Thelema for Dummies
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
![[Sigil of the AA]](images/aa-seal-rv.gif)
My apologies in advance if the title of this page has been used elsewhere. The success of the famous "for dummies" series of books aside, this title describes pretty much what I intended this web page to be all about.
It is difficult to quantify Thelema in a concise manner since, by its very nature, it means different things to different people (since "every man and every woman is a star"). I guess I would have to say that the root of Thelema is the belief in the right of each individual to forge his own destiny. The philosophy of Thelema was established with the reception (via aural dictation) of the Book of the Law in 1904 by Aleister Crowley, whose main tenet:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
heralds a New Aeon of evolution for all mankind. Rather than risk giving you my own interpretation (which I will undoubtedly do someday anyway), I have listed some of the better online references on the subject. I invite those who may be interested in learning more about Thelema to browse these links. Most of these references will eventually be copied or moved to this system in some form but for now they are mainly links to various parts of the Thelema Home Page maintained at crl.com.
- What is Thelema?
- The Book of the Law
- Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)
- The Science and Art of Magick
- Thelemic Organizations
- Other Thelemic Resources
There are several groups which embrace the philosophy of Thelema. Of these, the most prominent is the Ordo Templi Orientis, of which I have been a member since the mid-80s. In addition to all my other activities, I am also the Grand Cancellarius of the Temple of Thelema, an Outer Order of the Mysteries formed in service to the A.A.
Over the years, especially during my stint as Editor and later Publisher of the Baphomet Breeze, I wrote a few rants on the subject which I have chosen to reprint here. As time permits, I will probably reproduce (and possibly re-write) all of the stuff I wrote for the Breeze but, for now, this will have to do:
- Let not one know well the other
- Peace, Tolerance, Truth
Most recently, I have been developing some of my more radical ideas on Thelema as it relates to the political world. You can read more about these in the Thelemic New Conservatism web page.
Experimental Corner:
- An incomplete attempt to create a full hyper-text cross-reference between The Book of the Law and The Book of the In-laws is available on-line.
- I also have an experimental "frames" version
which uses frames to provide a side-by-side instant comparison between
these two inspired texts and a clickable Stele of
Revealing which takes you to the chapter associated with whatever
figure you click.
Many thanks go out to Frater Ehubi for his excellent parody.
Love is the law, love under will.
