I've just released the "Thelemic Mystic Manual" available both as a free PDF download & in paperback print at: http://www.lulu.com/content/2682470
The contents include essays like "Thelema is Zen," "What is 'Do what thou wilt?,'" "Thelemic Upanishads," and "The Beginnings of a Mystic Interpretation of Liber AL."
If you are interested in Thelema, mysticism, yoga, magick, or occultism - this book is a great download/buy!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Thelema: Knowing & Doing one's Will
There is always much talk about the Will in Thelemic circles and consequently about how to know what one's Will is and further how to perform that Will.
I submit that, like Plato proclaimed "To know the Good is to do the Good" for his ancient ethical system, Thelema asserts an identity between the knowledge of and the doing of one's Will.
This knowledge is not the knowledge of ideas and facts, where one knows an object to be large or small, a color bright or dark, etc. But this is the Knowledge of Gnosis, the experiential understanding and identification with one's True Motion.
To Mega Therion wrote, "Thou must (1) Find out what is thy Will. (2) Do that Will with a) one-pointedness, (b) detachment, (c) peace." Once we know our Will, our true Self behind the phantom-self of ego, this knowledge expresses itself in action, in Doing & Going.
This Will is naturally one-pointed by virtue of both its supreme Force and that one has destroyed all Duality in the Great Work. Further, it is worked with detachment because all moments are a joyous end in themselves, worked without "lust of result." Finally, the Will is worked in peace for this Movement is One, having united one's conscious will with the inertia of the Universe, wherein even the greatest Conflict is a harmonious facet of the All.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
What is "Do what thou wilt"?
Thelema is not about labeling oneself.
The term "Thelemite" is only used once in the Thelemic Holy Books when it is said, "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word." (Liber AL I:40) It refers only to others labeling those who follow the Way of the Crowned & Conquering Child...
This same line ends with the eleven words, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law"
"Do what thou wilt" is negative & destroying in the sense that it cuts through all
But it is also positive & creating in the sense that
We must perform the operation of Solve, dissolving into the formless Unity which is Naught, so that we may consolidate our Will in our Way, Coagula. In this, each moment is a new Sacrament, and a new branch of Joy. [AL II:9, 42-44, 66]
Then - being "chief of all" [AL I:23] - the Child of Thelema works her Will, guarding against the phantoms of Morality and Dogmatism with the merciless red flame which is as a sword of Ra-Hoor-Khuit [AL III:38].
The term "Thelemite" is only used once in the Thelemic Holy Books when it is said, "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word." (Liber AL I:40) It refers only to others labeling those who follow the Way of the Crowned & Conquering Child...
This same line ends with the eleven words, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law"
"Do what thou wilt" is negative & destroying in the sense that it cuts through all
- Morality (as an a priori truth) [AL I:40; III:60]
- Dogma (metaphysical sophistry as binding to our Going). [AL II:27-34]
But it is also positive & creating in the sense that
- it inherently leads us to the ancient injunction, "Know Thyself"
- This is the Great Work wherein we come to know ourselves as Ourselves, without limit and infinite.
We must perform the operation of Solve, dissolving into the formless Unity which is Naught, so that we may consolidate our Will in our Way, Coagula. In this, each moment is a new Sacrament, and a new branch of Joy. [AL II:9, 42-44, 66]
Then - being "chief of all" [AL I:23] - the Child of Thelema works her Will, guarding against the phantoms of Morality and Dogmatism with the merciless red flame which is as a sword of Ra-Hoor-Khuit [AL III:38].
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