Why love is the Law—a Primer
Phaedron
From The Practia Arcanum
Love is the magician's most important tool. Without it he is impotent. Those who intend harmful acts can only loose because they have not this prime ingredient. They need not be feared.
The word love itself has much import in gematria (numerical assignment) but that is too lengthy a topic to cover here. The aspirant must not confuse this term with the ordinary social term. Loving your neighbor is important to the aspirants work and to the development of mankind, however Love goes beyond that. The true action of Love is a very unusual concept.
Love is the execution of the perfected Will in motion (i.e., in action, not latent). The universe is a complete system that works perfectly. Each element and body is busy expressing its own individual character, direction, velocity, antagonism, etc. Each is doing its Will. Every act each performs is an act of its Will (purpose). This Will has been determined by a greater force; therefore it is also part of the greater Will. The expression of this Will, when uncorrupted by individual will, is Love.
The distortion of Man's Will is The Fall. It causes him to be born less perfect than intended" by God, who assigned him a near perfect state. There is a particular sensation that tells an initiate when he is doing his Will. It is beyond definition but can be thought of as ecstasy. It is this sweet taste that mankind once knew that drives him to evolve back to Eden.
Love is the fuel of the universe. It is an awesome experience for the individual to combine with the power that runs the universe. This is the magician's purpose. As he succeeds, he acquires powers that appear to the profane as miraculous. It is not the magician's goal to obtain powers; they come naturally in the pursuit of unity with God (the name we give this pervasive energy of Love).
Like all creations and energies, Love has a place on the Tree of Life: Chesed, which represents expansion and form. It's mystical number is 10, the number of completion perfection; a perfect union forming wholeness.
Chesed's virtue is obedience. It represents powerful sublime force that does not require action as Geburah does. It can rule without force. It does require the one tool of Love to rule. With Love the flail of Geburah is not necessary—it is even a hindrance.
Chesed's vice is bigotry, hypocrisy and gluttony. Lack of Love causes these things. Size becomes a handicap instead of an asset. The ruler becomes the bigot.
Chesed is mercy because no matter how powerful this force, it still allows all creations of any size to follow their own True Wills without interference. Love is the cause of the execution of their Wills.
Love is everywhere in the universe. It is the one universal common denominator. It is the performance of True Will in action; it is perfection. Like the Sephira Chesed, it is the gateway from form to spirit; from the moral triangle to the supernal triangle.
Phaedron is the Hierophant of the Holy Order of The Winged Disk, and Director of its International Academy of hermetic Knowledge. This article is an excerpt from his book The Practica Arcanum. | 
