42 
This "Self" Introversion 
Cara Soror, 
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 
"It is a lie, this folly against self." (AL, II: 22) 
The English is very un-English, and the context hardly 
helpful. But the meaning is clear enough ; the idea is to 
dismiss, curtly and rudely, the entire body of doctrine which 
insists on altruism as a 
of spiritual progress. 
Why do I jump in with this text without warning? Because 
at the end of my letter on Sammasati the Dweller of the 
Threshold popped up, and that brings us to the Black 
Brothers , and the Left-hand path, all of which subjects are 
very 
generally 
supposed to depend for origin upon 
"Selfishness. " 
This question is one of the most critical in the whole of 
Magical Theory; for in one sense it is certainly true that every 
error without exception is due to exacerbation of the Ego. 
Yet The Book of the Law flings at us disdainfully: "It is a 
lie, this folly against self." 
How then? 
I fear there is nothing for it but to go thoroughly into the 
who I e matt e r of the 'self'. This may involve some 
recapitulation. 
'Self' is one of the trickiest words afloat . Skeat gives 
merely the equivalents, all practically the same in sound, in 
various Nordic languages; he doesn't say where it comes 
from, or what it means. I don't know either , bless your heart! 
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