26 Facts About Thelema

Thelema is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley, an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician.

Adherents to Thelema are called Thelemites, and phenomena within the scope of Thelema are termed Thelemic.

Thelema associated Thelemic spiritual practice with concepts rooted in occultism, yoga, and Eastern and Western mysticism, especially the Qabalah.

Some scholars, such as Hugh Urban, believe Thelema to have been an influence on the development of Scientology, but others, such as J Gordon Melton, argue against there being a connection.

Since Crowley's death, various adherents to Thelema, including direct disciples of Crowley himself, have made significant contributions to the propagation of and discussion surrounding the religion.

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Our Thelema is that of The Book of the Law and the writings of Aleister Crowley.

Thelema said that Rabelais confines himself to portraying an ideal, rather than addressing questions of political economy and similar subjects, which must be solved in order to realize the Law.

Thelema asks if Wilkes would have recognized a genuine Catholic Mass, even if he saw it himself and even if the underground version followed its public model precisely.

Aleister Crowley's system of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law, which bears the official name Liber AL vel Legis.

Thelema's is the night sky arched over the Earth symbolized in the form of a naked woman.

Thelema's is conceived as the "Great Mother", the ultimate source of all things, the collection of all possibilities, "Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof", and the circumference of an infinite circle or sphere.

Second principal deity of Thelema is the god Hadit, conceived as the infinitely small point, complement and consort of Nuit.

Thelema is symbolized as a throned man with the head of a hawk who carries a wand.

Thelema is associated with the Sun and the active energies of Thelemic magick.

Thelema identified the True Will of each individual with the Holy Guardian Angel, a daimon unique to each individual.

Some interpreters of Thelema believe that this right includes an obligation to allow others to do their own wills without interference, but Liber AL makes no clear statement on the matter.

Many adherents of Thelema recognize correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from the methods and practices of other traditions, including alchemy, astrology, qabalah, tantra, tarot divination and yoga.

Thelema recommended magick as a means for discovering the True Will.

Generally, magical practices in Thelema are designed to assist in finding and manifesting the True Will, although some include celebratory aspects as well.

Thelema recommended a number of these practices to his followers, including: basic yoga ; rituals of his own devising or based on those of the Golden Dawn, such as the lesser ritual of the pentagram, for banishing and invocation; Liber Samekh, a ritual for the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; eucharistic rituals such as The Gnostic Mass and The Mass of the Phoenix; and Liber Resh, consisting of four daily adorations to the sun.

Thelema tied this to the necessity of keeping a magical record or diary, that attempts to list all conditions of the event.

The central philosophy of Thelema is in two phrases from Liber AL: "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" and "love is the law, love under will".

Grant promoted what he termed the Typhonian or Draconian tradition of magic, and wrote that Thelema was only a recent manifestation of this wider tradition.

Thelema believed that by mastering magic, one masters this illusory universe, gaining personal liberation and recognising that only the Self really exists.

Thelema believed that the reality of consciousness, which he deemed the only true reality, was formless and thus presented as a void, although he taught that it was symbolised by the Hindu goddess Kali and the Thelemic goddess Nuit.

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Thelema thought that because women have kalas, they have oracular and visionary powers.