The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EQUINOX comprehend the holiness of sex. Chastity forms part of that training, and I should hope to see her one day a happy wife and mother. To the prude equally I prescribe a course of training by which she shall comprehend the holiness of sex. Unchastity forms part of that training, and I should hope to see her one day a happy wife and mother. To the bigot I commend a course of Thomas Henry Huxley; to the infidel a practical study of ceremonial magic. Then, when the bigot has knowledge and the infidel faith, each may follow without prejudice his natural inclination; for he will no longer plunge into his former excesses. So also she who was a prostitute from native passion may indulge with safety in the pleasure of love; and she who was by nature cold may enjoy a virginity in no wise marred by her disciplinary course of unchastity. But the one will understand and love the other.* Once and for all do not forget that nothing in this world is permanently good or evil; and, so long as it appears to be so, then remember that the fault is the seer’s and not in the thing seen, and that the seer is still in an unbalanced state. Never forget Blake’s words: “Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place and governs the unwilling.” + Do not restrain your desires, but equilibrate them, for: ‘‘He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.” { Verily: ‘‘ Arise, and drink your bliss, for everything that lives is holy.”§ The six acts of purifying the body by Hatha-Yoga are Dhauti, Basti, Neti, Trataka, Nauli and Kapdlabhati,|| each of * “Konx om Pax,” by A. Crowley, pp. 62, 63. + The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. } Lbid. § Visions of the Daughters of Albion. {| “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 30. Dhauti is of four kinds: Antardhauti (internal washing); Dantdhauti (cleaning the teeth); Hriddhauti (cleaning the heart); Mulashodhana (cleaning the anus). Basti is of two kinds, Jala Basti (water Basti) and Sukshma Basti (dry Basti) and consists chiefly in dilating and contracting the sphincter muscle of the anus. Neti consists in inserting a thread 82