STRATEGIC SORCERY LESSON 37: Will

The next several lessons will all be strategies for specific goals, building upon the
ones already presented in part 2 of TSS. I was going to start that tonight but I
realized that there is one essential strategic element that I have yet to cover: Will

Here is the deal: We are all fucking robots.

Thats right. Robots.

You, me, everyone you know. 99.9% of the time, we simply carry out the
mechanistic patterns that have been ingrained in us by genes and experience.
Someone says something nice, we like them. Someone says something mean, we
get angry. Etc. Press button, get response. If you have been meditating regularly,
you have had your own mechanistic patterns revealed to you by now, as well as
some insight into the patterns of others. As long as most of what you say think
and do is ruled by cause and effect patterns you are a Robot. Though it is certainly
possible to do practical magic as a robot, I am hoping that serious students of this
course aspire to be something more: Human.

Mystically speaking the Human is someone who is in possession of two things:

knowledge of their true will, and willpower to take action.

TRUE WILL

True Will is essentially the will of your innermost self, god, the universe, etc. In
western magic this is often expressed by the word Thelema.. There has been a
LOT written about will in relation to magic. Aleister Crowley of course famously
began what is now a small religion called Thelema. Many magicians, including
Franz Bardon, William Gray, and Gergor Gregorius, have come after him and
offered several variations of his Law: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the
Law. Love is the law, Love under Will." Even those that don't get into the Thelemic
spin on things often define magic as "Change according to Will" or some variant
thereof.
Now, despite what some people think, this word has a much older usage than
Crowley. I myself view Crowley as only one person in a lineage of Thelemic
thinkers and magicians and it is worth looking at how this idea plays out in various
situations.

In the Lords Prayer, we hear "Genetho Tou Thelema Sou", or "Thy Will Be Done".
Theistically minded magicians have, right up unto the present, ended rituals
prayers and spells with a statement along the lines of "as long as it does not
conflict with your will o lord."

Some modern mages see this as groveling, but really it is not. It is an

acknowledgement that most of what you say think and do is confused and based
on attachments and aversions that are not healthy. If you acknowledge the aspect
of azoth that manifests as Being or God, than it makes perfect sense to say: "this
is what I want, but what the will of the universe is, is more important, so if it is
counter to that, than never mind". After all, your own true innermost will, will not
run counter to the universal flow. When I do work with the Sangreal Sodality we
still do something like this and I do not feel like I am groveling at all.

While it is not groveling, it does reinforce a view of reality where you are relying
upon a force outside yourself for guidance rather than seeking the direct
knowledge of true will yourself. In modern Thelemic circles the emphasis is on
finding your own true will rather than simply asking God to keep you from
running counter to it. This I think is a good thing.

Crowley of course borrowed the Law of Thelema from Francois Rabelais, who
wrote in his book Gargantua and Pantagruel about an Abbey of Thelema where
men were free to pursue their Will. More than simply the injunction to find ones
true will, Rabelais was writing about the freedom necessary to accomplish that
work:

"All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own
free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good; they
did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and were disposed for it.
None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do
any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest
tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed,
Do What Thou Wilt;

because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest
companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous
actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. "

One of the points here that modern Thelemites sometimes loose sight of is the
line "men that are free, well born, well bred, and conversant in honest
companies". In today's terms we can think of this as people that are intelligent,
respectful, and polite. In other words, it is all well and good to say that the only
rule should be to do what you will, but until everyone in the world can say they
possess their true will, or at least conduct themselves in smart, respectful, and
polite manner, we will still need laws and rules to make society run.

Of course Rabelais was inspired to write about Thelema by a Dominican Monk

names Francisco Collonna and his mysterious book: The Hypnerotomachia Polifili
(The Strife of Love in a Dream). In this work the hero Polifio, is taken guided by 2
nymphs named Logistica (Intellect) and Thelemia (Will). They guide him to three
doors symbolizing the three love paths to mystical truth: Theodoxia or the love of
god, Cosmodoxia or the love of the world, and Erotodoxia - erotic love. Logistica,
representing his intellect, urges him to either of the first two doors, but Thelemia,
representing his true will urges him towards the door of erotic love. When he
chooses this door, Logistica leaves him enraged. This story not only shows the
importance of True Will as something beyond our limited intellect, but also points
to the path of sex magic and the skillful use of sensation to achieve the knowledge
of truth and union with all.

We will revisit this story again when we cover sex magic towards the end of the
course. I hope you forgive this little dalliance into history, but as modern
sorcerers whether you have a leaning towards Crowleys Thelema or not, it is
important to have a concept of what the term True Will indicates and a bit of
history of how the idea has evolved. In the lessons on spiritual authority, most of
the methods work by placing you in, or at least linking yourself momentarily to,
your true will. If you act in accordance with your true will nothing can stand in
your way.

Some people treat the idea of their true will as if it was a specific thing that could
be easily named. For instance someone might say "it is my true will to be a
doctor". That may be true, but there is more to it than that. True will is a state
acting in harmony with the flow of the universe, not a simple thing you can place
your finger on.

I have been a member of several Thelemic groups and spent a good deal of time
thinking about the true will. In the end, the true will is best revealed by dwelling
in un-fabricated awareness. The best way that I know to discover and dwell within
your true will is of course to Meditate.

WILLPOWER

Ok, now if I lost you a bit on the last section it is time to listen up again because
what is actually more important than true will is WILLPOWER. You can be a
Sorcerer and never find your true will. Most Sorcerers don't in fact. You will
simply be a robot who uses magic to accomplish all the mechanized desires and
aversions that you are programmed with. Sometimes freedom means the
freedom not to worry about that kind of mystical journey in this lifetime. That's ok
by me if it's ok by you. Be a Robot if you want to. Or don't even that you are a
Robot - that's pretty much what a robot would do.

Willpower on the other hand is not an option. Unlike true will it is not found, it is
cultivated. If you do not cultivate your willpower you will FAIL in your strategies.
Your individual pieces of magic may probably still work to some extent, but your
overall strategies for change will fail.

The reason for this is that any strategy for change involves a change of habits on
your part and habits are hard to change. If you want to get out of debt, you can
do all kinds of money drawing magic and all kinds of bindings on your debtors. In
the end though if you cannot resist buying the newest Blueray release, drinking a
Starbucks Latte, and buying every new occult title at the local bookstore you will
fail to get out of debt. Willpower is the ability to make yourself do things that you
know you should, in the moment that you least want to.

I will state it again.

Willpower is the ability to make yourself do things that you know you should, in
the moment that you least want to

This morning I knew what I should eat to be healthy and act according to my best
interests and true will. At lunchtime every ounce of brain matter was screaming
for a Bacon Cheese Burger. Today the willpower won. Tomorrow, who knows.

Think that sucks? It's worse than that: There is no spell or ritual for cultivating
willpower. None.

Make no mistake, there are things that help:

• If you meditate or can rest in the contemplative state knowing your true
will, than willpower can be easier to cultivate.
• If you use the thought management tech, willpower will be easier to
cultivate.
• If you do daily offerings and devotions willpower will be easier to cultivate.

The thing is though that willpower is exercised in the moment of weakness, not
on the meditation cushion, temple, or altar. Even if you know how to do these
things instantly and without any external sign like I do - the moment of weakness
makes you forget or not want to use them! In the end it is sheer willpower that
must be exercised in order to even reach for these tools!

Some claim that there are spells or spirits that will develop willpower for you, but
I urge you to go ahead and test them. There are initiations that humans and
spirits can give you that will temporarily bolster your willpower. There are also
motivational materials you can read, classes you can take, and shows you can
watch to help get fire up the will. On New years day everyone dusts off their
willpower and uses the psychic force of that day as a catalyst for their new habit.
The problem is that these are all temporary -
a catalyst to your efforts - but soon the glow wears off and the piss and vinegar
you worked up in yourself runs out and you find yourself the same lazy bum that
is still a slave to his old habits.

Some people claim that everything is a matter of simple choice. One Guru that I
met suggested to a student that obviously they loved smoking more than living
longer because they still smoked. The same would probably apply to me. I must
love junk food more than being thin because obviously I still choose to eat it.
Sounds like common sense right?

The thing to remember about common sense is that it made people think that the
world was flat. Common sense not always correct.

Changing habits is not just a matter of simple choice. The more you do something,
the more your brain accommodates and craves it. If you eat a lot of fatty greasy
foods like me, your brain develops neural connections to support those habits.
Soon those connections get stronger and deeper and make you crave more of the
same. Meanwhile the ones that don’t get used, the connections that deal with
you eating healthier foods, shrivel up and disappear because they don’t get used.
When you try to stop using the well worn pathways and start carving out new
neural connections it hurts. Just as sure as muscles burning on a weight lifter, you
must endure the pain.

This is largely a problem with your brain. Your brain has four sections, listed in
terms of age and power these are:

• Brain Stem: oldest and 1st developed part of the brain that controls
breathing and unconscious functions. \
• Reptilian Brain or Limbic System: Primal functions of anger, revenge, fear,
sex, etc.
• Cerebellum: Coordination and Motor control
• Cerebrum: Newest and last developed part of the brain which controls all
Sophisticated functions including those focused on noble, altruistic, and
long term goals.

The problem comes in that the older parts of the brain have veto power over the
newer parts of the brain. It is you Cerebrum that develops the aspiration for
enlightenment, good health, prosperity, and equanimity. It is your Reptilian brain
that wants immediate gratification, and to flee from possible failure. More often
than not our Strategies involve aspirations of the cerebrum that need to over-ride
the mechanisms of the reptilian brain. The brain is not set up this way. Evolution
was more concerned with survival than nobility and set the reptilian brain up to
over-ride the cerebrum. The Sorcerer must train his brain to work according to his
will. This is willpower.

The reptilian brain fears failure: When you are so afraid of public speaking that
your body rails against it this is the reptilian brain.

The reptilian brain loves comfort: When you sabotage your interview at the last
moment, this the reptilian brain fighting against the unknown factor of a new job.

The reptilian brain like instant gratification: When you buy the new Movie on DVD
the day it is released rather than wait 3 weeks when you can get it for 13 bucks,
this is the reptile brain.

The reptilian brains only values what is here and now: When you do not make an
investment in education because you don't want to lack the money now, even
though you know it will pay itself back 100 fold, that is the reptilian brain.

Sometimes you can use the reptilian brain against itself. For instance, the only
reason that I can complete a book is that I manage to sell them to a publisher first
and get paid an advance. In this case the reptilian fear of being sued by the
publisher is stronger than the reptilian brains need to avoid the massive amount
of work it takes to write a book as well as the fear of the book failing. Most of the
time though you need to just cultivate the willpower and use my secret mantra:

Suck it Up Bitch

THE PAIN PERIOD

Now that we have the bad news, here is the good news. The brain is very
adaptable. Everytime you do something you develop new neurotransmitters that
are dedicated to that task. Everytime you avoid something, you lose those
neurotransmitters. Its called Neuroplasticity.

What this essentially means is that the more you do something, the easier it will
get. In fact, if you are dilligent about something, you can reach a point where a
pattern is easy to repeat pretty quickly. The problem is the period of time before
that, known as The Pain Period.

Here is a quote about the pain period that I love:

“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain
divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most
people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no
matter what happens.”

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

While some may be surprised to see a quote from the Governator in a class about
Sorcery there is a simple spiritual truth that he expresses quite well in the quote
above: whenever you are adopting a new habit there will be a period of pain that
you need to suffer through. If you suffer through the pain, you win. If you don’t
you lose. Simply trying isn’t good enough.

I could have chosen a quote from a Lama or Saint that says something similar, but
I chose Schwartzenegger to illustrate how universal and far reaching this principle
is, and how bluntly we need to deal with it. Whether you are lifting weights,
changing your diet, learning to pick up chicks, getting through med school, writing
a book, or taking just trying to fit the exercises from this class into your life, there
is a period of pain that you must suffer through as your body and mind adjust to
the new habit.

Excercises like the ones I listed above help, but in the end you must do suffer
through the pain period. In other words:

Suck it up bitch!

This is the point where you just have to buckle down, not give in and simply WILL
your way through it.
There is another quote that I really like about the Pain period. It also makes a
good mantra for suffering. It’s a piece of propaganda from the Unites States
Marines:

PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY

I love that. The next time you are suffering the pain from trying to instill a new
habit say it to yourself. It doesn’t make the pain go away, in fact it puts it front
and center. Rather than letting it creep around the edges of your mind making
justifications as to why it’s ok to give in just this once, it shoves the spotlight on
the pain and provides a role for that pain: it is the sign of your progress. Whether
you are learning to run 15 miles a day or sit in meditation for 30 minutes in the
morning, the more you do it, the better you get. The same neural connections
that make the bad habit hard to give up make the new one easier to maintain the
more you persist at it. Just get through the pain period and cultivate your
willpower.

Thats it for this week. I could have attached some additional spells or tricks, but
that would have defeated the point. To much of that stuff gives the impression
that all you need is the right tools and everything is smooth. All to often we have
plenty of tools, we just lack the tenacity and will to use them.

HOMEWORK:

Pick one habit that you want to change and do it. Move your set point, cultivate
your will, and use any and all tricks and spells that you wish.

You must actually succeed in changing the habit and have it stick for 3 weeks for
this assignment to be complete. It could be anything from stopping smoking,
quitting caffeine, limiting spending to a set amount, whatever. Just do it, and
write me a report of what it was and how you did.