The Law is for All

114 The Law is for All doctrine here put forth is that the initiate cannot be polluted by any particular environment. He accepts and enjoys everything that is proper to his nature. Thus, a man’s sexual character is one form of his self-expression; he unites Hadit with Nuit sacramen­ tally when he satisfies his instinct of physical love. Of course, this is only one partial projection; to govern, to fight, and so on, must fulfil other needs. We must not imagine that any form of activity is ipso facto incapable of supplying the elements of an Eucharist; suum cuique) Observe, however, the constant factor in this enu­ meration of the practices proper to “hermits”: it is ecstatic delight. Let us borrow an analogy from Chemistry. Oxygen has two hands (so to speak) to offer to other elements. But contrast the cordial clasp of hydrogen or phosphorus with the weak reluc­ tant greeting of chlorine! Yet hydrogen and chlorine rush passion­ ately to embrace each other in monogamic madness! There is no “good” or “bad” in the matter; it is the enthusiastic energy of union, as betokened by the disengagement of heat, light, electric­ ity, or music, and the stability of the resulting compound, that sanctifies the act. Note also that the utmost external joy in any phenomenon is surpassed a millionfold by the internal joy of the realization that self-fulfilment in the sensible world is but a sym- 1:57 bol of the universal sublimity of the formula “love under will.” The last two sentences demand careful attention. There is an apparent contradiction with verses 59 and 60. We must seek reconcilement in this way: Do not imagine that any King can die (v. 21) or be hurt (v. 59); strife between two Kings can therefore be nothing more than a friendly trial of strength. We are all inevi­ tably allies, even identical in our variety; to “Love one another with burning hearts” is one of our essential qualities. :3 But who then are the “low men”, since “Every man and every woman is a star”? The casus belli1 2 is this: there are people who are veiled from themselves so deeply that they resent the bared faces of us others. We are fighting to free them, to make them masters like ourselves. Note verse 60, “to hell with them”; that is, 1 [Lat., “to each his own.”] 2 [Lat., “justification of war.”]