Their representations of the powers it confers upon man, and of the
means to be used to acquire them are as varied as they are fanciful.
Some imagine that a master in the art, to show the way, is all that is
needed to become a Zanoni. Others, that one has but to cross the Canal
of Suez and go to India to bloom forth as a Roger Bacon or even a Count
St. Germain. Many take for their ideal Margrave with his ever-renewing
youth, and care little for the soul as the price paid for it. Not a few,
mistaking "Witch-of-Endorism" pure and simple, for Occultism--"through
the yawning Earth from Stygian gloom, call up the meager ghost to walks
of light," and want, on the strength of this feat, to be regarded as
full blown Adepts. "Ceremonial Magic" according to the rules mockingly
laid down by Éliphas Lévi, is another imagined _alter ego_ of the
philosophy of the Arhats of old. In short, the prisms through which
Occultism appears, to those innocent of the philosophy, are as
multicolored and varied as human fancy can make them.

Will these candidates to Wisdom and Power feel very indignant if told
the plain truth? It is not only useful, but it has now become
_necessary_ to disabuse most of them and before it is too late. This
truth may be said in a few words: There are not in the West half-a-dozen
among the fervent hundreds who call themselves "Occultists," who have
even an approximately correct idea of the nature of the Science they
seek to master. With a few exceptions, they are all on the highway to
Sorcery. Let them restore some order in the chaos that reigns in their
minds, before they protest against this statement. Let them first learn
the true relation in which the Occult Sciences stand to Occultism, and
the difference between the two, and then feel wrathful if they still
think themselves right. Meanwhile, let them learn that Occultism differs
from Magic and other secret Sciences as the glorious Sun does from a
rush-light, as the immutable and immortal Spirit of Man--the reflection