PREFATORY NOTE
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
It is not very difficult to write a book, if one chance to
possess the necessary degree of Initiation, and the power of
expression. It is infernally difficult to comment on such a
Book. The principal reason for this is that every statement
is true and untrue, alternately, as one advances upon the
Path of the Wise. The question always arises: For what
grade is this Book meant? To give one simple concrete
example, it is stated in the third part of this treatise that
Change is the great enemy. This is all very well as meaning
that one ought to stick to one’s job. But in another sense
Change is the Great Friend. As it is marvelous well shewed
forth by The Beast Himself in Liber Aleph, Love is the law,
and Love is Change, by definition. Short of writing a sepa-
rate interpretation suited for every grade, therefore, the
commentator is in a bog of quandary which makes Flanders
Mud seem like polished granite. He can only do his poor
best, leaving it very much to the intelligence of each reader
to get just what he needs. These remarks are peculiarly
applicable to the present treatise; for the issues are pre-
sented in so confused a manner that one almost wonders
whether Madame Blavatsky was not a reincarnation of the
Woman with the Issue of Blood familiar to readers of the
gospels. It is astonishing and distressing to notice how the
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