The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX and the destruction of an atom of helium would be as catas- trophic to the conservation of matter and energy as if a mil- lion spheres were blotted into annihilation by the will of God. I am well aware that from this point you could draw me subtly over the tiger-trap of the Freewill Controversy; you would make it difficult for me even to say that it is better to fulfil one’s destiny consciously and joyously than like a stone; but lam on my guard. I will return to plain politics and common sense. Our Founder, then, when he thought over this matter from a purely practical standpoint, remembered those institutions with which he was familiar, which flourished. He bethought him of monasteries like Monsalvat, of uni- versities like Cambridge, of golf clubs like Hoylake, of social clubs like the Cocoa-Tree, of co-operative societies, and, having sojourned in America, of Trusts. In his mind he expanded each of these to its 1 power, he blended them like the skilled chemist that he was, he considered their ex- cellences and their limitations; in a word, he meditated pro- foundly upon the whole subject, and he concluded with the vision of a perfect society. He saw all men free, all men wealthy, all men respected; and he planted the seed of his Utopia by handing over his own house to the O.T.O., the organization which should operate his plan, under certain conditions. What he had foreseen occurred; he had possessed one house; by surren- dering it he became owner of a thousand houses. He gave up the world, and found it at his feet. Eliphaz Levi, the great magician of the middle of the last century, whose philosophy made possible the extraordinary outburst of literature in France in the fifties and sixties by 232