The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX are born. Every man is in his own way a king, or at least heir to some kingdom. We have many examples of such society to-day, notably universities and all associations of sport. No. 5 in the Harvard crew does not turn round in the middle of the race and reproach No. 4 for being merely No. 4; nor do the pitcher and catcher of a crack baseball nine revile each other because their tasks are different. It is to be noted that wherever team-work is necessary social toler- ance is an essential. The common soldier is invested with a uniform as well as his officer, and in any properly trained army he is taught his own canons of honour and self-respect. This feeling, more than mere discipline or the possession of weapons, makes the soldier more than a match morally for a man not so clothed in proper reverence for himself and his profession. University men who have passed through some crisis of hardship or temptation have often told me that the backbone of their endurance was the “old shop.” Much of this is evi- dently felt by those who talk of re-establishing the old trade guilds. But I fear that I digress. I have, however, now placed before you the main points of my thesis. We need to extend to the whole of society the peculiar feeling which obtains in our most successful insti- tutions, such as the services, the universities, the clubs. Heaven and hell are states of mind; and if the devil be really proud, his hell can hurt him little. It is this, then, that I desire to emphasize: those who accept the New Law, the Law of the Zon of Horus, the crowned and conquering child who replaces in our theogony the suffering and despairing victim of destiny, the Law of Thelema, which is Do What Thou Wilt, those who accept it 230