The Law is for All

Chapter I i Verses 37—41 41 4. Explore the course of that Will till you reach its source, your Silent Self. 5. Unite the conscious will with the true Will, and the conscious Ego with the Silent Self. You must be utterly ruthless in discarding any atom of consciousness which is hostile or neutral. 6. Let this work freely from within, but heed not your environment, lest you make difference between one thing and another. Whatever it be, it is to be made one with you by Love. 38. He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals. 39. The word of the Law is OeXrjpia. 40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell. Commentary: The first paragraph is a general statement or definition of Sin or Error. Anything soever that binds the will, hinders it, or diverts it, is Sin. That is, Sin is the appearance of the Dyad. Sin is impurity.1 1 One cannot say that it was “Sin” for Naught to restrict itself within the form of Two; on the contrary. But Sin is to resist the operation of the reversion to Naught. “The wages of Sin is Death” [Romans 6:23]; for Life is a continual harmonious and natural Change. See Liber 418 and Liber Aleph. Sin (see Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary) is connected with the root vYs, “to be.” This throws a new light on the passage. Sin is restriction, that is, it is “being” as opposed to “becoming.” The fundamental idea of wrong is the static as opposed to the dynamic conception of the Universe. This explanation is not only in harmony with the general teaching of The Book of the Law, but shows how profoundly the author understands Himself.