Sound, light, vibration, and the form blend and merge, and thus the work is one. It proceedeth under the law, and naught can hinder now the work from going forward. The man breathes deeply. He concentrates his forces, and drives the thought-form from him.

The Creative Work of Sound

Before centering our attention upon this rule, it would be well to recollect certain things, so that our reflection on the rule may proceed with profit.

First, the rule we are at present considering concerns work on the mental plane, and before such work is possible it is important to have a developed mind, a well-nurtured intelligence, and also to have achieved some measure of mind control. These rules are not for beginners in the occult sciences; they are for those who are ready for magical work and for labor on the plane of mind. Love is the great unifier, the prime attractive impulse, cosmic and microcosmic, but the mind is the main creative factor and the utilizer of the energies of the cosmos. Love attracts, but the mind attracts, repels and coordinates, so that its potency is inconceivable. Is it not possible dimly to sense a state of affairs in mental realms analogous to that now seen in the emotional? Can we picture the condition of the world when the intellect is as potent and as compelling as is the emotional nature at this time? The race is progressing into an era wherein men will function as minds; when intelligence will be stronger than desire, and when thought powers will be used for appeal and for the guidance of the world, as now physical and emotional means are employed.

These rules concern themselves with this information. The second necessary recollection is that the worker in magic and the potent entity wielding these forces must be the soul, the spiritual man, and this for the following reasons:

1. Only the soul has a direct and clear understanding of the creative purpose and of the plan.
2. Only the soul, whose nature is intelligent love can be trusted with the knowledge, the symbols and the formulas which are necessary to the correct conditioning of the magical work.
3. Only the soul has power to work in all three worlds at once, and yet remain detached, and therefore karmically free from the results of such work.
4. Only the soul is truly group-conscious and actuated by pure unselfish purpose.
5. Only the soul, with the open eye of vision, can see the end from the beginning, and can hold in steadiness the true picture of the ultimate consummation.

You ask, whether workers in black magic possess not an equal power? I answer, no. They can work in the three worlds, but they work from and in the plane of mind, and do not function, therefore, outside their field of endeavor, as does the soul. They can achieve, from their proximity and identification with their working materials, results more potent temporarily and more rapid in accomplishment than the worker in the White Brotherhood, but the results are ephemeral; they carry destruction and disaster in their wake, and the black magician is eventually submerged in the resulting cataclysm.