Where does "True Will" come from?

[ravenest]

Mixing systems wont work; True Will (in this context) is a Thelemic concept.

One cant expect to apply Fortune's post-Victorian morality (and her ideas about Netzach - she is writing about Western Hermetic Kabbalah not Thelema ) to True Will nowadays (much as one must sift it of Cowley's post-Victorian rebellion ).

 

[Aeon418]

As an addendum to the thought experiment, I would like to pose the question if someone can act in accordance with his True Will, or work towards his True Will by acquiring the (according to Fortune) at this stage necessary slave-morality.

A counter question: How can you follow your True Will if your rebellious little ego keeps getting in the way? The same ego that 'thinks' it has free will and can do whatever it wants.

AL I:42 .....thou hast no right but to do thy will.

 

[Aeon418]

The Fortune quote in full. Context is a wonderful thing.

The Mystical Qabalah - chapter 19, section 38. (p.177)

The Spiritual Experience that is conveyed by initiation into the Sphere of Geburah is the Vision of Power. It is only when a man has receiveed this that he becomes Adeptus Major. The right handling of power is one of the greatest tests that can be imposed on any human being. Up to this point in his progress up the grades an initiate learns the lessons of discipline, control, and stability; he acquires, in fact, what Nietzche calls slave-morality a very necessary discipline for unregenerate human nature, so proud in it's conceit. With the grade of Adeptus Major, however, he must acquire the virtues of the superman, and learn to wield power instead of submit to it. But even so, he is not a law unto himself, for he is the servant of the power he wields and must carry out it's purposes, not his own. Though no longer responsible to his fellow-men he is still responsible to the Creator of heaven and earth, and will be required to give an account of his stewardship.

 

[ravenest]

The Magical Weapon of Geburah is the Sword.

In another passage from -the mystical qabalah- (p.125, about the sephirah Geburah) Dion Fortune states:

Here is a different view on Geburah for you:

It might help some to understand that power can never stand alone (for long, if at all).

Looking at the Tree of Life one sees it attributed to the 5th sphere. It needs to balanced and applied with the 4th ( “Remember that unbalanced force is evil; that unbalanced severity is but cruelty and oppression; but that also unbalanced mercy is but weakness which would allow and abet Evil.” )

Also, above that is ‘knowledge’ and that must be used (through application of power and ‘flexibility’ of the 4th sphere– like the proverbial willow in the storm i.e.’ Daoist principles’).

Knowledge must be ruled by ‘Understanding’ - 3rd sphere ( understanding what the result of any application of knowledge through power might be) and ‘Wisdom’ – 2nd sphere ( creating beneficial and intelligent * results from applying the understanding of knowledge through power).

It just isn’t power alone … that will become an ‘evil qlippoth’. An excellent example of this is in the classic ‘medieval’ Japanese movie called ‘Sword of Doom’ - especially the final scenes.

[ “…There, in a quiet (and he is told, haunted) room, he starts seeing the ghosts of all the people he has killed. Further, he is haunted by the words of Shimada: "The sword is the soul. Study the soul to know the sword. Evil mind, evil sword” …. With this realization, Ryunosuke appears to descend into complete insanity. He starts slashing at the shadows of the ghosts that surround him, and then begins attacking his fellow assassins, who seem to number in the hundreds. In one of the longest (seven minutes) and most famous sword fight scenes on film, Ryunosuke kills dozens of gang members in the burning courtesan house as they gradually wear him down with what few wounds they can inflict. Finally it appears that Ryunosuke will surely be killed; bleeding and staggering, his face contorted in rage, he lurches forward, raises his sword once more, and the film ends; a freeze-frame catching Ryunosuke in mid sword-slash ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Doom

How’s that for a rendition of a Rite of Mars? (Rites are to teach us lessons )

I often quote from Crowley’s Rite of Mars to help those that think power and lower ego must be entwined.

Here is a good description IMO of Power:

“ This is the day which down the void abysm
At the Earth-born's spell yawns for Heaven's despotism,
And Conquest is dragged captive through the deep;
Love, from its awful throne of patient power
In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour
Of dead endurance, from the slippery steep,
And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs
And folds over the world its healing wings.
Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance--
These are the seals of that most firm assurance
Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength;
And if, with infirm hand, Eternity,
Mother of many acts and hours, should free
The serpent that would clasp her with his length,
These are the spells by which to reassume
An empire o'er the disentangled doom.
To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory! “

The Rite of Mars.


* intelligence = actions that gain benefit for oneself while benefiting others

 

[Aeon418]

The Paths of Mem and Lamed must be crossed before the attainment of Geburah. Surrender - Atu XII The Hanged Man, and Balance - Atu VIII Adjustment, are the prerequisits of Power.

The journey there is one of (ego) Submission to Power (HGA) - slave morality practiced inwardly. The result is increased awareness and understanding of the Will.

 

[Zephyros]

The journey there is one of (ego) Submission to Power (HGA) - slave morality practiced inwardly. The result is increased awareness and understanding of the Will.

How apt is her use of the term anyway? Although Fortune is coming from a different angle (as in, not Thelemic) I find it hard to imagine that relationship as one of slavery. Submission, yes, but submission to love (submission to submission?), a love affair with the HGA, K&C as "give and take." The word slavery conjures images of the old Osirian formulae.

Or, because she is speaking from a different angle, the Higher Self is seen by her as an extension of God?

 

[Aeon418]

School of hard knocks...

Although Fortune is coming from a different angle (as in, not Thelemic) I find it hard to imagine that relationship as one of slavery.

Fortune may or may not be comming from a different angle, but it is important to point out that she is describing a process not a static picture. At different places along the Path things may 'appear' a certain way. But move a little further along and another perspective is revealed.

In the pre-Adept phase of the work there are many aspects of the ego-self that are not in sync with the HGA. They resist and obstruct. They are not commited to the work of self transformation in the same way that Crowley wasn't at the beginning of chapter 1. See verse 26 where he is refered to as "slave of the beautious one". At that point he still wasn't the 'willing servant' of Adonai. It's not until near the end of chapter 2 that he finally 'gives it up'. But not before he gets read the riot act. It reminds me very much of a line from Liber Cheth:

For if thou dost not this with thy will, then shall We do this despite thy will.

The 'will' mentioned here is the personality level will that thinks it can throw a tantrum and refuse to align itself to the Universal Will. After all you've got that thing called 'free will' and can defy the universe, right? Or can you?

10. O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing.
11. I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but I am stronger.

 

[Zephyros]

The 'will' mentioned here is the personality level will that thinks it can throw a tantrum and refuse to align itself to the Universal Will. After all you've got that thing called 'free will' and can defy the universe, right? Or can you?

I always thought those two lines bore similarity to the marginalia written by monks, and add a very human air to the otherwise rather stern and forbidding BoL.

Playing devil's advocate, isn't that going in circles a bit? I mean, your ego isn't something to be relied upon, the trap of desire, etc., but it is, to a certain extent, your ego that starts you on the Great Work in the first place. Isn't it my own prideful aggrandizement to assume I even have a True Will? Even with all the definitions of Will given in this thread (I obviously like my own best!) the desire to attain it is still mired in ego, at least for the, as you say, pre-Adept stage.

 

[Aeon418]

Playing devil's advocate, isn't that going in circles a bit? I mean, your ego isn't something to be relied upon, the trap of desire, etc., but it is, to a certain extent, your ego that starts you on the Great Work in the first place.

The ego starts you on the Great Work? The impulse to start the Great Work originates at a much deeper level than ego. Some would say it's not even your choice. (See the old design of Atu XX) Although this impulse may be consciously felt as a sense of dissatisfaction which makes it appear ego driven.

But actually 'doing the work' sorts out the passing fads of the ego and the real aspiration to attain. People get interested and then drift away all the time. It takes a lot of commitment to stay the course.

 

[Richard]

The ego starts you on the Great Work? The impulse to start the Great Work originates at a much deeper level than ego. Some would say it's not even your choice. (See the old design of Atu XX) Although this impulse may be consciously felt as a sense of dissatisfaction which makes it appear ego driven......

On the dust jacket of my copy of The Book of Tokens is an excerpt from the Meditation on Tzaddi:

Men think they seek me,
But it is I who seek them.
No other seeker is there than myself,
And when I find mine own,
The pain of questing is at an end.
The fish graspeth the hook.
Thinking to find food,
But the fisherman is the enjoyer of the meal.