Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 3)

antinomies in ail spheresj and the Original Perfection with the Manifest Imperfection of Things. Again “Do what thou wilt”, the most sublimely austere ethical precept ever uttered, despite its apparent licence, is seen on analysis to be indeed “the whole of the Law”, the sole and sufficient warrant for human action, the self-evident Code of Righteousness, the identification of Fate with Freewill, and the end of the Civil War in Man’s nature by appointing the Canon of Truth, the conformity of things with themselves, to détermine his every act. “Do what thou wilt” is to bid Stars to shine, Vines to bear grapes, Water to seek its levelj man is the only being in Nature that has striven to set himself at odds with himself. (e) His power to interpret the Spirit of the New Aeon, the relapse into ruthless savagery of the most civilised races, at a time when war was discredited by most responsible men. ( (f) His power to comprehend and control these various orders of ideas and events, demonstrating thereby a mind and a means of action intelligible to, yet immensely above, ail human capacity; to bind the whole into a compact cryptograph displaying mastery of English, of mathematical and philosophical conceptions, of poetic splendour and intense passion, while concealing in the letters and words a complex cipher involving the knowledge of facts never tili then existing in any human mind, and depending on the control of the arm of the scribe, though He thought Fie was writing consciously from dictation; and to weave into a single pattern so many threads of proof of different orders that every type of mind, so it be but open and just, may be sure of the existence of AIWAZ as a being independent of body, conscious and individual, with a mind mightier than man’s, and a power beyond man’s set in motion by will. In a word, the Book of the Law proves the prime postulate of Religion. The Magician may therefore be confident that Spiritual Beings exist, and seek the Knowledge and Conversation of His own Holy Guardian Angel with the same ardour as that of Frater Perdurabo when Fie abandoned. ail r love, wealth, rank, famé, to seek Him. Nay, this he must do or condemn himself to be — 262 —