Magick Without Tears

204 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS castle, the fortified camp, the city wall; the "gens," the clan, the tribe, the patrie, to be outside means danger from cold, hunger and thirst, raiding parties, highway robbers, bears, wolves and tigers. To go out was to take a risk; and, your labour and courage being assets to your kinsmen, you were also a bad man; in fact, a "bounder" or "outsider ." Debauch is simply 'to go out of doors'! St. John says: "Without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and adulterers and idolaters and ... " -so on. We of Thelema challenge all this briskly. "The word of Sin is Restriction" (AL, I: 41). Our Formula, roughly speaking, is to go out and grab what we want. We do this so thoroughly that we grow thereby, extending our conception of "I" by including each new accretion instead of remaining a closely delineated self, proud of possessing other things, as do the Black Brothers. We are whole-hearted extroverts; the penalty of restricting oneself is anything from neurosis to downright lunacy; in particular, melancholia. You ask whether these remarks do not conflict with my repeated definition of Initiation as the Way In. Not at all; the Inmost is identical with the All. As you travel inward, you become able to perceive all the layers which surround the 'Self' from within, thus enlarging the scope of your vision of the Universe. It is like moving from a skirmishing patrol to G.H.Q.; and the object of so doing is obviously to exercise constantly increasing control over the whole Army. Every step in rank enables you both to see more and to do more; but one's attention is inevitably directed outward. When the entire system of the Universe is conterminous with your comprehension, 'inward' and 'outward' become identical. But it won't do at all to seek anything within but a point of view, for the simple reason that there is nothing else there! It is just like all those symbols in The Book of Thoth; as soon as you get to the "end" of anything, you suddenly find it is the "beginning."