_I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light:_ _I am He; the Grace of the World:_ * * * * * _“The Heart Girt with a Serpent” is My Name!_ * * * * * _Come Thou forth, and follow Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land, or in the Water: of whirling Air or of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God, may be obedient unto me!_ _Iao: Sabao:_ _Such are the Words!_ Goetia The Lesser Key Of Solomon THE INITIATED INTERPRETATION OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC. It is loftily amusing to the student of _Magical_ literature who is not quite a fool—and rare is such a combination!—to note the criticism directed by the Philistine against the citadel of his science. Truly, since our childhood has ingrained into us not only literal belief in the Bible, but also substantial belief in _Alf Laylah_ wa _Laylah_, and only adolescence can cure us, we are only too liable, in the rush and energy of dawning manhood, to overturn roughly and rashly both these classics, to regard them both on the same level, as interesting documents from the standpoint of folk-lore and anthropology, and as nothing more. Even when we learn that the Bible, by a profound and minute study of the text, may be forced to yield up _Qabalistic_ arcana of cosmic scope and importance, we are too often slow to apply a similar restorative to the companion volume, even if we are the luck holders of Burton’s veritable edition. To me, then, it remains to raise the _Alf Laylah_ wa Laylah into its proper place once more. I am not concerned to deny the objective reality of all “_magical_” phenomena; if they are illusions, they are at least as real as many unquestioned facts of daily life; and, if we follow Herbert Spencer, they are at least evidence of some cause.[4] Now, this fact is our base. What is the cause of my illusion of seeing a spirit in the triangle of Art? Every smatterer, every expert in psychology, will answer: “That cause lies in your brain.” English children (_pace_ the Education Act) are taught that the Universe lies in infinite Space; Hindu children, in the Akasa, which is the same thing. Those Europeans who go a little deeper learn from Fichte, that the phenomenal Universe is the creation of the Ego; Hindus, or Europeans studying under Hindu Gurus, are told, that by Akasa is meant the Chitakasa. The Chitakasa is situated in the “Third Eye”, _i.e._, in the brain. By assuming higher dimensions of space, we can assimilate this fact to Realism; but we have no need to take so much trouble.