Crowley's 'Do What Thou Wilt' and the Plymouth Brethren
The origins of Aleister Crowley's famous maxim, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," have long been a subject of intense debate among scholars of esotericism and religious history. While most analyses focus on his immersion in various occult traditions—from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn to Thelema's Egyptian roots—a compelling, yet underexplored, argument can be made that his philosophy was profoundly shaped by the very faith he rebelled against: the Plymouth Brethren. Specifically, Crowley's parents, fervent members of this fundamentalist Christian movement, instilled in him a unique and ultimately heretical understanding of religious authority, particularly the concept of pastorship.
The Plymouth Brethren, as a non-denominational evangelical group, famously rejected the formal clergy and the institutional hierarchies of established churches. They believed in the "priesthood of all believers," asserting that any male member of the community could, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, assume the role of pastor. This system, while seemingly democratic, created a culture where the legitimacy of a pastor was not based on ordination but on the perceived anointing of God. This system of self-appointment, or rather, divine appointment, paradoxically fostered an environment where the spiritual authority of any individual was constantly under scrutiny and open to question. To a young, intellectually precocious, and later rebellious Aleister Crowley, this model of fluid, contested pastorship would have been a defining feature of his early religious life.
This upbringing in a milieu where spiritual authority was not a fixed, ordained position but a temporary, and even revocable, state of being directly informed his later conception of the will. The Brethren's system taught him that an individual's spiritual legitimacy came from within, and that external structures—whether a church or a prescribed doctrine—could be rejected if they were not in alignment with one's personal divine calling. Crowley's rejection of Christian pastorship was not a rejection of the concept of leadership itself, but rather a radical reinterpretation of it. He took the Plymouth Brethren's distrust of institutional authority to its ultimate conclusion, transforming the idea of a "pastor" from a divinely appointed leader to a self-willed sovereign.
His maxim, "Do what thou wilt," can be seen as a direct inversion of his upbringing. Where the Plymouth Brethren taught that a person's authority to "pastor" came from God's will, Crowley posited that a person's ultimate authority—their true will—was a law unto itself. The Brethren’s system of contested pastorship, in which anyone could potentially be a spiritual leader, evolved in Crowley’s mind into the idea that everyone is, and should be, their own ultimate authority. The constant scrutiny and debate over who was a "true" pastor within the Brethren's assemblies ironically provided the fertile ground for Crowley to develop a philosophy where the only true authority was the individual's True Will, a concept he defined as one's unique, divinely-ordained purpose.
In conclusion, while the standard narrative points to Egyptian deities and esoteric societies as the wellspring of Thelema, a closer look at Aleister Crowley's childhood reveals a more nuanced and psychologically compelling origin story. The Plymouth Brethren's peculiar system of open pastorship, marked by its rejection of formal clergy and its emphasis on internal spiritual authority, was not merely something Crowley reacted against; it was a foundational element that he absorbed, twisted, and ultimately transfigured into his own radical philosophy. His rebellion was not a simple break from the past, but a profound and heretical continuation of his parents' own faith.
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