What’s a Thelemite?

A Thelemite is used in the modern day to refer to an adherent of the faith Thelema. The faith came about when Aleister Crowley claimed that Aiwaz his Holy Guardian Angel communicated the message from the dual/triune/four-part deity of Thelema. The deity of the religion is the goddess of infinite space and experience Nuit and the experiencer or the centre of everyone and everything, Hadit. When they are united the result is their twin child Heru-ra-ha who speaks as Ra-Hoor-Khuit and has a silent unspeaking part Hoor-Par-Kraat. The speaking child appears to symbolise the total death of ego and the ecstasy of direct experience of reality. The deities’ names have Egyptian origins but do not necessarily reflect the nature of the Egyptian deities themselves.

Most practitioners of this faith call themselves Thelemites. The term Thelemite is drawn from the Book of the where Nuit says “Who calls us Thelemites shall do no wrong”. It is entirely possible Nuit was referring to the deities (Nuit and Hadit) and not the initiates of the religion.

Do What Thou Wilt Shall be the Whole of the Law

The most commonly quoted part of the revealed scripture is the line “Do what thou will shall be the whole of the Law”. This means to convey that the divine and natural law has been replaced. The world has changed from a world where god gives unquestionable commands to mankind, like a worried parent with foolish children, to a world where the child has grown to manhood and is allowed to decide for himself what he should do. Instead of having texts like the 10 Commandments, human beings are expected to decide their own morality. It is worth noting that this is natural law and not positive law. So mankind may still make their own government laws which go beyond the natural law, but that we should recognise that mankind’s nature might not reflect such restrictions.

Every man and every woman is a star

The main tenant of the faith is that every person is in some way a deity. No matter how unaware of that part of themselves they are still god of their own existence. They also have a divinely granted Will or fate which they have granted themselves. Every person can fulfil their Will without preventing another person from fulfilling theirs. This is expressed by the most common phrase quoted from the scripture, the Book of the Law. The sentence is “Do What Thou Wilt shall be the whole of the law”. This is seen in Wicca as “And it harm none, do what thou wilt.” where it attempts to make it more acceptable to the many. The truth of Thelema is harder to grasp in that if your divinely self-granted Will is to harm people then you should because it is that person’s Will to be harmed. A distinction should also be made between natural law and positive law. The book speaks of the natural law of the universe, which is that the universe has no poor karma for people who do their divine Will, but the positive law of mankind which seeks to create a safer society where a person might be jailed for doing something, even if it is divinely desired.

Pure Ecstasy Forever

The second main tenant of the faith is that the natural state of the universe is ecstasy, but we get too bogged down in reason and identity to allow us to experience it therefore we experience suffering and slavery. Thelemites unite with the deity often through uniting with their own experience of life and through ecstatic rituals to experience the natural state of the universe.

The New Aeon

The faith was born in a land oppressed by Christian morality and subservience to deity, which it abhors, fiercely proclaiming Christianity to be a slave religion. It proclaims the true religion is to be free of oppression so one can experience extreme liberalism. Believing sin has any power at all is damned in the religion as allowing oppression by allowing someone to control you with rules.

Elitism

The faith often comes under fire because it has a certain elitism surrounding how free its adherents are able to be and its encouragement of pride, sinfulness, and drug use. The prophet of the new Aeon, as he was known by adherents, Aleister Crowley, was a drug addict like many of the upper gentry of his time. Drugs did not have the reputation they do now and cocaine was often prescribed for toothache for example. He was also very sexually active in a way that was unacceptable in the Christian society at the time and had both male and female sexual partners. He criticized Christians, Jews, and Muslims for their faith, but his comments on Judaism are often represented as a form of anti-semitism, but they are as equally poor as his comments about Christianity. His comments were frequently outlandish, exaggerated and designed to shock or turn away the superstitious or closed-minded. It was not unusual for him to say things like “I sacrifice 150 babies a year” probably referring to sperm he ejaculated. He did not help things, by exaggeration, but the origins and sources of his practices are very clear. See for example the Collect of the Saints in his Gnostic Mass ritual where he attempts to call upon nearly every dead author or wizard of legend as a saint to aid the ritual. It almost acts as a bibliography of his spiritual symbols and ideas.

Scientific Illuminism

The faith tries to avoid teaching metaphysical truths but instead teaches practices. It suggests that Magick and Mysticism is a science like Alchemy and the truth can be discovered through experimentation. This process of achieving mystical ascent (or illuminism) is achieved through practice and experimentation (which is deemed scientific investigation). So the process is termed Scientific Illuminism.

The concept was conveyed in a poem which reads:

We put no reliance
in virgin or pigeon,
our method is science,
our aim is religion.

Aleister Crowley

While there is a lot of inconsistency between Thelemites, they all agree that Liber Al vel Legis or the Book the Law (revealed in 1908) is a revelation of worth, no matter where it comes from, and other documents classified as perfect revelations of the divine, demonstrate states of mystical ascent and can be used to measure and lead mystical ascension like signposts on the path. Many believers in the faith practice a mystical ascent by trying to attain knowledge and conversation with their own Holy Guardian Angel (a sort of transcendent personal deity), but the Judeo-Christian nature of the ritual is removed. When K and C of the HGA has been achieved an initiate can try to cross the abyss between our reality and the next. Many adherents feel little need for any mystical ascent, or do not feel they are ready for it, so they do not practice these things, but they still believe in the faith.

Impact

The writings of Aleister Crowley, in particular, the gnostic mass and Liber ABA (book 4) had a huge influence of Gardiner’s development of Wicca to the point where there is little of his original book of shadows that could have actually come from the New Forest Coven as he claimed.

Aleister Crowley left behind two major organizations: The Ordo Templi Orientis (or Order of the Eastern Templars) and the A.’. A.’.. The Ordo Templi Orientis, which is a pseudo-masonic order which accepted the new Law, attempts to manifest the 4 rays of the new Law: Liberty, Love, Life, and Light in society. The A.’. A.’.’s true name is only known to its initiates and should not be uttered aloud by initiates, but some suggest that its letters stand for the Angel and Abyss. It trains in Thelemic Mysticism. Both the OTO and the A.’. A.’. stopped for a few years, but continued by the same people. There is usually an unbroken line going back to Aleister Crowley and Samuel Mathers.

Thelemites often greet each other with “Do What Thou Wilt shall be the Whole of the Law”, to which the customary response is “Love is the Law, Love under Will.” This is their attempt to remind each other to use their freedom, and to enjoy life. This greeting is very common in the OTO. These phrases also begin and end letters. Often to shorten it the entire expression is reduced to “ninety-three” or “93”, which is the gematria value of both Thelema and Agapae (Will and Love in Greek). In Letters when 93 is used to open the letter, where it would close with “Love is the Law, Love under Will” instead “93/93” is written as short-hand for “Love under Will”.

See also other types of Magical Practitioner.