The Law is for All

176 The Law is for All She hath been trampled thus through all the ages, and she hath tamed them thus. Her silence was the token of her triumph. But now the Word of Me the Beast is this; not only art thou Woman, sworn to a purpose not thine own; thou art thyself a star, and in thyself a purpose to thyself. Not only mother of men art thou, or whore to men; serf to their need of Life and Love, not sharing in their Light and Liberty; nay, thou art Mother and Whore for thine own pleasure; the Word I say to Man I say to thee no less: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law”! Ay, priest, ay, lawyer, ay, censor! Will ye not gather in secret once again, if in your hoard of juggler’s tricks there be not one untried, or in your cunning and counsel one device new-false to save your pirate ship from sinking? It has always been so easy up to now! What is the blasting Magick in that Word, first thesis of The Book of the Law, that “every woman is a star.” Alas! it is I the Beast that roared that Word so loud, and wakened Beauty. Your tricks, your drowsy drugs, your lies, your hypnotic passes—they will not serve you. Make up your minds to be free men, fearless as I, fit mates for women no less free and fearless! For I, The Beast, am come; an end to the evils of eld, to the duping and clubbing of abject and ailing animals, degraded to that shameful state to serve that shameful pleasure. The essence of my Word is to declare Woman to be Herself, of, to, and for Herself; and I give this one irresistible Weapon, the expression of Herself and Her will through sex, to Her on precisely the same terms as to man. Murder is no longer to be dreaded; the economic weapon is powerless since female labour has been found industrially valu­ able; and the social weapon is entirely in her own hands. The best women have always been sexually free, like the best men; it is only necessary to remove the penalties for being found out. Let Women’s labour organizations support any individual