The Law is for All

Chapter II i- Verses 72-73 147 “those dependent on him.” One who is unfit to survive ought to be allowed to die. We want only those who can conquer them­ selves and their environment. As for “those dependent on him,” it is one of our chief objects to abolish the very idea of dependence on others. Women with child, and infants, are not exceptions, as might seem. They are doing their will, the one class to reproduce, the other to live; the state should consider their welfare to be its first duty; for if they are for the moment dependent on it, it is also dependent on them. A man might as well cut out his heart because it was weak, and in need of cautious care. But he would be no less foolish if he tried to prevent the used-up elements from eliminating themselves from his body. We respect the Will-to-Live; we should respect the Will-to Die. The race is auto-intoxicated by suppressing the excretory processes of Nature. Each case must of course be judged on its merits. His neigh­ bours do well to assist one who is weak by accident or misfor­ tune, if he wishes to recover. But it is a crime against the state and against the individuals in question to hinder the gambler, the drunkard, the voluptuary, the congenital defective, from drifting to death, unless they prove by their own dogged determination to master their circumstances, that they are fit to pull their weight in the Noah’s Ark of mankind. 73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee. Commentary: There is a connection between Death, Sleep and Our Lady Nuit. (This is worked out, on profane lines, by Dr. Sigmund Freud, and his school, especially by Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious? which the reader should consult.) The fatigue of the day’s toil creates the toxins whose accumulation is the “Will to Die.” All mystic attainment is of this type, as all Magick is of the “Will to Live.” At times we all want nibbana, to with­ draw into the Silence, and so on. The Art of it is to dip deeply into “Death,” but to emerge immediately, a giant refreshed. This plan 1 [Crowley read C. G. Jung’s Psychology of the Unconscious on its first appearance in English (1916). Jung’s later revision is entitled Symbols of Transformation-, see Works Cited.]