ON TRUE WILL (THELEMA)
A Discussion from the Horus/Maat Lodge List
compiled by Aion/Peace calligraphy by Aion



THE QUESTION:

Om

Recently I was at Pantheacon and had a short, intense dose of many
Thelemites. The word WILL (True Will) was of course often evident- but the
debates soon focused on what that means in a Thelemic context...

Without tossing in my view I'd like to hear from all/any on this:

What does the term (True) Will mean to you?


- Aion 131



REPLIES:


Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

I've always thought of True Will as finding your proper place in the grand
scheme of things, so that one could be in a constant state of effortless
action. Although I must admit I haven't put as much thought into it as I
should. I'm a lazy Thelemite sometimes.

Love is the law, love under will.

- Scott Cockrell


IMO, True Will is:

1) Tao/Teh
2) Doing (T)hat (,) which makes me happy.
3) GO-ing
4) Joy
5) Its own reward. Etc.

Atque Vale

- Nema


WILL

I thought Go-ing too as the word Will conjures up motion to a goal or
manifestation. True Will and Destiny don¹t seem far off. If it is karma that gives us our
talents, strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies ­ then it is Will that can bring the
energy to alter our karma (our habitual action). If Magick is the causing of Change
through Will then Will is perhaps the Energy to break through the inertia of
habit-energy. It takes energy to Go. I remember Crowley saying that if all were practicing their
True Will ­ riding in their Orbit then there would be no collisions. True Will can be
compared to the Greek/Platonic idea of Becoming. There Being and Becoming ­ associated
perhaps with the microcosm and the macrocosm ­ the deluded becomes enlightened, the
individual unites with the cosmos, the conventional world of impermanence
becomes the Unchanging Nature, the Jivatman unites with the Paratman, man and god
become inseparable, self dissolves into emptiness. These comparisons may be vague
generalities and the terminology's of different systems may have subtle differences ­ but
they are more or less comparable. The idea of being in balance with one¹s True Nature
implies best possible use of one¹s particular mental dispositions - perhaps for the
welfare of self and others. Crowley¹s idea I think implies that the more in tune with our
True Will we are ­ the more successful, balanced, and clear we will be. Just some
thoughts.

- Chakra37


hehe, just to be an oddball here, Crowley wrote about "pure will" not
"true will".  I have known thelemites who consider those who fixate
upon "true will" to be heretics.

- Alobar

Not so Dear Alobar, in MITAP, I find many references to True Will in the
index. If you were referring to Liber AL then in that case Crowley said
nothing. As that book is thought to be channeled from Aiwaz.

Thelemites who do as you mention would be those with little study of
experience of Thelema IMO.

- Azaka


"For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is
every way perfect."  - The Book of the Law



93/696

 I am glad that you asked that question. So I read other's comments
and thought about it. In the first chapter of Liber AL it is written as
a sort of preamble to the mystery of the will:

  42. Let it be that state of manyhood bound and loathing. So with thy
all; thou hast no right but to do thy will.
  43. Do that, and no other shall say nay.

That part seems to be self explanatory. You may shape your course with
nature and find a way, Tao is you will. But Liber All goes on and speaks
of a refinement of the will:

  44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of
result, is every way perfect.

This perfection leads to the key formulae of Magick (+1-1) or 0=2 this
dissolution in nothingness is finally reduced to the full or second
Magickal formulae of 8. 80. 418.

  45. The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay, are
none!
  46. Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it;
I call it eight, eighty, four hundred & eighteen.

Thus imho it is by the perfection of the will that one unlocks the keys
to the palace of Magick.

- Donald


So seeking the inner thread of true will unites all into one. This is why I
think everyone's true will is to attain, and is quite similar (the general
path of the Tree  of Life, the chakras, etc.). The outer variances do not
matter, because they are not core aspects of the true will.

Instead of saying what career is my true will and dwelling on how one is
separate or unique, I would abandon that as not important to the inner
gnosis.

It is not really anyone's true will to create separation, basically, except
for that it may create a higher unity. I take Nuit's words that she's
"divided for love's sake, for the chance of union" to be the basis of the
individual's true will. The true will doesn't need to be more complex than
this. Being "unassuaged of purpose," I imagine it as Buddhistic and
meditative in essence, the core of self as the eternal.

- Wizardiaon

For me, I think Crowley erred slightly by describing it as "our" True
Will: it is, in a sense, but I grok that its more Universal, less
individual, than that, it's a river we join, the Tao, and while it
might have tributaries that flow off, it all still ultimately is
flowing in one direction.

And yes, I agree it's nonsense to say that MY True Will is to be an
artist, or dancer, or a senior risk analyst, or whatever. That's as
banal and mundane as deciding you want to go shopping tomorrow...

- Stafford Stone

This is somewhat based (biased?) on Yoruba ideas. The soul, before birth,
chooses its nature based on its karmic predicament. There is the idea of
being "on path" in response to circumstance. "Onward through the fog" as Wonder
Warthog puts it. Crowley called it "the inertia of the universe". For years
I thought he was confusing "inertia" with "momentum". Now I know better...

- sf

I also think that true will is something that you tap into or are given
access to but only after you acknowledge your place in the universe and
begin to throw off in built materialistic tendencies.

Regards,

- William


I don't think True Will can be "known" only experienced, and maybe
comprehended afterwards.  I feel it is more spontaneous, and I do like
Pure Will better.

And

In listening and sitting with the question of Will, I did a search of
the I Ching and the closest I can come to is the 61st Hexagram, Chung Fu, Inner Truth. 
In the Buddhist I Ching it's called Sincerity in the Center.

I also feel Hexagram 8 can fit, Accord in the Buddhist I Ching, "In
Buddhist terms, when you have skillfully applied corrective measures
and have become enlightened, those in other states of mind regard you
as a reliable guide.  This is called Accord."  Hexagram 8 in Taoist I
Ching is Unity (Holding Together).

- Ron Adams

Will to me is finding how it all works on this plane. This make take a few
life times but that keeps it interesting.

- Little Owl

The idea of Will, which we eventually get in Thelema has a long history.
Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Schelling, and Boehm were all players in the
development of this notion. It identifies a force, one with nature, that
pre-exists conceptual development. Pure will is the sacred serpent, dwelling
in the garden, as it were. This is why Will gives us a muscle from
beyond/behind thought. It moves the world in a more fundamental way than
thought. Thought, yoked to will, expressive of will, is very powerful
indeed. I am of the sense that Will comes through us and returns to the
world having been shaped by it's presence in our minds. We channel it, and
when we do this with art, much that is excellent is moved into
manifestation.

- Zephyr

This quote from Genesis P. Orridge posted recently on the Dreamflesh blog
resonated nicely with me, and fits in with the concepts of true will, pure
will, or magick. Perhaps true will or pure will comes about from being like
a snake, shedding ones skin, all the false things we think of as self. Here
is the quote:

"I mean, basically what you do is *you have to have a very strong vision and
direction*. You have to have something that you really focus on that you
want to be like, or you want to get to, or a kind of person you want to be.
And the kind of things that you want that person to generate in the world.
And then you just have to try to maximize the possibility of that happening,
by avoiding the things that might distract you from it, or destroy it, or
block it. So it¹s a kind of *removal process*, you¹re removing everything
that¹s in the way. So that it becomes more and more likely that you¹re going
to get it. *And if you do or not isn¹t the thing; the fact is, you get
further to it that way than if you don't. And you can only do that by not
wanting to dictate what happens to yourself. You can¹t be in control of
that, because you don¹t understand all the forces at work.* Because
everybody in the world and all the forces in the world are affecting your
destiny . . .

You see, you have this vision of *destiny*, and then *fate* is what actually
takes place. A lot of people think they¹re the same thing, and they¹re not.
So what you try to do is maximize the chances of fate not interfering with
you going towards the destiny. And the destiny can actually change, you see,
because certain times fate cannot be stopped. And it does deflect you and
the vision mutates. You might still think: I would rather have been that,
but I can't get there, so what¹s the most useful thing I can still get to?

- Genesis P-Orridge, originally in RE/search

- Justin


I think there's a confusion here between True Will, and a person's
aspirations. Does anyone think Hitler followed his True Will? Surely
not, yet he achieved (until it went a bit sour for him at the end) his
life's ambitions or destiny. I would argue that an individual who
achieved True Will would not nakedly pursue an ambition for power and
murder millions of fellow human beings. Yet that may have been
precisely his, or anyone's, aspiration. In terms of jobs or careers,
people do what they can to survive. If they can find something they do
that they love, great. But what if what they love is something
responsible for the deaths of millions, like selling cigarettes? Are
they then not in alignment with their True Will? I would argue not.
The True Will and one's individual hopes, desires, ambitions are
different things, and can be sometimes mutually exclusive. I would
argue that anyone achieving True Will would live in harmony with
everything around them and be part of nature, not fighting for a
position in it. How can the Tao be involved in an individual's desire
to be, say, a chemistry professor? Our little hopes and ambitions are
nothing to something as impassive, mighty, and impersonal as True
Will. It's not the same as "our" Will at all.

- Stafford Stone
 

Stafford wrote: "I would argue that anyone achieving True Will would live in
harmony with everything around them and be part of nature, not fighting for
a position in it. How can the Tao be involved in an individual's desire to
be, say, a chemistry professor? Our little hopes and ambitions are nothing
to something as impassive, mighty, and impersonal as True Will."
Yet the question of Right Livelihood remains. To me True Will is intimately
connected with what I do, even though from a transcendent viewpoint "what I
do" is not always who I am. But when I am doing what I love I do feel to be
more "in harmony with nature", in a flow state where I forget what W.B.
Yeats called "the trivial everyday mind". Doing the work I love gets me into
the state of flow, tao, true will. For me "right livelihood" is, for now,
working at the library. It is in *alignment* with what I see as my True
Will. It pays the bills while leaving me with enough energy to pursue what I
would say is my calling or vocation. I believe that questions of calling,
vocation, and right livelihood DO have a place in a discussion of True Will.
By doing what is true to me, in alignment, I can minimize the chaos I might
otherwise inflict on other beings if I was "off my orbit" as a Star.

- Justin

You beat me to the word "vocation"; I think it is rare to be able to
have a mundane life that completely affirms your true Will, most
people are stuck in jobs they can just barely more or less tolerate,
but a few get to follow some sort of lifestyle choice (doctors,
artists, teachers, mages?) that might perhaps be regarded as a higher
calling in some way.

  As for Hitler, maybe it was his true will, but unfortunately his
particular will was really freaking evil. However, it was pointed out
that Liber AL just says 'pure will', no moral imperative, just
expression in activity. One person's art may be another's blasphemy,
the music of one is the discord of another, and Thelema seems rather
uninterested in the whole good/bad thing. If everyone's individual
Will is sacrosanct, how can there be any imposed morality?

- Shade
 

Oh, undoubtedly: of course some jobs/careers can be more in alignment
with True Will than others. I wasn't suggesting otherwise, just making
a distinction between the two. But while any job at all can, in the
right frame of mind, lead to some form of enlightenment, there still
remains the idea that a job, for example, giving out parking fines to
others, no matter how much one loved it, would not last long once the
Light burned. Whereas a career doing something that lifted the spirits
of others in some way would thrive and prosper, infused with a new
(but eternal) inspiration.

- Stafford Stone
 

Sure, some jobs are more fulfilling spiritually by nature, but the fact is
this has nothing to do with true will. What about when the current world
system changes and job occupations do as well? You cannot really say "it is
my true will to do such-and-such." It may be a part of your totality, but a
means to the end of enlightenment.

It's basically about self-identification. How do you define yourself? I've
given up all attempts and know I'm the unlimited, but when I drop down I am
me: an exquisite quintessence of the dharma. It is probably correct to say
that in order to really know your separate self you first have to dissolve
in and know the universal self.

Reality is infinitely perfect and wonderful but senseless and without
purpose in the most exquisite and meaningful sense! This is why it is said
that pure will (a will operating most truly) is unassuaged of purpose
(unattached to whether there is any point to anything), and without lust of
result (without the desire to be true, because truth will indwell one
naturally at this point). Reality may be purposeless ultimately, but that is
only to assure that it was infinitely true.

My founding axiom is that "all is perfection," and that reality would not
exist if this were not the case. This is the height of optimism, really.

When I think of pure will, I think of the high dharmic kalas I've
experienced during meditation, like being on the eternal wave crest; also the
number 444, hehe.

-Walt
 

I do agree that a lot of decision making is spent on careers, etc., but it's
usually "what is the lesser evil" type thing. For me, I don't think the
whole thing is structured well enough from top down for everyone to be doing
their complete, harmonized true wills.

So, I essentially think the truest will is the identification with the
eternal rather than the temporal, that which is behind action and purpose.
It's great for one to enjoy the present, individual circumstance, but I
think it's secondary to the whole.

TRUE WILL

Not something which is 'mine' though often we speak of it with personal
pronouns. True Will could be described as an ego-less going?

The One True Orbit, unhindered by Ignorance, Ego, Attraction, Repulsion and
Clinging to Life. Something We Become, not somewhere we Go. A Final
Surrender to Being.

If each of us is a unique Neural Pathway in the Cosmic Mind, True WIll is
the Triptamine enabling us to See and Live True as part of a greater unity.

- Tristram Burden


Yes it seems to me that one's Will, or life path, what we are here to do may
not be our mundane job no matter how good at it we are and how full filling
we may find this work. Tho there are prolly many who do their job and Will
at the same time. Or maybe the job and the Will are aligned so you get the
best of both.  If for egg you work at a major pollution place and you feel
your true will is to care for the earth, this don't seem to match.

The mundane jobs we find ourselves doing are a lot easier if we like our
work, and this work is to keep us alive so we can then concentrate on the
real work, why we are here.

Maybe our Will can change as we grow?

- Azaka


I believe that true will is what it is for each individual and doesn't
have to be the same thing for everyone.  I believe that humans are
adaptable and have a great capacity for magick, compassion and
healing.

There is the Great Work, and that is important, for the times and the
culture.  I myself don't believe in the freudian concept of the ego,
at least not as an enemy or something to get rid of. I see it more in
line with Jung's idea of integrating all the aspects of the self and
The Self.

In our present culture we connect ourselves with our occupation and
our career and our purpose in life.  Sure Pure Will and True Will
might be something more than that in a cosmic scheme, but nothing
wrong with it symbolizing one's Life Path.  If it helps you find inner
confidence, self-worth, inner peace and motivation, then its great.

I feel its time to end this martyrdom, slave god religion of one
person being the only son of god.  The gods and goddesses have many
children.  We all have a greater heritage in the cosmos.  If some
people want to follow a degrading religion, then that's part of the
human drama.  But I believe there are a great many more that just
don't buy that concept.

- Ron Adams


I like the skiing analogy: when you're going with the flow, you're
simply letting gravity move you. When you're not, you're trying to ski
uphill:)

- Stafford Stone

Exactly- maybe Will is Black Matter.... ha!

- Aion


On thing that occurred to me is that Nietzsche's "eternal return" is one way
to test the purity of a will. Can you you will a thing, or or a level that
you could stomach it's "eternal recurrence". If we are willing those things
we could will to return eternally, then we hit the mark with pure will,
because we will from eternity itself.

- *Z*

I found this great quote today at work: "The truly free individual is free
only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those will not govern
themselves are condemned to find masters to govern them." ­Steven
Pressfield, the War of Art

- via Justin

My take- short version:

True will is the optimal manifestation of the Tao through you in this life.

- Aion




EPILOGUE:


PS- OK, New Question:



WHAT IS LOVE?