Intro To Thelema

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law..

The term Thelema requires definition for those who may be reading this introductory paper without the benefit of previous exposure to the teachings and the philosophy of Edward Alexander Crowley, better known as Aleister Crowley.

Thelema is a Greek word, spelled in that language {theta, epsilon, lamda, eta, mu, alpha} and it means will. Thelema is also a word of paramount importance in the philosophy of Aleister Crowley as will shortly be described. Thelema in the context of this essay will be taken to refer to the philosophical and Spiritual system founded by Aleister Crowley.

Who was Aleister Crowley? He was Born 1875 e.v. in Leamington Warwickshire England and died in 1947 e.v. in Hastings England. The intervening 72 years were spent traversing nearly every part of the globe, mastering and synthesizing systems of spiritual attainment as diverse as Buddhism and Western Ceremonial Magick, writing, climbing mountains, experimenting with mind altering drugs and generally pushing the envelope of societies' acceptance of change. Aleister Crowley was a man whose influences can be found in such diverse places as C.G. Jung and H.L. Menkin and from Timothy Leary to Anton LaVey. In fact almost every person who now talks about, experiments with or writes about anything to do with raising spiritual awareness, expanded consciousness or altered states of awareness owes a debt to Aleister Crowley's research and writings. One is hard pressed to find, in today's literature on these topics, an area not modified or influenced by his writings and ideas. {For more information cf. "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley" by A. Crowley. This book is an Autobiographical panorama, fascinating, witty and erudite.}

While the above paragraphs may suffice for the "yellow journals" (and I don't mean Chinese newspapers!) a more in-depth definition is needed here so that the reader, especially the first time reader, might have a better grasp of the subject. For instance; what is the origin of the term Thelema? The word, Thelema, was used in a text of inspired writing, dictated to Crowley (as Crowley himself put it,) on three successive days in Cairo Egypt on April 8, 9 & 10, 1904 e.v. {A more complete account of this experience and the events leading up to the experience can be found in "The Equinox of The Gods" by Aleister Crowley & in "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley" by the same author,} known as The Book of the Law or Liber AL vel Legis. This Book of the Law purports to be the pronouncement of (again in Crowley's words) 'a praeter human intelligence' and to present a new Spiritual, ethical, moral and social system to humanity. The jaded intellectual and the just plain jaded may superficially remark "big deal, him and every other snake oil peddler in history" … well read on before you roll back your eyes and give a knowing prod to your neighbor … for here is how Liber AL puts it: "Every man and every woman is a star.", "The word of the Law is Thelema {theta, epsilon, lamda, eta, mu, alpha}.", "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." and "Love is the law, love under will." With these four short sentences the Book of the Law, if applied, strikes off all of the fetters of human slavery. {Assuming that the reader is aware of their oppression.}

How?

1. It declares every human being complete, unique and divine.

2. It declares that will, or the unique purpose of each individual, is the law.

3. It declares that doing one's will is the function of each individual star.

4. It declares that love is the agent, under the regency of the will, which binds all things to their course.

 How do these statements strike off the fetters of slavery?

1. The Law does away with all vicarious arrangements of priests or preachers or "moral leaders" to one's own divinity. (In the silence of each heart that which is divine speaks, they have but to train themselves to listen.) In dissolving these 'relationships with the divine' through others, no more divine than themselves, the way becomes clear for every man and woman to shine of their own light. the Law presents every man and every woman with the opportunity to be free from the tyranny of priests, "gods" and "community leaders" who would use them for their own benefit (usually monetary) by showing them what they truly are; Gods! every one!

2. The Law declares that the will of an individual is supreme in its own sphere. Thus the individual is empowered to obtain and hold the freedom to decide on his or her movements, associations, speech, worship, dress, living arrangements... in short all of the activities that are now decided for him or her by society with its laws and religion with its dogmas.

3. This Law charges every person with the task and the responsibility of seeking out and doing that, only, of which they are uniquely capable. The Law says that once one's unique purpose has been discovered, that this purpose then becomes one's sole guide for action in the world. Thus every person is motivated from within, so to speak, and is working in an 'ecological' harmony or balance with every aspect of their environment. Through the intelligent application of these principles, the individual becomes Master of himself or herself. This is freedom.

4. Love is declared, by this Law, to be the binding force between any sets of circumstances. Once understood this concept is of extreme importance as its ramifications touch every aspect of one's relationship with everything else.

The above numbered points being merely the informed opinion of the author of this paper, the reader is encouraged to read for themselves the Law and to form their own idea of the merits of that document from those readings. The reader is encouraged not to take the word of the author of this paper for any of these statements but rather to study and to decide, on the validity or non-validity of these statements, for themselves. This too is part of the Thelemic way you see. We, in Thelema, do not encourage blind obedience. Rather, we encourage research, questioning and study so that all of our actions might be informed actions.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." has been interpreted by the crass as a maxim of unfettered abandon and license; in reality it is almost anything but this. The attentive reader will understand that this is so from the four points in the above paragraphs. To the not so attentive reader I state adamantly, "Do what thou wilt" does not mean do anything you want! I'll say it again in case I am misunderstood ... "Do what thou wilt" does not mean do anything you want! Maybe I had better phrase this in a more clear way for those who are disinclined to listen at the first or the second repetition ... "Do what thou wilt" does not mean do anything you want! Got it! Oh yes, for all of the intelligence services; for you I want to say this especially .... "Do what thou wilt" does not mean do anything you want! What is 

Thelema then? Thelema is a system of theurgy, a system of Initiation and a philosophy for dealing with all aspects of life on the planet Earth. Whether that be the relationship of the Aspirant to his/her "God", the spouse to his/her spouse, the politician to his/her constituency, or the worker to his/her boss. Let me end this introduction by way of a quotation from "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley" {The quotation is from chapter 49 of that work.} to emphasize a very important distinction between the "philosophy" as stated in Liber AL vel Legis and other philosophies; this being the relative, rather than the absolute, nature of the "philosophy" as given in Liber AL.

“THE HISTORICAL CONCEPTION ON WHICH THE BOOK OF THE LAW IS BASED. Just as The Book of the Law reconciles an impersonal and infinite interpretation of the cosmos with an egocentric and practical viewpoint, so it makes 'infinite space' speak in the language of a goddess and deals with the detail of eating and drinking: "Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine apparel; eat rich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam! Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me." The emancipation of mankind from all limitations whatever is one of the main precepts of the Book. "Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt." It reconciles cosmological conceptions which transcend time and space with a conventional, historical point of view. In the first place it announces unconditional truth, but in the second is careful to state that the 'Magical Formula' (or system of principles) on which the practical part of the book is based is not an absolute truth but one relative to the terrestrial time of the revelation. (It is a strong point in favor of the Book that it makes no pretense to settle the practical problems of humanity once and for all. It contents itself with indicating a stage in evolution.)"

Love is the law, love under will.

939.:

Overseer of H.O.O.R.