DUTY

by Aleister Crowley

A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be

observed by those who accept the Law of

Thelema.

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

I:40

"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." AL III:60

"[...] thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that,

and no other shall say nay. For pure will,

unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is

every way perfect." AL I:42-44

"Love is the law, love under will." AL I:57

"Every man and every woman is a star." AL I:3

A. YOUR DUTY TO YOURSELF

1. Find yourself to be the centre of your own Universe.

"I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the

core of every star." AL II:6

2. Explore the Nature and Powers of your own Being.

This includes everything which is, or can be, for you: and

you must accept everything exactly as it is in

itself, as one of the factors which go to make up your True

Self. This True Self thus ultimately includes all things

soever; its discovery is Initiation (the travelling

inwards) and as its Nature is to move continually, it must

understood not as static, but as dynamic, not as a Noun but

as a Verb.

3. Develop in due harmony and proportion every faculty which

you possess.

"Wisdom says: be strong!" AL II:70

"But exceed! exceed!" AL II:71

"Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and

rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for

this." AL II:22

4. Contemplate your own Nature.

Consider every element thereof both separately and in

relation to all the rest as to judge accurately the true

purpose of the totality of your Being.

5. Find the formula of this purpose, or "True Will", in an

expression as simple as possible.

Learn to understand clearly how best to manipulate the

energies which you control to obtain the results

most favourable to it from its relations with the part of

the

Universe which you do not yet control.

6. Extend the dominion of your consciousness, and its

control of all forces alien to it, to the utmost.

Do this by the ever stronger and more skillful application

of your faculties to the finer, clearer, fuller, and

more accurate perception, the better understanding, and the

more wisely ordered government, of that external Universe.

7. Never permit the thought or will of any other Being to

interfere with your own.

Be constantly vigilant to resent, and on the alert to

resist, with unvanquishable ardour and vehemence of

passion unquenchable, every attempt of any other Being to

influence you otherwise than by contributing new facts to

your experience of the Universe, or by assisting

you to reach a higher synthesis of Truth by the mode of

passionate fusion.

8. Do not repress or restrict any true instinct of your

Nature; but devote all in perfection to the sole service

of your one True

Will.

"Be goodly therefore..." AL I:51

"The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife,

if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart!

There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all

else is a

curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell." AL I:41

"So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do

that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will,

unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is

every way perfect." AL I:42-44

"Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye

shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the

nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the

love

of me, and so shall ye come to my joy." AL I:61 "Remember

all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the

sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but

there is that which remains." AL II:9

"But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Let the rituals be

rightly performed with joy & beauty! [...] 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." AL II:34-

36...41-44

"Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in

our passionate peace, & write sweet words

for the Kings!" AL II:64

"Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be

lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death

shall be the seal of the promise of our agelong love. Come!

lift up thine heart & rejoice!" AL II:66

"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." AL II:19-20

B. YOUR DUTY TO OTHER INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN

1. Unite yourself passionately with every other form of

consciousness,

Thus destroying the sense of separateness from the Whole,

and creating a new baseline in the Universe

from which to measure it.

"Love is the law, love under will." AL I:57

"Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill

of love!" AL I:12

2. "As brothers fight ye!" AL III:59

"If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him." AL II:59

To bring out saliently the differences between two points-of-

view is useful to both in measuring the

position of each in the whole. Combat stimulates the virile

creative energy; and, like love, of which it is one form,

excites the mind to an orgasm which enables it to

transcend its rational dullness.

3. Abstain from all interferences with other wills.

"Beware lest any force another, King against King!" AL II:24

The love and war in the previous injunctions are of the

nature of sport, where one respects, and learns

from the opponent, but never interferes with him, outside

the

actual game. To seek to dominate or influence another is to

seek to deform or destroy him; and he is a

necessary part of one's own Universe, that is, of one's

self.

4. Seek, if you so will, to enlighten another when need

arises.

This may be done, always with the strict respect for the

attitude of the good sportsman, when he is in

distress through failure to understand himself clearly,

especially

when he specifically demands help; for his darkness may

hinder one's perception of his perfection. (Yet

also his darkness may serve as a warning, or excite one's

interest.) It is also lawful when his ignorance has lead him

to interfere with one's will. All interference is

in any case dangerous, and demands the exercise of extreme

skill and good judgement, fortified by experience. To

influence another is to leave one's citadel

unguarded; and the attempt commonly ends in losing one's own

self-supremacy.

5. Worship all!

"Every man and every woman is a star." AL I:3

"Mercy let be off; damn them who pity!" AL III:18

"We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them

die in their misery. For they feel not.

Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched &

the

weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the

joy of the world. 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. Nuit!

Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light;

these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake." AL

II:21

Each being is, exactly as you are, the sole centre of a

Universe in no wise identical with, or even

assimilable to, your own. The impersonal Universe of

"Nature" is

only an abstraction, approximately true, of the factors

which it is convenient to regard as common to all.

The Universe of another is therefore necessarily unknown to,

and unknowable by, you; but it induces currents of energy in

yours by determining in part your reactions.

Use men and women, therefore, with the absolute respect

due to inviolable standards of measurement; verify your own

observations by comparison with similar

judgements made by them; and, studying the methods which

determine their failure or success, acquire for yourself the

wit and skill required to cope with your own

problems.

Pity, sympathy and like emotions are fundamentally insults

to the Godhead of the person exciting them,

and therefore also to your own. The distress of another may

be relieved; but always with the positive and noble idea of

making manifest the perfection of the Universe.

Pity is the source of every mean, ignoble, cowardly vice;

and the essential blasphemy against Truth.

"To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of

ordeal, which is bliss." AL III:62

C. YOUR DUTY TO MANKIND

1. Establish the Law of Thelema as the sole basis of

conduct.

The general welfare of the race being necessary in many

respects to your own, that well-being, like your

own, principally a function of the intelligent and wise

observance of the Law of Thelema, it is of the very first

importance to you that every individual should

accept frankly that Law, and strictly govern himself in full

accordance therewith.

You may regard the establishment of the Law of Thelema as an

essential element of your True Will, since,

whatever the ultimate nature of that Will, the evident

condition of putting it into execution is freedom from

external interference.

Governments too often exhibit the most deplorable stupidity,

however enlightened may be the men who

compose and constitute them, or the people whose destinies

they direct. It is therefore incumbent on every man and

woman to take the proper steps to cause the

revisions of all existing statutes on the basis of the Law

Thelema. This Law being a Law of Liberty, the aim of the

legislature must be to secure the amplest

freedom for each individual in the state, eschewing the

presumptuous assumption that any given positive ideal is

worthy to be obtained.

"The word of Sin is Restriction." AL I:41

The essence of crime is that it restricts the freedom of the

individual outraged. (Thus, murder restricts his

right to live; robbery, his right to enjoy the fruits of his

labour; coining, his right to the guarantee of the state

that he shall barter in security; etc.) It is then the

common duty to prevent crime by segregating the criminal,

and

by the threat of reprisals; also, to teach the criminal that

his acts, being analyzed, are contrary to his own

True Will. (This may often be accomplished by taking from

him the right which he has denied to others; as by outlawing

the thief, so that he feels constant anxiety for

the safety of his own possessions, removed from the ward

of the State.) The rule is quite simple. He who violated any

right declares magically that it does not exist;

therefore it no longer does so, for him.

Crime being a direct spiritual violation of the Law of

Thelema, it should not be tolerated in the

community. Those who possess the instinct should be

segregated in a

settlement to build up a state of their own, so to learn the

necessity of themselves imposing and

maintaining rules of justice. All artificial crimes should

be abolished.

When fantastic restrictions disappear, the greater freedom

of the individual will itself teach him to avoid

acts which really restrict natural rights. Thus real crime

will

diminish automatically.

The administration of the Law should be simplified by

training men of uprightness and discretion whose

will is to fulfill this function in the community to decide

all

complaints by the abstract principle of the Law of Thelema,

and to award judgement on the basis of the

actual restriction caused by the offense.

The ultimate aim is thus to reintegrate Conscience, on true

scientific principles, as the warden of conduct,

the monitor of the people, and the guarantee of their

governors.

D. YOUR DUTY TO ALL OTHER BEINGS AND THINGS

1. Apply the Law of Thelema to all problems of fitness, use,

and development.

It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to abuse the natural

qualities of any animal or object by diverting it

from its proper function, as determined by consideration of

its history and structure. Thus, to train children to

perform mental operations, or to practice tasks, for

which they are unfitted, is a crime against nature.

Similarly, to

build houses of rotten material, to adulterate food, to

destroy forests, etc., etc., is to offend.

The Law of Thelema is to be applied unflinchingly to decide

every question of conduct. The inherent

fitness of any thing for any proposed use should be the sole

criterion.

Apparent, and sometimes even real, conflict between

interests will frequently arise. Such cases are to be

decided by the general value of the contending parties in

the

scale of Nature. Thus, a tree has a right to its life; but a

man being more than a tree, he may cut it down

for fuel or shelter when need arises. Even so, let him

remember that the Law never fails to avenge infraction: as

when wanton deforestation has ruined a

climate or a soil, or as when the importation of rabbits for

a cheap

supply of food has created a plague.

Observe that the violation of the Law of Thelema produces

cumulative ills. The drain of the agricultural

population to big cities, due chiefly to persuading them to

abandon their natural ideals, has not only made the country

less tolerable to the peasant, but debauched

the town. And the error tends to increase in geometrical

progression, until a remedy has become almost inconceivable

and the whole structure of society is

threatened with ruin.

The wise application based on observation and experience of

the Law of Thelema is to work in conscious

harmony with Evolution. Experiments in creation, involving

variation from existing types, are lawful and necessary.

Their value is to be judged by their fertility as

bearing witness to their harmony with the course of nature

towards perfection.