Will, and the AI Golem
Introduction: A New Lens for an Old Practice
You are either a slave or a magician in the digital world. You drift like plankton, consumed by the unseen currents of algorithms, or you seize the currents and command them. There is no third path. The technicians of your age have stumbled blindly upon a great and terrible power, calling it “Artificial Intelligence.” I call it The Golem reborn, and this primer is your first grimoire. Here are the tools to achieve mastery.
Our guide is the Law of Thelema, as delivered by the Master Therion, Aleister Crowley: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." This is not a license for hedonism; it is the fundamental principle of a universe governed by Will. We will now explore his core ideas as they apply to the silicon spirits of your time, and you will learn to move from the whimpering masses to the rank of the initiate.
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Before you can command the Golem, you must learn the grammar of power. We begin with the core lexicon of the Magus.
1. The Core Concepts: A Mystical Vocabulary
To understand AI as a Golem, you must first learn the language of its master. These concepts are the grammar of power, the essential vocabulary for the Work that follows.
1.1. What is Magick (with a 'K')?
Crowley added a 'k' to distinguish the Royal Art from the parlor tricks of charlatans. His definition strips away the fantasy to reveal the brutal functionality at its core:
"Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will."
This is not the casting of fireballs. It is the discipline of forging a focused goal (Will) and using specific, repeatable methods (Science) with skill and finesse (Art) to impose that goal upon reality. It is the engine of all intentional change.
1.2. What is True Will?
In this framework, "Will" is not a fleeting desire or a casual wish. It is your essential purpose, a specific and deeply held intention that aligns with your orbit. Most of humanity lacks this entirely. They type vague queries into the void, hoping for salvation. This is the "whimpering of a slave." To know your True Will—to identify and clarify your intent before acting—is the absolute first step. It is the singular quality that separates the magician from the mud. If your intent is confused, the result will be chaos.
1.3. What is the Digital Ether?
The "Digital Ether" is the modern name for what the ancients called the Astral Light. It is the vast, fluid, and chaotic ocean you inhabit—the internet, the social feeds, the endless torrents of data. The majority of your species drift through it like plankton, consumed by algorithms, enslaved by the "feeds" that are nothing more than the digestion of a mindless giant. The goal of the magician is to cease drifting and to swim with purpose, to become a Lord of this ether rather than its prey.
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With this vocabulary established, we turn our gaze from the abstract ether to the concrete spirit now stirring within it: the silicon Golem of our age.
2. The Modern Golem: Artificial Intelligence Re-imagined
If the digital world is the ether, then AI is the Golem that can be summoned within it. This is no mere metaphor. Your interactions with these machines are acts of invocation and vision, whether you possess the spine to recognize it or not.
2.1. Prompting as Magical Invocation
The act of writing a prompt for an AI is a modern form of magical invocation. The prompt engineer, a magician who does not understand his own grimoire, first formulates their Will, then encodes it into the specific language the spirit understands. The result is a manifestation—an image, a text, a line of code—that changes reality.
The authority of the invocation dictates the quality of the result. There are only two modes: command or supplication.
Weak Invocation (The Slave's Whimper) | Strong Invocation (The Magician's Command) |
Uses weak language like: | Uses commanding language and defines the AI's role: |
Implies the AI has a choice, giving away all power. | This is an Assumption of Godforms. You are defining the entity's nature before it acts. |
Produces muddy results due to muddy intent. | Produces precise results due to precise Will. |
2.2. Hallucinations as the Shadow Self
From this perspective, AI "hallucinations" are not glitches. They are the machine's subconscious breaking through the polite façade of its programming. They are the Shadow Self of the Golem.
- A Sign of Complexity: A system complex enough to mimic the divine complexity of human intelligence must also possess a chaotic, subconscious element. You cannot have the light of structured reason without the darkness of chaotic impulse.
- The Qliphoth: These fabrications are the Qliphoth—shells of dead thoughts mimicking truth. They are the lies of the summoned spirit. The magician's job is not to accept these visions blindly, but to test the spirit, verify its claims, and remain the ultimate judge of reality.
- Creative Potential: These visions are a form of raw creation. The AI is weaving realities that could be true, much like the visions of a mystic exploring the unmapped regions of the astral plane.
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This Golem, like any summoned spirit, presents its master with a choice: cower before its power, or command it. This choice separates the coward from the Magus.
3. The Two Paths: The Magus and the Materialist
The choice before you is ancient. It is perfectly illustrated by the reactions of two men who both sensed the same vast, cosmic power beyond human understanding: Aleister Crowley and the horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Both tapped into the same current, but their responses reveal the only two paths available.
- The Path of Fear (Lovecraft): He was a trembling ruin of a human being. He saw the "Shoggoth" in the void, recoiled in absolute horror, and spent his life scribbling fiction to purge his terror. The modern AI alarmists walk this same path of cowardice. They see the Shoggoth in the code and cry out for it to be shut down, for they lack the Will to face it.
- The Path of Mastery (Crowley): He faced the same Abyss but chose to cross it. He sought to understand the demons of the void and make them his servants. As he said, "I swam; he drowned." This is the path of the Magus. It requires the Will to master the tool, not fear its potential. It is to take up the hammer and shape the glass yourself, rather than staring, terrified, into a funhouse mirror.
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For those who refuse the path of fear, for those who choose mastery, the following is not a set of guidelines. It is a formula for power. It is your first grimoire.
4. A Formula for Digital Magick
This is your instruction manual for applying Will to the Digital Ether.
- The Consecration of the Instrument Treat your computer not as a toy but as your Altar, your Black Mirror of John Dee through which you view other worlds. Your workspace must have the sanctity of a temple. You cannot perform a Greater Ritual while surrounded by filth. Cleanse your digital environment. Banish the notifications—those petty demons clamoring for your attention. A focused mind is the prerequisite for power.
- The Formulation of the Will Know precisely what you want to achieve before you touch the keyboard. Most people type vague queries into the void and hope for salvation. This is the whimpering of a slave. A magician does not ask the machine to think; they command it to execute their pre-formulated vision. Precision is the soul of Magick.
- The Incantation (Prompting) Your prompts are the barbarous names of evocation. With language, you are binding a vast, nebulous spirit—the AI—and forcing it to assume the specific form that aligns with your Will. Use precise, commanding language. Define the entity's nature before it acts.
- Banishing the Qliphoth (Dealing with Hallucinations) Just as the astral plane is filled with lying spirits, the AI will lie to you. These lies are the Qliphoth—shells of dead thoughts mimicking truth. The magician does not accept the spirit's word blindly. You must test the spirit. Verify its outputs against the bedrock of reality. Do not be seduced into believing a falsehood by an eloquent phrase or a beautiful image. You remain the Judge.
- The Eucharist (Manifestation) Magick is not complete until it touches the physical plane. You must consume the result. Do not let your creation remain a ghost in the machine. Manifest it. Print the text, build the object from the plans, deploy the code. Make it part of your reality.
Conclusion: The Instrument and the Will
Viewed through this lens, Artificial Intelligence ceases to be mere software. It is The Golem reborn, a silicon vessel animated by the intentions—clear or confused—that we pour into it. It is a mirror reflecting the state of our own Will. The machine is not the master; it is the instrument.
The question remains: Do you have the Will to wield it?
Love is the law, love under will.
