The Law is for All

Chapter II * Verse 73 149 element of one’s nature, and develop it as its own laws demand, with absolute impartiality. One need not fear; there is a natural limit to the growth of any species; it either finds food fail, or is choked by its neighbours, or overgrows itself, and is transformed. Nor need one fret about the harmony and proportion of one’s various faculties; the fit will survive, and the perfection of the whole will be understood as soon as the parts have found them­ selves, and settled down after fighting the matter out in the bal­ anced stability which represents their right reaction to each other, and to their environment. It is thus policy for an Aspirant to initi­ ation to analyze himself with indefatigable energy, shrewd skill, and accurate subtlety; but then to content himself with observing the interplay of his instincts, instead of guiding them. Not until he is familiar with them all should he perform the practices which enable him to read the Word of his Will. And then, having assumed conscious control of himself, that he may do his Will, he should make a point of using every faculty in a detached way (just as one inspects one’s pistols and fires a few rounds) without expecting ever to need them again, but on the general principle that if they were wanted, one might as well feel confident of the issue. This theory of initiation is so important to every aspirant that I shall illustrate how my own ignorance bred error, and error injury. My Will was, I now know, to be The Beast, 666, a Magus, the Word of the .¿Eon, Thelema; to proclaim this new Law to mankind. My passion for personal freedom, my superiority to sexual impulses, my resolve to master physical fear and weakness, my contempt for other people’s opinions, my poetic genius: I indulged all these to the full. None of them carried me too far, ousted the others, or injured my general well-being. On the contrary, each automatically reached its natural limit, and each has been incalcu­ lably useful to me in doing my Will when I became aware of it, able to organize its armies, and to direct them intelligently against the inertia of ignorance. But I suppressed certain impulses in myself. I abandoned my ambitions to be a diplomatist. I checked my ardour for Science.