WilliamCBanks

Dear Jerry Biggers, I recently stumbled upon your entry in this forum about Aleister Crowley's philosophy of Thelema. It is quite a common error in understanding that you have displayed in your entry, so by no means do I intend to throw any criticism on yourself. You said: "His most famous statement, often quoted, is listed in your sampling of his writings: "Do what thou will shall be the whole of the law." He repeated that in many of his books and wanted to be known for that statement. Let us take him for his word on this (if nothing else). What that statement means is quite clear: Do anything you want, whenever you want, without regard for the rights of others. This is not even an ethical position, it is the negation of ethics. Kindness, benevolence, consideration of others is o.k. - if it leads to your goal. But, so is brute force,lying, trickery, deception, fraud, coercion, threats, violence - these also are all o.k. Anything goes, so long as it is your will. Note also, his statement, "Man has the right to kill those who thwart these rights. 'The slaves shall serve'"" The statement "Do what thou will shall be the whole of the law." DOES NOT mean do whatever you want. Quite the opposite in fact. It means that the individual must DISCOVER his or her True Will, their 'Divine purpose' you may call it if you will. Then, when they Know what that is , they must carry it out. It is slightly amusing to note that you omitted the second line of Aleister Crowley's central motto which is "Love is the law, love under will". This means that your True Will must be carried out with Love. Indeed, I believe that Aleister would have agreed with you that "brute force,lying, trickery, deception, fraud, coercion ect" may be permissible, but ONLY on the CONDITION that you do not contradict another person's True Will. If it harms no-one, what is the problem? As the wiccans say. If, on the other hand , you intend to lie in order to contradict another person's True Will... in such a way as in fact you have done - you have lied about what Crowley said (omitting the line "Love is the law...") in order to dirty his name. This is very much Anti-Thelemic behaviour and serves no-one. The final line you mentioned "Man has the right to kill those who thwart these rights. 'The slaves shall serve'". Indeed, if someone intends to contradict my True Will which is to be alive.. i.e. they try to kill me or my family, therefore I have the right to kill this person who would thwart my right to live. Such people are in a way like slaves, and in fact through their vile behaviour they put themselves in a position of servitude. I urge you, Mr Biggers, to study Crwoley's literature more closely, especially Commentaries on Al, which explains many of the slightly more mysterious phrases that Crowley used. He often intended to jibe at people such as yourself who were not prepared to spend the time actually reading his books but would rather critisize him blindly. It was to these people that he made tongue in cheek statements such as "I sacrificed x babies this year"...etc... meaning in fact that he had ejaculated so many times without a resulting pregnancy. His intelligence quite simply baffled many people who in his period of life were often extremist Christians and so he revelled in displaying himself as the devil that they so desired to see in him.