LIBER DCCCXXXVII ~ LEX LIBERTATIS ~ ALEISTER CROWLEY ~ LAW OF LIBERTY ~ BOOK 837
a tract of το μεγα θηριον 666
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law I am often asked why I begin my letters in this way no matter whether I am writing to my lady or to my butcher always I begin with these eleven words why how else should I begin what other greeting could be so glad look brother we are free rejoice with me sister there is no law beyond do what thou wilt 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 failed to understand its perfection for there are many matters in this book and the glad tidings are now here now there scattered throughout the book as the stars are scattered through the field of night rejoice with me all ye people —— at the very head of the book stands the great charter of our godhead every man and every woman is a star we are all free all independent all shining gloriously each one a radiant world is not that good tidings then comes the first call of the great goddess nuit lady of 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 hear her first summons to us men and women come forth o children under the stars & take your fill of love I am above you and in you my ecstasy is in yours my joy is to see your joy later she explains the mystery of sorrow for I am divided for love's sake for the chance of union this is the creation of the world that the pain of division is as nothing and the joy of dissolution all it is shown later how this can be how death itself is an ecstasy like love but more intense the reunion of the soul with its true self and what are the conditions of this joy and peace and glory is ours the gloomy asceticism of the christian and the buddhist and the hindu are we walking in eternal fear lest some sin should cut us off from grace by no means be goodly therefore dress ye all in fine apparel eat rich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam also take your fill and will of love as ye will when where and with whom ye will but always unto me this is the only point to bear in mind that every act must be a ritual an act of worship a sacrament live as the kings and princes crowned and uncrowned of this world have always lived as masters always live but let it not be self-indulgence make your self-indulgence your religion when you drink and dance and take delight you are not being immoral you are not risking your immortal soul you are fulfilling the precepts of our holy religion provided only that you remember to regard your actions in this light do not lower yourself and destroy and cheapen your pleasure by leaving out the supreme joy the consciousness of 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 infinite love to bid you taste even on earth the elixir of immortality but ecstasy be 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 aught to stop you or turn you aside even as a star sweeps upon its incalculable and infinite course of glory and all is love the law of your being becomes light life love and liberty all is peace all is harmony and beauty all is joy for hear how gracious is the goddess I give unimaginable joys 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 slaves of the slave-gods as they go oppressed by consciousness of sin wearily seeking or simulating wearisome and tedious virtues with such we who have accepted the law of thelema have nothing 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 pleasure and purple and drunkenness of the innermost sense desire you put on the 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-lidded daughter 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 at an end —— in the next chapter of our book is given the word of hadit who is the complement of nuit he is eternal energy the infinite motion of things the central core of all being the manifested universe comes from the marriage of nuit and hadit without this could no thing be this eternal this perpetual marriage-feast is then the nature of things themselves and therefore everything that is is a crystallization of divine ecstasy hadit tells us of himself I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star he is then your own inmost divine self it is you and not another who are lost in the constant rapture of the embraces of infinite beauty a little further on he speaks of us we are not for the poor and the sad the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk is a god to live in a dog no but the highest are of us they shall rejoice our chosen who sorroweth is not of us beauty and strength leaping laughter and delicious languor force and fire are of us later concerning death he says think not o king upon that lie that thou must die verily thou shalt not 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 is left but delight and how are we to live meanwhile it is a lie this folly against self be strong man lust enjoy all things of sense and rapture fear not that any god shall deny thee for this again and again in words like these he sees the expansion and 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 must be 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 the three days of the writing of the book of the law a feast for tahuti and the 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 for water a feast for life and a greater feast for death a feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture a feast every night unto nu and the pleasure of uttermost delight aye feast rejoice there is no dread hereafter there is the dissolution and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of nu it all depends on your own acceptance of this new law and you are not asked to believe anything to accept a string of foolish fables beneath the intellectual level 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 the same kind enough has been quoted already to make all clear but there is a further injunction wisdom says be strong then canst thou bear more joy be not animal refine thy rapture if thou drink drink by the eight 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 and doubt 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 yourselves up 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 walk forth with us in light and life and love and liberty taking our pleasure as kings and queens in heaven and on earth the sun is arisen the spectre of the ages has been put to flight the word of sin is restriction or as it has been otherwise said 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.
stepping out of the old aeon and into the new ~ frater achad
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law as all of you should know we have entered a new aeon a higher truth has been given to the world this truth is waiting in readiness for all those who will consciously accept it but it has to be realized before it is understood and day by day those who have accepted this law and are trying to live it realize more and more of its beauty and perfection the new teaching appears strange at first and the mind is unable to grasp more than a fragment of what it really means only when we are living the law can that fragment expand into the infinite conception of the whole I want you to share with me one little fragment of this great truth which has been made clear to me this sun-day morning I want you to come with me if you will just across the border-line of the old aeon and gaze for a moment at the new then if the aspect pleases you you will stay or it may be you will return for a while but the road once opened and the path plain you will always be able to get there again in the twinkling of an eye just by readjusting your inner sight to the truth you know how deeply we have always been impressed with the ideas of sun-rise and sun-set and how our ancient brethren seeing the sun disappear at night and rise again in the morning based their religious ideas in this one conception of a dying and re-arisen god this is the central idea of the religion of the old aeon but we have left it behind us because although it seemed to be based on nature and nature's symbols are always true yet we have outgrown this idea which is only apparently true in nature since this great ritual of sacrifice and death was conceived and perpetuated we through the observation of our men of science have come to know that it is not the sun which rises and sets but the earth on which we live which revolves so that its shadow cuts us off from the sunlight during what we call night the sun does not die as the ancients thought it is always shining always radiating life and life stop for a moment and get a clear conception of this sun how he is shining in the early morning shining at mid-day shining in the evening and shining at night have you got this idea clearly in your minds you have stepped out of the old aeon and into the new —— now let us consider what has happened in order to get this mental picture of the ever shining sun what did you do you identified yourself with the sun you stepped out of the consciousness of this planet and for a moment you had to consider yourself as a solar being then why step back again you may have done so involuntarily because the light was so great that it seemed as darkness but do it again this time more fully and let us consider what the changes in our concept of the universe will be the moment we identify ourselves with the sun we realized that we have become the source of light that we too are now shining gloriously but we also realize that the sunlight is no longer for us for we can no longer see the sun any more than in our little old-aeon consciousness we could see ourselves all around us is perpetual night but it is the starlight and the body of our lady nuit in which we live and move and have our being then from this height we look back upon the little planet earth of which we a moment ago were part and think of ourselves as shedding our light upon all those individuals we have called our brothers and sisters the slaves that serve but we do not stop there imagine the sun concentrating his rays for a moment on one tiny spot the earth what happens it is burnt up it is consumed it disappears but in our solar consciousness is truth and though we glance for a moment at the little sphere we have left behind us and it is no more yet there is that which remains what remains what has happened we realize that every man and every woman is a star we gaze around at our wider heritage we gaze at the body of our lady nuit we are not in darkness we are much nearer to her now what from the little planet looked like specks of light are now blazing like other great suns and these are truly our brothers and sisters whose essential and starry nature we had never before seen and realized these are the remains of those we thought we had left behind there is plenty of room here each one travels in his true path all is joy now if you want to step back into the old aeon do so but try and bear in mind that those around you are in reality suns and stars not little shivering slaves if you are not willing to be a king yourself still recognize that they have a right to kingship even as you have whenever you wish to accept it and the moment you desire to do so you have only to remember this look at things from the point of view of the sun love is the law love under will.
liber lxxvii ~ book 77
LIBER OZ: THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN
The law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. — AL. II
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. — AL. I
Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that and no other shall say nay. — AL. I
Every man and every woman is a star. — AL. I
There is no god but man.
1. Man has the right to live by his own law:
to live in the way that he wills to do:
to work as he will:
to play as he will:
to rest as he will:
to die when and how he will.
2. Man has the right to eat what he will:
to drink what he will:
to dwell where he will:
to move as he will on the face of the earth.
3. Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will.
4. Man has the right to love as he will.
Take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where, and with whom ye will. — AL. I
5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights.
The slaves shall serve — AL. II
Love is the law love under will. — AL. I