“Do what thou wilt” is Aleister Crowley’s most famous phrase, but also his most misunderstood. I meet people in the occult community all the time who think it means “do whatever you want” and envision Crowley’s philosophy as one of self-indulgence. Nothing could be further from the truth. True Will means finding your True Self, and doing only that. Rather than a license to indulge, it’s the strictest bond to only do your true purpose in life, to find your Divine path and exclude everything else.
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A Definition of True Will
Crowley was a prolific writer and defined True Will in various ways throughout his 72 years on earth. True Will is generally explained as the force or energy that you embody, that you are meant to express in this lifetime (or longer). In the New Comment on Liber Legis, Crowley says True Will is “the reason of one’s incarnation.”
In the introduction to Magick Without Tears, he says, “you must find an answer to the question: ‘How did I come to be in this place at this time, engaged in this particular work?’ As you will see from the book, this will start you on the discovery of who you really are . . .”
Another way to think of it is described in Diary of A Drug Fiend, when Basil King Lamus says, “If I were a dog, I should bark; if I were an owl, I should hoot.” True Will is figuring out, what is it you do?
Crowley says, in fact, that the only right we have is to do our True Will:
Every thought, word, or act without exception is subject to this law. ‘Do what thou wilt’ does not give license to do anything else; lest this be not understood, the doctrine is here explicit: ‘Thou hast no right but to do thy will.’
True Will does not, however, include actions that infringe on the rights of others. Crowley writes:
It is also excluded from ‘as ye will’ to compromise the liberty of another person indirectly, as by taking advantage of the ignorance or good faith of another person to expose that person to the constraint of sickness, poverty, social detriment, or childbearing, unless with the well-informed and uninfluenced free will of that person. (The Law Is for All, pg 51)
He also says that rape and the seduction of children are “in no way aligned with Thelema” (The Law Is for All, pg 51).
So while your True Will may include any variety of activities and beliefs, it won’t include being a pedophile (or otherwise seducing someone against their Will), taking advantage of people, being a cheat or liar, neglecting to tell sexual partners about STDs, tricking someone into pregnancy, committing fraud, or manipulating someone to go against their own best interests.
The Tao of True Will
“Thus also the Sage, seeking not any goal, attaineth all things; he does not interfere in the affairs of his body, and so that body acteth without friction. It is because he meddleth not with his personal aims that these come to pass with simplicity.” (Tao Teh King, VII, 2)
Crowley often compared True Will to the Tao. I find the Tao a useful analogy because the phrase “True Will” is associated so much with an action, whereas the Tao is closer to my conception of True Will as an energy you manifest.
When one follows the Tao, a person isn’t consciously thinking, but flowing with a natural energy, full of the force of one’s authentic place in the Universe. In chapter XVII of Magick Without Tears Crowley says:
One wants to become like a mighty flowing river, which is not consciously aiming at the sea, and is certainly not yielding to any external influence. It is acting in conformity with the law of its own nature, with the Tao.
In chapter XXXIV of Magick Without Tears, he says the ideal analogy is that of a planet in its orbit. The planet is in its own path and moves harmoniously with all the other planets. And, “when it suffers the attraction of another body, it sways slightly to make the proper adjustment without effort or argument; it can, consequently, continue indefinitely in its orbit.”
This notion of being in harmony with all other True Wills is important. If you’re doing your True Will, you’re doing the will of the Universe and you’ll be in balance with everything else. Being in your proper place also means you have the energy of the Universe assisting you.
We know that the Universe is in perfect balance: 5+6 = 2+9 = 3+8, and so forth. Likewise, “one’s True Will is necessarily fitted to the whole Universe with the utmost exactitude, because each term in the equation a+b+c=0 must be equal and opposite to the sum of all the other terms. (Magick in Theory and Practice, chapter IX). You don’t have to strive to be everything, but only yourself, and other stars in the Universe will balance you out.
Why Discover Your True Will?
Our modern society is duplicitous. On the one hand, we’re encouraged to be ourselves. On the other, we’re ostracized for stepping too far out of the mainstream. The same large corporations that have commercials encouraging you to “be yourself” while consuming their product will fire employees if they don’t agree with their personal beliefs. Consequently, bourgeois society allows us to discover ourselves only within a small range of acceptable beliefs and behaviors. Step out of those bounds and everyone from TV shows to your friends will say you’re incorrect, or even that there’s something inherently wrong with you.
Because of this, discovering and living out one’s True Will can be fraught with friction from friends, family, and society at large. Why even do it?
One reason is that until we know and live our True Will, we will, at our core, be unhappy. Every individual “is unsatisfactory to himself until he has established himself in his right relation with the Universe” (Magick in Theory and Practice).
Another is because unless you’re doing your True Will, you’re wasting your time. You’re like a man trying to swim upstream when your heart’s desire is just waiting for you to let go and swim with the current. If you’re struggling to swim upstream all your energy goes toward that struggle. If you follow the current, your energy is freed up for other things. (Note this doesn’t mean you should simply take the easy path, or that if you’re following your True Will you won’t run into obstacles. You may get quite a lot of pushback, especially from friends and family who find your True Will inconvenient to their plans for you.)
Another reason: “A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him” (Magick in Theory and Practice). How much better is life when the Universe is supporting us, rather than trying to force something that isn’t meant to be!
Why does a dog bark and a cat meow? It’s their nature to do so, and it’d be ridiculous and futile to try to make them switch roles. So too with humans, “one must fulfil one’s true Nature, one must do one’s Will” without getting bogged down in the “why” of it.
Finally, doing your True Will brings joy. Crowley says, “Any one who is doing his true Will is drunk with the delight of Life” (The Law Is for All, pg 110). We’ve all met someone who is in love with life and their path in it, whether that’s expressed in their career or hobby or a way of being. Such joy is often an indicator you’re doing your True Will.
True Will, Self-Discipline, and Balance
I’ve already mentioned that “do what thou wilt” implies a strict bond to do only your True Will. Because of this, following your True Will requires devotion and self-discipline. If part your True Will is to be a musician or a writer, you can’t spend every night at the bar; you must be home practicing your craft. In chapter 37 of Liber Aleph, “On Cultivating Strength through Discipline,” Crowley talks about how those who would be good athletes must deny themselves certain foods and pleasures and follow a harsh trainer: “So by this Bondage he hath, at the last, his Will.”
Thus, doing your True Will requires refinement in every aspect of life, from actions to words to thoughts:
Every particle of energy must be built into this single-track machine of will; directly or indirectly, it must serve the one purpose. A very small hole in the hull may sink a very large ship. Every act, therefore, with the thoughts and words which determine its performance, is a sacrament. (Artemis Iota)
At the same time, balance is involved too. You don’t want to be so focused on being a task-master of your Will that you never venture outside of it. Even specialized fields require a broad knowledge base. It’s the stereotype of a scientist who spends all his time locked in his lab working on a seemingly unsolvable problem. One day he finally engages with his children, and one makes an off-hand comment that gives him the answer he was seeking. It’s the case of a boxer who focuses only on weight-lifting, only to find after an injury that yoga gives him the flexibility needed to become a champion. In Crowley’s words:
For this reason, alone, it is all-important to ascertain one’s true Will, and to work out every detail of the work of doing it, as early in life as one can. One is apt (at the best) to define one’s will dogmatically, and to devote one’s life almost puritanically to the task, sternly suppressing all side-issues, and calling this course Concentration. This is error, and perilous. For one cannot be sure that a faculty which seems (on the surface) useless, even hostile, to one’s work, may not in course of time become one of vital value. If it be atrophied—alas! Its suppression may moreover have poisoned one’s whole system, as a breast debarred from its natural use is prone to cancer. At best, it may be too late to repair the mischief; the lost opportunity may be a life-long remorse. (The Law Is for All, pg 148)
Minding Your Own Business
Your only obligation is to do your True Will. As part of this, you must leave everyone else alone to do theirs as well.
There are so many clickbait articles nowadays that tell you why you should read a certain book, or 10 reasons you should take up a certain type of exercise. No one should do anything except that which they’re called to do. Crowley wrote in The Law Is for All:
It is necessary that we stop, once for all, this ignorant meddling with other people’s business. Each individual must be left free to follow his own path. America is peculiarly insane on these points. Her people are desperately anxious to make the Cingalese wear furs, and the Tibetans vote, and the whole world chew gum, utterly dense to the fact that most other nations, especially the French and British, regard ‘American institutions’ as the lowest savagery, and forgetful or ignorant of the circumstance that the original brand of American freedom — which really was Freedom — contained the precept to leave other people severely alone, and thus assured the possibility of expansion on his own lines to every man. (The New Commenton AL I,31)
Letting people follow their own True Wills doesn’t mean you can’t offer advice or share your perspective. If someone appears to be struggling, your voice may be what they need to figure things out. It also doesn’t mean to not educate when you have knowledge. What it does mean, however, is that you shouldn’t be dogmatic in thinking that your actions or perceptions are what everyone else must think, or meddling or otherwise trying to coerce people to have your views. What has value to you may be worthless to someone else:
It must be clearly understood that every man must find his own happiness in a purely personal way. Our troubles have been caused by the assumption that everybody wanted the same things, and thereby the supply of those things has become artificially limited. . . . We have deliberately trained people to wish for things that they do not really want. (The Law Is For All, pg 131)
This is why Crowley said to promulgate the Law of Thelema, but to never proselytize.
It is deleterious to force any faculty to live by an alien law. . . . then the Ideal mutilates and murders. (The Law Is for All, pg 144)
Thelema teaches that every man and woman is a star—a divine and capable being worthy of respect. As such, it is an insult to treat anyone as less than that. Insisting that people follow your own standards not only strips other people of their divinity by implying they’re unable to figure out their own ideals and values, it upsets the balance of the Universe:
To insist that anyone else shall comply with one’s own standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both parties are equally born of necessity.” (Magick in Theory and Practice)
People who insist that everyone think the same way are blind to the natural diversity of the Universe, bigots in their limited ability to affirm the variety of judgments that people come to in interpreting the world:
It is the mark of the mind untrained to take its own processes as valid for all men, and its own judgments for absolute truth. (The New Comment on AL II, 32)
Your True Will Is Your Birthright
Most rights are defined by where you live and what rights are granted to you by society. Your right to own a handgun is different in Arizona vs. New York City vs. the U.K. There is only one right everyone has anywhere on earth: “Every man has an indefeasible right to be what he is” (Magick in Theory and Practice).
Your ability to be who you are will be limited by your environment. You may have to move, to struggle against the existing system, or find alternate ways of expressing your True Will. But environment is no excuse. One example is Karl Germer, Crowley’s representative in Germany, who was imprisoned in several Nazi concentration camps and while there, received Knowledge & Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel.
There is much talk today about infringing on the rights of others. But given the balance of the Universe:
Every man has a right to fulfill his own will without being afraid that it may interfere with that of others; for if he is in his proper path, it is the fault of others if they interfere with him. (Magick in Theory and Practice)
Besides “do what thou wilt,” another important Thelemic maxim is “Love is the law, love under will.” Crowley defines love as the force in the Universe that brings things together. If you’re unsure about your True Will, a good starting place is to think about what you love and what brings you joy.
Spiritual practices like meditation and Ceremonial Magick can also aid in the discovery of True Will, as can self-analysis to overcome societal conditioning, trying out a variety of experiences, and tools for self-discovery like the Tarot and astrology.
If you don’t yet know what it is, it may well be that your True Will for now is to discover it.
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