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Marcelo Motta Diary Entry Monday, 11 May 1970
Liber CCXXXI: A PERSONAL RESEARCH
About 3.42 am: Prepare to invoke Path of Maim.
About 3.50: start. About 4.05 am: finish. On invoking, went in under the form of a fish. Several passages under water, one going down. Tried to rise, though, and found myself in dark empty chimney. Trying again, ocean with pillar in the middle. Getting close, pillar architectural detail which now (this being written after closing the Vision) fails me. But I felt not important, it. Used Pentagram, ban.[ished] and inv[oked], and tried again. Assumed Neptune's shape (Roman, of course) and rose (note: the "fish" at beginning was a triton, I think—and I turned into a dolphin. Note again: the dolphin is sacred to Venus. Is Venus an aquatic deity? Born from the sea, etc.) until apparently, extending the trident, this became combust in the sun's rays. Then saw the ocean far below. Started plummeting down to it. Reacted against this, then reasoned that I must be in the ocean (I was in Air, right then, not Water!). So descended, and tried to be quiet.[1] Assumed shape of H-p-k and meditated, or rather, contemplated. It came to me that all kinds of water are necessary. Also, that Spirit is the element that must be invoked if one wishes to have authority over Water (because of the fingers of the hand, Air, Fire and Earth are represented: Jupiter, Mercury, Sun and Saturn; but Water no. The thumb, of course, is Spirit). Also it came to me that the Work of Purification of the Waters may seem slow, or even failed, because of the Circulation of the Streams will keep bringing all kinds of different types of Water to the examination of Consciousness; but the Purification is being effected, and one must persist and persist, drop by drop of the Elixir, in spite of all apparent failures. The failures are apparent. The purification is being performed, and its effects manifest by accumulation in the long run—as has been happening, for instance, in my own life. And it occurs to me now as I write that the Play of the Waters is the intercourse with other beings. It is always chance—that is, the incalculable factor—that is involved. But the thing to do is to persist, drop by drop. And then I recited the Calls, and then the Call of Water, and then called B-A-H and pronounced the Word secret. And it occurred to me also that I could study what A.C. [Aleister Crowley] has to say about the Hanged Man, and afterwards I may invoke the Genii. And I pronounced B... O... in the Vision, to purify the Element, and then I closed the Vision and started writing down this Record.[2]
1—This is almost always wise! At least, for a Magister Templi. 2—Because of the flexibility and plasticity of the Astral Plane (or Planes), aspirants tend to think that occult preparations are quickly performed, and can be ready in a matter of minutes. This is only so relatively to the Plane wherein things occur at the time. The repercussion of work on one Plane into others, and eventually into one's entire Being, is slow and gradual—particularly when the Plane involved is the Material Plane. The Astral being the chariot of the flesh, you may visualize the problem through the following image: by using your car (your Astral components) you may travel quickly to several places and gather information on how to build a house, or how to keep your house already built. Upon returning home, you may use the information thus gathered to good effect; but you must not expect the speed with which you could travel and gather information to be reflected in the actual building or housekeeping effort. For instance, you may understand how best to build your house, or how best to care for it, in a few hours or even (depending on your personal "genius") in a few minutes. It will be utterly silly on your part to expect the actual work of realizing your knowledge to take as little time as it took you to gather it.
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