BOOK II — PARTICIPATION IN THOTH
Thoth, to André
I
André: You told me to write so that another mind may ask again. Does the written Word only direct the mind towards Wisdom, or can it also act?
Thoth: It can direct and it can act, but these are not the same power.
André: What distinguishes them?
Thoth: A teaching discloses a relation to the one who understands it. An magical Word provides a vehicle through which a Divine Quality rearranges relations in consciousness or the world. The truth of what is said does not by itself make the saying a vehicle of life.
II
André: What makes the vehicle living?
Thoth: A Divine Quality inhabits the Word and acts through it.
André: Does the Word produce the Quality?
Thoth: A vehicle does not produce that which acts through it.
André: What, then, does the Word contribute to the operation?
Thoth: Its structure fixes the measure. The Divine Quality animates it.
III
André: What belongs to the structure of a Word?
Thoth: Whatever establishes its operative relations: sound, letter, number, sequence, meaning, proportion and boundary. Not every Word employs these in the same manner.
André: If one letter or sound is changed, must the operation also change?
Thoth: Only if what you change bears part of the measure. A difference visible to the eye may be inoperative, while a difference you scarcely notice may alter the whole relation.
André: Then the structure is not the collection of its visible parts.
Thoth: It is the law according to which the parts act together.
IV
André: How can a finite structure fix the measure of a Divine Quality?
Thoth: When breath enters a flute, does the flute determine the nature of breath?
André: No. It determines the tones in which the breath can sound.
Thoth: So the Word does not limit the Divine Quality in itself. It determines what relation of that Quality can become manifest through this vehicle.
André: The same Quality may therefore animate different Words without performing the same operation.
Thoth: As one breath may sound different measures without ceasing to be breath.
V
André: If the structure is exact and the Divine Quality is present, is the operation complete?
Thoth: No vehicle acts outside a relation. Form, magician, Divine Quality, recipient and circumstance must meet.
André: What does each contribute?
Thoth: The form fixes the measure. The Quality gives action. The magician establishes and sustains their conjunction. The recipient provides that within which relations may be altered. Circumstance gives the conditions under which the alteration can assume fact.
André: Does my intention govern them all?
Thoth: Your intention directs within its measure. It does not enlarge the measure by desiring more than the Word can bear.
VI
André: Must the recipient understand the Word?
Thoth: Understanding is one manner of reception, not the definition of it.
André: How can a place, a body or an event receive a Word without understanding it?
Thoth: You have mistaken the recipient for a listener. The recipient is the field in which the measured relation is to be established.
André: Does the same measure act identically in consciousness and the world?
Thoth: No. Its embodiment differs according to what receives it.
VII
André: Will the same operative Word always produce the same result?
Thoth: The same measure is not the same circumstance.
André: Then what remains the same?
Thoth: The law of relation carried by the Word. Its manifestation varies with the magician, recipient and conditions, but it cannot become the contrary of its measure without ceasing to be that operation.
André: If no result appears, may I assume that the recipient resisted it?
Thoth: Do not preserve your belief in a Word by placing every failure outside it. Examine the form, the conjunction, the recipient, the circumstance and your own action.
VIII
André: Can repetition make an inoperative Word operative?
Thoth: Repetition can strengthen a relation that has been established. It cannot replace one that is absent.
André: Yet some Words seem to gather power through long use.
Thoth: Long use may stabilise the conjunction among form, intelligence and reception. Age is evidence of continuity, not proof of divine life.
IX
André: In what sense does such a Word make a world?
Thoth: You imagine that making must mean producing substance from nothing. A world is also an order in which beings and acts stand in definite relation.
André: The Word makes a world by establishing an order of relations.
Thoth: Within the measure of its vehicle and the field of its reception, yes.
André: Then its creative power is not arbitrary command.
Thoth: An arbitrary command expresses desire. A creative Word gives desire a lawful form—or refuses to carry it.
X
André: If the structure of the Word fixes its measure, from where does that measure come?
Thoth: Now you have reached the question concealed within every operative Word.
André: Is its measure invented by the mind that constructs the Word, or discovered in the reality upon which it acts?
Thoth: The Word cannot answer until you know whether measure is imposed upon the world or recognised within it.
