Notes on constructing an anontological Thelema

[I decided to end my experiments with anontological writing last fall, when I started working on a biography of Eliphas Lévi. However, I couldn’t let this little tidbit remain unpublished. I hope you enjoy it!]

The key verses in The Book of the Law that define the Law of Thelema contain many ontological verbs:

1.     Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. (AL I:40)

2.     There is no law beyond do what thou wilt. (AL III:60)

3.     Love is the Law, love under Will. (AL I:57)

4.     …thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.” (AL I:42-44)

5.     Every man and every woman is a star. (AL I:3)

How do we remove the ontologies and still keep the essential meaning? We translate these verses into v-prime by changing the “being” verbs to “doing” verbs.

We can shorten the first verse to simply Do what thou wilt. We first come across this statement in Rablais’ Gargantua as simply “Do what thou wilt”. Some Wiccan traditions already use an anontological version of this statement: “Do what thou wilt, lest ye harm none.”

The second statement, There is no law beyond do what thou wilt, essentially tells us nothing, using a distance metaphor to express the absolute nature of the Law stated in the first statement.

The rest of the verses easily lend themselves to anontological conversion:

1.     Do what thou wilt.

2.     Live the Law of Love under Will.

3.     …thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, achieves perfection in every way.

4.     Every man and every woman consists of a star.

One more transformation:

There is no god but man

becomes

I know no god but man.