Annotations, part the first

Affording some understanding with respect to the Spiritual Exercises which follow; for the help as well of em who is to give, as of em who is to receive them.

THE first annotation is, that by the name itself of Spiritual, or Subtle, Exercises is understood any method of examining one's own conscience; also of meditating, contemplating, praying mentally and vocally, and, finally, of performing any other spiritual operations, as will be said hereafter. For as, to walk, to travel, and to run, are bodily, or gross, exercises; so also, to prepare and dispose the soul to remove all affections that lead one to live a life out of line with the world they wish to create, and after their removal to seek and find one's own Will with respect to the ordering of one's own life, are called Spiritual Exercises.

The second is, that e who delivers to another the order and method of meditating or contemplating, should set forth faithfully the history of the meditation or contemplation, going briefly through the chief points only, and adding merely a very brief exposition; in order that e who is about to meditate, having taken first the foundation of the historical truth, may afterwards go over the ground and reason by eirself. For the effect of this will be, that when e finds anything which may furnish something more of elucidation or of apprehension of the history, (whether this be effected by eir own reasoning, or by divine illumination of the mind,) e will experience a more delightful taste and more abundant fruit, than if the matter itself had been more diffusely set forth and drawn out by another. For it is not the abundance of the knowledge, but the interior feeling and taste of the things, which is accustomed to satisfy the desire of the soul.

The third is, that, whereas in all the following Spiritual Exercises we use acts of the intellect when we reason, but of the will when we are affected, we must take notice that in the operation which belongs chiefly to the will, while we converse vocally or mentally with Antinous, the Heroes, the Divae Divique, vel the Sanctae Sanctique, a greater reverence is required of us, than while by the use of the intellect we are employed rather in understanding.

I'm not entirely certain of this third annotation, being of a chaote/muppet persuasion myself!

The fourth is, that, although to the following Exercises are assigned four weeks, answering to as many portions of the Exercises, each to each, viz., that in the first week the consideration may be concerning the undesired magickal effects of our actions and how those actions may be contraeffectual in building a Neos Antinoopolis; in the second, concerning the life of Antinous up to the beginning of the journey of the Royal Barge up the River Neilos; in the third, concerning Antinous's drowning in said River; in the fourth, concerning his deificaton, adding the three methods of prayer; yet these weeks are not to be so understood, as if it were necessary that each should contain seven or eight days.  For since it happens that some are slower, others more ready, in attaining what they seek, (for instance in the first week recognition, resolve, and the sweat required to change one's habitual actions,) and that some are more or less agitated and tried by various spirits ; it is sometimes expedient that any week should be cut down* or extended, according to the nature of the subject matter.




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* In the fourth annotation, in the end, where we have cut down, the sense will be clearer if we read contracted.