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"expectation of income," and the Lord alone knows what other
factors.
It came out that the pay offered was a thousand pounds or so
less than
he might expect normally, so he turned down the offer. Not
a trace of
sentiment of any kind!
Now let us consider an "A.B. case." John Jeremiah Jenkins
sees a short
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
316
cut to his performance of the Great work. To seize this
opportunity,
he must give up a steady job with good prospects and as near
safety as
is possible in the nature of things, for a slim chance of a
career in
the most insecure of all the professions.
He can do it; that is at the mercy of his Will; but he risks
something
very close to the utter wreck and ruin of his future. Only
a miracle
45
can bring him through. Just so! But is he not neglecting
one factor
in his problem? Who put this romantically insane
opportunity in his
way? The Gods: it must be, since he is performing the Great
Work. Very
well then! It is up to Them to watch: "he shall give his
angels charge
over thee to keep thee in all thy ways: in their hands they
shall bear
thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."
What's more, he must leave it at that; he must not insult
Them by
constantly looking out for extra safeguards, or "hedging."
(You remember
the Major in The Suicide Club when Prince Florizel was
picking seconds
for a duel? "In all my life I never so much as hedged a
bet.") You
must give Them plenty of opportunity to show Their approval
by steering
you miraculously through one crisis after another.
This course of conduct may seem to you a little like the
"Act of Truth"
but this is only superficially the case. The latter is
usually an
emergency measure, and either not particularly serious or as
serious
as anything can be. But what I have said above amounts
really to a
regular Rule of Life.
Need I add that the prime and essential requisite in all
this Work is
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
317
that you so devote yourself to, and identify yourself with,
the Gods,
that there is never any doubt in your mind as to what They
intend you
to do?
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally.
CHAPTER LXXXI
METHOD OF TRAINING
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
In your well-worn copy of the Bagh-i-muattar you have no
doubt triply
underlined that great verse:
"Who hath the How is careless of the Why,"
which shows how cunning I was to induce you to put all your
"why"
questions first.
But now let us get down to orichalc taques, as the Norman
peasant might
say.
The first and absolutely essential task for the Aspirant is
to write
his Magical Record.
You know some elementary Mechanics --- the Triangle of
Forces, and all
that. Well, if we have a body acted on by two equal forces,
one pulling
it East, the other south, it will tend to move in a south-
Easterly
direction. But if the "south" force is (say) twice as
strong, it will
move south of South-East.
Now you, sitting in your study reading this letter, got
there and were
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
318
compelled to do that, as the result of the impact upon you
of countless
quintillions of forces of every kind. I don't expect you to
discover
all these and calculate and report them; but I want you to
set down
all the main currents. For so you should be able to get
some sort of
answer to the question "Where do we go from here, boys?"
I am not a guesser; and I cannot judge you, or advise you,
or help you,
unless and until I know the facts as thoroughly as you are
able to allow
me to do.
The construction of this Record is, incidentally, the first
step in the
practice called Sammasati, and leads to the acquisition of
the Magical
Memory --- the memory of your previous incarnations. So
there is another
reason, terrifically cogent, for writing this Magical Record
as clearly
and as fully as you can.
This best explanation of how to set about the task is given
in Liber
Thisharb.
some of this sounds rather advanced and technical; but it
ought to give
you the general idea. You should begin with your parents
and the family
traditions; the circumstances of your birth and education;
your social
position; your financial situation; your physique, health,
illnesses;
your vita sexualis; your hobbies and amusements; what you
are good at,
what not; how you came to be interested in the Great Work;
what (if
you have been on false trails, Toshophists,
Antroposophagists, sham
Rosicrucians, etc.) has been "your previous condition of
servitude;"
how you found me, and decided to enlist my aid.
That, by itself, helps you to understand yourself, and me to
understand
you.
From that point the keeping of the Record is quite easy.
All you have
to do is to put down what practices you mean to begin, how [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]