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Having painted your symbols and acquired your altar it is time to consider what you should wear
while performing your magic. Strictly speaking there is no reason at all why you should not wear your
everyday clothes, be they a dark suit with collar and tie, or jeans and sweatshirt. In practice, however,
it makes the work of the imagination and the building up of a secondary magical personality much
easier if you have a garment, or garments, worn only when you are engaged in occult work.
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[3] The colours can be counter-charged by providing backgrounds of the complementary colours.
Thus the background for Earth would be White; for Air, purple; for Fire, green; and for Water, orange.
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Once again, there is no need to involve yourself in great expenditure. If you wish to do so, you can, of
course, go to a specialist tailor and have 'magical' robes made for you; these are usually vaguely
oriental, rather like the full-dress uniform of an Admiral in the Saudi Arabian navy. A home-made
tabard - that is to say, a poncho worn belted - will usually be found far more satisfactory. Make it in
the following way: get a length of cloth a little wider than yourself and a little less than twice the
height between your shoulders and your ankles.
The cloth can be black, white or some primary colour (4) but should not be patterned, for this tends to
distract the attention. Fold the material in half, cut a half circle along the fold (for your head), put the
poncho on, tie a sash around your waist and you have a magical robe. Should this simple task exceed
your dress-making capacity buy a coloured dressing-gown (once again, not patterned) and make this
your invariable garb for your occult activities.
Just as you will find that having some particular garment associated exclusively with the magical
aspect of your daily activities helps your creative imagination to transform an ordinary room into a
Temple of the gods, so you will find that the traditional custom of adopting a 'magical motto' - a new
name, symbolising your occult life - will aid you in the task of building up your magical personality.
This motto 'is not', in the words of an instructional manuscript of the Golden Dawn, 'a name given to
the outer man's body, but an occult signifier of the aspiration of his soul'.
Choose, therefore, some motto which expresses your own hopes, your own ideals. (5) Traditionally
such mottoes have almost invariably been expressed in the Latin language -Perdurabo, 'I shall endure',
and De Profundis ad Lucent, 'Out of the depths to the Light', are examples - but there is no good
reason why such mottoes should not be in English, French or Italian. So choose any motto that
expresses your own inmost nature. At a pinch you can do without any motto, taking as your magical
name that of some hero or legendary magician whom you happen to admire and whose biography, real
or imaginary, appeals to something in your essential self.
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[4] Coloured robes should strictly be reserved for particular planetary operations.
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