I.

While I was preparing a list of tomes for their elucidation, the SPIRITS came to me and said, Just put in the ones you are absolute about.

Bing!

The one I am absolute about could be purchased snickety snack down at THE STORE — or any convenient occult bookstore — for they all have magic powers and it is important to elucidate this for the sake of the young striplings.

The preeminent book of the Golden Dawn’s Hermetic Cabala was written by a woman named Violet Mary Firth who took the pen name Dion Fortune, after her family motto, Deo Non Fortuna, which means “by God, not luck.”

I have read this book at least twenty times. I used to read it once a year — and sometimes twice. It is the most nourishing and wonderful book in our work.

Read it a couple of times and you will FIND me. Here I quote from NETZACH:

“This brings us to the great question, which might almost be called the Dweller on the Threshold of occult science, the horror which confronts every adventurer into the Unseen; which unites in itself the functions of the Sphinx, and asks a question of the soul upon the answer to which hangs his fate. Shall he be condemned to wander in the realms of illusion? Shall he be turned back on to the planes of form, or shall he be permitted to pass on into the Light? This question is, Do you believe in the gods? If he answers Yes, he will be a wanderer in the planes of illusion, for the gods are not real persons as we understand personality. If he answers No, he will be turned back at the gate, for the gods are not illusions. What then shall he answer?

12. The intuition of a poet has given us the answer.

“For no thought of man made Gods to love and honour/Ere the song within the silent soul began,/Nor might earth in dream or deed take heaven upon her/Till the word was clothed with speech by lips of man.”

13. Therein we have the clue to the riddle. The gods are the creations of the created. They are made by the adoration of their worshippers. It is not gods that do the work of creation. This is done by the great natural forces working each according to its nature; the gods come in their procession after the Swan of the Empyrean has laid the egg of manifestation in the darkness of the cosmic night.

14. The gods are emanations of the group-minds of races; they are not emanations of Eheieh, the One and Eternal. Nevertheless, they are immensely powerful, because by means of their influence over the imaginations of their worshippers they link the microcosm with the macrocosm; for by meditation on the ideal beauty of Apollo the soul of man is opened to beauty in general.

15. As man has analysed life and discerned factor by factor its prime motives, he has apotheosised them. Because man in all parts of the globe has found that the same needs and motives actuate him, he has evolved comparable pantheons. Because temperaments differ, he has evolved as different pantheons as the bloodthirsty fields of Mexico and the radiant beings of Hellas.

16. We may ask ourselves, then, whether the gods are wholly subjective; whether they live solely in the imaginations of their worshippers, or whether they have an independent life of their own? The answer to this question is to be found in a fact of occult experience which cannot be explained by what we know of natural science, but which has to be taken for granted by every practical occultist before he can obtain results. In fact, one might say that the results he obtains are in proportion to his faith, for it becomes true for him as soon as he believes in it. This fact it, that only a very small proportion of the existing mind-stuff of the universe, whatever that may be, is organized into the brains and nervous systems of sentient creatures. The vast mass of what, for want of a better name, we call mind-stuff, because that is its nearest analogy among known things, is free-moving upon what occultists call the astral plane, organised into forms within itself, but not necessarily to matter. Different occultists refer to this free mind stuff by different names. Mme. Blavatsky calls it Akasha; Eliphas Levi calls it the reflecting ether. Netzach represents the force aspect, and Hod the form aspect of this Akasha.

17. Out of this mind-stuff are formed the moulds of all Forms; and within these moulds are built up the framework of etheric stresses that function in the sphere of Yesod, and within which are held the molecules of matter which form the body of manifestation on the physical plane.

18. Normally these forms are built by the cosmic consciousness expressed as natural forces, functioning each according to its nature; but as consciousness began to develop in the creatures of the Creator, it exercised its function in varying degrees upon the astral mind-stuff which, by its nature, was amenable to the influences of consciousness; consequently, “the thought of man made Gods to love and honour.” These forms, once built, became channels of the specialised forces they were designed to represent, concentrating them upon their worshippers. In this enlightened sense initiates not only believe in, but adore the gods.”

II.

There was some agitation in the afterlife about an image presented heretofore.

First of all, let me state that I have worked in caregiving for a number of years and at over a dozen buildings. I have known dozens of people who might represent the TYPE of the character BOOLE. Therefore, any “character” presented in this NOVEL should be considered a composite of many individuals, living, not so living, not in rest homes, or not even existing.

This is art.

Now, this character BOOLE, an old wizard now confined to an institution, is always making magic about the sixty-year-old YOUNG HOTTIE who gives him his breakfast.

This is the offending image, which should be RECOMPENSED. Herein we see a camel elucidating the COW.

Those of us in western art magic(k) are well aware that the camel is a representation of King PAIMON: “The Ninth Spirit in this Order is Paimon, a Great King, and very obedient unto LUCIFER. He appeareth in the form of a Man sitting upon a Dromedary with a Crown most glorious upon his head. There goeth before him also an Host of Spirits, like Men with Trumpets and well sounding Cymbals, and all other sorts of Musical Instruments. He hath a great Voice, and roareth at his first coming, and his speech is such that the Magician cannot well understand unless he can compel him. This Spirit can teach all Arts and Sciences, and other secret things. He can discover unto thee what the Earth is, and what holdeth it up in the Waters; and what Mind is, and where it is; or any other thing thou mayest desire to know. He giveth Dignity, and confirmeth the same. He bindeth or taketh any man subject unto the Magician if he so desire it. He giveth good Familiars, and such as can teach all Arts. He is to be observed towards the West. He is of the Order of Dominations. He hath under him 200 Legions of Spirits, and part of them are of the Order of Angels, and the other part of Potentates. Now if thou callest this Spirit Paimon alone, thou must make him some offering; and there will attend him two Kings called LABAL and ABALIM, and also other Spirits who be of the Order of Potentates in his Host, and 25 Legions. And those Spirits which be subject unto them are not always with them unless the Magician do compel them.”

Who is Paimon? As noted in Leviticus 16:5-6: “And from the Israelite community he shall take two he-goats for a purification offering . . . . Aaron is to offer his own bull of purification offering, to make expiation for himself and for his household. Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the Lord at the entrance of the House of Meeting; and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel. Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the Lord, which he is to offer as a purification offering; while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel (The Jewish Study Bible).”

This is the basis of the High Holy Day Yom Kippur.

According to Mathers’s note on the etymology of the name “Paimon” in the Abramelin, “Probably from the Hebrew POMN, = a tinkling sound or small bell. This is again derived from the Hebrew root POM, = to agitate, impel, or strike forward. The word POMN is employed in Exodus 28, 34; 28, 33; and 39, 25. Paimon is also called by the Rabbins by the title of OZAZL, Azazel, which is a name used in Leviticus with reference to the Scape-Goat. Its derivation is from OZ, = a Goat; and AZL, = to go away. It has frequently been warmly discussed whether the word in question means simply the Scape-Goat, or whether it signifies a Demon to whom that animal was dedicated. But in Rabbinic Demonology, it is always used to mean one of the Chief Demons.”

Thus on the Day of Atonement, half the sins were dealt with by regular channels and half by sending them away into non-ecclesiastical realms. Hence the logic of honorable demon work to help people solve problems that cannot be solved otherwise.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL MEANS NO SIZE FITS ANY.

Since evaluating this, the underworld of Thelema has urged me to take a second look. https://www.tarrdaniel.com/documents/Hermetic/tarot/tarot_cards/Tarot_02_High_Priestess.html

The camel, I hasten to mention, also refers to the Hebrew letter Gimel, which means “camel.” It is the Path that carries the aspirant from Tiphareth across the desert of the Abyss, to the union with G-d in Kether. The symbol is a virginal priestess, and here I hear my BOOLE requiring me to honor his Transcendent eternal feminine side.

Which I do.

With a sword in my hand — but an actual toy sword and not the magico-erotic practice I refer to as method acting.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL MEANS NO SIZE FITS ANY.