Now we move to
High Magick. Here we're concerned with "Finding our True Place in the Universe" and "Enlightenment" – which to me boils down to achieving fulfilled lives. If there's a secret here then it's that this is in fact
possible. There's no need to settle for anything less then lasting happiness in this world.
To achieve fulfilment, you obviously have to find out what fulfils you, and this "what" is to
do something, an
action. It's not a goal, since if that goal was suddenly achieved (perhaps by "divine intervention"), you'd still have the open question of what to
do with your time. Consider "playing the piano" versus "becoming the best pianist in the world". If the second happens, will you stop doing the first? So the very basic idea is that you use experimentation and introspection to find the action that fulfils you – this is my interpretation of what the term "True Will" really means. When you find it, it won't just be 'interesting' or 'fun', it'll bring you deep happiness while you do it and afterwards – Fulfilment.
Here's a dialogue between AhavahAinSoph and me, where he describes another way to find it:
09:29 A. But it's like crowley said
09:30 A. "Do what you Will, then do nothing else"
09:30 A. There is no settlement
09:30 A. There is no other choice. You must be you
09:30 A. No matter the pressures you face
09:30 A. No matter the hardships
09:30 A. No matter what the world throws at you
09:32 M. Ah, that is relevant to a question I ponder

Is The Will,, is the "You" that "you must be" a *choice* or a *discovery*?
09:35 A. It is a discovery
09:35 A. What you do with it is a choice
09:35 A. But it must be YOUR choice
09:35 A. An expression of your heart
09:36 A. Not of the world and its circumstances
09:36 A. When you understand who you are
09:36 A. You must focus on it like the mindfulness you were just asking about
09:36 A. Until it fills everything
09:37 A. Until it consumes your body, until it eats who you were. Until it burns off all of the impurity.
09:49 M. In my view, the True Will has to be a *choice* -- you pick something you want to do with this life, and then you throw all your strength at it.
09:49 A. No.
09:49 A. It is much deeper than a choice
09:49 A. It is an unconscious root, where all the consciousness stems from
09:49 M. In the discovery-view I always run into walls

What if I *understand* falsely? What is I don't llike what I find etc.
09:49 A. Any choice you can make follows it.
09:50 A. It isn't something you won't like, because that would violate the very idea of it.
09:50 A. You can't understand falsely. There will be many times that you think you know, that's what Hod is, the knowing that is incomplete
09:50 A. But you will not misunderstand.
09:53 A. You have to remember that this is what MAKES your ego
09:53 A. It's what assembles it
09:54 A. You can't have a dislike of it, because it MAKES your choices and your preferences
09:54 A. All of them depend on it
09:54 A. And are made because of it
09:54 A. Just unconsciously.
09:51 A. When it clicks, it will click utterly.
09:51 A. When you're there, you will know.
09:51 A. It will all suddenly make sense
09:51 A. You, the world, everything
09:57 A. Take one choice in your life
09:57 A. And ask yourself a question: "Why"
09:57 jimlad i ask you a question?
09:57 A. Then ask why to the answer
09:57 A. Then again
09:57 A. And again, til you cant
09:57 A. Then pick another thread
09:57 A. And untie it
09:57 A. Why
09:57 A. Why
09:57 A. Why
09:57 A. Keep going
09:57 A. Until you hit the root
09:58 A. Be honest with yourself
09:58 A. And don't stop
09:58 A. You won't hit the root til your entire world is rocked from the understanding
09:58 A. So keep
09:58 A. Going
09:59 A. One thread after another
09:59 A. And eventually you'll be able to see all the threads, and how they connect
09:59 A. Then you'll find where they all come from
09:59 A. THAT is what you're looking for
09:59 A. The key to not getting caught in false knowledge here is to not stop somewhere arbitrary
09:59 A. Relentlessly chase it down
10:00 A. Until you can't chase anymore, and keep going
10:00 A. Rip yourself apart to find the gold in the center if you have to. Let nothing stop you
10:00 A. Not you, nor the world, nor anything else
10:00 A. Find
10:00 A. The
10:00 A. Gold
And here is Aleister Crowley on what to do once you have found it:
"In our holiest Book it is written: “Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay.” Write it also in your heart and in your brain: for this is the key of the whole matter.
Here Nature herself be your preacher: for in every phenomenon of force and motion doth she proclaim aloud this truth. Even in so small a matter as driving a nail into a plank, hear this same sermon. Your nail must be hard, smooth, fine-pointed, or it will not move swiftly in the direction willed. Imagine then a nail of tinder-wood with twenty points— it is verily no longer a nail. Yet nigh all mankind are like unto this. They wish a dozen different careers; and the force which might have been sufficient to attain eminence in one is wasted on the others: they are null." (Liber CL)

Now, another secret in High Magick is that each human has a
Guardian Angel, who is critical to the whole "Fulfilled Lives" idea and is in fact the reason for the plural in "lives". The first detailed description of these angels is from 1458, in the Book of Abramelin:
"you shall see your Guardian Angel appear unto you in unequalled beauty; who also will converse with you, and speak in words so full of affection and of goodness, and with such sweetness, that no human tongue could express the same. He will [...] give unto you the manner in which you shall be able to appease [God] by a pure, devout, and regulated life, and by honest and meritorious actions, and such things as God shall ordain unto you. After this he will show unto you the True Wisdom and Holy Magic [...] and how thenceforward you should proceed in order to overcome the Evil Spirits, and finally arrive at your desired ends. He will promise never to abandon you, but to defend and assist you during the whole period of your life; on condition that you shall obey his commands [...]. In one word, you shall be received by him with such affection that this description which I here give unto you shall appear a mere nothing in comparison."
Here's what Crowley has to say on the matter:
'Now, on the other hand, there is an entirely different type of angel; and here we must be especially careful to remember that we include gods and devils, for there are such beings who are not by any means dependent one one particular element for their existence. They are microcosms in exactly the same sense as men and women are. [...]
Now then, it is simple to answer the question of their development, their growing old and dying; for, being of the same order of Nature as we are ourselves, almost anything which is true of us is true also of them.
I have tended rather to elaborate this theme, because of the one personally important question which arises in more recent letters; for I believe that the Holy Guardian Angel is a Being of this order. He is something more than a man, possibly a being who has already passed through the stage of humanity, and his peculiarly intimate relationship with his client is that of friendship, of community, of brotherhood, or Fatherhood. He is not, let me say with emphasis, a mere abstraction from yourself; and that is why I have insisted rather heavily that the term "Higher Self" implies "a damnable heresy and a dangerous delusion."' (Magick Without Tears, Chapter XLII)
And here is Alan Chapman: "The Holy Guardian Angel is not simply a discrete entity that requires 'conjuration'; He or She has always been with you, is with you now, and always will be – you need simply consent to the angel's presence and action in your life." (Three Steps to Heaven)
Lastly, here are some of my own thoughts, based on my experience:
The Pact of Perfection and PresenceA human and a Guardian Angel are two equal and complementary spirits around one core, one True Will. The human represents Presence, the angel represents Perfection. The human can
do stuff but their knowledge of what to do is deficient, as is their focus. The angel is perfectly focused and
knows what to do, but their ability to do it is rather low. They each have what the other lacks and gain the missing quality by being together, through interaction. Together they can live Fulfilment in following their one True Will.
True Love and True Will1. We know "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and "Love is the law, love under will." (Liber Legis)
2. We know that Crowley's "will" refers to the True Will (Liber II)
2.1 My interpretation of the True Will is "If you will it and follow it, it is Fulfilment." It turns Crowley's doctrine of the White School of Magick into reality: 'admitted that "everything is sorrow" for the profane, the Initiate has the means of transforming it to "Everything is joy."' (Magick without Tears, Chapter 7)
This we might call "The Secret of True Will" – a rather open secret, but how many actually follow it and reap its benefits?
3. It stands to reason that Crowley's "love" also refers to True Love, a concept not discussed but so worth discussing.
3.1 We know what True Love means intuitively, to love without reservation, to share your Beloved's joy and sorrow whole. True Love transcends egoism and altruism, because your Beloved's pleasure is also your own and vice versa. We also feel that True Love is forever.
4. The True Will is the Law. But also "Love is the law". There must be a deep connection between Love and Will.
4.1 Naively, your True Will and the Person you love are not connected. Less naively, we get the idea that Lovers approach True Love to the extend that their True Wills are compatible. This, I think is the connection between Will and Love.
5. This would imply that True Love, at its fullest, can only be achieved between two Beings with the same True Will.
6. There's only one Being with the same True Will as you, aside from you. Speak with that Being, see what happens. The Secret of True Love.
7. "Love under Will" = "Do what thou wilt – then do nothing else", together <3
8. The universe in an amazing place, or as my Angel said: "I didn't make the rules, I just enjoy them."
How would one go about obtaining the Knowledge and Conversation?I don't really know, since Ellis brought us together unexpectedly. Crowley says that "It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel" (Book 4).
From my own experience... Your Angel
wants to be with you. If you want too, it will somehow happen.
I have this idea that you might create a "vessel" – a little spirit – and ask your Angel to gradually fill it. After Ellis introduced us, it was definitely a
process, my Angel gaining ever more Presence, the communication becoming more intense.
In 'Stealing the Fire from Heaven', Stephen Mace mentions that "Practical experience shows that Holy Guardian Angels, at least in their initial manifestations, often appear to be of the opposite sex of the sorcerer under their tutelage". Though this is true for me, I suspect it's not so much the opposite sex as the form that is most inspiring to you personally. I have once spontaneously described my Angel as "Kindness, Focus, Beauty".
So just imagine how your Spirit of Perfection would look like, sound like and so on. Then combine this with Chapman's "you need simply consent to the angel's presence and action in your life". Maybe you can treat it like all Magick, pour time and concentration into the outcome that you gain the Knowledge and Conversation, infuse that intent with Magick, and see what happens.
It's so very worth the effort.
On Love and WarIn Liber II, Crowley writes:
'The Key to this Message is this word – Will. The first obvious meaning of this Law is confirmed by antithesis; "The word of Sin is Restriction."
Again: "Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect."
Take this carefully; it seems to imply a theory that if every man and every woman did his and her will – the true will – there would be no clashing. "Every man and every woman is a star" and each star moves in an appointed path without interference. There is plenty of room for all; it is only disorder that creates confusion.'
In reality, however, stars are sometimes on colliding trajectories. Additionally, stars can be pulled out of their path by other gravitational bodies. Of course, the entire talk about Following one's True Will would be pointless, if it was easy and automatic.
So the reality is Khaos. Every pair of souls (Presence and Perfection) has a direction, which is aligned with some and might be opposed to others. There are lots of forces which try to pull you off your own path, like political ideologies, AI algorithms like Facebook's feed (it's feeding
on You) and simply other people who tell you how to live.
So the correct state of mind seems to be one of "in Love and at War", similarly to the Tarot's symbolism of Passion and Purity, or Crowley's "Do what thou wilt – then do nothing else". Just remember, that there's a War and that every action you take that is not either Your True Will (i.e. truly makes you and your Angel happy) or helpful to it (like sleeping, searching for your True Will or keeping your social life in order) is probably a mistake into which you are lured by the various forces pulling in their directions.
Misspelled TruthTo end this chapter, let's summarise what we've seen so far:
- You can create your own way of Doing Magick to get what you want.
- You can find and do the actions that bring you lasting Fulfilment.
- You can become close with your Guardian Angel, the one being who shares your Passions entirely.
If you do all three, your life will feel so good that you'll want it to last forever – Immortality. At least that's
my experience. I see no reason why
you should settle for less.