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

Thelema Quotes’ fifteenth installment deals with the concept of ideals. As always, all quotes are from Aleister Crowley or The Book of the Law.

Quotation #1

“…we are born into a World which is in Bondage to Ideals; to them we are perforce fitted, even as the Enemies to the Bed of Procrustes.”

–Liber Aleph, “De Vita Corrigenda”

Quotation #2

“The man who fails to recognize [life as an attempt to realize one’s own nature in one’s own soul] is hopelessly bewildered by the irrational character of the universe, which he takes to be real; and he cannot but regard it as aimless and absurd. The adventures of his body and mind, with their desires for material and moral well-being, are obviously as foredoomed to disaster as Don Quixote’s. He must be a fool if he struggles on (against inexorable fate) to obtain results which he knows can only end in catastrophe, a climax the more bitter as he clings the more closely to his impossible ideals.”

-Commentary to The Book of the Law I:29

Quotation #3

“What is necessary is not to seek after some fantastic ideal, utterly unsuited to our real needs, but to discover the true nature of those needs, to fulfill them, and rejoice therein.”

–Magick Without Tears, chapter VIII

Quotation #4

“…thou art born into Dis-Ease; where are many false and perverted Wills, monstrous Growths, Parasites, Vermin are they, adherent to thee by Vice of Heredity, or of Environment or of evil Training. And of all these Things the subtlest and most terrible, Enemies without Pity, destructive to thy will, and a Menace and Tyranny even to thyself, are the Ideals and Standards of the Slave-gods, false Religion, false Ethics, even false Science.”

–Liber Aleph, “De Via Libertatis”

Quotation #5

“Each child must develop its own Individuality, and Will, disregarding alien Ideals. … Let children educate themselves to be themselves. Those who train them to standards cripple and deform them. Alien ideals impose parasitic perversions. … Standards of education, ideals of Right-and-Wrong, conventions, creeds, codes, stagnate Mankind.”

-“On the Education of Children”

Quotation #6

“[The Law of Thelema] admits that each member of the human race is unique, sovereign and responsible only to himself. In this way it is the logical climax of the idea of democracy. Yet at the same time it is the climax of aristocracy by asserting each individual equally to be the centre of the universe… The Law of Thelema does not require the individual to behave himself because God set the squire and the parson to boss him… Modern social unrest is largely due to misunderstanding of the Law of Thelema… Under the Law of Thelema, all false ideals and incongruous ambitions will be driven away as delusions.”

–Confessions, chapter 87

Quotation #7

“Know then, o my Son, that all Laws, all Systems, all Customs, all Ideals and Standards which tend to produce Uniformity, being in direct Opposition to Nature’s Will to change and to develop through Variety, are accursèd. Do thou with all thy Might of Manhood strive against these Forces, for they resist Change, which is Life; and thus they are of Death.”

–Liber Aleph, “De Lege Motus”

Quotation #8

“The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.”

–Confessions, chapter 65



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Love is the law, love under will.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on these quotations and suggestions for future topics in the comments .