Chapter VI The Formula of the Neophyte.

Magick in Theory and Practice

1)

This formula has for its “first matter” the ordinary man entirely ignorant of everything and incapable of anything. He is therefore represented as blindfolded and bound. His only aid is his aspiration, represented by the officer who is to lead him into the Temple. Before entering, he must be purified and consecrated. Once within the Temple, he is required to bind himself by an oath. His aspiration is now formulated as Will. He makes the mystic circumambulation of the Temple for the reasons to be described in the Chapter on “Gesture”. After further purification and consecration, he is allowed for one moment to see the Lord of the West, and gains courage2) to persist. For the third time he is purified and consecrated, and he sees the Lord of the East, who holds the balance, keeping him in a straight line. In the West he gains energy. In the East he is prevented from dissipating the same. So fortified, he may be received into the Order as a neophyte by the three principal officers, thus uniting the Cross with the Triangle. He may then be placed between the pillars of the Temple, to receive the fourth and final consecration. In this position the secrets of the grade are communicated to him, and the last of his fetters is removed. All this is sealed by the sacrament of the Four Elements.

It will be seen that the effect of this whole ceremony is to endow a thing inert and impotent with balanced motion in a given direction. Numerous example of this formula are given in Equinox I, Nos. II and III. It is the formula of the Neophyte Ceremony of G∴ D∴ It should be employed in the consecration of the actual weapons used by the magician, and may also be used as the first formula of initiation.

In the book called Z 23) (Equinox I, III) are given full details of this formula, which cannot be too carefully studied and practised. It is unfortunately, the most complex of all of them. But this is the fault of the first matter of the work, which is so muddled that many operations are required to unify it.


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1)
See the Neophyte Ceremony, Equinox I,II.
2)
Fear is the source of all false perception. Even Freud had a glimpse of this fact.
3)
Those sections dealing with divination and alchemy are the most grotesque rubbish in the latter case, and in the former obscure and unpractical.


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