☉︎ in 16° Capricorn : ☽︎ in 8° Pisces : Anno Vvii
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
To my Unknown Friend: Greeting and health.
Promulgation isn’t merely about preaching the Law to those who will listen, though Crowley was clear we are to do that as well (cf. Khabs am Pekht). In all things, not merely the Law of Thelema, the best promulgation of ideas is through our actions, through our lived experiences, through our lived examples. Crowley once wrote to Charles S. Jones in 1925, “We do not want the Law of Thelema to be the slogan of a few specially selected imbecile but to be accepted by the busy business man as the sole solution of modern social difficulties.” Sometime later, in 1936, he wrote again
Our sole business should be to use the Law to reconstruct the world from the chaos into which it is already half tumbled. That formula is a simple one, and requires no specialised training. The work requires the cooperation of tens of thousands of people who have never heard of the Qabalah, and they have to be addressed in language which they can understand.
“Those who have never heard of the Qabalah” and “the sole solution of modern social difficulties,” he writes and I repeat. I think this is important. We get caught up and lost in our mystical and magical pursuits to such a degree that we forget there is a whole other life outside that is meaningful, a life that includes work, bills, entertainment, ups and downs of emotional elation and depression, and the rest of the world-at-large.
In short, life happens even when we’re not dressing spooky. But more to the point, life is happening for everyone whether or not they grasp the fundamentals of Qabalah or Chaos Magic or 72 spirits of Solomon. For the majority of the world, they couldn’t care less for such pursuits in the first place. Yet Thelema, via the Book of the Law, offers the world something new; something different from the manufactured outrage and magical minutiae used by our hucksters, the Frater/Soror Acronyms, to build their YouTube channels; something vibrant that is revolutionary.
Crowley lays it out for us when he writes
[The Book of the Law] may therefore be regarded as indicating a complete revolution in human affairs, for it advances mankind in the most radical manner. The road of attainment to self-realisation is made open as never before has been done in the history of the planet. (NC on AL 1.4)
And here we have a hint of the cultural revolution Thelema offers when he says the Book of the Law indicates “a complete revolution in human affairs.” But, aside from a clear pre-shadowing of Maslow’s hierarchy by decades, how can we define these ‘human affairs’ in a manner that is accessible and measurable?
I’m glad you asked.
There are seven developmental vectors of society—CorePoints, I would label them—that encompass all human endeavors.
- Art and Entertainment
- Business
- Education
- Family and Community
- Government
- Religion
- Science and Technology
But, Bishop, I’ve heard it asked in the past, aren’t there Thelemites who work in all these sectors?
Yes, I reply, there are Thelemites who work in all these sectors. I know many who do.
But here’s the difference.
While many Thelemites work in these sectors, however, we do not advance a Thelemic approach in these sectors. I realize this is a broad brush generalization, but it stands accurate in the face of even meager evidence.
But Bishop, I’ve heard it said in the past, is it possible to advance Thelema in these sectors?
Do you breathe air?
Here’s the thing: the radical advancement of mankind isn’t necessarily the same as humanity merely reaching the moon in the 60s. It could be, but it doesn’t have to be. It is the change in the altitude of understanding, the structure of consciousness that allowed for that radical advancement.
And, throughout history, this change in altitude of understanding has happened through all seven CorePoints of every society regardless of how primitive. From painting squiggles on cave walls to Jackson Pollock; from trading goats for wives to Wall Street; from Aristotle to Montessori; from the nomads to the nuclear family; from the patriarch to the Republic; from animism to non-dualism; from the discovery of fire to the man on the moon—every step of the way has been radical advancement of humanity through temporal history. At some points it’s been an exponentially sharp step, at others it’s been the slow, steady rise. But it’s always moved forward.
Where does this leave us today with the revelation of Thelema?
I’m glad you asked.
I think it leaves us pushing the envelope of humanity to be freed from the clutches of the past, to be unshackled from the restrictions of the consciousness of slavery that has bound it to a typecast mentality of top-down (dominator) hierarchies, to be liberated within every area of the seven CorePoints that is infused with the seeds of slave gods mutating and rotting through every aspect of civilization.
And to promulgate the Law of Thelema through every aspect and activity of Life itself.
Do what thou wilt is not a belief. It is not a religion. It is not a hocus-pocus. It is not a superstition of little grey men or spooks under the bed. The Law of Thelema is found in every level of development, in every structure of consciousness, throughout all seven CorePoints, on every “plane” of existence, and it is for every man and every woman in every time and every place. No exceptions.
The Book of the Law says, “But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!” It does not say kneel for your hour is at hand. The Law specifically has it’s own ‘Great Commission’ built right into it: “to each man and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine or to drink at them, it is the Law to give” (AL 3.39b). Granted, we are not to force the issue like such missionaries with pitchforks and torches, “Then they shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds” (AL 3.39c). They will see that the Law is bliss or not, either way.
I’m a fanatic, in many ways, and I won’t deny that. I think we should be pushing life, light, liberty, and (in many ways, most importantly) love to the world in our everyday lives. I’ve said this in the past, the Book of the Law proclaims that “Nu is your refuge as Hadit your light; and I am the strength, force, vigour, of your arms” (AL 3.17c). We don’t normalize the concept of refuge. We should. In a world that is trying to kill itself more every day, we should. Even more so, we don’t proclaim, even in nonreligious terms, the manner in which the Law of Thelema can revolutionize everyday life itself in all our spheres of influence.
There will always be those of the world that are lower developmental (not “moral”) level. We have those societies even today that remain of (not “in”) the Aeon of Isis. We do not begrudge them of that anymore than we would demean a two year old for not understanding quantum physics. It would be ridiculous to suppose that they are inferior when they are merely living in or working through a natural developmental stage.
Those of us that are here and now, those of us working entirely within the Aeon of Horus, born at a privileged time of life, light, love, and liberty, we are tasked—right out of the charter of universal freedom for all humanity—to be that self-made light to the world around us, that which is still darkened by the delusion of duplexity.
To bring this full circle, we are that which rises from within each of the CorePoints of civilization to push it further into the future. By the simple application of the Law of Thelema in all seven areas of civilization, we can transform the planet itself for every man and every woman whether “they shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds.”
Where is your greatest sphere of influence in society? How do you bring the Law of Thelema to the world around you?
Love is the law, love under will.
B∴