Aleister Crowley

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

Alexander - Aleister - Edward Crowley was born October 12, 1875 in Leamington Spa, England.

He was considered by many to be a great Magician, Magus, and Prophet.

His parents were members of the Plymouth Brethren, a strict fundamentalist Christian sect. As a result, Aleister grew up with a thorough biblical education and an equally thorough disdain of Christianity.

He attended Trinity College at Cambridge University, leaving just before completing his degree. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to George Cecil Jones, who was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was an occult society led by S.L. MacGregor Mathers which taught magick, qabalah, alchemy, tarot, astrology, and other hermetic subjects. It had many notable members (including A. E. Waite, Dion Fortune, and W. B. Yeats), and its influence on the development of modern western occultism was profound.



Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawn in 1898, and proceeded to climb up rapidly through the grades. But in 1900 the order was shattered by schism, and Crowley left England to travel extensively throughout the East. There he learned and practiced the mental and physical disciplines of yoga, supplementing his knowledge of western-style ritual magick with the methods of Oriental mysticism.

In 1903, Crowley married Rose Kelly, and they went to Egypt on their honeymoon. After returning to Cairo in early 1904, Rose (who until this point had shown no interest or familiarity with the occult) began entering trance states and insisting to her husband that the god Horus was trying to contact him. As a test, Crowley took Rose to the Boulak Museum and asked her to point out Horus to him.

'The Stele of Revealing' is an Egyptian painted wooden tablet from the 26th dynasty - depicting Horus receiving a sacrifice from the deceased, a priest named Ankh-f-n-khonsu. Crowley was especially impressed by the fact that this piece was numbered 666 by the museum, a number with which he had identified since childhood. Soon after discovering the Stele in a museum in Cairo, Crowley received the mystical communication known as 'The Book of the Law'. Much of what Crowley discovered in the 'Stele of Revealing' set the stage"or formed the basis for his channeled verses.

The upshot was that he began to listen to Rose, and at her direction, on three successive days beginning April 8, 1904, he entered his chamber at noon and wrote down what he heard dictated from a shadowy presence behind him. The result was the three chapters of verse known as Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law. This book heralded the dawning of the new aeon of Horus, which would be governed by the 'Law of Thelema'.

In 1906 Crowley rejoined George Cecil Jones in England, where they set about the task of creating a magical order to continue where the Golden Dawn had left off. They called this order the A.'. A.'. (Astrum Argentium or Silver Star), and it became the primary vehicle for the transmission of Crowley's mystical and magical training system based on the principles of Thelema.

Then in 1910 Crowley was contacted by Theodore Reuss, the head of an organization based in Germany called the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.). This group of high-ranking Freemasons claimed to have discovered the supreme secret of practical magick, which was taught in its highest degrees. Apparently Crowley agreed, becoming a member of O.T.O. and eventually taking over as head of the order when Reuss suffered a stroke in 1921. Crowley reformulated the rites of the O.T.O. to conform them to the Law of Thelema, and vested the organization with its main purpose of establishing Thelema in the world. The order also became independent of Freemasonry (although still based on the same patterns) and opened its membership to women and men who were not masons.

Aleister Crowley died in Hastings, England on December 1, 1947. However, his legacy lives on in the Law of Thelema which he brought to mankind (along with dozens of books and writings on magick and other mystical subjects), and in the orders A.'. A.'. and O.T.O. which continue to advance the principles of Thelema to this day.



WHAT IS THELEMA?

Thelema ("THEL-ay-mah") is a Greek word meaning "will" or "intention". It is also the name of a new spiritual philosophy which has arisen over the past several hundred years and is now gradually becoming established worldwide.

Although touched upon by various prominent visionary thinkers in the following few hundred years, the seeds of Thelema sown by Rabelais eventually came to fruition in the early part of this century when developed by an Englishman named Aleister Crowley. Crowley was a poet, author, mountaineer, magician, and member of the occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

In 1904, while travelling in Egypt with his wife Rose, Crowley became inextricably involved in a series of events which he claimed to inaugurate a new aeon of human evolution. He declared that we have entered a new age that will bring about a change in the general conciousness of humanity. This means that less people are going to be inclined to join the "established" religions, such as Christianity, Judiasm, Hinduism, and so on. There is nothing wrong with these beliefs, but I think Crowley meant that people would find new religions and practices.

These culminated in April when Crowley entered a state of trance and wrote down the three chapters of 220 verses which came to be called The Book of the Law (also known as Liber AL and Liber Legis). Among other things, this book declared: "The word of the law is Thelema" and "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law".

Crowley spent the rest of his life developing the philosophy of Thelema as revealed by the Book of the Law. The result was a voluminous output of commentary and works relating to magick, mysticism, yoga, qabalah, and other occult subjects. Virtually all of this writing bears the influence of Thelema as interpreted and understood by Crowley in his capacity as prophet of the New Aeon.

Thelema espouses the idea that everyone has their own destiny, and that each is responsible for finding and fleshing out that destiny. This is the real basis for magick. When one is responsible for him or herself, one is truly free.

Thelema also says that "The only sin is Restriction", now that doesn't mean that you can just run around breaking the law and doing whatever you want, but that you should do everything necessary to find and do your true will. This also sheds light on the opening and closing statements of most Thelemic documents "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.", and "Love is the Law, Love under Will".

These statements say that you should achieve the freedom necessary to believe what you want, and to be yourself (true self) even under duress.

'Love is the Law' does not mean that physical love. This is the Love for yourself and all of humanity, good, bad, or indifferent. Do you have what it takes to truly Love yourself and others? Such is a long, hard process. Will, again, is your True Will. This means that you should achieve freedom and Love under the guidance of your True Will. Do all this (which may take many lifetimes), and you cannot go wrong.

Once you find your True Will, and take total responsibility for yourself, then you are capable of anything. You are in control, and then the piece of the Divine that lies within you can come forth.

One theory holds that each chapter of the Book of the Law is associated with a particular aeon of human spiritual evolution. According to this view, Chapter One characterizes the Aeon of Isis, when the archetype of female divinity was paramount. Chapter Two relates to the Aeon of Osiris, when the archetype of the slain god became prominent, and the world's patriarchal religions became established. Chapter Three heralds the dawning of a new aeon, the Aeon of Horus, the child of the Isis and Osiris. It is in this new aeon that the philosophy of Thelema will be fully revealed to humanity, and will become established as the primary paradigm for the spiritual evolution of the species.

Some of the essential elements of belief in Thelema are:

"Every man and every woman is a star."

This is usually taken to mean that each individual is unique and has their own path in a spacious universe wherein they can move freely without collision.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." and "thou hast no right but to do thy will."

Most Thelemites hold that every person possesses a True Will, a single overall motivation for their existence. The Law of Thelema mandates that each person follow their True Will to attain fulfillment in life and freedom from restriction of their nature. Because no two True Wills can be in real conflict (according to "Every man and every woman is a star"), this Law also prohibits one from interfering with the True Will of any other person.

The notion of absolute freedom for an individual to follow his or her True Will is a cherished one among Thelemites. This philosophy also recognizes that the main task of an individual setting out on the path of Thelema is to first discover his or her True Will, giving methods of self-exploration such as magick great importance. Furthermore, every True Will is different, and because each person has a unique point-of-view of the universe, no one can determine the True Will for another person. Each person must arrive at the discovery for themselves.

"Love is the law, love under will."

This is an important corollary to the above, indicating that the essential nature of the Law of Thelema is that of Love. Each individual unites with his or her True Self in Love, and so empowered, the entire universe of conscious beings unites with every other being in Love.

Of course, with the emphasis on freedom and individuality inherent in Thelema, the beliefs of any given Thelemite are likely to differ from those of any other. In the Comment appended to 'The Book of the Law' it is stated that:

"All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings, each for himself."

Although Thelema is sometimes referred to as a "religion", it accommodates the full range of individual beliefs, from atheism to polytheism.

The important thing is that each person has the right to fulfill themselves through whatever beliefs and actions are best suited to them (so long as they do not interfere with the will of others), and only they themselves are qualified to determine what these are.



THE ORDER OF THE THELEMIC GOLDEN DAWN
There is now established in the world a New Order of the Golden Dawn called the Order of the Thelemic Golden Dawn (T.�.G.�.D.�.). It is a Magical-Religious-Scientific Order dedicated to the teachings of Aleister Crowley. Our principal function is to assist in the initiation of aspirants into the Magical Life of Thelema. We are a Magical Order of the New Aeon wherein men and women, by the essential aids of Science and Religion, can participate in the Great Work of Thelema.

The New Order of the Golden Dawn has Seven Grades of Initiation which are linked with the seven Chakras of Yoga, the seven traditional Planets of Astrology and the seven Metals of Alchemy. The system of the T.�.G.�.D.�. is also Qabalistic in nature. Its chief methods or principles of discipline are Scientific and Occult Research, Practical Mysticism, Ceremonial Magick and Tantric Alchemy. We derive our wisdom and philosophy from various Eastern and Western religious sources. Our ceremonies have been constructed to accord with the Principles of Thelema and they are designed to instruct the Initiate in the Magick of Thelema, for the accomplishment of his/her True Will, and for the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his/her Holy Guardian Angel.

Love is the law, love under will.

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