Magick and Will

Ordo Antichristianus Illuminati^®

Magic and Will

Magic is the undiscovered country, unexpressed in the romantic history of the Soul. The value of religion to the human condition is inestimable; Magic is a means, moreover an end to which the will is actualized in concert with a universal meta-physical force, be it God, Al'Lah, Universal Mind, the Grand Architect of the Universe, intelligent design, or other nomenclatures. The question of a true, or pure will is one of predeterminism vs. the compatibility of a "free" will with metaphysics and science. This principle has theological, ethical, and scientific implications; theorists such as Schopenhauer, Crowley, Rollo May, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke all attempt to explore whether a will is causal {caused by non-religious, "organic" conditions}, or affective {affected by metaphysic and philosophic concepts}, whether an omnipotent præter-human intelligence, or divine design affects human will, under the assumption that the multiverse is deterministic making a "free" will redundant. The afore mentioned philosophers attempted to ascertain whether the human will is determined by brain reactions, not by physical or metaphysic causality. The dilemma is choice.

How is a choice possible? Predilection and premeditation are components of a manifesting will, induced by a causality independent of human concepts. The universe has symmetry, cyclic chaos, thus created by an architectural design. Will is manifest only when aligned outside metaphysical theories, such as Crowley's "True Will." Magic is the highest consecrated and purified divine vehicle of iniquity and enlightenment whereby the souls of men and women are extinguished in the Great Death of Mahāparinirvāņa. The union of magic and will activates the Soul - extinguishing All that is Not, destroying the entire psyche as the rare architects of a purified will, a manifest destiny, or symmetrical alignment of goals and actions, the Doers (and Daring) of destines sit as ashes in the Black Lodges of the City of Pyramids, awaiting there the Great Flame of Annihilation. The magical Arte is the murderer of the curse of destinies, where the palls of Death die, for death escapes from a fear of living Death. Verily is it said, "death is the crown of all" (Liber AL vel Legis II;72), as Death becomes forbidden unto the Infernal Fallen Angel in the synthesis of magic & purified will. The coagulation of magic and will is a "psychosynthesis," a sacrament of the soul where all blood is inevitably surrendered, seeping forth into the deepest veins of Universal Consciousness.

Proponents of metaphysic predeterminism with a "free," or "true," will argue that causal predeterminism {theological predestination} links past and present with the laws of nature. One who claims a will guided by predetermined phenomena, therefore would know all events of the past and present and coalesce them with the laws of nature to project their will and manifest a future. The problem, again, is choice. How can a will be "free," or "True," if a præter-human intelligence determines the future? A will cannot be "True" if it depends on theological context, on metaphysic notions, similar to those of Crowley. A will is also shaped by genetic endowment, culture, and psychological predispositions. Crowley did not take these into account. Hobbes theorized that a will was only free if the choice was willed, yet the individual could have chose otherwise. Hume associated Hobbes mutable will with inalienable liberty, thus predetermination matters not, if choice is the result of individual preference, and desire, not overridden by some metaphysic or præter-human phenomena.

A "pure" will cannot be conflicted, rather it is balanced between instinct and desire, one that a person acts of without cause. Daniel Dennett theorizes that because of chaos and quantum randomness, the future is infinite, impossible to choose for the human condition. Man has the ability, Dennett argues in his book, Freedom Evolves, to act independently of the expectations of others, thus free will can exist. Crowley failed to realize that regardless of spiritual implications, Man can de-evolve into automata responding in preconditioned behaviour to external stimuli in one's environment. Thus all acts would be controlled by quantum chance. A "True Will" does not exist because of the chaos principle, the quantum randomness of the universe.

It is possible that if a human's behaviour is causal, then choice is mechanical, and the human species, naturally, has been predesigned as willing automatons. Dennett rejects this argument on the grounds that there are no tangible differences between automatic mechanisms and the human species. A pure will means that the species must be the causa sui, originating cause, of the action. Hence, one with a pure will acts without cause. If predetermination is true, then the human will is not compatible with the laws of nature, and no control over past events, nor the consequences of such events. Yet, as a popular American film, the Matrix Reloaded tells its audience, "choice is illusion." On the other hand, metaphysical libertarians believe that free will is possible. Libertarian theories of "Free" and "pure" will divide in theories relying on natural law, the supernatural, and præter-human intelligences. The panpsychic theory explains that the human mind is composed of quantum particles, pervading the entire multiverse, in both sentient and non-sentient entities. Thus, mind and soul, as noumena, override physical causality.

Locke viewed predetermination as irrelevant, that individuals have the ability to deliberate upon choice and consequence. In his treatise, On Freedom of the Will, Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, "One can do what he wills, but in any given moment of life, one way will only one definitive act, and absolutely nothing other than that one thing." {Oxford 1839} A pure will can exist on the basis that quantum phenomena such as linear time, mind, and soul are not events or things located in space and time, but are abstract phenomena. They are micro-level phenomena outside of causal macrocosmic events. All individuals are responsible for willed actions regardless of cultural, or genetic conditions of ethics. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" {Liber AL vel Legis I:40} The dilemma of metaphysics and free will presupposes accountability regardless of culture, genetics, or other factors. Magic is the transmutability of desire, action, and thought under artful means to an end.

In the context of cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, free will is assumed an illusion. The chaos theory which plays into emergent behaviour leads to an illusory perception to have a free will, or "True Will," though nonexistent as an ontological entity. An entirely different approach in the form of the Hindu Vedanta sect comes from Swami Vivekananda: "Therefore we see at once that there cannot be any such thing as free-will; the very words are a contradiction, because will is what we know, and everything that we know is within our universe, and everything within our universe is moulded by conditions of time, space and causality. ... To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe; it cannot be found here." {Vivekananda 1907} Religion is the bane of the human spiritual condition; nonetheless, the value of religion to men and women is grave. Religion avows the First Noble Truth that all existence is sorrow and suffering, justifying the mortification of magic, demands of faith, and a subservient will to the existence of one or more alleged præter-human intelligences. Magic is anti-ideological and a profound Adversary to ordered religion. Religion fails in what Magic declares to the traumatized and horrified soul: that perpetual psychic & psychological warfare is the bounty and bane of human existence. Moreover, magic reconciles the "skew-wise" anathema of philosophy with the fundamental questions of religion.

Buddha said, "There is free action, there is retribution, but I see no agent that passes out from one set of momentary elements into another one, except the connection of those elements." {"Buddhism and the Freedom of the Will: Pali and Mahayanist Responses" in Freedom and Determinism. Campbell, Joseph Keim; O'Rourke, Michael; and Shier, David. 2004. MIT Press} Aleister Crowley defined magic as "the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will." He theorized all phenomena are illusions in the training of the Magician's Will against a dire adversary - Mind. For the Magician is the Bearer of the Lie, the dispeller of the veil of truth & lies. The unrealized potency of the personal ill is twofold in magic: the perception of Will and the manifestation of the individual as a vessel of Will. To Crowley, will and perception are interdependent, appearing only segregated to the Ruach, the gross element upon the phenomenal Mirror of the Universe. Hence, in order to realize and conquer the workings of the Will aright, the depths of the psyche must be as a silent flame or the reflecting waters of the Abyss. The will presupposes a means to an end, being also an end in itself. Absolute freedom of choice can be viewed as foolish from a certain karmic perspective, because it denies the reality of environment and physiological imperatives.

Philo of Alexandria believed free will to be a primary feature of the human soul. Christian conceptions of magic and will pervade the world at present. The first and last task of training and developing the Path of the True Will is to prepare for its total surrender. Judaism stresses that free will is a product of the intrinsic human soul, using the word neshama {Hebrew root NShM, נשמ meaning 'breath'}, but the ability to make a free choice is via Yechida {from Heb. root YChYD יחיד, sing.}, part of the soul which united with YHVH, for YHVH is not hindered by or dependent on causality. In the web of the personal Will, the will of the Ruach acts upon other psychological functions, misperceiving and segregating them. In Islam the theological debate is not how to reconcile free will with Allah's foreknowledge, but with jabr, or commanding power. In Shia Islam, the understanding of divine predetermination is challenged by most orthodox theologists. Free will, according to Shia Islamic doctrine is the main factor for accountability action. All actions taken by Man's free will are said to be counted on the Day of Judgement because they are dependent upon personal will and not Allah's.

Inhibition of a pure will is invoked when "power asks why,” when a pure will is prosecuted and sentenced to the gross by reason. A pure will is the synthesis of the personal and divine will, possessing qualities of Lust, intelligence, skill, and banishment of reason. One whom Dares destiny, fears no Man nor Devil, whose acts of will are free of social & ethical obstruction, is an Architect of what I refer to as manifest destiny. Dynamic Power, intensity, one-pointed-ness, persistence, patience, and integration are the keys to unlock a synthesis between of magic and a pure will. The perception of becoming a vehicle for the manifest destiny of one's Dæmon {acts of the Yechidah the quintessential fire of Godhead} is akin to the Taoistic state of wu-wei. Men and Women doing the means and ends necessary to manifest destiny possess an indefeasible right to perform, to Dare and keep silent the Great Work. The most dire invocation a man or woman performs in Magic is that of the Genius, the Augoeides, the Dæmon. Magic makes no compromise, the knowledge and conversation is an inevitable part of the romantic history of the soul. Without such, the soul is imprisoned in the labyrinth of false identification leading to obsession and madness. The attainment of a manifest destiny is a dangerous progressive task of purification, consecration, and initiation. The Magician crafting the operational means to manifest destiny is assisted by the Chaos of the discernible universe.

A pure will is the combined motive substance of the cosmos, theoretically the human species is a manifestation of the will of an intelligent design, existing upon an axis of quantum chaos. The mechanism of will one of the first arcana of magical initiation. It must be understood that fundamentally the ancient custodians of the dark Arte surrounded the approaches of their secrets with many terrors and illusions. The will was not recognized as pure until its empirical proofs were produced. By virtue of one calculating and applying the means to manifest a personal will from a hypothesized desire to a manifest destiny, a pure will becomes the sum of one's desires. The great works of Adeptship presupposed personal and emotive detachment, and a complete absence of self-aggrandizement. One must calculate and be conscious of power, in the form of one's connection to the Universe, then act. Idleness never produces a pure will, inertia fails to manifest a determined destiny. Every desire that is a detriment to the fulfillment of a manifest destiny must be silenced during the production of a pure will. A perverse will designed to interfere with natural law is the beginning of a fractured consciousness. The more numerous the obstacles the stronger and craftier a will is made pure, to prepare for the fulfillment of a manifest destiny.

The personal Will pontificates as prosecutor, judge, and jury to the Genius, or prodigy that produces a manifest destiny. Bound in the lower catacombs of the psyche, the personal will prosecutes the Voice of the Dæmon {neschamah} in the name of self-aggrandizement. Thinking and moral deliberation are acts of inhibition leading to a subdued, indecisive will. Initiates are time and again bewitched by the lesser personal will, subservient to ego, conjuring only specters of psychological imbalance and not the Light of the Infernal Fallen Angel, which is the subconscious prodigy that produces a manifest destiny. Magical life and initiation commands an abandonment of security, conventionality, and safety. Initiation mauls the perception of truth and lies to where nothing is true and the personal Will is seen as a bewitching naked illusion. Those whom fortify the personal refuse their own intrinsic power to manifest destiny, proclaim themselves slaves with their battle cries of "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." This is a psychic cry of minds trapped inside themselves, seeking a "True Will" as an anesthesia. An aura of daring and desperation, combat and adversity, is a prerequisite for the Knowledge and Conversation. Without Initiation into the four powers of the Sphinx, body-mind invokes the ghosts of reason and vampires of ego, creating disease and fantasy.

In the black Arte, Fratres & Sorores often find the pangs of initiation burns the blood in a life lived upon the edge of the Horror of the Abyss. It is in the spirit of the Fool that Hermits of Light and Darkness ride into the battlegrounds of destinies, ready to surrender at last a pure will and await the Great Black Flame. Men and Women whom possess the daring and determination of uniting Magic and will are besieged by the "laughter of the folk-folly" and the envious hatred slave addicts lost in the slime of their own living death. Magic has no room for the despondent of will, refusing sacrifice. Magicians are those secret few who are above the worms of the river Styx, learning well the lessons of the Path, ready to burn in the cremation grounds of the Great Serpent. The synthesis of Magic and the means to overcome the quantum randomness of the universe to transfigure infinite diversities of chaos into a manifest destiny makes for a reformation of the deathless soul. The Invocation of the Dæmon, rather, the Knowledge and Conversation strips the initiate of all knowledge of the self, bringing to the surface previously inexperienced and unexpressed archetypes. In this inevitable revelation, it is from the darkness that the light withdrawn emerges. To what end does the initiate execute a manifest destiny? The manifest destiny has no end, its nature being the secret power of the Sphinx, "To Go." Men and women are on the Path or they are not. In the Holy zeal of exaltation only the deathless soul who has reached the confines of a manifest destiny can cry out in the agony of ecstasy; "My Will, which is Thine be done!"