☉︎ in 12° Taurus : ☽︎ in 4° Virgo : Anno Vvi
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
To my Beloved Companion: Greeting and health.
I mentioned previously that the world had gone mad. I made no mention of how we live through such madness.
If you will forgive my impertinence of thinking that I might have the ability to provide any balm to a wounded soul, allow me to offer a series of thoughts on radical self-care in a time of pandemic.
I’ve always been fascinated by and drawn to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. I think that a Thelemic version of them would be ideal. Each iteration of them that has been attempted by Thelemites lacks a certain depth of character, you might say, that the original has in spades. Each is dry and soulless, barren of any spiritual substance or sustenance. Even my own attempt fell short that I lost sight of the goal and abandoned it.
The pandemic has given me a new vision for the Spiritual Exercises for Thelemites. In a time of sequestration and shelter-in-place—and even as we slowly emerge from our isolation into a new, unknown world that awaits—it is more important than ever that we find our spiritual center but also that we find our spiritual community. What I’ve found is a manner in which an abbreviated form of the Spiritual Exercises can be used as a way to center our immediate needs and build on our lived experiences rather than isolate us in our cocoon of doubt and fear.
I should note here that it is not important to believe in any particular form of God. It matters not whether you believe God to be a man or a woman, a force of light or a force of darkness or not a force at all, something tangible or intangible, the Creator or the Destroyer. None of that matters for these exercises. All that matters is that you are capable of receiving yourself in them fully.
This is a time of uncertainty and, yet, our holiest of books says, “certainty, not faith” and, again, “Fear not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor anything. Money fear not, nor laughter of the folk folly, nor any other power in heaven or upon the earth or under the earth. Nu is your refuge as Hadit your light; and I am the strength, force, vigour, of your arms.” Such is the promises of our fidēs, the spiritual ground on which we stand.
I hope to follow that in the weeks to come. I hope you’ll come along on this journey of meditation, prayer, and discovery with me.
Love is the law, love under will.
B∴