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Page 1 of 41996 · PDF PAGE 147
148 The Law is for All 1:44 is also possible on the larger scale, all Life being Magick, all Death Mysticism. Then why is Death “forbidden”? All things are surely lawful. But we must work without “lust of result,” taking everything as it comes without desire indeed, but with all manner of delight! Let thy Love-Madrigal to Death, thy Mother-Mistress, ripple and swell throughout the years, with all the Starry Heaven for thine Orchestra; but do not imagine that to attain Her is the sole satis faction. It is the yearning itself that is Beatitude. …
1996 · PDF PAGE 18
Introduction 19 the Church is inimical to Life.” The great majority of men and women do not now believe in “Christian morality”; do not believe in the flagrant absurdity that the impulse by which alone life is continued on our planet is sinful, and that its sinfulness can be expunged only if it is directed by a husband towards his wife and by a wife towards her husband. The creation of this artificial “sin of sex,” the attachment of a sense of guilt to a basic natural function, has brought about a disastrous perversion of sane moral feeling. It…
1996 · PDF PAGE 181
…ve no souls of their own. They “dare not fight”; for how should a man dare to fight unless his cause be a love mightier than his love of life? Therefore they “play”; they have sold themselves; their Will is no more theirs; life is no longer a serious thing to them; therefore they wander wastrel in clubs and boudoirs and greenrooms; bridge, billiards, polo, petticoats puff out their emptiness; scratched for the Great Race of Life, they watch the Derby instead. Brave such may be; they may well be (in a sense) classed with the rat; but brainless a…
1996 · PDF PAGE 6
Foreword Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. The Book of the Law was the foundation of Aleister Crowley’s life’s work, and its commentaries a problem that vexed him for most of his adult life, almost since the book’s reception in 1904 E.v. His basic difficulty with producing a commentary was a lack of objectivity. He was too close to The Book of the Law, on too many levels, to be able to easily write about it, let alone judge what other people might find helpful by way of commentary. He made numerous attempts over the years, only t…
1996 · PDF PAGE 172
…hose of the parrot and the monkey. Her physiology and pathology are hideously disgusting, a sickening slime of uncleanliness. Her virgin life is a sick ape’s, her sexual life a drunken sow’s, her mother life all bulging filmy eyes and sagging udders. These are the facts about “innocence;” to this has man’s Chris tian Endeavour dragged her when he should rather have made her his comrade, frank, trusty, and gay, the tenderer self of himself, his consubstantial complement even as Earth is to the Sun. We of Thelema say that “Every man and every wo…
1996 · PDF PAGE 64
…ion should emphasize and adorn the expression of the enthusiasm. All strength and all skill should be summoned to fulfil the frenzy, and life itself should be flung with a spendthrift gesture on the counter of the Merchant of Madness. On the steel of your helmet let there be gold inlaid with the motto “Excess.” The above indications are taken from a subsequent passage of the third chapter of this Book.1 1 [See Commentary to 111:55-56, pp. 170-181.] 2 [Yvette Guilbert (1868-1944) was a French popular singer.] The supreme and absolute injunction,…
1996 · PDF PAGE 185
…lso unlikely that our Earth’s physical conditions of temperature, atmosphere, density and so on, which some still regard as essential to Life, are found frequently; we are only one of nine planets ourselves, and it is absurd to deny that life exists on the others, or in the Sun himself, just because the conditions of our own life are absent elsewhere.
1996 · PDF PAGE 78
Chapter I a Verses 57-59 79 58. I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice. Commentary: These joys are principally (1) the Beatific Vision, in which Beauty is constantly present to the recipient of Her grace, together with a calm and unutterable joy; (2) the Vision of Wonder, in which the whole Mystery of the Universe is constantly understood and admired for its Ingenium and Wisdom. (1) is referred to Tiphareth, the Grade of Adept; (2) …
1996 · PDF PAGE 150
…Effect that no man knoweth? Was not Lao-tzu thrust forth from his city? Did not Buddha go begging in rags? Did not Mohammed flee for his life into exile? Was not Bacchus the scandal and the scorn of men? Than Joseph Smith1 had any man less learning? Yet each of these attained to do his Will; each cried his Word, that all the Earth yet echoes it! And each was able to accomplish this by virtue of that very cir cumstance which seems so cruel. Shall I, who am armed with all their weapons at once, complain that I must go into the fight unfurnished?…
1996 · PDF PAGE 91
…ed”. The Schools of Initiation must be reformed. 6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death. Commentary: It follows that, as Hadit can never be known, there is no death. The death of the individual is his awakening to the impersonal immortality of Hadit. This applies less to physical death than to the Crossing of the Abyss; for which see Liber 418, Fourteenth /Ethyr. One may attain to be aware that one is but a p…
1996 · PDF PAGE 130
…rsal benefit. It is a form of sectarian bigotry. We should recognize the fact that the vast majority of human beings have no ambition in life beyond mere ease and animal happiness. We should allow these people to fulfil their destinies without interference. We should give every opportunity to the ambitious, and thereby establish a class of morally and intellectually superior men and women. We should have no compunction in utilizing the natural qualities of the bulk of mankind. We do not insist on trying to train sheep to hunt foxes or lecture o…
1996 · PDF PAGE 47
…terms. I would suggest that the palace is the “Holy House” or Universe of the Initiate of the New Law. The four gates are perhaps Light, Life, Love, Liberty—see “De Lege Libellum.”1 Lapis Lazuli is a symbol of Nuit, Jasper of Hadit. The rare scents are possibly various ecstasies or samadhis. Jasmine and Rose are hieroglyphs of the two main Sacraments, while the emblems of death may refer to certain secrets of a well-known exoteric school of initiation whose members, with the rarest exceptions, do not know what it is all about. 1 [See Works Cite…
1996 · PDF PAGE 154
…AI, “I wander.” The idea of “Going” is dreadful to the bourgeois, so that a wanderer is “accursed.” But, me judice,1 2 to settle down in life is to abandon the heroic attitude; it is to acqui esce in the stagnation of the brain. I do not want to be comfort able, or even to prolong life; I prefer to move constantly from galaxy to galaxy, from one incarnation to another. Such is my inti mate individual Will. It seems as thou this “god of War and of Vengeance” is then merely one who shall cause men to do their own Wills by Going as Gods do, ins…
1996 · PDF PAGE 204
…he prophet! Then shall this Knowledge go aright. 6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet there fore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death. 7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a fool ish word: for it is I that go. 8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper. 9. Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sor rows are but as shado…
1996 · PDF PAGE 85
86 The Law is for All Stop that, and it is Revolution. As long as a man can get rid of his surplus Energy in enjoyment, he finds life easy, and submits. Deprive him of Pleasure, of Ecstasy, and his mind begins to worry about the way in which he is exploited and oppressed. Very soon he begins furtively to throw bombs; and, gathering strength, to send his tyrants to the gallows. 64. I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky. 65. To me! To me! 66. The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.
1996 · PDF PAGE 123
…et! 40. A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods. 41. A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death! Commentary: The feasts of fire and water indicate rejoicings to be made at the puberty of boys and girls respectively. The feast for life is at a birth; and the feast for death at a death. It is of the utmost importance to make funerals merry, so as to train people to take the proper view of death. The fear of death is one of the great weapons of tyrants, as well as their sc…
1996 · PDF PAGE 54
Chapter 1 * Verse 51 55 were only agreed to let sleeping dogs lie, and mind one’s own business. In real life, we have seen in our own times Oscar Wilde, Sir Charles Dilke, Parnell, Canon Aitken and countless others, many of them engaged in first-rate work for the world, all wasted, because the mob must make believe to be “moral.” This phrase abolishes the Eleventh Commandment, Not to be Found Out, by authorizing Incest, Adultery, and Paederasty, which everyone now practices with humiliating precautions, which perpetuate the schoolboy’s enjoymen…
1996 · PDF PAGE 38
…ating when your ears catch my roar on the wind? Are ye not tended and fed and protected—until word come from the stock- yard? The lion’s life for me! Let me live free, and die fighting! Now one more point about the obeah and the wanga, the deed and the word of Magick. Magick is the art of causing change in existing phenomena. This definition includes raising the dead, bewitching cattle, mak ing rain, acquiring goods, fascinating judges, and all the rest of the programme. Good: but it also includes every act soever? Yes; I meant it to do so. It…
1996 · PDF PAGE 127
…l unrest. Ignorance of sexual technique leads to disappoint ment, even where passion is free and unrestrained. Sex is not everything in life, any more than food is; but until people have got satisfaction of these natural hungers, it is useless to expect them to think of other things. This truth is vital to the statesman, now that women have some direct political power; they will certainly overthrow the Republic unless they obtain full sexual satisfaction. Also, women outnumber men; and one man cannot satisfy a woman unless he be skilful and di…
1996 · PDF PAGE 174
…diculous and obscene; gave all her beauty and strength of maidenhood to suffer sickness, weakness, danger of death, choosing to live the life of a cow—that so Mankind might sail the seas of time. She knew that man wanted nothing of her but service of his base appetites; in his true manhood-life she had nor part nor lot; and all her wage was his careless contempt.