RELIGION AND THELEMA 
219 
moveable by virtue of sacrifice, devotion, or appeal. Against 
such, the scientific or magical mind believes in the Laws of 
Nature, asserts "If A, then B" - if you do so-and-so, the result 
will be so-and-so, aloof from arbitrary interference. Joshua, it 
is alleged, made the sun stand still by supplication, and 
Hezekiah in the same way caused it to "go back upon the dial 
of Ahaz"; Willett did it by putting the clock back, and 
getting an Act of Parliament to confirm his lunacy . 
Petruchio , too "It shall be what o'clock I say it is!" The two 
last came close to the magical method; at least, to that 
branch of it which coconsists of "fooling all the people all 
the time." But such an operation, if true magick were 
employed, would be beyond the power of any magician of 
my acquaintance; for it would mess up the solar system 
completely. (You remember how this happened, and what 
came of it, in a rather clever short story by H.G. Wells.) For 
true Magick means "to employ one set of natural forces at a 
mechanical advantage as against another set" -I quote, as 
closely as memory serves, Thomas Henry Huxley, when he 
explains that when he lifts his water-jug-or his elbow-he 
does not "defy the Law of Gravitation." On the contrary, he 
uses that Law; its equations form part of the system by 
which he lifts the jug without spilling the water. 
To sum up, our system is a religion just so far as a religion 
means an enthusiastic putting-together 
of a series of 
doctrines, no one of which must in any way clash with 
Science or Magick. 
Call it a new religion, then, if it so please your Gracious 
Majesty; but I confess that I fail to see what you will have 
gained by so doing, and I feel bound to add that you might 
easily cause a great deal of misunderstanding, and work a 
rather stupid kind of mischief. 
The word does not occur in The Book of the Law. 
Love is the law, love under will. 
Yours fraternally, 
666