Magick Without Tears

42 This "Self" Introversion Cara Soror, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. "It is a lie, this folly against self." (AL, II: 22) The English is very un-English, and the context hardly helpful. But the meaning is clear enough ; the idea is to dismiss, curtly and rudely, the entire body of doctrine which insists on altruism as a of spiritual progress. Why do I jump in with this text without warning? Because at the end of my letter on Sammasati the Dweller of the Threshold popped up, and that brings us to the Black Brothers , and the Left-hand path, all of which subjects are very generally supposed to depend for origin upon "Selfishness. " This question is one of the most critical in the whole of Magical Theory; for in one sense it is certainly true that every error without exception is due to exacerbation of the Ego. Yet The Book of the Law flings at us disdainfully: "It is a lie, this folly against self." How then? I fear there is nothing for it but to go thoroughly into the who I e matt e r of the 'self'. This may involve some recapitulation. 'Self' is one of the trickiest words afloat . Skeat gives merely the equivalents, all practically the same in sound, in various Nordic languages; he doesn't say where it comes from, or what it means. I don't know either , bless your heart! 274