Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law; Love is the law, love under will.
So just what is Thelema? It is a simple question that most initiates and 'truthseekers' will ask at this point. It doesn't take much detective work to go from Crowley to Thelema ... thousands and thousands of occultists have done the same thing.
I'm going to take you to the door ...
but I'm not going to take you through.
I will show you the door
but it is up to you to knock if you wish to go further.
--Matthew James--
My intention is to introduce the term 'thelema' but nothing more. I am not going to advertise it or give any views on it. I wish to stay neutral as I know this path will ideally suit many out there ... and will not be the right path for others. However, I will say this is not a path to be taken lightly. It will lead to illumination and knowledge, but there will be a price to pay ...
So what then it 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.
One of the earliest mentions of this philosophy occurs in the classic Gargantua and Pantagruel written by Francois Rabelais in 1532. One episode of this epic adventure tells of the founding of an "Abbey of Thelema" as an institution for the cultivation of human virtues, which Rabelais identified as being squarely opposite the prevailing Christian proprieties of the time. The sole rule of the Abbey of Thelema was: "Do what thou wilt". This has become one of the basic tenets of Thelemic philosophy today.
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. 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.
OK ... so that's as far as I go ... here is THE DOOR TO THELEMA ...... I will leave you now.
