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Liber XXXII · Thelema

Liber XXXII · Thelema

What Does 'Do What Thou Wilt' Mean? Thelema's Law Explained

What 'Do what thou wilt' really means in Thelema: True Will versus whim, love under will, its roots in Augustine and Rabelais, and common misreadings.

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"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" is the central precept of Thelema, the religious philosophy founded by Aleister Crowley on the basis of The Book of the Law (1904). It does not mean "do whatever you like". In Crowley's teaching it means that each person should discover and follow their True Will, their deepest purpose or nature, and that no outside authority has the right to obstruct it. The law is completed by a second phrase, "love is the law, love under will".

The Phrase in The Book of the Law§

The words appear in the first chapter of The Book of the Law, the chapter spoken in the voice of the sky goddess Nuit. The same chapter declares that every man and every woman is a star, and calls restriction the word of sin; the third chapter adds that there is no law beyond the formula. Together these verses make "Do what thou wilt" not one rule among many but the entire law of the new age, which Crowley called the Aeon of Horus.

The word thelema is Greek for "will". Crowley chose it as the name of his movement because the whole doctrine turns on the meaning of that word; the name of his followers, Thelemites, had already been used by Rabelais for the residents of an imaginary abbey. For the text, its reception and its three speaking gods see Thelema and The Book of the Law, and for an overview of the movement What Is Thelema?.

Before Crowley: Augustine, Rabelais and Medmenham§

Crowley's formula has two important forerunners, and he knew both.

The first is a sermon by Augustine of Hippo, preached in the early fifth century as part of his homilies on the First Epistle of John. Discussing Christian charity, Augustine offered the short maxim dilige, et quod vis fac, "love, and do what you will". His point was that an action flowing from genuine love of God and neighbour cannot be evil, whatever its outward form; the maxim has often been quoted, and misquoted, as a summary of Christian freedom.

The second is literary. In François Rabelais's Gargantua, published in the 1530s, the giant Gargantua founds the Abbey of Thélème for the boisterous Friar John. It is a satire of monastic life: there are no walls, no clocks and no vows, men and women live together, and the only rule is Fay ce que vouldras, "do what you will". Rabelais explains that people who are free, well born and well educated have a natural instinct toward honour, which compulsion only perverts. Crowley admired Rabelais and later took both the abbey's name and its motto for his own community in Sicily, described in The Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù.

In the eighteenth century the motto was inscribed over the door of Medmenham Abbey, the meeting place of Sir Francis Dashwood's club of aristocratic libertines, often remembered as the Hellfire Club. That association with dissipation has coloured popular readings of the phrase ever since, though it had nothing to do with Crowley's later use.

True Will: Not "Do What You Like"§

The difference between Crowley's law and simple licence lies in the idea of True Will. Crowley compared each person to a star moving in its own orbit. A star does not choose its path arbitrarily; it follows the course its nature gives it, and collisions occur only when something forces it out of that course. In the same way, he taught, each human being has a unique purpose, and the task of life is to discover it and pursue it without distraction.

True Will is therefore distinguished from ordinary wants. Appetites, fears, social conditioning and the ambitions of the ego can all obscure it, and following them may be the opposite of doing one's will. Crowley described the discovery of True Will as the heart of the Great Work, closely associated with the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, the spiritual attainment at the centre of his system of training. Magick, in his famous definition, is the science and art of causing change in conformity with will, and its disciplines of yoga, ritual and self-examination are meant above all to clarify what that will is.

On this reading, the formula is demanding rather than permissive. It asks the individual to take full responsibility for discovering their purpose, and it condemns restriction, including self-restriction born of fear or habit, as the one real sin.

Love Under Will and the Ethics of Thelema§

The first chapter of The Book of the Law balances the law of will with a law of love: love is the law, love under will. Crowley interpreted "love" broadly, as the uniting of opposites, the drive by which one thing joins with another and so grows. In his cosmology this is the love between the goddess Nuit, infinite space, and Hadit, the point at the centre of every being; see Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. "Under will" means that such union should serve the True Will rather than distract from it.

The ethical consequences follow from the image of the stars. If every person is a star with a rightful orbit, then each must respect the orbits of others; to interfere with another's True Will is itself a violation of the law. Crowley drew out this social side in Liber OZ (1941), a short declaration of the rights of the individual to live, work, think, speak, love and die as they will, and in late essays on the duties a Thelemite owes to self, to others and to society. Critics have noted that Liber OZ also contains a fierce passage on the right to kill those who infringe these rights, and that The Book of the Law includes harsh rhetoric about the weak; Thelemites differ on how literally such passages should be read. The wider framework is surveyed in Thelemic Doctrine.

Crowley also attached to the book a short "comment", written in Tunis in 1925, which discourages discussion of its contents and leaves each reader to interpret it for themselves. This individualism means there is no single authoritative Thelemic ethics, only a shared starting point.

Common Misreadings and Comparisons§

Because the phrase sounds permissive, it has often been taken as a licence for selfishness or hedonism. Newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s used it to portray Crowley as a corrupter, and it is sometimes still quoted as evidence that Thelema is a form of Satanism. Crowley rejected both readings; the question of his relationship to Satanism is examined in Was Aleister Crowley a Satanist?.

The formula has close relatives in other modern religions. The Wiccan Rede, "an it harm none, do what ye will", popularised in a 1964 speech by Doreen Valiente, adds an explicit condition of harmlessness, and scholars often regard it as influenced by Crowley's law, which Gerald Gardner knew well; see Wicca and Gerald Gardner. The difference is instructive. The Rede places limits on will from outside, while Thelema expects the True Will, properly understood, to be already compatible with the wills of others.

How Thelemites Use the Phrase Today§

The formula functions as a greeting and a creed. Many Thelemites open letters, emails and speeches with "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and close them with "Love is the law, love under will". Because the Greek words thelema (will) and agape (love) both add up to 93 in Greek letter-number values, the exchange is often abbreviated to "93" and "93 93/93". The phrase also opens many Thelemic rituals, including the Gnostic Mass, and it is recited in daily practices such as the solar adorations of Liber Resh.

Frequently asked questions§

Does "Do what thou wilt" mean "do whatever you want"?§

No. In Thelema "will" means True Will, a person's essential purpose. Following passing desires can actually be contrary to it, and the law obliges each person to respect the True Wills of others.

Where does the phrase "Do what thou wilt" come from?§

It comes from the first chapter of Crowley's The Book of the Law (1904). Earlier parallels include Augustine's maxim "love, and do what you will" and the motto of Rabelais's Abbey of Thélème in Gargantua.

What is the reply to "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law"?§

The customary reply is "Love is the law, love under will", also from The Book of the Law. Thelemites often shorten the exchange to the number 93.

Is "Do what thou wilt" the same as the Wiccan Rede?§

They are related but different. The Wiccan Rede adds the condition "an it harm none", while Thelema assumes that a True Will rightly discovered will not conflict with the True Wills of others.

Sources and further reading§