THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS
CHAPTER 2
Adolescence : Beginnings of Magick.
The Birth of
FRATER PERDURABO.
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Having won freedom, he had the sense not to waste any time in
enjoying it. He had been deprived of all English literature but
the Bible during the whole of his youth, and he spent his three
years at Cambridge in repairing the defect. He was also working
for the Diplomatic Service, the late Lord Salisbury and the late
Lord Ritchie having taken an interest in his career, and given
him nominations. In October, 1897, he was suddenly recalled to
his understanding of the evils of the alleged 'existing
religion,' and experienced a trance, in which he perceived the
utter folly of all human ambition. The fame of an ambassador
rarely outlives a century. That of a poet is almost as
ephemeral. The earth must one day perish. He must build in some
material more lasting. This conception drove him to the study of
Alchemy and Magick. He wrote to the author of "The Book of Black
Magic and of Pacts," a pompous American named Arthur Waite,
notorious for the affectations and obscurities of his style, and
the mealy-mouthed muddle of his mysticism. This nebulous
impresario, presentin an asthmatic Isis in the Opera
"Bull-Frogs," had hinted in his preface that he knew certain occult
sanctuaries wherein Truth and Wisdom were jealously guarded by a
body of Initiates, to be despensed to the postulant who proved
himself worthy to partake of their privileges. Mr. Waite
recommended him to read a book called "The Cloud on the
Sanctuary."
His taste for mountaineering had become a powerful passion, and
he was climbing in Cumberland when he met Oscar Eckenstein,
perhaps the greatest of all the mountaineers of his period, with
whom he was destined to climb thenceforward until 1902.
In the summer a party was fromed to camp on the Schonbuhl Glacier
at the foot of the Dent Blanche, with a view to an expedition ot
the Himalayas later on. During his weeks on the Glacier, where
the bad weather was continous, he studied assiduously the
translation by S. L. Mathers of three books which form part of
von Rosenroth's "Kabbalah Unveiled." On one of his decents to
Zermatt, he met a distinguished chemist, Julian L. Bater, who had
studied Alchemy. He hunted this clue through the valley, and
made Baker promise to meet him in London at the end of the sea-
son, and introduce him to others who were interested in Occult
science. This happened in September; through Baker, he met
another chemist named George Cecil Jones, who introduced him to
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He made rapid progress in
this Order, and in the spring of 1900 was its chief in England.
The details of this period must be studied in "The Temple of
Solomon the King," where a full account of the Order is given.
In the Order he met one, Allan Bennett, Frater Iehi Aour. Jones
and Bennett were both Adepts of high standing. The latter came
to live with him in his flat, and together they carried out many
operations of ceremonial magick. Allan Bennett was constant
illhealth, and went to Ceylon at the end of 1899. It was on his
entry into this Order that the subject of this history took the
motto of "Perdurabo"--'I will endure to the end.'
In July, 1900, he went to Mexico, and devoted his whole time to
the continued practice of Magick, in which he obtained
extraordinary success. (See Equinox Vol. I, No. III for a
condensed account of some of these. It may be here stated
summarily that he invoked certain Gods, Goddesses, and Spirits to
visible appearance, learnt how to heal physical and moral
diseases, how to make himself invisible, how to obtain
communications from spiritual sources, how to control other
minds, etc., etc.) And then....