Take Your Fill of Love:

 Take Your Fill of Love:

34. DE LIBERTATE CORPORIS. (On the Freedom of the Body)

There shall be no Property in Human Flesh. Every Man and every Woman hath Right Indefeasable to give the Body for the Enjoyment of any other. The Exercise of this Right shall not be punished either by Law or by Custom; there shall be no Penalty either by Loss or Curtailment of Liberty, of Rights, of Wealth, or of Social Esteem; but this Freedom shall be respected of all, seeing that it is the Right of the Bodily Will. For this same Reason thou shalt cause full Restriction and Punishment of any who may seek to limit that Freedom for the sake of his own Profit, or Desire, or Ideal. Every Man and every Woman has full right either to grant or to deny the Body, as the Will speaketh within. This being made Custom, the Evils of Love, which are many, extending to the Disturbance not only of Body but of Mind, and that in obscure Paths, shall little by little disappear from the Face of His unspeakable Glory.

Liber Aleph: Aleister Crowley-

What is pointed out in the above vignette has certainly become obvious to most of us in the world as an indefeasible right. Every man and every woman has the freedom to give his or her body for the enjoyment of any other. Also, that sexual slavery goes against the law of liberty is obvious. Although there is hypocrisy among a lot of people in the world today, the idea that a man may tell a woman what is permitted and what is not in this regard, at the same time the same people speaking out against slavery is an absurdity. To dictate to anyone under whatever authority one claims; what the limits of bodily freedom are, is as good as enslaving that person to one’s prejudices, or one’s need for control.

Children are accordingly off limits too, as there is not a child in the world that would welcome the advances of some slimy old man or woman. The thought is sick; to break the will of an innocent child proclaiming that such was welcomed is contrary to the Law of Thelema. The above is dealing with the effects of guilt and shame upon the psyche, and could be seen as a type of sexual trauma. The suppression of our natural inklings to abide by another’s sense of normalcy is presented as devastating to the inner constitution of the individual leading to disturbances of behavior and mind. How much worse must it be for a child when a transgression has occurred? We are not to hurt children in any way, but especially not in this way, we are to foster their development, to help them reach their potential. Abuse of this kind would be in direct conflict to our roles of cultivating a child’s authentic beingness in a loving and caring environment. To manipulate any person, whether a child or an adult, to do anything against their natural inclinations is a crime, and in a perfect world, attacks such as these on the freedoms of others, especially children, would be punished as they should be.

When we are free to express ourselves without guilt or shame, we come to terms with ourselves in ways that under more oppressive circumstances wouldn’t be possible. Self judgement limits self-development for it is biased, a consequence of the super ego’s role in mitigating our impulses. But we live in sick societies governed by offensive ideals of unnatural moralism, tyranny and patriarchy, thus the super ego is in constant conflict with the id, (our unconscious, that encompasses our true nature and wherein is hidden our True Wills). But as this morality is unnatural as well as non-sensical, the relationship between the id and the super ego is unbalanced leading to an increase in psychic issues that with greater freedom could have been avoided.

Repression of our natural modes of being only feed our complexes and by increasing these, not only do we run the risk of developing neuroses, but we are actively burying our True Wills under the rubble. When we are free to act and to be ourselves not limited by judgement or preconceived notions of right and wrong, we enter into intimate communion with our souls. This is especially true for sex, an act that is linked to more taboos than the act of murder, which is honestly an absurdity and a consequence of Christendom’s hold on western society. It is an act that when performed may open up a doorway to the divine, but only if we are free to experience it as such.

Nobody has the right to shame another or to make them feel as if they have to excuse themselves for being human. In the Islamic world the law is that a woman shall be stoned to death for adultery, but in the same holy Quran their prophet rapes a nine-year old girl. It seems that for these polygamists it’s not so much the act of sinning, since they are also allowed to rape a woman as long as the assault culminates in matrimony, if not it is a crime, as per a holy injunction: it seems that it is a woman having power over her own mind and body that is really being punished. This type of attitude towards women is not a Thelemic virtue, it is an Abrahamic one; although, I have known of some involved in Thelema who regard women in the same way. There are those who claim to be Thelemites who promulgate the same values regarding sex, especially when it comes to women: that they are placed on a lesser rung as servants in this capacity needing a man’s leadership. Again, such an attitude towards the fairer sex, with the man as her strength, is not a Thelemic virtue. Thelema is not concerned with the same ethical questions as the herd is, we have transcended these in our doctrine, and it is high time we start acting like it. Just as a woman has the right to deny her body to whoever she pleases, she has the same freedom to think for herself, that manipulation is no less than mental rape, and should be treated as such.

The above is not concerned with sex magick, it is simply affirming that every man and every woman shall be free to express their sexuality in whatever way they please. Whether that be a furry orgy in the forest with unicorns, or a ritual surrender under the stars in one’s highest adoration to the Goddess, lost in the embrace of the object of one’s love, it is a thing that can only be allowed or disallowed by the parties involved. When we are able to express ourselves freely in this way we heal our souls from the disturbances of mind and body that Crowley writes about in the vignette. What he indicates is that suppression of these desires or the inability to act out our desires in a healthy wholesome way within a supportive environment may lead to compulsions, when one’s needs aren’t met in their entirety, or they have been repressed by shame or guilt, when these perfectly natural acts are seen as unnatural. Since when something like this occurs, and the act becomes perverted and degenerates becoming unwholesome or self-destructive often manifesting as compulsive behaviors, it is particularly the fault of religious and cultural institutions, (institutions that foster what some call traditional values).

The Book of the Law is very clear about what is written of in the vignette when it tells us: “Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me.” And Crowley’s comment: “Also as to Love: be wholly free to make the best of your gifts in all respects, fearless and shameless. Yet all these acts must not be done for their results in success or pleasure, and the like; for they are holy and to be performed strictly as acts of Love under Will in worship of Nuit; that is, to fulfil all that may be and your own whole Nature by so doing.” Fulfilment in this context would be impossible in the Islamic world, or even just when attempted by a Muslim or a Christian; or anyone who under some ideal is restricted to lose themselves in this worship. When we are able, for lack of moral and idealistic strictures, to lose ourselves and fulfil our whole natures in this act, we peer into the very depths of our souls. It is a religious experience in every sense of the word, that when correctly performed, may lead us to uncovering the divinity of our own essential natures.