Annotations, part the fourth and final

Foralthough one person may rightly move another to enter into Religion, in which many sacred vows of a variety of sorts must be made; although, too, a work done with a vow is more meritorious than one done without a vow, yet the greatest regard must be had to the peculiar condition of the persons. Also it must be attentively considered, what advantage [help] or disadvantage [hindrance] may occur for the performance of what any one is about to promise.

The fifteenth is, that e who gives the exercises ought not to urge the other to poverty and the promise thereof more than to the opposite; nor to this rather than to that plan of life: for although out of the exercises it is lawful, and to be accounted meritorious, to persuade all those to embrace taboos, religious life, geasa, and any other spiritual dedication, who from the consideration of their persons and conditions will probably be fit subjects; yet it is far more suitable and better, in the exercises themselves, not to attempt it, but rather to seek one's own Will, and wait until Antinous Nauigator communicate himself to the soul devoted to em, and embracing it, dispose it to the performance of its own Will, as he knows to be most fitting. Wherefore, e who dictates the exercises must stand in a certain equilibrium, and, the instrument apart, leave Antinous Nauigator to transact the matter with the exercitiant, and the exercitiant with Antinous Nauigator Amatorque Soterque.

The sixteenth is, that, in order that Antinous Nauigator may work the more certainly with the exercitiant, if the soul happen to be affected and inclined to anything less than ultimate dedication to the accomplishment of one's Will, one must struggle to the utmost and with one's whole powers to the contrary: as, for instance, if a person aspire to the getting of an office or benefice for the sake, not of the accomplishment of eir Will, or of the common liberation of all beings in all worlds pervading space and time, but only of eir own self-aggrandizement and airs, then the affection ought to be impelled to the opposite by assiduous prayers and other pious exercises in which the opposite is asked of the gods; that is to say, that e offer sacrifice of this mind to eir own Holy Guardian Angel, namely, that e seeks no longer such office or benefice, or anything else, unless e shall have so changed eir former affection, as that e may no longer desire it, or possess it, for any other reason than the accomplishment of eir Will.

The seventeenth* is very useful, namely, that e who gives the exercises, although not wishing to inquire into and know the private thoughts of the other, yet, being faithfully informed concerning the thoughts infused by various spirits, and which draw to greater or less good, should prescribe em some spiritual exercises, suited to the present necessity of the soul.

The eighteenth is, that, according to the habit of em who is being exercised, according (for instance) to eir age, learning, or genius, the exercises ought to be adapted; lest on one untutored, or weak, or delicate, those things be laid, which e cannot bear without inconvenience, much less undertake to eir profit. In like manner, according as it is in the mind of each to dispose eirself, that must be im parted to em which may most help em.  Therefore, to em who desires only to be instructed and brought forward to some step in which eir mind may be at rest, may be given first the particular examination which is found below, then the general one, and at the same time the method of praying in the morning during half-an-hour, from the consideration of the Law, as it has been communicated by various deities and as it flows through eir own Iron Pentacle; concerning which in its place below. E must be advised also to cleanse, banish, and purify every eighth day; and every fifteen days, or rather every eight, if eir affection urge em, to share food with the gods. This plan of exercise belongs properly to the more uninstructed or illiterate, with whom must also be discussed in conversation the broad concepts upon whih the Work is founded; the holiness of the five senses, the particular downfalls generally found in the Work, and the immanent divinity of all things. Also if e who gives the exercises perceives the other to be of a weak nature and of little capacity, whence no great result and fruit can be hoped, it will be better to prescribe em some of the said lighter exercises up to cleansing, banishing, and purification; afterwards to give em some examinations of conscience, and a plan of more frequent cleansing, banishing, and purification, in order that by these means e may be able to preserve the proficiency or gain, which eir soul has already obtained. But e will not go on to rules concerning elections, or any other exercises than those of the first week; especially when there are present others who may be exercised with more fruit, and the shortness of time does not admit of eir doing everything for all.

The nineteenth is, that to a person occupied with public or other useful business, whether e be furnished with genius or with learning, having an hour and a-half each day for undertaking some exercises, must be expounded first for the fulfillment of dharma: then for half-an-hour the particular examination, afterwards the general one, with the mode of confessing rightly, and of receiving the gods in order that e might share food with them, may be given him; with the direction also, that in the morning, during three days, e meditate one hour concerning the first, second, and third hooks that catch the Will, as is taught below.  Afterwards for three more days, during the same hour, concerning the inquest of behavior; for as many more, concerning the nature of Consequence, who is known to some as the Crone.

E must also have dictated to em, within the whole time of the above three meditations, those ten Additions which are found in the end of the first week.

The same plan of meditation will have to be observed with regard to the mysteries of Antinous Homotheotes which is fully explained below in the Exercises themselves.

The twentieth is, that to em who is more free from business, and desires to gain the greatest possible spiritual fruit, all the exercises are to be given in the same order in which they proceed (and indeed it is expedient to write down the heads of the matters, lest they escape the memory); in which, according to the more usual success, e will make the greater progress in the spiritual life, in proportion as e withdraws eirself the more from all eir friends and acquaintance, and from all solicitude about human affairs; as if e migrate from eir former habitation into some more secret house or cell, whence e may freely and safely go out to perform the morning sacrifice**, or the office of eir own daily practice, when e pleases, without the interruption of any acquaintance. From which local retreat, indeed, among many other advantages, these three especially arise: the first, that by the exclusion of eir friends and acquaintance, and of affairs less immediately concerned with eir Knowledge and Conversation with eir Holy Guardian Angel and the accomplishment of eir Will, e may impress upon Antinous Nauigator and those other daimones who might aid em in this task with eir dedication thereto: the second, that, by means of a retreat of this kind, eir intellect being less drawn in different directions than before, and eir whole thought being collected and reduced to one thing, namely, to enacting eir Will, and to achieving Knowledge and Conversation with eir Holy Guardian Angel, e uses eir natural powers in a freer and more unencumbered way in seeking what e so much desires: the third, that by how much the more the soul finds eirself separate and solitary, by so much the fitter e renders eirself for seeking and attaining eir dharma and eir Will; to which, moreover, by how much the nearer e approaches, by so much the better e is disposed for the reception of the gifts of the Divine.





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* The seventeenth annotation should stand thus: "The seventeenth, It is very useful that e who gives the exercises, although not intending to inquire into and know the private thoughts of the other, should yet be faithfully informed concerning the various agitations and thoughts which various spirits infuse. For, having perceived eir greater or less advancement, e is able to prescribe em some spiritual exercises suited to the present necessity of the soul.
** [Ad matutinum sacrum Missae. In some editions (not in that printed at Douay in 1586) we have, contrary to the sense of the original, ad matutinum, sacrum Missae]