204
The Law is for All
14. Now let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light 
devour men and eat them up with blindness!
15. For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the 
fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is 
vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are 
not of me; for there is a further secret.
16. I am The Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my 
bride is eleven.
17. Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.
18. These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for 
the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.
19. Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They 
shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.
20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, 
force and fire, are of us.
21. We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die 
in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of 
kings: stamp down the wretched 8c the weak: this is the law 
of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. Think 
not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou 
shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body 
of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever. 
Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, 
Light; these are for the servants of the Star 8c the Snake.
22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright 
glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To wor­
ship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my 
prophet, 8c be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. 
It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is 
a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and 
rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.
23. Iam alone: there is no God where I am.