How to appreciate Crowley?

Grigori

Thanks for the quote Ross. :)
 

Babylon_Jasmine

Lillie said:
The laws of Thelema.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
Love is the law, Love under will.

Well, there are a thousand ways of interpreting that, some good, some bad. I could make a good case for it being a fair way for everyone to live their lives, but it is just my interpretation and manipulation of the words.

If you look at the laws of thelema out of context there are a thousand ways to interpret them. However they are quotes from the book of the law and taken in that context they are a bit cruel. Crowley is very specific about what the laws mean. They aren't a license to libertinage, but they are a call to cruelty to the weak.
 

anion-

Well, I am not a great fan of Crowley but, I am a great fan of the Thoth deck.
I don't have to like someone personally to acknowledge talent. Many of the most talented people in the world have some very unique personality problems.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Babylon_Jasmine said:
If you look at the laws of thelema out of context there are a thousand ways to interpret them. However they are quotes from the book of the law and taken in that context they are a bit cruel. Crowley is very specific about what the laws mean. They aren't a license to libertinage, but they are a call to cruelty to the weak.

I believe thelema can be a license to libertinage, or to the strictest discipline - whatever you will.

If I want to be a libertine, I will.

If I want to be kind to those weaker than I, I will.

I am free.
 

Babylon_Jasmine

Ross G Caldwell said:
I believe thelema can be a license to libertinage, or to the strictest discipline - whatever you will.

If I want to be a libertine, I will.

If I want to be kind to those weaker than I, I will.

I am free.

Then you have not read Crowley's notes on the Law. Want and Will are not the same. Do as Thou Will is not the same as do as thou want. Crowley believed very strongly in a personal higher nature and a true will of each person. Often you don't want to do what you are willed to do. And he also specifically says in the book of the law to be without mercy.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Babylon_Jasmine said:
Then you have not read Crowley's notes on the Law. Want and Will are not the same. Do as Thou Will is not the same as do as thou want. Crowley believed very strongly in a personal higher nature and a true will of each person. Often you don't want to do what you are willed to do. And he also specifically says in the book of the law to be without mercy.

Thank you for your teaching. However, I know my Will, and I can do what I want. So can you.

Please "be without mercy" - whatever you think that means. Do what thou wilt. But if you act that way with normal people, I expect the stronger ones will quickly prove more merciless than you, and you will have to rethink your interpretation of that verse.
 

Lillie

Yes, I said the 'do what thou wilt...' thing as thelema in a nutshell. I am hardly going to give an exposition on the whole of the book of the law here on AT!

Never the less, I have read the book of the law, and the commentaries.
Christians to the lions and all that.

I do know that thelemic will is 'true will', not just want, as you so clearly state.

I do not feel that I have taken the laws of Thelema out of context, Crowley himself used the 'do what thou wilt...' thing as a sort of catch phrase for the whole.

And, like anything, it can all be interpreted in any way you wish.

And I found it funny. The book of the law is extremely funny.
Maybe that is just me. maybe I am sort of sick in the head, who knows?

But really, when I talk about what Crowley wrote, it is usually because I have read it, and because I am taking it in context.
 

bladeraven

I've always been fascinated with Crowley and I think he is like Jack Kerouac..they had their personal demons but those demons made them a larger than life character....The same can be said with the Thoth (in my opinion)...it's larger than life..

Granted I'm not a fan of either Crowley's or Kerouac's lives but it's hard to not tear away from reading them....like watching a car accident on the side of the road...lol
 

Rusty Neon

From: http://www.tarotpassages.com/duquetteint.htm

Diane Wilkes (DW) interviewing Lon Milo DuQuette (LMD):

DW: Aleister Crowley is the most controversial figure in tarot ever, I think, with people either worshipping him or hating and fearing him. Why do you suppose he is so polarizing a figure and how would you describe him?

LMD: I spend a great deal of space in my new book, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, to the character and personality of this complex and highly eccentric character. I think the most concise thing I can say here is that if Aleister Crowley had been born in 1925 instead of 1875, his teachings would have had a much broader appeal and his life-style would have hardly raised an eyebrow. He would have most likely been placed slightly to the right of Timothy Leary and slightly to the left of Joseph Campbell.
 

Lillie

Just as a comparison, if anyone cared to look into the private lives of the British royal family during the early 20th century, you would have found excesses very similar too, but far worse than Crowleys.

And no one particularly vilifies them.