Someone asked me what advice I’d give to a beginner to Thelema. Below is a slightly edited version of what I said. The individual is a martial artist, hence the references to martial arts.
1. Thelema is a way to Truth. In Christianity, Jesus is the way to Truth. In Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is the way to Truth. In Islam, the Koran and the prophet Mohammed are the way to Truth. In Judaism, observance of the Torah is the way to Truth. In Thelema, To Mega Therion, the Great Beast 666, the Magus of the New Aeon, is the way to Truth, particularly as communicated to us through the Holy Books, which are the writings of His Magister Templi, V.V.V.V.V.
To experience the particular kind of liberation afforded by Thelema requires one to develop a relationship with Truth as embodied in our Holy Books and in our symbol set. The particular ecology of practices Aleister Crowley assembled (the rituals and meditations) is designed to help you build that relationship and undergo that transformation.
A far more common contemporary interpretation of Thelema is that it is a form of meta-occultism that involves doing your will. According to this interpretation, your will is some vague divinely appointed purpose that only you can know, and it gives you license to pick and choose from any tradition you want like it’s a buffet. I don’t believe that’s the way Aleister Crowley understood Thelema, but more importantly: I have never known a single person to undergo any significant spiritual transformation by adopting this attitude. And the extent to which anyone I’ve known has experienced awakening or Truth as I’m calling it, it’s because they abandoned this attitude and actually committed themselves to something.
Imagine someone who does Taekwondo for a couple months, then moves on to BJJ for a few weeks, and when they’re tired of that, they practice Shotokan for a few months. Is that person going to develop the skills necessary to defend themselves? Are they going to undergo the transformation of character that happens when you commit yourself to a path for a substantial period of time? Obviously mixed martial arts is a thing (Crowley was in some ways the mixed martial artist of spiritual techniques), but this idea that Thelema offers nothing but license to assert your preferences is as counterproductive as it is nihilistic.
So I would begin with this basic mindfulness that Thelema is a Path like any other, though the type of transformation one will experience in relationship to it is unique and can only be experienced if one commits to it.
2. Develop discipline.
What I have noticed (in myself and in other people) is that it’s common to have great discipline in one area but not in others. For a beginner, I would suggest daily meditation or ritual. You don’t need a ton. You can pick a single ritual from the Class D texts. 20-60 minutes per day of a simple meditation is also good. You can do more if you want, but consistency is key. You want something that feels like an effort or a sacrifice of time but which you can manage for at least a year.
You should also read a bit each day. Contemplation of the Holy Books (the Class A texts) is technically a spiritual practice, especially if you do it using Lectio Divina. Magick (Book 4) is also a great resource. Liber Aleph (if you can handle the prose). Any of the texts on my Mouth of the Beast site are good.
So that’s spiritual and intellectual self-discipline—and I’d pick one more thing that has nothing to do with Thelema or martial arts. Just something you find personally pleasurable or interesting. This is because wherever your self-discipline goes, there also goes your true will. The more areas you develop self-discipline in, the easier it is to understand your own will, and with it, the powers latent within your own divinity.
3. Get clear about who you are and what you are here to do. You seem like the sort of person who seeks clarity, so you may not have as much of a problem with this as most people do. But even so, I would sit down and take an inventory of my values. What do you actually pursue in life? I’m not asking what your passions are. What have you willingly sacrificed for?
What books, films, characters in fiction, historical figures, etc., have you been profoundly inspired by? What is it in those ideas/individuals you find so motivating?
This is especially useful if you look at this in multiple dimensions. What are your values with regard to love? What are your values with regard to money? What are your values with regard to work or education? With regard to emotions?
You carry your true will into all these areas without realizing it. So if you get clear about what you’re doing in several areas, the overlap will tell you about your will, which you will want to put into a single sentence as soon as possible.
It astonishes me how few Thelemites have put their will into words, even though Crowley says many times you have to do this. If you don’t do this, you live in vagueness. You can always fool yourself into thinking you’re more successful than you really are. It’s a little bit hard to do, because it’s hard to be objective about yourself. I offer a one-on-one process to assist people in finding their true wills. You don’t need to do that process to understand your will; it just makes it easier. You can also do it through the method I just described.
You want to measure your own values against the values that you find in the writings of Aleister Crowley. Compare and contrast! I’ve observed many Thelemites either ignore Crowley’s writings (“what I don’t know can’t hurt me”) or try to impose their own values on him, making him more compassionate, egalitarian, or wholesome—Christian—than he actually was. People who know themselves and accept themselves never have to do this with Crowley or any other human being. They do that because they require external validation. It’s unThelemic!
You especially want to have this kind of clarity about yourself whenever you get involved in any kind of religious organization or community such as OTO. Even healthy, well-functioning communities offer practically infinite opportunities for distraction and mischief. You will want to interact with any community on your own terms, evaluating its integrity, evaluating the extent to which it can assist your own development, and evaluating the degree to which you would be willing to sacrifice for it (which all communal endeavors require).
Should you choose to initiate in OTO, I have a whole host of other recommendations for how to navigate that experience.
But these would be my three suggestions for a beginner.
- Mindfulness of what you’re doing. Humility, openness, and genuine desire to learn. One never abandons this. This is not the seed of illumination but illumination itself.
- Self-discipline. Spiritual, intellectual, and something else. You’ll need at least a year of steady practice to even start to get a sense of what this path can offer.
- Know Thyself!