Saying Will

from Thelemapedia

Saying Will is a short ritual practiced by many Thelemites before meals, serving a similar purpose as saying Grace does for many Christians. Its earliest appearance in print is in Aleister Crowley’s novel Moonchild.

The ritual of Saying Will is intended to maintain the focus of those who practice it on The Great Work by reminding them that even so mundane an act as eating a meal is an essential part of that Work. In this reminding function, it is similar to the four daily solar adorations of Liber Resh.

Expanding on the practice of Saying Will in Book 4 (Ch. XIII, footnote), Crowley writes:

One may also add the inquiry “What is the Great Work?” and answer appropriately, when it seems useful to specify the nature of the Operation in progress at the time. The point is to seize every occasion of bringing every available force to bear upon the objective of the assault. It does not matter what the force is (by any standard of judgment) so long as it plays its proper part in securing the success of the general purpose.

On a more esoteric level, comparison may be made to a tenet of the Creed of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica: “And forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the miracle of the Mass.”

There are several variant forms of this ritual. In the simplest and most common, the leader begins, the participants call out the questions, and the leader provides the answers and closes. This form is suitable for use even when the participants are unfamiliar with the ritual. The type of knock used and wording may be varied according to local custom or particular purposes.

The Common Form

Leader: (knocks 3-5-3) Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

All: What is thy will?

Leader: It is my will to eat and to drink.

All: To what end?

Leader: That I may fortify my body thereby.

All: To what end?

Leader: That I may accomplish the Great Work.

All: Love is the law, love under will.

Leader: (knocks once) Fall to!

An Alternate Method

When all present are familiar with the ritual, it is possible to have the leader ask the questions and the participants give the answers:

Leader: (knocks 3-5-3)

All: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Leader: What is thy will?

All: It is my will to eat and to drink.

Leader: To what end?

All: That I may fortify my body thereby.

Leader: To what end?

All: That I may accomplish the Great Work.

All: Love is the law, love under will.

Leader: (knocks once) Fall to!

Source:
Crowley, Aleister. Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass
Crowley, Aleister. Magick: Book 4, second edition. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1997

Online References:
http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Saying_Will
http://www.scarletwoman.org/docs/docs_mass.html

Introduction

The word thelema (θέλημα) is classical Greek, signifying the appetitive will (desire) and sometimes sexual desire. In early Christian writings the word to usually refers to the will of God, but is also for to the human will, and also the will of the Devil.

In the Renaissance, Dominican monk Francesco Colonna wrote the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, in which the protagonist, Poliphilo, has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). Colonna’s work was influential on the Franciscan monk Francois Rabelais.

In the 16th century, Rabelais wrote two novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel, in which he featured a fictional Abbey named Thélème. The only rule of this Abbey was “fay çe que vouldras” (“Fais ce que tu veux,” or, “Do what thou wilt”).

In the mid 18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed the adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham, where it served as the motto of The Hellfire Club.

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was an English occultist and writer. In 1904, Crowley claimed to have received The Book of the Law from an entity named Aiwass, which was to serve as the foundation of the religious and philosophical system he called Thelema.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the was a great deal of interest in the human will, with numerous books appearing and proposals for a psychology of the will. From various sources, magical to mundane, exercises have been written so that individuals may become aware, experience, and develop their will.

Psychosynthesis, a branch of Transpersonal Psychology, features the concept of will as a central function of the human psyche. Roberto Assagioli, founder of the Psychosynthesis movement, synthesized his spiritual wisdom with contemporary psychoanalytic and psychological knowledge, writing a book entitled The Act of Will. In this book, a culmination of Assagioli’s lifelong research into the Will, he proposed the Will Project to thoroughly investigate all aspects of the Will.

It is from these and other sources that the following exercises have been taken (some slightly adapted), and released into the public domain in an act of goodwill, that anyone interested in personal development may benefit from inclusion of these exercises into their daily life.

- The Editor

Note: Exercises are organised in the order they were ‘discovered’, not in any specific, ranked order.