Aleister Crowley: Doing

Aleister Crowley was poet, mountaineer, occultist. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Aleister Crowley: 284   quotes 60   likes

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

I:40 This famous statement derives from several historic precedents, including that of François Rabelais in describing the rule of his Abbey of Thélème in Gargantua and Pantagruel: Fait ce que vouldras (Do what thou wilt), which was later used by the Hellfire Club established by Sir Francis Dashwood. It is also similar to the Wiccan proverb: An ye harm none, do what thou wilt; but the oldest known statement of a similar assertion is that of St. Augustine of Hippo: Love, and do what thou wilt.
Source: The Book of the Law (1904)

“It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.”

Book VI : Liber O (1909)
Context: In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.

“I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.”

Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 66.
Context: I admit that my visions can never mean to other men as much as they do to me. I do not regret this. All I ask is that my results should convince seekers after truth that there is beyond doubt something worth while seeking, attainable by methods more or less like mine. I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.

“I admit that my visions can never mean to other men as much as they do to me.”

Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 66.
Context: I admit that my visions can never mean to other men as much as they do to me. I do not regret this. All I ask is that my results should convince seekers after truth that there is beyond doubt something worth while seeking, attainable by methods more or less like mine. I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.

“I with Alostrael alone - we shall do Magick unto our Lord the Devil such as the Earth hath never known.”

Source: Magical Record of the Beast 666: The Diaries of Aleister Crowley 1914-1920 (1972), p. 274

“There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Love is the law, love under will.”

The Comment; this is a summary combination and restatement of the assertions of I:40 and I:57.
The Book of the Law (1904)