Magick Without Tears

THE IMPORTANCE OF GREETINGS 151 "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" to spring to the forefront of the mind when one is introduced to a stranger, or comes down to breakfast, or hears the telephone bell, or observes the hour of the adoration, (these are to be the superficial reactions, like instinctively rising when a lady enters the room) or, at the other end, in moments of immediate peril, or of sudden apprehension, or when in one's meditation, one approaches the deepest strata. One need not be dogmatic about the use of these special words. One might choose a formula to represent one's own particular True Will. It is a little like Cato (or Scipio, was it?) who concluded every speech, whether about the Regulations of the Roman Bath or the proposal to reclaim a marsh of the Maremma, with the words: "And moreover , in my opinion, Carthage ought to be destroyed." Got it? You teach the mind to push your thought automatically to the very thing from which it was trying to wander. "Yes, I get you Stephen! ... But, Uncle Dudley, come clean, do you always do all this yourself? Don't you sometimes feel embarrassed, or fear that you may destroy the effect of your letter, or 'create a scene' in the public street when you suddenly stop and perform these incomprehensible antics, or simply forget about the whole thing?" Yes, I do. Well now, have I any shadow of an excuse? Yes, I have, after a fashion; I don't think it good manners to force my idiosyncrasies down people's throats, and I don't want to appear more of an eccentric than I need. It might detract from my personal influence, and so actually harm the Work that I am trying to perform. Love is the law, love under will. Yours fraternally, 666