Magick Without Tears

416 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS This statement is the first need of the world to-day for we are plagued with Meddlesome Matties, male and female, whose one overmastering passion is to mind other peoples' business. They can think of nothing but "control." They aim at an Ethic like that of the Convict Prison; at a civilization like that of the Bees or the Termites. But neither history nor biology acquaint us with any form of progress achieved by any of these communities. Penal settlements and Pall Mall Clubs have not even made provision for the perpetuation of their species; and all such "well-ordered" establishments are quite evidently defenceless against any serious change in their environment . They have failed to comply with the first requirements of biology; at best, they stagnate, they achieve nothing, they never "get anywhere." A settled society is useful at certain periods; when, for instance, it is advisable to consolidate the gains gotten by pioneer adventurers; but history shows with appalling clarity that the very qualities which serve to protect must inevitably destroy the very conditions which they aim to preserve. Hey! Hasn't the dear old Book of Lies got its word on the subject? Never known to fail! The Wound of Amfortas The Self-Mastery of Percivale became the Self-masturbatery of the Bourgeois. Vir-tus has become "virtue. " The qualities which have made a man, a race. a city. a caste, must be thrown off; death is the penalty oj failure. As it is written: In the hour of success sacrifice that which is dearest to thee unto the Infernal Gods! The Englishman lives upon the excrement of his forefathers. All moral codes are worthless in themselves; yet in every new code there is hope. Provided always that the code is not changed because it is too hard, but because it is fulfilled.