“[T]he Law should be read and explained.” - “Khabs am Pekht” - p58
The True Will
Θελημα = Will = 93
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” So states Chapter One, verse 40, of Liber אל vel Legis. This is the one great command of The Book. Find your True Will and do it! Now, the True Will is not the wants and desires of the surface personality. It is buried deep in the subconscious (but perhaps not too deeply) and an individual has an obligation to himself to find his True Will and to do it.
“The word of the Law is Θελημα. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word.” Θελημα — Thelema — is the Greek word for Will, and here it denotes the True Will. Hence Thelemite is a good name for those who have dedicated themselves to finding their True Will and doing it.
Crowley wrote “Control your mind to devote itself wholly to discover your True Will. Explore the course of that will till your reach its source, your Silent Self. Unite the conscious will with the True Will, and the conscious ego with the Silent Self. You must be utterly ruthless in discarding any atom of consciousness which is hostile or neutral.”
Further dictums about the True Will follow: “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. The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay, are none!” <1> This is an important point that we cannot overlook. Our only right is to do our True Will, but that is not a hindrance. It is like saying your only right is to be free, and to jealously guard that freedom, letting no one impinge upon it. Who would not want to do that.
The “unassuaged of purpose” line is an interesting quotation. We are not to question our Will’s purpose. We are not to say to ourselves, “Well, it seems to be my Will to do x, but why? I don’t understand? This doesn’t make sense!” We are not to question our Will. If we are certain that it is our Will to do something, then we have a duty, both to ourselves and to the Universe, to pursue the course of action dictated by our Will.
“Liberty is absolute to do thy will.” – “The Message of the Master Therion” - p25
“Each of us has a Will of eternal import, necessarily related to everything that exists, and all our conscious desires are so many masks” – “A Memorandum Regarding the Book of the Law” - The Revival of Magick and Other Essays - p159
“This Will (as such) is not conscious.” – "Comment D"
The forces of Society will try to get us to compromise our Wills.
There is no god but man.
1. Man has the right to live by his own law —
to live in the way that he wills to do:
to work as he will:
to play as he will:
to rest as he will:
to die when and how he will.
2. Man has the right to eat what he will:
to drink what he will:
to dwell where he will:
to move as he will on the face of the earth.
3. Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will.
4. Man has the right to love as he will: —
5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights.
-- “Liber עז: The Rights of Mankind”
The Equinox III(10), page 144
<1> This strange concept of 2=1=0 will be dealt with later.
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