DE LEGE LIBELLVM
aspirant to our holy Science and Art increase constantly by
this method of assimilating ideas, that in the end, become
capable of apprehending the Universe in one thought, he
may leap forth upon It with the massed violence of his Self,
and destroying both these, become that Unity whose name is
No Thing. Seek ye all therefore constantly to unite your-
selves in rapture with each and every thing that is, and that
by utmost passion and lust of Union. To this end take
chiefly all such things as are naturally repulsive. For what
is pleasant is assimilated easily and without ecstacy: it is in
the transfiguration of the loathsome and abhorred into The
Beloved that the Self is shaken to the root in Love.
Thus in human love also we see that mediocrities among
men mate with null women: but History teacheth us that
the supreme masters of the world seek ever the vilest and
most horrible creatures for their concubines, overstepping
even the limiting laws of sex and species in their necessity to
transcend normality. It is not enough in such natures to
excite lust or passion: the imagination itself must be en-
flamed by every means.
For us, then, emancipated from all base law, what shall
we do to satisfy our Will to Unity? No less a mistress than
the Universe: no lupanar more cramped than Infinite Space:
no night of rape that is not coeval with Eternity!
Consider that as Love is mighty to bring forth all Ecstacy,
so absence of Love is the greatest craving. Whoso is balked
in Love suffereth indeed, but he that hath not actively that
passion in his heart towards some object is weary with the
ache of craving. And this state is called mystically “Dry-
ness.” For this there is, as I believe, no cure but patient per-
sistence in a Rule of Life.
109