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CHAPTER I
The Preparation of the Operator
§ 1. Concerning the Love of God
THE rites of so-called Transcendental Magic are, ex hypothesi, divine and religious rites,
and the counsels, spiritual and moral, which are found in its instructions are, in their
meagre and puerile way, the vulgarised counsels of perfection, whatever element of
sovereign contra-reason may obtain in its experiments. 1 The Composite Rituals, despite
the result of their analysis, also partake largely of the nature of substituted religious
observances, at times Judaistic, at times Christian. In both cases this fact is readily
intelligible; to communicate with the fabled Spirits of the Firmament and to practise an
art which offers to its adepts the regeneration of Enoch, King of the Inferior World, 2
"who was not, for God took him," may well demand a high degree of sanctity from its
candidate, to whatever ends it may lead him; while to dominate the so-called Spirits of
the Elements, the Kabalistic Kliphoth and the Evil Demons, it is reasonable to assume
that the
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Magus must be free from common weakness, from common vice 1 and must be fortified
by the grace and favour of the superior world. Given the magical standpoint in each case,
the conditions essential to operation seem, in this respect, above challenge. Its
recommendations, however, were more especially of times and seasons; they were for the
work of the art in hand rather than for the high and transcendental art of holy life. But it
will assuredly appear at first sight a bizarre anomaly that Black Magic should involve
also religious observances and should exact similar conditions, both inward and outward,
from those who would undertake its enterprises. It is not, as generally supposed, either
Christianity à rebours or a reversed religion of Israel; it is not the intentional profanation
of religious ritual and observance; it is something less outrageous but logically more
insensate; so far as it has re. course to such ritual and such observance, it is not to do
outrage to God in the interests of diabolism, but to derive power and virtue from above
for the more successful control of Evil Spirits, and this obtains indifferently whether the
purpose of the operator be otherwise lawful or not.
The Divine Love, says the book of True Black Magic, 2 must precede the acquisition of
the Science of Solomon, son of King David, who said: The beginning and Key of my
Wisdom are the fear of God, to do Him honour, to adore Him with great contrition of
heart, and to invoke His aid in all our intentions and aspirations; which fulfilling, God
will lead us into the good way. 3
To account for this anomaly it is insufficient to say that