Magical Words–Part I
Preface
He wasn’t the first, but in 1904 Aleister Crowley Uttered the Word Thelema. Perhaps more known to the world as Will; and it is not to be confused with willpower or even ‘free will’. What does it mean when a magician Utters a Word? The most efficient way I can explain it is thus: one’s life work suddenly, magically, crystallizes into one word. Said word may have been in use for decades, centuries, or millennia. But when it is Uttered by a magician, it represents best, and most powerful, the seed or kernel of all of their most important magical axioms. For Crowley, his was (in part) “Do What Thou Wilt.” To paraphrase, do your Will. I’ll talk a bit about Crowley’s Word, and it’s lasting implications and uses.
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Thelema/Will
Doing one’s Will is, more or less, plus or minus, and in the language I use, equivalent to having a say in and manipulating one’s Fate. It’s playing an active role in determining how one’s life will work out. Not leaving it up to fate, but co-creating Fate. Some would argue they’re creating their Destiny. I beg to differ, having been tutored in the differences by a Maga. In her view, my view too, one affects one’s Fate in the sense of creating paths or pathways toward their Destiny. Splitting magical hairs? Perhaps.
Someone doing their Will is taking deliberate steps, mundane and magical, toward creating a stage, populating it, and stepping up on it to ‘perform’. Ultimately, to aid and abet an outcome they want or, better still, Need. That’s got to involve more than just you. Transactions, let’s call them. Alternately, you allow fate to buffet you around like the wind.
On the Surface
I do not know if Crowley went through what most magicians do in ‘finalizing’ a Word.
Perhaps, like others I know, he talked around and around it for many years. Chances are, like every genuine magician who Utters a Word, he was doing his Word well before he could explain it, and well before he knew it was to be Thelema. I’m certain he was driven. And to stretch out the word “driven”, perhaps driven almost insane along the way.
Consider, and this is but a very, very scant example: say that you know, you just know, there’s a single word that best describes a thing. Perhaps you’re struggling to tell a loved one how important they are to you, the meaning they have in your life, the closeness and bond you feel with them. But the usual—even unusual—array of adjectives just don’t cut it. Then one day, one crystal-clear moment, temporarily frozen in time, that one word occurs to you.
A little aside. A few times, alongside the hostess, an excellent friend, I’ve co-interviewed someone who introduced me to such a word. In their case, actually two words: Twin Flame. I was stunned when the interviewee further explained Twin Flame, and that, for example, it did not have to mean a spouse, significant other, or partner.
The Utterer vs. the ‘Utteree’
Another interesting fact about the Utterance of a Magical Word: it immediately goes out into the world. Perhaps worlds, universes, or beyond. The casual or even interested person never has to hear it for it to take effect. Never has to read it. If it’s a genuine game-changing Magical Word, well, it automatically broadcasts itself into the fabric of the collective unconscious. It’s out there, man, it lives once a Word is recognized as a Word. That part’s important. It’s now in our hands.
The frustrating fact about a Magical Word is that the Utterer almost fully gets it before and after its Utterance. No, they don’t know everything about it and I’ve already intimated that. But as it was their’s, they must now live in a world where the Two Lands most definitely become more clearly defined. In a way, they move forward living in their (version of the) world. They haven’t Become daimonic, so they are still, plus or minus, with at least one foot firmly planted in terra firma. The other foot is partway in their world, and edging, maybe, toward what’s called the Red Magus. In brief, the Red Magus understands the ‘world’ has understood their Word. They can’t necessarily relax their Work of disseminating, but their focus changes to an overview, and any move they make causes ripples.
The other frustrating thing, and this is where I’ll end this article: fully (or at least mostly) getting and understanding their own Word does not mean—not at all, and certainly not at first—that anyone else will get it. A few, yes. And depending on the magical system that Maga or Magus is a part of, those few will empower said (new) Magi to go out into the world and do their thing. But many, almost legions, are those who don’t get what the Maga/Magus gets. Briefly looking at Crowley’s Thelema/Will, can you imagine the frustration he must have experienced when people gave him a blank stare and said something like: ‘Will? Do you mean willpower? Do you mean force of will? What the f#ck do you mean?’ They may have also asked if Will meant ego/Ego, or even if it meant some kind of secret force. Crowley’s precise (in my opinion) axiom of “Do What Thou Wilt” most likely help some get through this, understand Thelema/Will, adapt and adopt it, and generally make use of a new Word unleashed upon the world.
Arthur R. G. Curtis is a 40-plus year Black Magician, with additional expertise in the alien abduction phenomena, paranormal, remote viewing, and life-after-life. You can find his books under Wes G. Roberts here.