Credit: Dangerous Minds / Aleister Crowley

Never let it be said that men can’t get wherever they want to go if they just don’t stop, and in so many ways, Aleister Crowley did. Not. Stop.

Much like L Ron Hubbard founding a (and these are some blimp-sized inverted commas here) “religion” based on his bad sci-fi novels, Crowley formed a religion based on similarly dodgy foundations. Rather than some coked-up nonsense about aliens, though, all Crowley needed was some half-arsed Egyptian mythology, some quarter arsed ritual magic, and a sexual appetite so voracious that if you tarted it up in something lacy, he’d probably fuck a tractor.

This religion (we’re feeling generous, so we’re going to call it that) was called Thelema.

While if you wanted to be mean about it, and by mean I mean truthful, it’s easy to say that Thelema was founded in order to give Crowley an excuse to bone down freaky-deaky style with basically anyone he wanted. However, if you asked him or, credit where it’s due, the hundreds of other people who ascribed to this belief system, they would tell you they believed in a genuine moral code.

This moral code is infamous. One whose influence probably goes far beyond those who explicitly associate it with Aleister Crowley himself. It’s one that a lot of people take one look at and immediately think, “Aw, sweet, I can pretentiously justify the fact that I only really care about myself!” This is despite the fact that if you look a little deeper, the statement means quite the opposite.

This statement reads “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” You can probably see where the confusion comes from, but stay with me here.

What did Crowley mean by ‘True Will’?

Now, on the one hand, you can absolutely see where they’re coming from. A moral code seemingly boiling down to “you are morally obligated to do whatever the hell you want” is an intoxicating promise. One that would attract a high amount of the worst people on this planet. Yet the truth is a little different from that, and the truth is connected to a concept Crowley coined called True Will.

You see, at the core of Thelema is the belief that every person has an intrinsic and divine purpose.

This purpose supercedes any societal expectation or personal desire and represents what a person was put on this planet to do, their True Will. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” represents not a command to indulge every possible whim, but a commitment to following your truest spiritual calling. Your truest spiritual calling will inherently live in harmony with everyone else’s, creating a world where people live peacefully with others.

There are several ways to find this True Will. It’s achievable by meditation, study, internal dialogue and above all else, the most important thing you can possibly do to discover your truest self, by fucking Aleister Crowley. Therein lies the rub. So to speak. Like all cult logic, it all sounds great when you look into it on their level. However, if you look at it the way they want to, you miss the part that puts one guy on top, with everyone subservient to his True Will.

In the end, no good ever comes from white dudes dressed up as pharaohs, especially not when they’re Aleister Fucking Crowley.