Paganism an overview introduction - South African Pagan Council

In Crowley’s the Book of the Law is a verse which states: "Invoke me under my stars!
Love is the law, love under will”. Very similar to our modern day “Love is the Law,
Love is the Bond”, yet totally different in meaning and result. And there goes another
piece of the puzzle.
A second school of thought claims that the Rede was extracted directly from the
Wiccan Credo which is believed by some to have been written circa 1910 by Adriana
Porter. But who inspired her?
Does this teaching appear anywhere else before this time? Yes, in the 16th century
novel Gargantua and Pantagruel written by Benedictine monk, Francois Rabelais.
Francis Dashwood (inspired by Rabelais) adopted the phrase 'Do What Thou Wilt' as
the motto of The Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe, also known as the
Monks of Medmenham (Hell-Fire Club). The motto was inscribed over the entrance
of the Medmenham Abbey. Dashwood held that man has a natural right to be free
and explained that by freedom it is not meant that every individual can act as he
pleases, according to his own passion, vices and mental infirmities; rather, freedom is
a right every man has to do what he will with his own.
Could Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), the 2nd Baronet Dashwood and 15th Baron le
Despenser have inspired Aleister Crowley’s “Do what thou will shall be the whole of
the Law; Love is the Law, Love under Will”?
It is the writer’s opinion that it was undoubtedly the influence of Francis Dashwood
and his 'Hell-Fire Club' which led Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) to develop the Law
of Thelema, even if Crowley claimed that it had been dictated to him by an Egyptian
entity named Aiwass.
“Dilige, et quod vis fac” (Love and do what thou wilt), was first coined by Saint
Augustine of Hippo (354-430). This meant that if you loved God, you were free to
act according to your will, since a man who loved God would naturally select the path
of virtue.
It was none other than St. Augustine who therefore inspired Francois Rabelais (1494-
15) to adopt the motto “fay ce que voudras” (French for “do what thou wilt) for his
fictional Abbey of Theleme, in his magnum opus Gargantua and Pantagruel. Rabelais
said people could act according to their will, because people who were free, wellbred,
and easy in honest company had good instincts and a natural tendency towards
virtuous deeds which would safeguard them from vice. He called this honour.
Isn’t it important to also note that Crowley’s Abbey of Thelema (Greek for Will) in
Sicily was directly inspired by the Thelemite monks of Rabelais’ Gargantua and
Pantagruel? How many more of these discoveries can we endure and continue to
nurture an interest and love for the Path we have chosen?
In his Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey derides the Satanic rituals and initiation rites of
Francis Dashwood and his Medmenham monks, for they had eliminated the blood,
gore and infanticide of the previous century’s Black Masses. The brotherhood formed
by aristocratic libertine gentlemen, (such as Lord Byron, John Dee, Horace Walpole
and well-known freemasons of the time), recruited prostitutes from brothels in
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