20 
Cara Soror, 
MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS 
Letter H 
November 10-11, 1943 
11 pm-2 am 
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 
Yours of yestere'en came to gladden me just when the 
whole evening lay blank before me: the one job such a big 
job that I simply can't get down to it until I get help: How 
annoying! Still, yours the gain! 
l. That verse (AL, I: 44) condenses the whole magical 
technique . It makes clear-when you have understood it-the 
secret of success in the Great Work. Of course at first it 
appears a paradox. You must have an aim, and one aim only: 
yet on no account must you want to achieve it!!! 
Those chapters of The Book of Lies quoted in my last 
letter 4 
do throw 
some 
light 
onto this Abyss of 
self-contradiction; and there is meaning much deeper than 
the contrast between the Will with a capital W, and desire, 
want, or velleity. The main point seems to be that in aspiring 
to Power one is limited by the True Will. If you use force, 
violating your own nature either from lack of understanding 
or from petulant whim, one is merely wasting energy; things 
go back to normal as soon as the stress is removed. This is 
one small case of the big Equation "Free Will=Necessity" 
(Fate, Destiny, or Karma: it's all much the same idea). One is 
most rigidly bound by the causal chain that has dragged one 
to where one is; but it is one's own self that has forged the 
links. 
Please refrain from the obvious retort: "Then, in the long 
run, you can't possibly go wrong: so it doesn't matter what 
you do." Perfectly true, of course! ("There is no single grain 
of dust that shall not attain to Buddhahood": with some 
such words did the debauched old reprobate seek to console 
himself when Time began to take its revenge.) But the answer 
4. A letter dated October 12, 1943 constituted No. 48 in Magick without Tears.