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True Will Vs. Conscious Will: An Exploration of Aleister Crowley's Concepts of True Will and Conscious Will and Its Possible Applications to a Midsummer Nights Dream, Marison, and Wicked |
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| Author |
Payne, John (著)
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| Date | 2008 |
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| Pages | 133 |
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| Publisher | University of Central Florida |
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| Publisher Url |
https://www.ucf.edu/
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| Location | Orlando, FL, US [奧蘭多, 佛羅里達州, 美國] |
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| Content type | 博碩士論文=Thesis and Dissertation |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Degree | master |
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| Institution | University of Central Florida |
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| Department | Theatre |
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| Advisor | Julia Listengarten |
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| Publication year | 2008 |
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| Keyword | Midsummer Night's Dream; Marisol; Wicked; True Will; conscious will; Shakespeare; Rivera; Schwartz; Crowley; Character Analysis; Magick; Magic; Philosophy; Schopenhauer; Nietzsche |
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| Abstract | In our lives we will have to make hundreds upon thousands of choices. The effects of these choices will follow us with varying intervals; some effects may be brief while others may literally last a lifetime. In these moments that we are forced to chose, it ultimately comes down to two options, what we should do, and what we want to do. Essentially, it is a choice between the head and the heart. Playwrights depend on these moments of choice, for it is the basis of almost all plays. At some point, the protagonist must make a choice, even if the choice is not to choose. In the early part of the 20th Century, a religious philosopher by the name of Aleister Crowley helped to define these choices, or as he referred to them, Wills. In essence, he stated that everyone has a True Will and a conscious will, and the path that you will ultimately follow is contingent on the choices you make in your life. Following your True Will, the path of the heart will lead you to a sense of Nirvana, while following your conscious will, the path of the head leads to a life unfulfilled. While some called him demonic (he occasionally referred to himself as The Beast With Two Backs) others saw him as a sage someone to esoterically explain the chaotic and industrial world of the early 1900 s. Aleister Crowley seemed to be one of those few men that you either loved, or hated, or hated to love. At the dawn of the 20th Century, he was an English philosopher and religious guru that made a call to arms to the general populous to start living a better life. His theories will be explained fully in Chapter One, but ultimately he wanted everyone to achieve their True Will and leave their conscious wills by the wayside. He felt that this process could be achieved through what he referred to as his theorems on magick. It is unknown exactly how the idea came to him to add the k to the original magic; however speculation reveals he might have taken from the original Greek word magikE. Contrary to the modern definition of magic (the art of producing illusions by sleight of hand), Crowley felt that his magick was significantly more complex. Pulling on philosophies from the Egyptians and the Celts along with basic Buddhist principles, he defined his magick within his twenty-eight theorems . Ultimately, he philosophized that magick was a way to enlighten a person, or, for the purposes of this thesis a character s True Will4 and to avoid following their conscious will. In layman s terms, Crowley saw it as an argument between the head (conscious will) and the heart (True Will). While the main focus of this thesis is on the tension and outcome of the decision of a character to follow their True Will or their conscious will, it is impossible to talk about these two concepts without discussing, at least in part, magick. Crowley saw magick as the practice and process to achieve True Will. This study, therefore, involves both homonyms, magic and magick. By applying this process as defined by Crowley in his self-named theorems to plays and musicals that have been defined as strictly magic, I am looking for not only the exact moment in which the main protagonists in each play define and execute their decision to follow their True or conscious Wills, but also to critically examine their journey to that fatal decision. I describe it as such because I feel that a characters fate may truly depend on the choice that they make. These philosophies are not new to the philosophical world. Other theorists such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and their relation to Crowley s theories will be discussed later; however I felt that because Crowley is the one who his responsible for rejuvenating the word magick from the Greeks in the 20th Century, I should be able to use his theories as a modern lens to examine A Midsummer Nights Dream, Marisol, and Wicked. I plan to take plays that cross both genre and era and consider not only (1) what can be illuminated using this Crowlean lens , but I also to hi |
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| Table of contents | Abstract ii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
Chapter One: Aleister Crowley 9
Chapter Two: A Midsummer Nights Dream 33
Chapter Three: Marisol 57
Chapter Four: Wicked 73
Conclusion 96
Appendix A: Aleister Crowley's Theories on Magick 102
Appendix B: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 120
References 122 |
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| Hits | 91 |
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| Created date | 2023.05.08 |
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| Modified date | 2024.05.30 |
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