What is the “True Will”?

One often reads references to a “True Will” by modern occultists inspired by Aleister Crowley’s teachings, who once said that the “True Will should spring, a fountain of Light, from within, and flow unchecked, seething with Love, into the Ocean of Life” (Little Essays Towards Truth, page 76). Crowley also stated that “The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one’s own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfill that Will” (Magick, Book 4, page 127) and that “A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him” (Ibid, page 128).

But, what is the True Will actually? How could it be defined? What makes it distinct from the untrue (false, illusional, etc.) will? How does one discern one from the other? How can one identify the True Will? Who is capable of doing that? Furthermore, is it possible to ascribe certain signs to a genuine communication with the True Will, recongnisable to another individual, say the Initiator? Is it possible to guide a aspirant, as a teacher and Initiator, to discern between the egoic drives and the True Will? Or is it always a matter of the individual?

I find Crowley’s term “True Will” and his definition of it to be the most usable of all of his “Magickal” philosophy. But for me this is not the same as Liberalism or Libertanianism (which rather is the freedom ideology of the ego). For me the True Will must flow from the True Self, the Higher Soul or Divine Genius. That, in my humble opinion, entails an outlet of Love and Light and Life, whereas the ego blocks that flow and twists the lower persona into expressing Hate, Darkness and Death. 

The True Will represents Immortality; the false or egoic will represents mortality. The True Will knows the Truth; the false will either illusion or (at best) relative truth. The True Will expresses a Constructive urge; the false will desctructive tendancies and immediate gratification. The True Will makes us excell ourselves, to exceed our ordinary human limits and evolve, whereas the false will limits us and makes us regress or devolve. The True Will expresses the Will of God, whereas the false self expresses materialism. 

The True Will and the Divine Genius makes us aware of the intrinsic unity of all life and the brotherhood of humanity, of altruism, whereas the false will and ego shrouds our consciousness into a sense of separateness and egotism. This is true freedom or liberty, contrasted to the egoic notion of Libertarianism. Obviously, using this as a measuring stick, it is possible for a initiator to identify and separate the two contraries or contradictory willpowers within the initiate, and provide spiritual councelling in a general manner, not in its particulars.

Then there is the definition of what constitutes the Divine Genius. Most modern students of the occult in the past, as well as the current post-modern students, equal the Divine Genius or Higher Soul with the Holy Guardian Angel. That can be problematized, but I am not in the liberty to speak candidly about it here on this blog. But I must point out that the Daemon of Plato or Sokrates not necessarily is the same as the old and traditional Greek definition of the term Daemon or the Roman Genuis. (The term “Genius” used in the Golden Dawn context make this even more confusing, but seems to adhere to the relatively late platonic tradition.) 

What I can say though, is that the Divine Genius is an angelic aspect of ourselves. It is the Divne Spark. It is that central point within us which radiates Solar Power. It is the seed from which is created the Solar Body which is the ultimate goal of the Great Work and which entails true Immortality of consciousness. This Solar Spark is connected to the Solar Current, the Solar Energy, the L.V.X. or Light; the Life-Force. Compassion and Love. True Liberty as contrasted to the vulgar egoic liberty. 

Everything is created from this Solar Force and our Divine Solar Spark makes us in communication with the entire creation and constitutes the “intercom” with God or Godhead, the Lord of the Universe. That is why the term “angel” comes into mind, who in mythology were the mouthpieces of God, the deliverers of his commands, his messengers to mankind. But it is not the Holy Guardian Angel of Abra-Melin. This are one of the misconceptions that have taken hold of the post-modern occult community of the Occident and which deter the student from the path to apotheosis. 

Note: The photograph at the head is taken from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s movie The Dance of Reality which depicts him standing behind a younger version of himself. The movie is about Jodorowsky’s own childhood and him taking the role of the wise aged Higher Soul. 

 

S∴R ∴