Condensation next ensues. The fire and waters meet, the form swells and grows. Let the magician set his form upon the proper path.

The Necessity for Purity

"This rule is very briefly summed up in the injunction: Let desire and mind be so pure and so equally apportioned and the created form so justly balanced that it cannot be attracted towards the destructive or 'left-hand' path."

The reasons for this brevity may be stated to be due to the extreme simplicity of this rule in the consciousness of the man who knows, and its extreme complexity from the standpoint of the casual reader. Only the simplest and most practical of its significances is there given but perhaps a few of the deeper meanings can be imparted.

It is interesting to note that as progress is made upon the path, the forms in which truth can be given become more and more simple, whilst the meaning grasped becomes more and more wide and inclusive, and hence involves (on analysis) more and more complexity. Finally, resort is had to symbols and the cosmic plan is grasped through the presentation of geometrical forms to the inner eye of the aspirant.

The cardinal point emphasized in this rule is purity and, in the last analysis, purity is largely a question of motive. If the incentive to action of any kind in the three worlds is based on personality desire and brought about by the applied use of the mind, then impurity characterizes that action. If the impulse emanates from the [258] Dweller in the form, it is then subordinated and controlled by the Dweller to the desired end. Then the characteristic is purity within the group limitations, for absolute purity only exists when entire freedom from control has been brought about. The soul is group conscious and group controlled, and (until the causal body has been overcome and liberation from its control achieved) the real significance of purity will not be comprehended. Suffice it to say that there is a close connotation between impurity and limitation of any kind, physical, emotional and mental.

But absolute purity need not here be considered by the aspirant. No one in the esoteric groups of the world has yet achieved the fifth initiation, wherein the meaning will enter the consciousness in a blaze of intensest realization. For the majority, physical and emotional purity are the objectives, and primarily therefore liberation from emotional control and desire. Hence the constant, e'en though badly worded injunction in many of the esoteric books, "Kill out desire". Perhaps a more just rendering for the immediate present would be "reorient desire" or "redirect desire", for a constant process of reorientation of the entire desire nature so that it eventually becomes a habitual state of mind is the clue to all the transmutation processes, and to effective magical work.