The Law is for All

Jul. 24th, 2009

The practical politics of the Great Beast 666;

After reading several neo-traditionalist blogs about their approach to the Law of Thelema and their rhetorics against their ideological adversaries, I have begun to wonder: was the Great Beast 666 a Slave when he wrote the following item:( Read more... )

Tags: politics, thelema

Apr. 3rd, 2009

Review: Initiation in the Æon of the Child: The Inward Journey;

"Subject what you read here to the greatest scrutiny and skepticism. Remember, the author could be wrong!"-James Wasserman, preface to Initiation in the Æon of the Child;

I have heard that my enthusiasm for this book has been rather contagious. I believe that this is in part due to the fact that I generally tend to be very negative towards new works by members of our community.( Read more... )

Tags: a.'.a.'., magick, o.t.o., review, thelema

Mar. 29th, 2009

Review: To Perfect This Feast:

Here is a review I wrote of James and Nancy Wasserman's brilliant book "To Perfect This Feast." I can't recomend this book enough. I was looking forward to reading this book since certain quarters have claimed that it is "heretical," however I can't say I found anything of the sort in it and once again it seems that this is yet another histronic plea for attention from a certain contigent of malcontents within our ranks. I did however find the following inspiring words:( Read more... )

Tags: gnostic mass, review, thelema

Mar. 25th, 2009

To what end?

In 1917 e.v. Crowley published the Law of Liberty as a pamphlet and had plans for it to circulate it in the thousands to ordinary people. It was later republished in the Equinox III:1, but the 1917 e.v. pamphlet had one final section that is interesting, since it details what the Order was advertised and intended to function as. After an ecstatic call to "Lift yourself up" the following notice followed:( Read more... )

Tags: o.t.o., promulgation, thelema

Mar. 19th, 2009

The New Religion of Aiwaz;

I am still way too busy to continue my series, but I thought I would entertain you all with the following quote from the Great Beast 666:

"But somewhere in this there seems to have come the answer from Aiwaz, with a profound impression, that my Way is to promulgate the 'New Religion' by scattering the Word of Thelema in that practical political form adopted for 2[nd Degree] O.T.O."
-666 in his diary dated 24. may 1920 e.v.

Tags: promulgation, religion, thelema

Feb. 26th, 2009

Ignorance and Thelema;

"'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."-666, Duty B:2;

( Read more... )

Tags: discourse, thelema

Feb. 16th, 2009

The Great Beast 666 on the business of O.T.O.;

"Observe: the business before the meetings is this: How shall we put into effect the Law of Thelema. We have the Law allready; I don't see that we need any more knowledge; but we need very badly the power to administer it. I think I've been making a fool of myself, thinking and talking and writing. What I need is efficiency in promulgation."
-666 to 777, An XII, sol in cancer, luna in pisces.

Tags: o.t.o., promulgation

Dec. 5th, 2008

THELEMA and the discourse of Religion;

I recently chanced upon the following survey created by John Crow as part of his graduate studies in methodology. It is an extremely poorly constructed survey, even for someone still in training at a University and one would hope that they teach the creator of it, how to construct proper surveys of this nature in the future. Contrary to popular opinion on the internet, surveys like this demands a lot of preparatory work in order to be valid for analysis. That being said, it was an interesting topic he had chosen and one that obviously is at the forefront of the discourse existing within the larger community of Thelema and I decided to post an expanded and revised version of my reply on this blog.( Read more... )

Tags: religion, thelema

Oct. 28th, 2008

The Promulgation of the Law of Thelema: an historical overview;

It has been suggested to me, largely as a result of an erroneous reading of Magick Without Tears that not only were the promulgation and establishment of the Law of Thelema something Crowley grew increasingly conservative and insular about, but he also changed his mind about the social nature of the O.T.O. in general and the Gnostic Mass in particular. I have heard variations of this idea since I started making myself familiar with the Law of Thelema in general and the O.T.O. in particular. In part this has been largely fueled by Kenneth Grant's self-serving and selective quoting from a letter Crowley wrote in 1941 e.v. to Karl Germer about him taking charge of the Order and revising it. What Grant didn't quote however was that the part that noted that the change would take into account the model promulgated in the Blue Equinox and that the broad public association would be organized through the Gnostic Mass. Because of this and other considerations, I thought it would be interesting to give my readers a broad overview of how the Promulgation of the Law of Thelema developed historically.( Read more... )

Tags: o.t.o., promulgation, thelema

Oct. 12th, 2008

Sunday lesson: Strict but not too strict;

"Our initial results show that when pastors of liberal denominations attempt to increase their congregations' tension with society, they experience an increase in organizational vitality. Conversely, when pastors of liberal denominations attempt to further reduce their congregations' tension with society, they continue to lose organizational vitality."

The above quote is from "The New Holy Clubs: Testing Church-to-Sect Propositions" by Finke and Stark and I urge everyone to check out this highly interesting and on-topic article that

jetsiva referred me to, which investigates the third proposition discussed on this blog: that religious movements in order to attain success needs to be "strict but not too strict," as it relates to the Sects and Churches. The article as indicated by the title addresses whether or not it is possible to reverse the trend (a religious movement moving from being a Sect to a Church) and whether or not this along with Stark's theory will lead to increased success.

As shown in the quote above, it casts a dim light of those reformers who thinks reduction of tension is the way to go in order to increase relevancy and membership numbers. In fact it underscores the importance of continued focus on strictness, a process we have seen happening within the O.T.O. and E.G.C. for the last two decades and how far from being a tactical error as one individual suggested, it is what if continued will secure us continued growth and future relevancy.

Tags: resources & the o.t.o. (series)

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Oct. 9th, 2008

Friday lesson: Cultural continuity, secular people and rules of engagement;

I see that there is a great deal of confusion about the meaning of the variables I am using. Among other things there has been ludicrous (for anyone who knows something about what the variable indicates and what constitutes the Law of Thelema) statements that Thelema shares little in the way of cultural continuity with western culture. Some of this should be clear to anyone who has read closely the series "Resources and the O.T.O." from beginning to end, but since there are still quite a few misconceptions I thought I ought to write a clarifying post that hopefully clears up some misconceptions.( Read more... )

Tags: resources & the o.t.o. (series), rules of engagement, variables

Oct. 6th, 2008

Resources and the O.T.O. - Part III: Adequate tension with the surroundings;

This is part three of a series of posts that attempts to give a brief evaluation of Crowley's ideas for how to organize Thelema, given the constraints on how to successfully organize new religious movements as advanced by Rodney Stark. It will address the discrepancy between how Crowley wanted to organize and how he actually organized it and how his successes and failures can be predicted using Stark's model. Before you read this part I suggest you read the previous posts in the series. The series will be organized around the ten propositions Stark's model advances and in this part we will address the importance of adequate tension with the surroundings.( Read more... )

Tags: resources & the o.t.o. (series)

Sep. 13th, 2008

Resources and the O.T.O. - Part II: A Church of Magic;

This is part two of a series of posts that attempts to give a brief evaluation of Crowley's ideas for how to organize Thelema, given the constraints on how to successfully organize new religious movements as advanced by Rodney Stark. It will address the discrepancy between how Crowley wanted to organize and how he actually organized it and how his successes and failures can be predicted using Stark's model. Before you read this part I suggest you read the previous posts in the series. The series will be organized around the ten propositions Stark's model advances and in this part we will address the problem of organizing a Church of Magic.( Read more... )

Tags: resources & the o.t.o. (series)

Resources and the O.T.O. - Part I: Cultural continuity;

This is part one of a series of posts that attempts to give a brief evaluation of Crowley's ideas for how to organize Thelema, given the constraints on how to successfully organize new religious movements as advanced by Rodney Stark. It will address the discrepancy between how Crowley wanted to organize and how he actually organized it and how his successes and failures can be predicted using Stark's model. Before you read this part I suggest you read the introduction to the series as it gives a brief overview of the model I am using and addresses some initial concerns people might have over it. The series will be organized around the ten propositions Stark's model advances and in this part we will address Cultural continuity.( Read more... )

Tags: resources & the o.t.o. (series)

Resources and the O.T.O. - Introduction: What constitutes a successful Religious Movement;

As some perhaps will know there exists within the field of the sociology of religion, models that are able to differentiate between and predict successful and unsuccessful new religious movements. Success in these models are in general measured along the lines of group cohesion, happy and satisfied membership, influence, numbers and real life accomplishments such as real property, schools and the like. What is perhaps the most fascinating with these models is that studies supports their contention that doctrines, as long as they do not interfere with the successful organizing of the movement, have very little correlation with the success or lack of success it experiences.( Read more... )

Tags: resources & the o.t.o. (series)

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The Law is for All

Jul. 24th, 2009

The practical politics of the Great Beast 666;

Apr. 3rd, 2009

Review: Initiation in the Æon of the Child: The Inward Journey;

Mar. 29th, 2009

Review: To Perfect This Feast:

Mar. 25th, 2009

To what end?

Mar. 19th, 2009

The New Religion of Aiwaz;

Feb. 26th, 2009

Ignorance and Thelema;

Feb. 16th, 2009

The Great Beast 666 on the business of O.T.O.;

Dec. 5th, 2008

THELEMA and the discourse of Religion;

Oct. 28th, 2008

The Promulgation of the Law of Thelema: an historical overview;

Oct. 12th, 2008

Sunday lesson: Strict but not too strict;

Oct. 9th, 2008

Friday lesson: Cultural continuity, secular people and rules of engagement;

Oct. 6th, 2008

Resources and the O.T.O. - Part III: Adequate tension with the surroundings;

Sep. 13th, 2008

Resources and the O.T.O. - Part II: A Church of Magic;

Resources and the O.T.O. - Part I: Cultural continuity;

Resources and the O.T.O. - Introduction: What constitutes a successful Religious Movement;

July 2009

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