How to know your will

I can't believe I never posted this story before. But a quick search proves that I haven't. So here goes.

A couple days ago, I read a remark by John Michael Greer that he made three years ago, in the middle of a discussion about training the will. (I probably read it back then too, but in the moment this discussion was referenced from something more recent.) Anyway, leaving the context aside, what he said was: "You always do act in accordance with your will -- just not always in accordance with your conscious will."

And suddenly I was reminded of a Full Moon ritual put on by Wife and a couple other members of her coven, some 36 or 37 years ago. One of the young men (later ordained as Sun-Bear) drew the lot to serve as Priestess, so the Lady was invoked into him during the Aspect. (For a rough overview of the Full Moon ritual, see this post here. At the ritual I'm describing now, I was not the one to do the invocation.)

Anyway, during the Aspect the Lady came around the circle and asked (as always), "What do you will of me?" At the time, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. Wife and I had left graduate school pretty abruptly, less than a year before. We had an apartment and we both had jobs, but I still felt very lost. Meanwhile, Wife was studying and practicing Wicca; and Wicca taught that your True Will was something very important. Knowing your True Will seemed to be the key to having a direction in life.

So I asked the Lady, How can I know my True Will?

And she replied, 

That is like asking, "How can I know my thumb?" You get up in the morning, you shave, you go about your day. That is your Will.

There might have been more. I don't remember. There wasn't enough more to help me stop feeling lost. The part I remember is the comparison with my thumb. In other words, your Will isn't some mysterious metaphysical entity beyond the stars or in another dimension. It's just what you do. Changing your Will means doing something else. It's that simple.

Of course, simple is not the same as easy. And understanding consciously what you really want isn't always easy either.

Yes, this post is directly related to this one (from 2008) and this one (from 2022).