Magick Without Tears

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.