How to Decide Anything in Three Questions (Even from a French Prison Cell)

Temptation, Gustave Moreau

Dear friends, beautiful and happy people,

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

Soror Jezebel has just delivered a triumphant reply to some Caliphal O.T.O. member who asked her whether, once my current Great Magical Retirement at the Detention Center of Moulins-Yzeure comes to an end, I might possibly “come visit the United States”:

“Of course Sir Shumule wants to go to the States! You have the First Amendment! You have Michelle Rodriguez!”

Meanwhile, I have just received a rather convoluted letter from the indispensable Frater Y., who, among other things, asks me:

“Ankh-af-na-khonsu ordered that Thelemites decide ‘questions of the Law’ ‘each for himself’, but it’s not always obvious… Is there a systematic method you use when you face a dilemma, a crisis of conscience, etc., and need to settle a delicate question of the type: ‘Is this permitted by the Law / Is this forbidden by the Law?’”

Answer: Yes. I have one!

The method that (for myself! — I insist! — Let’s not risk becoming a centre of pestilence on top of everything else; I already have quite enough trouble as it is!), my method, I repeat, is the following:

Honeymoon, Serpent, Paradise : The Chioa Khan’s Threefold Protocol.

1. Spiritual or religious question → Nuit. 

The very first formal Commandment of the Law is to be Hadit (AL I:6). 

Now Hadit invariably calls Nuit “my bride” — not “my wife”, not “my spouse”, but “my bride”. 

Therefore, when I make a spiritual decision, I simply ask myself: would this mindset be appropriate on a wedding night and during a honeymoon? 

If the answer is no, I abstain. 

2. Ethical or philosophical question → Hadit. 

Hadit is < the Master > (AL II:65). 

I therefore silently recite Chapter II of The Book of the Law, look for where the old serpent has already settled the matter that is bothering me, and I obey blindly, perinde ac cadaver.

3. Practical or political question → Ra-Hoor-Khuit. 

Our duty toward the Lord of the Æon is to promulgate the Law, as it is written: < Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit > (AL III:2). 

So I ask myself: will the action I am contemplating turn the world a little more into the radiant land of Thelema — a Garden of Delights filled with “Order and Beauty, Luxury, Calm and Voluptuousness” — or, on the contrary, into an Old Grey Land of Desolation of the non-smoking Albanian collective-farm variety? 

And I choose the Garden of Delights. 

Easy!

Meditate upon this, dear friends, and go your gorgeous ways under the protection of that spiritual sphere whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere, and which we call GOD.

Warm kisses from the Bahamas.

Love is the law, love under will.

— ☉︎ in 17° ♐︎ : ☽︎ in 14° ♌︎ : ☽︎ : Ⅴⅹⅰ.