Text from ÒMagick Without Tears," a book of collected letters by Aleister Crowley Edited by Israel Regardie Copyright 1983 Falcon Press Page 302: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. No man alive can appreciate better than myself the difficulties connected with ÒThe Book of the Law.Ó You ask me, if I have rightly analysed your somewhat complicated series of questions, to advise you as to your attitude towards that Book. To begin: the Author is quite certainly both more than human, and other than human. His main aim seems to me to announce the Magical Formula of the Aeon of Horus, and to lay down the fundamental principles of conduct that are consistent with it. I put this first, because your troubles belong to this part of the Book. But let me sort out the principal parts of it. 1. There is a system of the most sublime philosophy which stands altogether apart from any Aeon, or from any other limited condition. 2. There is a considerable proportion of the contents which appears to refer to ÒThe BeastÓ and ÒThe Scarlet WomanÓ personally; but these titles may be assumed to refer to any one who happens to hold either of those offices during the whole period of the Aeon -- approximately 2000 years. 3. The sex morality of the Book is not very different from that maintained secretly by aristocrats since the world began. It is the system natural to any one who has psycho-analysed away all his complexes, repressions, fixations, and phobias. 4. As matriarchy reflected the Formula of the Aeon of Isis, and patriarchy that of Osiris, so does the rule of the ÒCrowned and Conquering ChildÓ express that of Horus. The family, the clan, the state count for nothing: the Individual is the Autarch. 5. The Book announces a new dichotomy in human society: there is the master and there is the slave; the noble and the serf; the Òlone wolfÓ and the herd. (Nietzsche may be regarded as one of our prophets; to a much less extent, de Gobineau.) HitlerÕs ÔHerrenvolkÕ is a not too dissimilar idea; but there is no volk about it; and if there were, it would certainly not be the routine-loving, uniform obsessed, law-abiding, refuge-seeking German; the Briton, especially the Celt, a natural anarchist, is much nearer the mark. Britons will never get together about anything unless and until each one of them feels himself directly threatened. Now here I must tell you a story which may throw a good deal of light on much that is obscure in the political situation of Ô25 to date. The venerable lady (S.H. Soror I.W.E. 8 = 3) who, on the death of S.H. Frater 8=3, Otto Gebhardi, succeeded him as my representative in Germany (note that all this pertains to the A.A.; the O.T.O. is not directly concerned) attained the grade of Hermit (AL, I:40). Watching the situation in Europe, she became constantly more convinced that Adolf Hitler was her ÒMagical ChildÓ; and she conceived it to be her duty to devote her life (for the Hermit Ògives only of his Light unto menÓ) to his Magical Education. Knowing that the hegemony of the world would fall to the nation that first accepted the Law of Thelema, she made haste to put ÒThe Book of the LawÓ in the hands of her Òchild.Ó Upon him it most undoubtable made the deepest impression, especially as she swore him most solemnly to secrecy as to the source of his power. (Obviously, he would not wish to share it with others.) From time to time, when circumstances suggested it, she wrote to him, enclosing pertinent sections of my commentary, of which I had given her a copy at the time of the ÒZeugnis.Ó [ÒZeugnis der SuchendenÓ: a declaration she had signed in 1925.] Had HItler been a less abnormal character, no great Òmischief,Ó or at least a very different kind of Òmischief,Ó might have come of it. I think you have read ÒHitler SpeaksÓ--if not, do so--his private conversation abounds in what sound almost like actual quotations from ÒThe Book of the Law.Ó But the public manÕs private conversation can be repeated on the platform only at the risk of his political life; and he served up to the people only such concoctions as would tickle their gross palates. Worse still, he was the slave of his prophetic frenzy; he had not undertaken the balancing regimen of the Curriculum of A.A.; and, worst of all, he was very far indeed from being a full initiate, even in the loosest sense of the term. His Weltanshauung was accordingly a mass of personal and political prejudice; he had no true cosmic comprehension, no true appreciation of First Principles; and he was tossed about in every direction by the varied conflicting forces that naturally concentrated their energies ever more strenuously upon him as his personal position became more and more the dominating factor, first in domestic and then in European politics. I warned our S. H. Soror repeatedly that she ought to correct these tendencies; but she already saw the success of her plans within her grasp, and refused to believe that this success itself would alarm the world into combining to destroy him. ÒBut we have the Book,Ó she confidently retorted, failing to see that the other powers in extremity would be compelled to adopt those identical principles. Of course, as you know, it has happened as I foresaw, only a remnant of piety-putrefied Prelates and sloppy sentimentalists still hold out against ÒThe Book of the Law,Ó sabotage the victory, and will turn the Peace into a shambles of surrender if we are fools enough to give ear to their caterwauling--as in the story of the highly-esteemed Tomcat, when at last one of his fans obtained an interview; Òall he could do was to talk about his operation.Ó ÒÔThe Book of the LawÕ takes us back to primitive savagery,Ó you say. Well, where are we? WeÕre at Guernica, Lidice, Oradour-sur-Glane, Rotterdam and hundreds of other crimes, to say nothing of Concentration-camp, Stalag, and a million lesser horrors, inconceivable by the most diseased and inflamed Sadistic imagination forty years ago. You disagree with Aiwass--so do all of us. The trouble is that He can say: ÒBut IÕm not arguing; IÕm telling you.Ó Page 392: . . . It is nearly always a mistake to try to do things entirely off oneÕs own bat. It is much simpler to look for an existing force, in good working order, that is doing the sort of stuff that you need, and take from it, or control in it, just that bit of it that you happen to require. You can, theoretically, walk from Cadiz to Vladivostock; but unless there be some special reason, it will save time and waste of energy to make use of a fraction of the machine-power that happens to be moving in that direction. This is particularly true of moral and political reform. Hitler would have got exactly nowhere if he had been content to announce his evangel; he became master of Germany, and, for a time, of nearly all Europe, by playing upon existing instruments of human passion; the revenge-lust of Central Europe, the panic of the Blimps and Junkers, the discontent of the property-lacking classes, the pride and ambition of the Prusssian military clique, and so on. When he had used them to the full, he callously flung them to the wolves. But make no mistake! The Magical Power behind all his actions lay in himself. He had succeeded in making himself a prophet, like Mohammed; even a symbol, like the Cross of the Crusades. His magical technique was indescribably admirable; he adopted the Swastika, the Hammer of Thor, the distinctive dress, the slogan, the gestures, the greeting; he even imposed a Sacred Book upon the people. If that book had only been more mystic and incomprehensible, instead of reasonable, diffuse and intolerably dull, he might have done better. As it was, he came within an ace of capturing England, even before he came to power in Germany; and it was American money that saved the Nazi party at the most critical moment. Cleverest move of all, he gave the world something to hate: the Communist and the Jew. His only trouble was that he couldnÕt count on his fingers! Page 438: Short of the ideals above outlined, you may as well have a Ôpis allerÕ--words of astonishing insight and wisdom, not alien to the Law Thelema, and written by one who was trained on ÒThe Book of the LawÓ: ÒSelf-confidence must be cultivated in the younger members of the nation from childhood onwards. Their whole education and training must be directed towards giving them a conviction that they are superior to others. ÒIn the case of female education, the main stress should be laid on bodily training, after that on character, and last of all, on the intellect; but the one absolute aim of female education must be with a view to the future mother.Ó They are quoted as an extreme example of all that is horrible and evil by Mr. George E. Chust of the Daily Telegraph--from ÔMein KampfÕ!