Liberty
IT IS OF LIBERTY that I would first write unto you, for except ye be free to act, ye cannot act. Yet all four gifts of the Law must in some degree be exercised, seeing that these four are one. But for the Aspirant that cometh unto the Master, the first need is freedom.- Liber CL
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Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law
In honor of OZ camps first anniversary (and reference to our namesake) I have opted to begin our reflection series with Liberty.
If you are reading this and are not already aware, you are essentially and ultimately free. Any noise to the contrary is certainly either a misunderstanding or an absolute lie. Even still, awareness in that freedom, let alone truly free action, eludes us daily. What is the nature of Liberty that we can have it and not be aware?
In our Holy Books are given sundry means of making this discovery, and each must make it for himself, attaining absolute conviction by direct experience, not merely reasoning and calculating what is probable. And to each will come the knowledge of his finite will, whereby one is a poet, one prophet, one worker in steel, another in jade. But also to each be the knowledge of his infinite Will, his destiny to perform the Great Work, the realization of his True Self. - Liber CL
To approach Liberty, it is helpful first to define Will. In a gross sense, Will is the expression of true nature. Our finite nature as humans in a physical world induces a Will to breathe and eat for the health of the physical body, and in the same way, the circumstances of our lives (being things like the time and date of your birth, the place where you were raised, and all number of other things) induce a Will to act and live in ways congruent with our finite circumstances. This Will, induced by finite (and therefore ephemeral) things is therefore itself finite. But if you understand that every man and every woman is a star, then it is clear that the scope of our natures, and therefore of Will, is not finite. Infinite Will, that is to say true Will, is the expression of the infinite nature, which cannot be anything but free because it is all containing.
This exactly is the root of our blindness to liberty. Finite as we are, we cannot comprehend infinity.
It is easy to assume that the finite is low, and abandon it for the infinite, but this is a lapse in comprehension. Infinity extends into the finite, but cannot be seen from within it. The very essence of Liberty secludes it from the view of the finite mind. But we are not so limited.
Love is the Law Love under Will
⁃ Sor. Cherubim