121 {Delta }{upsilon } DE SCIENTIAE MODO.

To the mind of the early Philosopher, therefore, any
variation in type must appear as a disaster; yea, intelligence
itself must perforce prove its value to the brute, or he
distrusteth it and destroyeth it.  Yet as thou knowest, that
variation which is fitted to the environment is the salvation
of the species.  Only among men, his fellows turn ever upon
the Saviour, and rend him, until those who follow him in
secret, and it may be unconsciously, prove their virtue and
his wisdom by their survival when his persecutors perish in
their folly.  But we, being secure against all primary enemies
to the individual, or the common weal, may, nay, we must, if
we would attain the summit for our race, devote all spare
leisure, wealth, and energy to the creation of variation from
the Norm, and thus by clear knowledge bought of experiment and
of experience, move with eyes well open upon our true path.

So therefore Our Law of Thelema is justified also of biology
and of social science.  It is the true Way of Nature, the
right strategy in the way of man with his environment, and the
life of his soul.


122 {Delta }{phi } DE MONSTRIS.

Sayst thou, o my son, that not thus, but by forced
training, one cometh to perfection.  This indeed is sooth,
that by artificial selection and well-watched growth and
environment, one hath dogs, horses, pigeons, and the like,
which excel their forebears in strength, in beauty, in speed,
as one will.  Yet is this work but a false magical artifice,
temporary and of illusion; for thy masterpieces are but
monsters, not true variations, and if thou leave them, they
revert swiftly to their own proper and authentic type, because
that type was fitted by experience to its environment.  So
every variation must be left free to perpetuate itself of
perish, not cherished for its beauty, or guarded for its
appeal to thine ideal, or cut off in thy fear thereof.  For
the proof of its virtue lieth in the manifestation of its
power to survive, and to reproduce itself after its kind.

Nurse not the weakness of any man, nor swaddle and cosset him,
not though he were poet or artist because of his value to thy
fancy, for if thou do this, he shall grow in his informity, so
that even his work for which thou lovest him, shall be
enfeebled also.


123 {Delta }{chi } DE INFERNO PALATIO SAPIENTIAE.

Now then thou seest that this Hell, or concealed place
within thee, is no more a fear or hindrance to men of a free
race, but the treasure house of the assimilated wisdom of the
ages, and the knowledge of the True Way.  Thus are we just and
wise to discover this secret in ourselves, to conform the
conscious mind therewith.  For that mind is compact solely
(until it be illuminated) of impressions and judgments, so
that its will is but directed by the sum of the shallow
reactions of a most limited experience.  But thy true will is
the wisdom of the ages of thy generations, the expression of
that which hath fitted thee exactly to thine environment.
Thus thy conscious mind is oftentimes foolish, as when thou
admirest an ideal, and wouldst attain it, but thy true will
letteth thee, so that there is conflict, and the humiliation
of that mind.  Here will I call to witness the common event of
"Good Resolutions" that defy the lightning of destiny, being
puffed up by the mind of an indigestible ideal putrefying
within thee.  Thence cometh colic, and presently the poison is
expelled, or else thou diest.  But resolutions of true will
are mighty against circumstance.


124 {Delta }{psi } DE VITIIS VOLUNTATIS SECRETAE.

Learn moreover concerning this Hell, or hidden wisdom, that
is within thee, that it is modified, little by little, through
the experience of the conscious mind, which feedeth it.  For
that wisdom is the expression, or rather symbol and
hieroglyph, of the true adjustment of thy being to its
environment.  Now, then, this environment being eroded by
time, this wisdom is no more perfect, for it is not absolute,
but standeth in relation to the Universe.  So then a part
thereof may become useless, and atrophy as (I will instance
this case) Man's wit of smell; and the bodily organ
corresponding degeneratheth therewith.  But this is an effect
of much time, so that in thy hell thou art like to find
elements vain, or foolish, or contrary to thy present weal.
Yet, o my Son, this hidden wisdom is not thy true will, but
only the levers (I may say so) thereof.  Notwithstanding,
there lieth therein a faculty of balance, whereby it is able
to judge whether any element in itself is presently useful and
benign, or idle and malignant.  Here then is a root of
conflict between the conscious and the unconscious, and a
debate concerning the right order of conduct, how the will may
be accomplished.


125 {Delta }{omega } DE RATIONE PRAESIDIO VOLUNTATIS.

O my Son, in this case is there darkness, yet this comfort
as a lamp therein, that there is no error in the will, but
only doubt as to the means of success, else were we as
children afeared of Night.  Thus we have need of naught but to
consider the matter by wit of reason, and of prudence, and on
common sense, and of experience, and of science, adjusting
ourselves so far as we may.  Here is the key of success, and
its name is the skill to make right use of circumstance. This,
then is the virtue of the mind, to be the Wazir of the will, a
true counsellor, through intelligence of the Universe.  But o,
my Son, do thou lay this word beneath thine heart, that the
mind hath no will, nor right thereto, so the Usurpation
bringeth forth a fatal conflict in thyself.  For the mind is
sensitive, unstable as air, and may be led foolishly in leash
by a stronger mind that worketh as the cunning tool of a will.

Therefore thy safety and defence is to hold thy mind to his
right function, a faithful minister to thine own true will,
but election of nature.  Heed well this, o my Son, for thy
mind passive is rightly a mirror to reflect all things clearly
without prejudice, and to remain unstained by them.


126 {Epsilon }{alpha } DE CURSU SAPIENTIS.

Therefore consider this again in a figure, that thy mind is
as the marshal of an army, to observe the dispositions of the
enemy, and to order his own forces rightly, according to that
information; but he hath no will, only obedience to the word
of his king to outwit and to overcome the Opposite.  Nor doth
that king make war by his own whim, if he be wise and true,
but solely because of the necessity of his country, and its
nature, whereof he is but executive officer and interpreter,
its voice as the Marshal is its arm.  Thus then do thou
understand thyself, not giving place to thy mind to dispute
thy will, nor through ignorance and carelessness allowing the
enemy to deceive thee, nor by fear, by imprudence and
foolhardiness, by hesitation and vacillation, by disorder and
the lack of firm correctness, by failure in elasticity or in
obstinacy, each at its moment, suffering defeat in the hour of
shock.  So, then, o my Son, this is thy work, to know the word
of thy will without error, and to make perfect every faculty
of thy mind, in right order and readiness to impose that word
as law upon the Universe.  So mote it be!


127 {Epsilon }{beta } DE RATIONE QUAE SINE VOLUNTATE EST
FONS MANIAE.

Is it not a marvel how he that worketh with his will and is
in constant touch with the reality external, maketh his mind
to serve him?  How eagerly runneth it and returneth,
gathering, arranging, clarifying, classifying, organizing,
comparing, setting in array, with skill and might and energy
that faileth never!  Nay, my son, in this way thou canst be
pitiless with thy mind, and it will not rebel against thee, or
neglect thine Ordinance.  But now consider him that worketh
not with his will, how his mind is idle, not reaching out
after reality, but debating within itself of its own affairs,
like a democracy, introspective.  Then this mind, not reacting
equally and with elasticity to the world, is lost in its own
anarchy and civil war, so that although it works not, it is
overcome by weakness of division, and becometh Choronzon.  And
unto these words I call to my witness the madness of the soul
of Muscovy, in this year XIII, of our Aeon that is ended.
Therefore behold how this our Law of Thelema, Do what thou
wilt, is the first foundation of health, whether in the body
or in the mind, either of a simple, or a complex organism.


128 {Epsilon }{gamma }  DE VERITATE QUEM FEMINAE NON DICERE 
LICET.

My Son, I charge thee, however thou beest provoked thereunto, 
tell not the Truth to any woman.  For this is that which is 
written, Cast not thy pearls before swine, lest they turn 
again and rend thee.  Behold, in the nature of woman is no truth, 
nor apprehension of truth, nor possibility of truth, only, if 
thou entrust this jewel unto them, they forthwith use it to thy 
loss and destruction.  But they are ware of thine own love of 
truth, and thy respect thereunto, so therefore they tempt thee, 
flattering with their lips, that thou betray thyself to them.  
And they feign falsely, with every wile, and cast about for thy 
soul, until either in love or in wrath or in some other folly 
thereof, thou speak truth, profaning thy sanctuary.  So was it 
ever, and herein I call to my witness Samson of Timmath, that 
was lost by this error.  Now for any woman, any lie sufficeth; 
and think not in thine extremity that truth is mighty, and 
shall prevail, as it does with any man, for with a woman her 
whole craft and device is to persuade thee of this, so that 
thou utter the secret of thy soul, and become her prey. But so 
long as thou feed her with her own food of falsity, thou art 
secure.


129 {Epsilon }{delta } DE NATURA FEMINAE.

The nature of woman, o my Son, is as thou hast learned in
our most Holy Qabalah; and she is the clothing in sex of man,
the magical image of his will to love.  Therefore was it said
by thine uncle Wolfgang von Goethe:  Das Ewigweibliche zieht
uns hinan.  But therefore also hath she no nature of truth,
because she is but the Eidolon of an excitement and a going of
thy star, and appertaineth not unto its essence and stability.
So then to thee she is but matter and to her thou art but
energy, and neither is competent to the formula of the other.
Therefore also thy will is itself imperfection, as I have
shewed thee aforetime, thou art not in the way of love except
thou be dressed in that robe of thine which thou callest
woman.  And thou canst not lure her to this action proper to
her by thy truth; but thou shalt, as our grammar sayeth,
assume the mask of the spirit, that thou mayst evoke it by
sympathy.  But thou shalt appear in thy glory only when she is
in thy power, and bewildered utterly by ecstasy.  This is a
mystery, o my Son, and of old times it was declared in the
fable of Scylla and Charybdis, which are the formula of the
rock and the whirlpool.  Now then meditate thou strictly upon
this most worthy and adorable arcanum, to thy profit and
enlightenment.


130 {Epsilon }{epsilon } DE DUOBUS PRAEMIIS VIAE.

Let it be a treasure in thine heart, o my Son, this mystery
that I shall next unveil before thine eyes, O eagle that art
undazzled by the brilliance of light, that soarest continually
with virile flight to thine august inheritance.  Behold the
Beatific Vision is of two orders, and in the formula of the
Rosy Cross it is of the Heart and is called Beauty; but in the
formula of the silver star (id est, of the eye within the
triangle) it is of the mind, and is called wonder.  Otherwise
spoken, the former is of Art, a sensuous and creative
perception; but the latter of science, and intellectual and
intelligible insight.  Or again, in our Holy Qabalah, the one
is of Tiphereth, the other of Binah, and in pure philosophy,
this is a contemplation of the Cosmos, causal and dynamic, and
that of its effect in static presentation.  Now this rapture
of art is a virtue or triumph of Love in his most universal
comprehension, but the ecstasy of science is a continual
orgasm of light; that is, of the mind.  Thou sayest, o my
Father, how may I attain to this fulness and perfection?  Art
thou there, o my Son?  It is well, and blessed be the bed
wherein thou was begotten, and the womb of thy sweet Mother
Hilarion, my concubine, holy and adulterous, the Scarlet
Woman!  Amen!


131 {Epsilon }{digamma } DE ECSTASIA SAMADHI, QUO ILLIS DIFFERT.

Confuse thou not this beatific vision with the Trances
called Samadhi; yet is Samadhi the Pylon of the Temple
thereof.  For Samadhi is the orgasm of the coition of the
Unlike, and is commonly violent, even as the lightning cometh
of the discharge between two vehicles of extreme difference of
potentials.  But as I shewed formerly concerning love, how
each such discharge bringeth either component more nigh to
equilibrium, so is it in this other matter, and by experience
thou comest constantly to integration of love (or what not)
within thyself, just as all effort becometh harmonious and
easy by virtue of practice.  Rememberest thou the first time
thou was thrown into water, thy fear and thy struggles, and
the vehemence of thy joy when first thou didst swim without
support?  Then, little by little all violence dieth away,
because thou art adjusted to that condition.  Therefore the
fury of thine early victory in these arts magical and sciences
is but the sign of thine own baseness and unworthiness, since
the contrast or differential is so overwhelming to thee; but,
becoming expert and adept, thou art balanced in the glory, and
calm, even as the stars.


132 {Epsilon }{zeta } DE ARTE AMORIS ET DELICIARUM MYSTICI.

The path therefore unto this beatific vision of beauty, o
my Son, is that practice of Bhakti Yoga which is written in
the book called Eight Score and Fifteen, or "Astarte", by this
mine hand when I was in Gaul the beloved, at Montigny that is
hard by the Forest of the Blue Fountain, with Agatha my
concubine, the very soul of love and of musick, that had
ventured herself from beneath the Cross Austral that she might
seek me, to inspire and comfort me, and this was my reward
from the masters, and consolation in the years of my sorrow.
But the way that leadeth to the other form of this vision of
beatitude, to with, science is Gnana Yoga or Raja Yoga, of
which I have written only here and there, as one who should
throw great stones upon the earth in disorder, by default of
building them nobly into a pyramid.  And of this do I heartily
repent me, and ask of the God Thoth that he may give me
(albeit at the eleventh hour) virtue and with that I may
compose a true book upon these ways of union.  Thy first step,
therefore, o my Son, is to attain unto Samadhi, and to urge
thyself perpetually to repetition of thy successes therein,
for it hat been said by philosophers of old that practice
maketh perfect, and that manners, being the constant habit of
life, maketh man.


133 {Epsilon }{eta } DE PRAEMIO SUMMO, VERA SAPIENTIA ET
BEATITUDINE PERFECTA.

Now then presently shall it some to pass, as by dint of
each experience that component thereof which is within thee is
attuned to it, and this without shock, so that thou art no
longer thrown back from the trance, as exhausted, but abidest
therein, almost without knowledge of thy state.  So then at
last this Samadhi shall become normal to thy common
consciousness, as it were a point of view.  Thus all things
shall appear to thee very continually as to one in his first
love, by the vision of beauty, and by the vision of science
thou shalt marvel constantly with joy unfathomable at the
mystery of the laws whereby the Universe is upheld.  This is
that which is written: True wisdom and perfect happiness, o my
son, it is in this contemplation that on hath the reward of
the oath; it is by this that the tribulations are rolled away
as a stone from thy tomb; it is with this that thou art wholly
freed from the illusions of distinctions, being absorbed into
the body of our Lady Nuith.  May she grant thee this
beatitude; yea, not to thee only, but to all that are.


134 {Epsilon }{theta } DE INfERNO SERVORUM.

Now, o my Son, having understood the heaven that is within
thee, according to thy will, learn this concerning the hell of
the slaves of the slave-gods, that it is a true place of
torment.  For they, restricting themselves, and being divided
in will, are indeed the servants of sin, and they suffer,
because, not being united in love with the whole Universe,
they perceive not beauty, but ugliness and deformity, and, not
being united in understanding thereof. Conceive only of
darkness and confusion, beholding evil therein.  Thus at last
they come, as did the Manichaeans, to find, to their terror, a
division even in the one, not that division which we know for
the craft of love, but a division of hate.  And this,
multiplying itself, conflict upon conflict, endeth in
hotchpot, and in the impotence and envy of Choronzon, and in
the abominations of the abyss.  And of such the Lords are the
Black Brothers, who seek by their sorceries to confirm
themselves in division, yet in this even is no true evil, for
love conquereth all, and their corruption and disintegration
is also the victory of Babalon.


135 {Epsilon }{iota } RHAPSODIA DE DOMINA NOSTRA.

Blessed be She, ay, blessed unto the Ages be our Lady B A B
A L O N, that plieth her scourge upon me, {Tau }{Omicron }
{Mu }{Epsilon }{Gamma }{Alpha } {Tau }{Theta }{Eta }{Rho }
{Iota }{Omicron }{Nu }, to compel me to creation and to 
destruction, which are one, in birth and in death, being Love!  
Blessed be She, uniting the egg with the serpent, and 
restoring man unto his mother, the earth! Blessed be she, that 
offereth beauty and ecstasy in the orgasm of every change, and 
that exciteth thy wonder and thy worship by the contemplation 
of her mind many-wiled!  Blessed be She, that hath filled her 
cup with every drop of my blood, so that my life is lost 
wholly in the wine of her rapture!  Behold, how she is 
drunken thereon, and staggereth about the heavens, wallowing 
in joy, crying aloud the song of uttermost love!  Is not she 
thy true mother among the stars, o my Son, and hast thou not 
embraced her in the madness of incest and adultery?

Yea, blessed be she, blessed be her name, and the name of her
name, unto the ages!


136 {Epsilon }{kappa } RHAPSODIA DE ASTRO SUO

O my Son, knowest thou not the joy to lie in the wilderness
and to behold the stars, in their majesty of motion calm and
irresistible?  Hast thou thought there that thou art also as
star, free because consciously in accord with the law and
determination of thy being?  It was thine own true will that
bound thee in thine orbit; therefore thou speedest on thy path
from glory unto glory in continual joy.  O Son, o reward of my
work, o harmony and completion of my nature, o token of my
toil, o witness of my love for thy sweet Mother, the holy and
adulterous Hilarion, my concubine, adorable in thine innocence
as she in her perfection, is not this verily intoxication of
the spirit in the innermost, to be free absolutely and
eternally, to run and to return upon the course in the play of
love, to filfil nature constantly in light and life?  "Afloat
in the Air, o my god!"  Without support, without constraint,
wing thine own way, o swan, o bliss of brightness!


137 {Epsilon }{lambda } DE HARMONIA VOLUNTATIS CUM DESTINIA.

This is the evident and final solvent of the Knot
Philosophical concerning fate and free will, that it is thine
own self, omniscient and omnipotent, sublime in eternity, that
first didst order the course of thine orbit, so that the which
befalleth thee by fate is indeed the necessary effect of thine
own will.  These two, then, that like Gladiators have made war
in philosophy through these many centuries, are one by the
love under will which is the Law of Thelema.  O my son, there
is no doubt that resolveth not in certainty and rapture at the
touch of the wand of our law, as thou apply it with wit.  Do
thou grow constantly in the assimilation of the law, and thou
shalt be made perfect.  Behold, there is a pageant of triumph
as each star, free from confusion, sweepeth free in his right
orbit; all heaven acclaimeth thee as thou goest,
transcendental in joy and in splendour; and thy light is as a
beacon to them that wander afar, strayed in the night.  Amon.


138 {Epsilon }{mu } PARANTHESIS DE QUADAM VIRGINE.

Now, o my Son, I will declare unto thee the virtue of that
part of love which receiveth and draweth, being the
counterpart of thine own.  For behold!  I am moved in myself
by the absence of the virgin that is appointed for me.  And
her eagerness of purity doth encompass me with its soft
tenderness, and twineth about me with sweet scent so that my
mind is enkindled with a gentle flame, luminous and subtle,
and I write unto thee as in a dream; for in this enchantment
of her devotion I am caught up cunningly into beautitude, with
great joy of the Gods that have bestrewn my way with flowers,
ay many flowers and herbs of magick and of holiness withal to
match their beauty.  Nay, o my son, I will cease this epistle
unto thee for awhile, that I may rest in the pleasure of this
contemplation, for it is solace ineffable, and recreation like
unto sleep among the mountains.  Yea, can I wish thee more
than this, that, coming to mine age, thou mayst find a virgin
like unto this to draw thee with her simplicity, and her
embroidered silence?


139 {Epsilon }{nu } DE CONSTANTIA AMORIS, CORVO CANDIDO.

Think it not strange, my Son, that I, praising adultery,
should praise also constancy and delight therein.  For this is
to state ill thy question.  Herein is truth and wisdom
concerning this matter, that so long as love be not wholly
satisfied, and equilibrated by entire fulfilment and exchange,
constancy is a point of thy concentration and adultery a
division in thy will.  But when thou hast the summit and
perfection of any work, of what worth is it to continue
therein?  Hast thou two stomachs, as has a cow, to chew the
cud of a digested love?  Yet, o my Son, this constancy is not
of necessity a stagnation.  Hay, behold the body of our lady
Nuith, therein are found twin suns, that revolve constantly
about each other.  So also it may be in love, that two souls,
meeting, discover each in the other such wealth and richness
of light and love, and in one phase of life (or incarnation)
or even in many, they exhaust not that treasure.  Or will I 
say that such are not in their degree and quality thrice
fortunate.  But to persist in dulness, in satiety, and in
mutual irritation and abhorrence, is contrary to the way of
nature.  So therefore there is no rule in any such case, but
the law shall give light to every one that hath it in his
heart, and by that wisdom let him govern himself.


140 {Epsilon }{xi } DE MYSTERIO MAL.

Moreover, say not thou in thy syllogism that, since every
change soever, be it the creation of a symphony, or a poem, or
the putrefaction of a carcass, is an art of love, and since we
are to make no difference between any thing and any other
thing, therefore all changes are equal in respect of our
praise.  For though this be a right conclusion in the term of
thy comprehension as a master of the Temple, yet it is false
in the eyes of the mind that hath not attained this
understanding.  So therefore any change (or phenomenon)
appeareth noble or base to the imperfect mind, according to
its consonance and harmony with the will that governeth the
mind.  Thus if it be thy will to delight in rhythm and 
Oeconomy of words, the advertisement of a commodity may 
offend thee; but if thou art in need of that merchandise, thou 
wilt rejoice therein.  Praise then or blame aught, as seemeth 
good unto thee; but with this reflection, that thy judgment is 
relative to thine own condition, and not absolute.  This also 
is a point of tolerance, whereby thy shalt avoid indeed those 
things that are hateful or noxious to thee, unless thou canst 
(in our mode) win them by love, by withdrawing thine attention 
from them; but thou shalt not destroy them, for that they are