The Love of Crowley

Alistair Crowley is a popular man, even after death. It is rumored that his life and teachings are the basis for many things, from the song Stairway to Heaven to the teachings of Scientology. After death his popularity has grown and his writings and teachings are applauded and incorporated into the neo-worldviews springing up every day.

It is not well known that Crowley ended his life as a heroin addict and alcoholic, living off of his former disciples. In fact it was written by one of his former students that Crowley was so disliked by the people who knew him (although they once loved him), at his funeral the excretion of superfluous human waste was performed on top of where his dead body lay.

These facts will not be used here to demonstrate anything regarding Crowley's character or the validity of his teaching. These events do indeed demonstrate something of the person and where his ideas came from, similar to if a diehard meth addict were to speak about justice (as opposed to a former meth addict who is now a rehabilitation counselor). Such scrutiny of the practice of the preacher often brings much benefit in the search for truth. However this is not always the case, for a truth may exist which is not demonstrated sufficiently by the teacher of it. Therefore this article will discuss only a specific teaching of Crowley based on the merits of the teaching itself.

Maybe the most well known teaching of Crowley is, "Do what thou wilt." It has statements which precede it, and it is sufficient to only provide the well known substance of the "Do what thou wilt" for the purpose of this writing:

Love is the law. Love under will. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

From a cursory glance it may seem like a statement of liberation. Closer scrutiny will change this first impression.

We may agree that love is the law. We love our families, we love our friends, our countries, homes, and those in need. Love is so deeply ingrained in our nature that if we were to remove it we would cease to be human. And since it is in us as something natural the fulfillment of love in us through basing all that we do on what love dictates is natural. Thus love can be viewed as an ultimate form of natural law. Anyone who goes against their nature is destroying themselves, and thus love is the law.

We may also agree it is necessary to love under will. Being forced to love through threats, promises or any sort of compulsion is a reaction to pressure. Maintaining love through this pressure makes us no less than slaves. Where there is love there is no slavery, no exaltation of one person over another. Rather there is the freedom to be natural, and so we say we must love under will.

The last statement contains the whole problem. If love is the law, and we must do it by choice, then it would follow that the whole of the law is to will to love. But this is not what the third statement states. It says, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." We must love under will, however love is different than will. Love is the act and by choice we must love. But in making the third statement, Crowley negates the necessity of love and changes the law from love to mere freedom of choice to do whatever desire entails.

Disagreements may arise over what has just been written to the effect that Crowley was indeed indicating that what a person wills to do must be love. If this was the case then of course Crowley - by no means of small intelligence - would have written something more appropriate, maybe along the lines of the aforementioned "Willing to love is the whole of the law." In the summary statement Crowley ignores the idea of love and says instead do what you want rather than do what love dictates.

How is it possible that such a statement can be accepted by so many people and used as a foundation for many beliefs and world views without the realization that the conclusion is not to be loving in all that you do, but merely do what you want whenever you want to?

Maybe the answer lies in two desires, one for freedom and the other for self-justification or knowing that what we do is ok even if others disagree or dislike it. We have the right to self-determination, and it is "legal" that we use it. We are pressed and oppressed on all sides from those who want to keep our existence from being valid.

What is not understood is the reality that most oppression we experience against our freedom comes more the unwritten laws of social tyranny (dress like this, don't state what you believe if it will seem rude, if you like/don't like item X you are cool/not cool). In fact such adherence to these laws has taken the place of love as demonstrated by the castigation of those who step outside the unwritten laws, unless such a step involves increasing the unwritten laws tyranny. The tyranny of fashion, the tyranny of fads, the tyranny of passion - these are what we have enslaved ourselves to. We love fashion, we love pleasure, popularity and entertainment. We want them, and now we have them at will, even if against our will.

With this in mind we see that many of us love these unwritten laws, and keep to them with much fervor. In essence, we use Crowley's law to enslave themselves and others, and then use the same to "legalize" what we do. Do not seek to step outside these laws for you will be bludgeoned until you submit to them.

We suffer from these tyrannies which Crowley proclaims as our freedom and love. Still we are waiting. The true freedom we seek and that is appropriately ours by nature is not to be found in "Do what thou wilt." Rather it is to be found in love and all that love entails.

As to the nature of love it must be known so that we have that law before us and in us, guiding us in all that we do. That conversation will be saved for another time. But I think if we were to take a large amount of time to reflect and think on the subject with all seriousness and begin to do what we learn love entails, we would begin to realize exactly what love is.

Doing this has eternal ramifications.

After all if love is the ultimate law, and all laws have punishment for breaking them, then if we don't choose to love there is only one place we will go when our breath leaves our body.