True Will

But the theatrical nonsense, though, is a proposition worth examining.

Crowley believed that every individual possessed something he called a true will, a particular purpose or course through existence that belonged to them rather than their parents, their religion, or the expectations of society.

His most famous declaration was, do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

It sounds like the sort of disclaimer that you'd announce before immediately behaving appallingly.

The resulting manuscript became the Book of the Law, a three-chapter text presented through the voices of Egyptian divine figures and announcing the beginning of a new spiritual age.

Whatever actually happened to him in Cairo, whether you believe he was communicated to by iOS or he just made the whole lot up in an opium trance, what he produced became the foundation of a philosophy he called Thelemath, taking its name from the Greek word for will.

Its most famous declaration was one we've already encountered, "'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.'" Crowley believed that each individual possessed a true will, a particular purpose or course through existence that belonged uniquely to them.

But there's a little distinction here between true will and appetite that I want to touch on.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law," and, "Love is the law, love under will." This philosophy formed the bedrock of Crowley's new religion, Thelema, Thelema, a Greek word meaning will.

The central aim of Thelemites is to discover and enact their own True Will.

That is, their innermost nature or their individual proper life course.

Another saying Crowley had was, "Every man and every woman is a star." Meaning...

I'm gonna continue here.

Um, so hang on.

The techniques used to do so fall to, to discover your True Will, fall under the general rubric of Magick with a K.

And of course, he, he distinguishes his practice of magic, which is a spiritual practice, from lay magic, illusionism-

Again, another concept that tells me this text is ultimately of Christian origins with something of an exception I'll discuss in a moment.

Regardless, the apparent goal of the ritual is to converse with one's Holy Guardian Angel, thereby learning further magical secrets, being corrected upon one's personal failures, and in modern occultism, learning one's true will, an incredibly complicated concept developed in the religion of Thelema.

I will, however, say that this all does bear a somewhat distant similarity to a form of mysticism that existed centuries before the Abramelin text.

In Sartora mysticism, one summons an angel known as the Prince of the Torah, hence the name Sartora, to immediately learn rabbinical lore rather than having to study.

Of course, all of this comes with warnings not to share it, not to sell it, and to only perform the magic for good, not evil ends, and of course, keep it a secret, because secret monkey magic juggling secrets.

The Book of Abramelin has gone on to become enormously influential, despite being known primarily through a basically incomplete and jumbled version produced by Mathers.

Foundational modern occult concepts like the True Will and the Holy Guardian Angel have all become central in this spirituality developed by Aleister Crowley, along with things like the Abramelin oil used in some permutation remain a widely used ritual tool.

Whatever the origins of the text, there can be no doubt that this book will persist in its important role in Western occultism, even if it's more celebrated than actually known.

the individual.

Every man and every woman is a star, right? You know, you have no right but to do thy will, do thy will and not say nay, right? And I tell this story a lot and that's actually how I got into this profession by accepting the book of the law and accepting the Lima and doing what I believe my true will is.

And the way that happened was I was, you know, looking for my way forward.

I had just lost a job and This voice in the back of my head ever since I was a kid was like, you need to be a writer.

No, that's beautiful.

Honestly, that's one of the things I love most about Thelema as well.

We live in a world that tries to take us away from our true will.

There's always somebody telling you what you should do.