Alistair Crowley and Berserk

Thelema
The religious or mystical system which Crowley founded, into which most of his nonfiction writings fall, he named Thelema. The word is the ancient Greek θελημα, "will", from the verb εθελειν, ethelein, meaning "to will" or "to wish." Thelema combines a radical form of philosophical libertarianism, akin in some ways to Nietzsche, with a mystical initiatory system derived in part from the Golden Dawn.

Chief among the precepts of Thelema is the sovereignty of the individual will: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" is, as it were, the system's first commandment. Crowley's idea of will, however, is not simply the individual's desires or wishes, but also incorporates a sense of the person's destiny or greater purpose: what he termed the "Magick Will." Much of the initiatory system of Thelema is focused on discovering one's true will, true purpose, or higher self. Much else is devoted to an Eastern-inspired dissolution of the individual ego, as a means to that end (see Choronzon).

Cool stuff. I'd heard about Alistair Crowley being the source for "Do as you will" before, but never bothered to research it. The connection with Griffith's desire to seek out his true purpose is also interesting.

Wait? Is he the satanist whose mansion Jimmy Paige eventually purchased? or am I confusing folks?

One and the Same. Lots of Artists and musicians seem to be enthralled with the life and times of Crowley. He was definitely a unique individual with a different outlook on life than many have.

Walter said:

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law"

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Sounds like something The Idea of Evil said to Griff..."Do as you will" or something to that extent.

Rhombaad said:

Sounds like something The Idea of Evil said to Griff..."Do as you will" or something to that extent.

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exactly , i'm pretty sure thats what Walter meant

Yeah, Aleister Crowley wasn't the first to use the concept of "do as you will" though (was inspired by Rabelais ), nor the word Thelema itself, and the applications he had for it where a bit specific (going along with his philosophy of life).

Here's the discussion that sparked Walter's interest back then.

CnC said:

exactly , i'm pretty sure thats what Walter meant

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lol, why the angry puck? I figured that's what Walter was relating it to, I just felt like commenting on it (especially for those who haven't read the "lost episode"...I know you're out there ).

Yeah the satanist known to regularly practice every known sexual perversion (i don't want to mention what those are). He's a douche.

He's also a very well known hypocrit. He somehow advocated civil rights but was also known to be completely racist among other things.

Bizarre. Somehow, I hadn't noticed this thread before, yet just last night, I looked at the Wikipedia entry for Aleister Crowley, and this morning a stream-of-consciousness Wiki-sojourn led me from matrix operations to Fredreich Gauss to geodetics to John Dee, which in turn led back to the occult order of which Crowley was a member.

Austin Osman Spare is a much more interesting individual as well as magus. Crowley was a pretty decadent guy, interesting at times but hyped up a lot as some sort of "prophet" or what have you.

Laveyan satanism is a joke btw, Lavey was a complete fraud, pervert, animal abuser, just a regular scum bag huckster. I agree that it drawns in a lot of perverts, "extremists" and other misfits who want to mask their vices with psuedo-intellectual quackary. Might is Right is the book that Lavey ripped off when creating the satanic bible.

Anyway I thought Griffith was bound by destiny, especially once he recieved the egg of the king. I think he basically makes observations about some sort of natural order if you will, where one person rises above the rest and becomes a beacon for others to follow and who's dream becomes their own as they work to preserve it. The only gripe he seemed to have is that people are supposed to assume that only those who are born from royalty are capable or rightfully destined to fulfill this role. He sees the nobles as decadent and impotent if you will in the context of making real change and being champions of the people. If one is bound by fate then they can only really exercise their will within the boundaries of their destiny. Guts seems more of the person who has discovered his true self and will because he refuses to be bound by Grifith's ambition, and as we see this ends up crushing Griffith's confidence.

Personally Griffith comes across as borderline sociopath so I have a hard time distinguishing between what he truly feels and what is basically lip service and BS to make him look like he has any other emotion besides his desire for power.