Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
First, a Quick Update
- I apologize for the delay, I had a medical emergency
- Then work got hectic
- And now my parents are getting ready for their migration to Arizona. They are “snowbirds”.
- Rest in Peace, Tom Petty.
- Also, Raymond Buckland is dead. The man responsible (imo) for turning Wicca from a Spiritual Tradition & Religion to merely a religion.
- Take a Knee is just like other forms of “Activism” such as Free The Nipple.
- It doesn’t impact their lives, but allows them to feel morally superior.
- And like I care what a bunch of guys in tight pants, who roll around on a field with other guys in tight pants, think.
- Though to be honest, I don’t really care what the Legends Football League thinks either, though I do prefer seeing photos of the LFL over those of the NFL.
- I still think the original slogan was better: “No War, No KKK, No Fascist USA”
- I am amused that the Alternative for Deutschland party has a higher percentage of immigrant MPs than the “pro-immigration” party of Merkel.
- It kind of shows how they think, unfettered immigration is great for the “lower classes”
- Reading the article reminded me of how the most diverse presidential cabinet was that of the “Racist” Republican George “W” Bush.
- She is said to be a primary source for Evola’s works on sexuality and sexual magick.
- I am surprised I hadn’t heard of her before since she ran in Surrealist and Occult circles and I am familiar with several of the people with whom she was in contact.
- As I understand it, Randolph’s better know work Sexual Magic only exists in her “translation”, to which she seems to have added a third or more of the material.
- The works are translated from the French and published by Inner Traditions.
- So far the works are easy to read and quite interesting.
First some working definitions.
Theism is the belief in God, Gods, or some other type of spiritual beings.
Atheism is the belief that there is nothing more than the material, observable realm.
Agnosticism is the lack of belief in either position. Sadly, it is all too often used by non-committal Atheists to hedge their bets.
Certain spiritual beliefs are not normally considered theistic. Early Buddhism (Nikaya), some forms of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism , and Doctrinal Taoism, rather than folk Taoism, fall into this realm.
However, strictly speaking these are not Atheistic, since they postulate the existence of the non-material. The Western term religion has problems with spiritual traditions that fall outside the Abrahamic religions. Are traditions which tell one to honor the gods as metaphor or for social cohesion theistic? How about those that postulate something other than a King-Serf relationship?
These are some of the reasons why Crowley stated in Magick Without Tears: “Call it a new religion, …; but I confess that I fail to see what you will have gained by so doing, and I feel bound to add that you might easily cause a great deal of misunderstanding, and work a rather stupid kind of mischief”.
Spiritual Tradition is more cumbersome, but far less restrictive.
Thelema contains references to several gods and goddesses. Nuit, Hadit, Heru-Ra-Ha, Pan, Babalon, Therion, etc. are all referenced. The rituals we use refer to YHVH, Adonai, Ehieh (Asher Ehieh), and various angels, such as Aiwass, Gabriel, Raphiel, Michael, and Uriel. We can continue, the list is legion.
However, we must remember Crowley’s words in Liber O, where he states “It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them”.
Back to Magick Without Tears, we are told that Thelema is “an enthusiastic putting-together of a series of doctrines, no one of which must in any way clash with Science or Magick.” Thelema seems to postulate the “Gods” as an operational jargon. When I refer to “Yahweh” it conjures an energy/symbol/archetype/being defined by the Tetragrammaton, whose qualities are known and defined through various techniques — since it is a Hebrew term, these are mostly via Qabalistic methods.
We are skeptical, which means we doubt both the Theist and the Atheist. The proper Thelemic view would be agnosticism, neither denying nor believing in the existence of the Gods. Even the Creed of Liber XV: The Gnostic Catholic Mass can be read in a strictly atheistic manner. I plan on doing a video on the creed at a later date.
Properly speaking, Thelema tells us to find out on our own. Crowley, who had practiced Theravāda Buddhism prior to his revelation, came to feel “My observation of the Universe convinces me that there are beings of intelligence and power of a far higher quality than anything we can conceive of as human; that they are not necessarily based on the cerebral and nervous structures that we know; and that the one and only chance for mankind to advance as a whole is for individuals to make contact with such Beings.” It should be noted that Theravāda is a form of Nikaya Buddhism.
Likewise, I progressed from a virulent anti-Christian atheism (thanks to my parents having been born again while I was a child) to where I am today, which is a theistic leaning agnostic. I have had direct, personal, revelatory experiences with gods, goddesses, and the divine. However, this is subjective. They are my experiences and I cannot prove them to anyone else, nor do I try. Anecdotal experience is not proof. Neither can I prove that my personal subjective experiences were not delusion or misinterpretation. However, I felt pretty silly referring to myself as an atheist after I had met god.
I have found that many atheists are as committed to swaying others to their belief system as fundamentalist Christians are.
The closest I have for “proof” of the divine are the Principle of Grandeur and the fact that the Whole is Greater than Its Parts. These are actually related which may or may not be obvious from their descriptions.
The first is an animistic viewpoint. In fact, it is a principle behind the Japanese Shinto tradition. In the land of infinite gods, anything that imbues a sense of awe or wonder is considered a god. The spirits of place can inhabit a valley, a river, a stone, or a tree. Anything that creates a response in the minds of the viewer is a god. Nor is it restricted to natural items. The beauty of a gothic cathedral, the ubiquitousness of the Compact Disk, these are also gods. Gods also go away when that which created them goes away. The CD god is weakening. When a river is paved over, it’s god is diminished (this was the origin of Haku in the anime Spirited Away). The death or diminishment of a god isn’t always simple. The negative impacts can be seen in Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke.
The second revolves around the simple fact that, for example, we know the composition of the Human body. However, if we take all of these elements and mix them together, we would not have a human. When we take various colors and apply them to canvas, a thing of beauty emerges. This isn’t a call for intelligent design per se, it in no way attempts to deny the reality of evolution. However, there is, as Liber AL: II:32 puts it, “a factor infinite & unknown”.
So, to put it simply, Thelema is skeptical of the claims put forth by both Atheism and Theism. However, we do hold that there is something “plus” to the material realm. Having said that, there are Thelemites who hold either position, but (for the most part) they seem to be rather conflicted in their opinions and specious in their arguments.
Again, I apologize for the break in schedule.
Truth is found in the Rubble of Falsehood
Love is the law, love under will
Citations & Notes
Germany's far-right AfD has more immigrant MPs than Merkel's conservatives
Legends Football League
Maria de NaglowskaInitiatic Eroticism
Chapter XXXI: Religion–Is Thelema a "New Religion"?
Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae sub figurâ VI
Liber XV: Ecclesiæ Gnosticæ Catholicæ Canon Missæ
Chapter XXX: Do you believe in God?
Haku
Princess Mononoke
Liber AL vel Legis sub figurâ CCXX as Delivered By XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI
