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of her cat, was very curious and interesting. Strangest of
all, there
appeared those "kinks in Time" which profane science is just
beginning
to discuss. Example: on one occasion our records of an
"interview"
agreed with quite extraordinary precision; but, on comparing
notes, it
was found that owing to some stupid miscalculation of mine,
it was all
over in Hong Kong some hours before I had started from
Honolulu! Again,
don't ask me why, or how, or anything!
Talking of kinks in Time, I shall now maintain my aforesaid
evil notor-
iety --- the story is totally asynartete from fascinations
of whatever
variety --- by recounting what is by far the most
inexplicable set of facts
that ever came my way.
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
181
In the summer of 1910 e.v. I was living at 125 Victoria
Street, in a
studio converted into a Temple by means of a Circle, an
Altar and the
rest. West of the Altar was a big fireplace with a fender
settee; the
East wall was covered with bookshelves. Enter the late
Theodor Reuss,
O.H.O. and Frater Superior of the O.T.O. He wanted me to
join that Order.
I recommended him, in politer language to repeat the
Novocastrian Experi-
ment. Undeterred, he insisted: "But you must."
(Now we go back, or forward, I know not which, to a night
when I found
myself stranded in London. I asked hospitality of a
stranger; it was
readily afforded. Some hours later my hostess fell asleep;
I could not
do so; something was nagging me. I suddenly took my
notebook, and wrote
a certain passage in a certain book, since published.)
"Must, my foot!" He persisted: "You have published the
secret of the
nth degree of O.T.O., and you must take the corresponding
oaths." "I
have done nothing of the sort. I don't know the secret. I
don't want
to know it. I don't . . . " He interrupted me; he strode
across the
room; he plucked a book from the shelves; he opened it; he
thrust it
under my nose; he pointed out a passage with a minatory
index. I began
to stammer. "Yes, I wrote that. I don't know what it means;
I don't
like it; I only put it in because it was written in rather
curious cir-
cumstances, and I was too lazy --- or perhaps a little
afraid --- to reject
it and write what I wanted." He fastened on one point: "You
don't know
what it means?" I repeated that I did not, even now that he
had claimed
34
it as important. He explained it to me, as to a child. I
was merely
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
182
surprised; it didn't sound possible. (Sister, all this
while I've been
lying to you like an Archbishop; it is connected wit
fascinations;
indeed, it has very little to do with anything else!)
Finally, he won me over, I went down to his G.H.Q., took the
Oaths, was
installed in the Throne of the Xø of O.T.O. as National
Sovereign Grand
Master General, and began to establish the Order as a going
concern.
Well, you say, that is a very simple story, nothing
specially hard to
believe in it.
True, but consider the dates.
That scene in Victoria Street, is as clear and vivid in my
mind, in every
detail, as if it were yesterday. That secret is published
only in that
passage of that book. And --- the book was not published
until three
years later, and from an address of which in 1910 I had not
so much as
thought of. The date of my adhesion to the O.T.O. (which,
by the way,
upset every principle and plan that I had ever held) is
equally certain
by virtue of subsequent published writings.
Now go away and explain that!
Well I've given you a fair account of some of the principal
fascinations;
as to the rest, bewitchments, sorceries, inhibitions and all
that lot, it
is enough if I say that they follow the regular Laws of
Magick; in some,
fascination proper plays a prominent part; in others, it is
barely more
than walking on to say "My lord, the carriage waits!" But -
-- even that
can be done well or ill, and a small mistake may work a
mighty mischief.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXVI
MENTAL PROCESSES --- TWO ONLY ARE POSSIBLE
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
183
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"Occult" science is the most difficult of them all. For one
thing, its
subject-matter includes the whole of philosophy, from
ontology and
metaphysics down to natural history. More, the most
rarefied and recon-
dite of these has a direct bearing upon the conduct of life
in its most
material details, and the simplest study of such apparently
earthbound
matters as botany and mineralogy leads to the most abstruse
calculations
of the imponderables.
With what weapons, then, are we to attack so formidable a
fortress?
The first essential is clear thinking.
In a previous letter I have dealt to some extent with this
subject; [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]