2,000 Greater & Lesser Mysteries

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WHY THELEMA? "The old gods are dead or dying and people everywhere are searching, asking: What is the new mythology to be?" Joseph Campbell *** As you read this book you may be asking yourself: Why would anyone want to attune to a new form of thought while there are already very powerful, well organized religions, which have had the benefit of thousands of years of trial and error? The answer is quite simple: There is a phenomena which occurs in the Universe every 2,000 years called "The Equinox of The Gods". At this time there is a change in the Universal unconscious which dominates the evolutionary process of humans. The different shifts are represented by gods (usually Egyptian) who's virtues will demonstrate the fate of the next reign. There have been (so far as we have archaeological data) three such "shifts" in the evolution of humanity: 1) The Aeon of Isis. This period was matriarchal. Women were worshiped as Gods for their ability to give birth, nurture, and otherwise care for their young. The tribes were ruled by Queens, and the women were viewed as the strong ones. There are indications that women did the hunting and fought battles along side of men. It was a time of great respect for nature, as people learned to love Her and live in harmony with Her. 2) The next Aeon was ruled by Osiris. Osiris was killed by his jealous brother Set who cut him into pieces and threw him into the Nile. His wife Isis, stricken with grief, gathered all of his body parts and used the Magick of Thoth (Lord of Magick) to resurrect Osiris. It was the era of the "sacrificial Gods". It marked the beginning of Judaism and Christianity. This change occurred when man realized that he had something to do with conception, primarily; insemination. Suddenly, women were treated as second rate citizens, weaker, and not as intelligent as men. Man was no longer to live in harmony with Nature, man was to have dominion over Her. Mankind was to serve the male god as slaves. The last traces of this oppressive era are still with us today. We can see its influence on the environment, in South Africa, et cetera. 3) In 1904 another such shift occurred. The angel Aiwaz dictated the three fold "Book of The Law" and proclaimed that Horus, the hawk-headed God, had taken his place in the Throne of the Gods. Aleister Crowley, Victorian Age Magician, was to be the conduit. This era marks the Aeon of the Child, the word of whose Law is: THELEMA. This Law encompasses all True Religions, and is capable of great tolerance which is essential to protect the diversity it indoctrinates. Here we are dealing with the liberation of the human race from those which have oppressed us. Horus is the Egyptian God of war, and recently, we have seen him do his thing in Germany (at the Berlin Wall), Yugoslavia, Poland, The Soviet Union, South Korea, and Tienamen Square in China. The masses cry for Freedom. The Aeon of Osiris has had a very strong influence in the last 2,000 years. Even those who did not subscribe to its dogma are influenced by it one way or another. Most codes of morality are based upon its principles. This has been the case for so long that we are presented with the opportunity to reflect on it and see how its poison has effected the world. It has portrayed women as trouble makers, people who cannot keep secrets, weaker and not as intelligent as men, not trustworthy. It has even gone as far as explaining the pain of child birth and menstrual bleeding as punishments by God for having deceived man. Women in this day are still fighting for the equality which they deserve. It has led man believe that Nature cannot go on without him. All we have to do is watch TV or read a newspaper to find out what a great impact we have made and how much good we have contributed to the environment. It is inconceivable that after millions of years of evolution there are still people who really believe Nature is to be dominated. We are told that God doesn't live here, and we are discouraged from showing affection or allegiance to the Earth. We can already see what this kind of thinking has done to the condition of our Mother. The Church will not condone the use of condoms. It believes that people should just "not do it". As a result the rate of unwanted pregnancy is increasing at an alarming rate, not to mention the sexually transmitted diseases which are destroying so many peoples lives. It is curious to see that the same people who oppose birth control also oppose abortion, sex education, and Planned Parenthood. Abortion would cease to exist if education and birth control technology was not obstructed by religious zealots. When it comes to human sexuality, we are still in the Dark Ages. During the "Inquisition" thousands of innocent people were tortured and killed in the name of God. Many of these people were often women (mid-wives) who happened to be taking business away from the growing medical profession. Things have not changed much since those days. In some states they want to jail midwives who perform their services to couples who have lost their faith in "the scientific age". In all, most decisions our political leaders make abide in some form or another with old Aeon ideas, with very little regard to common sense and intelligence, and even less consideration to the rights of the individual. The burning and censoring of books and Art still occurs today. Others have controlled what we watch, see, eat, and listen to. We have been taught that any deviance from conventional religion is "Satanic", evil, etc. On August 15th 1989 The Fundamentalist Movement declared on national television that the Star of David, the Pentagram, and even the Peace sign are signs of the Devil. The Hexagram; a geometric representation of God, the Pentagram; a geometric representation of Man, the Peace sign; a symbol of Utopian society. It is easy to see the impact this kind of thinking has had on our global evolutionary development: Brother has turned against brother for the sake of tradition, as in the case of the Catholic Priest Michael Molinos. This devoted priest was sent to prison to serve a life sentence because he published a book in which he taught that "inward prayer" (meditation) was more effective than outward prayer. This would have made confession via a priest obsolete. The fact that at the time of his arrest he was one of the most devout members of The Church had very little influence on the power hungry individuals who condemned him. The name of the book he wrote is: "The Spiritual Guide of Michael Molinos". I strongly recommend it as a guide to developing a PERSONAL relationship with God. Fundamentalism spends millions of dollars in printed material every year to encourage new membership while there are millions of homeless men, women, and children who could be helped by these same dollars. It is obvious that the priority is membership rather than service. For the last 2,000 years we have been told that sex is filthy. Love-making is to be done only for the purposes of pro-creation. This mentality is responsible for a great percentage of violent sexual crimes, child abuse, sexual dysfunctions, psychosis, etc. The beauty and selflessness of giving one's self to another has been turned into a hideous crime against God. We are told not to question the Scriptures. Man has become lazy and gullible as a result. We don't question anything and believe all we are told. You are expected to refrain from your own interpretation of the Scriptures in fear that you might find truth therein. To guard against this; the Scriptures have been altered so much that no one knows the truth any more. This has effected the way we view life in general. We do not question what our politicians do, what they spray in our food, what they put into the ground, etc. And when we do ask; we believe everything they tell us. THELEMA demands that one think for themselves. A newborn child is the most innocent and pure of all things. Yet children are baptized by parents who have been forced to believe the child is unclean because it is born through sin. This is an insult and shows to what degree and for what "reasons" we do the things we do. Religious zealots have created a group mind which welcomes the destruction of the planet. It is held to be a fact that before the "savior" comes back the world must first face a terrible ordeal. "Revelation" clearly marks the end of the Osirian Aeon, but it is seen through the eyes of the vulgar as the end of the world. This "group mind" has greatly effected the condition of the planet. We have a duty to return to Nature what belongs to Her. There was a time when it took years to get from one part of the country to another. We can now do it in a matter of hours; we have reduced the world to a speck of dust. With all of this technology there are still people dying of hunger all over the world. Wars are being fought to keep something or to take something from someone else. When religion stands in the way of evolution or the creation of Utopia, it is time for a NEW Religion. These old ideas cannot help us to further our evolutionary objective; they are full of hate and bigotry and can do nothing more than to hold the human race back. The world needs an alternative: True Freedom. The world needs the Freedom necessary to fulfill itself as best as it can without the interference of a twisted demented creed that was designed specifically to control people. Nature needs to have its respect from Man. We must learn to work with Her, not against Her, and then perhaps we can stop the destruction of the planet. With all that's been said above, it is hard to understand why anyone would bother with Religion in the first place. The answer is quite simple: Man is made up of Physical, Mental, and Spiritual matter. To deny any of these aspects a means of expressing itself would cause a involuntary imbalance in our natural make-up. Also, Religion and Myth are the tools The Beloved uses to create the beings which we have chosen to become; just as the potter uses the wheel and the kiln to create something which only a few moments ago existed in the imagination of the creator. Thelema offers the solution to the imbalance created by such an oppressive society. As humans, it is our duty to carry the vision of future generations on our shoulders, by evolving. This is "The Great Work". One day The Aeon of Horus will pass, and Thelema will no longer be the Word of the Law, and a new Order will rule for an Aeon. There will be other battles and principles, and it is my guess that we will be here once again to fight for them. The following thesis is based on the code of conduct who accept the Law of Thelema. DUTY by ALEISTER CROWLEY (A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema.) "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." "[...] thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect." "Love is the law, love under will." "Every man and every woman is a star." A. YOUR DUTY TO YOURSELF 1. Find yourself to be the centre of your own Universe. "I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." 2. Explore the Nature and Powers of your own Being. This includes everything which is, or can be for you; and you must accept everything exactly as it is in itself, as one of the factors which go to make up your True Self. This True Self thus ultimately includes all things soever; its discovery is Initiation (the traveling inwards) and as its Nature is to move continually, it must be understood not as static, but as dynamic, not as a Noun but as a Verb. 3. Develop in due harmony and proportion every faculty which you possess. "Wisdom says: be strong!" "But exceed! exceed!" "Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this." 4. Contemplate your own Nature. Consider every element thereof both separately and in relation to all the rest as to judge accurately the true purpose of the totality of your Being. 5. Find the formula of this purpose, or "True Will," in an expression as simple as possible. Learn to understand clearly how best to manipulate the energies which you control to obtain the results most favourable to it from its relations with the part of the Universe which you do not yet control. 6. Extend the dominion of your consciousness, and its control of all forces alien to it, to the utmost. Do this by the ever stronger and more skillful application of your faculties to the finer, clearer, fuller, and more accurate perception, the better understanding, and the more wisely ordered government, of that external Universe. 7. Never permit the thought or will of any other Being to interfere with your own. Be constantly vigilant to resent, and on the alert to resist, with unvanquishable ardour and vehemence of passion unquenchable, every attempt of any other Being to influence you otherwise than by contributing new facts to your experience of the Universe, or by assisting you to reach a higher synthesis of Truth by the mode of passionate fusion. 8. Do not repress or restrict any true instinct of your Nature; but devote all in perfection to the sole service of your one True Will. "Be goodly therefore" "The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell. "So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect." "Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy." 9. Rejoice! "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." "But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty! [...] A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death! A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture! A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight! Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu." "Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, & write sweet words for the Kings!" "Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our agelong love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice!" "Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us." B. YOUR DUTY TO OTHER INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN 1. "Love is the law, love under will." Unite yourself passionately with every other form of consciousness, thus destroying the sense of separateness from the Whole, and creating a new base-line in the Universe from which to measure it. 2. "As brothers fight ye!" "If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him." To bring out saliently the differences between two points-of-view is useful to both in measuring the position of each in the whole. Combat stimulates the virile or creative energy; and, like love, of which it is one form, excites the mind to an orgasm which enables it to transcend its rational dullness. 3. Abstain from all interferences with other wills. "Beware lest any force another, King against King!" (The love and war in the previous injunctions are of the nature of sport, where one respects, and learns from the opponent, but never interferes with him, outside the actual game.) To seek to dominate or influence another is to seek to deform or destroy him; and he is a necessary part of one's own Universe, that is, of one's self. 4. Seek, if you so will, to enlighten another when need arises. This may be done, always with the strict respect for the attitude of the good sportsman, when he is in distress through failure to understand himself clearly, especially when he specifically demands help; for his darkness may hinder one's perception of his perfection. (Yet also his darkness may serve as a warning, or excite one's interest.) It is also lawful when his ignorance has lead him to interfere with one's will. All interference is in any case dangerous, and demands the exercise of extreme skill and good judgment, fortified by experience. To influence another is to leave one's citadel unguarded; and the attempt commonly ends in losing one's own self- supremacy. 5. Worship all! "Every man and every woman is a star." "Mercy let be off; damn them who pity!" "We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: if the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake." Each being is, exactly as you are, the sole centre of a Universe in no wise identical with, or even assimilable to, your own. The impersonal Universe of "Nature" is only an abstraction, approximately true, of the factors which it is convenient to regard as common to all. The Universe of another is therefore necessarily unknown to, and unknowable by, you; but it induces currents of energy in yours by determining in part your reactions. Use men and women, therefore, with the absolute respect due to inviolable standards of measurement; verify your own observations by comparison with similar judgments made by them; and, studying the methods which determine their failure or success, acquire for yourself the wit and skill required to cope with your own problems. C. YOUR DUTY TO MANKIND 1. Establish the Law of Thelema as the sole basis of conduct. The general welfare of the race being necessary in many respects to your own, that well-being, like your own, principally a function of the intelligent and wise observance of the Law of Thelema, it is of the very first importance to you that every individual should accept frankly that Law, and strictly govern himself in full accordance therewith. You may regard the establishment of the Law of Thelema as an essential element of your True Will, since, whatever the ultimate nature of that Will, the evident condition of putting it into execution is freedom from external interference. Governments often exhibit the most deplorable stupidity, however enlightened may be the men who compose and constitute them, or the people whose destinies they direct. It is therefore incumbent on every man and woman to take the proper steps to cause the revisions of all existing statutes on the basis of the Law of Thelema. This Law being a Law of Liberty, the aim of the legislation must be to secure the amplest freedom for each individual in the state, eschewing the presumptuous assumption that any given positive ideal is worthy to be obtained. "The word of Sin is Restriction." The essence of crime is that it restricts the freedom of the individual outraged. (Thus, murder restricts his right to live; robbery, his right to enjoy the fruits of his labour; coining, his right to the guarantee of the state that he shall barter in security; etc.) It is then the common duty to prevent crime by segregating the criminal, and by the threat of reprisals; also, to teach the criminal that his acts, being analyzed, are contrary to his own True Will. (This may often be accomplished by taking from him the right which he has denied to others; as by outlawing the thief, so that he feels constant anxiety for the safety of his own possessions, removed from the ward of the State.) The rule is quite simple. He who violated any right declares magically that it does not exist; therefore it no longer does so, for him. Crime being a direct spiritual violation of the Law of Thelema, it should not be tolerated in the community. Those who possess the instinct should be segregated in a settlement to build up a state of their own, so to learn the necessity of themselves imposing and maintaining rules of justice. All artificial crimes should be abolished. When fantastic restrictions disappear, the greater freedom of the individual will itself teach him to avoid acts which really restrict natural rights. Thus real crime will diminish dramatically. The administration of the Law should be simplified by training men of uprightness and discretion whose will is to fulfill this function in the community to decide all complaints by the abstract principle of the Law of Thelema, and to award judgment on the basis of the actual restriction caused by the offense. The ultimate aim is thus to reintegrate conscience, on true scientific principles, as the warden of conduct, the monitor of the people, and the guarantee of the governors. D. YOUR DUTY TO ALL OTHER BEINGS AND THINGS 1. Apply the Law of Thelema to all problems of fitness, use, and development. It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to abuse the natural qualities of any animal or object by diverting it from its proper function, as determined by consideration of its history and structure. Thus, to train children to perform mental operations, or to practice tasks, for which they are unfitted, is a crime against nature. Similarly, to build houses of rotten material, to adulterate food, to destroy forests, etc., etc., is to offend. The Law of Thelema is to be applied unflinchingly to decide every question of conduct. The inherent fitness of any thing for any proposed use should be the sole criterion. Apparent, and sometimes even real, conflict between interests will frequently arise. Such cases are to be decided by the general value of the contending parties in the scale of Nature. Thus, a tree has a right to its life; but a man being more than a tree, he may cut it down for fuel or shelter when need arises. Even so, let him remember that the Law never fails to avenge infractions: as when wanton deforestation has ruined a climate or a soil, or as when the importation of rabbits for a cheap supply of food has created a plague. Observe that the violation of the Law of Thelema produces cumulative ills. The drain of the agricultural population to big cities, due chiefly to persuading them to abandon their natural ideals, has not only made the country less tolerable to the peasant, but debauched the town. And the error tends to increase in geometrical progression, until a remedy has become almost inconceivable and the whole structure of society is threatened with ruin. The wise application based on observation and experience of the Law of Thelema is to work in conscious harmony with Evolution. Experiments in creation, involving variation from existing types, are lawful and necessary. Their value is to be judged by their fertility as bearing witness to their harmony with the course of nature towards perfection. *** A BETTER SOCIETY "Monarchy is based on the premise that one man is wiser than one million men. Democracy is based on the premise that a million men are wiser than one man. Both ideas are absurd." Robert Heinlein *** The following is a manuscript written by Aleister Crowley describing the nature of the most elemental rights of every Star. It must be remembered that it was written at a time when the English language was male dominated. Since I am not the author of this piece I am obligated to present it in its original form. LIBER LXXVII OZ: "the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world." AL.II.21 "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." -AL.I.40 "thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." -AL.I.42-3 "Every man and every woman is a star." -AL.I.3 There is no god but man. 1. Man has the right to live by his own law- to live in the way that he wills to do: to work as he will: to play as he will: to rest as he will: to die when and how he will: 2. Man has the right to eat what he will: to drink what he will: to dwell where he will: to move as he will on the face of the earth. 3. Man has the right to think what he will: to speak what he will: to write what he will: to draw, paint carve, etch, mould, build as he will: to dress as he will: 4. Man has the right to love as he will:-- "take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where, and with whom ye will." --AL.I.51. 5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights. "the slaves shall serve." --AL.II.58. "Love is the law, love under will." --AL.I.57. --END--