The only way to discover the True Will
is to observe it free from the distorting influences of the mind.
Some people object to such an absolute
statement, protesting that there might be more than one “valid” way of
discovering the True Will: yet none of these objectors are capable of
explaining how some other method
actually works. Many and varied are the egalitarian dimwits who think that
discovering the True Will is simply a process of performing rote rituals
conceived by Victorian-era freemasons or by medieval magicians. Take, for
example, a recent post on the Temple of Thelema Forums, in which a newcomer
asks, referring to the Abramelin operation and to the process of "Knoweldge and Conversation," a metaphor Crowley uses for discovering the True Will:Has anyone developed a workable method to achieve K&C that doesn't involve a month of secluded free time?
The very notion that knowledge of one’s
own nature is only available to people who perform an elaborate and complicated
regimen of prayers is downright ridiculous: yet people new to Thelema
consistently think that “discovering the True Will” is a matter of performing
rituals. Their misunderstanding is due both to the individuals themselves
failing to read and comprehend Crowley and to the sorry nature of Thelemic
teachers in these matters. [Edit: To his credit, Jim Eshelman does tell the poster that there are other methods of attaining, but they all seem to revolve around a different regimen
of prayers, organized differently so as to allow normal activity during the day]
Indeed, the only way to discover the True Will is to observe it free from the
distorting influences of the mind. This fact necessitates that discovery of the
True Will requires a thorough understanding of those distorting influences. As
Erwin Hessle wisely says in his important Fundamentals of Thelemic Practice, The mind must, in short, be trained to become aware of the particular ways in which it colours, influences and distorts perception. It is not sufficient to merely obtain a general knowledge of the ways in which the mind may do this; it must become able to identify the specific ways in which it does this itself, and ultimately able to detect when it is doing this in real time.
“Magick,” rituals, meditation,
divination, and all the rest are – at best – actions that can aid an individual
in preparing for the work of observing
the distorting influences of the mind and observing the self free from them.
[Note: this does not mean that the distorting influences go away, merely that
the aspirant learns to see through them] Practices such as these train the mind
in paying attention, in thinking about situations more broadly and free of
mental preference so that it is the preferences of the True Self – in
conjunction with an accurate perception of the environment – that dictate
action.
This is all well and good, but what did
Crowley have to say on these subjects? Is it the case that the “Thelema”
explained above is actually some kind of materialist philosophy that has hijacked
the word “Thelema”? Or is it that the method outlined above arises from a fair
reading of Crowley’s words?
I think we all know the answer to this
question. Crowley wrote frequently about the necessity of perceiving the True
Will free from the distorting influence of the mind, and it is the purpose of
this blog post to examine some of the more prominent quotes from Crowley on the
subject.
Unlike some Thelemic commentators who
simply post a wall of Crowley quotes without explanation (or very little
explanation) – and unlike some dolts who think that serious discussion of
Crowley should reduced to lists of quotations so that seekers can “find their
own answers” – readers will observe that this post carefully examines and closely
reads these quotations, placing them in the framework outlined above, outlined
also in the post Skeptical of the True Will, and used to explicate the
practices detailed in Erwin’s Fundamentals of Thelemic Practice.
Read on for very much more.
