peaks of mountains

Structure, meaning, and narrative in Thelema

Nomological structure is the world you live in. Normative structure explains how to ascend and descend in that world. Narrative structure tells the human, affective side of what it means to sink and rise in that world.

The nomological structure of Thelema is basically the star sponge or what I’ve called polycentricity. Its normative structure is a movement beyond limitation into freedom and vastness. But until you offer a story of what it is like to come to view the world that way and to move up and out through it, it remains sterile and unlikely to compel anyone.

Thelema was created by a mountain climber, and the view from the top of Thelema is the view from the peak of a high mountain. The stars are peaks of all the mountains you see around you, spreading endlessly into the distance.

That’s the affective side of Thelema. All the grit and determination you need to climb a high mountain are the qualities you develop along the Thelemic path. Think of the goat (oz):

The formula of this card [Atu XV – The Devil] is then the complete appreciation of all existing things. He rejoices in the rugged and the barren no less than in the smooth and the fertile. All things equally exalt him. He represents the finding of ecstasy in every phenomenon, however naturally repugnant; he transcends all limitations; he is Pan; he is All.

Crowley, The Book of Thoth

You have to learn to enjoy things that are hard—and places that are desolate—so that you can appreciate the mind-blowing beauty and sublimity of the cosmos.

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