Learn this first, if you want to belong to this old Order: balance is the foundation of the Work. If you don’t have solid ground under your own feet, how will you stand and direct the forces of Nature?
A person is born into this world in the dark of matter, among clashing forces. Your first work is to find the Light by reconciling them.
If you have trials and trouble, be glad of them. Strength is in them. They open a path to that Light.
How could it be otherwise? Your life is a day in eternity, a drop in the ocean of time. Without many trials, how would you burn the dross of earth out of your soul? The higher life has always been dangerous and hard. It was that way for the sages and teachers of the past. They were persecuted, insulted, and tormented — and their glory grew through that too.
Be glad, then, initiate: the greater the trial, the greater the triumph. When people insult you and lie about you, didn’t the Master say you are blessed?
But don’t let victories make you vain. Knowledge should bring wisdom with it. The person who knows little thinks they know a lot. The person who knows a lot has learned how ignorant they are. See someone wise in their own opinion? There’s more hope for a fool than for them.
Don’t rush to condemn other people. How do you know you would have resisted the same temptation in their place? And even if you would have — why despise someone weaker than you?
If you want magical gifts, make sure your soul is firm and steady. Weak spirits gain power over you by flattering your weaknesses. Humble yourself before your Self, but fear neither people nor spirits. Fear is failure, and the start of failure. Courage is the beginning of virtue.
Don’t fear the spirits. Be firm and courteous with them. You have no right to despise or abuse them; that will lead you off the path. Command them, banish them, curse them by the Great Names if you must — but don’t mock or revile them. That will land you in error.
A person is what they make of themselves inside the limits of inherited destiny. They are part of humanity. Their actions don’t only shape what they call “themselves.” They touch the whole universe.
Honor the physical body. Don’t neglect it. It is your temporary link to the outer material world. Keep your mental balance so material events don’t throw you. Strengthen and control the animal passions. Discipline emotion and reason. Feed the higher aspirations.
Do good to others for its own sake — not for reward, not for their gratitude, not for sympathy. If you are generous, you won’t need your ears stroked with thanks.
Unbalanced force is evil. Unbalanced severity is cruelty and oppression. Unbalanced mercy is weakness that lets evil grow and helps it. Act with passion. Think with reason. Be yourself.
True ritual is action as much as word. It is Will.
This earth is an atom in the universe. You are an atom on it. Even if you became the god of this earth you crawl on, you would still be an atom — one among many.
Still, keep the highest self-respect, and for that reason don’t sin against yourself. The unpardonable sin is to reject truth on purpose, to fear knowledge because it might not flatter your prejudices.
To get magical power, learn to control thought. Let in only the ideas that match the end you want — not every stray, contradictory thought that shows up.
Fixed thought is a means to an end. Pay attention to silent thought and meditation. The material act is only the outer form of your thought. That’s why it was said that “the thought of foolishness is sin.” Thought is the start of action. If a random thought can do so much, what can a held thought do?
Plant yourself firmly in the balance of forces, at the center of the Cross of the Elements — the Cross from whose center the Creative Word went out at the birth of the dawning universe.
Be quick and active like the sylphs, but don’t be frivolous or capricious. Be energetic and strong like the salamanders, but don’t be irritable or savage. Be flexible and attentive to images like the undines, but don’t be idle or fickle. Be hardworking and patient like the gnomes, but don’t be coarse or greedy.
That way you gradually grow the powers of your soul and become fit to command the spirits of the elements. If you summoned the gnomes to feed your greed, you would no longer command them — they would command you.
Would you use the pure beings of woods and mountains to fill your coffers and feed your hunger for gold? Would you debase the spirits of living fire to serve your wrath and hate? Would you violate the purity of the souls of the waters to feed lust? Would you force the spirits of the evening breeze to serve your folly and whim? With those desires you can only attract the weak, not the strong — and then the weak have power over you.
In the true religion there is no sect. Don’t blaspheme the name by which another person knows their God. Do that in Jupiter and you blaspheme יהוה; do it in Osiris and you blaspheme יהשוה.
Ask, and you will have. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.