“Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law, Love under Will.”

     Seldom since Biblical times has a more misinterpreted set of words been written. Purportedly originating with Francois Rabelais, the notion of “Thelema” as a philosophy was ideally intended to create an atmosphere of complete freedom and leisure, with no rules or restrictions on their behavior in any way. Rabelais believed that, free from restrictions or responsibilities, mankind would naturally devote its efforts solely to the most productive advancements of the human race.

     Rabelais had never seen an X Box.

     Crowley’s take on Thelema was somewhat different –  that every man and woman was born with an inmost nature not necessarily unique in structure, but unique to the individual. While Crowley was quite clear about how important it was for a person to first know and then perform their “True Will”, he gave almost no instruction whatsoever on how a person was expected to perform that first critical step, to recognize and understand exactly what it is they’re designed to do.
     Consequently, there has been a lot of very large talk about what is and isn’t a person’s “True Will”. In my time among the Thelemites, I’ve heard everything from drug abuse and sexual manipulation to outright theft (among other crimes) justified with a casual “You can’t stop me – it’s my True Will.”, despite Crowley’s many admonitions that a person’s True Will would not normally place them in conflict with the liberties or free expression of another’s Will.
     So what IS a person’s True Will? How do you know what you’re supposed to do? Crowley was rather vague on several points regarding this, but he was uncommonly clear in Liber Thisharb regarding the recognition of one’s True Will. After much gobbledygook involving talking and writing backwards and unnecessary attempts at past-life regression, he comes right to the point:

“Suppose, having lived all my life among savages, a ship is cast upon the shore and wrecked. Undamaged among the cargo is a “Victoria.” What is its use? The wheels speak of roads, their slimness of smooth roads, the brake of hilly roads. The shafts show that it was meant to be drawn by an animal, their height and length suggest an animal of the size of a horse. That the carriage is open suggests a climate tolerable at any rate for part of the year. The height of the box suggest crowded streets, or the spirited character of the animal employed to draw it. The cushions indicate its use to convey men rather than merchandise; its hood that rain sometimes falls, or that the sun is at times powerful. The springs would imply considerable skill in metals; the varnish much attainment in that craft.”

     The metaphor is nearly perfect, the logic inescapable. YOU are the wagon, and even a quick self-analysis will narrow down possible answers quickly. Physical traits may reveal useful information, but this exercise is more about mental and spiritual tendencies. Are you a builder? Are you a healer? Can you look at a situation and immediately correct all the flaws? Can you step between two arguing parties and bring them to a mutual resolution? Can you pick up a musical instrument and play a passable tune? These will all be clues to your True Will.
     It’s usually not as specific as many people make it out to be. Typically, a person might wonder if it’s his True Will to be a carpenter or bricklayer, but they’re both the same type of occupation – building. Some people are builders, and some people are wreckers. After all, if nothing ever got wrecked, where do we build stuff? Some Wills are agents of the mundane, working in acts of creation, preservation, improvement, or destruction. Other Wills are agents of enchantment, using art, music, theater, poetry or speech to command the hearts of their audience. Still others are agents of science, using analysis, invention, physics and mechanics to create, repair and make use of new physical or magical technologies. This list is hardly exhaustive, but it should give you an idea of the variety of Wills in the human race. It helps to think of the universe as a giant machine, and each sentient being an operative element within that machine.
     I’ve also heard a lot of talk about True Will in terms of fairly base biological imperatives, such as having sex or raising children. These are nothing more than physical impulses, ours only by virtue of wearing the meat suit for another round of incarnation – we ALL have the same instincts to preserve the species and maintain our physical bodies. Claiming it’s a person’s True Will to raise children is like saying the reason for building cars is to keep our junkyards full. Likewise with having sex – our species puts way too much emphasis on who does and doesn’t do whatever with their naughty bits, but in the big picture who really cares? Look at it from the point of view of a creator – if you had a petri dish with an experimental strain of bacteria in it, do you honestly care which ones are bumping up against the others, or how they’re doing the bumping?

SO WAIT, WHAT NOW?

     Okay, so we’ve covered a bit more about Thelema and the actual nature of True Will, and you know a little bit more about what you can reasonably expect to discover about yourself. What do you do with this knowledge? Well, to be perfectly honest, a large percentage of the human race is already happily going about their business doing their True Will already, without ritual, without fanfare, without initiations or ceremonies or lofty titles. The difference is that many of them are not doing it consciously. They’re also doing it the hard way.
     Why do anything the hard way? We’re magicians! I strongly suggest that before you even attempt to discover your True Will, you do your level best to acquire power. True power, the kind that comes from years of study and especially practice. Are you the kind of magician who can perform from memory all of Crowley’s pentagram rituals, but can’t cast a simple spell? Can you perform the greater and supreme pentagram rituals invoking water, yet you choke on a rain spell? Fix that!
     Cast spells! Get some actual hours in behind the altar. Mix it up a little. Don’t be afraid to meddle in the affairs of mortals, either. I hear lots of excuses for not doing magic and after thirty years of study, practice and training apprentices I can safely say that most people who quit magic don’t quit when they fail. They quit when they succeed.

WHY?

     Logically, human beings expect magic to fail. It doesn’t fit with their established worldview. However, success requires a person completely rearrange their understanding of how the world works, and that process sucks. There’s also the unspoken injunction that when we DO accept that magic is real and we can control it, that we are supposed to do the responsible thing and use it for positive purposes. That’s a lot of pressure, and a lot of uncharted territory we have to map out alone. Responsibility is a heavy burden, and it’s scary to think that our neat little ordered world is nothing more than a comforting illusion.
     But guess what? The hard part’s over, because you just realized that. Time to get to work.