Curtis Penfold said:
"Do what thou wilt" and "Do what you want" are different. But I want to understand exactly why they're different. Was Crowley trying to get people to accept the Divine Will?
For example, Crowley is against Osirian thinking. So his "Do what thou wilt" does not mean "Self-sacrifice" if that's what you want to do. Um...help me better understand Thelema's ethics.
My understanding is that "Do what you want" is doing whatever random things your ego self thinks would be gratifying and strengthen it's dominance in your life. Like a 2 year old calling for ice-cream "I wannit, I wannit, I wannit".
"Do what thou wilt" is a call to discover your own divine Will and to follow it, which means you may not get ice-cream as it's not a necessary part of your divine plan. Essentially it is the same as being called to find God's Will and follow it, but in this case its not a one size fits all dogmatic Will, but an unique individualized Will to fit your own unique individualized god (HGA). The highest deities in Thelema is Nuit and Hadit, "I Am" and "I Am Not". Not a lot of personality there
Ra-Hoor-Khuit is closer to the traditional idea of a God, in that he's more personified, but he's also seen as a stand in for your own HGA (your divine self). He's a symbol of divinity and not the divinity itself. I guess you could draw a comparison with Christ, and even the Saints or Angels within Christianity (in some ways). They are symbols of something higher, and a path to it, but not the higher thing itself. In Thelema you are looking for your own unique 'symbol', rather than having the same one as everyone else.
Religion and society in general work by conditioning people to accept a social norm of their choosing. A good example I think is the "Good Christian Values" constantly being preached by some people, that are substantially contradictory to scripture. We say "Christian Values" like its a positive thing, or the definition of what is acceptable, but don't consider often what that actually means. Or a more day to day metaphor; the desire to eat McDonalds. No sensible person would want Macca's but we've all been programmed from a young age to like it, so every so often we crave over-salted fries and some pork fat ice cream
Why!?
This line is suggesting a way to break social norms using drugs and alcohol, though I know of Thelemites who like you don't want to use these methods and instead use spiritual methods to crack their skulls
The goal is not to be get smashed, but instead to rip you out of the programming of your society/family/clan/etc, so you can look around and see what it is that you really want, not what Disney and Sony have programmed you to want.
My knowledge of Mormanism is fairly limited so please correct me if I'm off on this, but in some ways I think Mormanism is more like Thelema than other Christian sects.
Morman Saying said:
As man is, God once was;
as God is, man may be."
The Thelemic versions is different that you don't have to follow any set criteria to become a/like god, you already are a/like god, you just have to crack your skull a bit so you can remember that. One way to do that would be the Dionysian approach.
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