAGE 43
…an't find them for the moment; but Mr. Bryant said he would lend you his Blue Equinox; pages 195-270 give what you require. But the real point of your affiliating is that it saves me from constantly being on my guard lest I should mention something which I am sworn not to reveal. As in every serious society, members are pledged not to disclose what they may have learnt, whom they have met; it is so, even in Co-Masonry: isn't it: but one may mention the names of members who have died. (See Liber LII, par. 2.) Be happy then: the late X . .. y ...…
1954 · PDF PAGE 393
… t; no doubt, seeing it at all had disturbed our concentration. (This is where training in Yoga would have helped our Magick.) From that point it was all a wash-out. We could not get back the enthusiasm necessary to persist. We called it a day, did the banishings, closed the temple, and went to bed with our tails between our legs. (And yet, from a saner point of view, the Operation had been a shining success. "Miraculous" things began to happen; in one way and another the gates opened for Allan to migrate to less asthmatic climes; and the objec…
1954 · PDF PAGE 88
…from "that-which-is-not-pork." But-one moment, please! L. There is in Advaitism a most fascinating danger; that is that, up to a certain point, "Religious Experience" tends to support this theory. A word on this. Vulgar minds, such as are happy with a personal God, Vishnu, Jesus, Me1carth, Mithras, or another, often excite themselves-call it "Energized Enthusiasm" if you want to be sarcastic! -to the point of experiencing actual
1954 · PDF PAGE 229
…till take the trouble to enquire. We calmly, we carelessly assume that our minds are identical with that of the writer, at least on that point; and then we wonder that there should be misunderstandings! The fact is (again!) that usually we don't really want to know; it is so very much easier to drift down the river of discourse, "lazily, lazily, drowsily, drowsily, in the noonday sun." Why is this so satisfactory? Because although we may not know what a word means, most words have a pleasant or unpleasant connotation, each for himself, either b…
1954 · PDF PAGE 121
…to explain that a full appreciation of this message is not to be obtained by a hasty examination. It is essential to study it from every point of view, to analyse it with the keenest philosophical acumen, and finally to apply it as a key for every problem, internal and external, that exists. This key, applied with skill, will open every lock. From the deepest point of view, the greatest value of this formula is that it affords, for the first time in history, a basis of reconciliation between the three great Schools of Magick. It will tend to ap…
1954 · PDF PAGE 270
…knows it to be the source of all things soever; the most exalted spiritual ecstasy and the most trivial internal impression are from our point of view equally illusions, worthless masks, which hide, with grotesque painted pasteboard false and lifeless, the living face of truth. Yet, from another point of view, they are equally expressions of the ecstatic genius of truth-natural images of the reaction between the essence of one's self and one's particular environment at the moment of their occurrence. They are equally tokens of the Tao by whom, …