Thelema vs. Gnosticism

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Gnosticism is the view that the creator God is blind or evil, and that the world we inhabit is therefore a prison we must escape. It’s not just the material world which is bad. The angels or “archons” are jailers attempting to keep us there. The only way out is by making contact with the Supreme Being who is the source or parent of the Demiurge, and this happens through the process of gnosis or direct knowledge.

Aside from the rejection of traditional religion in favor of direct knowing, Crowley rejected all of that. The universe does not need to be escaped. It is not bad or evil or a prison. Some spirits are good and will help you if properly contacted and vetted.

There is a Demiurge in Thelema. It’s Tetragrammaton, the formula of the elements and the formula of the redemption of Malkuth. In other words it’s a personification both of manifest existence and the redemption of that existence. It is “blind” in the sense that the universe we inhabit obeys impersonal mathematical laws of cause and effect. And in a certain sense the human in its natural condition is also blind, pushed this way and that by forces beyond its control, deluded into thinking it’s making free choices when all the while it’s just a puppet of fate.

There is an alternative to this, but it does not require escaping this universe. Rather it requires us to identify with the universe, and in effect to take up the position of the Demiurge. This is exactly how Crowley conceives of the Sphinx or the pyramid (or pentagram), which are described by the formula of Tetragrammaton, which is also the formula of the Demiurge.

As recounted in Ithell Colquhoun’s biography of Mathers, Crowley learned from Mathers the secret that the God worshipped in Judaism and Christianity—Jehovah—was in fact Samael, the Blind God. Samael is androgynous when combined with his female counterpart, Lilith. Together they form CHIVA, Chioa. That’s more or less how Crowley came to understand the Sphinx, as the combination of Babalon and the Beast. They are joined—and the pyramid is completed—by means of the formula of the Rose Cross.

This is a step along the way to the redemption of—not escape from—the manifest universe, Malkuth. This redemption does not occur through self-sacrifice or suffering but rather through love under will or Thelemic magick. The apotheosis of this path is to witness ALL change—every event—as an expression of cosmic love, the product of the intercourse between Hadit and Nuit. This perfect love of Nuit is identical with pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result. Thus is suffering overcome, not by escaping existence, but by being able to experience it as pure joy.

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No, you do not “need to get your Malkuth in order” to do magick

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I often encounter this meme that “you need to get your Malkuth in order” before pursuing magick. Here’s a recent example I heard of it:

In order to work on more subtle planes than Malkuth, you really need to have your Malkuth together. You need to be able to manifest yourself well and appropriately in Malkuth. If you’re having problems, if you’re struggling with your physical fitness or illness, emotional disregulation, anxiety, any of this, that needs to be reigned in and addressed, because it’s going to hamstring your ability to do anything more subtle than here on Malkuth.

This meme has a kernel of truth to it. If your life is in utter chaos, it’s going to be difficult having a spiritual practice of any kind. You don’t want to be a “magus” living in your mom’s garage.

But the problem is that it can be taken to imply a kind of perfectionism, where if I don’t have stability in my external environment, I don’t have a chance of doing anything meaningful with spirituality. Consider the following counterexamples:

(1) Aleister Crowley achieved Knowledge and Conversation by practicing the Bornless Ritual every day, in his astral temple, while traveling on horse through SE Asia, with his wive and infant daughter in tow, while sick with malaria.

(2) Karl Germer achieved Knowledge and Conversation by reciting the Holy Books from memory every day while in a Nazi concentration camp.

(3) Damien Echols achieved Knowledge and Conversation while on death row and getting his ass kicked by prison guards.

These were situations where individuals had either little or no control over their external environments, and yet they were not only able to do serious spiritual work, but the spiritual work probably helped them endure their material circumstances with more dignity and hope than they would have had otherwise.

My own experience tells me you can accomplish quite a bit with one hour of intense spiritual practice a day. More is better, but one hour will do. You need enough organization in your life that you can set aside that hour, and you need your emotional state stable enough that you can use that hour productively (i.e., achieve “good enough” concentration in it).

It’s relative to the individual. Crowley knew this. It’s why he rejected traditional yama and niyama or Buddhist sila.

Another angle to consider is that having a goal—really any goal, it doesn’t have to be spiritual—tends to “pull” the rest of your life into order. Wanting to climb a tall mountain is a stronger incentive to get into shape than doing it just because your doctor told you to.

Spirituality isn’t very different in kind. It’s why I rarely tell beginners to do the LBRP or Resh every day.

First of all, there are 20 books that already say that; no one needs me to repeat it. Secondly, I tell people set a high goal, like Knowledge and Conversation, and then figure out all the things you have to do to get there.

The best motivator is to think about the type of person you want to become and then figure out the atomic habits—the little things you must do every day—that will get you there.

If you think of yourself as someone who needs to “get their Malkuth in order,” you’re highly unlike to do it. If you think of yourself as someone becoming an Adept, then you’ll start thinking like an Adept. You’ll start performing those actions that an Adept would carry out, and little by little, you will make your way there.

Aim high, and live for the day.