Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law

Since I started this column I’ve been on a orchestrated trajectory towards mystic, scholar, philosopher, master occultist, artist, addict and “Wickedest Man in the World,” Aleister Crowley. I couldn’t just dive into all this with the introduction of The Beast 666. We needed to ease into his boiling black cauldron of sex magick and deviance slowly. The truth of the matter is that it would be culturally criminal for me to pose as any sort of qualified instructor of his work. I don’t understand Aleister Crowley…yet. He’s a mind in which one needs a lifetime of study to fully understand beyond the pedestrian level.

From Magick Without Tears:

What is Magick? Why should anyone study and practice it? Very natural; the obvious preliminary questions of any subject soever. We must certainly get all this crystal clear; fear not that I shall fail to set forth the whole business as concisely as possible yet as fully, as cogently yet as lucidly, as may prove within my power to do.

At least I need not waste any time on telling you what Magick is not; or to go into the story of how the word came to be misapplied to conjuring tricks, and to sham miracles such as are to this day foisted by charlatan swindlers, either within or without the Roman Communion, upon a gaping crew of pious imbeciles.

First let me go all Euclidean, and rub your nose in the Definition, Postulate and Theorems given in my comprehensive (but, alas! too advanced and too technical) Treatise on the subject.1 Here we are!

I. DEFINITION:

MAGICK

is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.*

(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take “magical weapons,” pen, ink, and paper; I write “incantations”—these sentences—in the “magical language” i.e. that which is understood by people I wish to instruct. I call forth “spirits” such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution is thus an act of MAGICK by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)

Crowley on the top row, 2nd from the left

I can say this though, I’ve read and re-read…and will continue to re-read much of his work in a state of simultaneous confusion and awe. Though it’s a cryptic, riddling labyrinthine forest of prose, numerology and Hermetic Qabalah reference which I’m not so schooled in, there’s something that I connect with which I really can’t explain. The whole paradox which I stumble through in this attempt at articulation is that one only needs to know this in understanding Aleister Crowley…Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. This master tenet of his religion of Thelema was first introduced in Liber AL vel Legis: The Book of the Law. Written in Cairo over three days for one hour each day, Crowley was merely the vessel in which to dictate the holy words of Aiwass, a supernatural being who had visited him in his room.

I understand this as following your true will…your calling in life. Robert Anton Wilson does a much better job in illustrating Crowley’s philosophy in this clip below:

Robert Anton Wilson

While we’re at it, here’s Robert Anton Wilson and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge taking a go at illustrating Crowley’s legend:

What’s so intriguingly scandalous about Crowley was his inexorable pursuit of true will and self. Whether it be through the use of sex magick, drugs or social deviancy, Crowley was determined to push the limits until one found their own sense of enlightenment. Whatever it took, he would go there. He had many lovers and followers over the years who were right there next to him in the descent into self discovery and true will. He established the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily as a commune to lead his disciples into ritual. What went down inside those walls are claims of drug fused orgies of the most repulsive and abominably primal nature. Crowley never denied those claims, though he was known as an agent provocateur who never let the truth interfere with a gorgeously villainous reputation. After the controversial death of one of his disciples, and rumors of the activities at the Abbey, Crowley and his college were banished by Mussolini.

A decent Aleister Crowley doc with footage from inside the Abbey…forgive the sensationalist editing and b-roll.

I don’t think we’ll ever know what was truly going on in Crowley’s mind. His writings are complex and mystifying, while serving as blatant forms of verbal skullduggery. Was it all performance art? Or was he signaling in a new era of humanity? I really have no interest in finding out, I’ll be too busy reading his work for the rest of my life. If you are curious about him, don’t listen to anyone’s regurgitation, find out for yourself.

THE MAN WE WANT TO HANG – short film by Kenneth Anger on Crowley’s artwork.

Love is the law, love under will.

Fraternally,

666

- Cornbluth