Where does "True Will" come from?

This term is frequently thrown about, and although (theoretically) I know what it means I don't know where it comes from. Who decides your Will? Is it even decided? If you have a true essence, HGA, what made them or how? The simplistic answer is that you were born with it, but that doesn't answer the questions.

The less simplistic answer, which I prefer, is that Will is not absolute, but you must constantly rediscover it. But that still doesn't answer the question of what makes it the "true" Will. Who decides what is true?

ETA: I found a kind of answer here

http://thelema-and-skepticism.blogspot.co.il/2011/06/skeptical-of-true-will.html

In a nutshell, nobody decides what is true.

The HGA is (From what I can understand) simply you, and your essence removed from the world and its vices and virtues. It's as close to what and who you are from an essential view. this likely doesn't answer any questions, but we can also see that the HGA is connected to the Heart, and therefore we can say that the HGA is you, and listening to the HGA is simply listening to those things which resonate most firmly with your heart, indicating those things which you desire doing more than anything else. Those things which you feel an ache in your heart about, and those elements of life which you connect most firmly with. This is what I think it is to listen to your HGA, to listen to that little piece of you which is screaming those things which are so deeply ingrained in you that you couldn't change them if you tried.

True will is not much more than that. Disregarding everything surrounding you, if noone existed but you, and no circumstances were standing in the way, it is doing exactly what you most would be called to do following those pangs of your heart. Not speaking in terms of the connective nature of the heart, mind you. Those can be deceptive and cruel, tricking you into thinking that that nature is YOUR nature, and not simply the result of your connection being disconnected. No, the True Will does not hurt, unless you are ignoring it. The True Will is always uplifting and fulfilling.

This is my experience, and none of this is saying that outside circumstances should not be considered in the APPLICATION of your True Will, but finding it shouldn't take any other considerations than looking inside of yourself and searching.

No one and nothing can tell you what your "True" will is other than you. The HGA is not removed from you, but is an intrinsic part of yourself. To ask where it came from is to ask where YOU came from, and that is the purpose of many a system of study including Kaballah. I think your "True Will" has the potential to continuously change, but if you're consistently at the place of searching for guidance from the place of Tiphareth, then you will find that the basics of your Will are similar, and the only change comes from application due to surroundings.

Use the Force, Luke.

Where does "True Will" come from?

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When I think of pure Will, I am referred to the pentagram where the spirit is beyond the 4 elements. But what is this true will?

The proportion of the side of a pentacle to it's diagonals (=pentagram) is phi. Phi is mathematically related to the unity, and if you want a detailed explanation I am prepared to do so. But the reason why we find this golden proportion in the pentagram we don't know. It is something a priori. Cherish that there are things that are a miracle, and that will always keep us wondering.

yogiman said:

When I think of pure Will, I am referred to the pentagram where the spirit is beyond the 4 elements. But what is this true will?

The proportion of the side of a pentacle to it's diagonals (=pentagram) is phi. Phi is mathematically related to the unity, and if you want a detailed explanation I am prepared to do so. But the reason why we find this golden proportion in the pentagram we don't know. It is something a priori. Cherish that there are things that are a miracle, and that will always keep us wondering.

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Of course, we know why the golden ratio is exhibited all over the pentagram. This can be demonstrated by trigonometry. What we (or at least I) don't know is why this is significant in view of the fact that the golden ratio is distributed so generously throughout nature. Why is the ratio so universal in natural growth patterns?

http://thelema-and-skepticism.blogspot.co.il/2011/06/skeptical-of-true-will.html

So here is my scepticism at work. I go to the original article, and find that there is a prior one above. After the introduction, the authors main statement is this...

It is the contention of this blog that Thelema is best aided by a skeptical approach, one that includes the positions that are the inevitable result of properly applied skepticism: atheism, naturalism, and moral nihilism. As this blog develops, it is my hope that many, if not most, of the posts will explore various facets of these topics, their relationship to Thelema, and ways that rational, intelligent people of the 21st century can benefit from Thelema without subjecting themselves to a cavalcade of false and delusory beliefs.

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So now I have some understanding of the reasoning of this article. And as I am very skeptical of his statement that the inevitable results of properly applied sceptisism is atheism, naturalism and moral nihilism, I no longer take him as an "authority" that I would not question, but as an interesting person with a decided point of view.

And I do question his judgmental use of "properly applied". Does this mean that if one does not agree with him, we did not use proper skepticism?

Now lets go back to this article about "True Will" He firsts defines true will as..

Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. (Aleister Crowley, the creator of Thelema, defines True Will in this way in his work Magick in Theory and Practice)

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and then interpreted by this individual as

Thus, will is the natural course of action for an individual, the fulfillment of that individual’s natural preferences and inclinations. It is the course of action most satisfying to that individual.

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I see Crowley's definition as a two way street, partially on the self and partially on the environment. It is an action-response-reaction pattern. So my nature is changed by what response the environment gives. In a purely selfish in a way, as if I get strokes from my environment, I will act differently than if I were in a vacuum, and be happier as part of a community with some restrictions than a total hedonist by myself.
But there are truly unselfish people out there, and I think it is their TRUE WILL to be unselfish. This is where my skepticism and the authors may differ. Can some people transcend the physical "me" to be part of a universal entity? to my very limited knowledge of the kabbalah, it would be like ascending from Malkuth to anything above it. To my rational mind, I cannot explain a Gandhi or Mother Teresa or a person Jesus or person Buddha or Nelson Mandela or Dalai lama or Martin Luther King without this concept.

So if I take Crowleys definition of true will, I cannot see that the individual's natural preferences and actions being theirs alone, without the dynamics of interaction to complicate and modify it, possible transcend it.

Please eviscerate me nicely if you disagree, I am newer to philosophy than I am to tarot. But a scientist from birth.

The True Will model seems to imply there's a built-in harmony to the Universe, but did Crowley ever attempt to explain what the "Universe" is, or if we can understand it, or was he more agnostic in his views? If a person can't know or understand the Universe at large, how can they know their place in it?

In this case I prefer to work from the bottom up

But that isn't answering the OP's OP ... ummm from beyond Kether

I could explain it better from the perspective of my psycho/astro Tree but then I would have to detail that system here and It only exists as a colour drawing and some letter graphics someone worked out in a GD thread (I think)

Start with dose of the above and add as you go down (transpersonal planets / superego modifications ... down to modifying Mercurius aspects in the Solar ego loop and out through the persona into the self / environment a for feedback and back up the Tree to give feedback through the super ego level and so on.

It changes or unfolds with life experience as well as 'coming with us' like some type of ephemeral RNA... what if someone finds it and fullfils it at an early stage ? In that case one may have more than one True Will

Abrac said:

The True Will model seems to imply there's a built-in harmony to the Universe, but did Crowley ever attempt to explain what the "Universe" is, or if we can understand it, or was he more agnostic in his views? If a person can't know or understand the Universe at large, how can they know their place in it?

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Thelema encourages those who choose the path of the magician to discover their own valid 'Magical theory of the Universe' ... it is an essential part of graduation to Thelemic magician

I don't understand what being 'agnostic in views' has to do with it ???

Abrac said:

The True Will model seems to imply there's a built-in harmony to the Universe, but did Crowley ever attempt to explain what the "Universe" is, or if we can understand it, or was he more agnostic in his views? If a person can't know or understand the Universe at large, how can they know their place in it?

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As above, so below; and vice-versa. The macrocosm is replicated in the microcosm. Hence the maxim: Know thyself. The real problem is that who I really am and who I think I am may be entirely different.