This book serves as an introduction to the Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake (Ordo Astri). The aim of our work is to prepare for spiritual realisation. The first real or effective initiation involves psychic regeneration, but that must not be confused with the goal itself; it is only subsidiary to the goal—a further preparation. Full realisation involves final and permanent transformation of all human possibilities to the spiritual order of possibilities, which is entirely outside of and beyond the human domain or sphere of the individuality. This revised edition includes our Egyptian Yoga method. The book also includes Key Scale correspondence tables, expanded and corrected. As well as the primary Qabalistic Sephiroth, Gods and Angels, the tables cover everything needed by the practical magician: colours, magical powers, symbolic weapons, perfumes, precious stones, plants, animals and legendary creatures. Sophia is our Guiding Light. This book serves as an introduction to the theory and practices of the Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake (Ordo Astri). While it was not written exclusively for those who seek membership of such an organisation, the foremost aim was to serve the interests of the latter. So far as a wider readership goes, it was always hoped that it might serve in some small way to bring clarity to an area that has suffered utmost obfuscation, and not least of all from the many persons who are considered to be experts. The subject, which concerns preparations needful to the person that earnestly pursues the path of initiation, comprises a vast array of topics inclusive of traditional sciences such as magick, astrology, and the science of numbers as well as essential methods for acquiring real knowledge, including ritual and yoga meditation. The kind of knowledge we can only allude to in writing, which is of a spiritual nature, will not be acquired without great effort put in over a lengthy period of time. The concentration of mind is the one essential thing needed in this field, and yet the whole modern spirit is completely against that, to the extent that it very actively encourages dispersion of the mind in the pursuit of useless objects. This brings us to the matter of the incomprehension that our instructional writings will always meet with in some areas of the public domain. There are those who wish to believe that nothing can exist that is outside of their ability to grasp, and if they read something they do not understand then the fault must lie with the book or the author himself. Furthermore, if they do not understand it then in their view it should best be ignored as irrelevant. That is the profane attitude, and so long as a person holds to it there is no chance of initiation for them, not ever. Metaphysics, which is only touched on briefly in the present work, requires intellectual ability over and beyond that of the ordinary person. The egalitarian idealism of some persons insists that even magick is there for 'anyone' to do. They transfer their social ideals to every conceivable field of knowledge by a sort of monistic transference, and where the 'monad' is confused with homogeneity. Such is the ferocity that egalitarian idealism is pursued that it has even been said, with quite a measure of anger and frustration, that our 'cult' excludes those who waste our time with profane arguments. It would not be a cult if it did not do that! It would be as though upholding high standards can only be seen as a negative value. The reviewer went on to recommend that the author should 'meet the readers halfway' while complaining that he is not interested in the opinions of other people. It is certainly true that we are not in any way interested in opinions—we are not even interested in our own. Knowledge, of the kind that is our area of interest, is not in any way touched by opinion or by 'information', which nowadays is confused with knowledge. To meet anyone halfway would mean subservience to profane, egoistic considerations. Such a patronising stance might accord with the skewed idealism of our times, where commercialism is the goal of everything, but it would do our readers and our subject a serious injustice. Sophia be-with-us forever. Oliver St. John Oliver St. John has dedicated his life to the theory and practice of the occult, including related sciences of Tarot, Qabalah, ritual, astrology and divination, and is an acknowledged expert in these fields. He has written more than twenty books on these subjects, of which the most recent are concerned with pure metaphysics. He is the Director of Studies of Ordo Astri, Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake. Born in London, Oliver St. John's background includes training and working with Mary Long, author and student of Dion Fortune, the late Gareth Knight and Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, co-founder of Servants of the Light Association. He was at one time active in the neo-pagan Fellowship of Isis, enjoying a voluminous correspondence