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THE TREE OF LIFE 187
the vibration of the inolecules in his various vehicles, that the entire
astral and spiritual sphere will be purified to the extent that, as
previously suggested, it will securely serve in itself as the real
magical circle.
It should be mentioned here for the benefit of students to-day
who may think of engaging upon this Operation of Sacred Magic
that these rules need not be scrupulously obeyed, so long as the
essence and their spirit is followed. With only a little ingenuity
is it possible to construct a whole new set of external circumstances
favourable to the satisfactory execution of this conception of the
Great Work. It must be clearly understood, however, that once
devised and adopted this set of regulations, although clearly understood
to be arbitrary, should be rigidly adhered to. In his magical
poem Aha, Aleister Crowley gives a beautiful rendition of a possible
variant of the scene of the Operation :
" . . . Choose tenderly
A place for thine academy.
Let there be an holy wood
Of embowered solitude
By the still, the rainless river,
Underneath the tangled roots
Of majestic trees that quiver
In the quiet airs ; where shoots
Of the kindly grass are green,
Moss and ferns asleep between,
Lilies in the water lapped,
Sunbeams in the branches trapped
-Windless and eternal even !
Silcilced all the birds of heaven
By the low insistent call
Of the constant water fall.
There, to such a setting be
Its carven gem of deity,
A central flawless fire, enthralled
Like Truth within an emerald."
Within the consecrated Lodge or Oratory should be an altar
built like a cupboard, above which, suspended from the ceiling,
should burn a lamp of Olive oil. A brass censer should be kept
on the Altar, and throughout the whole period of six months of the
Operation it should never be removed from the Oratory. A robe