What Do You Think of Thelema?

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Not been around here for a while. I’ve been studying deeper into Thelema. I’m working towards my Minerval degree to join the O.T.O., and just got baptized into the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (ecclesiastical arm of the O.T.O.).

But when I was on these forums more, I saw a lot of hate for Thelema and the O.T.O., so I’m just curious, why? I’ve had all positive experiences thus far. We have an awesome O.T.O. body in western PA near where I live.

I find that most of Thelema is very compatible with what here would be considered common LHP principles. “Every man and every woman is a star” (Liber AL vel Legis, I:3). This means everyone is responsible for carrying out their own will, and they are essentially the center of their own universe.

Crowley believed his own HGA, Aiwaz, to actually be Lucifer. He also several times referred to Hadit, one of the deities of the Book of the Law, as Satan.

So personally I think there are more parallels than not. To me it’s just more balanced than the LHP.

So what are your opinions on it?

Love is the law, love under will.

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Love the base philosophy but I hear it’s a glorified book club. Course you could say that about any group.

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I haven’t seen that at the location I go to. I mean certainly that’s there if you want to study the books, but the central ritual of the O.T.O. is the Gnostic Mass, which is a beautiful ritual to experience.

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Friend, Thelema is a secret order. True thelemites rarely speak about Thelema with someone who isn’t in the Order. It’s similar to masonry, the masonry are somehow strict.

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I know next to nothing about Thelema, but Lon’s book on the rituals explains some of them very well. They’re pretty good magick and well put-together.

Beyond that i couldn’t tell ya.

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Sorry but where did you get this? Thelema is not a secret order; there are tons of Thelemites who are in no order at all. And there are several orders that are Thelemic in nature, but not required to fully participate in the religion/philosophy. It’s meant to be very individual.

This is what I mean about misinformation being spread.

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Thelema and the O.T.O./A:.A:. interested me for a while. Further inspection and multiple workings within the O.T.O. later prompted me to no longer pursue joining. My reason was most members treated Crowley like a Prophet and regarded all Thelema-associated materials like sacred scripture. It literally became a new religion.

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She the better half of louise :slight_smile:

What I’ve heard/read about Crowley, he sounded like an attention seeking nutter to me. Also, he dabbled in a few different, varied occult practices. I think pretty much made up this order, bit like Gerald Gardner and co made up Wicca from various sources, including middle eastern/oriental magic, I have Idries Shah’s book on oriental magic - he was a friend of Gardner’s, as was Lois (?) Bourne, among others.

I think the approach of binding or ordering a spirit is a bit dangerous and somewhat disrespectful, unless there is something in it for the spirit. Personally I prefer a friendlier approach and with more respect but then again, what do I know? I’m not a LHPer.

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Just as a question, what if he was a prophet and the texts were sacred? I personally believe both of those to be true. What’s wrong with another religion?

I used to scoff at the Book of the Law: it’s a really difficult text to put much stock in. But as I’ve gotten into it deeper, I do believe there is something about it beyond just something Crowley made up.

If I disagreed with one of Crowley’s approaches, it was considered heresy. If I chose to pull from another source or method to adapt or alter in any form, common among eclectic practitioners, it was pretty much forbidden. The issue is when things become religion, they create a doctrine which must be followed. It creates methods of right and wrong. Sad because Crowley was open to new systems and preached this but most Thelemites are dogmatic, thankfully not all.

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The ironic thing is Crowley knew that would happen, like he knew that, totally, about human behavior and guru following.
Also, I do agree that the book of the law is something more that just bs. Crowley made up, yeah he is a prophet, but you have to remember he was also a man, a very flawed poor example of a human being.
The worst idea is anyone trying to copy his lifestyle and/or blindly do what he said. Ultimately, I don’t want to hang around people who copy his sex life and/or drug abuse and then encourage it as a lifestyle.

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