Logo glow web header

The Thelemic Order

An Organization and Church, incorporated in the U.S. State of Delaware. Federal EIN 84-3433327.

Love

Thelema for Beginners - Part 04.

Thelema for Beginners was developed by IAO131 and is hosted here by the Thelemic Order. While it is not an official publication of The Thelemic Order we consider it to be a balanced overview of Thelema.

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

It says in The Book of the Law, “Love is the law, love under will.” The nature of Will is Love, and it is brought to fruition through Love.
Love means union, and is generally used in two contexts:
  1. Union between a point-of-view (you) and one of infinite possibilities in Experience.
  2. Union between opposites, the mystical Union
The second of these instances of Love is treated in 05. Holy Guardian Angel, so we will focus on the first definition. By this definition, all experiences are instances of Love; every experience is an instance of a point-of-view uniting with a possibility. The Book of the Law states that this must be “love under will.” Aleister Crowley explains:
“Needless to say, of course, it is necessary in actual practice to use one’s judgment in choosing the phenomenon which one next proposes to assimilate. One should not necessarily shoot oneself or another out of mere curiosity. The right of choice is with the individual. At the same time it should be remembered that “The word of Sin is Restriction’ [The Book of the Law, I:41]. No other individual has any right to determine or restrict the choice of another except in such cases as the experience of one includes for all practical purposes the experience of the other; as in the case of parents and young children.”
For more information on this subject, we have provided pertinent books & links below: Books Links

Quotations

“Elsewhere it is written— surely for our great comfort—’Love is the law, love under will.’ This is to be taken as meaning that while Will is the Law, the nature of that Will is Love. But this Love is as it were a by-product of that Will; it does not contradict or supersede that Will; and if apparent contradiction should arise in any crisis, it is the Will that will guide us aright. Lo, while in The Book of the Law is much of Love, there is no word of Sentimentality. Hate itself is almost like Love! “As brothers fight ye!” All the manly races of the world understand this. The Love of Liber Legis is always bold, virile, even orgiastic. There is delicacy, but it is the delicacy of strength. Mighty and terrible and glorious as it is, however, it is but the pennon upon the sacred lance of Will, the damascened inscription upon the swords of the Knight-monks of Thelema.”

– Aleister Crowley, “Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion

“IT IS WRITTEN that ‘Love is the law, love under will.’ Herein is an Arcanum concealed, for in the Greek Language [Agape], Love, is of the same numerical value as [Thelema], Will. By this we understand that the Universal Will is of the nature of Love. Now Love is the enkindling in ecstacy of Two that will to become One. It is thus an Universal formula of High Magick. For see now how all things, being in sorrow caused by dividuality, must of necessity will Oneness as their medicine… Understand now that in yourselves is a certain discontent. Analyse well its nature: at the end is in every case one conclusion. The ill springs from the belief in two things, the Self and the Not-Self, and the conflict between them. This also is a restriction of the Will. He who is sick is in conflict with his own body: he who is poor is at odds with society: and so for the rest. Ultimately, therefore, the problem is how to destroy this perception of duality, to attain to the apprehension of unity.
– Aleister Crowley, “De Lege Libellum

Love is the Law, love under will.

Thelema for Beginners was  originally produced by IAO131 and is reproduced here with permission of the author.  Some links and information have been added or updated by the TTO Website Admin.

Copyright 2019-2022 © The Thelemic Order, Inc.