WIXLIB

MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE[B OOK 4 (L IBER ABA) PART III]

First published Paris: Lecram Press., 1930Corrected edition included in Magick:Book 4 Parts I-IV, York Beach,Maine: Samuel Weiser,1994This electronic edition prepared and issuedby Celephaïs Press, somewhere beyondthe Tanarian Hills, and manifestedin the waking world in Leeds,Yorkshire, EnglandJuly 2004.(c) Ordo Templi OrientisJAF Box 7666New YorkNY 10116U.S.A.

MAGICKIN THEORY AND PRACTICEBYTHE MASTER THERION(A LEISTER CROWLEY )BOOK 4 PART IIIDo what thou wiltshall be the whole of the Law.Celephaïs PressUlthar - Sarkomand - Inquanok – Leeds2004

Hymn to Pan[v]———ἔφιξ ἔρωτι περιαρχὴς δ ἀνεπιόµανἰὼ ἰὼ πὰν πὰνὢ πὰν πὰν ἁ λιπλαγκτε, κυλλανίας χιονοκτύποιπετραίς ἀπὸ δειράδος φάνηθ , ὦθεῶν χοροπόι ἄναξ—SOPH. Aj.———THRILL with lissome lust of the light,O man! My man!Come careering out of the nightOf Pan! Io Pan!Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the seaFrom Sicily and from Arcady!Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pardsAnd nymphs and satyrs for thy guards,On a milk-white ass, come over the seaTo me, to me,Come with Apollo in bridal dress(Shepherdess and pythoness)Come with Artemis, silken shod,And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount,The dimpled dawn of the amber fount!Dip the purple of passionate prayerIn the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,The soul that startles in eyes of blueTo watch thy wantonness weeping through—v—[vi]

HYMN TO PANThe tangled grove, the gnarléd boleOf the living tree that is spirit and soulAnd body and brain - come over the sea,(Io Pan! Io Pan!)Devil or god, to me, to me,My man! my man!Come with trumpets sounding shrillOver the hill!Come with drums low mutteringFrom the spring!Come with flute and come with pipe!Am I not ripe?I, who wait and writhe and wrestleWith air that hath no boughs to nestleMy body, weary of empty clasp,Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp Come, O come!I am numbWith the lonely lust of devildom.Thrust the sword through the galling fetter,All-devourer, all-begetter;Give me the sign of the Open Eye,And the token erect of thorny thigh,And the word of madness and mystery,O Pan! Io Pan!Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan,I am a man:Do as thou wilt, as a great god can,O Pan! Io Pan!Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awakeIn the grip of the snake.The eagle slashes with beak and claw;The gods withdraw:The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borneTo death on the hornOf the Unicorn.— vi —

HYMN TO PANI am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan!I am thy mate, I am thy man,Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god,Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod.With hoofs of steel I race on the rocksThrough solstice stubborn to equinox.And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rendEverlasting, world without end,Mannikin, maiden, Mænad, man,In the might of Pan.Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan!— vii —[vii]

Prefatory NoteOur beloved Soror VIRAKAM, feeling the hoodwink of herinexperience in Practical Magick, has asked me to take up the workof obtaining this book from the lips of Frater Perdurabo. Consciousof my own defects, I yet yielded to her insistence, and mostearnestly thank and bless her for the privilege conferred.The bravest as the sweetest of all the women I have known, shehas now, at the suggestion of the Master, entered the harem of aTurk in order to study Mohammedan methods of Mysticism andMagick.Blessed among women be her name unto the ages!I have done my best to cross-examine Frater Perdurabo on allpoints of difficulty that have occurred in my own working, and Ihave been incomparably blest by the instruction, and yet more bythe Initiation, which I have received.However, it has proved impossible to confine Part III to suchelementary thought as the former parts. Remonstrance has onlydrawn from Frater Perdurabo the reply that He has it in mind to saythese things, and that they had better be said now, lest He forget tosay them at some other time.This must be my excuse to any who find portions of this Part IIIdifficult to understand. Let them take courage; practice andprogress will make all clear as it is glorious. It is earth that breedsthe clouds that hide the sun. Let them leave earth; they will findHim, the source of all Light.1SOROR AGATHA.—————————————1. It is amazing to observe that FRATER PERDURABO, when He had completed theseries of discourses in Part II, supposed that He had exhaussted the subject.Everyone (He thought) would say, “Oh, that is the meaning of the Wand!” “Now Iunderstand about the Cup!”It never occurred to Him that there were people who had not done magick. Heonly thought that there might be a few who were doing it badly!!!!!— viii —

IntroductionἜσσεαι ἀθάνατος θεός, ἀµβροτος, ὀυκ ἔτι θνητός.Pythagoras.1“MAGIC is the Highest, most Absolute, and most DivineKnowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works andwonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward andoccult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to properPatients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced.Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature;they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, thewhich to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle.”The Goëtia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon.2“Whenever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulteratedform, it is assumed that in nature one event follows anothernecessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritualor personal agency.“Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that ofmodern science; underlying the whole system is a faith, implicitbut real and firm, in the order and uniformity of nature. Themagician does not doubt that the same causes will always producethe same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremonyaccompanied by the appropriate spell, will invariably be attendedby the desired results, unless, indeed, his incantations shouldchance to be thwarted and foiled by the more potent charms ofanother sorcerer. He supplicates no higher power: he sues the favourof no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself before no awfuldeity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by no means—————————————1. [Grk., “You shall be a deathless god, immortal, no longer subject to death.”The final line of the “Golden Verses of Pythagoras,”]2. [Part of the “Preliminary Definition of Magic” which appears at the start ofsome MSS. of the Lemegeton, a 17th-century English compilation of magical textsattributed to Solomon; in turn taken from an English translation of Themis Auræ, aRosicrucian work by Michael Maier.]— ix —

MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICEarbitrary and unlimited. He can wield it only so long as he strictlyconforms to the rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws of[x] nature as conceived by him. To neglect these rules, to break theselaws in the smallest particular is to incur failure, and may evenexpose the unskilful practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If heclaims a sovereignty over nature, it is a constitutional sovereigntyrigorously limited in its scope and exercised in exact conformity withancient usage. Thus the analogy between the magical and thescientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of them thesuccession of events is perfectly regular and certain, beingdetermined by immutable laws, the operation of which can beforeseen and calculated precisely; the elements of caprice, ofchance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature. Bothof them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to himwho knows the causes of things and can touch the secret springsthat set in motion the vast and intricate mechanism of the world.Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike haveexercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus thatboth have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the wearyenquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness ofdisappointment in the present by their endless promises of thefuture: they take him up to the top of an exceeding high mountainand shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists at his feet, avision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant withunearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams.”Dr. J. G. FRAZER, The Golden Bough.1“So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has beenone of the roads by which the ablest men have passed to supremepower, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from thethraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer life,with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small servicerendered to humanity. And when we remember further that inanother direction magic has paved the way for science, we are forceto admit that if the black art has done much evil, it has also been thesource of much good; that if it is the child of error, it has yet beenthe mother of freedom and �—1. [The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings (part I of the third edition GoldenBough), i. 220-221. Emphasis Crowley’s.]2. [The Magic Art &c., i. 218-219. Emphasis Crowley’s.]—x—

INTRODUCTION“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”[xi]St PAUL.1“Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the workof the wand and the work of the sword: these he shall learn andteach.“He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.“The word of the Law is θεληµα.”LIBER AL vel xxxi: The Book of the Law.2————This book is forALL:for every man, woman, and child.My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, bymy use of technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti andeccentrics, weaklings seeking in “Magic” an escape from reality. Imyself was first consciously drawn to the subject in this way. Andit has repelled only too many scientific and practical minds, such asI most designed to influence.ButMAGICKis forALL.I have written this book to help the Banker, the Pugilist, theBiologist, the Poet, the Navvy, the Grocer, the Factory Girl, theMathematician, the Stenographer, the Golfer, the Wife, the Consul—and all the rest—to fulfil themselves perfectly, each in his or herown proper function.Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned thewordMAGICKupon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life.Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was THEBEAST whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least what [xii]that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity.—————————————1. [1 Thess. V. 21.]2. [cap. I vv. 37-39.]— xi —