THE OLD AND NEW COMMENTARIES TO THE CORRECTED VERSION OF LIBER AL VEL LEGIS

Author: Aleister Crowley Publisher: http://book-of-the-law.com/index.html#CHIII Review Date: Status:💥

❗️intentional misspelling of wisdom in lp (widsom)

Annotations

AL I.1: “Had! T h

THE NEW COMMEN

The theogony of our Law is entirely scientific, Nuit is Matter,
Hadit is Motion, in theirfull physical sense. [C2] They are the Tao and Teh of Chinese Philosophy; or,
to put itvery simply, the Noun and Verb in grammar. Our central Tr
uth — beyond otherphilosophies — is that these two infinities cannot exist apart. T
his extensive subjectmust be studied in our other writings, notably Berashith,
my own Magical Diaries,especially those of 1919, 1920 and 1921, and The Book of Wisdom or Folly.
See alsoThe Soldier and the Hunchback.
Further information concerning Nuit and Hadit isg
iven in the course of this Book; but I must here mention that the Brother mentioned inconnexion with the Wizard Amalantrah etc. (Samuel bar A
iwaz) identifies them withANU and ADAD the supreme Mother and Father deities of the Sumerians. Ta
ken inconnexion with the AIWAZ identification, this is very striking indeed. [M2]
I
t is also to be considered that Nu is connected with North, while Had is Sad, Set, Satan,S
at (equals “Being” in Sanskrit), South. He is then the Sun, one point concentratingSpace, as also is any other star.
[Q2]

For the North-South antithesis see Fabre d’Olivet’sHermeneutic Interpretation of the Origin of the Social State in Man.

T
HE OLD COMMENT2. T
hi

THE NEW
COMMENTThis explains the general theme of this revelation: gives the Dramatis Personae,
so tos
peak.It is cosmographically, the conception of the two Ultimate Ideas; Space, and T
hat whicho
ccupies Space.I
t will however appear later that these two ideas may be resolved into one, that ofMatter; with Space, its ‘Condition’ or ‘form’, included therein. T
his leaves the idea of’
Motion’ for Hadit, whose interplay with Nuit makes the Universe.Time should perhaps be considered as a particular kind or dimension of Space. [C4]
Further, this verse is to be taken with the next. T
he ‘company of heaven’ is Mankind,a
nd its ‘unveiling’ is the assertion of the independent godhead of every man and everyw
oman!Further, as Khabs (see verse 8)
is “Star”, there is a further meaning; this Book is toreveal the Secret Self of a man, i.e. to initiate him. [M3]

AL I.3: “Every man and every woman is a star{.}” [EGI03]

THE NEW
COMMENTThis thesis is fully treated in The Book of Wisdom or Folly.
Its main statement is thate
ach human being is an Element of the Cosmos, self-determined and supreme, co-equalw
ith all other Gods.From this the Law “Do what thou wilt” follows logically.
One star influences anotherby attraction, of course; but these are incidents of self-predestined orbits. T
here is,however,
a mystery of the planets, revolving about a star of whom they are parts; but Is

This theory is the only one which explains “why” the A
bsolute limited itself, and why Itd
oes not recognize Itself during its cycle of incarnations. It disposes of “Evil” and theO
rigin of Evil; without denying Reality to “Evil”, or insulting our daily observation andour common sense. [C6]

AL I.4: “Every number is infinite; there is no differe nce{.}” [11] [EGI04]

T
HE OLD COMMENT4. T

THE NEW
COMMENTThis is a great and holy mystery. Although each star has its own number,
each numberi
s equal and supreme. Every man and every woman is not only a part of God, but theUltimate God. “The Centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere”. T
he olddefinition of God takes new meaning for us. Each one of us is the One God. T
his cano
nly be understood by the initiate; one must acquire certain high states of consciousnesst

P
asquaney in New Hampshire, U.S.A. and developed into fullness on varioussubsequent occasions. Each ‘Star’ is connected directly with every other star,
and theSpace being Without Limit (Ain Soph)
the Body of Nuith, any one star is as much theCentre as any other.
Each man instinctively feels that he is the Centre of the Cosmos,a
nd philosophers have jeered at his presumption. But it was he that was precisely right.T
he yokel is no more ‘petty’ than the King, nor the earth than the Sun. Each simpleelemental Self is supreme, Very God of Very God. Ay, in this Book is Tr
uth almostinsuff
erably splendid, for Man has veiled himself too long from his own glory: he fearsthe abyss, the ageless Absolute. But Truth shall make him free! [12] [M4]

I
t must be understood from the beginning that this book contains the keys of all thek
nowledge necessary for the operation of the Magical Formulae of the world during theA
eon which it initiates. In this very early verse is already given a Master Key tom
athematics and metaphysics. On applying this to current problems of thought, it willbe discovered that the long-fast doors fly open at a touch. [Q3]

AL I.5: “Help me, O warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Childre
no f men{!}” [13] [EGI05]

Here Nuit appeals, simply and directly,
recognizing the separate function of each Star ofher Body. T
hough all is One, each part of that One has its own special work, each Stari

The unveiling is the Proclamation of the Tr
uth previously explained, that the Body ofNuith occupies Infinite Space, so that every Star thereof is W
hole in itself, anindependent and absolute Unit. They differ as Carbon and Calcium differ,
but each is as
imple “immortal” Substance, or at least a form of some simpler Substance. Each soul ist
hus absolute, and ‘good’ or ‘evil’ are merely terms descriptive of relations betweendestructible combinations. T
hus Quinine is ‘good’ for a malarial patient, but ‘evil’ for thegerm of the disease. Heat is ‘bad’ for ice-cream and ‘good’ for coffee. T
he indivisibleessence of things, their ‘souls’, are indifferent to all conditions soever,
for none can inany way affect them. [M5]

AL I.6: “Be thou Hadit, my secret centre , my heart and my tongue!“

THE NEW
COMMENTN
uit formulates me as Hadit, especially in the three centres of consciousness of herBeing. In this way, for this purpose, I became the complement of Her. These centres are those of Love, Life and language. Duality is the condition of all three.It will appear later how it is that None and Tw
o are identical; they are distinct in ourm
inds only because those minds are conscious, and therefore think of “two” as theirown state. But the unconscious mind thinks Nothing, and is Nothing. Ye
t it is the samem
ind.Nuith selects three centres of Her Body to become “Tw
o” with Hadit; for she asks me tod
eclare Her in these three. Infinite freedom, all-embracing, for physical Love;boundless continuity for Life; and the silent rhythm of the Stars for Language. T
hesethree conceptions are Her gift to us. [M7]

B
ut to be ‘Saviour’ he must be born and grow to manhood; thus Parsifal acquires theSacred Lance, emblem of virility.
He usually wears the ‘Coat of many colours’ likeJ
oseph the ‘dreamer’; so he is also now the Green Man of spring festivals. But his ‘folly’is now not innocence but inspiration of wine; he drinks from the Graal, off
ered to himb

B
ut the “Small Person” of Hindu mysticism, the Dwarf insane yet crafty of manyl
egends in many lands, is also this same “Holy Ghost”, or Silent Self of a man, or hisHoly Guardian A
ngel.H
e is almost the “Unconscious” of Freud, unknown, unaccountable, the silent Spirit,b
lowing “whither it listeth, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth”.[(John
3:8)] It commands with absolute authority when it appears at all, despitec

Aiwass is then, as this verse 7 states, the “minister” of this Hoor-paar-
Kraat, that is ofthe Saviour of the World in the larger sense, and of mine own “Silent Self” in the lesser.

This is the Task of the A
dept, to have the Knowledge and Conversation of His HolyGuardian Angel, to become aware of his nature and his purpose, fulfilling them. [Q4]
[M8]

AL I.8: “The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs{.}” [EGI08]

THE NEW
COMMENTWe
are not to regard ourselves as base beings, without whose sphere is Light or “God”.Our minds and bodies are veils of the Light within. T
he uninitiate is a “Dark Star”, andthe Great Work for him is to make his veils transparent by ‘purifying’ them. T
his’purification’ is really ‘simplification’; it is not that the veil is dirty,
but that thecomplexity of its folds makes it opaque. The Great Wo
rk therefore consists principallyi
n the solution of complexes. Everything in itself is perfect, but when things aremuddled, they become ‘evil’. (This will be understood better in the Light of T
he Hermitof Esopus Island,
[17]
q.v.) T
he Doctrine is evidently of supreme importance, from itsposition as the first ‘revelation’ of A

This ‘star’ or ‘Inmost Light’ is the original, individual, eternal essence. The Khu
is them
agical garment which it weaves for itself, a ‘form’ for its Being Beyond Form, by useof which it can gain experience through self-consciousness, as explained in the n
ote toverses 2 and 3. This Khu is the first veil, far subtler than mind or body,
and truer; for itssymbolic shape depends on the nature of its Star.

Why are we told that the Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs?
Did we thensuppose the converse? I think that we are warned against the idea of a Pleroma,
a flameof which we are Sparks, and to which we return when we ‘attain’. T
hat would indeed bet
o make the whole curse of separate existence ridiculous, a senseless and inexcusablefolly. It would throw us back on the dilemma of Manichaeism. T
he idea of incarnations”perfecting” a thing originally perfect by definition is imbecile. T
he only sane solutionis as given previously,
to suppose that the Perfect enjoys experience of (apparent)I
mperfection. (There are deeper resolutions of this problem appropriate to the highestgrades of initiation; but the above should suffice the average intelligence.) [M9]

AL I.11: “These are fools that men adore; both their Gods and their men are
f

,
as it seems. I prefer to suggest that these”
fools” are “Silent selves”, impotent babes unborn; then verse 12 continues “Comeforth!”, that is, bring your Holy Guardian A
ngel from the womb of yoursubconsciousness. Then, “take your fill of love”; that is, do your True Wi
ll, whose modeof fulfilment is love, as explained later in this chapter.
[M10]

The whole doctrine of ‘love’ is discussed in the Book Aleph (Wisdom or Folly)

AL I.15: “Now ye shall know that the chosen priest and
apostle of infinite space isthe prince-priest the Beast{;} and in // his woman called the Scarlet Wo
man is allpower given. They shall gather my children into their fold: Th
ey shall bring theg lory of the stars into the hearts of men.” [20] [EGI15]

THE NEW
COMMENTThe definition of “infinite space” offered in the Comment on verse 13
is useful here.My Wo
rk is in great part to insist upon the infinite possibilities of human development.M
an has too slavishly acquiesced in his limitations. Science itself has shewn itselfa
lmost as intolerant as Religion toward certain lines of research. Indeed, every elementof society has added its energ
y to the opposition which bars each pioneer withundiscriminating stupidity. Darwin, Pasteur, Lister,
and Jenner met with the samef
erocious cowardice as Shelly and Luther; they were assailed on every ground fromR
eligion and Morality upwards; every falsehood that malice could invent was circulateda
bout them. In short, they were treated then as I am being treated now; and I amresolute to prosecute my Wo
rk

That which is beneath is like that which is above. The Beast and the Scarlet Wo
man areavatars of Tao and Teh, Shiva and Sakti. T
his Law is then an exact image of the GreatL

It is necessary to say here that T
he Beast appears to be a definite individual; to wit, theman Aleister Crowley. But the Scarlet Woman is an off
icer replaceable as need arises.Thus to this present date of writing, A
nno XVI, Sun in Sagittarius, there have beens

The Beast, besides 666 correspondences, is by English sound, the Magus (Beth,
Mercury, etc.) of this ST. S has in the Ta
rot the card numbered XX, which representsthe Stele of Revealing, and is called the Judgment; i.e., the ending of an Aeon. T
hast
he card numbered XI and is called Strength. It is the card of Leo and representsB

AL I.16: “For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secre
tflame, and to her
the st

THE NEW COMMEN

T
he sun and moon, in their occult sense, are secondary representatives of this originalduality which is a phase of the Qabalistic Zero. Other correspondences are [Yang] [H5]
and Yin, Yod and He,
etc. But most such dualities have been conceived in very gross andu
nphilosophical forms. Of course, it is impossible to grasp this subject properly byr
eason; only the understanding developed by meditation and spiritual experience avails.Initiation is pantomorphously progressive. [Q9] [M14]

AL I.22: “Now{,} therefore
{,} I am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by asecre
t name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me{.} Since I amInfinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof,
do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Letthere be no difference made among you between any one thing and
any // otherthing; for thereby there

THE NEW
COMMENTWe have here a further conception of the cosmographical scheme. Nuit is A
ll that whiche
xists, and the condition of that existence. Hadit is the Principle which causesmodifications in this Being. This explains how one may call Nuit Matter,
and HaditM
otion, in the highest physico-philosophical sense of those terms.We are asked to acquiesce in this Law of Nature. T
hat is, we are not to opposeresistance to the perfect fluidity of the “Becoming” of Nature. Similarly,
we are not toattach more importance to any one momentary appearance than to any other.
For, the moment we do so, we confirm illusion of Duality. We
assert Imperfection asa
bsolute in

This question of making “no difference” as ordained is to regard the whole of the non-Ego or universe apparently external to the Self as a single phenomenon; Samadhi
onany one thing becomes therefore Samadhi on The Whole. T
he mystic who “availeth inthis” can then perform his Great Wo
rk of “love under will” in a single operation insteado
f being obliged to unite himself with the non-Ego piecemeal. But see also theComment on verse 4,
above.Notice the word “hurt”, from he French heurter,
meaning to knock against an obstacle.There is thus a strictly technical accuracy in the choice of the term. [C16]

T
HE OLD COMMENT23. The chief, then, is he who has destroyed this sense of duality.

THE NEW
COMMENTThis chief is of course no more or less than others. T
he limitations of our dualisticlanguage obscure the meaning of these loftier Wo
rds. Chieftainship is to be understoodas one of the illusions; but, in respect of that plane, a fact. The

p
erfectly true in so far as their mutual relation is concerned; their invalidity refers onlyto their total relation with the philosophical canon of Tr

T
he word “all” is not to be taken as elliptical for “all men”; it means that such an one iscompletely master of his universe. For when one has become indiff
erent to phenomena,and accepts any one of them as necessary,
indeed as an essential part of the whole, hehas made himself Lord of the W
hole as such. In fact, it is obvious on quite rationalg
rounds that this must be the case. My discrimination between artichokes and arsenicp

AL
I.24: “I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty{.}”T
HE OLD COMMENT2

AL I.25: “Divide, add, multiply,
and understand.”T
HE OLD COMMENT25. [Q11]
I
am inclined to believe that there is a further mystery concealed in this verse, possiblyt
hose of 418 and 666 again.THE NEW
COMMENTI am becoming gradually more inclined to look for Greek Qabalah
as a Key to thisBook. [H9] [Q12]

AL I.29: “For I am divided for love’s sake, for th

THE NEW
COMMENT[C19]
I
n order to have Motion one must have Change. In fact, one must have this in order to have anythingat all. Now this Change is what we call Love. thus “love under will” is the Law of Motion. The re-entrant character of this Motion is difficult to conceive; but the Aspirant is urg
ed to try to assimilatethe idea. A
Hindu might compare the Cosmic process to a churn which out of milk made butter tofeed a milk-producing woman, every step in the cycle being a Progress of Joy.
Ti
me is necessarily created by us in order to make room for the apparent existence of the dualitywhich we devise for the presentation of unity, or nihility.
”Tw
o things” must evidently exist either in two places, or at two times, or both; else they would bei
ndistinguishable.Two phenomena which diff
er in time would be considered simultaneous if separated in space so thato
ur observation of the former were delayed, for several reasons; and it is fairly easy to realize thepossibility.
But it seems as if separation in space were somehow more intractable. I can see no priorir
eason for this distinction; I think it arises from the fact that space is directly presented to our senses,w

Our universe is (after all) in one place, so far as we are concerned, i.e., in our sensoria,
so that anyt
wo impressions can only be registered by us as consecutive. Even when we are aware of theirsimultaneity, we are compelled to place them in sequence. Our sensorium
makes no distinctionb
etween concrete and abstract ideas in this respect. Sensory impressions and general ideas aree
qually grist for the mill. But we make a distinction between our record of events whose sequence isa necessary part of our comprehension of them, and those which are independent of our history. We
i
nsist on the sequence of school and college, but our general judgments are recognized asindependent of time. T
his is peculiarly the case with our idea of the Ego, which we instinctivelyregard as if it were eternal and unchanging, though in fact it grows and decays continually. Ye
t wethink of the incidents of boyhood as having occurred to the Ego, forming part of its character.

N
ow since this Ego is only conscious by virtue of having formulated itself, or the Universe (as ithappens to view the case), in the form of Duality,
and since all the experiences of the Ego arenecessary to it, as all phenomena soever are necessary,
it is permissible to regard the totality of thee
xperience of the Ego as the presentation in duality of a single simultaneous fact.I

T
he man who fails to recognize it as such is hopelessly bewildered by the irrational character of theuniverse, which he takes to be real; and he cannot but regard it as aimless and absurd. T
hea
dventures of his body and mind, with their desires for material and moral well-being, are obviouslya
s foredoomed to disaster as Don Quixote’s. He must be a fool if he struggles on (against inexorablef
ate) to obtain results which he knows can only end in catastrophe, a climax the more bitter as hec

B
ut once he acquiesces in the necessity of the course of events, and considers his body and mind asn
o more than the instruments which interpret himself to himself by means of dualistic presentation,he should soon acquire a complete indiff

I
t is not surprising that these incidents should occur in an apparent disorderly sequence any morethan that the colours of a picture, or the words of a story,
should not be disturbed according to an ap
riori classification, as in a Lexicon or a colourman’s catalogue. His task as a connoisseur is tore

m
ust analyze the assemblage of elements, and assign the correct value to each, comprehending thei

I
t will be said that nobody can realize himself so long as the presentation is imperfect, that is, solong as he is incarnated. T
his is no doubt true in all rigour; but one can obtain an approximation tot
he intended self-knowledge by withdrawing for a time to the monistic form of self-consciousness,which does not distinguish between the Ego and the Non-Ego; in other words, by attaining Samadhi.
But the first experience of Samadhi
will then naturally be an ecstasy devoid of name or form, andc
ontaining no elements distinguishable as such; and we know this to be the case. One has simplyd
eprived oneself of the means of expression, and all dual consciousness disappears, together with itsf
orms, time and space. One concludes from this that the Universe is identical with the Ego, and allt
hings dissolve into a formless essence characterized by knowledge and bliss. But this early stage ofSamadhi
is an illusion, a sort of drunken dizziness. (So in sexual love, the ecstasy abolishes the Ego,apparently; it forg
ets that duality was its cause, and must be equally real with itself, in one sense oranother). But subsequent Samadhi
teaches the adept that his universal instantaneous Unity exists as”None and Two”; and he learns that his Samadhi
is p

He becomes able to experience the truth of the statements in the Book of the Law,
the nature ofNuith and Hadith, and of himself as a Star,
unique, individual, and eternal, but yet a part of the Bodyo
f Nuith, and therefore identical with all other stars in that respect.H
e realizes himself as the “bed in working” of Nuith and Hadit, as a particular form assumed by thelatter for the sake of Variety in his “play” with the former; and he partakes in this play by his self-r
ealization, which he synthesizes from the “events of his life”.H
e understands that these events are the resultant of the Universe as applied to him, so that hise
xperience is equally unique and universal, each star being the centre of the cosmos, and theCosmos applicable as a whole to each star.

T
he experiences of each angle of a triangle are common to all, for one can express any relation as af
unction of any angle, at will. Each may be taken as the starting-point of the study of the propertiest
o the triangle. But each angle is necessary to the triangle, and each is equally important to itse
xistence. Each is bound to the others, and moreover each is in a sense illusory in respect of thet
riangle, which is an idea, simple and ideal, whose unity is compelled to express itself and manifestits properties by extension as a plane figure. For no triangle can express the idea of a triangle. A
nyt
riangle must be either equilateral, isosceles or scalene, either acute, right-angled, or obtuse; and noone triangle can be all these at once; while the idea of a triangle includes all these, and infinite other,
p
ossibilities.In a similar way,
Nuith and Hadith include all possible forms of existence; they can only realizeThemselves by creating an infinite variety of forms of Themselves, each one real as it is T
heirimage, illusory as it is a partial and divided aspect of T
he

Each such Star is intelligible to T
hem, as a poem is to its author as a part of this soul mirrored by hism
ind. But it is not intelligible to itself, because it has no relation with any other ideas; it only knowsi
tself as the babe of its mother Nuith, to whom it yearns, being stirred by its father Hadith to expresst
hat

To know itself, each such Star, or Soul, must eat of the Fruit of the Tr
ee of Knowledge of Good andEvil, by accepting labour and pain as its portion, and death as its doom. T
hat is, it must reveal itsnature to itself by formulating that nature as duality.
It must express itself by a series of symbolicg
estures ostensibly external to it, just as a painter reveals one facet of his Delight-Diamond byc
overing a canvas with colours in such a way that the picture seems at first sight to representsomething outside himself. It must, in fact, repeat for itself the original Magick
of Nuith and Hadithw

As They made T
hemselves visible piecemeal by fashioning particular Souls, expressing theImpersonal and Absolute Homogeneity by means of Personal Relative Heterogeneity,
so, notforg
etting their true nature as forms of the Infinite, whereby they are one with all, must the starsd
evise methods of studying themselves.T
hey must make images of themselves, apparently external, and they must represent their highlyc
omplex qualities in a duality involving space and time. For each Star is of necessity related toevery other star,
so that no influence is alien to its individuality; it must therefore observer itsreaction to every other star.
J
ust so are most chemical elements possessed of but few qualities directly appreciable by our senses;w
e must learn their natures by putting them into relation with the other Elements in turn. (Note wellt
hat this knowledge were impossible unless there were a variety of elements; so also the fact of ours
elf-consciousness proves the existence of individual souls; all related, all parts of the One Soul, ino
ne sense, but none the less independent in themselves, eternal entities expressing particulare

E
ach star is in itself immune and innocent; its proper consciousness is monistic; it must thereforee
mploy a body and mind as the instruments for interpreting its relations with other souls, andc
omparing its nature with theirs. For the mind perceives the contrast of the Self and the not-Self, andp
resents its experiences, classified and judged, to the soul as documents for the dossier; and theb
ody reports to the mind the impressions received from its contact with alien forms as the sensesr

I
t must naturally require many incarnations for the soul to begin to know itself with any degree ofp
erfection; and one may recognize advanced souls by their minds, which understand the a nature oftheir work, are indiff
erent to the body’s preference for any special forms of experience, and seekeagerly after novel adventures (like a philatelist after rare stamps) to complete the collection. T
heya
re also as a rule both very careful and very careless about their bodily welfare, taking pains topreserve their powers for the purpose of gaining new experiences, but utterly indiff
erent to them asvaluable in themselves. T
hey rule them with a rod of iron, and train them like pugilists; but they riskthem recklessly whenever the Wo

I
t is important to understand the necessity of our present Universe. Perfection could do noto
therwise than create Imperfection. But was there not original Imperfection? No; for Perfection ish
ardly more than that original state, since we cannot conceive the total as susceptible of addition.[Q15] This is another view of the God going through the combinations, on a larg
er scale, and showsn
ot only why He does it, but why He must do it. But is not all this based on the accident that Ipersonally am bored by omniscience on any given matter? Ye
s, but Imperfection is a fact, and a Godw
hom Perfection did not bore would not have created Imperfection. But why not suppose a wickedGod, or a foolish God? T
hings which seem to me wrong, or stupid, are so because I am the solejudge. But these things are not my creations, but those of other Gods. Tr
ue, but those Gods are allp
art of me, so far as I know them. So then, in my own nature are these contrary Gods, which (asabove said) I have created in myself to give variety.
[Q16]

AL I.30: “This is the cre
ation of the world, that the pain of {division} is as nothing, and the joyo

THE NEW
COMMENTT
his verse is written for men who are still in division, and sore about it; the pain is only in their ideaof it. One should compare this thought with the Freudian psychology, which

f
rom the ‘Mother’ as heroic but painful. But has a hero really no compensations? Besides, separationi

As to “the joy of dissolution” the reference is to Samadhi,
the trance in which Subject and Objectbecome one. In this orgiastic ecstasy is experienced at first; later,
the character of the consciousnessc
hanges to continuously calm delight, and later still, the delight deepens in a manner whollyindescribable. T
he technical terms used by Oriental Initiates to denote these conditions areu
ntranslatable; in any case, they serve rather to darken counsel.T
here is a qabalistic aphorism concerning the words ‘nothing’ and ‘all’; for this and similar matterssee the Appendix.

AL I.31: “For these fools of men and their woes care not thou at all! T
hey feel little; what is, isbalanced by weak joys; but ye are

All this talk about ‘suff
ering humanity’ is principally drivel based on the error of transferring one’sown psychology to one’s neighbour. The Golden Rule is silly. If Lord A
lfred Douglas (for example)d
id to others what he would like them to do to him, many would resent his action.The development of the Adept is by Expansion — out to Nuit — in all directions equally. T
he smallman has little experience, little capacity for either pain or pleasure. The bourg
eois is a clod. I knowb
etter (at least) than to suppose that to torture him is either beneficial or amusing to myself.This thesis concerning compassion is of the most palmary importance in the ethics of Thelema.
It isn
ecessary that we stop, once for all, this ignorant meddling with other people’s business. Eachind

AL I.32: “Obey my pro
phet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek meonly! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear
it bythe vault of my body; by my sacre
d heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all Idesire

AL I.33: “Then the priest fell into a deep trance or
swoon, & said unto the Queenof Heaven; Wr
ite unto us the ordeals; write unto us the rituals; write unto us thel

THE NEW
COMMENTLaw,
in the common sense of the word, should be a formulation of the customs of ap
eople, as Euclid’s propositions are the formulation of geometrical facts. But modernknavery conceived the idea of artificial law,
as if one should try to square the circle bytyranny.
Legislators try to force the people to change their customs, so that the”

AL
I.34: “But she said: the ordeals I write not: the rituals shall be half known andhalf concealed: the Law is for

THE NEW
COMMENTThe Ordeals are at present carried out unknown to the Candidate by the secret M
agickPower of The Beast. T
hose who are accepted by Him for initiation testify that theseOrdeals are frequently independent of His conscious care. T
hey are not, like thet
raditional ordeals, formal, or identical for all; the Candidate finds himself incircumstances which aff
ord a real test of conduct, and compel him to discover his ownn
ature, to become aware of himself by bringing his secret motives to the surface.S
ome of the Rituals have been made accessible, that is, the Magical Formulae havebeen published. See The Rites of Eleusis, Energized Enthusiasm , Book 4, Part III,
etc. [

AL I.36: “My scribe A
nkh-af-na-khonsu, the priest of the princes, shall not in oneletter change this book; but lest there be folly, he shall comment there
upon by thewisdom of Ra-Hoor-
K

s
cribe. It is of immense importance to the stability of the Law to have a Book notm
erely verbally but literally inspired, so that even errors in spelling and grammar havea
s

B
ut that is merely ground-work: he must then conceive his own expression, and executeit in his own style. Each star is unique, and each orbit apart; indeed, that is the corner-s
tone of my teaching, to have no standard goals or standard ways, no orthodoxies andno co

Remember,
also, that, unless you know what your true will is, you may be devoting themost laudable energ
ies to destroying yourself. Remember that every word and deed is awitness to thought, that therefore your mind must be perfectly org
anized, its sole duty tointerpret circumstances in terms of the Wi
ll so that speech and action may be rightlydirected to express the Wi
ll appropriately to the occasion. Remember that every wordand deed which is not a definite expression of your Will counts against it, indiff
erenceworse than hostility. Yo
ur enemy is at least interested in you: you may make him yourfriend as you never can do with a neutral. Remember that Magick is the A
rt of Life,therefore of causing change in accordance with Wi
ll; therefore its law is “love underw

Explore the course of that Wi
ll till you reach its source, your Silent Self.5. Unite the conscious will with the true Wi
ll, and the conscious Ego withthe Silent Self. Yo
u must be utterly ruthless in discarding any atom ofc
onsciousness which is hostile or neutral.6
. Let this work freely from within, but heed not your environment, lestyou make difference between one thing and another. W
hatever it be, it is tob

t
hings very simply and obviously: the change from the Osiris formula to that of Horusis intelligible enough. (See Comment on verse 49)

AL I.40: “Who calls us Thelemites will do no wro
ng, if he look but close into theword. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover,
and the manof Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Thus we have in the Order, the Mystic, the Magician, and the Devotee. T
hesecorrespond closely to the Nuit — Hadit — Ra-Hoor-Khuit Tr

AL I.41: “The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! re
fuse not thy wife, if she will! Olover, if thou wilt, depart! There
is no bond that can unite the divided but love: allelse is a curse. Accursed! A

❗️

T
HE OLD COMMENT4
1, 42. Interference with the will of another is the great sin, for it predicates theexistence of another.
In this duality sorrow consists. I think that possibly the higherm

THE NEW COMMEN

The first paragraph is a general statement or definition of Sin or Error. A
nything soeverthat binds the will, hinders it, or diverts it, is Sin. T
hat is, Sin is the appearance of theDyad. Sin is impurity. [

Note: or it’s saying that the concept of sin is restrictive

The remainder of the paragraph takes a particular case as an example. T
here shall be noproperty in human flesh. T
he sex-instinct is one of the most deeply-seated expressionso
f the will; and it must not be restricted, either negatively by preventing its freef
unction, or positively by insisting on its false function.W
hat is more brutal than to stunt natural growth or to deform it?W
hat is more absurd than to seek to interpret this holy instinct as a gross animal act, tos
eparate it from the spiritual enthusiasm without which it is so stupid as not even to bes

The sexual act is a sacrament of Will. To profane it is the great offence. A
ll trueexpression of it is lawful; all suppression or distortion is contrary to the Law of Liberty.
To
use legal or financial constraint to compel either abstention or submission, is entirelyh
orrible, unnatural and absurd. Physical constraint, up to a certain point, is not sos
eriously wrong; for it has its roots in the original sex-conflict which we see in animals,and has often the eff
ect of exciting Love in his highest and noblest shape. Some of themost passionate and permanent attachments have begun with rape. [H14]
Rome wasactually founded thereon. Similarly,
murder of a faithless partner is ethically excusable,in a certain sense; for there may be some stars whose Nature is extreme violence. T
hec
ollision of galaxies is a magnificent spectacle, after all. But there is nothing inspiringin a visit to one’s lawyer.
Of course this is merely my personal view; a star whohappened to be a lawyer might see things otherwise! Yet Nature’s unspeakable variety,
though it admits cruelty and selfishness, off
ers us no example of the puritan and theprig! [

L
aws against adultery are based upon the idea that woman is a chattel, so that to makel
ove to a married woman is to deprive the husband of her services. It is the frankest andmost crass statement of a slave-situation. To us, every woman is a star.
She hastherefore an absolute right to travel in her own orbit. T
here is no reason why she shouldn
ot be the ideal hausfrau, if that chance to be her will. But society has no right to insistu
pon that standard. It was, for practical reasons, almost necessary to set up such taboosi
n small communities, savage tribes, where the wife was nothing but a general servant,w
here the safety of the people depended upon a high birth-rate. But to-day woman iseconomically independent, becomes more so every year. T
he result is that she instantlya
sserts her right to have as many or as few men or babies as she wants or can get; andshe defies the world to interfere with her.

S
ex is the main expression of the Nature of a person; great Natures are sexually strong;a

AL
I.42: “Let it be that state of manyhood bound and loathing. So with thy all;t

❗️

”Manyhood bound and loathing.” An org
anized state is a free association for thecommon weal. My personal will to cross the Atlantic, for example, is made eff
ective byc
o-operation with others on agreed terms. But the forced association of slaves is anothert

A man who is not doing his will is like a man with cancer,
an independent growth inhim, yet one from which he cannot get free. T
he idea of self-sacrifice is a moral canceri

Note: there’s two kinds of self sacrifice. One is out of love and compassion, the other is out of guilt

Similarly, one may say that not to do one’s will is evidence of mental or moral insanity.
When “duty points one way,
and inclination the other”, it is proof that you are not one,but two. You have not centralized your control. T
his dichotomy is the beginning ofconflict, which may result in a Jekyll-Hyde eff
ect. Stevenson suggests that man may bediscovered to be a “mere polity” of many individuals. T
he sages knew it long since. Butt
he name of this polity is Choronzon, mob rule, unless every individual is absolutelyd

It is of course better to expel or destroy an irreconcilable. “If thine eye off
end thee, cutit out.” T
he error in the interpretation of this doctrine has been that it has not been takenas it stands. It has been read: If thine eye off
end some artificial standard of right, cut itout. The curse of society has been Procrustean morality,
the ethics of the herd-men. Onewould have thought that a mere glance at Nature would have suff
iced to disclose Herscheme of Individuality made possible by Order.

AL I.43: “Do that, and no other shall say nay.

❗️

THE NEW
COMMENTT
he general meaning of this verse is that so great is the power of asserting one’s rightthat it will not long be disputed. For by doing so one appeals to the Law.
In practice it isfound that people who are ready to fight for their rights are respected, and let alone. T
hes

AL I.44: “For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of re
sult, ise

T
HE OLD COMMENT4
4. Recommends “non-attachment.” Students will understand how in meditation them
ind which attaches itself to hope of success is just as bound as if it were to attachi
tself to some base material idea. It is a bond and the aim is freedom.I
r

THE NEW
COMMENTT
his verse is best interpreted by defining ‘pure will’ as the true expression of the Nature,the proper or inherent motion of the matter,
concerned. It is unnatural to aim at anygoal. The student is referred to Liber LXV, Cap. II, v. 24, and to the Tao Teh King. [
12]This becomes particularly important in high grades. One is not to do Yo
ga, etc., in orderto get Samadhi, li

”Unassuaged” means “its edge taken off by” or “dulled by”. T
he pure student does nott

AL I.48: “My prophet is a fool with his one, one, one; are
not they the Ox, andn

AL I.49: “Abrogate {are} all rituals, all ordeals, all words and signs. Ra-Hoor-Khuit hath taken his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods; and let Asar
bewith Isa, who also are one. But they are not of me. Let Asar
be the adorant, Isa thesufferer; Hoor in his secret name and splendour

T
HE OLD COMMENT49. Declares a New System of Magic, and initiation. Asar-
Isa is now the Candidate, notthe Hierophant. Hoor — see Cap. III — is the Initiator.

THE NEW
COMMENTThis verse declares that the old formula of Magick — the Osiris-Adonis-Jesus-Marsyas-Dionysus-Attis-etcetera formula of the Dying God — is no longer eff
icacious. It restedon the ignorant belief that the Sun died every day, and every year,
and that itsr

The Formula of the New A
eon recognizes Horus, the Child crowned and conquering, asGod. We
are all members of the Body of God, the Sun; and about our System is theOcean of Space. T
his formula is then to be based upon these facts. Our “Evil”, “Error”,“
Darkness”, “Illusion”, whatever one chooses to call it, is simply a phenomenon ofa
ccidental and temporary separateness. If you are “walking in darkness”, do not try tom
ake the sun rise by self-sacrifice, but wait in confidence for the dawn, and enjoy thep
leasure

The general illusion is to the Equinox Ritual of the G.’. D.’. where the off
icer of thep
revious six months, representing Horus, took the place of the retiring Hierophant, whoh
ad represented Osiris.I
sa is the Legendary “Jesus”, for which Canidian concoction the prescription is to befound in my book bearing that title, Liber DCCCLXXXVIII.

AL I.51: “There are four gates to one palace; the floor
of that palace is of silverand gold; lapis lazuli & jasper are there; and all rare scents; jasmine & ro
se, andthe emblems of death. Let him enter in turn or at once the four
gates; let him standon the floor of the palace. Will he not sink? Amn. Ho! warrior,
if thy servant sink?But there are means and means. Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine appare
l;eat rich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam! {Also}, take your
filland will of love as ye {will}, when, where
and with whom ye will! But always untom

T
he answer is that “there aremeans and means”, implying that no one rule is essential. T
his is in harmony with ourg

This word ‘therefore’ is easy to understand. We
are to enjoy life thoroughly in anabsolutely normal way, exactly as all the free and great have always done. T
he onlyp
oint to remember is that one is a ‘Member of the Body of God’, a Star in the Body ofNuith. This being sure, we are urg
ed to the fullest expansion of our several Natures,w
ith special attention to those pleasures which not only express the soul, but aid it tor

The act of Love is to the bourg
eois (as the ‘Christian’ is called now-a-days) a grossanimal gesture which shames his boasted humanity. T
he appetite drags him at its hoofs;i
t tires him, disgusts him, diseases him, makes him ridiculous even in his own eyes. It ist
he sou

We of Thelema are not the slaves of Love. “Love under will” is the Law. We
refuse toregard love as shameful and degrading, as a peril to body and soul. We
refuse to accepti
t as the surrender of the divine to the animal; to us it is the means by which the animalmay be made the Wi
n

We
are then particularly careful to deny that the object of love is the gross physiologicalobj

p
hysical Rite, by which we create ourselves anew in our own image, weave in a newflesh-tapestry the Romance of our own Soul’s History.
But also Love is a sacrament oftrans-substantiation whereby we initiate our own souls; it is the Wi
ne of Intoxication aswell as the Bread of Nourishment. “Nor is he for priest designed W
ho partakes only ino

We
therefore heartily cherish those forms of Love in which no question of generationarises; we use the stimulating eff
ects of physical enthusiasm to inspire us morally andspiritually.
Experience teaches that passions thus employed do serve to refine and toe
xalt the whole being of man or woman. Nuith indicates the sole condition: “But alwaysu

❗️

The epicure is not a Monster of gluttony,
nor the amateur of Beethoven a ‘degenerate’f
rom the ‘normal’ man whose only music is the tom-tom. So also the poisons whichshook the bourg
eois are not indulgences, but purifications; the brute whose furtive lustd
emands that he be drunk and in darkness that he may surrender to his shame, and thathe lie about it with idiot mumblings ever after,
is hardly the best judge even of Phryne.H
ow much less should he venture to criticize such men and women whose imaginationsa
re so free from grossness that the element of attraction which serves to electrify theirmagnetic coil is independent of physical form? To
us the essence of Love is that it is as
acrament unto Nuith, a gate of grace and a road of righteousness to Her High Palace,t

”
As ye will.” It should be abundantly clear from the foregoing remarks that eachi
ndividual has an absolute and indefeasible right to use his sexual vehicle in accordancewith its own proper character,
and that he is responsible only to himself. But he shouldn
ot injure himself and his right aforesaid; acts invasive of another individual’s equalrights are implicitly self-aggressions. A
thief can hardly complain on theoreticalg
rounds if he is himself robbed. Such acts as rape, and the assault or seduction ofinfants, may therefore be justly regarded as offences against the Law of Liberty,
andrepressed in the interests of that Law.

I
t is also excluded from “as ye will” to compromise the liberty of another personindirectly,
as by taking advantage of the ignorance or good faith of another person toexpose that person to the constraint of sickness, poverty,
social detriment, orc
hild

O
ne must moreover avoid doing another injury by deforming his nature; for instance, toflog children at or near puberty may distort the sensitive nascent sexual character,
andimpress it with the stamp of masochism. A
gain, homosexual practices between boysmay in certain cases actually rob them of their virility, psychical

Trying to frighten adolescents about sex by the bogeys of Hell, Disease, and Insanity,
may warp the moral nature permanently,
and produce hypochondria or other mentalm

R
epression of the natural satisfaction may result in addition to secret and dangerousv
ices which destroy their victim because they are artificial and unnatural aberrations.S
uch moral cripples resemble those manufactured by beggars by compressing one parto

Every one should discover,
by experience of every kind, the extent and intention of hiso
wn sexual Universe. He must be taught that all roads are equally royal, and that theonly question for him is “Which road is mine?” A
ll details are equally likely to be of thee
ssence of his personal plan, all equally ‘right’ in themselves, his own choice of the oneas correct as, and independent of, his neighbour’s preference for the other.

H
e must not be ashamed or afraid of being homosexual if he happens to be so at heart;h
e must not attempt to violate his own true nature because public opinion, or mediaevalmorality, or religious prejudice would wish he were otherwise. T
he oyster stays shut inh
is shell for all Darwin may say about his “low stage of evolution”, or Puritans abouthis priapistic character,

T
he Beast is there also, aloof, attentive. He will not weigh the evidence in the balanceso
f any particular kind of advantage. He will not admit any standard as adequate toassess the absolute. To
him, the pettiest personal whimsy outweighs all wisdom, allphilosophy, all private profit and all public prudence. T
he sexual obol of the meanest isstam

than the gold talent of his neighbour. T
he derelict moon has the same right to driftr
ound Earth as Regulus to blaze in the heart of the Lion.C
ollision is the only crime in the cosmos.The Beast refuses therefore to assent to any arg
ument as to the propriety of any fashionof formulating the soul in symbols of sex. A
canon is no less deadly in love than in artor literature; its acceptance stifles style, and its enforcement extinguishes sincerity.

It is better for a person of heterosexual nature to suff
er every possible calamity as thei
ndirect environment-evoked result of his doing his true will in that respect than toenjoy health, wealth and happiness by means either of suppressing sex altogether,
ofd
ebauching it to the service of Sodom or Gommorrah.E
qually it is better for the androgyne, the urning, or their feminine counterparts toe
ndure blackmailers private and public, the terrors of police persecution, the disgust,contempt and loathing of the vulgar,
and the self-torture of suspecting the peculiarity tob
e a symptom of a degenerate nature, than to wrong the soul by damning it to the hell ofa
bstinence, or by defiling it with the abhorred embraces of antipathetic arms.Every star must calculate its own orbit. All is Will, and yet all is Necessity. To
swerve isultimately impossible; to seek to swerve is to suffer.

T
he Beast 666 ordains by His authority that every man, and every woman, and everyi
ntermediately-sexed individual, shall be absolutely free to interpret and communicateSelf by means of any sexual practices soever,
whether direct or indirect, rational orsymbolic, physiologically, legally, ethically,
or religiously approved or no, providedo
nly that all parties to any act are fully aware of all implications and responsibilitiest

”when, where, and with whom ye will!” T
he phrase “with whom” has been practicallyc
overed by the comment on “as ye will”. One need no more than distinguish that theearlier phrase permits all manner of acts, the latter all possible partners. T
here wouldhave been no Furies for Oedipus, no disaster for Othello, Romeo, Pericles of Ty
re, Laona
nd Cythna, if it 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 Wi
lde, Sir Charles Dilke, Parnell,Canon A
itken and countless others, many of them engaged in first-rate work for theworld, all wasted because the mob must make believe to be “moral”. T
his phrasea
bolishes the Eleventh Commandment, Not to be Found Out, by authorizing Incest,Adultery, and Paederasty,
which every one now practices with humiliating precautions,w
hich perpetuate the schoolboy’s enjoyment of an escapade, and make shame, slyness,c

T
he South-Sea Islanders, pagan, amoral and naked, are temperate lovers, free fromh
ysterical “crimes of passion”, sex obsessions, and puritan persecution-mania;p
erversion is practically unknown, and monogamy is the general custom.E
ven the civilized psychopaths of cities, forced into every kind of excess by theo
mnipresence of erotic suggestions and the contact of crazed crowds seething withsuppressed sexuality, are not wholly past physic. T
hey are no sooner released from thep
ersistent pressure by escaping to some place where the inhabitants treat thereproductive and the respiratory org
ans as equally innocent than they begin insensiblyto forget their ‘fixed idea’ forced on them by the fog-horn of Morality,
so that theirp
erversions perish, just as a coiled spring straightens itself when the externalcompulsion is removed. T
hey revert to their natural sex-characters, which only in rarec
ases are other than simple, pure, and refined. More, sex itself ceases to play PrincipalB

A
bove all, the world will begin to appreciate the true nature of the sexual process, itsphysical insignificance as one among many parts of the body,
its transcendentimportance as the vehicle of the True Wi

Hitherto our sexual tabus have kept far ahead of Gilbert and Sullivan. We
have madelove the lackey to property, as who should pay his rent by sneezing. We
have swaddledit in politeness, as who should warn God off
the grass.We have muddled it up with morality,
as who should frown at the Himalayas on the onehand, and, on the other,
regulate his behaviour by that of an ant-heap.The Law of Thelema

(
It appears pertinent to add that the above ethical theories have stood the test ofp
ractice. Experiment shows that complete removal — in the most radical manner — ofa
ll the usual restrictions on conduct results, after a brief period of uneasiness of variousk
inds, in the subject dropping entirely into the background; the parties concernedb
ecame natural, and led what would conventionally be called ‘strictly moral’ livesw

E
ven vulgar people fear to appear physically repulsive to the person whom they love. Its
eems as if the fact of Marriage destroys every natural characteristic, and has a set ofr
ules of its own diametrically opposed in spirit and letter to those which govern Love. Ic
onfidently appeal to impartial observers to say whether the ideals of the Book are notcleaner,
more wholesome, more human, and more truly moral than those of Marriage asi

AL I.52: “If this be not aright; if ye confound the space-marks, saying: They are
one; or saying, They are many; if the ritual be not ever
unto me: then expect thedireful judgments of Ra Hoor

THE NEW
COMME

It is not true to say either that we are separate Stars, or One Star.
Each Star is individual,yet each is bound to the others by Law. T
his Freedom under Law is one of the mostdiff
icult yet important doctrines of this Book. So too the ritual — our lives — must beu
nto Nuith; for She is the Ultimate to which we tend, the asymptote of our curve.Failure in this one-pointedness sets up the illusion of duality,
which leads to excisiona

T
he nature of man is individual. No two faces are identical, still less are twoi
ndividuals. Unspeakable is the variety of form and immeasurable the diversity ofbeauty, but in all is the seal of unity,
inasmuch as all cometh from the womb of Nuit —to it returneth all. The apprehension of this sublimity is the mark of divinity.
Knowingthis, all is liberty; ignorant of this, all is bondage. A
s no two individuals are identical, soa
lso, there can be no identity between the quintessential expressions of the will of anyt
wo persons; and the expression of each person, in the first instance, as his purelyp

O
ne cannot say that any significance of that gesture is forbidden, for “There is no lawb
eyond Do what thou wilt.” But this may and shall be said, that a significance withindicates ignorance or forg
etfulness of the central truth of the Universe, is ana
cquiescence in that opacity caused by the confusion of the veils which conceal the soulfrom the consciousness, and thus create the illusion which the aspirant calls Sorrow,
andt

T
he sexual act, even to the grossest of mankind, is the agent which dissipates the fog ofs
elf

T
he misunderstanding of sex, the ignorant fear like a fog, thei
gnorant lust like a miasma, these things have done more to keep back humanity fromrealization of itself, and from intelligent cooperation with its destiny,
than any otherdozen things put together. T
he vileness and falseness or religion itself have been themonsters aborted from the dark womb of its infernal mystery.

T
here is nothing unclean or degrading in any manifestation soever of the sexuali
nstinct, because, without exception, every act is an impulsively projected image of theWi
ll of the individual who, whether man or woman, is a star; the Pennsylvanian withhis pig no less than the Spirit with Mary; Sappho with Atthis and A
pollo with Hyacinthas perfect as Daphnis with Chloe or as Galahad vowed to the Graal. T
he one thingn
eedful, the all-perfect means of purification, consecration, and sanctification, isi
ndependent of the physical and moral accidents circumstantial of the particularincident, is the realization of love as a sacrament. T
he use of the physical means as aM
agical Operation whose formula is that of uniting two opposites, by dissolving both,a
nnihilating both, to create a third thing which transcends that opposition, the phase ofd
uality which constitutes the consciousness of imperfection, is perceived as the absolutenegative whose apprehension is identical with that duality,
is the accomplishment of theGreat Wo

T
he accidents of any act of love, such as its protagonist and their peculiarities ofe
xpression on whatever plane, are totally immaterial to the magical import of the act.Each person is responsible to himself, being a star, to tra

o
f his own elements, to shine with his own light, with the colour proper to his ownn
ature, to revolve and to rush with his own inherent motion, and to maintain his ownr
elation with his own galaxy in its own place in the Universe. His existence is his soleand sufficient justification for his own matter and manner.

2
. His only possible error is to withdraw himself from this consciousness of himself asb

To
bring down this doctrine to a practical rule for every man or woman by which theymay enjoy,
in perfection, their sexual life and make it what it rightly is, the holiest parto
f the religious life, I say ‘holiest’ because it redeems even physical grossness to partakewith spiritual saintship, the intention of this Book of the Law
is perfectly simple.Whatever your sexual predilections may be, you are free, by the Law of Thelema,
to thet
he star you are, to go your own way rejoicing. It is not indicated here in this text,t
hought it is elsewhere implied, that only one symptom warns that you have mistakenyour true Wi
ll, and this, if you should imagine that in pursuing your way you interferewith that of another star. It may, therefore, be considered improper,
as a general rule, foryour sexual gratification to destroy, deform, or displease any other star.
Mutual consentt

T
he most important condition of the act, humanly speaking, is that the attraction shouldbe spontaneous and irresistible; a leaping up of the will to create with lyrical frenzy.
thisf
irst condition once recognized, it should be surrounded with every circumstance ofworship. Study and experience should furnish a technique of love. A
ll science, all art,every elaboration should emphasize and adorn the expression of the enthusiasm. A
llstrength and all skill should be summoned to fulfil the frenzy,
and life itself should bef
lung with a spendthrift gesture on the counter of the Merchant of Madness. On thes

The Book of the Law emphasizes the importance of these considerations. T
he act oflove must be spontaneous, in absolute freedom. T
he man must be true to himself.Romeo must not be thrust on Rosaline for family,
social, or financial reasons.Desdemona must not be barred from Othello for reasons of race or religion. T
heh
omosexual must not blaspheme his nature and commit spiritual suicide by suppressinglove or attempting to pervert it, as ignorance and fear,
shame and weakness, so ofteninduce him to do. W
hatever the act which expresses the soul, that act and no other isr
igh

T
his whole trouble comes from humanity’s horror of Love. For the last hundred years,e
very first-rate writer on morals has sent forth his lightnings and thunders, hailstonesa
nd coals of fire, to burn up Gommorrah and Sodom where Love is either shameful ands
ecret, or daubed with dung of sentiment in order that the swinish citizens mayrecognize their ideal therein. We
do not tell the artist that his art is so sacred, sod
isgusting, so splendid and so disgraceful that he must not on any account learn the useo
f the tools of his trade, and study in school how to see with his eye, and record what hesees with his hand. We
do not tell the man who would heal disease that he must notk
now his subject, from anatomy to Pathology; or bid him undertake to remove anappendix from a valued A

But we of Thelema,
like the artist, the true lover of Love, shameless and fearless, seeingG
od face to face alike in our own souls within and in all Nature without, though we use,as the bourg
eois does, the word Love, we hold not the word “too often profaned for usto profane it;” it burns inviolate in its sanctuary,
being reborn immaculate with everybreath of life. But by ‘Love’ we mean a thing which the eye of the bourg
eois hath notseen, nor his ear heard; neither hath his heart conceived it. We
have accepted Love ast
he meaning of Change, Change being the Life of all Matter soever in the Universe.And we have accepted Love as the mode of Motion of the Will to Change. To
us everya
ct, as implying Change, is an act of Love. Life is a dance of delight, its rhythm ani
nfinite rapture that never can weary or stale. Our personal pleasure in it is derived noto
nly from our own part in it, but from our conscious apprehension of its totalperfections. We
study its structure, we expand ourselves as we lose ourselves inunderstanding it, and so becoming one with it. Wi
th the Egyptian initiate we exclaim”
There is no part of us that is not of the Gods;” and add the antistrophe: “There is nop

T
herefore, the Love that is Law is no less Love in the petty personal sense; for Lovethat makes two One is the engine whereby even the final Tw
o, Self and Not-Self, mayb
ecome One, in the mystic marriage of the Bride, the Soul, with Him appointed frometernity to espouse her; yea, even the Most High, God All-in-All, the Tr

Therefore we hold Love holy,
our

Also: to us of Thelema,
thus having trained our hearts and minds to be expert engineerso
f the sky-cleaver Love, the ship to soar to the Sun, to us the act of Love is theconsecration of the body to Love. We
burn the body on the altar of Love, that even thebrute may serve the Will of the Soul. We must then study the art of Bodily Love. We
must not balk or bungle. We must be cool and competent as surg
eons; brain, eye andhand the perfectly trained instruments of Wi
l

We
have an art of expression; we are trained to interpret the soul and the spirit in termsof the body. We do not deny the existence of the body,
or despise it; but we refuse toregard it in any other light than this: it is the org
an of the Self. It must nevertheless beo
rdered according to its own laws; those of the mental or moral Self do not apply to it.We love; that is, we will to unite: then the one must study the other,
divine everybutterfly thought as it flits, and offer the flower it most fancies. T
he vocabulary of Loveis small, and its terms are hackneyed; to seek new words and phrases is to be aff
ected,s

AL I.54: “Change not as much as the style of a letter; for behold! thou, o pro
phet,shalt not behold all these mysteries hidden there

THE NEW COMMEN

g
rammar; much of the matter was at the time of writing most antipathetic. But the Bookp
roved itself greater than the scribe; again and again have the ‘mistakes’ provedthemselves to be devices for transmitting a Wi
sdom beyond the scope of ordinaryl

AL I.56: “Expect him not from the East, nor from the West; for fro
m no expectedhouse cometh that child. Aum! All words are sacred and all pro
phets true; saveo
nly that they understand a little; solve the first half of the equation, leave thesecond unattacked. But thou hast all in the clear
light, and some, though not all, int

THE NEW
COMMENTA
ll previous systems have been sectarian, based on a traditional cosmography bothgross and incorrect. Our system is based on absolute science and philosophy. We
have”
all in the clear light”, that of Reason, because our Mysticism is based on an absoluteS
c

”Love is the law, love under will”, is an interpretation of the general law of Wi
ll. It isdealt with fully in the Book Aleph.

THE NEW
COMMENTI
t seems possible that Our Lady describes Her hair as “the trees of Eternity” because ofthe tree-like structure of the Cosmos. This is observed in the ‘Star-Sponge’ Vision.
[

AL I.63: “Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear
tome jewels! Drink to me, for
I

THE NEW
COMME

A
ll those acts which excite the divine in man are proper to the Rite of Invocation.R
eligion, as understood by the vile Puritan, is the very opposite of all this. He — it —s
eems to wish to kill his — its — soul by forbidding every expression of it, and everypractice which might awaken it to expression. To hell with this Verbotenism!
In particular,
let me exhort all men and all women, for they are Stars! Heed well thisholy Ve
rse!True Religion is intoxication, in a sense. We
are told elsewhere to intoxicate thei
nnermost, not the outermost; but I think that the word “wine” should be taken in itsw
idest sense as meaning that which brings out the soul. Climate, soil, and race changeconditions; each man or woman must find and choose the fit intoxicant. T
hus hashish ino
ne or the other of its forms seems to suit the Moslem, to go with dry heat; opium isr
ight for the Mongol; whiskey for the dour temperament and damp cold climate of theS
cot.S
ex-expression, too, depends on climate and so on, so that we must interpret the Law tosuit a Socrates, a Jesus, and a Burton, or a Marie A
ntoinette and a de Lamballe, as wella
s our own Don Juans and Faustines.With this expansion, to the honour and glory of Them, of T
heir Natures, we acclaimtherefore our helpers, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Wine, Wo
man, and song.Intoxication, that is, ecstasy, is the key to Reality. It is explained in E
nergizedE nthusiasm The Equinox I (9)
that there are three Gods whose function is to bring theSoul to the Realization of its own glory: Dionysus, Aphrodite, Apollo; Wine, Wo
man,a

T
he ancients, both in the highest civilizations, as in Greece and Egypt, and in the mostprimitive savagery,
as among the Buriats and the Papuans, were well aware of this, andmade their religious ceremonies ‘orgia’, “Wo
rks”. Puritan foulness, failing to understandwhat was happening, degraded the word ‘org
ies’ to mean debauches. It is the old storyof the Fox who lost his tail. If you cannot do anything, call it impossible; or,
if that bee
vidently absurd, call it wicked!It is critics who deny poetry, people without capacity for Ecstasy and Wi
ll who callMysticism moonshine and Magick
delusion. It is manless old cats, geldings, andpsychopaths, who pretend to detest Love, and persecute Free Wo
men and Free Men.Verbotenism
has gone so far in certain slave-communities that the use of wine isa

I wish here to emphasise that the Law of Thelema
definitely enjoins us, as a necessaryact of religion, to “drink sweet wines and wines that foam”. A
ny free man or womanw
ho resides in any community where this is verboten has a choice between two duties:i

T
he furtive disregard of Restriction is not Freedom. It tends to make men slaves andhypocrites, and to destroy respect for Law. [

THE NEW
COMME

We
see again set forth the complementary character of Nuith and Hadith. Nu concealsHad

reason. See verse 3. Every Individual manifests the Whole; and the W
hole concealsevery Individual. T
he Soul interprets the Universe; and the Universe veils the Soul.N
ature understands Herself by becoming self-conscious in Her units; and theConsciousness loses its sense of separateness by dissolution in Her.

T
HE OLD COMMENT2. Nuit is Infinite Extension; Hadit Infinite Contraction. Khabs
is the House of Hadit,even as Nuit is the house of Khu, and the Khabs is in the Khu (I.8). T
hese theologiesr
eflect mystic experiences of Infinite Contraction and Expansion, while philosophicallythey are the two opposing Infinities whose interplay gives Finity.

THE NEW
COMME

Khabs — ‘a star’ — is an unit of Nuit, and therefore Nuit Herself. T
his doctrine isenormously difficult of apprehension, even after these many years of study.
Hadit is the ‘core of every star,’ verse 6.
He is thus the Impersonal Identity within theI

H
e is ‘not extended;’ that is, without condition of any sort in the metaphysical sense.O
nly in the highest trances can the nature of these truths be realized. It is indeed asuprarational experience not dissimilar to those characteristic of the “Star-
Sponge”Vision previously described that can help us here. T
he trouble is that the truth itself isu
nfitted to the dualistic reason of “normal” mankind. Hadit seems to be the principle ofM
otion which is everywhere, yet is not extended in any dimension except as it chancesto combine with the “Matter” which is Nuit. T
here can evidently be no manifestationapart from this conjunction. A Khabs
or Star is apparently any nucleus where thisconjunction has taken place. [

AL II.3: “In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumfere
nce, isnowhere

T
H

A further development of higher meaning. T
his verse suggests an old mysticaldefinition of God: “He whose centre is everywhere and W
hose circumferencen
owher

THE NEW
COMME

T
his is again interesting as throwing light on the thesis; Every man and every woman isa star. T

This Tr
uth is to be realised by direct perception, not merely by intellection. It isaxiomatic; it cannot be demonstrated. It is to be assimilated by experience of the Vi
sionof the “Star-Sponge”.

AL II.4: “Yet she shall be known & I never.

T
H

The circumference of Nuit touches Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Kether;
but her centre Hadit isforever concealed above Kether.
Is not Nu the Hiding of Hadit, and Had theManifestation of Nuit? (I later, Sun in Libra, An. V
II, dislike this note; and refer thestudent to Liber XI and Liber DLV)

THE NEW
COMME

See later, verse 13, “Thou (i.e. the Beast, who is here the Mask, or “per-
sona,” of Hadit)wast the knower.” Hadit possesses the power to know,
Nuit that of being known. Nuit isnot unconnected with the idea of Nibbana,
the “Shoreless Sea,” in which Knowledge isN
ot.Hadit is hidden in Nuit, and knows Her,
She being an object of knowledge; but He isn
ot knowable, for He is merely that part of Her which She formulates in order that Shem

AL II.5: “Behold! the rituals of the old time are
black. Let the evil ones be castaway; let the good ones be purged by the prophet! T
hen shall this Knowledge goa

THE NEW
COMME

The ‘old time’ is the A
eon of the Dying God. Some of his rituals are founded on anutterly false metaphysic and cosmogony; but others are based on Truth. We
mend these,a
nd end those.This “Knowledge” is the initiated Wisdom of this A
eon of Horus.See Book 4, Part III, for an account of the new principles of Magick.

Note that Knowledge is Daath, Child of Chokmah by Binah,
and crown ofMicroprosopus; yet he is not one of the Sephiroth, and his place is in the A
byss. By thiss
ymbolism we draw attention to the fact that Knowledge is by nature impossible; for itimplies Duality and is therefore relative. A
ny proposition of Knowledge may be written”ARB:” “A has the relation R to B.” Now if A
and B are identical, the propositionconveys no knowledge at all. If A is not identical with B, ARB implies “A
is identicalwi

must proceed either to the identity which means ultimately “Nothing,” or to diverg
entd
iversities which only seem to mean something so long as we refrain from pushing thea
nalysis of any term to its logical elements. For example, “Sugar is sugar” is obviouslyn
ot knowledge. But no more is this: “Sugar is a sweet white crystalline carbo-hydrate.”F
or each of these four terms describes a sensory impression on ourselves; and we defineour impressions only in terms of such things as sugar. T
hus “sweet” means “the qualityascribed by our taste to honey, sugar,
etc.”; “white” is “what champaks, zinc oxide,sugar, etc. report to our eyesight;” and so on. The proposition is ultimately an identity,
f
or all our attempts to evade the issue by creating complications. “Knowledge” istherefore not a “thing-in-itself;” it is rightly denied a place upon the Tr
ee of Life; itpertains to the A

What then may we understand by this verse, with its capital K for “Knowledge?” W
hatis it, and how shall it “go aright?” T
he key is in the word “go.” It cannot “be,” as weh
ave seen above; it is the fundamental error of the “Black Brothers” in their policy ofresisting all Change, to try to maintain it as fixed and absolute. But (as the Tr
ee of Lifei
ndicates) Knowledge is the means by which the conscious mind, Microprosopus,reaches to Understanding and to Wisdom, its mother and father,
which reflectrespectively Nuith and Hadit from the Ain and Kether. T
he process is to use each newi
tem of knowledge to correct and increase one’s comprehension of the Subject of theProposition. Thus ARB should tell us: A is (not A, as we supposed) but A. T
hisfacilitates the discovery A,R,C leading to A, is A
(index2); and so on. In practice, everyt
hing that we learn about (e.g.) “horse” helps us to understand — to enjoy — the idea.The diff
erence between the scholar and the schoolboy is that the former glows andexults when he is reminded of some word like Thalassa. Ourselves:- W
hat a pageant ofp
assion empurples our minds whenever we think of the number 93! Most of all, eachnew thing that we know about ourselves helps us to realize what we mean by our “Star.

Now,
“the rituals of the old time,” are no longer valid vehicles; Knowledge cannot ‘goaright’ until they are adapted to the Formula of the New Aeon. T
heir defects are duep

(1.) T
he Universe was conceived as possessing a fixed centre, or summit; an absolutestandard to which all things might be referred; an Unity,
or God. (Mystics were angrya
nd bewildered, often enough, when attaining to “union with God” they found himequally in all). This led to making a difference between one thing and another,
and so tothe ideas of superiority, of sin, etc., ending by absurdities of all kinds, alike in theology,
e
thics

(2) The absolute antithesis between the pairs of opposites. T
his is really a corollary of(1). T
here was an imaginary “absolute evil” which made Manichaeanism necessary —d
espite the cloaks of the Causists — and meant “That which leads one away from God.”B
ut each man, while postulating an absolute “God” defined Him unconsciously in termsof a Freudian Phantasm created by his own wish-fulfilment machinery. T
hus “God” and”Evil” were really expressions of personal prejudice. A
man who “bowed humbly to theAuthority of” the Pope, or the Bible, or the Sanhedrim, or the Oracle of Apo

tribal Medicine-Man, none the less expressed truly his own Wi
sh to abdicateresponsibility.

I
n the light of this Book, we know that the centre is everywhere, the circumferencenowhere; that “Every man and every woman is a star,” a Khabs,
the name of the houseof Hadit; that “The word of Sin is Restriction.” To
us, then, “evil” is a relative term; it is”that which hinders one from fulfilling his true Wi
ll.” (E.g., rain is “good” or “bad” fort

T
he Osirian Rituals inculcating self-sacrifice to an abstract ideal, mutilation to appeasean ex cathedra morality,
fidelity to a priori formulae, etc. teach false and futile methodsof acquiring false Knowledge; they must be ‘cast away’ or ‘purged’. T
he Schools ofI

AL II.6: “I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core
of everystar. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore
is the knowledge of me thek

T
H

Hadit is the Ego or Atman
in everything, but of course a loftier and more secret thingthan anything understood by the Hindus. A
nd of course the distinction between Ego andE
go is illusion. Hence Hadit, who is the life of all that is, if known, becomes the deathof that individuality.

THE NEW
COMME

It follows that, as Hadit can never be known, there is no death. T
he death of theindividual is his awakening to the impersonal immortality of Hadit. T
his applies less tophysical death than to the Crossing of the Abyss; for which see Liber 418,
FourteenthAethyr.
One may attain to be aware that one is but a particular ‘child’ of the Play ofH
adit and Nuit; one’s personality is then perceived as being a disguise. It is not only nota
living thing, as one had thought; but a mere symbol without substance, incapable ofl
ife. It is the conventional form of a certain cluster of thoughts, themselves the partialand hieroglyphic symbols of an ‘ego.’ T
he conscious and sensible ‘man’ is to his Self justw
hat the printed letters on this page are to me who have caused them to manifest incolour and form. T
hey are arbitrary devices for conveying my thought; I could useF
rench or Greek just as well. Nor is this thought, here conveyed, more than one ray ofmy Orb; and even that whole Orb is but the garment of Me. T
he analogy is precise;therefore when one becomes “the knower,
” it involves the ‘death’ of all sense of theE
go. One perceives one’s personality precisely as I now do these printed letters; andthey are forg
otten, just as, absorbed in my thought, the trained automatism of my minda
nd body expresses that thought in writing, without attention on my part, still less withi

AL II.7: “I am the Magician and the Exorc
ist. I am the axle of the wheel, and thecube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for

T
H

Hadit is both the Maker of Illusion and its destroyer.
For though His interplay withN
uit results in the production of the Finite, yet His withdrawing into Himself is thed
estruction thereof.”…the axle of the wheel”, another way of saying that He is the Core of T

”… the cube in the circle.” Cf. Liber 418, The Vision and the Voice, 30th Aethyr.
“’Come unto me’ is a foolish word: for it is I that go.” T
hat is, Hadit is everywhere; yet,being sought, he flies. The Ego cannot be found, as meditation will show.

THE NEW
COMME

”It is I that go.” The Book Aleph
must be consulted for a full demonstration of thistruth. We may say briefly that Hadit is Motion, that is, Change or ‘Love.’ T
he symbol ofGodhead in Egypt was the A
nkh, which is a sandal-strap, implying the Power to Go;a
nd

The W
heel and the Circle are evidently symbols of Nuith; this sentence insists upon theconception of Lingam-Yoni.
But beyond the obvious relation, we observe twogeometrical definitions. T
he axle is a cylinder set perpendicularly to the plane of thew
heel; thus Hadit supplies the third dimension to Nuith. It suggests that Matter is to beconceived as Tw
o-dimensional; that is, perhaps, as possessed of two qualities, extensionand potentiality. To these Hadit brings motion and position. T
he wheel moves;m
anifestation now is possible. Its perception implies three-dimensional space, and time.But note that the Mover is himself not moved. T
he “cube in the circle” emphasizes thisquestion of dimensions. T
he cube is rectilinear (therefore phallic no less than the axle);i
ts unity suggests perfection projected as a “solid” for human perception; its squarefaces affirm balance, equity,
and limitation; its six-sidedness sets it among the solars
ymbols. It is thus like the Sun in the Zodiac, which is no more than the field for Hisf
ulfilment in His going. He, by virtue of his successive relations with each degree of thec
ircle, clothes Himself with an appearance of “Matter in Motion,” although absolutem
otion through space is a meaningless expression (Eddington, op. cit.). None the less,e
very point in the cube — there are 2 of them — has an unique relation with every pointin the circle exactly balanced against an equal and opposite relation. We
have thusM
atter that both is and is not, Motion that both moves and moves not, interacting in av
ariety of ways which is infinite to manifest individuals, each of which is unlike anyother,
yet is symmetrically supported by its counterpart. Note that even at the centre ofgravity of the cube no two rays are identical except in mere length. They diff
er as tot
heir point of contact with the circle, their right ascension, and their relation with theo

Why is Nuith restricted to two dimensions? We
usually think of space as a sphere.”
None ---- and two:” extension and potentiality are Her only projections of Naught. It iss
trange, by the way to find that modern mathematics says “Spherical space is not verye
asy to imagine” (Eddington, op. cit. p.158) and prefers to attribute a geometrical formwhose resemblance to the Kteis
is most striking. For Nuit is, philosophically speaking,the archetype of the Kteis, giving appropriate Form to all Being, and off
ering everyp
ossibility of fulfilment of every several point that it envelops. But Nuith cannot bes
ymbolized as three-dimensional, in our system; each unit has position by three spatial,a
nd one temporal, coordinates. It cannot exist, in our consciousness, with less, as areality.
Each ‘individual’ must be a ‘point-interval;’ he must be the product of some partof the Matter of Nuit (with special energ
ies) determined in space by his relations withh
is ne

I
t is evidently “a foolish word” for Hadit to say “Come unto me,” as did Nuit naturallye
nough, meaning “Fulfil thy possibilities;” for who can “come unto” Motion itself, whod

AL II.8: “Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for
I am theworshipper.

T
H

8
. He is symbolized by Harpocrates, crowned child upon the lotus whose shadow isc
alled Silence.Yet His Silence is the Act of A
doration; not the dumb callousness of heaven towardman, but the supreme ritual, the Silence of supreme Orgasm, the stilling of all Vo
ices int

THE NEW
COMME

H
arpocrates is also the Dwarf-Soul, the Secret Self of every man, the Serpent with theL
ion’s Head. Now Hadit knows Nuit by virtue of his ‘Going’ or ‘Love.’ It is thereforewrong to worship Hadit; one is to be Hadit, and worship Her. T
his is clear even fromHis instruction “To worship me” in verse 22 of this chapter. Confer, Cap.I, v.9. We
areexhorted to offer ourselves unto Nuit, pilgrims to all her temples. It is bad Magick
toa
dmit that one is other than One’s inmost self. One should plunge passionately intoevery possible experience; by doing so one is purg
ed of those personal prejudices whichw
e took so stupidly for ourselves, though they prevented us from realizing our trueWills and from knowing our Names and Natures. The A
spirant must well understandthat it is no paradox to say that the Annihilation of the Ego in the A
byss is the conditiono
f emancipating the true Self, and exalting it to unimaginable heights. So long as oner
emains “one’s self,” one is overwhelmed by the Universe; destroy the sense of self, andevery event is equally an expression of one’s Wi
ll, since its occurrence is the resultanto

AL II.9: “Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are
butas shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which re
main

THE NEW
COMME

This verse is very thoroughly explained in Liber Aleph.
”All in this kind are butshadows” says Shakespeare, referring to actors. [ 14] T
he Universe is a Puppet-Play fort
he amusement of Nuit and Hadit in their Nuptials; a very Midsummer Night’s Dream.So then we laugh at the mock woes of Pyramus and T
hisbe, the clumsy gambols ofBottom; for we understand the Truth of Things, how all is a Dance of Ecstasy. “We
rethe world understood, Ye would know it was good, a Dance to a lyrical measure!” T
henature of events must be “pure joy;” for obviously,
whatever occurs is the fulfilment ofthe Will of its master.
Sorrow thus appears as the result of any unsuccessful — therefore,ill-judged — struggle. Acquiescence in the order of Nature is the ultimate Wi
sdo

One must understand the Universe perfectly, and be utterly indiff
erent to its pressure.These are the virtues which constitute a Master of the Temple. Ye
t each man must actWhat he will; for he is energ
ized by his own nature. So long as he works “without lustof resu

shadows.” A
nd he himself is “that which remains;” for he can no more be destroyed, orhis true Will be thwarted, than Matter diminish or Energy disappear.
He is a necessaryUnit of the Universe, equal and opposite to the sum total of all the others; and his Wi
lli
s similarly the final factor which completes the equilibrium of the dynamical equation.H
e cannot fail if he would; thus, his sorrows are but shadows - he could not see them ifh
e

AL II.12: “Because of me in T
he

T
H

THE NEW
COMME

T
he use of capitals “Me” and “Thee” emphasizes that Hadit was wholly manifested inThe Beast. [15] It is to be remembered that T
he Beast has agreed to follow thein

you broke all the rules.’ Poor fool! The Wa
y of Mastery is to break all the rules — buty
ou have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are not in ap

AL II.17: Hear m

The sorrows of pain and regre
tAre
left to the dead and the dying,T

THE NEW
COMME

The dead and the dying, who know not Hadit, are in the Illusion of Sorrow.
Not beingHadit, they are shadows, puppets, and what happens to them does not matter.
If youi
nsist upon identifying yourself with Hecuba, your tears are natural enough.There is no contradiction here, by the way, with verses 4 and 5. T
he words ‘know me’are used loosely as is natural in a stanza; or, more likely,
are used (as in the EnglishBible) to suggest the root GN, identity in transcendental ecstasy.
Possibly ‘not’ and ‘me’are once more intended to apply to Nuit. Wi
th ‘know’ itself, they may be “Nothing underits three forms” of negativity, action, and individuality.

AL II.18: “These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor
andsad: the lords of the earth are our
kinsfo

THE NEW
COMME

This idea is confirmed. T
hose who sorrow are not real people at all, not ‘stars’ — for thetime being. T
he fact of their being ‘poor and sad’ proves them to be ‘shadows,’ who ‘passand are done.’ The ‘lords of the earth’ are those who are doing their Wi
ll. It does notn
ecessarily mean people with coronets and automobiles; there are plenty of such peoplewho are the most sorrowful slaves in the world. T
he sole test of one’s lordship is toknow what one’s true Wi

AL II.19: “Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. T
hey shallrejoice, our chosen: who sorro

THE NEW
COMMENTA
god living in a dog would be one who was prevented from fulfilling his functionproperly. T
he highest are those who have mastered and transcended accidentalenvironment. They rejoice, because they do their Will; and if any man sorrow,
it is clearevidence of something wrong with him. W
hen machinery creaks and growls, theengineer knows that it is not fulfilling its function, doing its Will

100

AL II.20: “Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, forc
e andfire, are

100

THE NEW
COMMENTA
s soon as one realizes one’s self as Hadit, one obtains all His qualities. It is all aquestion of doing one’s Will. A
flaming harlot, with red cap and sparkling eyes, her footon the neck of a dead king, is just as much a star as her predecessor,
simpering in hisa
rms. But one must be a flaming harlot — one must let oneself go, whether one’s star betwin with that of Shelly, or of Blake, or of Ti
tian, or of Beethoven. Beauty and strengthcome from doing one’s Wi
ll; you have only to look at any one who is doing it tor

101

AL II.21: “We
have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in theirmisery. For
they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down thewretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our
law and the joy of theworld. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That T
hou Must Die: verily thou shalt notd
ie, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shallremain in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Stre
ngth &Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star

101

THE NEW COMMEN

102

T
here is a good deal of the Nietzschean standpoint in this verse. It is the evolutionaryand natural view. Of what use is it to perpetuate the misery of Tu
berculosis, and suchdiseases, as we now do? Nature’s way is to weed out the weak. T
his is the most mercifulway, too. A
t present all the strong are being damaged, and their progress hindered byt
he dead weight of the weak limbs and the missing limbs, the diseased limbs and theatrophied limbs. T

102

O
ur humanitarianism, which is the syphilis of the mind, acts on the basis of the lie thatthe King must die. T
he King is beyond death; it is merely a pool where he dips forrefreshment. We
must therefore go back to Spartan ideas of education; and the worste
nemies of humanity are those who wish, under the pretext of compassion, to continueits ills through the generations. T

102

L
et weak and wry productions go back into the melting-pot, as is done with flawed steelcastings. Death will purg
e, reincarnation make whole, these errors and abortions.N
ature herself may be trusted to do this, if only we will leave her alone. But what oft
hose who, physically fitted to live, are tainted with rottenness of soul, cancerous withthe sin-complex? For the third time I answer: T

102

Hadith calls himself the Star,
the Star being the Unit of the Macrocosm; and the Snake,t
he Snake being the symbol of Going or Love, and the Chariot of Life. He isHarpocrates, the Dwarf-Soul, the Spermatozoon of all Life, as one may phrase it. T
heSun, etc., are the external manifestations or Ve
stures of this Soul, as a Man is theGarment of an actual Spermatozoon, the Tr
ee sprung of that Seed, with power tom
ultiply and to perpetuate that particular Nature, though without necessaryc

102

I
n a deeper sense, the word “Death” is meaningless apart from the presentation of theUniverse as conditioned by “Time.” But what is the meaning of Ti
me?T
here is great confusion of thought in the use of the word “eternal,” and the phrase “forever.
” People who want “eternal happiness” mean by that a cycle of varying events alleff
ective in stimulating pleasant sensations; i.e., they want time to continue exactly as itdoes with themselves released from the contingencies of accidents such as poverty,
sickness and death. A
n eternal state is however a possible experience, if one interpretsthe term sensibly. One can kindle flamman aeternae caritatis,
for instance; one cane
xperience a love which is in truth eternal. Such love must have no relation withphenomena whose condition is time. Similarly, one’s “immortal soul” is a diff
erent kindof thing altogether from one’s mortal vesture. This Soul is a particular Star,
with its ownp
eculiar qualities, of course; but these qualities are all “eternal,” and part of the natureof the Soul. T
his Soul being a monistic consciousness, it is unable to appreciate itselfa
nd its qualities, as explained in a previous entry; so it realizes itself by the device ofduality, with the limitations of time, space and causality. The “Happiness” of We
ddedLove or eating Marrons Glaces
is a concrete external non-eternal expression of thec
orresponding abstract internal eternal idea, just as any triangle is one partial andi
mperfect picture of the idea of a triangle. (It does not matter whether we consider”Tr
iangle” as an unreal thing invented for the convenience of including all actualtriangles, or vice versa. Once the idea Tr
iangle has arisen, actual triangles are related toi

102

O
ne does not want even a comparatively brief extension of these “actual” states;We
dded Love though licensed for a lifetime, is usually intolerable after a month; andMarrons Glaces
pall after the first five or six kilogrammes have been consumed. Butt
he “Happiness,” eternal and formless, is not less enjoyable because these forms of itcease to give pleasure. What

103

p
articular images; it begins to notice the limitations, which are not itself and indeedd
eny itself, as soon as its original joy in its success at having become conscious of itselfwears off. It becomes aware of the external imperfection of Marrons Glaces;
they nol
onger represent its infinitely varied nature. It therefore rejects them, and creates a newform of itself, such as Nightgowns with pale yellow ribbons or A

103

In the same way a poet or painter, wishing to express Beauty,
is impelled to choose ap
articular form; with luck, this is at first able to recompense in him what he feels; buts
ooner or later he finds that he has failed to include certain elements of himself, and hem
ust needs embody these in a new poem or picture. He may know that he can never dom
ore than present a part of the possible perfection, and that in imperfect imagery; but atl
east he may utter his utmost within the limits of the mental and sensory instruments ofhis similarly inadequate symbol of the A
bsolute,

103

These suffer from the same defects as the other forms; ultimately,
“Happiness” weariesitself in the eff
ort to invent fresh images, and becomes disheartened and doubtful ofi
tself. Only a few people have wit enough to proceed to generalization from the failureo
f a few familiar figures of itself, and recognize that all “actual” forms are imperfect;b
ut such people are apt to turn with disgust from the whole procedure, and to long forthe “eternal” state. T
his state is however incapable of realization, as we know; and theS
oul understanding this, can find no good but in “Cessation” of all things, its creationsno more than its own tendencies to create. It therefore sighs for Nibbana.

103

But there is one other solution, as I have endeavoured to shew. We
may accept (whatafter all it is absurd to accuse and oppose) the essential character of existence. We
c
annot extirpate or even alter in the minutest degree either the matter or manner of anye
lement of the Universe, here each item is equally inherent and important, eacha
equipollent, independent, and interdependent.We may thus acquiesce in the fact that it is apodeictically implicit in the A
bsolute toa
pprehend itself by self-expression as Positive and Negative in the first place, and toc
omb

103

We may thus cease either (1) to seek the A
bsolute in any of its images, knowing that wem
ust abstract every one of their qualities from every one of these equally if we wouldunveil it; or (2) to reject all images of the A
bsolute, knowing that attainment thereofw
ould be the signal for the manifestation of that part of its nature which necessarilyf
ormulates itself in a new universe of images.R
ealizing that these two courses (the materialist’s and the mystic’s) are equally fatuous,w
e may engage in either or both of two other plans of action, based on assent toactuality.

103

We
may (1) ascertain our own particular properties as partial projections of theA
bsolute; we may allow every image presented to us to be of equally intrinsic ande
ssential entity with ourselves, and its presentation to us a phenomenon necessary inN
ature; and we may adjust our apprehension to the actuality that every event is an itemin the account which we render to ourselves of our own estate. We
dare not desire toomit any single entry, lest the balance be upset. We
may react with elasticity andindiff
erence to each occurrence, intent only on the idea that the total, intelligentlyappreciated, constitutes a perfect knowledge not indeed of the A
bsolute but of that partthereof which is ourselves. We thus adjust one imperfection accurately to another,
andr

104

This path, the “Way of the Tao,
” is perfectly proper to all men. It does not attempt eitherto transcend or to tamper with Tr
uth; it is loyal to its own laws, and therefore no lessperfect than any other Truth. T
he Equation Five plus Six is Eleven is of the same orderof perfection as Ten Million times Ten times Ten T
housand Million is One Billion. Inthe Universe fomulated by the A
bsolute, every point is equally the Centre; every pointi
s equally the focus of the forces of the whole. (In any system of three points, any twom
ay be considered solely with reference to the third, so that even in a finite universe thes
um of the properties of all points is the same, though no two properties may becommon to any two points. T
hus a circle, BCD, may be described by the revolution of aline AB in a plane about the point A
; but also from the point C, or indeed any otherpoint, by the application of the proper analysis and construction. We
calculate them
otion of the solar system in heliocentric terms for no reason but simplicity andc
onvenience; we could convert our tables to a geocentric basis by mere mechanicalmanipulation without aff
ecting their truth, which is only the truth of the relationsbetween a number of bodies. A
ll are alike in motion, but we have arbitrarily chosen toconsider one of them as stationary,
so that we may more easily describe the movementso
f the others in regard to it, without complicating our calculations by introduction of themovements of the whole system as such. A
nd for this purpose the Sun is a morec

107

AL II.22: “I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory,
andstir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To
worship me take wine and strangedrugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! T
hey shall not harm yeat all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be stro
ng,o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear
not that any God shall denythee for

107

THE NEW
COMME

107

D
runkeness is a curse and a hindrance only to slaves. Shelley’s couriers were ‘drunk onthe wind of their own speed.’ Any one who is doing his true Wi
ll is drunk with thed

107

Wi
ne and strange drugs do not harm people who are doing their will; they only poisonp
eople who are cancerous with Original Sin. In Latin countries where Sin is not takenseriously,
and sex-expression is simple, wholesome, and free, drunkenness is a rarea
ccident. It is only in Puritan countries, where self-analysis, under the whip of a coarsebully like Billy Sunday,
brings the hearer to ‘conviction of sin,’ that he hits first the ‘trail’and then the ‘booze.’ Can you imagine an evangelist in Taormina?

107

T
he craving for these things is caused by the internal misery which their use reveals tothe slave-souls. If you are really free, you can take cocaine as simply as salt-water taffy.
T
here is no better rough test of a soul than its attitude to drugs. If a man is simple,fearless, eager,
he is all right; he will not become a slave. If he is afraid, he is already as
lave. Let the whole world take opium, hashish, and the rest; those who are liable toa

107

F
or it is in the power of all so-called intoxicating drugs to reveal a man to himself. Ifthis revelation declare a Star, then it shines brighter ever after.
If it declare a Christian —a
thing not man nor beast, but a muddle of mind — he craves the drug, no more for itsanalytical but for its numbing effect. Lytton has a great story of this in Zanoni.
Glyndon, an uninitiate, takes an Elixir, and beholds not Adonai
the glorious, but theDweller on the Threshold; cast out from the Sanctuary, he bec

108

”This folly against self;” altruism is a direct assertion of duality,
which is division,r
estriction, sin, in its vilest form. I love my neighbour because love makes him part ofm
e; not because hate divides him from me. Our law is so simple that it constantlya
pproximates to truism.”The exposure of innocence.” Exposure means “putting out” as in a shop-window. T
hep
retence of altruism and so-called virtue “is a lie;” it is the hypocrisy of the Puritan,w
h

108

To
”lust” is to grasp continually at fresh aspects of Nuit. It is the mistake of the vulgart
o expect to find satisfaction in the objects of sense. Disillusion is inevitable; when itcomes, it leads only too often to an error which is in reality more fatal than the former,
the denial of ‘materiality’ and of ‘animalism.’ T
here is a correspondence between thesetwo attitudes and those of the ‘once-born’ and ‘twice-born’ of William James (Va
rietiesof Religious Experience). T
helemites are ‘thrice-born;’ we accept everything for what iti
s, without ‘lust of result,’ without insisting upon things conforming with a priori ideals,or regretting their failure to do so. We
can therefore ‘enjoy’ all things of sense andr
apture’ according to their true nature. For example, the average man dreadstuberculosis. T
he “Christian Scientist” flees this fear by pretending that the disease is anillusion in “mortal mind.” But the T
helemite accepts it for what it is, and finds interesti
n it for its own sake. For him it is a necessary part of the Universe; he makes “nodifference” between it and any other thing. T

108

T
hey do not admit thatanything can be ugly or evil; its existence justifies itself. T
his is because they knowt
hemselves to be part of an harmonious unity; to disdain any item of it would be toblaspheme the whole. The T
helemite is able to revel in any experience soever; in eachhe recognizes the tokens of ultimate Truth. It is surely obvious, even intellectually,
thatall phenomena are interdependent, and therefore involve each other.
Suppose a + b + c=
d, a = d - b - c just as much as b = d - c - a. It is senseless to pick out one equation as’
nice’, and another as ‘nasty’. Personal predilections are evidence of imperfect vision.B
ut it is even worse to deny reality to such facts as refuse to humour them. In thec
harter of spiritual sovereignty it is written that the charcoal-burner is no less a subjectthan the duke. T
he structure of the state includes all elements; it were stupid andsuicidal to aim at homogeneity,
or to assert it. Spiritual experience soon enables theaspirant to assimilate these ideas, and he can enjoy life to the full, finding his Tr
ue Selfa

110

AL II.24: “Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are
also of my friends whobe hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or
on the mountain; but inbeds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire
and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there
shall ye findthem. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there
shallbe in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another,
King against King! Love one another
with burning hearts; on the low men tramplein the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your

111

The last two sentences demand careful attention. T
here is an apparent contradictionwith verses 59, 60. We
must seek reconcilement in this way: Do not imagine that anyKing can die (v.21) or be hurt (v.59)
; strife between two Kings can therefore be nothingmore than a friendly trial of strength. We
are all inevitably allies, even identical in ourv
ariety;

111

But who then are the “low men,” since “Every man and every woman is a star?” T
hecasus belli
is this: there are people who are veiled from themselves so deeply that theyresent the bared faces of us others. We
are fighting to free them, to make them masterslike ourselves. Note verse 60,
“to hell with them:” that is, let us drive them to the ‘hell’or secret sanctuary within their consciousness. T
here dwells “the worm that dieth nota
nd the fire that is not quenched;’ that is, ‘the secret serpent coiled about to spring’ and’
the flame that burns in every heart of man’ — Hadit. In other words, we take up armsa
gainst falsehood; we cannot help it if that falsehood forces the King it has imprisonedto assent to its edicts, even to believe that his interests are those of his oppressor,
and tofear Tr

112

AL II.25: “Ye are

112

T
H

112

T
he cant of democracy condemned. It is useless to pretend that men are equal; factsare against it. And we are not going to stay,
dull and contented as oxen, in the ruck ofhumanity.

112

THE NEW COMMEN

113

B
y ‘the people’ is meant that canting, whining, servile breed of whipped dogs whichrefuses to admit its deity. T
he mob is always afraid for its bread and butter — when itst
yrants let it have any butter — and now and then the bread has 60% substitutes ofcattle-fodder. (Beast-food, even the New York Times of November 13, 1918, E.V.
hasit.) So, being afraid, it dare not strike. A
nd when the trouble begins, we aristocrats ofF
reedom, from the castle or the cottage, the tower or the tenement, shall have the slavemob against us. T
he newspapers will point out to us that “the People” prefer to starve,a

113

Still deeper,
there is a meaning in this verse applicable to the process of personali
nitiation. By “the people” we may understand the many-headed and mutable mobw
hich swarms in the slums of our own minds. Most men are almost entirely at themercy of a mass of loud and violent emotions, without discipline or even org
anization.They sway with the mood of the moment. T
hey lack purpose, foresight, andintelligence. They are moved by ignorant and irrational instincts, many of which aff
rontthe law of self-preservation itself, with suicidal stupidity. T
he moral Idea which we call”
the people” is the natural enemy of good government. He who is ‘chosen’ by Hadit toK
ingship must consequently be ‘against the people’ if he is to pursue any consistentpolicy. The massed maggots of ‘love’ devoured Mark Antony as they did A
belard. Forthis reason the first task of the A
spirant is to disarm all his thoughts, to make himselfi
mpregnably above the influence of any one of them; this he may accomplish by themethods given in Liber Aleph, Liber Jugorum, Thien Tao, and elsewhere. Secondly,
hemust impose absolute silence upon them, as may be done by the “Yo
ga” practices taughtin Book 4 (Part I), Liber XVI, etc. He is then ready to analyse them, to org
anize them,t
o drill them, and so to take advantage of the properties peculiar to each one byemploying its energ

113

AL II.27: “There is great danger in me; for
who doth not understand these runesshall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there
heshall

114

THE NEW
COMME

114

H
umanity errs terribly when it gets ‘education’, in the sense of ability to readn
ewspapers. Reason is rubbish; race-instinct is the true guide. Experience is the greatTe
acher; and each one of us possesses millions of years of experience, the veryquintessence of it, stored automatically in our subconscious minds. T
he Intellectuals areworse than the bourgeoisie themselves; a la lanterne!

114

Understanding is the attribute of the Master of the Temple, who has crossed the A
byss(or “Pit”) that divides the true Self from its conscious instrument. (See Liber 418,
“Aha”! and Book 4, Part III). We
must meditate on the meaning of this attack upon thei

115

THE NEW COMMEN

116

This is against these Intellectuals aforesaid. T
here are no “standards of Right.” Ethics isbalderdash. Each Star must go on its orbit. To
hell with ‘moral Principle;’ there is nos
uch thing; that is a herd-delusion, and makes men cattle. Do not listen to the rationalexplanation of How Right It A
ll Is, i

116

We may moreover consider “Because” as involving the idea of causality,
and thereforeof duality. If cause and eff
ect are really inseparable, as they must be by definition, it ism
ere clumsiness to regard them as separate; they are two aspects of one single idea,c
onceived as consecutive for the sake of (apparent) convenience, or for the generalp
urp

116

T
he very idea of any relation between any two things appears asc
ausal. Even should we declare it to be causal, our minds would still insist that causalityitself was the eff
ect of some cause. Our daily experience hammers home thisc
onviction; and a man’s mental excellence seems to be measurable almost entirely int
erms of the strength and depth of his appreciation thereof as the soul of the structure oft
he Universe. It is the spine of Science which has vertebrated human Knowledge abovet
he

116

We must not suppose for an instant that the Book of the Law
is opposed to reason. Onthe contrary,
its own claim to authority rests upon reason, and nothing else. It disdainsthe arts of the orator.
It makes reason the autocrat of the mind. But that very facte
mphasizes that the mind should attend to its own business. It should not transgress itsl
imits. It should be a perfect machine, an apparatus for representing the universeaccurately and impartially to its master. The Self, its Will, and its A
pprehension, shouldb
e utterly beyond it. Its individual peculiarities are its imperfections. If we identifyo
urselves with our thoughts or our bodily instincts, we are evidently pledged to partakeof their partiality. We
make ourselves items of the interaction of our own illusions.I
n

116

AL II.29: “May Because be accursed for
ev

116

THE NEW
COMME

116

Distrust any explanation whatever.
Disraeli said: Never ask any one to dinner who hasto be explained. A
ll explanations are intended to cover up lies, injustices, or shames.The Tr

116

AL II.30: “If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Wi
ll stops & doesn

116

THE NEW
COMME

116

T
here is no ‘reason’ why a Star should continue in its orbit. Let her rip! Every time thec
onscious acts, it interferes with the Subconscious, which is Hadit. It is the voice ofMan, and not of a God. Any man who ‘listens to reason’ ceases to be a revolutionary.

117

The qabalists represent the mind as a complex of six elements, whereas the Wi
ll issingle, the direct expression as “The Word” of the Self. T
he mind must inform theUnderstanding, which then presents a simple idea to the Will. T
his issues its ordersaccordingly for unquestioning execution. If the Wi
ll should appeal to the mind, it mustconfuse itself with incomplete and uncoordinated ideas. T
he clamour of these criescrowns Anarchy,

117

AL II.31: “If Power asks why, then is Power

117

THE NEW
COMME

117

I
t is ridiculous to ask a dog why it barks. One must fulfil one’s true Nature, one must doone’s Will. To

117

Power acts: the nature of the action depends on the information received by the Wi
ll;b
ut once the decision is taken, reflection is out of place. Power should indeed bea
bsolutely unconscious. Every athlete is aware that his skill, strength, and enduranced
epend on forbidding mind to meddle with muscle. Here is a simple experiment. Holdo
ut a weight at arm’s length. If you fix your attention firmly on other matters, you cans
upport the strain many times longer than if you allow yourself to think of what yourb

Note: much like that experiment in martial arts where you pretend your arm is a fire hose and your putting someone out

117

AL II.32: “Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor
infinite & unknown; & all theirwords are
s

117

THE NEW
COMME

117

The ‘factor infinite and unknown’ is the subconscious Wi
ll. ‘On with the revel!” ‘Theirwords’ — the plausible humbug of the newspapers and the churches. Forget it! A
llons!Marc

117

It has been explained at length in a previous note that ‘reason is a lie’ by nature. We
mayhere add certain confirmations suggested by the ‘factor.’ A
and a (not-A) together makeup the Universe. As A is evidently ‘infinite and unknown,’ its equal and opposite A
mustbe so no less. Again, from any proposition S is P,
reason deduces “S is not P;” thus theapparent finitude and knowability of S is deceptive, since it is in direct relation with P.

118

N
o matter what n may be, {infinity}, the number of the inductive numbers, is unalteredby adding or subtracting it. T
here are just as many odd numbers as there are numbersaltogether.
Our knowledge is confined to statements of the relations between certains
ets of our own sensory impressions; and we are convinced by our limitations that ‘af
actor infinite and unknown’ must be concealed within the sphere of which we see butone minute part of the surface. A
s to reason itself, what is more certain than that its lawsa
re only the conscious expression of the limits imposed upon us by our animal nature,and that to attribute universal validity, or even significance, to them is a logical folly,
t
he raving of our megalomania? Experiment proves nothing; it is surely obvious that wea
re obliged to correlate all observations with the physical and mental structure whoset
ruth we are trying to test. Indeed, we can assume an ‘unreasonable’ axiom, and translatet
he whole of our knowledge into its terms, without fear of stumbling over any obstacle.R
eason is no more than a set or rules developed by the race; it takes no account ofa
nything beyond sensory impressions and their reactions to various parts of our being.T
here is no possible escape from the vicious circle that we can register only thebehaviour of our own instrument. We
conclude from the fact that it behaves at all, thatthere must be ‘a factor infinite and unknown’ at work upon it. T
his being the case, wem
ay be sure that our apparatus is inherently incapable of discovering the truth abouta

118

Let me illustrate. I see a drop of water.
Distrusting my eyes, I put it under themicroscope. Still in doubt, I photograph and enlarg
e the slide. I compare my resultswith those of others. I check them by cultivating the germs in the water,
and injectingt
hem into paupers. But I have learnt nothing at all about ‘the infinite and unknown,‘merely producing all sorts of diff
erent impressions according to the conditions in whicho
ne observes it!M
ore yet, all the instruments used have been tested and declared “true” on the evidenceo
f

118

M
odern Science has at last grown out of the very-young-man cocksureness of the 19thcentury.
It is now admitted that axioms themselves depend on definitions, and thatIntuitive Certainty is simply one trait of homo sapiens,
like the ears of the ass or theslime of the slug. T
hat we reason as we do merely proves that we cannot reasonotherwise. We
cannot move the upper jaw; it does not follow that the idea of motion isridiculous. T
he limitation hints rather that there may be an infinite variety of structureswhich the jaw cannot imagine. T
he metric system is not the necessary mode ofm
easurement. It is the mark of a mind untrained to take its own processes as valid fora
ll men, and its own judgments for absolute truth. Our two eyes see an object in twoaspects, and present to our consciousness a third which agrees with neither,
is indeed,s
trictly speaking, not sensible to sight, but to touch! Our senses declare some things atrest and others in motion; our reason corrects the error,
firstly by denying that anythingc
an exist unless it is in motion, secondly by denying that absolute motion possesses anym

118

At the time when this Book was written, off
icial Science angrily scouted the ‘factori
nfinite and unknown,’ and clung with pathetic faith to the idea that reason was thetouchstone of truth. In a single sentence, A
iwaz anticipates the discoveries by which theg
reatest

118

AL II.33: “Enough of Because! Be he damned for

119

THE NEW
COMME

119

T
his is the only way to deal with reason. Reason is like a woman; if you listen, you arel
ost; with a thick stick, you have some sort of sporting chance. Reason leads thep
hilosopher to self-contradiction, the statesman to doctrinaire follies; it makes thewarrior lay down his arms, and the lover cease to rave. W
hat is so unreasonable asman? The only Because in the lover’s litany is Because I love you. We
want no skeletons

119

Philosophically, ‘Because is absurd.’ There is no answer to the question “Why.” T
hegreatest thinkers have been sceptics or agnostics: omnia exeunt in mysterium,
andsumma scientia nihil scire are old commonplaces. In my essays ‘Truth’ (in K
onx OmP ax [16]), The Soldier and the Hunchback, Eleusis and others, I have off
ered adetailed demonstration of the self-contradictory nature of Reason. T
he crux of thew
hole proof may be summarized by saying that any possible proposition must beequally true with its contradictory,
as, if not, the universe would no longer be ine
quilibrium. It is no objection that to accept this is to destroy conventional Logic, fort

119

I ask “What is (e.g.) a tree?” T
he dictionary defines this simple idea by means of manycomplex ideas; obviously one gets in deeper with every stroke one takes. T
he sameapplies to any “Why” that may be posed. T
he one existing mystery disappears as ac
onsequence of innumerable antecedents, each equally mysterious.To
ask questions is thus evidently worse than a waste of time, so far as one is lookingfor an answer.

119

There is also the point that any proposition S is P merely includes P
in the connotationo
f S, and is therefore not really a statement of relation between two things, but ana
mendment of the definition of one of them. “Some cats are black” only means that ouri
dea of a cat involves the liability to appear black, and that blackness is consistent withthose sets of impressions which we recognize as characteristic of cats. A
ll ratiocinationmay be reduced to syllogistic form; hence, the sole eff
ect of the process is to make eacht
erm more complex. Reason does not add to our knowledge; a filing system does notincrease one’s correspondence directly,
though by arranging it one gets a better grasp ofone’s business. T
hus coordination of our impressions should help us to control them;b
ut to allow reason to rule us is as abject as to expect the exactitude of our ledgers toe
nable us to dispense with initiative on the one hand and actual transactions on theother.

119

THE NEW
COMME

119

We are not to calculate, to arg
ue, to criticise; these things lead to division of will and tostagnation. They are shackles of our Going. They hamstring our Pegasus. We
are to riseu

120

The polite ethicist demurs; his ideal is funereal solemnity.
His horizon isbounded by death; and his spy-glass is smeared with the idea of sin. The New A
eonproclaims Man as Immortal God, eternally active to do His Will. All’s Joy,
all’s Beauty;this Wi

120

I
n this verse we see how the awakening leads to ordered and purposeful action. Joy andB
eauty are the evidence that our functions are free and fit; when we take no pleasure,a

124

AL II.44: “Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There
is the dissolution,a

124

The body is itself a restriction as well as an instrument. W
hen death is as complete as its
hould be, the individual expands and fulfils himself in all directions; it is an omniformSamadhi. T
his is of course ‘eternal ecstasy’ in the sense already explained. But in thetime-world Karma

125

AL II.46: “Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear

125

THE NEW
COMME

125

This verse brings out what is a fact in psychology,
the necessary connection betweenfear, sorrow, and failure. To
will and to dare are closely linked Powers of the Sphinx,and they are based on — to know.
If one have a right apprehension of the Universe, if hek
now himself free, immortal, boundless, infinite force and fire, then may he will anddare. Fear,

125

AL II.47: “Where I am these are

125

THE NEW
COMME

125

Hadit is everywhere; fear, sorrow,
and failure are only ‘shadows’. It is for this reasont

125

I
t may be objected that “shadows” exist after all; the “pink rats” of an alcoholic are notto be exorcised by ‘Christian Science” methods. Ve
ry true — they are, in fact, necessaryf
unctions of our idea of the Universe in its dualistic ‘shadow-show’. But they do notform any part of Hadit, who is beneath all conditions. A
nd they are in a sense less realt
han their logical contradictories, because they are patently incompatible with theChangeless and Impersonal. T
hey have their roots in conceptions involving change andpersonality. Strictly speaking, ‘joy’ is no less absurd than sorrow,
with reference toH
adit; but from the standpoint of the individual, this is not the case. One’s fear of deathi
s removed by the knowledge that there is no such thing in reality; but one’s joy in life isnot aff
ecte

126

AL II.48: “Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for
them. I console not:I hate the consoled & the consoler.

126

Hadit has never defiled His purity with the Illusion of Sorrow,
etc. Even love andpity for the fallen is an identification with it (sympathy from Sigma-epsilon-nu Pi-alpha-theta-epsilon-iota-nu)

127

AL II.49: “I am unique & conqueror.
I am not of the slaves that perish. Be theydamned & dead! Amen. [This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & there
ina

127

THE NEW
COMME

127

We are to conquer the Illusion, to drive it out. T
he slaves that perish are better dead.They will be reborn into a world where Freedom is the A
ir of Breath. So then, in allk

128

AL II.52: “There
is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it isthe veil of sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me. Tear
down that lyingspectre of the centuries: veil not your vices in virtuous words: these vices are
myservice; ye do well, & I will reward you here and hereafter.

129

THE NEW
COMME

129

Mohammed struck at the root of the insane superstition of tabu with his word: “Wo
menare your field; go in unto them as ye will”. [17] He only struck half the blow.
I say: goin unto them as ye will and they will. Tw
o-thirds of modern misery springs fromWoman’s sexual dissatisfaction. A
dissatisfied woman is a curse to herself and toeverybody in her neighbourhood. Wo
men must learn to let themselves enjoy withoutfear or shame, and both men and woman must be trained in the technique of sex. Sex-r
epression leads to neurosis, and is the cause of social unrest. Ignorance of sexualt
echnique leads to disappointment, even where passion is free and unrestrained. Sex isn
ot everything in life, any more than food is: but until people have got satisfaction ofth

129

The New Aeon will have a foundation of Happy Women: A Wo
man underTa
bu

130

AL II.54: “Nor shall they who cry aloud their
folly that thou meanest nought avail;thou shall reveal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of because: They are
not ofme. The stops as thou wilt; the letters? change them not in style or
val

130

T
H

130

The tri

131

T
he second part of the text was in answer to an unspoken query as to the peculiarp
hrasing.The first part is clear enough. T
here are a number of people of shallow wit who do notbelieve in Magick. T
his is doubtless partly due to the bad presentation of the subject byprevious Masters. I have identified Magick with the Art of Life. T
he transcendentals
uperstructure will not overburden those who have laid this Right Foundation.T
here is an elaborate cryptographic meaning in this verse; the words ‘folly’, ‘nought’, ‘it’,a

131

AL II.55: “Thou shalt obtain the order & value of the English A
lphabet; thou shaltf

133

AL
II.57: “He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall bef

133

T
H

133

A quotation from the Apocalypse. This God is not a Redeemer: He is Himself. Yo
ucannot worship Him, or seek Him — He is He. A

133

THE NEW
COMME

133

T
his, and the first part of the next verse demonstrate the inviolability of Hadit ourQuintessence. Every Star has its own Nature, which is ‘Right’ for it. We
are not to bemissionaries, with ideal standards of dress and morals, and such hard-ideas. We
are todo what we will, and leave others to do what they will. We
are infinitely tolerant, saveof intolerance. It is not good, however,
to try to prevent Christians from meddling, saveby the one cure: T

133

I
t is impossible to alter the ultimate Nature of any Being, however completely we maysucceed in transfiguring its external signs as displayed in any of its combinations. T
hus,t
he sweetness, whiteness, and crystalline structure of sugar depend partly on thep
resence of Carbon; so do the bitterness, greeness, and resinous composition of hashish.But the Carbon is inviolably Carbon. A
nd even when we transmute what seem to bee
lements, as Radium to Lead, we merely go a step further; there is still an immutablesubstance — or essence of Energy — which is inevitably Itself, the basis of the diversity.

133

f
in from a benzene of identical empirical formula. Indeed,e
very “star” is necessarily derived from the uniform continuity of Nuith, and resolvableb
ack into Her Body by the proper analytical methods, as the experience of mysticismt
estifies. But each such complex is none the less uniquely itself; for the scheme of itsc
onstruction is part of its existence, so that this peculiar scheme constitutes the essenceof its individuality.
It is impossible to change a shilling into two sixpences, though thev
alue and the material may be identical; for part of the essence of the shilling is thei

134

T
he above considerations must be thoroughly assimilated by any mind which wishes tog

134

AL II.58: “Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore
the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There
is nonethat shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are
masked onesmy servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A
King may choose hisgarment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.

134

T
he view is superficial. Each star has a function in its galaxyp
roper to its own nature. Much mischief has come from our ignorance in insisting, onthe contrary, that each citizen is fit for any and every social duty.
But also our Lawteaches that a star often veils itself from its nature. T
hus the vast bulk of humanity isobsessed by an abject fear of freedom; the principal objections hitherto urg
ed againstm
y Law have been those of people who cannot bear to imagine the horrors whichwould result if they were free to do their own wills. The sense of sin, shame, self-distrust, this is what makes folk cling to Christianity-slavery.
People believe in am
edicine just in so far as it is nasty; the metaphysical root of this idea is in sexuald
egeneracy of the masochistic type. Now “the Law is for all”; but such defectives willr
efuse it, and serve us who are free with a fidelity the more dog-like as the simplicity ofo

135

a
like. Men should not be taught to read and write unless they exhibit capacity orinclination. Compulsory education has aided nobody.
It has imposed an unwarrantablec
onstraint on the people it was intended to benefit; it has been asinine presumption ont
he part of the intellectuals to consider a smattering of mental acquirements of universalbenefit. It is a form of sectarian bigotry. We
should recognize the fact that the vastm
ajority of human beings have no ambition in life beyond mere ease and animalhappiness. We
should allow these people to fulfil their destinies without interference.We
should give every opportunity to the ambitious, and thereby establish a class ofmorally and intellectually superior men and women. We
should have no compunction inutilizing the natural qualities of the bulk of mankind. We
do not insist on trying to trains
heep to hunt foxes or lecture on history; we look after their physical well being, ande
njoy their wool and mutton. I this way we shall have a contented class of slaves whow
ill accept the conditions of existence as they really are, and enjoy life with the quietwisdom of cattle. It is our duty to see to it that this class of people lack for nothing. T
hep
atriarchal system is better for all classes than any other; the objections to it come fromt
he abuses of it. But bad masters have been artificially created by exactly the sameb
lunder as was responsible for the bad servants. It is essential to teach the masters thateach one must discover his own will, and do it. There is no reason in nature for cut-throat competition. A
ll this has been explained previously in other connections; here iti
s only necessary to emphasize the point. It must be cleanly understood that every manmust find his own happiness in a purely personal way.
Our troubles have been causedb
y the assumption that everybody wanted the same things, and thereby the supply oft
hose things has become artificially limited; even those benefits of which there is aninexhaustible store have been cornered. For example, fresh air and beautiful scenery.
Ina
world where everyone did his own will none would lack these things. In our presentsociety,
they have become the luxuries of wealth and leisure, yet they are still accessibleto any one who possesses suff
icient sense to emancipate himself from the allegedadvantages of city life. We
have deliberately trained people to wish for things that theyd

Note: they force people to read and write because it’s required for work. Not for their supposed benefit

Note: our system doesn’t even do that. It suppresses greatness and encourages the powerful to hord their power

135

I
t would be easy to elaborate this theme at great length, but I prefer to leave it to bew
orked out by each reader in the light of his own intelligence, but I wish to call the veryp
articular attention of capitalists and labour leaders to the principles here set forth.[

140

THE NEW COMMEN

141

It is curious that this verse should be numbered 65, suggesting L.V.X. and Adonai,
theHoly Guardian A
ngel. It seems then that He is Hadit. I have never liked the term’Higher Self’; Tr
ue Self is more the idea. For each Star is the husk of Hadit, unique andconqueror, sublime in His own virtue, independent of Hierarchy. T
here is an externalhierarchy,

143

g
e. Language is in itselfnothing; it is only the medium of transmitting experience to consciousness. Ta
huti,T
hoth, Hermes, or Mercury symbolize this relation; the character of this God isdeclared in very full terms in The Paris Working,
which should be studied eagerly byt

143

AL II.70: “There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be strong! T
hencanst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture
! If thou drink, drinkb
y the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou doaught joyous, let there be subtlety there
i

143

THE NEW
COMME

143

I
t is absurd to suppose that ‘to indulge the passions’ is necessarily a reversion ordegeneration. On the contrary,
all human progress has depended on such indulgence.Every art and science is intended to gratify some fundamental need of nature. W
hat ist
he ultimate use of the telephone and all the other inventions on which we prideo
urselves? Only to sustain life, or to protect or reproduce it; or to subserve Knowledgea

143

O
n the other hand, the passions must be understood properly as what they are, nothingin themselves, but the diverse forms of expression employed by the Wi
ll. One mustpreserve discipline. A
passion cannot be good or bad, too weak or too strong, etc. by ana
rbitrary standard. Its virtue consists solely in its conformity with the plan of theCommander-in-Chief. Its initiative and elan
are limited by the requirements of hisstrategy.
For instance, modesty may well cooperate with ambition; but also it maythwart it. This verse counsels us to train our passions to the highest degree of efficiency.
E
ach is to acquire the utmost strength and intelligence; but all are equally to contributet
heir q

144

T
his then being understood, that we cannot call any given passion good or badabsolutely,
any more than we can call Knight to King’s Fifth a good or bad move inc
hess without study of the position, we may see more clearly what this verse implies.T
here is here a general instruction to refine Pleasure, not by excluding its grosselements, but by emphasizing all elements in equilibrated development. T
hus one is tocombine the joys of Messalina with those of Saint T
heresa and Isolde in one single act.One’s rapture is to include those of Blake, Petrarch, Shelley, and Catullus. Liber A
lephh
as deta

144

”
Exceed by delicacy”: this does not mean, by refraining from so-called animalism. Oneshould make every act a sacrament, full of divinest ecstasy and nourishment. T
here isno act which true delicacy cannot consecrate. It is one thing to be like a sow,
u
nconscious of the mire, and unable to discriminate between sweet food and sour;a
nother to take the filth firmly and force oneself to discover the purity therein, initiatinge
ven the body to overcome its natural repulsion and partake with the soul at thisEucharist. We
’believe in the Miracle of the Mass’ not only because meat and drink area
ctually “transmuted in us daily into Spiritual Substance”, but because we can make the”Body and Blood of God” from any materials soever by Vi
rtue of our royal andPontifical Art of Magick.

144

N
ow when Brillat-Savarin (was it not?) served to the King’s table a pair of old kidgloves, and pleased the princely palate, he certainly proved himself a Master-Cook. T
hefeat is not one to be repeated constantly,
but one should achieve it at least once — that itm
ay bear witness to oneself that the skill is there. One might even find it advisable topractice it occasionally,
to retain one’s confidence that one’s “right hand hath not lost itsc
unning”. [C##]We
therefore train our adepts to make the Gold Philosophical from the dung of witches,a
nd the Elixir of Life from Hippomanes; but we do not advocate ostentatious addictiont
o these operations. It is good to know that one is man enough to spend a month or so ata
height of twenty thousand feet or more above the sea-level; but it would beunpardonably foolish to live there permanently.

144

This illustrates on case of a general principle. We consider the A
ttainment of variousI
lluminations, incomparably glorious as that is, of chief value for its witness to ourpossession of the faculty which made success possible. To
have climbed alone to thes
ummit of Iztaccihuatl is great and grand; but the essence of one’s joy is that onepossesses the courage, knowledge, agility,
endurance, and self-mastery necessary toh
ave done it.The Goal is ineff
ably worth all our pains, as we say to ourselves at first; but in a littlewhile are aware that even that Goal is less intoxicating then the Wa
y itself.We

144

”Be strong!” We
need healthy robust bodies as the mechanical instruments of our souls.C
ould Paganini have expressed himself on the “fiddle for eighteen pence” that someo
ne once bought when he was “young and had no sense”? Each of us is Hadit, the coreof our Khabs, our Star, one of the Company of Heaven; but this Khabs needs a Khu
orMagical Image, in order to play its part in the Great Drama. This Khu,
again, needs theproper

145

We
therefore employ various magical means to increase the vigour of our bodies andthe energ

145

The result is that we of Thelema
are capable of enormously more achievement thanothers, even in terrestrial matters, from sexual orgia to creative A
rt. Even if we had onlythis one earth-life to consider,
we exceed our fellows some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold,s

145

One most important point, in conclusion. We
must doubtless admit that each one of usis lacking in one capacity or another. T
here must always be some among the infinitepossibilities of Nuith which possesses no correlative points of contact in any given Khu.
For example, the Khu
of a male body cannot fulfil itself in the quality of motherhood.A
ny such lacuna must be accepted as a necessary limit, without regret or vain yearningsf
or the impossible. But we should beware lest prejudice or other personal passione
xclude any type of self-realization which is properly ours. In our initiation the testsmust be thorough and exhaustive. T
he neglect to develop even a single power can onlyresult in deformity.
However slight this might seem, it might lead to fatal consequences;the ancient adepts taught that by the parable of the heel of A
chilles. It is essential for theA
spirant to make a systematic study of every possible passion, icily aloof from all alike,and setting their armies in array beneath the banner of his Wi
ll after he has perfectlygauged the capacity of each unit, and assured himself of its loyalty,
discipline, courage,and efficiency.
But woe unto him who leaves a gap in his line, or one arm unprepared tod
o its whole

145

THE NEW
COMME

145

”The Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wi
sdom”.Progress, as its very etymology declares, means A Step A
head. It is the Genius, theEccentric, the Man W
ho Goes One Better than his fellows, that is the Saviour of theRace. A
nd while it is unwise possibly (in some senses) to exceed in certain respects, wemay be sure that he who exceeds in no respect is a mediocrity.
The key of Evolution is Right Va

Note: “excess” not “exceed”

145

Excess is evidence at least of capacity in the quality at issue. T
he golf teacher growlstirelessly: “Putt for the back of the hole! Never up, never in!” T
he application isuniversal. Far from me be it to deny that excess is too often disastrous. T
he athlete whodies in his early prime is the skeleton at every Boat Supper.
But in such cases the excessi
s almost always due to the desire to excel other men, instead of referring the matter tothe only competent judge, the true Will of the body.
I myself used to “go all out” onmountains; I hold more Wo
rld’s Records of various kinds than I can reckon — for pace,s
kill, daring, and endurance. But I never worried about whether other people could beatm
e. For this reason my excesses, instead of causing damage to health and danger to life,turned me from a delicate boy,
too frail for football, doomed by my doctors to die in myteens, into a robust ruff

146

On the contrary,
every department of life in which, from distaste or laziness, I did not’
exceed’, is constantly crippling me in one way or another — and I recognize with savager
emorse that the weakness which I could have corrected so easily in my twenties is inm
y forti

146

AL II.72: “Strive ever to more
! and if thou art truly mine - and doubt it not, an ifthou art ever joyous! - death is the cro
w

146

This striving is to be strenuous. We
are not to set our lives at a pin’s fee. “Unhand me,g
entlemen! I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me!” Death is the End that crowns theWo
rk.Evolution works by variation. W
hen an animal develops one part of itself beyond theothers, it infringes the norm of its type. At first this eff
ort is made at the expense ofother eff
orts, and it seems as if, the general balance being upset, the Nature were indanger.
(It must obviously appear so to the casual observer — who probably reproachesa
nd persecutes the experimenter). But when this variation is intended to meet somenew,
or even foreseen, change in environment, and is paid for by some surplus part, ors
ome part now superfluous, although once useful to meet a quality of the environmentw
hich no longer menaces the individual, the adaptation is biologically profitable.Obviously, the whole idea of exercise, mental or bodily,
is to develop the involvedorgans in manner physiologically and psychologically proper.
It is deleterious to force any faculty to live by an alien law. W
hen parents insist on ab
oy adopting a profession which he loathes, because they themselves fancy it; whenF
lorence Nightingale fought to open hospital windows in India at night; then the Idealm

146

Every org
an has ‘no law beyond Do what thou wilt’. Its law is determined by the historyof its development, and by its present relations with its fellow-citizens. We
do notf
ortify our lungs and our limbs by identical methods, or aim at the same tokens ofsuccess in training the throat of the tenor and the fingers of the fiddler.
But all laws area
like in this: they agree that power and tone come from persistently practising theproper exercise without overstraining. W
hen a faculty is freely fulfilling its function, itw
ill grow; the test is its willingness to ‘strive ever to more’; it justifies itself by being’
ever joyous’. It follows that ‘death is the crown of all’. For a life which has fulfilled alli
ts possibilities ceases to have a purpose; death is its diploma, so to speak; it is ready toapply itself to the new conditions of a larg
er life. Just so a schoolboy who has masteredh
is work, dies to school, reincarnates in cap & gown, triumphs in the trips, dies to thec

146

Note that the Atu “Death” in the Tarot refers to Scorpio. T
his sign is threefold: theS
corpion that kills itself with its own poison, when its environment (the ring of fire)b
ecomes intolerable; the Serpent that renews itself by shedding its skin, that is crownedand hooded, that moves by undulations like Light, and gives man Wi
sdom at the priceof Toil Suffering

147

u
pon the Sun. “Death” is, to the initiate, as inn by the wayside; its marks a stageaccomplished; it offers refreshment, repose, and advice as to his plans for the morrow.

147

But in this verse the main point is that death is the ‘crown’ of all. The crown is Kether,
the Unity; “Love under will” having been applied to all Nuith-possibilities of all Khu-energies of any Hadit-central-Star, that Star has exhausted itself perfectly,
completedo
ne stage of its course. It is therefore crowned by death; and, being wholly itself, livesa
gain by attracting its equal and opposite Counterpart, with whom ‘love under will’ isthe fulfilment of the Law,

147

B
ut there are no rules until one finds them: a man leaving Ireland for the Sahara doesw
ell to discard such ‘indispensable’ and ‘proper’ things as a waterproof and a blackthornfor a turban and a dagger.

147

T
he ‘moral’ man is living by the no-reason of Laws, and that is stupid and inadequatee
ven when the Laws still hold good; for he is a mere mechanism, resourceless shoulda
ny danger that is not already provided for in his original design chance to arise.R
espect for routine is the mark of the second-rate man.T
he ‘immoral’ man, defying convention by shouting aloud in church, may indeed be’
brawling’; but equally he may be a sensitive who has felt the first tremor of ane

147

We of Thelema
encourage every possible variation; we welcome every new ‘sport’; itssuccess or failure is our sole test of its value. We
let the hen’s queer hatching take towater, and laugh at her alarms; and we protect the ‘ugly duckling’, knowing that Ti
mew
ill tell us whether it be a cygnet.Herbert Spencer,
inexorably condemning the Unfit to the gallows, only echoed theH
igh-Priest who protected Paul from the Pharisees. Sound biology and sound theologya

148

AL II.73: “Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for
death. Death is forbidden, om
an

149

The one way of safety lies in applying the Law of Thelema with the utmost rigour.
E
very impulse, however feeble, is necessary to the stability of the whole structure; thet
iniest flaw may cause the cannon to burst. Every impulse however opposite to the mainm
otive, is part of the plan; the rifling does not thwart the purpose of the barrel. Ones
hould therefore acquiesce in every element of one’s nature, and develop it as its ownlaws demand, with absolute impartiality.
One need not fear; there is a natural limit tot
he growth of any species; it either finds food fail, or is choked by its neighbours, oroverg
rows itself, and is transformed. Nor need one fret about the harmony andp
roportion of one’s various faculties; the fit will survive, and the perfection of the wholew
ill be understood as soon as the parts have found themselves, and settled down afterf
ighting the matter out in the balanced stability which represents their right reaction toeach other, and to their environment. It is thus policy for an A
spirant to initiation toanalyse himself with indefatigable energy,
shrewd skill, and accurate subtlety; but thento content himself with indefatigable energy,
shrewd skill, and accurate subtlety; butt
hen to content himself with observing the interplay of his instincts, instead of guidingt
hem. Not until he is familiar with them all should he perform the practices whichenable him to read the Word of his Will. A
nd, then having assumed conscious control ofhimself, that he may do his Wi
ll, he should make a point of using every faculty in adetache

150

e
xpecting ever to need them again, but on the general principle that if they werew

150

Wa
s not Lao-Tze thrust forth from his city? Did not Buddha go begging in rags? Didnot Mohammed flee for his life into exile? Wa
s not Bacchus the scandal and the scornof men? Than Joseph Smith Had any man less learning? Ye
t each of these attained to dohis Will; each cried his Wo

151

AL II.75: “Ay
e! l

151

THE NEW
COMME

151

T
his passage following appears to be a qabalistic test (on the regular pattern) of anyperson who may claim to be the Magical Heir of T
he Beast. Be ye well assured all thatt
he solution, when it is found, will be unquestionable. It will be marked by the mostsublime simplicity, and carry immediate conviction. [

151

AL II.76: “4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X {24} {89} R P S T O V A L. W
hatmeaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There
cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember,

152

me; to follow the love of Nu in the star-
lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to tellt

152

THE NEW
COMME

152

It is the prophet, the ‘forth-speaker’ who is never to know this mystery.
But that does notp
revent it from lying within the comprehension of the Beast, kept secret by him in orderto prove any one who should claim sonship. (Cf. the note … to verse 75)

152

O
bserve that I am here definitely enjoined to proclaim my Law to men, ‘to look forth’i
nstead of retiring from the world as mystics are wont to do. I may then be confidentthat this Work is a proper part of my Will. [

153

AL II.77: “O be thou pro
u

154

Pride is the quality of Sol, Tiphareth; Might of Mars, Geburah.
Now Leo — my risingsign — combines these ideas, as does Ra-Hoor-Khuit. T
he Christian ideas of humilitya
nd weakness as ‘virtues’ are natural to slaves, cowards, and defectives.T
he type of tailless simian who finds himself a mere forked radish in a universe ofg
iants clamouring for hors d’oeuvres must take refuge from Reality in Freudianphantasies of ‘God’. He winces at the touch of Tr
uth; and shivers at his nakedness inN
ature.H
e therefore invents a cult of fear and shame, and makes it presumption and blasphemyt
o possess courage and self-respect. He burrows in the slime of “Reverence, and godlyf
ear; and makes himself houses of his own excrement, like the earthworm he is. Hes
hams dead, like other vile insects, at the approach of danger; he tries to escape noticeb
y assuming the colour and form of his surroundings, using ‘protective mimicry’ likec
ertain other invertebrates.H
e exudes stink or ink like the skunk or the cuttle-fish, calling the one Morality and theother Decency. He is slippery with Hypocrisy,
like a slug; and, labelling the totality ofh
is defects Perfection, defines God as Faeces so that he may flatter himself with theepithet divine. T

158

AL III.3: “Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of Ve
ngeance.I

161

AL III.11: “This shall be your only proof. I forbid argument. Conquer! T
hat isenough. I will make easy to you the abstruction from the ill-ordere
d house in theVictorious City. Thou shalt thyself convey it with worship, o pro
phet, though thoulikest it not. Thou shalt have danger & trouble. Ra-Hoor-
Khu is with thee.Worship me with fire
& blood; worship me with swords & with spears. Let thewoman be girt with a sword before me: let blood flow to my name. Tr
ample downthe Heathen; be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of their

162

The Ritual of the Adoration of Ra-Hoor-
Khuit is, as one might expect, illustrative ofH
is nature. It seems doubtful whether this Ritual can ever be of the type of symbolicc
elebration; it appears rather as if expeditions against the Heather: i.e. Christians ando
ther troglodytes — but most especially the parasites of man, the Jews — were to be Hisrite. [ H21] And it is to be taken that ‘the woman’ is to take arms in His honour. T
hiswoman might be The Scarlet Woman, or perhaps Woman generally.
Remember that inthe Scarlet Wo
man ‘is

165

AL III.17: “Fear not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor
anything.Money fear not, nor laughter of the folk folly, nor any other power
in heaven orupon the earth or under the earth. Nu is your refuge as Hadit your
light; and I amthe strength, force, vigour, of your
ar

165

T
H

165

The infinite unity is our refuge, since if our consciousness by in that unity,
we shallcare nothing for the friction of its component parts. A
nd our light is the inmost point ofi

166

AL III.18: “Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare
not; beu

166

THE NEW
COMME

166

A
n end to the humanitarian mawkishness which is destroying the human race by thed

166

THE NEW COMMEN

167

W
hat has been the net result of our fine ‘Christian’ phrases? In the good old days therewas some sort of natural selection; brains and stamina were necessary to survival. T
herace, as such consequently improved. But we thought we knew oh! so much better,
andw
e had “Christ’s law” and other slush. So the unfit crowded and contaminated the fit,until Earth herself grew nauseated with the mess. We
had not only a war which killeds
ome eight million men, in the flower of their age, picked men at that, in four years, buta

167

AL III.20: “Why? Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there

168

THE NEW
COMME

168

There is here a perception of the profound law which opposes thought to action. We
act,w
hen we act aright, upon the instructive wisdom inherited from the ages. Our ancestorss
urvived because they were able to adapt themselves to their environment; their rivalsfailed to breed, and so “good” qualities are transmitted, while ‘bad’ are sterile. T
hus therace-thought, subconscious, tells a man that he must have a son, cost what it may.
Romewas founded on the rape of the Sabine women. Wo
uld a reasoner have advocated thatrape? Wa

168

There is much on the ethics of this point in Chapter II of this Book. T
homas HenryHuxley in his essay Evolution and Ethics
pointed out the antithesis between these twoi
d

Note: ignorance of the importance of cooperation

168

L
et us take an example. I am an antivaccinationist in a sense which every othera
ntivaccinationist would repudiate. I admit that vaccination protects from small-pox.But I should like everybody to have small-pox. T
he weak would die; the strong mighth
ave pitted faces; but the race would become immune to the disease in a fewg

Note: do we really protect the weak? Or is empathy an instinct to perpetuate the species?

169

AL III.22: “The other images group aro
und me to support me: let all beworshipped, for they shall cluster to e

170

the others are secret; for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for
the winners of theOrdeal {x}. What is this? Thou shalt know.

170

THE NEW
COMME

170

There are to be no regular temples of Nuith and Hadit, for T
hey are incommensurablesa
nd absolutes. Our religion therefore, for the People, is the Cult of the Sun, who is ourp
articular star of the Body of Nuit, from whom, in the strictest scientific sense, comet
his earth, a chilled spark of Him, and all our Light and Life. His vice-regent andr
epresentative in the animal kingdom is His cognate symbol the Phallus, representingLove and Liberty. Ra-Hoor-Khuit, like all true Gods, is therefore a Solar-Phallic deity.
But we regard Him as He is in truth, eternal; the Solar-Phallic deities of the old A
eon,such as Osiris, “Christ”, Hiram, A
donis, Hercules, &c., were supposed, through ourignorance of the Cosmos, to ‘die’ and rise again’. T
hus we celebrated rites of’crucifixion’ and so on, which have now become meaningless. Ra-Hoor-
Khuit is theCrowned and Conquering Child. T
his is also a reference to the ‘Crowned’ andC
onquering ‘Child’ in ourselves, our own personal God. Except ye become as littlechildren, said ‘Christ’, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. T
he Kingdom ofMalkuth, the Virg
in Bride, and the Child is the Dwarf-Self, the Phallic consciousness,which is the true life of Man, beyond his ‘veils’ of incarnation. We
have to thank Freud — and especially Jung — for stating this part of the Magical Doctrine so plainly,
as alsofor their development of the connexion of the Will of this ‘child’ with the Tr
ue orUnconscious Wi
ll, and so for clarifying our doctrine of the ‘Silent Self’ or ‘HolyGuardian Angel’. T
hey are of course totally ignorant of magical phenomena, and couldhardly explain even such terms as Augoeides;
and they are seriously to blame for notstating more openly that this True Wi
ll is not to be daunted or suppressed; but withint

176

AL III.34: “But your holy place shall be untouched thro
ughout the centuries:though with fire and sword it be burnt down & shattere
d, yet an invisible housethere standeth, and shall stand until the fall of the Gre
at Equinox; whenHrumachis shall arise and the double-wanded one assume my thro
ne and place.Another prophet shall arise, and bring fresh fever from the skies; another
womanshall awake the lust & worship of the Snake; another
soul of God and beast shallmingle in the globed priest; another sacrifice shall stain the tomb; another
kingshall reign; and blessing no longer be poured To
the

176

T
H

176

This prophecy,
relating to centuries to come, does not concern the present writer att
he moment.Ye
t he must expound it.T
he Hierarchy of the Egyptians gives us this genealogy: Isis, Osiris, Horus.N
ow the ‘pagan’ period is that of Isis; a pastoral, natural period of simple magic. Nextw
ith Buddha, Christ, and others there came in the Equinox of Osiris; when sorrow andd
eath ware the principal objects of man’s thought, and his magical formula is that ofs
acrifice.Now, with Mohammed perhaps as its forerunner,
comes in the Equinox of Horus, they
oung child who rises strong and conquering (with his twin Harpocrates) to avengeOsiris, and bring on the age of strength and splendour.
H
is formula is not yet fully understood.F
ollowing him will arise the Equinox of Ma, the Goddess of Justice, it may be ahundred or ten thousand years from now; for the Computation of Ti
me is not here asT

183

AL III.39: “All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither
and areproduction of this ink and paper for ever - for in it is the word secre
t & not onlyin the English - and thy comment upon this the Book of the Law
shall be printedbeautifully in red ink and black upon beautiful paper
made by hand; and to eachman and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine or
to drink at them, it is theLaw to give. Then they shall chance to abide in this bliss or
no; it is no odds. Dot
his q

184

THE NEW
COMME

184

’
At them’ may mean ‘at their house’, that is, one must give when one recognizes any oneas a potential king by accepting his hospitality. A
n alternative meaning is “in theirh

187

AL III.43: “Let the Scarlet Woman beware
! If pity and compassion and tendernessvisit her
heart; if she leave my work to toy with old sweetnesses; then shall myvengeance be known. I will slay me her child: I will alienate her
heart: I will casther out from men: as a shrinking and despised {harlot} shall she crawl thro
ughdusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungere

188

AL III.44: “But let her raise herself in pride! Let her
follow me in my way! Let herwork the work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart! Let her
be loud andadulterous! Let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her
beshameless before

192

AL
III.47: “This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with theoriginal in the writing of the Beast; for
in the chance shape of the letters and theirposition to one another: in these are
mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let himnot seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover
theKey of it all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure
isa key also. And ABRAHADABRA. It shall be his child & that strangely.
Let himnot seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall fro

192

THE NEW
COMME

192

I am now (An XIV) a Magus
9’ = 2[]; and I agree with the former comment. He needonly be a Magister Templi
8’ = 3[], whose world is Understanding.”one cometh after him:” ‘one,’ i.e. Achad. See Appendix
for this and other points of thismost ‘evidential’ verse. “the Key of it all:” all, i.e. AL 31
the Key! See MS for allusionto the “line drawn” and the “circle squared in its failure.” [Examine the h
olograph page60.

193

AL III.49: “I am in a secre
t fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods ofm

193

THE NEW
COMME

193

T
he evident interpretation of this is to take the word to be “Do what thou wilt,” which isa secret word, because its meaning for every man is his own inmost secret. And

194

m
ost profound blasphemy possible against all ‘gods of men,’ because it makes everym

194

We may then take it that this Solar-Phallic Ra Ha is Each Man Himself. A
s eachi
ndependent cell in our bodies is to us, so is each of us to Heru-Ra-Ha. Each man’s’
child’-consciousness is a Star in the Cosmos of the Sun, as the Sun is a Star in theC

194

AL
I

194

AL III.51: “Wi
th my Hawk’s head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon thecro

194

THE NEW
COMME

194

We
are to consider carefully the particular attach of Heru Ra Ha against each of these’
gods’ or prophets; for though they be, or represent, the Magi of the past, the curse oft
heir Grade must consume them.T
hus it is the eyes of ‘Jesus’ — his point of view — that must be destroyed; and this pointo

194

The subject of ‘Jesus’ is, most unfortunately,
too extensive for a note; it is treated fullyin my book 888.

194

AL
I

194

THE NEW
COMMENTM
ohammed’s point of view is wrong too; but he needs no such sharp correction as’
Jesus.’ It is his face — his outward semblance — that is to be covered with His wings.The tenets of Islam, correctly interpreted, are not far from our Wa
y of Life and Lightand Love and Liberty. This applies especially to the secret tenets. T
he external creed ism
ere nonsense suited to the intelligence of the peoples among whom it wasp
romulgated; but even so, Islam is Magnificent in practice. Its code is that of a man ofc
ourage and honour and self-respect; contrasting admirably with the cringing cowardiceo
f the damnation-dodging Christians with their unmanly and dishonest acceptance ofv
icarious sacrifice, and their currish conception of themselves as ‘born in sin,’ ‘miserables

194

AL III.53: “With my claws I tear
out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist,Mongol

195

THE NEW
COMME

195

”The Indian.” T
he religion of Hindustan, metaphysically and mystically comprehensivee
nough to assure itself the possession of much truth, is in practice almost assuperstitious and false as Christianity, a faith of slaves, liars and dastards. T
he samer

195

’
Mongol:” presumably the reference is to Confucianism, whose metaphysical ande
thical flawlessness has not saved its adherents from losing those ruder virtues whichare proper to a Fighting A
nimal, and thus yielding at last a civilization coeval withh

195

”Din” — ‘severity’ or ‘judgment’ may refer to the Jewish Law,
rather than to the Faith (ad’din’) of Islam. A
ssuming this, the six religions whose flesh must be torn out cover thewhole globe outside Islam and Christianity.

195

W
hy assault their flesh rather than their eyes, as in the other cases? Because themetaphysics, or point of view,
is correct — I take Judaism as qabalistic — but thep

195

AL III.54: “Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous cre

196

AL III.55: “Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her
sake let all chastew

197

She is Sakti, the Teh, the Magical Door between the Tao and the Manifested World. T
hegreat Obstacle than is if that Door be locked up. T
herefore Our Lady must besymbolized as an Whore. (Note Daleth, the Door = Venus. T
he Dove; Free flowing; allthis is linked up in the symbol). Clearly,
at last, the Enemy is this Shutting up of things.Shutting the Door is preventing the Operation of Change, i.e. of Love. T
he objection toCalypso, Circe, Armida, Kundry,
and Co. is that one is liable to be shut up in theirGardens. T
he whole of the Book of the Dead is a device for opening the closedv
ehicles, and enabling the Osiris to go in and out at his pleasure. On the other hand,t
here seems to be a Sealing Up, for a definite period, in order to allow the Change toproceed undisturbed. T
hus Earth lies fallow; the womb is closed during gestation; theO
siris is plugged with talismans. But it is vital to consider this as a strictly temporarydevice; and to “cut out the idea of Eternal Rest”. This Nibbana-
idea is the coward —‘Mother’s Boy’ idea; one ought to take a refreshing dip in the Ta
o, no more. I think thismust be brought forward as the Cardinal Point of Our Holy Law. T
hus though Nuit cries”To
me!” that is balanced by the Formula of Hadit. “Come unto me” is a foolish word;f

197

Now the Semen is God (the going-one, as shown by the A
nkh or Sandal-strap, whichHe carries) because he goes in at the Door,
stays there for a specified period, and comeso
ut again, having flowered, and still bearing in him that Seed of Going. (The birth of ag
irl is a misfortune everywhere, because the true Going-Principle is the Lion-Serpent,or Dragon; the Egg is only the Cavern where he takes refuge on occasions). [
H25]Liber 418 explains this succinctly; 3rd A
ethyr”Moreover, there is Mary,
a blasphemy against BABALON, for she haths
hut herself up; and therefore is she the Queen of all those wicked devilst
hat walk upon the earth, those that thou savest even as little black specksthat stained the Heaven of Urania. A
nd all these are the excrement ofC
horonzon.”I
t is this ‘shutting up’ that is hideous, the image of death. It is the opposite of Going,w

198

Women under Christianity are kept virgin for the market as Strasbourg
geese are nailedto boards till their livers putrefy. T
he nature of woman has been corrupted, her hope of as
oul thwarted, her proper pleasure balked, and her mind poisoned, to titillate the jadedp

198

W
hy do men insist on ‘innocence’ in women?1. To flatter their vanity.
2. To
give themselves the best chance of (a) escaping venereal disease, (b)p
ropagating their noble selves.3. To
maintain power over their slaves by their possession of Knowledge.4. To
keep them docile as long as possible by drawing out the debauchingof their innocence. A
sexually pleased woman is the best of willing helpers;o
ne who is disappointed or disillusioned a very psychical exczema.5
. In primitive communities, to serve as a guard against surprise andtreachery.
6. To
cover their secret shame in the matter of sex.H
ence the pretence that a woman is ‘pure’, modest, delicate, aesthetically beautiful andmorally exalted, ethereal and unfleshly,
though in fact they know her to be lascivious,s
hameless, coarse, ill-shapen, unscrupulous, nauseatingly bestial both physically andmentally. T
he advertisements of “dress shields,” perfumes, cosmetics, anti-sweatpreparations, and “Beauty Tr
eatments” reveal woman’s nature as seen by the clear eyeso
f those who would lose money if they misjudged her; and they are loathsomelyr
evolting to read. Her mental and moral characteristics are those of the parrot and themonkey.
Her physiology and pathology are hideously disgusting, a sickening slime ofu
ncleanliness.Her virg
in life is a sick ape’s, her sexual life a drunken sow’s, her mother life all bulgingf
ilmy eyes and sagging udders.T
hese are the facts about “innocence;” to this has man’s Christian Endeavour draggedher when he should rather have made her his comrade, frank, trusty, and gay,
thet
enderer

198

We of Thelema say that “Every man and every woman is a star.” We
do not fool andflatter women; we do not despise and abuse them. To
us a woman is Herself, absolute,o
riginal, independent, free, self-justified, exactly as a man is.We dare not thwart Her Going, Goddess she! We
arrogate no right upon Her will; wec
laim not to deflect Her development, to dispose of Her desires, or to determine Herdestiny. She is Her own sole arbiter; we ask no more than to supply our strength to Her,
w
hose natural weakness else were prey to the world’s pressure. Nay more, it were tooz
ealous even to guard Her in Her Going; for She were best by Her own self-reliance tow
in Her own way forth!We
do not want Her as a slave; we want Her free and royal, whether Her love fightdeath in our arms by night, or Her loyalty ride by day beside us in the Charg
e of theB
attle of Life.”
Let the woman be girt with a sword before me!""In h

199

So sayeth this our Book of the Law. We respect Wo
man in the self of Her own nature;we do not arrogate the right to criticise her. We welcome her as our ally,
come to ourcamp as her Will, free-flashing, sword-swinging, hath told Her, Welcome, thou Wo
man,we hail thee, star shouting to Star! Welcome to rout and to revel! We
lcome to fray andto feast! Welcome to vigil and victory! Welcome to war with {its} [H26]
wounds!Welcome to peace with its pageants! Welcome to lust and to laughter! We
lcome toboard and to bed! Welcome to trumpet and triumph; welcome to dirg

199

It is we of Thelema who truly love and respect Wo
man, who hold her sinless ands
hameless even as we are; and those who say that we despise Her are those who shrinkf
rom the flash of our falchions as we strike from Her limbs their foul fetters.Do we call Woman Whore? Ay, Verily and A
men, She is that; the air shudders and burnsas we shout it, exulting and eager.
O ye! Was not this your sneer, your vile W
hisper that scorned Her and shamed Her?Was not “Whore” the truth of Her,
the title of terror that you gave Her in your fear ofHer,
coward comforting coward with furtive glance and gesture?But we fear Her not; we cry Whore, as Her armies approach us. We
beat on our shieldsw

199

The Book of the Law is the Charter of Woman; the Word Thelema
has opened the lockof Her “girdle of chastity.” Your Sphinx of stone has come to life; to know,
to will, tod

199

Yes, I, The Beast, my Scarlet W
hore bestriding me, naked and crowned, drunk on Hergolden Cup of Fornication, boasting Herself my bedfellow,
have trodden Her in theMarket place, and roared this Word that every woman is a star. And with that Wo
rd isuttered Woman’s Freedom; the fools and fribbles and flirts have heard my voice. T
hefox in woman hath heard the Lion in man; fear, fainting, flabbiness, frivolity,
falsehood-

200

But now the Word of Me the Beast is this; not only art thou Wo
man, sworn to a purposenot thine own; thou art thyself a star,
and in thyself a purpose to thyself. Not onlym
other of men art thou, or whore to men; serf to their need of Life and Love, notsharing in their Light and Liberty; nay, thou art Mother and W
hore for thine ownpleasure; the Wo
rd I say to Man I say to thee no less: Do what thou wilt shall be thew
h

200

Ay, priest, ay, lawyer, ay, censor! Wi
ll ye not gather in secret once again, if in yourh
oard of juggler’s tricks there be not one untried, or in your cunning and counsel oned
ev

200

The essence of my Wo
rd is to declare woman to be Herself, of, to, and for Herself; and Igive this one irresistible We
apon, the expression of Herself and Her will through sex, toH
er on p

201

T
he modern woman is not going to be dupe, slave, and victim any more; the womanw
ho gives herself up freely to her own enjoyment, without asking recompense, wille
arn the respect of her brothers, and will openly despise her ‘chaste’ or venal sisters, asm
en now despise ‘milksops,’ ‘sissies,’ and ‘tango lizards.’ Love is to be divorced utterlya
nd irrevocably from social and financial agreements, especially marriage. Love is as

201

’
Mary inviolate’ is to be ‘torn upon wheels’ because tearing is the only treatment for her;and RV, a wheel, is the name of the feminine principle. (See Liber D.
) It is her owns
isters who are to punish her for the crime of denying Her nature, not men who are toredeem her,
since, as above remarked, it is man’s own false sense of guilt, hiss
elfishness, and his cowardice, which originally forced her to blaspheme againsth
erself, and so degraded her in her own eyes, and in his. Let him attend to his ownparticular business, to redeem himself — he has surely his hands full! Wo
man will saveh
erself if she be but left alone to do it. I see, it, I, the Beast, who have seen - who see —Space splendid with stars, who have seen — who see — the Body of our Lady Nuith, all-p
ervading, and therein swallowed up, to have found — to find — no soul that is notwholly of Her. Wo
man! thou drawest us upward and onward for ever; and every womanis one among women, of Woman;

202

I see thee, Woman, thou standest alone, High Priestess art thou unto Love at the A
ltar ofLife. And Man is the Vi

202

AL III.56: “Also for

202

THE NEW
COMME

202

I
t is obvious to the physiologist that beauty (that is, the fitness of proportion) and love(
that is, natural attraction between things whose union satisfies both) need for fulfilmentabsolute spontaneity and freedom from restriction. A
tree grows deformed if it bec
rowded by other trees or by masonry; and gunpowder will not explode it its particlesa

202

I
f we are to have Beauty and Love, whether in begetting children or works of art, orwhat not, we must have perfect freedom to act, without fear or shame or any falsity.
Spontaneity,
the most important factor in creation, because it is evidence of them
agnetic intensity and propriety of the will to create, depends almost wholly on theabsolute freedom of the agent. Gulliver must have no bonds of packthread. T
hesec
onditions have been so rare in the past, especially with regard to love, that theiro
ccurrence has usually marked something like an epoch. Practically all men work withf

202

It is within the experience of most people that pleasure-parties and the like, if org
anizedo
n the spur of the moment, are always a success, while the most elaboratee
ntertainments, prepared with all possible care, often fall flat. Now one cannot exactlygive rules for producing a ‘genius’ to order,
a genius in this sense being one who has theI
dea, and is fortified with power to enflame the enthusiasm of the crowd, with wit toknow,

202

B
ut one can specify certain conditions, incompatible with the manifestation of thiss
pontaneity; and the first of these is evidently absolute freedom from obstacles, internalo

202

It is clear that a woman cannot love naturally, freely, wholesomely,
if she is bound toc
ontaminate the purity of her impulse with thoughts of her social, economical, andspiritual status. When such things restrain her, Love may conquer,
as often enough itd
oes; but the Beauty engendered is usually stunted or wried, assuming a tragic or cynicmask. The history of the world is full of such stories; it is, one may almost say,
the chiefmoti

202

M
en and women have to face actual ruin, as well as the probability of scandal anddisgust, or consent to love within limits which concern not love in the least. The ch

203

o
f spontaneity is therefore a small one; and, should it occur and be seized, the lawyersh
asten to hide under the bridal bed, while the Families, gluing eye to chink and keyhole,i

203

T
hen, when love dies, as it must if either party have more imagination than a lump ofputty,
the fetters are fixed. He or she must go through the sordid farce of divorce if thec
hance of free choice is to be recovered; and even at that the fetters always leave ani

203

J
ust as a woman’s body is deformed and diseased by the corset demanded by JaganathF
ashion, so is her soul by the compression of convention, which is a fashion as fitful,arbitrary, and senseless as that of the man-milliner,
though they call him God, and hisfreakish Fiat pass for Everlasting Law.

203

In the past man has bludgeoned Wo
man into gratifying the lust of her loathed tyrant,a
nd trampled the flower of her own love into the mire; making her rape more beastly bycalling her antipathy Chastity,
and proving her an unclean thing on the evidence of thet
orn soiled blossom.She has had no chance to Love unless she first renounced the respect of society,
andfound a way to drive the wolf of hunger from her door.
Her chance is come! In any Abbey of Thelema
any woman is welcome; there she is freeto do her will, and held in honour for the doing. The child of love is a star,
even as alla

203

AL III.57: “Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare
not fight, butp

203

THE NEW
COMME

203

To
fight is the right and duty of every male, as of every woman to rejoice in his strengtha
nd to honour and perpetuate it by her love. My primary objection to Christianity is’gentle Jesus, meek and mild,’ the pacifist, the conscientious objector, the To
lstoyan, the’passive resister.

204

’
Jesus’ himself, in the legend, ‘set his face as a flint to go to Jerusalem,’ with thef
oreknowledge of his fate. But Christians have not emphasized that heroism since theCrusades. T
he sloppy sentimental Jesus of the Sunday-school is the only survivor; andthe War killed him, thank A

204

The Book of the Law
flings forth no theological fulminations; but we have quarrelsenough on our hands. We
have to fight for Freedom against oppressors, religious,s
ocial, or industrial; and we are utterly opposed to compromise. Every fight is to be af
ight to the finish; each one of us for himself, to do his own will; and all of us for all, toestablish the Law of Liberty.

204

L
et every man bear arms, swift to resent oppression, generous and ardent to draw swordi

204

”
All fools despise.” In this last phrase the word “fools” is evidently not to be taken in itsd
eeper mystical sense, the context plainly bearing reference to ordinary life.But the “fool” is still as described in the Tarot Tr
ump. He is an epicene creature, softa
nd sottish, with an imbecile laugh and a pretty taste in fancy waistcoats. He lacksvirility, like the ox which is the meaning of the letter Aleph which describes the Tr
ump,and his value is Zero, its number. He is air,
formless and incapable of resistance, carriero
f sounds which mean nothing to it, swept up into destructive rages of senselessv
iolence from its idleness, incalculably moved by every pressure or pull. One-fifth ist
he fuel of fire, the corruption of rust; the rest is inert, the soul of explosives, with atrace of that stifling and suff
ocating gas which is yet food for vegetable, as it is poisont
o animal, life.We
have here a picture of the average man, of a fool; he has no will of his own, is allthings

205

drifter,
both idle and violent, compact partly of fierce passions that burn up both himselfand the other, but mostly of inert and characterless nonentity,
with a little heaviness,d

205

Such are the ‘fools’ whom we despise. The man of Thelema is vertebrate, org
anized,purposeful, steady,
self-controlled, virile; he uses the air as the food of his blood; soalso, were he deprived of fools he could no live. We
need our atmosphere, after all; it iso
nly when the fools become violent madmen that we need our cloak of silence to wrapus, and our staff
to stay us as we ascend our mountain-ridge; and it is only if we god
own into the darkness of mines to dig us treasure of earth that we need fear to chokeo

205

AL III.58: “But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are bro

205

THE NEW
COMME

205

”the keen:” these are the men whose Wi
ll is as a sword sharp and straight, tempered andground and polished its flawless steel; with a Wr
ist and an Eye behind it.”
the proud:” these are the men who know themselves to be stars, and bend the knee tonone. Tr
ue pride prevents a man from doing aught unworthy of himself.”the royal:” these are the men whose nature is kingly, the men who ‘can.’ T
hey knowthemselves born rulers, whether their halidom be Art, or Science, or aught else soever.
”
The lofty:” these are the men who, being themselves high-hearted, endure not anyb

205

AL III.60: “There

205

THE NEW COMMEN

206

There are of course lesser laws than this, details, particular cases, of the Law.
But thewhole of the Law is Do what thou wilt, and there is no law beyond it. T
his subject istreated fully in Liber CXI (Aleph)

209

AL III.62: “To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye thro
ugh tribulation of ordeal,w

209

THE NEW
COMME

209

T
his seems to indicate the means to be used in freeing the soul from its ‘girders’.We have seen that Ra-Hoor-
Khuit is in one sense the Silent Self in a man, a Name of hisKhabs,
not so impersonal as Hadit, but the first and least untrue formulation of the Ego.We
are to reverse this self in us, then, not to suppress it and subordinate it. Nor are weto evade it, but to come to it. This is done “through tribulation of ordeal”. This

210

tribulation is that experienced in the process called Psychoanalysis, now that off
icials
cience has adopted — so far as its inferior intelligence permits — the methods of theMagus.
But the ‘ordeal’ is ‘bliss’; the solution of each complex by ‘tribulation’ — note thee
tymological significance of the word! — is the spasm of joy which is the physiologicala

211

AL III.67: “Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire

211

Beyond the one, how shall he pass on? W
hat is this One, which is in every place theCentre of A
ll? Indeed the logic-girders of our souls need lightening, if we would win tofreedom of such Tr
uth as this!N
ow in the ‘stones of precious water’ the Light leapt clear indeed, but they were notthemselves that Light. This sphere of the One is indeed Ra-Hoor-
Khuit; is not ourCrowned and Conquering Child the source of Light? Nay, he is finite form of Unity,
c
hild of two married infinities; and in this last ordeal the aspirant must go beyond evenhis Star,
finding therein the core thereof Hadit, and losing it also in the Body of Nuith.H
ere is no Path that he may tread, for all is equally everywhere; nor is there any spheret
o attain, for measure is now no more.There are no words to make known the Wa
y; this only is said, that to him that hathp
assed through this fourth ordeal this Book is as ‘ultimate sparks’. No more do theyr
eflect or transmit the Light; they themselves are the original, the not-to-be-analysedL
ight, of the ‘intimate fire’ of Hadit! He shall see the Book as it is, as a shower of theS

213

AL III.70: “I am the Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Stre
ngth; my {nemmes}shrouds the night-blue sky.

213

THE NEW
COMME

213

I
t is important to observe that He claims to be both Horus and Harpocrates; and thistwo-in-one is a Unity combining Tao and Teh, Matter & Motion, Being & Form. T
his isn

214

AL III.71: “Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for your
time isn

214

T
H

214

This is a clear statement as to the War wh

214

AL III.72: “I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power; the wand of the {Forc
e ofCoph Nia -} but my left hand is empty, for
I have crushed an Universe; & noughtre

214

THE NEW
COMME

214

”The Double Wand of Power” is a curious variant of the common “Wa
nd of DoublePower”; the general meaning is “I control alike the Forces of A

214

B
ut apparently Ra Hoor Khuit had an Universe in his left hand, and crushed it so thatn
aught remains. I think this “Universe” is that of monistic metaphysics; in one hand isthe “Double Wand”, in the other “naught”. This seems to refer to the ‘none and Tw
o’o

215

AL III.73: “Paste the sheets from right to left and fro
m top to bottom: thenb

215

T
H

215

(Done. See Comment on III.47)

🔮 The Cosmos

THE OLD AND NEW COMMENTARIES TO THE CORRECTED VERSION OF LIBER AL VEL LEGIS

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