Thelema
Thelema (/θəˈliːmə/) is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy[1] and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician.
This work outlines key principles, including the axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," emphasizing personal freedom and the pursuit of one's true path, guided by love.
The highest deity is Nuit, the night sky symbolized as a naked woman covered in stars, representing the ultimate source of possibilities.
Magick is a central practice in Thelema, involving various physical, mental, and spiritual exercises aimed at uncovering one's True Will and enacting change in alignment with it.
Post-Crowley figures like Jack Parsons, Kenneth Grant, James Lees, and Nema Andahadna have further developed Thelema, introducing new ideas, practices, and interpretations.
[8] In the Renaissance, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican friar and writer Francesco Colonna.
[9] Colonna's work was a great influence on the Franciscan friar and writer François Rabelais, who in the 16th century used Thélème, the French form of the word, as the name of a fictional abbey in his novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel.
It is a classical utopia presented in order to critique and assess the state of the society of Rabelais's day, as opposed to a modern utopian text that seeks to create the scenario in practice.
He said that Rabelais confines himself to portraying an ideal, rather than addressing questions of political economy and similar subjects, which must be solved in order to realize the Law.
[28] Sir Francis Dashwood adopted some of the ideas of Rabelais and invoked the same rule in French, when he founded a group called the Monks of Medmenham (better known as the Hellfire Club).
[29] Sir Nathaniel Wraxall in his Historical Memoires (1815) accused the Monks of performing Satanic rituals, but these reports have been dismissed as hearsay.
[29] Daniel Willens argued that the group likely practiced Freemasonry, but also suggests Dashwood may have held secret Roman Catholic sacraments.
[30] Aleister Crowley's system of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law, which bears the official name Liber AL vel Legis.
[31] Crowley stated that "no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles" and that study of the text would dispel all doubts about the method of how the book was obtained.
[32] Besides the reference to Rabelais made in the book, an analysis by Dave Evans found similarities to The Beloved of Hathor and Shrine of the Golden Hawk,[33] a play by Florence Farr.
The latter commentary, dubbed "The Comment", warns against discussing the book's contents, states that all "questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings", and is signed by Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i.
"[2] These three statements have specific meanings: Thelema places its principal gods and goddesses—three altogether—from Ancient Egyptian religion as the speakers presented in Liber AL vel Legis.
Some interpreters of Thelema believe that this right includes an obligation to allow others to do their own wills without interference,[66] but Liber AL vel Legis makes no clear statement on the matter.
[72] Many adherents of Thelema recognize correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from the methods and practices of other traditions, including alchemy, astrology, qabalah, tantra, tarot divination and yoga.
[72] 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 Hermetic Qabalah.
[76] Crowley defined magick as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will",[77] and spelled it with a 'k' to distinguish it from stage magic.
Crowley stated that his work and that of his followers used "the method of science; the aim of religion",[89] and that the genuine powers of the magician could in some way be objectively tested.
Crowley believed he could demonstrate, by his own example, the effectiveness of magick in producing certain subjective experiences that do not ordinarily result from taking hashish, enjoying oneself in Paris, or walking through the Sahara desert.
Parsons converted to Thelema, and together with his first wife, Helen Northrup, joined the Agape Lodge, the Californian branch of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.
At Crowley's bidding, Parsons replaced Wilfred Talbot Smith as its leader in 1942 and ran the Lodge from his mansion on Orange Grove Boulevard.
The ruthless examination and destruction of taboos, complexes, frustrations, dislikes, fears and disgusts hostile to the Will is essential to progress.
[101] Although based in Thelema, Grant's Typhonian tradition has been described as "a bricolage of occultism, Neo-Vedanta, Hindu tantra, Western sexual magic, Surrealism, ufology and Lovecraftian gnosis".
[110] Grant's views on sex magic drew heavily on the importance of sexual dimorphism among humans and the subsequent differentiation of gender roles.
[116] The first public report of the system known as English Qaballa (EQ) was published in 1979 by Ray Sherwin in an editorial in the final issue of his journal, The New Equinox.
[117] The "order & value"[118] proposed by James Lees lays the letters out on the grid superimposed on the page of manuscript of Liber AL on which this verse (Ch.
