Chapter I i Verses 37—41
41
4. Explore the course of that Will till you reach its source, 
your Silent Self.
5. Unite the conscious will with the true Will, and the 
conscious Ego with the Silent Self. You must be utterly 
ruthless in discarding any atom of consciousness which 
is hostile or neutral.
6. Let this work freely from within, but heed not your 
environment, lest you make difference between one 
thing and another. Whatever it be, it is to be made one 
with you by Love.
38. He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.
39. The word of the Law is OeXrjpia.
40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but 
close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the 
Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou 
wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if 
she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that 
can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! 
Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell.
Commentary: The first paragraph is a general statement or 
definition of Sin or Error. Anything soever that binds the will, 
hinders it, or diverts it, is Sin. That is, Sin is the appearance of the 
Dyad. Sin is impurity.1
1 One cannot say that it was “Sin” for Naught to restrict itself within 
the form of Two; on the contrary. But Sin is to resist the operation of 
the reversion to Naught. “The wages of Sin is Death” [Romans 6:23]; 
for Life is a continual harmonious and natural Change. See Liber 418 
and Liber Aleph.
Sin (see Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary) is connected with the root 
vYs, “to be.” This throws a new light on the passage. Sin is restriction, 
that is, it is “being” as opposed to “becoming.” The fundamental idea 
of wrong is the static as opposed to the dynamic conception of the 
Universe. This explanation is not only in harmony with the general 
teaching of The Book of the Law, but shows how profoundly the 
author understands Himself.