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- ENERGY.
- Energy is the Sacramental Motive of Event: it is thus omnipresent, in
- manifestation by interruption and compensation and otherwise by the
- corresponding withdrawal. (In this connection let there be remembered the full
- formula of Tetragrammaton.)
- There are, however, three main types of special experience which are
- noteworthy landmarks in the process of Initiation, and of urgent practical
- value to the Magician.
- The symbol of the Sacrament being observed they differ as do the three
- participants therein: the God, the Priest, and the Communicant.
- In the highest, that is of Kether, the Energy radiates wholly from oneself:
- that is, one is entirely identified with Hadit.
- In the middle, that of Chokmah, the Energy passes wholly through oneself:
- that is, one assumes the functions of Tahuti.
- In the lowest, that is of Geburah, the Energy impinges wholly upon oneself:
- that is, one absorbs it as a man.
- In all cases, the Energy of which it is here written is not particular or
- personified; it is Energy in itself, without quality.
- The highest mode can only be fully apprehended by an Ipsissimus: it is the
- final attainment. It is the active counterpart of the higher form of the
- Beatific Vision.
- The middle mode is proper to a Magus, or to one aspiring to his prophetic
- function. it is described, and the method of attaining it set forth, in the
- Book called Opus Lutetianum.
- The lowest mode is the peculiar task of a Major Adept. It is best
- accomplished by means of the Secret of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis.
- (IX`O.T.O.)
- Of the highest mode it would be neither fit not useful to treat more
- intimately: the middle mode concerns each Magician in his peculiar and private
- relations with the Infinite, and demands from each of its Adepts a special
- preoccupation: but of the lowest it is convenient to make further mention.
- It is strangely convincing proof of the true care of Nature for Her
- instruments, despite the superficial evidence to the contrary on which the
- doctrines of pessimism are based, that the most precious, the one ultimately
- essential Grace that can possibly be bestowed on mankind is, of all Magical
- benefit, that which may be attained with more ease and certainty than any
- other. For Energy is itself all that is: and we vary with the quantity and
- quality thereof, which we can call "ourselves."
- The price which She demands is without doubt heavy enough for a certain
- class; but it is equally to be paid, in varying degree, for every type of
- Mystical and Magical Adventure.
- This price is in essence the full Understanding of the Mind of Nature
- Herself, and complete sympathy with Her Way of Work. All the moral codes of
- mankind, for all their absurd diversities, have one common factor: they
- pretend to have found motives and methods which are superior to Hers. That is,
- they presume a conception of the End which is beyond Her view: they
- assert the possession of an Intelligence loftier than that which has produced
- the Universe. Consider only that the highest manifestation possible to the
- rational mind is the discovery of the Laws which summarize Her manner of
- operation!
- We may then say at once that all such pretentious arrogance is impudence
- and absurdity; and it must be surrendered, nay more, uprooted and calcined
- before any serious progress can be made in the Royal and Sacerdotal Art. Hence
- also any aspiration of a partial order, any which depends for its wisdom on
- the justice of our perceptions of our own needs, is almost certain to be
- tainted with the very poison of which Nature would purge us.
- There is in fact only one Magical Operation of whose propriety we may
- always be sure; and that is the increase of our sum of Energy. It is even
- indiscreet to try to specify the kind of Energy required, and worse to
- consider any particular purpose. Energy being increased, Nature will herself
- supply clarity: our Vision is obscure only because our Energy is deficient.
- For Energy is the Substance of the Universe. When it is adequate, we are in no
- doubt as to how to employ it; witness the evident case of the will of the
- Adolescent. It is also to be well noted that moral obstruction to the right
- use of this Energy cause at once the most hideous deformations of character,
- and determine the gravest lesions of the nervous system.
- Let therefore the Magician divest himself of all preconceptions as to the
- nature of his True Will, but apply himself eagerly to increasing his
- Potential. In this discipline (moreover) he is beginning to fit himself for
- that very abdication of all that he has and all that he is which is the
- essence of the Oath of the Abyss!
- Thus then do we find one more of those paradoxes which are the images of
- the Truth of the Supernals: by destroying our own highest morality, and
- relying upon our natural instinct as the sole guide, we come unaware upon the
- most simple, and the most sublime, of all ethical and spiritual conceptions.
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