We would like to take a moment to thank Russell Brand for helping to raise awareness about Aleister Crowley in the lead-up to the 2012 election.
In a recent interview in Details, Brand said:
“… there are aphorisms I still deem tight: The carnal self is the true self. … a type of Aleister Crowley ‘Do what thou wilt’ as the sum of the law.”
While we are all familiar with the Law of Liberty which states, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” Russell Brand has called attention to another important doctrine of Aleister Crowley of particular interest in this campaign.
Aleister Crowley pioneered the sexual revolution of the 20th Century by pointing out the primacy of the sex instinct, and the importance of sexual freedom in our society.
“Sex is the sacred song of the soul; sex is the sanctuary of Self.” — “On Sexual Freedom,” published in The Revival of Magick
While Jay-Z and Kevin Jonas have each done their own part in raising awareness about Aleister Crowley generally, Russell Brand has managed to work in a reference to Aleister Crowley’s political platform, and the specific plank of Sexual Freedom. We are deeply grateful for Brand’s efforts in this respect.
Aleister Crowley 2012 
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Aleister Crowley was mentioned on a radio show by Brand and co-host Karl Pilkington. I don’t have the precise details to hand and I’m typing this in Windows 8 developer preview running in virtualbox so letters are getting dropped and all sorts, but I do remember Brand saying Page was “mates with Aleister Crowley” at one point, and even if it wasn’t him who misunderstood Do what thou wilt to mean Do what you want, he encouraged Karl and did nothing to correct his misconception.
It’s an important distinction but at the same time it is complex. “Do what thou wilt does not mean Do as you please, although it implies this degree of emancipation, that it is no longer possible to say à priori that a given action is ‘wrong.’ Each man has the right—and an absolute right—to accomplish his True Will.” We cannot know what another’s will is, and so we are not in a position to say whether any action is right or wrong, for them. Moreover our “desires” can often provide excellent clues about our individual wills — usually it is better to “follow one’s bliss” than to second-guess it. At least, at this stage in human evolution.
Which is not to suggest that Russell Brand has any conception of the above complexities, of course.
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