Do what thou wilt &"shall be&" the whole of the Law?
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Ok, so I have a question for anyone who has thoughts on this, whether Qabalistic or otherwise -
why is the text of the BOTL phrased with "shall be" instead of "is" or something?
i.e. "do what thou wilt is the whole of the law."i know the grammar must be meaningful, but i don't know anything about the Qabalah yet and this is eating at me.
i do remember reading something about the Aeon of Horus actually beginning to manifest before the contact with Aiwass was actually made, so it can't be that the Aeon hadn't started yet during the time the BOTL was received, hence the future tense - right?
any help would be greatly appreciated
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There is an imperial use of "shall" that is imperative. The declaration makes it so. It is a present reality.
A secondary point of view, though, is that this is something the species must grow into.
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I'm always surprised at how often this question comes up. The answer, as Jim points out, is that "shall" is not always (or even usually) a future tense, but is used to give a command or law. Think of "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not" in the Biblical 10 commandments.
But lately I've been coming to the view that "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" is not so much a moral imperative as a simple statement of fact. Laws are behaviors imposed on you from without. In the past, people lived the lives they had to. You followed the livelihood imposed by family, social standing, and sex; you followed the religion of your community and adopted its outlook and values; you ate, wore, and spoke as social pressures dictated. Since the dawn of the new aeon, however, these social pressures have increasingly weakened (faster in some parts of the world than in others). More and more, it's the case that you not only may but must choose your own beliefs, priorities, values, lifestyle, and career. You can't be a conformist even if you want to because there are no clear societal norms to conform to; the best you can do is choose a group to follow. As this trend continues, people everywhere will be forced to take charge of their own lives. Paradoxically, you will have no choice but to be free -- it will be the law.
(Law is the Lamed aspect of the paradox; freedom of will is Aleph.)
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93,
Alrah wrote:"Some people talk in circles about discovering their Will, when the first order of business is to discover their Love."
The two are complementary, Love being the law, love under will. We might be more focused on one than the other at any given point, but I can't see that one is more important or preliminary than the other. If our True Will is being realized, then it is going to embrace more and more of existence as our comprehension of it and our ability to express it expand.
Whereas, I'd say that love *without *will is a prime Old Aeon trap into which we don't want to fall.
93 93/93,
Edward
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is - shall be === being - becoming
shall be is a dynamic form, so to speak - in respect to time, which is not existent untill there is is (being)....
so in this sense -> being = Upper Triad (God as Threefold), becoming = Kether (God as AHIH)
so used as an imperative form in a sentence, shall be denotes action, dynamics... points out the force and motion - in comparison to is, which cannot be used for imperative at all.
in practise, I think both 'modes' of the sentence are equally valid, and could be used alternatively, depending on circumstances. -
@gmugmble said
" But lately I've been coming to the view that "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" is not so much a moral imperative as a simple statement of fact. [...] Paradoxically, you will have no choice but to be free -- it will be the law."
I agree a lot with gmugmble's post in general. As I think about it, the text in the BOTL seems to "feel" more like a science textbook stating the laws of the universe rather than a royal decree - or maybe some combination thereof.
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@Alrah said
"All knowledge of the HGA is false. All conversation of the HGA is false. Therefore - all we think we know of the True Will is false. The old Aeon trap began with stupid people that thought they could interpret 'God's word' without lying. Crowley didn't bang on about lies for nothing. You might say he lied for Loves sake."
As with all sentences, the meaning of these depends on what the words mean. In this case, "knowledge" and "conversation," in the technical way they refer to the HGA, are both Medieval usages. They both mean "intimate union."
Employing that understanding of the words (rather than "facts & chat"), I submit that the Knowledge & Conversation of the HGA are the only true thing that is.
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@Alrah said
"I submit that to even say that much is to lie."
Well, yeah, my mouth was (figuratively) moving
But it also does non-Adepts a deep disservice IMVHO to require them to function at a level even past Adepthood. I've long said that the job of a proper Hierophant is to find the right lie - the best lie! - the telling of which will produce the desired result in the aspirant. But it usually doesn't serve them if you tell them that this is what you're doing.
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@Ash said
" why is the text of the BOTL phrased with "shall be" instead of "is" or something?
i.e. "do what thou wilt is the whole of the law.""93 Ash and Greetings for the recent Equinox! This is a question you hear often regarding the BOTL. I think it is fundamental and as such it is quite important to grasp. IMO, one of the big reasons for "Shall be" instead of "Is", is to show a dynamic (as opposed to a static) view of the Universe. In this way it makes the statement of the Law a "Becoming" not a "Being" proposition, a dynamic - non dogmatic proposition. I hope this shall be helpful.
93 93/93
phthah
