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| Home > Article Library > Magick > New Aeon > Chapter 9 | Search |
| New Aeon Magick Chapter 9 by Garald Campo |
WHY THELEMA?
"The old gods are dead or dying and people everywhere are
searching, asking: What is the new mythology to be?"
Joseph Campbell
***
As you read this book you may be asking yourself: Why would
anyone want to attune to a new form of thought while there are
already very powerful, well organized religions, which have had
the benefit of thousands of years of trial and error?
The answer is quite simple: There is a phenomena which occurs in
the Universe every 2,000 years called "The Equinox of The Gods".
At this time there is a change in the Universal unconscious which
dominates the evolutionary process of humans. The different
shifts are represented by gods (usually Egyptian) who's virtues
will demonstrate the fate of the next reign. There have been (so
far as we have archaeological data) three such "shifts" in the
evolution of humanity:
1) The Aeon of Isis. This period was matriarchal. Women were
worshiped as Gods for their ability to give birth, nurture, and
otherwise care for their young. The tribes were ruled by Queens,
and the women were viewed as the strong ones. There are
indications that women did the hunting and fought battles along
side of men. It was a time of great respect for nature, as
people learned to love Her and live in harmony with Her.
2) The next Aeon was ruled by Osiris. Osiris was killed by his
jealous brother Set who cut him into pieces and threw him into
the Nile. His wife Isis, stricken with grief, gathered all of
his body parts and used the Magick of Thoth (Lord of Magick) to
resurrect Osiris. It was the era of the "sacrificial Gods". It
marked the beginning of Judaism and Christianity. This change
occurred when man realized that he had something to do with
conception, primarily; insemination. Suddenly, women were
treated as second rate citizens, weaker, and not as intelligent
as men. Man was no longer to live in harmony with Nature, man
was to have dominion over Her. Mankind was to serve the male god
as slaves. The last traces of this oppressive era are still
with us today. We can see its influence on the environment, in
South Africa, et cetera.
3) In 1904 another such shift occurred. The angel Aiwaz
dictated the three fold "Book of The Law" and proclaimed that
Horus, the hawk-headed God, had taken his place in the Throne of
the Gods. Aleister Crowley, Victorian Age Magician, was to be
the conduit. This era marks the Aeon of the Child, the word of
whose Law is: THELEMA. This Law encompasses all True Religions,
and is capable of great tolerance which is essential to protect
the diversity it indoctrinates. Here we are dealing with the
liberation of the human race from those which have oppressed us.
Horus is the Egyptian God of war, and recently, we have seen him
do his thing in Germany (at the Berlin Wall), Yugoslavia, Poland,
The Soviet Union, South Korea, and Tienamen Square in China. The
masses cry for Freedom.
The Aeon of Osiris has had a very strong influence in the last
2,000 years. Even those who did not subscribe to its dogma are
influenced by it one way or another. Most codes of morality are
based upon its principles. This has been the case for so long
that we are presented with the opportunity to reflect on it and
see how its poison has effected the world.
It has portrayed women as trouble makers, people who cannot keep
secrets, weaker and not as intelligent as men, not trustworthy.
It has even gone as far as explaining the pain of child birth and
menstrual bleeding as punishments by God for having deceived man.
Women in this day are still fighting for the equality which they
deserve.
It has led man believe that Nature cannot go on without him. All
we have to do is watch TV or read a newspaper to find out what a
great impact we have made and how much good we have contributed
to the environment. It is inconceivable that after millions of
years of evolution there are still people who really believe
Nature is to be dominated. We are told that God doesn't live
here, and we are discouraged from showing affection or allegiance
to the Earth. We can already see what this kind of thinking has
done to the condition of our Mother.
The Church will not condone the use of condoms. It believes that
people should just "not do it". As a result the rate of unwanted
pregnancy is increasing at an alarming rate, not to mention the
sexually transmitted diseases which are destroying so many
peoples lives. It is curious to see that the same people who
oppose birth control also oppose abortion, sex education, and
Planned Parenthood. Abortion would cease to exist if education
and birth control technology was not obstructed by religious
zealots. When it comes to human sexuality, we are still in the
Dark Ages.
During the "Inquisition" thousands of innocent people were
tortured and killed in the name of God. Many of these people
were often women (mid-wives) who happened to be taking business
away from the growing medical profession. Things have not
changed much since those days. In some states they want to jail
midwives who perform their services to couples who have lost
their faith in "the scientific age". In all, most decisions our
political leaders make abide in some form or another with old
Aeon ideas, with very little regard to common sense and
intelligence, and even less consideration to the rights of the
individual.
The burning and censoring of books and Art still occurs today.
Others have controlled what we watch, see, eat, and listen to.
We have been taught that any deviance from conventional religion
is "Satanic", evil, etc. On August 15th 1989 The Fundamentalist
Movement declared on national television that the Star of David,
the Pentagram, and even the Peace sign are signs of the Devil.
The Hexagram; a geometric representation of God, the Pentagram; a
geometric representation of Man, the Peace sign; a symbol of
Utopian society.
It is easy to see the impact this kind of thinking has had on our
global evolutionary development: Brother has turned against
brother for the sake of tradition, as in the case of the Catholic
Priest Michael Molinos. This devoted priest was sent to prison
to serve a life sentence because he published a book in which he
taught that "inward prayer" (meditation) was more effective than
outward prayer. This would have made confession via a priest
obsolete. The fact that at the time of his arrest he was one of
the most devout members of The Church had very little influence
on the power hungry individuals who condemned him. The name of
the book he wrote is: "The Spiritual Guide of Michael Molinos".
I strongly recommend it as a guide to developing a PERSONAL
relationship with God.
Fundamentalism spends millions of dollars in printed material
every year to encourage new membership while there are millions
of homeless men, women, and children who could be helped by these
same dollars. It is obvious that the priority is membership
rather than service.
For the last 2,000 years we have been told that sex is filthy.
Love-making is to be done only for the purposes of pro-creation.
This mentality is responsible for a great percentage of violent
sexual crimes, child abuse, sexual dysfunctions, psychosis, etc.
The beauty and selflessness of giving one's self to another has
been turned into a hideous crime against God.
We are told not to question the Scriptures. Man has become lazy
and gullible as a result. We don't question anything and believe
all we are told. You are expected to refrain from your own
interpretation of the Scriptures in fear that you might find
truth therein. To guard against this; the Scriptures have been
altered so much that no one knows the truth any more. This has
effected the way we view life in general. We do not question
what our politicians do, what they spray in our food, what they
put into the ground, etc. And when we do ask; we believe
everything they tell us. THELEMA demands that one think for
themselves.
A newborn child is the most innocent and pure of all things. Yet
children are baptized by parents who have been forced to believe
the child is unclean because it is born through sin. This is an
insult and shows to what degree and for what "reasons" we do the
things we do.
Religious zealots have created a group mind which welcomes the
destruction of the planet. It is held to be a fact that before
the "savior" comes back the world must first face a terrible
ordeal. "Revelation" clearly marks the end of the Osirian
Aeon, but it is seen through the eyes of the vulgar as the end of
the world. This "group mind" has greatly effected the condition
of the planet. We have a duty to return to Nature what belongs
to Her.
There was a time when it took years to get from one part of the
country to another. We can now do it in a matter of hours; we
have reduced the world to a speck of dust. With all of this
technology there are still people dying of hunger all over the
world. Wars are being fought to keep something or to take
something from someone else. When religion stands in the way of
evolution or the creation of Utopia, it is time for a NEW
Religion.
These old ideas cannot help us to further our evolutionary
objective; they are full of hate and bigotry and can do nothing
more than to hold the human race back. The world needs an
alternative: True Freedom. The world needs the Freedom
necessary to fulfill itself as best as it can without the
interference of a twisted demented creed that was designed
specifically to control people. Nature needs to have its respect
from Man. We must learn to work with Her, not against Her, and
then perhaps we can stop the destruction of the planet.
With all that's been said above, it is hard to understand why
anyone would bother with Religion in the first place. The answer
is quite simple: Man is made up of Physical, Mental, and
Spiritual matter. To deny any of these aspects a means of
expressing itself would cause a involuntary imbalance in our
natural make-up. Also, Religion and Myth are the tools The
Beloved uses to create the beings which we have chosen to become;
just as the potter uses the wheel and the kiln to create
something which only a few moments ago existed in the imagination
of the creator.
Thelema offers the solution to the imbalance created by such an
oppressive society. As humans, it is our duty to carry the
vision of future generations on our shoulders, by evolving. This
is "The Great Work". One day The Aeon of Horus will pass, and
Thelema will no longer be the Word of the Law, and a new Order
will rule for an Aeon. There will be other battles and
principles, and it is my guess that we will be here once again to
fight for them.
The following thesis is based on the code of conduct who accept
the Law of Thelema.
DUTY
by
ALEISTER CROWLEY
(A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be
observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema.)
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."
"[...] thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and
no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose,
delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect."
"Love is the law, love under will."
"Every man and every woman is a star."
A. YOUR DUTY TO YOURSELF
1. Find yourself to be the centre of your own Universe.
"I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the
core of every star."
2. Explore the Nature and Powers of your own Being.
This includes everything which is, or can be for you; and
you must accept everything exactly as it is in itself, as one
of the factors which go to make up your True Self. This
True Self thus ultimately includes all things soever; its
discovery is Initiation (the traveling inwards) and as its
Nature is to move continually, it must be understood not as
static, but as dynamic, not as a Noun but as a Verb.
3. Develop in due harmony and proportion every faculty which you
possess.
"Wisdom says: be strong!"
"But exceed! exceed!"
"Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and
rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this."
4. Contemplate your own Nature.
Consider every element thereof both separately and in
relation to all the rest as to judge accurately the true
purpose of the totality of your Being.
5. Find the formula of this purpose, or "True Will," in an
expression as simple as possible.
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.
6. 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 skillful 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.
7. Never permit the thought or will of any other Being to
interfere with your own.
Be constantly vigilant to resent, and on the alert to
resist, with unvanquishable ardour and vehemence of
passion unquenchable, every attempt of any other Being to
influence you otherwise than by contributing new facts to
your experience of the Universe, or by assisting you to
reach a higher synthesis of Truth by the mode of passionate
fusion.
8. Do not repress or restrict any true instinct of your Nature;
but devote all in perfection to the sole service of your one
True Will.
"Be goodly therefore"
"The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy
wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is
no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a
curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell.
"So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do
that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged
of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is
every way perfect."
"Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye
shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the
earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and
so shall ye come to my joy."
9. Rejoice!
"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."
"But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Let the rituals be
rightly performed with joy & beauty! [...] A feast for fire
and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater
feast for death! A feast every day in your hearts in
the joy of my rapture! A feast every night unto Nu,
and the pleasure of uttermost delight! Aye! feast!
rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the
dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu."
"Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in
our passionate peace, & write sweet words for the Kings!"
"Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall
be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be
the seal of the promise of our agelong love. Come! lift
up thine heart & rejoice!"
"Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us.
They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of
us. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious
languor, force and fire, are of us."
B. YOUR DUTY TO OTHER INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN
1. "Love is the law, love under will."
Unite yourself passionately with every other form of
consciousness, thus destroying the sense of separateness from
the Whole, and creating a new base-line in the Universe from
which to measure it.
2. "As brothers fight ye!"
"If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him."
To bring out saliently the differences between two
points-of-view is useful to both in measuring the position
of each in the whole. Combat stimulates the virile or
creative energy; and, like love, of which it is one form,
excites the mind to an orgasm which enables it to transcend
its rational dullness.
3. Abstain from all interferences with other wills.
"Beware lest any force another, King against King!"
(The love and war in the previous injunctions are of the
nature of sport, where one respects, and learns from the
opponent, but never interferes with him, outside the actual
game.) To seek to dominate or influence another is to
seek to deform or destroy him; and he is a necessary part
of one's own Universe, that is, of one's self.
4. Seek, if you so will, to enlighten another when need arises.
This may be done, always with the strict respect for the
attitude of the good sportsman, when he is in distress
through failure to understand himself clearly,
especially when he specifically demands help; for his
darkness may hinder one's perception of his perfection.
(Yet also his darkness may serve as a warning, or excite
one's interest.) It is also lawful when his ignorance has
lead him to interfere with one's will. All interference
is in any case dangerous, and demands the exercise of
extreme skill and good judgment, fortified by experience.
To influence another is to leave one's citadel unguarded;
and the attempt commonly ends in losing one's own self-
supremacy.
5. Worship all!
"Every man and every woman is a star."
"Mercy let be off; damn them who pity!"
"We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them
die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the
vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is
the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the
world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die:
verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be
understood: if the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain
in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the
servants of the Star & the Snake."
Each being is, exactly as you are, the sole centre of a
Universe in no wise identical with, or even assimilable to,
your own. The impersonal Universe of "Nature" is only an
abstraction, approximately true, of the factors which it
is convenient to regard as common to all. The Universe of
another is therefore necessarily unknown to, and
unknowable by, you; but it induces currents of energy in
yours by determining in part your reactions. Use men
and women, therefore, with the absolute respect due to
inviolable standards of measurement; verify your own
observations by comparison with similar judgments made by
them; and, studying the methods which determine their failure
or success, acquire for yourself the wit and skill required
to cope with your own problems.
C. YOUR DUTY TO MANKIND
1. Establish the Law of Thelema as the sole basis of conduct.
The general welfare of the race being necessary in many
respects to your own, that well-being, like your own,
principally a function of the intelligent and wise
observance of the Law of Thelema, it is of the very first
importance to you that every individual should accept
frankly that Law, and strictly govern himself in full
accordance therewith.
You may regard the establishment of the Law of Thelema as an
essential element of your True Will, since, whatever the
ultimate nature of that Will, the evident condition of
putting it into execution is freedom from external
interference.
Governments often exhibit the most deplorable stupidity,
however enlightened may be the men who compose and
constitute them, or the people whose destinies they direct.
It is therefore incumbent on every man and woman to take
the proper steps to cause the revisions of all existing
statutes on the basis of the Law of Thelema. This Law being
a Law of Liberty, the aim of the legislation must be to
secure the amplest freedom for each individual in the
state, eschewing the presumptuous assumption that any
given positive ideal is worthy to be obtained.
"The word of Sin is Restriction."
The essence of crime is that it restricts the freedom of
the individual outraged. (Thus, murder restricts his right
to live; robbery, his right to enjoy the fruits of his
labour; coining, his right to the guarantee of the state
that he shall barter in security; etc.) It is then the
common duty to prevent crime by segregating the criminal,
and by the threat of reprisals; also, to teach the criminal
that his acts, being analyzed, are contrary to his own True
Will. (This may often be accomplished by taking from him
the right which he has denied to others; as by outlawing the
thief, so that he feels constant anxiety for the safety of
his own possessions, removed from the ward of the State.)
The rule is quite simple.
He who violated any right declares magically that it does
not exist; therefore it no longer does so, for him.
Crime being a direct spiritual violation of the Law of
Thelema, it should not be tolerated in the community. Those
who possess the instinct should be segregated in a
settlement to build up a state of their own, so to learn
the necessity of themselves imposing and maintaining
rules of justice. All artificial crimes should be
abolished. When fantastic restrictions disappear, the
greater freedom of the individual will itself teach him to
avoid acts which really restrict natural rights. Thus real
crime will diminish dramatically.
The administration of the Law should be simplified by
training men of uprightness and discretion whose will is
to fulfill this function in the community to decide all
complaints by the abstract principle of the Law of Thelema,
and to award judgment on the basis of the actual
restriction caused by the offense.
The ultimate aim is thus to reintegrate conscience, on true
scientific principles, as the warden of conduct, the monitor
of the people, and the guarantee of the governors.
D. YOUR DUTY TO ALL OTHER BEINGS AND THINGS
1. Apply the Law of Thelema to all problems of fitness, use, and
development.
It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to abuse the natural
qualities of any animal or object by diverting it from its
proper function, as determined by consideration of its
history and structure. Thus, to train children to perform
mental operations, or to practice tasks, for which they are
unfitted, is a crime against nature. Similarly, to build
houses of rotten material, to adulterate food, to destroy
forests, etc., etc., is to offend.
The Law of Thelema is to be applied unflinchingly to decide
every question of conduct. The inherent fitness of any thing
for any proposed use should be the sole criterion.
Apparent, and sometimes even real, conflict between
interests will frequently arise. Such cases are to be
decided by the general value of the contending parties in
the scale of Nature. Thus, a tree has a right to its
life; but a man being more than a tree, he may cut it
down for fuel or shelter when need arises. Even so, let
him remember that the Law never fails to avenge infractions:
as when wanton deforestation has ruined a climate or a
soil, or as when the importation of rabbits for a cheap
supply of food has created a plague.
Observe that the violation of the Law of Thelema produces
cumulative ills. The drain of the agricultural population to
big cities, due chiefly to persuading them to abandon their
natural ideals, has not only made the country less
tolerable to the peasant, but debauched the town. And the
error tends to increase in geometrical progression, until a
remedy has become almost inconceivable and the whole
structure of society is threatened with ruin.
The wise application based on observation and experience of
the Law of Thelema is to work in conscious harmony
with Evolution. Experiments in creation, involving
variation from existing types, are lawful and necessary.
Their value is to be judged by their fertility as bearing
witness to their harmony with the course of nature towards
perfection.
***
A BETTER SOCIETY
"Monarchy is based on the premise that one man is wiser than one
million men. Democracy is based on the premise that a million
men are wiser than one man. Both ideas are absurd."
Robert Heinlein
***
The following is a manuscript written by Aleister Crowley
describing the nature of the most elemental rights of every Star.
It must be remembered that it was written at a time when the
English language was male dominated. Since I am not the author
of this piece I am obligated to present it in its original form.
LIBER LXXVII
OZ: "the law of
the strong:
this is our law
and the joy
of the world."
AL.II.21
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." -AL.I.40
"thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other
shall say nay." -AL.I.42-3
"Every man and every woman is a star." -AL.I.3
There is no god but man.
1. Man has the right to live by his own law-
to live in the way that he wills to do:
to work as he will:
to play as he will:
to rest as he will:
to die when and how he will:
2. Man has the right to eat what he will:
to drink what he will:
to dwell where he will:
to move as he will on the face of the earth.
3. Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will:
4. Man has the right to love as he will:--
"take your fill and will of love as ye will,
when, where, and with whom ye will." --AL.I.51.
5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these
rights.
"the slaves shall serve." --AL.II.58.
"Love is the law, love under will." --AL.I.57.
