Page 81 (part 2)

The tendency in this direction has been promoted by that knavish hypothesis concerning occult sanctuaries to which I alluded far back in this work, and to which I must refer again for a moment in these final words. As part of the root-matter out of which comes the lying art of spirits there stands forth the hypothetical efficacy of adjuration, prayer and ceremonial acts of worship in connection therewith. But in Magic that efficacy can be manifested only over things trivial or abominable, because it is obvious that for any higher purpose we should have recourse thereto through the ordinary channels of religion. If the hypothesis of prayer is true, Magic is out of court on the side of holy things because there is a more excellent way of obtaining the great gifts, the good gifts and the gifts that do not pass away. But if it is not. true, Magic is out of court also because it depends from and comes down to the earth with that false assumption which is at its basis. As a matter of fact, Magic, White or Black, is the attempt to direct the admitted efficacy into evil channels--to compel the infernal cohorts with the assistance of the blessed hierarchies, and to enlist the sympathies of the latter on the warrant of their appeasing invocation in foolish or discreditable transactions. I should add that I characterise as of the essence of evil the desire after power which puts the owner at an advantage over those about him by interventions of an occult nature, against which it would be generally impossible to guard. I characterise the acquisition of knowledge without learning in the same way and for the same reasons. The other ambitions, desires, greeds do not need express condemnation on my part, for they speak too plainly on their own. Out of the mouth of their proper hypotheses, the pseudo-art or science is that of the abyss. It remains, however, in most cases the abyss of evil intention, as the operator is left with his base, sordid, sorry or fatuous ambition and not with the fruition thereof It may seem at first sight that I have been breaking laidly worms on larger wheels than would have been required for Gargantua, Behemoth or Leviathan; but I am concerned first of all with the preservation of the Secret Tradition inviolate and with the separation of fungoids and diseased and monstrous growths which have come to overlay it. The magic of the Ceremonial Rituals is no part of the real tradition, it is not in any form that we know it of the veils thereof, nor are they even its debasement. At the same time--and as we have sufficiently seen--they do represent at a very far distance a stream of averse tradition, and it is that of Jewry in the prescription and suspension of the greater and age-long exile. There is no question that the mind of Israel which produced on the one hand the signal mystic testimony of the Zoharic literature did on the other betray the kind of preoccupations which have given us Ceremonial Magic as their last evolution in the pit and pools of thought. And this is their side of importance. It is this only which has justified the present consideration and the length to which it has extended. Click to view THE CORNERS OF PARADISE, GUARDED BY FIRE-BREATHING URÆI .