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Thelema is the English transliteration of the Ancient Greek noun θέλημα: "will", from the verb ἐθέλω: to will, wish, purpose.

Aleister Crowley's Thelema

Thelema is the name of the philosophical school and religious matrix established in 1904 with the writing of Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law) by Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). The Law is summed up in these phrases from the Book:

• "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" (AL I:40)
• "Love is the law, love under will" (AL I:57)
• "There is no Law beyond Do what thou wilt" (AL III:60)

Most Thelemites (as adherents of Thelema call themselves) accept the idea that the Law is not a license to indulge in casual whim or to mindlessly accept cultural mores, but is rather a mandate to discover and manifest one's True Will, which has been described as one's inner divine nature, spiritual destiny, or proper course in life.

The Book of the Law

The modern religion of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law, which has the technical name of Liber AL vel Legis. It was written (or received) by Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt in the year 1904. It contains three chapters, each of which was written down in one hour, beginning at noon, on April 8th, 9th, and 10th. Crowley claims that the author was an entity named Aiwass, whom he later identified as his own Holy Guardian Angel. Crowley himself did not fully accept the role set forth for him in the Book for many years.

The Summons

According to Crowley, the story begins on March 16, 1904, when he tried to “shew the Sylphs” by means of a ritual to his wife, Rose Kelly. Although she could see nothing, she did seem to enter into a light trance and repeatedly said, "They're waiting for you!" Since Rose had no interest in magick or mysticism, he took little interest. However, on the 18th, after invoking Thoth (the god of knowledge), she mentions Horus by name as the one waiting for him. Crowley, still skeptical, asks her numerous questions about Horus, which she answers accurately—without having any prior study of the subject. The final proof was Rose’s identification of Horus in the Stele of Revealing, then housed in the Boulak museum, with the exhibit number 666.

On March 20, Crowley invokes Horus, “with great success.” Between March 23 and April 8, Crowley has the hieroglyphs on the Stele translated. Also, Rose reveals that her “informant” was not Horus himself, but his messenger, Aiwass. Finally, on April 7, Rose gives Crowley his instructions—for three days he is to enter the “temple” and write down what he heard between noon and 1:00pm.

The Writing

Crowley wrote the Book of the Law on April 8, 9, and 10, between the hours of noon and 1:00pm. He describes the “Voice of Aiwass” as coming from over his left shoulder, as if the speaker were standing in the corner of the room. The voice was said to be passionate, of deep timbre, and musical, without any recognizable accent.

Although he did not look around the room, Crowley had the impression that Aiwass was a body of “fine matter” like a “veil of gauze.” He further describes Aiwass as a “tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit, active and strong, with the face of a savage king, and eyes veiled lest their gaze should destroy what they saw”.

Crowley also makes it very clear that it was not “automatic writing,” but that the experience was exactly like an actual voice speaking to him. This is evidenced by several errors that the scribe actually had to inquire about. He does admit to the possibility that Aiwass was a manifestation of his own subconscious. But even were this so, he claimed that the message imparted by Aiwass was so beyond human experience or knowledge that it necessitated a praeternatural intelligence that only a god could possess.

True Will

The core doctrine of Thelema says that discovering and manifesting one's True Will – is the central task of every Thelemite. True Will is a mystical idea that could be described in its dynamic aspect as the singular path of possible action that encounters no resistance in going because it is supported by the inertia of the whole Universe; theoretically, no two True Wills can contradict each other because each one has its own absolutely unique career in its passage through Infinite Space. Hence, to follow one's True Will means to respect all True Wills, described as "Love is the law, love under will". The apparent pacifism of this doctrine is complicated, however, by the possibility that the majority of beings do not know their True Will.

The process of discovering the Will is called the Great Work, the basis of which is Love or Union with the All (similar in vein to the mystical aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism). The term Magick is applied to the general set of techniques used to accomplish the Great Work, which usually includes practices based on Yoga, the Qabalah, Hermeticism, and ceremonial ritual. According to Crowley, the two great milestones in this process is attaining the Knowledge and Conversation of one's Holy Guardian Angel and then crossing the Abyss, where the personal ego is annihilated and the adept achieves union with the All.

Cosmology

Thelema has a triadic cosmology – derived from ancient Egypt – each appearing in one of the three chapters of Liber Legis. The first is Nuit, the infinitely-expanded Goddess of the Night Sky, the Queen of Space; Hadit, the infinitely-condensed Point, the hidden Flame in the being of all that lives; and Ra-Hoor-Khuit or Horus, the Hawk-Headed sun god, the Crowned and Conquering Child. Other divinities that exist within Thelema are:

• Babalon—the Scarlet Woman, the Mother of Abominations, the Holy Whore
• Chaos—the universal generative drive
• Baphomet—the Serpent and the Lion, creative energy materialised
• Aiwass—the being that, according to Crowley, dictated Liber Legis
• Ankh-af-an-khonsu—an actual Priest who lived in Thebes during the late XXVth dynasty of ancient Egypt, around 725 b.c.e.

Thelemic cosmology is interpreted literally by some Thelemites, and by others it is seen as metaphor. For others, it is a key or set of obscure instructions for practices leading to personal attainment or other change of state. Crowley himself admitted that The Book of the Law had many elements that were beyond his own comprehension.

Ethics

Thelema stresses individual liberty balanced by responsibility and discipline, the inherent divinity of every person, regardless of gender ("Every man and every woman is a star" AL I:3), and the battle against superstition and tyranny. Ultimately, the interpretation of Thelema and The Book of the Law is left to the individual; for this reason, aggressive attempts at conversion is strongly frowned upon, although using personal example to promulgate the Law is encouraged ("Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not; talk not over much!" AL III:42 ). Also, social restriction—such as laws that make illegal certain sex acts between consenting adults—is generally seen in a negative light by most Thelemites.

Two documents in particular help to define Thelemic ethics for most adherents: Oz and Duty.

Liber Oz

Liber Oz establishes the rights of the individual. For each person, these include the right to: live by one's own law; live in the way that one wills to do; work, play, and rest as one will; die when and how one will; eat and drink what one will; live where one will; move about as one will; think, speak, write, dress, love, paint, carve (etc.) as one will; and kill those who would thwart these rights. The rights established in Oz are often considered to be complimented by the obligations given in Duty.

Duty

Duty is described as "A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema." There are four sections:

1. Duty to Self: essentially describes the self as the center of the universe, with a call to learn about one's inner nature. Further, every Thelemite is to develop every faculty in a balanced way, establish one's autonomy, and to learn and do one's True Will.
2. Duty to Others: A Thelemite is called to eliminate the illusion of separateness between oneself and all others, to fight when necessary, to avoid interfering with the Wills of others, to enlighten others when needed, and to recognize the divine nature of all other beings. Further, it is noble to relieve the suffering of others, but pity (seen as condescending) should be avoided.
3. Duty to Mankind: Thelemites should try to establish the Law of Thelema as the sole basis of conduct. Further, the laws of the land should have the aim of securing the greatest liberty for all individuals. Crime is viewed from the point of view of violating one's True Will ("Thus, murder restricts his right to live; robbery, his right to enjoy the fruits of his labour; coining, his right to the guarantee of the state that he shall barter in security; etc.").
4. Duty to All Other Beings and Things: Quite simply: "It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to abuse the natural qualities of any animal or object by diverting it from its proper function" and "The Law of Thelema is to be applied unflinchingly to decide every question of conduct."

Antecedents of Thelema

Although the modern Thelemic movement traces its origins to the work of Aleister Crowley, he pointed to important antecedents to his use of the term, and other instances are apparent from research. The word is of some consequence in the original Greek Christian scriptures. Crowley also acknowledged Saint Augustine's "Love, and do what thou wilt" as a premonition of the Law of Thelema. In the Renaissance, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican monk Francesco Colonna. Colonna's work was, in turn, a great influence on the Franciscan monk Francois Rabelais, whose Gargantua and Pantagruel includes an "Abbey of Theleme" which Crowley embraced as a direct precursor to modern Thelema.

Thelema in the Bible

Thelema appears in the Holy Bible referring to divine will, human will, and even the will of the Devil. One well-known example is from “The Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come. Your will (Θελημα) be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” Some other quotes from the Bible are:

“He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” —Matthew 26:42

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” —John 1:12-13

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” —Romans 12:2

"Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created." —Revelation 4:11

"…and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” —2 Timothy 2:26

François Rabelais

After the Bible, the next well-known usage of the word was by François Rabelais, a Franciscan and later a Benedictine monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left the monastery to study medicine, and so moved to Lyons in 1532. It was there that he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, a connected series of books. They tell the story of two giants—a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures—written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein.

It is in the second book where Rabelais writes of the Abbey of Theleme, built by the giant Gargantua. It pokes fun at the monastic institutions, since his abbey has a swimming pool, maid service, and no clocks in sight.

One of the verses of the inscription on the gate to the Abbey of Theleme says:

Grace, honour, praise, delight,
   Here sojourn day and night.
      Sound bodies lined
      With a good mind,
   Do here pursue with might
   Grace, honour, praise, delight.

But below the humor was a very real concept of utopia and the ideal society. Rabelais gives us a description of how the Thelemites of the Abbey lived and the rules they lived by:

All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to

their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good; they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed,

Do What Thou Wilt;

because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden and to desire what is

denied us.

Others who adopted this idea were Sir Francis Dashwood and the Monks of Medmenham (better known as The Hellfire Club) as well as Sir Walter Besant and James Rice in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878).

Critical study and diverse practice

Different organisations and persons (predominantly from Germany) do not see Thelema as originating from Crowley. Rather they see Crowley's Thelema as only one of many forms of Thelema. Different orders who accept the Book of the Law have their own guidelines for putting it into practice. In German Thelemic thought the most widely-known skepticism against Crowley's version is found in the Fraternitas Saturni order. The role of other Thelemic writings, each with their own significance, changes greatly for each of these groups. The Law of Thelema itself eschews orthodoxy, forbids intellectual dogmatism concerning the proper interpretation of the Law, and demands that those who do so be anathematised. As a result, there is little secondary literature on the Law of Thelema of any interest, one notable exception being the controversial works of Kenneth Grant. In the United States, J. Gordon Melton and other scholars of New Religious Movements, as well as some scholars of hermeticism have begun to address Thelema in some capacity. Martin P. Starr has also published valuable scholarly work on the history of contemporary Thelema, primarily as it has manifested in the Ordo Templi Orientis. (See 'References and Sources' below)

As an example of diversity in practice, "The Thelema Society", a Thelemic community founded by Michael Dietmar Eschner, is based entirely on "Liber AL vel Legis" – under the original title "Liber L vel Legis" – and rejects all other teachings and writings of Aleister Crowley.

While Thelema has not yet attracted much attention in the field of comparative religion, a somewhat unusual attempt was made by the Mariavite Catholic bishop Federico Tolli, in his German book Thelema — Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Christentum, Logentradition und New Aeon (Leipzig, 2004.) For Tolli, Thelema is to be regarded as the dialectical consequence of Christianity. Christianity for Tolli exists as a community in Christ, whereas Tolli sees Thelema as a necessarily individualistic response to the world.

In a 1938 theological dictionary to the New Testament the concept of salvation history has a great effect on Tolli's thought. Tolli interprets from this that it is clear for Crowley that the whole Universe (ergo the Will of God) is to combine (analogous to the Alchemical formula 'coagula'). "Love", in the form of combinatory attraction ("Love is the law, love under will"), is a universal principle — therefore akin to the concept of Natural religion. The main difference (for Tolli) is that in Christianity salvation of the entire Universe ("Ganzheit") cannot be made by 'solipsistic' man. The bishop sees Crowley as a failed – however talented – artist or "Mystagogie", but not as a "Satanist". However, the merit and contribution of bishop Tolli to Thelemic studies lies in the fact that it was he who first expresses that the genuine meaning and idea of Thelema does not necessarily contradict the teachings of Jesus, as Crowley himself affirms.

However, this is very much at variance with how most Thelemites regard Christianity, which is generally seen as a manifestation of the superseded Aeon of Osiris, rather than the New Aeon of Horus (to be followed in several or twenty centuries by the future Aeon of Maàt). While only fundamentalist Christians would regard Crowley as a literal "Satanist", many would agree that he directly challenges much of the ethical and religious basis for Christianity, especially in his work "Liber OZ". Crowley himself tended to advocate the progressive study of all major world religious scriptures and mystical traditions, as well as a special focus on the Empiricist movement in Modern British philosophy, even as he strenously argued against the ultimate claims of these institutional religions. Crowley and Thelema show much philosophical influence from not only Rabalais, but also from sources as diverse as Laozi, Joachim of Fiore, and Friedrich Nietzsche. In the ritual structure of the Gnostic Mass (a major group ritual practice) , the influence of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is evident, leading to accusations of the Gnostic Mass as a "Black (Satanic) Mass".

Thelema and other systems of thought

Thelema is a mystical/magical philosophy of life based on Will. The individual Will in Thelema is identified with the Egyptian god Had or Hadit. The Pleroma of infinite potentiality through which Had wends its Way is called Nu or Nuit, the Egyptian goddess of Infinite Space.

Many adherents of Thelema are syncretic and recognise correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from other traditions. For example, Nu and Had are thought to correspond with the Tao and Teh of Taoism, Shakti and Shiva of the Hindu Tantras, Shunyata and Bodhicitta of Buddhism, Ain Soph and Kether in the Qabalah. Followers of the philosophy of Thelema make free use of the methods and practices derived from other traditions, including alchemy, astrology, qabalah, tantra, tarot, and yoga, regarding them all as being subsumed in the Law of Thelema.

Thelemic organisations

Several organisations of various sizes claim to follow the tenets of Thelema, the Ordo Templi Orientis and the Argenteum Astrum, or A∴A∴, currently being the largest. Other groups of widely varying character exist which have drawn inspiration or methods from Thelema but which never fully accepted Crowley's complete teachings, such as the Illuminates of Thanateros and the Temple of Set. The Fraternitas Saturni and related groups are idiosyncratic in that they accept Thelema, but extend it by the phrase "Mitleidlose Liebe!" ("Compassionless Love!"). These groups generally do not accept the writings of Crowley.

See also

• Holy Books of Thelema
• Holy Guardian Angel
• Svecchachara
• Thelemapedia
• Wiccan Rede

References and sources

• 💕 of Thelema (2005). Thelema. Retrieved March 12 2005.
  • De Lupos, Rey. The Golden Topaz of Radiant Light in Silver Star, No. 1. Retrieved April 5 2005.
  • Voxfire, Thomas (2004). "Something from Nothing: the Essence of Creation" in Essays for the New Aeon. Retrieved April 5 2005.
  • Webster, Sam. Entering the Buddhadharma. Retrieved April 5 2005.
• Kazcynski, Richard. Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley. Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Publications. 2002.
• Melton, J. Gordon. "Thelemic Magick in America." Alternatives to American Mainline Churches, ed. Joseph H. Fichter. (Barrytown, NY: Unification Theological Seminary), 1983.
• Starr, Martin P. The Unknown God: W.T. Smith and the Thelemites. Bolingbrook, IL: Teitan Press. 2003.
• van Egmond, Daniel. "Western Esoteric Schools in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries." in van den Broek, Roelof and Hanegraaff, Wouter J. Gnosis and Hermeticism From Antiquity To Modern Times. Albany : State University of New York Press. 1998. Pages 311-346.
• Thelemapedia. (2004). Thelema. Retrieved April 15, 2006.

External links

• Thelemapedia, the original Encyclopedia of Thelema & Magick
• 💕 of Thelema—the truly 💕 of Thelema
• Thelema at the Internet Sacred Texts Archive—a collection of texts on the topic of Thelema
• BaphoNet—texts on Thelema, Enochian Magic(k), and other topics
• Thelema 101 Home Page
• About Thelema—from O.T.O.
• Prime Qabalah & Thelema— Information on a new system of English Gematria and its application to Thelema
• The Law of Thelema, by Alexander Duncan
• Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Ashe Journal — Special Thelema Centennial Edition: Aleister Crowley, Lon Milo DuQuette, and others.

• Thelema
• New religious movements