Liber V vel Reguli and the Formula of AHIHVH

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I spent some time recently looking closely at Liber V vel Reguli along with the commentary and the early draft notes, and feel like I have come to a few insights which could be of use to others.

As I’ve shown before, one of the main themes of Crowley’s spirituality is the movement from speech to silence and back again. This could also be viewed as the expression of nullity (Ain of Kabbalah) into manifestation (the Tree of Life itself) and the individual’s path of return back to nullity. The first part of this equation expresses Thelemic cosmology, the latter Thelemic soteriology.

In Reguli these movements are dramatized and expressed in the formula LAShTAL. LA means “not,” while AL means “God”. LA and AL represent nullity in concealment and manifestation respectively, while ShT is the process that mediates between them.

In order for ShT to mediate between LA and AL, they have to conjointly share something in common between LA and AL while also adding new information.

LAShTAL represented as three interlocking circles. The overlapping portions are labeled "31".

LA and AL both add to 31 by gematria. ShT also adds to 31 by way of the tarot cards these letters are attributed to. Sh or Shin is the Hebrew letter assigned to The Aeon, Atu XX, and T or Teth is assigned to Lust, Atu XI.

As someone recently pointed out to me, there is a tradition in the Golden Dawn, recorded in the Z1 document, of ST denoting an influence from Kether. ST is the Coptic letter ⲋ (“ⲥⲟⲟⲩ” or “soou”). Crowley continues this tradition by assigning this letter to Kether in 777, Column LI.

So by means of its association with 31 and Kether, ShT is identical with the (N)One at the foundation of Thelemic ontology and theology.

But ShT has an additional function. It also indicates the Beast and Babalon conjoined. It is a sexual formula. This sexual formula is indicated by how it is represented in Reguli on the human body and on the Tree of Life.

In the ritual, Aiwass, Therion, and Babalon are attributed to the cross paths of the Tree of Life: Daleth, Teth, and Pe respectively. The cross paths are important as they mediate between the Pillar of Severity and the Pillar of Mercy.

Tree of Life emphasizing the cross paths of Daleth (Aiwass), Teth (Therion), and Peh (Babalon), and how they add up to 93.

As taught in the Golden Dawn 4°=7□ ritual, the left pillar, the Pillar of Severity, is associated with the letter Shin, which is assigned to elemental fire, while the right pillar, the Pillar of Mercy, is Mem or elemental water. The Middle Pillar is then Aleph, which is elemental air. Fire is archetypally masculine, water feminine, and air androgyne.

Diagram of the three pillars of the Tree of Life, assigned to Shin/Fire, Aleph/Air, and Mem/Water respectively.

However, these sexual characteristics are not assigned to the pillars in a straightforward way. While the Pillar of Severity is fiery and masculine, the topmost sephira, Binah, is archetypally feminine. She is the supernal Mother. And opposite her, on the Pillar of Mercy, we find Chokmah, which is archetypally masculine, the supernal Father. They are “reflected” in Netzach (masculine-feminine) and Hod (feminine-masculine) respectively, as Kether is reflected in Tiphareth. This reflection occurs both horizontally across the Tree (Binah and Netzach and Chokmah and Hod are opposite each other across the Middle Pillar) and vertically down the Tree (they are opposite Tiphareth). The vertical and horizontal “components” of Liber V vel Reguli work with this double-reflection of sexual energy.

One can view this double-reflection of magical sexual polarity taking place on the Tree as a movement of energy down the Tree of Life from Kether into the subsequent Sephiroth along the paths. One androgyne current emerging from Kether, represented by the path of Aleph, becomes masculine upon reaching Chokmah. There it progresses down the tree along the archetypally masculine paths of Vau, Yod, Ayin, and Resh, into Yesod. In Yesod it is met by a complementary feminine path, originating with Beth’s entry into Binah, and progressing down the Tree along the paths of Cheth, Lamed, Nun, and Tzaddi.

Tree of Life emphasizing the paths of A-V-Y-O-R and B-Ch-L-N-Tz as they descend from Kether into Yesod.

This exchange and “mixing in Yesod” is represented on the Art card, Atu XIV. Art is a hieroglyph of the path of Samekh, which links Yesod with Tiphareth. Here we see the Lion and the Eagle which have exchanged their colors as represented earlier on the Lovers card, Atu VI. If the paths on the Tree represent these essences or potencies, then they were exchanged at Tiphareth, a sphere which, among other things, is the site in which the Rose (Kteis) and Cross (phallus) are conjoined. The caldron is Yesod, which is linked with the sexual organs and the Muladhara cakra. We see spiritual air—presumably the Medicine of Metals—rising out of the caldron, represented by the arrow, as the Caput Mortuum (skull) drops to the bottom.

The cross paths are important to this process, because they are mediating the exchange of energies down the Tree. They are in a sense guiding and determining the separation and mixing of these sexual polarities. That these paths add up to 93 is significant. It tells us that the 93 magical current has something essential to do with the production of sexual polarity from out of androgyny and back again. It has to do with the movement of 0 to 2 (magick) and from 2 to 0 (mysticism), both as a personal spiritual journey and as a cosmological process. Aiwass, Therion, and Babalon are personages representing these governing principles.

For me personally, this is not simply theory. When I’m serving as Priest in the Gnostic Mass, I picture this exchange of energy occurring—moving down and wrapping around and joining mine and the Priestess’s hearts—at the consummation of the eucharist. We are linked energetically at the levels of mind (Daleth and Kether), heart (Teth and Tiphareth), and body (Peh and Yesod). The Tree of Life with the cross-paths can also be used as scaffolding for visualizations during sex magick workings.

If the horizontal component is governed by Aiwass, Therion, and Babalon, the vertical component is governed by Nuit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and Hadit. Nuit is associated with the Sahasrara cakra/Kether/the Three Negative Veils; Ra-Hoor-Khuit is linked specifically with the Anahata cakra and the paths of Teth, Yod, and Lamed (which add to 49), but also arguably with the entirety of the Tree in manifestation (hence Microprosopus); and Hadit is linked with the Muladhara cakra and Yesod and/or Malkuth (Crowley refers to this as the “seed” in his commentary).

The conjunction of Nuit and Hadit produces the godhead, Ra-Hoor-Khuit (or Heru-Ra-Ha, so as to include Hoor-paar-kraat). Hadit, as the consciousness or point of view of the individual, is implanted in Malkuth as a seed represented by Heh-final, the Virgin Daughter whose destiny is to be seated upon the Throne of the Mother (Binah). Crowley consistently related the three deities of the Book of the Law to the Tree of Life this way.

So one thing to take note of when attempting to understand LAShTAL is that it shares the same form or structure taken by these three personages in relation to the Tree of Life. You have two simple extremes mediated by a complex third thing sharing characteristics with both of the extremes. Indeed, the entire Tree of Life itself—or Ra-Hoor-Khuit—could be seen as a means of mediating between these oppositions.

LA and AL shown as two extremes with the Tree of Life (ShT/Ra-Hoor-Khuit) shown mediating them.

But how does the introduction of the horizontal component modify or inform this cosmological and theological process of the implantation, germination, and return of Hadit to the source?

The cross-paths enter into this as they are involved in the drawing of the Hexagram of Nature on the Tree of Life. Generally speaking, the hexagram is the symbol of the union of the individual with the divine, with the mirroring in the microcosm of the structure of the macrocosm. As such it is symbolic of the individual who has become divine. The cross-paths of Teth and Pe are involved in this hexagram—in fact are the only actual paths involved—as they form bases of the two interlocking triangles.

Tree of Life emphasizing how the path of Teth forms the base of a triangle linking Chesed and Geburah with Yesod, and how Peh forms the base of a triangle linking Hod and Netzach with Daath.

Typically the upward-pointing triangle represents fire and is therefore masculine, while the downward-pointing triangle is water and feminine. But a different connotation is suggested in Reguli where the base of the upward-pointing triangle is assigned to Babalon, and the base of the downward-pointing triangle is Therion. The polarities are reversed.

Same as the previous diagram, only now the downward pointing triangle is red, and the upward pointing triangle is blue. This is the Holy Hexagram projected on to the Tree of Life.

This suggests not so much the familiar Hexagram of Nature but rather the Magical Hexagram as described by Crowley in the Book of Lies, where fire points down and water up.

In the ordinary Hexagram, the Hexagram of nature, the red triangle is upwards, like fire, and the blue triangle downwards, like water. In the magical hexagram this is reversed; the descending red triangle is that of Horus, a sign specially revealed by him personally, at the Equinox of the Gods. (It is the flame desending upon the altar, and licking up the burnt offering.) The blue triangle represents the aspiration, since blue is the colour of devotion, and the triangle, kinetically considered, is the symbol of directed force.

Book of Lies, Chapter 69

Crowley explicitly associates force with the path of Teth in Reguli, as he associates fire with Shin. Hence ShT represents “force and fire”. In the context of the ritual, these triangles would interlock and interpenetrate around Tiphareth, representative of the Anahata cakra, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and, as we saw earlier, Kteis-Phallus or the Rose-Cross.

As the upward-pointing blue triangle represents Babalon, the Mother, we could attribute the three Mother Letters (Aleph, Mem, and Shin) to its three points, as we might attribute the masculine trinity, IAO, to the three points of the downward-pointing red triangle. Their conjunction gives us the word AShIAVM, which has the same value as MShICh (Messiah) and NChSh (Nechesh, Serpent).

The Messiah or Anointed One affects the union between the individual and the divine. The Serpent in the Garden of Eden is the initiator of mankind into knowledge or gnosis. In Thelemic soteriology, this saving, initiating power is not one individual but rather the conjoining of two individuals, Therion (666) and Babalon (156). And the way in which this union between the divine and the individual is affected is sexual in nature.

The Holy Hexagram, now with 666/IAO and 156/HHH attributed to the red and blue triangles respectively.

In this formula AShIAVM, the three mother letters are concealed by the letter Heh, giving us AHIHVH, the Great Name which is the conjunction of AHIH and IHVH.

AHIH is the godname of Kether. It represents existence in is most abstract quality or Macroprosopus. In the context of Reguli, it is LA, Nuit and Hadit conjoined.

IHVH represents god in manifestation or Microprosopus. It enumerates to 26 by gematria, which is 13 x 2. 13 is the enumeration of AChD or unity. IHVH therefore expresses unity (AL) by means of duality (ShT or Beast and Babalon conjoined). It is the way in which nullity expresses itself in manifestation or as the Tree of Life or 0=2.

Antonio Lau has come to a similar conclusion in his analysis of how the formula of AHIHVH relates to the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram:

The conclusion would be that all the points of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram (32) on the whole create another Hexagram that symbolizes the Qabalistic Zero, radiating from the center of the Column and flooding the whole Circle with the Limitless Light of Ain Soph Aur. And the Hexagram is the formula of unifying opposites (positive and negative, active and passive, male and female), by the 0=2 Equation.

This sheds light on what it means that Reguli is meant to “invoke the energies of the Aeon of Horus.” The “first gesture” of the ritual—the drawing of the Elevenfold Seal—is depicting the unfolding process leading to the creation of the cosmos. It is also establishing the scaffolding—the cross-paths—that allow for the process of return. The “second gesture”—in which the Son raises the Daughter to the Throne of the Mother—is the familiar process of Tetragrammaton which, by means of sexual interaction between Son and Daughter, the process of return takes place. What Reguli adds to this conception is the idea that Nuit and Hadit (Daughter and Son) must become “sexually mature” as Babalon and Therion on their way of return.

AHIHVH is important for other aspects of Crowley’s spirituality. He relates it to the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. By means of the LRP it is indirectly connected with the production of the Medicine of Metals. The connection with the Medicine of Metals is made explicit through Crowley’s discussion of the production of the Eucharist of Six Elements in Magick in Theory and Practice Chapter 20. The production of this medicine is a secret guarded by the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of O.T.O. This formula is also the guiding structure behind Liber HHH, which describes some of the work of the Outer College of A∴A∴. At least one Thelemic author, J. Daniel Gunther, has made an extensive case for the AHIHVH formula being essential to a comprehension of Thelemic initiation in general. (See Initiation in the Aeon of the Child and The Angel and the Abyss.)

Frontispiece of Initiation in the Aeon of the Child depicting the AHIHVH hexagram with various occult symbolism projected over it.

As I said in my recent talk on art and magick, when a magical formula is involved in so many disparate aspects of Crowley’s magick—especially when it illuminates mysteries of both A∴A∴ and O.T.O.—you can bet it is essential to an understanding of Thelemic spirituality generally. I hope to deal with this formula in greater depth in subsequent writings, exploring more fully its importance for Thelemic magick generally.

As for Reguli, my treatment of it here is not exhaustive. I have hardly dealt with the function of the cross-path of Daleth or how Aiwass figures into all of this. (There’s another hexagram that uses the path of Daleth as the base of a triangle.) I didn’t even touch on the elemental attributions of the deities/quarters, and I barely dealt with the significance of the cakras. But hopefully this shows the way in which Reguli is expressive of the underlying ontology and theology of Thelema and how the sex magick implicit in it relates to Crowley’s broader spiritual concern as expressed in the AHIHVH formula.

Ceiling of Pantheon, Rome, Italy. Photo by Mohammed Reza Domiri Ganji.

Balance and Imbalance on the Path

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Ceiling of Pantheon, Rome, Italy. Photo by Mohammed Reza Domiri Ganji.

There’s this ancient temple in Rome called the Pantheon. It has a giant domed ceiling with a hole right in the center of it. I visited it in my 20s. I think “grand” is the right word to describe it. It’s not easy to capture in a photo.

When I think about the relationship between magick (especially theurgy) and mysticism, I recall what it was like looking up at the ceiling of the Pantheon from inside. I imagine the flower of the rose-cross painted on the ceiling, the opening in the middle being where the central cross would be. The multi-colored petals would be painted around the hole.

Rose-Croix designed in Adobe Illustrator by Entelecheia.

Whether you’re practicing theurgy or yoga, you’re aiming up in both cases. It’s just a question of how you aim. When you unite yourself with some particular god or goddess—or if you’re just working with some particular path—that’s aiming toward one of the petals off to the side of the central opening. But yoga is like aiming in a direct, vertical line through the hole in the roof.

Of course that’s exactly how Crowley thought of Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel as well. The Holy Guardian Angel is on the middle pillar of the Tree of Life.

The magician devotes himself entirely to the invocation of a God, and as soon as his balance approaches Perfection he ceases to invoke any partial God; only that God vertically above him is in his path. And so a man who perhaps took up magic merely with the idea of acquiring knowledge, love, or wealth, finds himself irrevocably committed to the performance of the great work.

Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter 15

I shoot up vertically like an arrow, and become that Above. But it is death, and the flame of the pyre. Ascend in the flame of the pyre, O my soul! Thy God is like the cold emptiness of the utmost heaven, into which thou radiatest thy little light. When Thou shall know me, O empty God, my flame shall utterly expire in Thy great N. O. X.

Liber VII, I.37-40

The O.T.O. IX° working is also a middle pillar working. It is attributed to the path of Samekh, the path uniting the Sun (Tiphareth) with the Moon (Yesod). Its hieroglyph depicts a Lion and an Eagle exchanging their essences into a cauldron. The Caput Mortuum drops to the bottom of the cauldron as spiritual air (Aleph, Baphomet) rises. This rising spiritual current is the “Rashith-ha-Gilgalim of the new Universe created of the Quintessence of the Substance of the Unity of the Angel and the Adept, expressed therefrom by virtue of ‘love under will’ at the moment of Rapture.” (Commentary on LXV V.1) This is the spiritual essence unlocked from the Eucharist of One Element, the Medicine of Metals. It is like a cosmic stem cell which can be molded into any physically possible state of affairs by the magician.

Atu XIV, Art

In other words this issue of working the middle pillar applies both to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel as well as the IX° magick. It applies to the mysteries of both A∴A∴ and O.T.O.

This mystery is represented analogously in the Gnostic Mass. Here it is depicted using a eucharist of two elements rather than one. The Priestess is like the Angel of the Priest, and the “moment of rapture” is symbolized when they cry HRILIU.

Another way to put it is that in the case of yoga, one aspires up the middle pillar, but in this particular kind of magick, one manifests a current down the middle pillar (into the organs of generation, which are represented on the Tree of Life by Yesod). Generally speaking, magick is a movement of energy “down the Tree”. The impulse originates with the Will in Chokmah and is given form on the astral at Yesod before manifesting in Malkuth. Yoga, theurgy, and path workings tend to be ascensions “up the Tree”. Both operations (yoga and magick) require mastery of the subtle energetic currents represented by the entire Tree of Life, though.

It’s a commonplace to talk up “balance” in relation to Crowley and Thelema, but it really is an essential theme. “Balance” will mean different things to you at different points of your spiritual development. There’s balance of the elements within your conscious experience. There’s a balance point or borderline between conscious and unconscious which has to be worked with more or less interminably. There’s contrasexual balance points.

What happens typically is that you experience a “calling” into some terra incognita. This might be an entirely new calling, or it might be some perennial difficulty in your life. But it will draw out what Jung called a complex. The easiest way to describe a complex is that you just don’t feel like yourself anymore. You feel like you’ve temporarily become a different person. If you are usually self-controlled, you’re suddenly impulsive. If you’re usually strong, you’re suddenly clingy and weak. If you’re usually kind, you’re suddenly sadistic. And then you have to work with that imbalance in order to get yourself back to a place of balance.

God is above sex; and therefore neither man nor woman as such can be said fully to understand, much less to represent, God. It is therefore incumbent on the male magician to cultivate those female virtues in which he is deficient, and this task he must of course accomplish without in any way impairing his virility. It will then be lawful for a magician to invoke Isis, and identify himself with her; if he fail to do this, his apprehension of the Universe when he attains Samadhi will lack the conception of maternity.

Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter 1

In my opinion, Crowley’s description of this process here is perfunctory, even blithe.

In any case, there’s really no formula for this. I’m not even going to try to offer “helpful hints” on it. But generally speaking, that’s the work of magick or going “off-center” as I described above.

Variations on Breathing

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Breath work is important in both eastern and western spiritual traditions. Breathing can be manipulated to bring about physical relaxation or excitation or altered states of consciousness. Working with the breath is also considered a means of accessing prana, qi, ki, ruh, ruach, pneuma, anima, or astral light.

Here’s a quick summary of some easy and useful breath techniques.

Fourfold Breath

This is not really my favorite or one I work with very much, but it’s commonly taught in magical traditions. Four counts on the inhalation, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts, hold for four, repeat.

5 x 5

This is my preferred alternative to fourfold breath: five second inhalation, five second exhalation, no pause between. This has an immediate calming effect. I use this to control stage fright, to tolerate high heat in the sauna, or just to warm up for ritual. I’ll also do energy circulations/visualizations at this rhythm. Really useful and portable.

Candle Breathing

Another one of my preferred ways to warm up for ritual. Light a candle, and as you inhale, imagine pulling the energy from the flame into your body at every pore. As you exhale, picture the fire within you burning even brighter. Do this a few times until you are incandescent. I find this a good launching off point for Qabalistic Cross.

Good Ol’ Anapanasati

This is the breathing technique the Buddha taught. My interpretation of this practice comes from Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Just work with the breath so that it’s soothing and calming. If long, deep breaths feel good, do those. If you need shorter, shallower breaths, do that. Tune into your body. Feel into what it needs and adjust the breath accordingly. Work progressively through each part of the body doing this, and then just experience the entire body breathing this way all at once. It helps to visualize the breath energy going in and out of the body as light, through the pores.

3 x 6

Inhale for 3 seconds, exhale for 6. Fill the bottom of your lungs, then the middle of your lungs, then the top of your lungs. Empty in reverse order. If you experience light-headedness or tingling, sloooooow the breath down. When this is easy to do for 30 minutes, try a 4/8 pattern. Then a 5/10 pattern. If you can do 10/20 for 30 minutes, you’re ready for Crowley’s instructions in Liber E.

There are plenty more variations besides these, especially when you bring mixing them with visualizations of various kinds. But these are my favorite portable/basic practices.

visual representation of the lesser ritual of the pentagram. Includes godnames in Assiah, the names of the Archangels, and the AHIHVH hexagram.

Visual representation of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram

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visual representation of the lesser ritual of the pentagram. Includes godnames in Assiah, the names of the Archangels, and the AHIHVH hexagram.

Those who regard this ritual as a mere device to invoke or banish spirits, are unworthy to possess it. Properly understood, it is the Medicine of Metals and the Stone of the Wise. 

—Aleister Crowley, The Palace of the World

This is a visual representation of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram.

In the center is the Kabbalistic Cross with the Hebrew words Ateh, Malkuth, ve-Geburah, ve-Gedulah, le-Olahm, Amen. Ateh is white to represent Kether, Malkuth is yellow to represent Malkuth, ve-Geburah is orange to represent Geburah, ve-Gedulah is deep violet to represent Chesed, and le-Olahm/Amen is clear pink rose to represent Tiphareth.

Around the center are four orange scarlet pentagrams, one drawn in each quarter.

Arranged around that are the godnames, beginning at the top in the east and moving clockwise: YHVH, ADNI, AHIH, and AGLA.

Around that are the names of the Archangels invoked in each quarter: Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Auriel.

Each quarter is colored according to the element associated with it: air, fire, water, and earth.

Around that is the AHIHVH hexagram. As Crowley says in The Palace of the World:

[The six-rayed star] flames both above and beneath the magus, who is thus in a cube of 4 pentagrams and 2 hexagrams, 32 points in all. And 32 is [AHIHVH], the sacred word that expresses the Unity of the Highest and the Human.

For more on the significance of this hexagram, see Sepher Sephiroth, entries for 32 and 358, as well as Crowley’s introduction to Liber HHH in Magick.

image of stars in the universe with a dark unicursal hexagram superimposed over them

Between Rationalism and Fanaticism

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image of stars in the universe with a dark unicursal hexagram superimposed over them

In my opinion what makes Thelema distinctive is not the occultism, not the ontology, not the ethics, not the individualism. It’s that he took the western occult tradition with its God as a creative artist and inflected it through a Nietzschean understanding of life.

Renaissance occultism is based upon a view of the cosmos where everything is ordered into spheres or levels with Earth as the focus. Natural magic is about drawing power or spiritus down from higher spheres into lower ones. “Cabalistic” magic is about ascending to superluminary spheres and mastering the angelic forces there—which tips over very easily into mysticism, as it does in Thelema. In short it’s based on a hierarchical, anthropocentric view of the universe as a kind of container focused on human affairs, and the container is overall not that large.

Robert Fludd's hierarchical view of the cosmos. Concentric spheres with planets, angels, and hebrew letters.
Angelic Hierarchies, Spheres, and the Hebrew Alphabet. From Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi, maioris scilicet et minoris, metaphysica, physica atque technica historia.

This view was largely replaced by the natural philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to this new view, the universe does not behave according to purposes but rather mechanisms. There are no “pulls” in the universe, only “pushes”. And the universe in which these abstract mathematical laws operate is vast enough to overwhelm the imagination and the human perspective all together. The picture of the universe generated by this natural philosophy ultimately left up in the air the place of humans in it. And with this disenchanted view of nature came a challenge to both religion and magic.

Rather than recoiling from this picture of nature into a kind of reenchanted fantasy about life, Crowley instead embraces it. The sheer enormity of the cosmos is one of the premises of Crowley’s view of reality, embodied in the goddess Nuit. The pure mathematical view of reality is not rejected either but embraced. Mathematics was part of occultism going back at least to Pico, but Crowley really makes it one of the main themes of his spirituality. So in other words rather than trying to hide from the implications of modernism, Crowley leans into them.

And he understands the fundamental spiritual problem in a very modernist way. The problem we face is not suffering, and it’s not ethics. These are pre-modern or early modern ways of looking at the problem. No, the main problem is meaning. It’s the senselessness of the world. Crowley was motivated by this experience of senselessness at least since he was a student at Cambridge, and he writes about it at least as late as Little Essays Toward Truth.

What then determines Tiphareth, the Human Will, to aspire to comprehend Neschamah, to submit itself to the divine Will of Chiah?

Nothing but the realisation, born sooner or later of agonising experience, that its whole relation through Ruach and Nephesch with Matter, i.e., with the Universe, is, and must be, only painful. The senselessness of the whole procedure sickens it. It begins to seek for some menstruum in which the Universe may become intelligible, useful and enjoyable. In Qabalistic language, it aspires to Neschamah.

Aleister Crowley, Little Essays toward Truth, “Man”

The way he understands a possible solution to senselessness is very modernist as well. The solution cannot be sought in reason. Reason operates according to the principle of sufficient reason, i.e., for any proposition F, there must be a ground G for it, or for any event B, there must be a sufficient explanation A. Putting the principle of sufficient reason at the center of human relating to the world is what generated the picture of a senseless, purely mechanical world in the first place. Therefore, reason—specifically the application of the principle of sufficient reason—must be limited, but to limit reason it must be transcended.

But—the transcendence of reason cannot interfere with the legitimate operation of reason within its own domain. Crowley is not looking to reenchant nature in some naive way. He accepts the findings of the scientific view of reality and even holds them to be axiomatic for his spirituality. Nor can the transcendence of reason be a mere animalistic “overcoming” of reason. One cannot simply will oneself to be irrational, for instance. Both of these avenues would represent a kind of fanaticism.

So Crowley has to manuever somehow between the Scylla of rationalism on the one hand and the Charybdis of dogmatism or fanaticism on the other.

This is a very modernist—specifically German Idealist—way of looking at things. When a person with a background in the philosophy of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Nietzsche hears Crowley talking about transcending “because,” they’re hearing a tune they could hum in their sleep.

And Crowley’s proposed solution to this problem is will. Will transcends reason. You cannot ask “why” of will. In and of itself it prevents the questioning but instead gives orders. It’s authoritative. This is how he avoids rationalism.

But will also represents the “true” self of the individual. It is not a mere replacement for Jehovah. It is not a projection of the law of the father. Nor is it exactly bodily or animal instinct. This is how Crowley avoids fanaticism.

cottage below a waterfall cliff with unicursal hex over it all

Magick and Dwelling

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cottage below a waterfall cliff with unicursal hex over it all

One of the conspicuous features of the coronavirus pandemic is how little control we have over the situation.

We’re facing a novel virus, one which has never infected human beings before. We have no vaccine. We have no treatments.

The one non-pharmacological intervention we do have—social distancing—is leaving a lot of people feeling powerless. They can’t engage in the activities that bring them pleasure. They can leave their houses only sparingly. All we’re left to do now is wait, and that can feel disempowering.

But even in situations that feel disempowering, we are duty-bound to understand circumstances as best we can and to bring them under our control.

Learn to understand clearly how best to manipulate the energies which you control to obtain the results most favourable to it from its relations with the part of the Universe which you do not yet control. Extend the dominion of your consciousness, and its control of all forces alien to it, to the utmost. Do this by the ever stronger and more skilful application of your faculties to the finer, clearer, fuller, and more accurate perception, the better understanding, and the more wisely ordered government, of that external Universe.

—Aleister Crowley, “Duty”

If you’re not a virologist or a physician, chances are it may feel as though there is very little to exert your control over. But times like this, when so much control has been taken away, it makes sense to concentrate on those things over which we still do have some or even complete control. One of those things is our dwellings.

As I said in my recent video, in order to keep your body safe, you need to keep the virus out of your home. Another way of saying this is that you must expand your sense of self so that it also includes the place where you dwell.

This is not a dimension of doing one’s will that should be taken lightly in any case. Commenting on the Magus card in the Book of Thoth, Crowley says:

This card therefore represents the Wisdom, the Will, the Word, the Logos by whom the worlds were created. (See the Gospel according to St. John, chapter I.) It represents the Will. In brief, he is the Son, the manifestation in act of the idea of the Father. He is the male correlative of the High Priestess. Let there be no confusion here on account of the fundamental doctrine of the Sun and Moon as the Second Harmonics to the Lingam and the Yoni; for, as will be seen in the citation from The Paris Working, (see Appendix) the creative Mercury is of the nature of the Sun.  But Mercury is the Path leading from Kether to Binah, the Understanding; and thus He is the messenger of the gods, represents precisely that Lingam, the Word of creation whose speech is silence.

Here we find Crowley binding together several concepts:

  1. The will (the central theme of the spiritual system of Thelema).
  2. The Son, which as part of the Holy Trinity represents the manifestation in act of the idea of the Father. Crowley here explicitly references John I where we read,

    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

    In other words the Son—and hence the will—is not to be thought of as just a particular person (say, Jesus of Nazareth) but something more akin to the invariant structure of the cosmos. It is that act of the Father (the principle of consciousness) whereby the universe becomes intelligible.
  3. To say that the Son renders the universe intelligible to us is to say that it is by virtue of the Son that the universe is anything at all to a consciousness like ours. It is that which allows things to be what they are, to shine forth as phenomena in their own right. Thus the creative Mercury or Son is of the nature of the Sun (that by means of which the sensible is made sensible).
  4. This relationship between manifestation or shining forth and speech or the Word is given in the Greek word, logos. Logos is related to légō, which means “I put in order, arrange, gather.” Logos or the Son is the speech that gathers, and by gathering things marshals them forth into visibility.
  5. “But Mercury is the Path leading from Kether to Binah, the Understanding”. In other words, it is attributed to the path of ב or Bet.

    Bet means house.

Tying this complex strand of ideas together we might say that the Magus or the magician is that individual whose characteristic mode of action is to call beings forth into the light so that they may be what they are and understood as they are. The magician accomplishes this by “speaking” a certain way, by gathering them and showing them. And this mode of speech—this evocation—is intimately tied up with houses, with a particular mode of dwelling on the face of the Earth.

In other words, magic is the transformation of nature into a home. As God the Father speaks nature into intelligible existence by calling it forth into his own radiance, so do we make our lives meaningful when we order the circumstances we find ourselves in in such a way as to suit our own purposes.

Thus Magick is the Science and art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.

God the Father in manifestation is the Sun, Tiphareth. The Light or Speech given off by the Father—the Son—is Mercury, Hod. This Speech returns to the Father by means of the Holy Spirit, symbolized by the dove which is Venus or Netzach. It issues back into the House of the Sun, Tiphareth, whose meaning in English is beauty.

This is why the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel (i.e., the Holy Spirit) results in the beatific vision. This is a vision of the oneness, beauty, and effulgence of all things, which Crowley also equates with atmadarshana.

Tiphareth, Hod, and Netzach and the three paths connecting them: Ayin, Peh, and Nun

The three paths connecting Tiphareth, Hod, and Netzach—Ayin, Peh, and Nun—add up to 200, the enumeration of Resh, which means head. The card The Sun is attributed to the path of Resh on the Tree of Life.

But from a microcosmic point of view, we might say that we imitate the act of the Father when we dwell in our abodes in a way which is beautiful. It is not the purely instrumental act of dwelling which matters so much as the excessive and playful mode of dwelling—dwelling for its own sake, i.e., aesthetic enjoyment.

Thus Crowley also says of magick that it is the Art of Life Itself.

So if you’re looking to perform magick in the face of the coronavirus pandemic you might try two things:

  1. Expand your sense of self to fill the place where you currently live. Get to know every little nook and cranny of the physical building you occupy. Purge it of everything alien. Rearrange it—speak order into it—so that it reflects as closely as possible the divine order, i.e., consecrate it to the accomplishment of your will.
  2. Beautify it to the extent you can. Don’t just be stuck here. Make sure what you see when you open your eyes every day is what you want to see. Think of your home as the House of the Sun, i.e., Tiphareth. The House of God is the beautiful house. Make sure it remains that way.
group of people staring off at a sunset over which hangs a unicursal hexagra

The gift that unites us

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group of people staring off at a sunset over which hangs a unicursal hexagra

The purpose of any O.T.O. local body is to assist individuals to find their respective true wills and to promulgate Thelema. Differences in local culture notwithstanding, that’s what each lodge, oasis, or camp has a duty to do.

There are many ways individuals can interact with us. There are the obvious ones like attend Gnostic Mass, take initiation, become a member, or serve as clergy.

There are the less obvious and perhaps less appreciated ones like washing glasses after Mass, taking out the trash, making a $5 donation, or even clicking “Like” on a social media post.

But all these ways of interacting with O.T.O. are done in service to our ultimate purpose, which is help individuals bring about positive life change by finding their true wills and to promulgate Thelema.

This is our unique gift. It is the impact that unites us. When we keep this cause at the forefront of whatever we do, we best serve our communal goals and thereby best serve ourselves as members.

Crowley elaborates on this supreme cause in a variety of ways. One of the most conspicuous—which appears both on the Preliminary Pledge Form and on the O.T.O. USA website—says that O.T.O. is:

…pledged to the high purpose of securing the Liberty of the Individual and his or her advancement in Light, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Power through Beauty, Courage, and Wit, on the Foundation of Universal Brotherhood.

Like most things that Crowley writes, he is referencing the Holy Qabalah here. The concepts relate to the sephiroth in the following way:

  1. Light – Kether
  2. Wisdom – Chokmah
  3. Understanding – Binah
  4. Knowledge – Chesed (and arguably the whole of the Ruach as comprehended in Daath)
  5. Power – Geburah
  6. Beauty – Tiphareth
  7. Courage – Netzach
  8. Wit – Hod
  9. Foundation of Universal Brotherhood – Yesod
the virtues of OTO as represented on the Tree of Life

This is a useful way to think about the means by which we assist individuals and promulgate the Law of Liberty.

Here is just one way to think about these means:

Light: While the light represented by Kether (Ain Soph Aur) is unlimited and therefore without opposition, it is helpful to convey this concept to our minds in opposition with darkness. We confront the darkness of the human condition when we find ourselves groping for solutions to barely understood problems. Light represents clarity about fundamental reality that comes from understanding the Law of Thelema. It is knowing that whatever difficult situation we find ourselves in, there is a solution, and that solution is to know and to do one’s true will.

Wisdom is the ability to put that solution into action based on life’s experience. A large part of that is “minding one’s own business,” i.e., making the development of one’s own true will the center and theme of one’s life without being overly concerned with the opinions of others. As a society of individuals pursuing different paths, O.T.O. offers many opportunities to practice this kind of discernment.

Understanding entails the rejection of superstition. One cannot simply will for an end to skepticism. Its end is only achieved in samadhi or in mystical union with the Divine through meditation and prayer. Short of that, ultimate reality cannot be known in and of itself. We therefore practice tolerance as a way of life. When we embody this value in our lodges, oases, and camps, we invite a great diversity of points of view, life paths, and backgrounds, thereby enriching our communities and promoting maximal growth through the intersections of these points of view.

Knowledge: We promote scientific religion. We do not demand that individuals accept premises without sufficient evidence. As a result, we do not place arbitrary restrictions on individuals’ advancement in our organization or in their self-development. Instead we give them the tools necessary for growth and fulfillment.

Power: We emphasize self-empowerment and self-control over the control or manipulation of others. We recognize that the greatest power comes from individuals having the maximum amount of control over their own lives, including their physical and emotional impulses. We align ourselves with those who reject coercion and tyranny in all its forms.

Beauty: Our spirituality is not merely private or mystical in nature. Magick is meant to create harmony between the desires of individuals and the world around them. Our spirituality is therefore sensuous in nature, as beauty is the image of the reconciliation between what is and what ought to be. We perform our rituals rightly, with joy and beauty.

Courage is not freedom from fear but rather the capacity to withstand, to carry, and to act appropriately even while experiencing fear. We do not promise that every step along this path is going to be warm cookies and ice cream. But we do provide opportunities—through initiation and through fraternity—to learn and to practice courage, truthfulness, and other forms of emotional intelligence.

Wit is the capacity to think quickly, to know how and when to apply concepts. O.T.O. consists in a diverse group of individuals from many backgrounds. As such, there are many opportunities for novel forms of interaction. Novelty throws us back on our own resources. It demands spontaneity rather than repetition. In other words, it requires learning.

Universal Brotherhood (or Sisterhood or Siblinghood as we now say) is both the foundation of all that precedes as well as its natural culmination, just as Yesod is both the “foundation” of the Tree of Life as well as the natural endpoint on the astral plane of any magical current. It is an image of the world in which the gifts inherent in all Points of View are capable of manifestation and expression to the ultimate. It is the world we are attempting to create by bringing about life change, one individual at a time.

As Crowley says in the essay “Man” in Little Essays Toward Truth:

The Quest of the Holy Grail, the Search for the Stone of the Philosophers—by whatever name we choose to call the Great Work—is therefore endless. Success only opens up new avenues of brilliant possibility. Yea, verily, and Amen! the task is tireless and its joys without bounds; for the whole Universe, and all that in it is, what is it but the infinite playground of the Crowned and Conquering Child, of the insatiable, the innocent, the ever-rejoicing Heir of Space and Eternity, whose name is MAN?

This is merely a small sample of all the ways in which O.T.O. bodies give the gift of life change with the purpose of securing liberty and free expression of all individuals. These are the gifts we should leverage for our self-development and for the growth of our communities.

What other ones can you think of?

The Power Behind the Mass

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My talk on Eucharistic magick is online now. It includes an in depth analysis of Sections VI-VIII of Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass.

The claim I make about the Mass—if I were to state it as succinctly as possible—is that the Mass was intended, in part, to bring into physical manifestation the spiritual power which was the source of the Book of the Law. So you can profitably view it as an attempt to bring the spiritual force of Thelema into the world by means of a public religious rite.

On the one hand, there’s nothing new or terribly controversial in such a statement. The Gnostic Mass is clearly a religious rite, and the purpose of a religious rite is for clergy to administer certain ideas, values, or virtues to a congregation. It would be rather odd to make the opposite argument, that Aleister Crowley created a religious service that administered the virtues of some spirituality other than Thelema.

I think what’s bound to make my argument controversial is the specificity of it. I don’t treat the power or spiritual potency from an abstract point of view. I show how Crowley specified it, put names to it, and even described its nature. If you accept the premises and the inferences to the conclusions from those premises, this creates a backstop for what is going to count as a good interpretation of the Mass. (Or it brings whatever existing backstop there is closer to the home plate.)

Considering the Mass alone, Crowley has many names for this spiritual potency or power considered in and of itself:

  • “one secret and ineffable LORD”
  • “our Lord …”
  • “the LORD” (symbolized by the priest’s serpent crown)
  • “O secret of secrets that art hidden in the being of all that lives”
  • “the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star”
  • “Life, and the giver of Life”
  • “Lord secret and most holy, source of light, source of life, source of love, source of liberty”
  • “force of energy, fire of motion”
  • “Thou who art I, beyond all I am, Who hast no nature and no name”
  • “center and secret of the Sun”
  • “hidden spring of all things known and unknown, Thou aloof, alone”
  • “true fire within the reed”
  • “source and seed of life, love, liberty, and light, thou beyond speech and beyond sight”
  • “One in Three … Three in One”

What we can gather from these terms is that there is a divinity or a portion of divinity that is secret, ineffable, withdrawn, unmanifest, and completely transcendent. It is beyond our ability to describe or understand it. It is characterized by silence, but it is the source of speech and motion. And this divinity or some aspect of this divinity is concealed “within us” in some sense, and it is responsibility for our vitality.

Now one thing you may want to ponder from a theological or metaphysical perspective is this: If something is truly transcendent and unmanifest—if it is really “aloof, alone”—then how does it enter into manifestation? How does it have anything to do with the visible or manifest universe at all?

Crowley’s phrase for this in the context of the Mass, exemplified in the Creed, is the “Miracle of Incarnation”. He claims it is accomplished by means of the “Baptism of Wisdom”. As Sabazius has pointed out, this comes from Van Hammer’s elucidation of the name Baphomet as Baphe-Metis, the Baptism of Wisdom. One of the arguments I make in the talk is that, in the context of the Mass, Baphomet is the name given to this pure, transcendent spiritual potency when it is embodied or incarnated. This means that we can understand the Epiklesis of the Gnostic Mass on analogy with the transubstantiation of the Eucharist in the Roman Mass into the body and blood of Christ. This helps make sense of why the elements of the Eucharist are consecrated into a resurrection structure in Section VI. As Christ is the principle of resurrection in Christianity, Baphomet is the principle of resurrection in Thelema. At that point, the doctrines diverge, and I spend a lot of time in the talk examining exactly what resurrection means in a Thelemic context.

One angle I did not explore very much at all in my talk is how this transcendent spiritual potency is made manifest by the sex instinct. The only reference I made to this extraordinarily complex and interesting subject was to point out that the Priest, by virtue of the Lance and the scarlet robe, represents the microcosmic deity in the context of the Mass. This microcosmic deity is called “CHAOS, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth.” It is also called phallus. It is the “Lord of Life and Joy, that art the might of man, that art the essence of every true god that is upon the surface of the Earth, continuing knowledge from generation unto generation”. The magick of the Mass is almost certainly intended to parallel an analogous sex magick working. The seed (sperma) the Priest isolates from the Cake (consecrated to his body) is meant to be analogous with the spermatazoon produced by his literal body. The cup is magically linked with the Priestess’s body by means of the five crosses. The wine within it could be viewed as either his “blood” (which Crowley usually intends to represent semen) or her menstruum. I pointed out, as many have, that HRILIU represents the cry of orgasm.

Another thing I would point out—which I didn’t bother to touch on in the talk—is that Crowley believed sexual reproduction was a form of resurrection. Orgasm itself is a moment of subject-object union or samadhi, if only for a moment. The individuality of the man is not preserved, but his life-force continues in the child. The Mass Eucharist is explicitly referred to as a child both in the Anthem and during the Fractio. The solve or Aleph-phase of the operation reduces his seed to a kind of magical stem-cell state. By consuming this metaphorical “child,” the Priest is nourishing himself with the power of his resurrected or reborn life-force. It’s a simple way to look at the Mass, but it’s also perfectly valid and illuminating. The problem is that it’s not the only doctrine of resurrection Crowley had.

While I do not think it is wrong to point out that the Mass is the IX° sex magick operation under a different form, I think it very quickly leads to misunderstanding. One could start to believe that the spiritual reality of the Mass—and maybe of Thelema itself—is exhausted in fucking. Crowley himself makes reductionistic claims to this effect, e.g., “Semen is God.” Instead I wanted to focus on the structure shared both by the Mass and by the IX° Mass of the Holy Ghost in order to indicate the spiritual reality they are both aiming at, and which is reducible to neither of them. In the language of Eucharistic magick Crowley uses, both the Eucharist of two elements and the Eucharist of one element serve a common spiritual purpose. It is that purpose that I wanted to elucidate.

The argument I make in the talk—and which I have not seen made before—is that the spiritual purpose is the physical manifestation of this spiritual principle or potency represented by Hoor-Paar-Kraat, the God of Silence. This is the deity that Aiwass declares himself to be the “minister” of in the first chapter of The Book of the Law. As such, Aiwass’s speech is the speech of the god of silence. The Book of the Law itself is the “speech of silence” as Crowley says. And since this is the same spiritual potency we are embodying in the Gnostic Mass Eucharist, when we participate in the Mass, either as clergy or as congregants, we are in effect consuming the word. We’re being nourished by it. In yet one more way, the Book of the Law is becoming our sustenance and comfort.

As it turns out, the same principle is elastic and can manifest itself in many other ways. I already mentioned that it manifests as a sex-generative principle. In the talk I make a big deal out of showing how, in the context of an individual’s gnosis or spiritual experience, Harpocrates is also the Silent Self or the Holy Guardian Angel. From an alchemical perspective, I show how it is also the Philosopher’s Stone and connected with the IX° Elixir of Life. Crowley uses a lot of words to label this spiritual principle—Aleph, Fool, God of Silence, Holy Guardian Angel, Heru-Ra-Ha, Lord Most Secret, etc.—but the fact that it shows up in so many different places and is linked with the central spiritual concerns of Thelema I think justifies calling it out as the central organizing principle of Crowley’s spirituality. It is the point around which everything else is rotating. So I spend a lot of time in the talk laying out its structure. That structure—whether we’re talking about Eucharistic magick, alchemy, or initiation—is invariably tripartite and is represented by the formula IAO.

So what I was attempting to do in this talk was not only to show how to do Eucharistic magick or just parrot things Crowley says about the Eucharist. I also wanted to explain how it was he could make such extraordinary claims about Eucharistic magick, such that doing it would inevitably lead to Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, or that a particular version of it (identical with the IX° secret) would produce the Elixir of Life and grant immortality. So in this one phenomenon of Eucharistic magick, we find a menagerie of traditional and specifically Crowleyan spiritual concerns tied to the central mystery of Crowley’s spirituality, namely, Knowledge and Conversation. But rather than attempt to reduce the Gnostic Mass to sex magick, or to attempt to reduce both of those to Knowledge and Conversation, I attempted to explain all three in terms of the structure of the underlying spiritual reality motivating Thelema as a whole. And I suppose my assumption is that, because this underlying spiritual reality has vitality, an individual who understands how to make contact with that reality will become empowered by it.

AHIH and Liber V vel Reguli

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Elemental attributions in Reguli

When I was creating my Kether diagram, I was thinking about possible elemental attributions for AHIH, similar to how they’re attributed to ADNI and YHVH. A and I seem obvious; they could just be the same as they are in ADNI and ALHIM.

A – Air
H – ?
I – Earth
H – ?

That order—air, _________, earth, _________—looked familiar to me, though. And then I remembered, that’s the order that you draw the inverted pentagrams in Reguli. Maybe Crowley wrote Reguli to be an AHIH operation above the abyss, in which case the attributions are:

A – Air (Nuit)
H – Fire (Hadit)
I – Earth (Therion)
H – Water (Babalon)

If you swap the Hehs for mother letters, you get AShIM, which according to Sepher Sephiroth is “Angels of Malkuth”. Kether is in Malkuth and vice versa.

In the commentary to Reguli, we read:

I am God, I very God of very God; I go upon my way to work my Will; I have made Matter and Motion for my mirror; I have decreed for my delight that Nothingness should figure itself as twain, that I might dream a dance of names and natures, and enjoy the substance of simplicity by watching the wanderings of my shadows. I am not that which is not; I know not that which knows not; I love not that which loves not. For I am Love, whereby division dies in delight; I am Knowledge, whereby all parts, plunged in the whole, perish and pass into perfection; and I am that I am, the being wherein Being is lost in Nothing, nor designs to be but its Will to unfold its nature, its need to express its perfection in all possibilities, each phase a partial phantasm, and yet inevitable and absolute.

—Liber V vel Reguli

Not that I think it’s entirely clear what any of this means, but it seems to suggest one is performing the ritual from the standpoint of the identity of being and nothing in Kether, whose godname is AHIH, or “I am.”

Also, if it’s an above-the-abyss operation, that might help explain the inverted pentagrams. The Master of the Temple is the Hanged Man.

What is Thelema?

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Thelema is a religion founded in 1904 by the English poet and mystic, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), who is regarded as its prophet. Those who follow the path of Thelema are called Thelemites.1

Thelema (Θελημα) is a Greek word for will, and the essential teaching of Thelema is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” Of this teaching Crowley said,

“Do what thou wilt…” is to bid Stars to shine, Vines to bear grapes, Water to seek its level; man is the only being in Nature that has striven to set himself at odds with himself.2

From this we may infer that the essential teaching of Thelema is that each person ought to live in accordance with nature as expressed through their individual being. In this respect, Thelema is similar to Stoicism, Buddhism, or other religions which teach us to live according to the laws set by nature rather than God or human beings. Yet the Thelemic view of the universe according to Crowley differs in fundamental respects from what is taught in other religions and philosophies.

“Had! The manifestation of Nuit. The unveiling of the company of heaven.” (AL I.1-2)3

The foundation of Thelema is Liber AL vel Legis, which is Latin for Book AL or the Book of the Law.4

The Book of the Law was dictated to Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt in 1904 by a spiritual being that called itself Aiwass. This book declared a new age for humanity, the Aeon of the Child, and proclaimed a new law for the conduct of all human beings: Do what thou wilt.

The universe described by the Book of the Law consists in two irreducible entities or concepts: the totality of possibilities of all kind, and any point of view on those possibilities. The first is symbolized by the Egyptian sky goddess, Nuit, and the second is represented by the Egyptian sun god, Hadit.5

“Every man and every woman is a star.” (AL I.3)

Experience arises when Hadit (the self of each individual) unites with some possibility inherent in Nuit (the spatiotemporal universe). Each person is “an aggregate of such experiences, constantly changing with each fresh event” or a star.6

Crowley describes each individual star or consciousness as an absolute monad: simple, utterly indestructible, as well as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. These are characteristics usually attributed to God, and indeed, Crowley taught that each star was the center and origin of its own universe.7

“For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union.” (AL I.29)

Throughout our lives, and even throughout the course of a day, many events occur that imply oppositions or dualities. We experience pleasant versus unpleasant sensations, sorrowful versus happy occurrences, success versus failure in our endeavors, cruelty versus kindness in our actions, self versus world, self versus others, and many more. But the universe appears to us this way, because it is only by means of opposition that our Hadit or god-self can have experience and learn about itself. While each of us encounters constant opposition from the world and others, this opposition is both necessary and willed.8 From this, the supreme teaching of Thelema follows:9

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” (AL I.40)

Crowley speaks of the will in two basic senses. On the one hand, each person has to discover for themselves what their purpose in life is. This could involve discovering which particular career or form of service suits your personality best and dedicating yourself wholeheartedly to it.10 It also means being free to express one’s individuality artistically and sexually, to work and to play as suits one’s own nature, and even to move across the face of the earth without interference from others.11 Crowley calls this the finite will or your will in the context of this life.12

Then there is your will in eternity or your infinite will, which is the will of Hadit—your true self—to explore every possibility available to itself, even across many incarnations. Crowley calls this the Great Work or the union of Hadit with Nuit.13

These need not be seen as two separate wills but rather two perspectives on the same will: the will seen from the perspective of this incarnation, where each moment presents us with the choice between doing our will versus not doing it, and the perspective of eternity, wherein every occurrence accords with our will, because every moment is necessary and perfect in and of itself.14

“Love is the law, love under will.” (AL I.57)

Every event whatsoever is an act of love, as each consists in the uniting of Hadit or the divine self of each individual with a possibility inherent in Nuit.15 While it is technically impossible not to do your will (seen from the infinite perspective), it is possible (from the finite perspective) to desire not to do your will, and from this arises suffering.16 It is therefore up to each of us to discover for ourselves what our true will is and to accept and desire to fulfill it rather than thwart it. Crowley calls the methods for achieving this magick.17

“Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.” (AL II.9)

Since all events are acts of love under will, it follows that, at its very foundation, existence is joyful. Sorrow arises when we think of any two things as opposed to one another. Some one event pleases us so we call it “good,” and another is unpleasant so we call it “bad”. But they are all fundamentally “good,” because they are all the effect of Hadit loving Nuit, which itself is the natural result of each of us doing our will.18 This love of Hadit for Nuit eventually culminates in the union between the two which occurs at death, and therefore “death is the crown of all.”19

While there is more to Thelema than what is presented here, the rest are largely implications or practices intended to achieve these ideals. For further information, the reader is encouraged to explore the resources footnoted in this section.

1 https://oto-usa.org/thelema/
2 “Notes for an Astral Atlas,” in Magick in Theory and Practice (MITAP), Appendix III.
3 Chapters and verses of the Book of the Law are notated AL Chapter.Verse
4 AL is a Hebrew name for God.
5 Introduction to The Book of the Law (Intro).
6 Intro.
7 Intro and New Comment (NC) on AL I.3.
8 NC to AL I.29.
9 NC on AL I.3
10 MITAP (Introduction) and Liber CL (Section I).
11 Liber LXXVII.
12 Liber CL (Section I).
13 Ibid.
14 Intro.
15 Ibid.
16 NC on AL 1.51 and Liber CL.
17 Intro.
18 Djeridensis Comment on AL II.9.
19 NC on AL II.72.

References