together, and the idea thus formed gives direction to the working of the Law.  But this direction may be either true or inverted; and the impersonal Law will work constructively or destructively, according to the conception which it embodies.  In this way, then, will-power may be used to hold together an inverted conception—­the conception that our personal force of will is sufficient to bear down all opposition.  But this mental attitude ignores the fact, that the fundamental principle of creative power is the Wholeness of the Creation; and that, therefore, the idea of forcing compliance with our wishes, by the power of our individual will, is an inverted conception, which, though it may appear to succeed for a time, is bound to fail eventually, because it antagonizes the very power it is seeking to use.  This inverted use of the Will is the basis of “Black Magic,” a term some readers will perhaps smile at, but which is practised at the present day to a much greater extent than many of us have any idea of—­not always, indeed, with a full consciousness of its nature, but in many ways which are the first steps on the Left-hand Path.  Its mark is the determination to act by Self-will, rather than using our will to co-operate with that continuous forward movement of the Great Whole, which is the Will of God.  This inverted will entirely misses the point regarding the part we are formed to play in the Creative Order, and so we miss the development of our own individuality, and retrograde instead of going forward.

But if we work with the Law instead of against it, we shall find that our word, that is to say our conception, will become more and more the Word of Power, because it specializes the general Law in some particular direction.  The Law will serve us exactly to the extent to which we first observe the Law.  It is the same in everything.  If the electrician tries to go counter to the fundamental principle, that the electric current always flows from a higher to a lower potential, he will be able to do nothing with it; but let him observe this fundamental law and there is nothing that electricity will not do for him within the field of its own nature.  In this sense, then, of specializing the general Law in a particular direction, we may lay down the maxim that “The Law flows from the Word, and not vice versa.”

When we use our Word in this way, not as expressing a self-will that seeks to crush all that does not submit to it, but as a portion, however small, of the Universal Cause, and therefore with the desire of acting in harmony with that Cause, then our word becomes a constructive, instead of a destructive power.  Its influence may be very small at first, because there is still a great mass of doubt at the back of our mind, and every doubt is, in reality, a Negative Word warring against our Affirmative Word; but, by adhering to our principle, we shall gradually gain experience in these things, and the creative value of our word will grow accordingly.