Thelema - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thelema is a religious philosophy (referred to by some as a religion) that was established, defined and developed by the early 20th century British writer and ceremonial magic

Ceremonial magic

Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...

ian, Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...

. He believed himself to be the prophet of a new age, the Æon of Horus

Aeon (Thelema)

In the religion of Thelema, it is believed that the history of humanity can be divided into a series of Aeons, each of which was accompanied by its own forms of "magical and religious expression"...

, based upon a religious experience that he had in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

in 1904. By his account, a possibly non-corporeal being that called itself Aiwass

Aiwass

Aiwass is the name of the being who Aleister Crowley claimed dictated The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema, to him on April 8, 9, and 10th in 1904.-The dictation:...

contacted him and dictated a text known as The Book of the Law
The Book of the Law
Liber AL vel Legis is the central sacred text of Thelema, written by Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt in the year 1904. Its full title is Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII=418 to DCLXVI, and it is commonly referred to as The Book of the Law.Liber AL vel Legis contains three...

or Liber AL vel Legis, which outlined the principles of Thelema.

The Thelemic pantheon includes a number of deities, focusing primarily on a trinity of deities adapted from ancient Egyptian religion, who are the three speakers of The Book of the Law: Nuit

Nuit

Nuit is the speaker in the first Chapter of The Book of the Law, the sacred text of Thelema written or received in 1904 by Aleister Crowley....

, Hadit

Hadit

Hadit refers to a Thelemic version of the Egyptian god Horus. Hadit is the principal speaker of the second chapter of The Book of the Law .- Descriptions :...

and Ra-Hoor-Khuit

Heru-ra-ha

Heru-ra-ha is a composite deity within Thelema, a religion that began in 1904 with Aleister Crowley and his Book of the Law. Heru-ra-ha is composed of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-par-kraat...

. The religion is founded upon the idea that the 20th century marked the beginning of the Aeon of Horus, in which a new ethical code would be followed; "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law". This statement indicated that adherents, who are known as Thelemites, should seek out and follow their own true path in life, known as their True Will

True Will

True Will is a term found within the mystical system of Thelema, a religion founded in 1904 with Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law. It is defined at times as a person's grand destiny in life, and at other times as a moment to moment path of action that operates in perfect harmony...

rather than their egoic desires. The philosophy also emphasizes the ritual practice of Magick.

The word "Thelema" itself is the English transliteration of the Koine Greek

Koine Greek

Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....

noun : "will", from the verb θέλω: to will, wish, purpose. As Crowley developed the religion he wrote widely on the topic, producing what are collectively termed the Holy Books of Thelema

Holy Books of Thelema

Aleister Crowley, the founder of the religion of Thelema, designated his works as belonging to one of several classes. Not all of his work was placed in a class by him.The remaining texts were written between the years 1907 and 1911...

. He also included into it ideas from occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

ism, Yoga

Yoga

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...

and both Eastern

Eastern mysticism

Eastern mysticism or Eastern spirituality is a broad and largely Western concept summarizing and sometimes amalgamating mystic traditions of the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and the Far East, a separate realm from Western mysticism...

and Western mysticism

Mysticism

Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...

, especially the Qabalah.

Historical antecedents

The word θέλημα (thelema) is rare in classical Greek, where it "signifies the appetitive will: desire, sometimes even sexual", but it is frequent in the Septuagint. Early Christian writings occasionally use the word to refer to the human will, and even the will of God's opponent, the Devil

Devil

The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...

, but it usually refers to the will of God. One well-known example is in the "Lord's Prayer

Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...

" , “Your kingdom come. Your will (Θελημα) be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” It is used later in the same gospel , "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." In his 5th century Sermon on -, Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

gave a similar instruction: "Love, and do what you will" (Dilige et quod vis fac).

In the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili , called in English Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream, is a romance said to be by Francesco Colonna and a famous example of early printing...

of the Dominican monk Francesco Colonna

Francesco Colonna

Francesco Colonna was an Italian Dominican priest and monk who was credited with the authorship of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by an acrostic in the text.He lived in Venice, and preached at St. Mark's Cathedral...

. The protagonist, Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic. Colonna's work was a great influence on the Franciscan

Franciscan

Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

monk François Rabelais

François Rabelais

François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...

, 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
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein...

. The only rule of this Abbey was
"fay çe que vouldras" ("Fais ce que tu veux," or, "Do what thou wilt"). In the mid 18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood

Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer

Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer was an English rake and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of the Hellfire Club.-Early life:...

inscribed the adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham

Medmenham

Medmenham is a village and civil parish in the Wycombe district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the River Thames, about three and a half miles southwest of Marlow and three miles east of Henley-on-Thames....

, where it served as the motto of The Hellfire Club. Rabelais' Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant

Walter Besant

Sir Walter Besant , was a novelist and historian who lived largely in London.His sister-in-law was Annie Besant.-Biography:...

and James Rice, in their novel The Monks of Thelema
The Monks of Thelema
The Monks of Thelema was a novel by Walter Besant and James Rice. It was published during 1878 by Chatto & Windus, London.This novel includes descriptions of a sort of "church of Thelema", similar to the Abbey of Thélème, described by Rabelais's novel Gargantua. Aleister Crowley later initiated a...

(1878), and C.R. Ashbee in his utopian romance The Building of Thelema (1910).

François Rabelais

François Rabelais was a Franciscan

Franciscan

and later a Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left the monastery to study medicine, and moved to the French city of Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

in 1532. It was there that he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein...

, 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.

Most critics today agree that Rabelais wrote from a Christian humanist

Christian humanism

Christian humanism is the position that universal human dignity and individual freedom are essential and principal components of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.- Origins :Christian humanism may have...

perspective, as Crowley biographer Lawrence Sutin says when he contrasts the French author's views with the Thelema of Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley

. In the previously mentioned story of Thélème, which critics analyze as referring in part to the suffering of loyal Christian reformists or "evangelicals" within the French Church, the reference to the Greek word θέλημα "declares that the will of God rules in this abbey". Sutin writes that Rabelais was no precursor of Thelema, with his beliefs containing elements of Stoicism

Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...

and Christian kindness.

It is in the first book (ch. 52-57) that Rabelais writes of this Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It is a classical utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

presented in order to critique and assess the state of the society of Rabelais' day, as opposed to a modern utopian text which seeks to create the scenario in practice. It is a utopia where people's desires are more fulfilled. However, as well as being satirical, it also epitomises the ideals considered in Rabelais' fiction. The inhabitants of the abbey were governed only by their own free will and pleasure, the only rule being "Do What Thou Wilt." Rabelais believed that men that are free, well born and bred have honour, which intrinsically leads to virtuous actions. When constrained, their noble natures turn instead to remove their servitude, because men desire what they are denied.

Some modern Thelemites consider Crowley's work to build upon Rabelais' summary of the instinctively honourable nature of the Thelemite. Rabelais has been variously credited with the creation of the philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

of Thelema, as one of the earliest people to refer to it, or with being "the first Thelemite." However, the current National Grand Master General of the U.S. Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

Grand Lodge has stated:

Saint Rabelais never intended his satirical, fictional device to serve as a practical blueprint for a real human society... Our Thelema is that of The Book of the Law and the writings of Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley himself wrote in The Antecedents of Thelema, (1926) an incomplete work not published in his day, that Rabelais not only set forth the law of Thelema in a way similar to how Crowley understood it, but predicted and described in code Crowley's life and the holy text that he claimed to have received, The Book of the Law
The Book of the Law
Liber AL vel Legis is the central sacred text of Thelema, written by Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt in the year 1904. Its full title is Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII=418 to DCLXVI, and it is commonly referred to as The Book of the Law.Liber AL vel Legis contains three...

. However, Crowley said the work he had received was deeper, showing in more detail the technique people should practice, revealing scientific mysteries, and 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.

Rabelais is included among the Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

The Gnostic Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica are a series of historical and mythological figures commemorated within the current of Thelema. They were first listed in Liber XV, the Gnostic Mass, which is the central rite of Ordo Templi Orientis and its ecclesiastical arm, Ecclesia Gnostica...

along with others such as Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

, Catullus

Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...

, Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...

, and William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

Francis Dashwood and the Hellfire Club

Sir Francis Dashwood

Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer

Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer was an English rake and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of the Hellfire Club.-Early life:...

adopted some of the ideas of Rabelais and invoked the same rule in French, when he founded a group called the Monks of Medmenham

Medmenham

(better known as The Hellfire Club). An abbey was established at Medmenham

Medmenham

, in a property which incorporated the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1201. The group were known as the Franciscans, not after Saint Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...

, but after its founder, Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer

Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer

Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer was an English rake and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of the Hellfire Club.-Early life:...

. John Wilkes

John Wilkes

John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...

, George Dodington

George Dodington

George Dodington was a Whig politician under the patronage of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford.Dodington represented Charlemont in the Irish House of Commons from 1707 to 1713. He served as Secretary to the Treasurer of the Navy during the reign of William III, and in 1707-1708 was Secretary to...

and other politicians were members. We have little direct evidence of what Dashwood's Hellfire Club did or believed. The one direct testimonial comes from John Wilkes

John Wilkes

, a member who never got into the chapter-room of the inner circle. He describes them as hedonists who met to "celebrate woman in wine," and added ideas from the ancients just to make the experience more decadent.

In the opinion of Lt. Col. Towers, the group derived more from Rabelais than the inscription over the door. He believes that they used caves as a Dionysian oracular temple, based upon Dashwood’s reading of the relevant chapters of Rabelais." Sir Nathaniel Wraxall

Nathaniel William Wraxall

Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall, 1st Baronet was an English author-Life:He was born in Queen Square, Bristol, the son of a Bristol merchant, Nathaniel Wraxall, and his wife Anne, great niece of Sir James Thornhill the painter...

in his Historical Memoires (1815) accused the Monks of performing Satanic rituals, but these claims have been dismissed as hearsay. Gerald Gardner

Gerald Gardner

Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...

and others such as Mike Howard say the Monks worshipped "the Goddess." Daniel Willens argued that the group likely practiced Freemasonry

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

, but also suggests Dashwood may have held secret Roman Catholic sacraments. He asks if Wilkes would have recognized a genuine Catholic Mass, even if he saw it himself and even if the underground version followed its public model precisely.

Aleister Crowley

(1875–1947) was an English occultist and writer. In 1904, Crowley claimed to have received The Book of the Law from an entity named Aiwass

Aiwass

Aiwass is the name of the being who Aleister Crowley claimed dictated The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema, to him on April 8, 9, and 10th in 1904.-The dictation:...

, which was to serve as the foundation of the religious and philosophical system he called Thelema.

The Book of the Law

Crowley's system of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law, which bears the official name Liber AL vel Legis. It was written in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Egypt

Egypt

during his honeymoon with his new wife Rose Crowley

Rose Edith Kelly

Rose Edith Kelly married noted author, magician and occultist Aleister Crowley in 1903. In 1904, she aided him in the Cairo Working that led to the reception of The Book of the Law, on which Crowley based much of his philosophy and religion, Thelema.After their divorce in 1909, she married Dr...

(née Kelly). This small book contains three chapters, each of which he claimed to have written in exactly one hour, beginning at noon, on April 8, April 9, and April 10, 1904. Crowley claims that he took dictation from an entity named Aiwass

Aiwass

Aiwass is the name of the being who Aleister Crowley claimed dictated The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema, to him on April 8, 9, and 10th in 1904.-The dictation:...

, whom he later identified as his own Holy Guardian Angel

Holy Guardian Angel

The term Holy Guardian Angel was possibly coined either by Abraham of Würzburg, a French Cabalist who wrote a book on ceremonial magick during the 15th century or Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, the founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, who later translated this manuscript and...

. Disciple, author, and onetime Crowley secretary Israel Regardie

Israel Regardie

Israel Regardie, born Francis Israel Regudy was an occultist and writer, author of books on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.-Early life:...

prefers to attribute this voice to the subconscious, but opinions among Thelemites differ widely.

Besides the reference to Rabelais, an analysis by Dave Evans shows similarities to The Beloved of Hathor and Shrine of the Golden Hawk, a play by Florence Farr

Florence Farr

Florence Beatrice Emery Farr was a British West End leading actress, composer and director. She was also a women's rights activist, journalist, educator, singer, novelist, leader of the occult order, The Golden Dawn and one time mistress of playwright George Bernard Shaw...

. Evans says this may result from the fact that "both Farr and Crowley were thoroughly steeped in Golden Dawn

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...

imagery and teachings," and that Crowley probably knew the ancient materials that inspired some of Farr's motifs. Sutin also finds similarities between Thelema and the work of W. B. Yeats, attributing this to "shared insight" and perhaps to the older man's knowledge of Crowley.

Crowley wrote several commentaries on The Book of the Law, the last of which he wrote in 1925. This brief statement called simply "The Comment" warns against discussing the Book's contents, and states that all "questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings" and is signed Ankh-af-na-khonsu

Ankh-af-na-khonsu

Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i , also known as Ankh-af-na-khonsu, was a priest of the Egyptian god Mentu who lived in Thebes during the 25th and 26th dynasty . He was the son of Bes-en-Mut I and Ta-neshet...

True Will

According to Crowley, every individual has a True Will, to be distinguished from the ordinary wants and desires of the ego. The True Will is essentially one's "calling" or "purpose" in life. Some later magicians have taken this to include the goal of attaining self-realization by one's own efforts, without the aid of God or other divine authority. This brings them close to the position that Crowley held just prior to 1904. Others follow later works such as Liber II, saying that one's own will in pure form is nothing other than the divine will. Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law for Crowley refers not to hedonism

Hedonism

Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....

, fulfilling everyday desires, but to acting in response to that calling. The Thelemite is a mystic. According to Lon Milo Duquette

Lon Milo Duquette

Lon Milo DuQuette, AKA Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, is an American writer, lecturer, and occultist, best known as an author who applies humor in the field of Western Hermeticism.-Early life:...

, a Thelemite is anyone who bases their actions on striving to discover and accomplish their true will, when a person does their True Will, it is like an orbit, their niche in the universal order, and the universe assists them. In order for the individual to be able to follow their True Will, the everyday self's socially-instilled inhibitions may have to be overcome via deconditioning. Crowley believed that in order to discover the True Will, one had to free the desires of the subconscious

Subconscious

The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....

mind from the control of the conscious mind, especially the restrictions placed on sexual expression, which he associated with the power of divine creation. He identified the True Will of each individual with the Holy Guardian Angel

Holy Guardian Angel

, a daimon
Daemon (mythology)
The words dæmon and daimôn are Latinized spellings of the Greek "δαίμων", a reference to the daemons of Ancient Greek religion and mythology, as well as later Hellenistic religion and philosophy...

unique to each individual. The spiritual quest to find what you are meant to do and do it is also known in Thelema as the Great Work

Great Work

The term Great Work is a term used in Hermeticism and in certain occult traditions and religions such as Thelema.-In Hermeticism:...

Cosmology

Thelema draws its principal gods and goddesses from Ancient Egyptian religion. The highest deity in the cosmology of Thelema is in fact a goddess, Nuit

Nuit

Nuit is the speaker in the first Chapter of The Book of the Law, the sacred text of Thelema written or received in 1904 by Aleister Crowley....

. She is the night sky arched over the Earth symbolized in the form of a naked woman. She is conceived as the Great Mother, the ultimate source of all things. The second principal deity of Thelema is the god Hadit

Hadit

Hadit refers to a Thelemic version of the Egyptian god Horus. Hadit is the principal speaker of the second chapter of The Book of the Law .- Descriptions :...

, conceived as the infinitely small point, complement and consort of Nuit. Hadit symbolizes manifestation, motion, and time. He is also described in Liber AL vel Legis as "the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." The third deity in the cosmology of Thelema is Ra-Hoor-Khuit, a manifestation of Horus

Horus

Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...

. He is symbolized as a throned man with the head of a hawk

Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

who carries a wand. He is associated with the Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

and the active energies of Thelemic magick. Other deities within the cosmology of Thelema are Hoor-paar-kraat (or Harpocrates

Harpocrates

In late Greek mythology as developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria, Harpocrates is the god of silence. Harpocrates was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptian child god Horus. To the ancient Egyptians, Horus represented the new-born Sun, rising each day at dawn...

), god of silence and inner strength, the brother of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Babalon

Babalon

Babalon—also known as The Scarlet Woman, The Great Mother, or the Mother of Abominations—is a goddess found in the mystical system of Thelema, which was established in 1904 with English author and occultist Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law...

, the goddess of all pleasure, known as the Virgin Whore. and Therion

Therion (Thelema)

Therion is a God found in the mystical system of Thelema, which was established in 1904 with Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law. Therion's female counterpart is Babalon, another Thelemic deity. He, as a Thelemic personage, evolved from that of the Beast of the Book of Revelation ,...

, the beast that Babalon rides, who represents the wild animal within man, a force of nature.

Magick and ritual

Thelemic magick is a system of physical, mental, and spiritual exercises which practitioners believe are of benefit. Crowley defined magick as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will," and spelled it with a 'k' to distinguish it from stage magic. He recommended magick as a means for discovering the True Will

True Will

. Generally, magical practices in Thelema are designed to assist in finding and manifesting the True Will, although some include celebratory aspects as well. Crowley was a prolific writer, integrating Eastern practices with Western magical practices from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...

. He recommended a number of these practices to his followers, including basic yoga

Yoga

; (asana

Asana

Asana is a body position, typically associated with the practice of Yoga, originally identified as a mastery of sitting still, with the spine as a conduit of biodynamic union...

and pranayama

Pranayama

Pranayama is a Sanskrit word meaning "extension of the prana or breath" or more accurately, "extension of the life force". The word is composed of two Sanskrit words, Prāna, life force, or vital energy, particularly, the breath, and "āyāma", to extend, draw out, restrain, or...

); rituals of his own devising or based on those of the Golden Dawn, such as the Lesser ritual of the pentagram
Lesser ritual of the pentagram
The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram is a ceremonial magic ritual devised and used by the original order of the Golden Dawn that has become a mainstay in modern occultism...

, for banishing and invocation; Liber Samekh, a ritual for the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel

Holy Guardian Angel

; eucharistic rituals such as The Gnostic Mass and The Mass of the Phoenix; and Liber Resh, consisting of four daily adorations to the sun. Much of his work is readily available in print and online. He also discussed sex magick and sexual gnosis in various forms including masturbatory

Masturbation

Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...

, heterosexual, and homosexual

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

practices, and these form part of his suggestions for the work of those in the higher degrees of the Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

. Crowley believed that after discovering the True Will, the magician must also remove any elements of himself that stand in the way of its success.

The emphasis of Thelemic magick is not directly on material results, and while many Thelemites do practice magick for goals such as wealth or love, it is not required. Those in a Thelemic magical Order, such as the A∴A∴, or Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

, work through a series of degrees or grades via a process of initiation. Thelemites who work on their own or in an independent group try to achieve this ascent or the purpose thereof using the Holy Books of Thelema

Holy Books of Thelema

and/or Crowley's more secular works as a guide, along with their own intuition. Books and papers detailing the rituals of Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

of the past do appear or come up for sale second-hand, but the modern organisation seeks to prevent them being sold, using the successful legal argument that such works violate their copyright. The papers they seek to protect include those containing instructions detailing the sexual rituals of the later degrees.

One goal in the study of Thelema within the magical Order of the A∴A∴ is for the magician to obtain the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel

Holy Guardian Angel

: conscious communication with their own personal daimon

Daimon

Daimon is an Ancient Greek word referring to lesser supernatural beings, including minor gods and the spirits of dead heroes.It may also refer to:- People :* Daimon Shelton , professional American football player...

, thus gaining knowledge of their True Will. The chief task for one who has achieved this goes by the name of "crossing the abyss

Abyss (Thelema)

Within the mystical system of Thelema, the Abyss is the great gulf or void between the phenomenal world of manifestation and its noumenal source.-Theory and Practice:...

"; completely relinquishing the ego. If the aspirant is unprepared, he will cling to the ego instead, becoming a Black Brother. Rather than becoming one with God, the Black Brother considers his ego to be god. According to Crowley, the Black Brother slowly disintegrates, while preying on others for his own self-aggrandisement.

Crowley taught skeptical examination of all results obtained through meditation

Meditation

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

or magick, at least for the student. He tied this to the necessity of keeping a magical record or diary, that attempts to list all conditions of the event. Remarking on the similarity of statements made by spiritually advanced people of their experiences, he said that fifty years from his time they would have a scientific name based on "an understanding of the phenomenon" to replace such terms as "spiritual" or "supernatural". Crowley stated that his work and that of his followers used "the method of science; the aim of religion," and that the genuine powers of the magician could in some way be objectively tested. This idea has been taken on by later practitioners of Thelema, chaos magic

Chaos magic

Chaos magic is a school of the modern magical tradition which emphasizes the pragmatic use of belief systems and the creation of new and unorthodox methods.-General principles:...

and magick in general. They may consider that they are testing hypotheses with each magical experiment. The difficulty lies in the broadness of their definition of success, in which they may see as evidence of success things which a non-magician would not define as such, leading to confirmation bias

Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.David Perkins, a geneticist, coined the term "myside bias" referring to a preference for "my" side of an issue...

. 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

Hashish

Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...

, enjoying oneself in Paris, or walking through the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

desert. It is not strictly necessary to practice ritual techniques to be a Thelemite, as due to the focus of Thelemic magick on the True Will

True Will

, Crowley stated "every intentional act is a magickal act."

Ethics

Liber AL vel Legis does make clear some standards of individual conduct. The most primary of these is "Do what thou wilt" which is presented as the whole of the law, and also as a right. Some interpreters of Thelema believe that this right includes an obligation to allow others to do their own wills without interference, but Liber AL makes no clear statement on the matter. Crowley himself wrote that there was no need to detail the ethics of Thelema, for everything springs from "Do what thou Wilt." Crowley wrote several additional documents presenting his personal views on individual conduct in light of the Law of Thelema, some of which do address the topic interference with others: Liber OZ

Liber OZ

"Liber OZ" is a single page by English author and occultist Aleister Crowley purporting to declare mankind's basic and intrinsic rights according to Crowley's philosophy of Thelema...

, Duty, and Liber II.

Liber Oz enumerates some of the rights of the individual implied by the one overarching right, "Do what thou wilt." 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 the earth as one will; think, speak, write, draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build, and dress as one will; love when, where and with whom one will; and kill those who would thwart these rights.

Duty is described as "A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema." It is not a numbered "Liber" as are all the documents which Crowley intended for A∴A∴, but rather listed as a document intended specifically for Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

. There are four sections:

A. Your Duty to Self: describes the self as the center of the universe, with a call to learn about one's inner nature. Admonishes the reader to develop every faculty in a balanced way, establish one's autonomy, and to devote oneself to the service of one's own True Will
True Will
True Will is a term found within the mystical system of Thelema, a religion founded in 1904 with Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law. It is defined at times as a person's grand destiny in life, and at other times as a moment to moment path of action that operates in perfect harmony...

.
B. Your Duty to Others: An admonishment 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 worship the divine nature of all other beings.
C. Your Duty to Mankind: States that the Law of Thelema should be the sole basis of conduct. That the laws of the land should have the aim of securing the greatest liberty for all individuals. Crime is described as being a violation of one's True Will.
D. Your Duty to All Other Beings and Things: States that the Law of Thelema should be applied to all problems and used to decide every ethical question. It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to use any animal or object for a purpose for which it is unfit, or to ruin things so that they are useless for their purpose. Natural resources can be used by man, but this should not be done wantonly, or the breach of the law will be avenged. For instance, deforestation can cause soil erosion.

In Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion, the Law of Thelema is summarized succinctly as "Do what thou wilt—then do nothing else." Crowley describes the pursuit of Will as not only with detachment from possible results, but with tireless energy. It is Nirvana

Nirvana

Nirvāṇa ; ) is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic thought, it is the state of being free from suffering. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through moksha...

but in a dynamic rather than static form. The True Will

True Will

is described as the individual's orbit, and if they seek to do anything else, they will encounter obstacles, as doing anything other than the will is a hindrance to it.

Diversity of Thelemic thought

The core of Thelemic thought is "Do what thou wilt." However, beyond this, there exists a very wide range of interpretation of Thelema. Modern Thelema is a syncretic philosophy and religion, and many Thelemites try to avoid strongly dogmatic or fundamentalist thinking. Crowley himself put strong emphasis on the unique nature of Will inherent in each individual, not following him, saying he did not wish to found a flock of sheep. Thus, contemporary Thelemites may practice more than one religion, including Discordianism

Discordianism

Discordianism is a religion based on the worship of Eris , the Greco-Roman goddess of strife. It was founded circa 1958–1959 after the publication of its holy book the Principia Discordia, written by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst after a series of shared hallucinations at a...

, Wicca

Wicca

Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...

, Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...

, Satanism

Satanism

Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...

, Setianism and Luciferianism

Luciferianism

Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer, originally a name referring to the planet Venus when it rises ahead of the Sun....

. Many adherents of Thelema, none more so than Crowley, recognize correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from the methods and practices of other traditions, including alchemy

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

, astrology

Astrology

Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

, qabalah, tantra

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

, tarot divination and yoga

Yoga

. For example, Nu

Nuit

Nuit is the speaker in the first Chapter of The Book of the Law, the sacred text of Thelema written or received in 1904 by Aleister Crowley....

and Had

Hadit

Hadit refers to a Thelemic version of the Egyptian god Horus. Hadit is the principal speaker of the second chapter of The Book of the Law .- Descriptions :...

are thought to correspond with the Tao

Tao

Dao or Tao is a Chinese word meaning 'way', 'path', 'route', or sometimes more loosely, 'doctrine' or 'principle'...

and Teh

De (Chinese)

De is a key concept in Chinese philosophy, usually translated "inherent character; inner power; integrity" in Taoism, "moral character; virtue; morality" in Confucianism and other contexts, and "quality; virtue" or "merit; virtuous deeds" in Chinese Buddhism.-The word:Chinese de 德 is an ancient...

of Taoism

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

, Shakti

Shakti

Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...

and Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

of the Hindu Tantra

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

s, Shunyata

Shunyata

Śūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong-pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoγusun is frequently translated into English as emptiness...

and Bodhicitta

Bodhicitta

In Buddhism, bodhicitta jang chub sem, Mongolian бодь сэтгэл) is the intention to achieve omniscient Buddhahood as fast as possible, so that one may benefit infinite sentient beings...

of Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, Ain Soph

Ein Sof (Kabbalah)

Ein Sof , in Kabbalah, is understood as God prior to His self-manifestation in the production of any spiritual Realm, probably derived from Ibn Gabirol's term, "the Endless One"...

and Kether

Keter (Kabbalah)

Keter also known as Kether, is the topmost of the Sephirot of the Tree of Life in Kabbalah. Since its meaning is "crown", it is interpreted as both the "topmost" of the Sephirot and the "regal crown" of the Sephirot. It is between Chokmah and Binah and it sits above Tiphereth...

in the Qabalah.

There are some Thelemites who do accept The Book of the Law

The Book of the Law

Liber AL vel Legis is the central sacred text of Thelema, written by Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt in the year 1904. Its full title is Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII=418 to DCLXVI, and it is commonly referred to as The Book of the Law.Liber AL vel Legis contains three...

in some way but don't accept the rest of Crowley's "inspired" writings or teachings. Others take only specific aspects of his overall system, such as his magical techniques, ethics, mysticism, or religious ideas, while ignoring the rest. Other individuals who consider themselves Thelemites regard what is commonly presented as Crowley's system to be only one possible manifestation of Thelema, creating original systems, such as those of Nema and Kenneth Grant

Kenneth Grant

Kenneth Grant was a British occultist, novelist, and poet, who with his partner, the artist Steffi Grant, headed the magical order previously known as the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis but which is now referred to as the Typhonian Order.-Occult background:Grant's occult experiences began in 1939...

Thelemic Holidays

The Book of the Law gives several holy days to be observed by Thelemites. There are no established or dogmatic ways to celebrate these days, so as a result Thelemites will often take to their own devices or celebrate in groups, especially within Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

. These holy days are usually observed on the following dates:

March 20. The Feast of the Supreme Ritual, which celebrates the Invocation of Horus, the ritual performed by Crowley on this date in 1904 that inaugurated the New Aeon.

March 20/March 21 The Equinox of the Gods, which is commonly referred to as the Thelemic New Year
New Year
The New Year is the day that marks the time of the beginning of a new calendar year, and is the day on which the year count of the specific calendar used is incremented. For many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner....

. Although the Equinox
Equinox
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator...

and the Invocation of Horus often fall on the same day, they are often treated as two different events. This date is the Autumnal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.

June 20/June 21 The Summer Solstice
Summer solstice
The summer solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also...

in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice
Winter solstice
Winter solstice may refer to:* Winter solstice, astronomical event* Winter Solstice , former band* Winter Solstice: North , seasonal songs* Winter Solstice , 2005 American film...

in the Southern Hemisphere.

April 8 through April 10. The Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law. These three days are commemorative of the three days in the year 1904 during which Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...

wrote the Book of the Law. One chapter was written each day, the first being written on April 8, the second on April 9, and the third on April 10. Although there is no official way of celebrating any Thelemic holiday, this particular feast day is usually celebrated by reading the corresponding chapter on each of the three days, usually at noon.

August 12. The Feast of the Prophet and His Bride. This holiday commemorates the marriage of Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...

and his first wife Rose Edith Crowley. Rose was a key figure in the writing of the Book of the Law.

September 21/September 22 The Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Vernal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.

December 20/December 21 The Winter Solstice
Winter solstice
Winter solstice may refer to:* Winter solstice, astronomical event* Winter Solstice , former band* Winter Solstice: North , seasonal songs* Winter Solstice , 2005 American film...

in the Northern Hemisphere and the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Feast for Life, celebrated at the birth of a Thelemite and on birthdays.

The Feast for Fire/The Feast for Water. These feast days are usually taken as being when a child hits puberty and steps unto the path of adulthood. The Feast for Fire is celebrated for a male, and the Feast for Water for a female.

The Feast for Death, celebrated on the death of a Thelemite and on the anniversary of their death.

Contemporary Thelemic literature

Aleister Crowley was highly prolific and wrote on the subject of Thelema for over 35 years, and many of his books remain in print. During his time, there were several who wrote on the subject, including U.S. O.T.O.

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

Grand Master Charles Stansfeld Jones

Charles Stansfeld Jones

Charles Stansfeld Jones , aka Frater Achad, was an occultist and ceremonial magician. An early aspirant to A∴A∴ who "claimed" the grade of Magister Templi as a Neophyte. He also became an O.T.O. initiate, serving as the principal organizer for that order in British Columbia, Canada...

, whose works on Qabalah are still in print, and Major-General J.F.C. Fuller

J.F.C. Fuller

Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller, CB, CBE, DSO was a British Army officer, military historian and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorising principles of warfare...

.

Jack Parsons

Jack Parsons

John Whiteside Parsons , better known as Jack Parsons, was an American rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology. He was one of the principal founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerojet Corp...

was a scientist researching the use of various fuels for rockets at the California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

, and one of Crowley's first American students, for a time leading the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

for Crowley in America. He wrote several short works during his lifetime, some later collected as Freedom is a Two-edged Sword. He died in 1952 as a result of an explosion, and while not a prolific writer himself, has been the subject of two biographies; Sex and Rockets by John Carter, and Strange Angel by George Pendle.

Since Crowley's death in 1947, there have been other Thelemic writers. These include Israel Regardie

Israel Regardie

Israel Regardie, born Francis Israel Regudy was an occultist and writer, author of books on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.-Early life:...

, who not only edited many of Crowley's works, but wrote a biography of him, The Eye in the Triangle, and penned many books on ritual and Qabalah, such as the Garden of Pomegranates
A Garden of Pomegranates
A Garden of Pomegranates is a 160 page book, written by Israel Regardie in 1931. The first edition was published in 1932. The book was printed four times, with a second edition being published in 1970 by Llewellyn Publications...

, Golden Dawn, Middle Pillar, and The Tree of Life. Kenneth Grant

Kenneth Grant

has written several books on Thelema and the occult, such as The Magical Revival, Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, Outside the Circles of Time, and Hecate's Fountain. Lon Milo DuQuette's

Lon Milo Duquette

Lon Milo DuQuette, AKA Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, is an American writer, lecturer, and occultist, best known as an author who applies humor in the field of Western Hermeticism.-Early life:...

books are mostly dedicated to analyzing and exploring Crowley's system, including such books as Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, The Magick of Aleister Crowley, and The Key to Solomon's Key.

Other notable contemporary writers who address Thelema include James A. Eshelman

James A. Eshelman

James A. Eshelman has been a writer and teacher of occult and metaphysical subjects since 1972, originally in the field of astrology and then in magick, mysticism, Qabalah, tarot, occult psychology, thelemic studies, and related Hermetic subjects as well...

, Jerry Edward Cornelius, Gerald del Campo, J. Daniel Gunther, Allen H. Greenfield

Allen H. Greenfield

Allen H. Greenfield , also known by his ecclesiastical name Tau Sir Hasirim, is an American occultist, ceremonial magician, UFOlogist, writer, editor, and Gnostic Bishop of Ecclesia Gnostica Universalis who resides in Atlanta, Georgia. His book The Story of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light is one...

, Christopher Hyatt

Christopher Hyatt

Christopher Hyatt, born Alan Ronald Miller was an American occultist, author, and founder of the Extreme Individual Institute...

, Richard Kaczynski

Richard Kaczynski

Richard Kaczynski is an author and a lecturer in the fields of social psychology and magic, and a magical practitioner specializing in Thelema and related magical paths...

, Marcelo Ramos Motta

Marcelo Ramos Motta

Marcelo Ramos Motta was a Thelemic writer from Brazil, and member of A∴A∴.Early life=Motta was born at the city of Rio de Janeiro . Very little is known about his childhood, only that he was born into a family with Swiss-German ancestry and received a very strict education, amplified by his...

, Jason Augustus Newcomb, Rodney Orpheus

Rodney Orpheus

Rodney Orpheus is a musician, record producer, author, lecturer, and a leading member of the Thelemic organization Ordo Templi Orientis...

, James Wasserman

James Wasserman

James Wasserman is an American author and occultist, best known for his full color publication of the Papyrus of Ani, Book of the Dead...

, Sam Webster

Sam Webster

Sam Webster is a writer, Thelemite, a member of the Golden Dawn tradition, and Bishop Tau Ty of Ecclesia Gnostica Universalis, as well as an initiate of Wicca. Webster holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,...

, and Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...

. There are also numerous journals which print original Thelemic writing.

Thelemic organizations

Several modern organizations of various sizes claim to follow the tenets of Thelema. The two most prominent are both organizations that Crowley headed during his lifetime: the A∴A∴, an Order founded by Crowley, based on the grades of the Golden Dawn

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...

system; and Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...

, an order which initially developed from the Rite of Memphis and Mizraim

Ancient and Primitive Rite

The Ancient and Primitive Rite, also called the Order of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Mizraim, is a Masonic Rite first popularized by John Yarker and generally considered clandestine by Masonic organizations within the UGLE framework....

in the early part of the 20th century, and which includes Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica , or the Gnostic Catholic Church, is the ecclesiastical arm of Ordo Templi Orientis , an international fraternal initiatory organization devoted to promulgating the Law of Thelema. Thelema is a philosophical, mystical and religious system elaborated by Aleister Crowley,...

as its religious arm.

Since Crowley's death in 1947, other organizations have formed to carry on his initial work, for example, Phyllis Seckler's

Phyllis Seckler

-External links:****...

College of Thelema, the Temple of Thelema, the Typhonian Order of Kenneth Grant

Kenneth Grant

, the Order of Thelemic Knights, and The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn

The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn

The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn is an esoteric community of magical practitioners, many of whom come from pagan backgrounds...

. Other groups of widely varying character exist which have drawn inspiration or methods from Thelema, such as the Illuminates of Thanateros

Illuminates of Thanateros

The Illuminates of Thanateros is an international magical organization founded in 1978, focusing on practical group work in chaos magic. This fraternal magical society has been an important influence on some forms of modern occultism.- Name :...

and the Temple of Set

Temple of Set

The Temple of Set is an initiatory occult society claiming to be the world's leading left-hand path religious organization. It professes Setian philosophy and magical practice.-History:...

. Some groups accept the Law of Thelema, but omit certain aspects of Crowley's system while incorporating the works of other mystics, philosophers, and religious systems. The Fraternitas Saturni (Brotherhood of Saturn), founded in 1928 in Germany, accepts the Law of Thelema, but extends it with the phrase "Mitleidlose Liebe!" ("Compassionless love!"). The Thelema Society, also located in Germany, accepts Liber Legis

The Book of the Law

and much of Crowley's work on magick, while incorporating the ideas of other thinkers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...

, Charles S. Peirce, Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...

, and Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann was a German sociologist, and a prominent thinker in sociological systems theory.-Biography:...

. Horus-Maat Lodge combines the ideas of the occultist Nema with those of Crowley.

Thelemites can also be found in other organizations. The president of the Church of All Worlds

Church of All Worlds

The Church of All Worlds is a neopagan religious group whose stated mission is to evolve a network of information, mythology, and experience that provides a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaia and reuniting her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship and...

, LaSara Firefox

LaSara FireFox

LaSara FireFox is a writer, game designer, and a Neuro-Linguistic Programming/Patterning master practitioner and trainer. She has written and taught in the fields of spirituality, human sexuality, parenting and bipolar disorder...

, identifies as a Thelemite. A significant minority of other CAW members also identify as Thelemites.

Thelema and the British Justice System

In May 2009 Thelema was recognised by Her Majesty's Court Service in the United Kingdom as a religion, as it has both a "Holy Book" (The Book of the Law) and deity (primarily for the purposes of the oath, Nuit) as required in law. John Mitchell of Seaford, East Sussex was on Jury Service at Lewes Crown Court and after providing information to Mr Justice Richard Brown, the Senior Recorder for East Sussex – mainly Liber AL and the article "Your Duty to Mankind" was able to have Thelema recognised as a valid religion. In the article "Your Duty to Mankind" it states that:
Mitchell was able to prove that Thelema was a religion and created an oath which could be used instead of the affirmation: "I swear upon Nuit and by my own True Will, that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict according to the evidence"

The swearing of the oath was first used after the sitting Judge, Mr Justice Tain ruled it was acceptable; after some confusion due to the regular court ushers being on holiday, word had not got to the judge before the case started causing a delay in proceedings while the legal technicalities were sorted out. Luckily, the stand-in court officer had a copy of the letter from Mr Justice Brown, saying Mitchell could use the oath and swear on Liber AL. Mr Justice Tain ruled that if this is the case, HMCS should be notified so this sort of thing does not happen again to avoid any further embarrassment for Thelemites who are called up to jury service.

Sources

Free Encyclopedia of Thelema (2005). Thelema. Retrieved March 12, 2005.
Thelemapedia. (2004). Thelema. Retrieved April 15, 2006.

External links

Thelema 101 — a complete introduction to the spiritual philosophy of Thelema
Thelema at the Internet Sacred Texts Archive — a collection of texts on the topic of Thelema
Thelema For Beginners - a resource of quotations and links on basic topics related to Thelema
The Law of Thelema — by Alexander Duncan
The Journal of Thelemic Studies
Lion & Serpent
The Scarlet Letter

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Historical antecedents

François Rabelais

Francis Dashwood and the Hellfire Club

Aleister Crowley

The Book of the Law

True Will

Cosmology

Magick and ritual

Ethics

Diversity of Thelemic thought

Thelemic Holidays

Contemporary Thelemic literature

Thelemic organizations

Thelema and the British Justice System

See also

Sources

Further reading

External links