I the Magician

 

It is this sublime spirit of indomitable will and determination that nothing can overcome which, to I the Magician, is absolute instinct. It is the power of Will which de facto constitutes I the Magician, and without that power nothing of any consequence can ever be accomplished. Attainment is not encompassed within four and twenty hours, nor within several settings of the sun ; the Vision resplendent and the Perfume which consumes the very substance of the soul may lie several years in the future--even many incarnations in the vague darkness of time to come. 

Peradventure for some the fulfilment of the innermost desire and the aspiration to Adonai may be a goal which belongs to another world, another son, and exists in the nature of a dream. Other individuals may find this an objective whose sweet fruit is swiftly yielded to hand yet little expenditure of labour in its plucking. 

In any event, no student is in the position to say, at the outset, when the goal may finally be reached. Nor is it a challenge about which worry should be entertained. For the soul grows and progresses as comprehension and intuition expand through successive acts of the spirit on the road of the Magic of 'light. The wings then grow stronger, the flight itself grows longer, and the inner lamp fed on the oil of wisdom remains constantly burning. That light within must the Magician ever regard, and carry it patiently with him into the byways and highways of men, until he becomes that light.

What is required first of all is that imperturbable aspiration and indomitable Will ; then play work ! Let the Magician aspire to be like the wise Ibis bird of Khem. Turn aside from thy human ways, and take on those of the God ! The Knowledge and the Conversation may be a gift which may be bestowed upon him for hundreds and thousands of years ; yet who knows whither the spirit listeth ? It may be that by wish determination, like that of the Ibis, to attain the goal, no matter how long it may take, there may blossom the golden flower of Adonai's life within the heart more speedily than otherwise might have been the case.