Chapter II * Verse 73
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element of one’s nature, and develop it as its own laws demand, 
with absolute impartiality. One need not fear; there is a natural 
limit to the growth of any species; it either finds food fail, or is 
choked by its neighbours, or overgrows itself, and is transformed. 
Nor need one fret about the harmony and proportion of one’s 
various faculties; the fit will survive, and the perfection of the 
whole will be understood as soon as the parts have found them­
selves, and settled down after fighting the matter out in the bal­
anced stability which represents their right reaction to each other, 
and to their environment. It is thus policy for an Aspirant to initi­
ation to analyze himself with indefatigable energy, shrewd skill, 
and accurate subtlety; but then to content himself with observing 
the interplay of his instincts, instead of guiding them. Not until he 
is familiar with them all should he perform the practices which 
enable him to read the Word of his Will. And then, having 
assumed conscious control of himself, that he may do his Will, he 
should make a point of using every faculty in a detached way (just 
as one inspects one’s pistols and fires a few rounds) without 
expecting ever to need them again, but on the general principle 
that if they were wanted, one might as well feel confident of the 
issue.
This theory of initiation is so important to every aspirant that 
I shall illustrate how my own ignorance bred error, and error 
injury. My Will was, I now know, to be The Beast, 666, a Magus, 
the Word of the .¿Eon, Thelema; to proclaim this new Law to 
mankind.
My passion for personal freedom, my superiority to sexual 
impulses, my resolve to master physical fear and weakness, my 
contempt for other people’s opinions, my poetic genius: I indulged 
all these to the full. None of them carried me too far, ousted the 
others, or injured my general well-being. On the contrary, each 
automatically reached its natural limit, and each has been incalcu­
lably useful to me in doing my Will when I became aware of it, 
able to organize its armies, and to direct them intelligently against 
the inertia of ignorance.
But I suppressed certain impulses in myself. I abandoned my 
ambitions to be a diplomatist. I checked my ardour for Science.