The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

CONCERNING THE LAW OF THELEMA (I say) feel themselves immediately to be kings and queens. “Every man and every woman is a star” is the first state- ment in the Book of the Law. In the pamphlet, “The Law of Liberty,” this theme is embroidered with considerable care, and I will not trouble you with further quotation. You will say swiftly that the heavenly state of mind thus induced will be hard put to it to endure hunger and cold. The thought occurred also to our founder, and I will endeavour to put before you the skeleton of his plan to avert such mis- fortune (or at least such ordeal) from his adherents. In the first place he availed himself of a certain organiza- tion of which he was offered the control, namely, the O.T.O. This great Order accepted the Law immediately, and was justified by the sudden and great revival of its activities. The Law was given to our founder twelve years ago; the O.T.O. came into his hands eight years later, in the vulgar year 1912. It must not be supposed that he was idle during the former period; but he was very young, and had no idea of taking practical measures to extend the Dominion of the Law: he pursued his studies. However, with the sudden growth of the O.T.O. from 1912 E.V. onward, he began to perceive a method of putting the Law into general practice, of making it possible for men and women to live in accordance with the precepts laid down in the Book of the Law, and to accomplish their wills; I do not say to gratify their passing fancies, but to do that for which they were intended by their own high destiny. For in this universe, since it is in equilibrium and the sum total of its energies is therefore zero, every force therein is equal and opposite to the resultant of all the other forces combined. The Ego is therefore always exactly equal to the Non-Ego, 231