O.T.O.
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94930
USA

(415) 454-5176 ---- messages only.

LIMITED LICENSE Except for notations added to the historyof modification, the
text on this diskette down to the next row of asterisksmust accompany all
copies made of this file. In particular, this paragraphand the copyright
notice are not to be deleted or changed on any copiesor print-outs of this
file. With these provisos, anyone may copy this filefor personal use or
research. Copies may be made for others at reasonablecost of copying and
mailing only, no additional charges may be added.

A Tract of TO MEGA VHRION 666

That is a Magus 9ш=2 A...A...

This Epistle first appeared in The Equinox III(1) (Detroit:Universal,
1919), and is an expository commentary on Liber Legis--TheBook of the
Law, from which the quotations are taken.--H.B.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
 

I
 

I AM OFTEN ASKED why I begin my letters in this way. Nomatter whether
I am writing to my lady or to my butcher, always I beginwith these eleven words. Why, how else should I begin? What other greetingcould be so glad? Look, brother, we are free! Rejoice with me, sister,there is no law beyond Do what thou wilt!

II
 

I WRITE this for those who have not read our Sacred book,The Book of the Law, or for those who, reading it, have somehow failedto understand its perfection. For there are many matters in this Book,and the Glad Tidings are now here, now there, scattered throughout theBook as the Stars are scattered through the field of Night. Rejoice withme, all ye people! At the very head of the Book stands the great
charter of our godhead: ``Every man and every woman isa star.'' We are all free, all independent, all shining gloriously, eachone a radiant world. Is not that good tidings?

Then comes the first call of the Great Goddess Nuit, Ladyof the Starry Heaven, who is also Matter in its deepest metaphysical sense,who is the infinite in whom all we live and move and have our being. HearHer first summons to us men and women: ``Come forth, o children, underthe stars, & take your fill of love! I am above you and in you. Myecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.'' Later She explains themystery of sorrow: ``For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance ofunion.''

``This is the creation of the world, that the pain ofdivision is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.''

It is shown later how this can be, how death itself isan ecstasy like love, but more intense, the reunion of the soul with itstrue self.

And what are the conditions of this joy, and peace, andglory? Is ours the gloomy asceticism of the Christian, and the Buddhist,and the Hindu? Are we walking in eternal fear lest some ``sin'' shouldcut us off from ``grace''? By no means.

``Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine apparel; eatrich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam! Also, take your filland will of love as ye will, when, where, and with whom ye will! But alwaysunto me.''

This is the only point to bear in mind, that every actmust be a ritual, an act of worship, a sacrament. Live as the kings andprinces, crowned and uncrowned, of this world, have always lived, as mastersalways live; but let it not be self-indulgence; make your self-indulgenceyour religion.

When you drink and dance and take delight, you are notbeing ``immoral,'' you are not ``risking your immortal soul''; you arefulfilling the precepts of our holy religion--provided only that you rememberto regard your actions in this light. Do not lower yourself and destroyand cheapen your pleasure by leaving out the supreme joy, the consciousnessof the Peace that passeth understanding. Do not
embrace mere Marian or Melusine; she is Nuit Herself,specially concentrated and incarnated in a human form to give you infinitelove, to bid you taste even on earth the Elixir of Immortality. ``But ecstasybe thine and joy of earth: ever To me! To me!''

Again She speaks: ``Love is the law, love under will.''Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever toward it without allowing aughtto stop you or turn you aside, even as a star sweeps upon its incalculableand infinite course of glory, and all is Love. The Law of your being becomesLight, Life, Love and Liberty. All is peace, all is harmony and beauty,all is joy.

For hear, how gracious is the Goddess; ``I give unimaginablejoys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable,rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.''

Is this not better than the death-in-life of the slavesof the Slave-Gods, as they go oppressed by consciousness of ``sin,'' wearilyseeking or simulating wearisome and tedious ``virtues''?

With such, we who have accepted the Law of Thelema havenothing to do. We have heard the Voice of the Star-Goddess: ``I love you!I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasureand purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put onthe wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!''And thus She ends:

``Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes!Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you! I am the blue-liddeddaughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.To me! To me!'' And with these words ``The Manifestation of Nuit is atan end.''
 

III
 

IN THE NEXT CHAPTER of our book is given the word of Hadit,who is the
complement of Nuit. He is eternal energy, the InfiniteMotion of Things, the central core of all being. The manifested Universecomes from the marriage of Nuit and Hadit; without this could no thingbe. This eternal, this perpetual marriage-feast is then the nature of thingsthemselves; and therefore everything that is, is a
crystallization of divine ecstasy.

Hadit tells us of Himiself: ``I am the flame that burnsin every heart of man, and in the core of every star.'' He is then yourown inmost divine self; it is you, and not another, who are lost in theconstant rapture of the embraces of Infinite Beauty. A little further onHe speaks of us:

``We are not for the poor and the sad: the lords of theearth are our kinsfolk.''

``Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are ofus. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.''

``Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and deliciouslanguor, force and fire, are of us.'' Later, concerning death, He says:``Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shaltnot die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve,he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever.'' When you know that, what isleft but delight? And how are we to live meanwhile?

``It is a lie, this folly against self.'' {...} ``Be strong,o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any Godshall deny thee for this.''

Again and again, in words like these, He sees the expansionand the development of the soul through joy.

Here is the Calendar of our Church: ``But ye, o my people,rise up & awake! Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy &beauty!'' Remember that all acts of love and pleasure are rituals, mustbe rituals. ``There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride! A feast for thethree days of the writing of the Book of the Law. A feast for Tahuti andthe child of the Prophet--secret, o Prophet! A feast for the Supreme Ritual,and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods. A feast for fire and a feast forwater; a feast for life and a greater feast for death! A feast every dayin your hearts in the joy of my rapture! A feast every night unto Nu, andthe pleasure of uttermost delight!
Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. Thereis the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.'' It all dependson your own acceptance of this new law, and you are not asked to believeanything, to accept a string of foolish fables beneath the intellectuallevel of a Bushman and the moral level of a drug-fiend.
All you have to do is to be yourself, to do your will,and to rejoice.

``Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?''He says again: ``Where I am, these are not.'' There is much more of thesame kind; enough has been quoted already to make all clear. But thereis a further injunction. ``Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bearmore joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by theeight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy;
and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!But exceed! exceed! Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine--anddoubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous!--death is the crown of all.''

Lift yourselves up, my brothers and sisters of the earth!Put beneath your feet all fears, all qualms, all hesitancies! Lift yourselvesup! Come forth, free and joyous, by night and day, to do your will; for``There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.'' Lift yourselves up! Walkforth with us in Light and Life and Love and Liberty, taking our pleasureas Kings and Queens in Heaven and on Earth.

The sun is arisen; the spectre of the ages has been putto flight. ``The word of Sin is Restriction,'' or as it has been otherwisesaid on this text: That is Sin, to hold thine holy spirit in!

Go on, go on in thy might; and let no man make thee afraid.

Love is the law, love under will.