The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) · 12 of 175 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Page 5 (part 5)
The technicalities of the occult sciences may seem hard to the beginner, and they are actually hard like the wilderness, because they are barren wastes, but they are in words of one syllable if compared with the little catechisms of eternal life, which are exclusive to the children of God.
Behind this Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King--which is so like the eye of the needle--there is the concealed tradition in and behind the mysticism of Christian Times.
About this it is scarcely possible to speak here, and it will require some care not to confuse the image with which I have opened my statement.
The Open Entrance of course leads to the Palace, but at a certain point there is found an exceedingly hidden postern and a path beyond, which is absolutely unattainable except through the lawful entrance, because, although the Kingdom of Heaven tolerates a certain quality of enlightened and loving violence, the sanctuary of all its sanctuaries responds only to the violence of that man who knows how to lay hands on himself, so that he may carry none of his extrinsics to the most intrinsecus place in all the world of God.
This postern is hidden deeply on the deepest side of tradition, but by what can be traced concerning it, I think that there has been such a going to and fro upon the Ladder of Jacob that something more of the states which are not the term, but are perhaps penultimate thereto, has been brought back by those who have accomplished the next but one to all of the Great Work.
I think further that they have gone so far that they have seen with their own eyes some intimacies of the term itself--being the state of those who go in and do not evermore come back.
These are aspects of the Secret Tradition in so far as it has declared itself on the side of God.
It remains now to be said that there is a tradition à rebours , and though it may seem very hard to put it so roughly and frankly, I have not taken all the consciousness of the inward man for my province to smooth or reduce any of the distinctions between the loss and gain of the soul.
The tradition a rebours is definitely and clearly that of miraculous power in the quest and attainment thereof.
It is summarised by the ambition of the Magus in its contrast with the desire of the eyes and the hope which fills the heart of the true mystic.
I am not intending to suggest that the Magus as such is of necessity at issue with the decalogue, or that he is under judgment by this sole standard, whether for vengeance or reward.
As the position is capable of dogmatic statement, and as such is without any subjection to vicissitude, I will express it in dogma as follows: Whosoever goes inward to find anything but the Divine in his centre is working on the side of his own loss.
As there is the height of Kether in Kabalism, so there is the abyss which is below Malkuth , and those who are seeking to exercise the powers of the soul apart from its graces are treading the downward path.
The operation of grace is so utterly catholic, and there is correspondingly so much of the Divine prevention operating everywhere, that in most instances the experiments come to little and the frittering does not continue from the mere weariness of its business; but the quest of miraculous power--and I use an unscientific phrase of set purpose, because I am dealing now with the most inexact of all subjects--is that which is usually comprehended by the term occult science, and the occult sciences, speaking generally, are the sciences of the abyss.
I except astrology, which--only through the accident of many associations--has been taken by force into the category: it is not an occult science, and notwithstanding a few negligible claims on the part of a few sanctuaries, it has no secret mode of working whatsoever.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The text requires the seeker to 'carry none of his extrinsics to the most intrinsecus place', implying a radical letting go of external attachments.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
The downward path is described as 'working on the side of his own loss' and seeking power apart from grace, implying evil as a lack of divine alignment.
Transgressive knowing acquired against divine prohibition — the Watchers' teaching of metallurgy, sorcery, and cosmetics in 1 Enoch, the Gnostic Eve narratives, the Promethean mytheme; explicitly contrasted with gnosis_direct_knowledge, which is salvific.
The 'tradition à rebours' and the 'sciences of the abyss' are presented as a dangerous or loss-inducing path distinct from the lawful entrance.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage contrasts the 'ambition of the Magus' with the 'true mystic' who seeks the Divine in his centre, implying direct experiential knowledge over mere power.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
Waite discusses a 'concealed tradition' and a 'Secret Tradition' that is hidden deeply within Christian mysticism and requires care not to confuse images.
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
Waite asserts that 'Whosoever goes inward to find anything but the Divine in his centre is working on the side of his own loss', locating the divine realm internally.
The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.
The passage distinguishes the 'ambition of the Magus' seeking 'miraculous power' from the mystic, acknowledging the operation of will in the quest for power.
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
The goal described is reaching the 'most intrinsecus place in all the world of God' and finding the 'Divine in his centre', suggesting a union with the divine.
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The text states the sanctuary responds only to the man who 'knows how to lay hands on himself', emphasizing self-mastery and inward turning as the path.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The distinction between the 'Open Entrance' and the 'Closed Palace' implies a state of separation that must be traversed to reach the divine.
A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.
The text describes a 'Ladder of Jacob' and a path leading from an 'Open Entrance' through a 'postern' to the 'sanctuary of all its sanctuaries', indicating a staged upward journey.
A vertical structure connecting cosmic levels — a tree, pillar, mountain, or ladder linking heaven, earth, and underworld around which the cosmos is organised. Yggdrasil binding the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology, the Kalevala's Sampo as world-pillar, the Mayan ceiba, the Vedic Aśvattha, the shamanic central tree of Eliade's analyses. Cosmic-structural in character: distinct from sefirot_tree (a kabbalistic emanation diagram) and emanation_hierarchy (an ontological cascade); world_tree_axis is the cosmos's spine rather than the divine's outflow.
The 'Ladder of Jacob' is referenced as a structure for 'going to and fro', serving as a vertical axis connecting states of being.