Do What Thou Wilt: Split from Book of Law Study Group 1.5

Abrac

1.Had! The manifestation of Nuit.

Nuit represents that which is veiled or hidden, the mysteries of nature. The Old and New Commentaries clarify that Had (Hadit) is Nuit's revelator.

"The recipient of this knowledge is to identify himself with Hadit, and thus fully express the thoughts of her heart in her very language." -Old Comment 1.6

"Nuit formulates me as Hadit, especially in the three centres of consciousness of her Being." -New Comment 1.6

Thus, Crowley is Hadit.


2.The unveiling of the company of heaven.

Hadit's manifestation of Nuit involves the unveiling of the company of heaven. I believe the phrase "unveiling of the company of heaven" is a way of saying "the revelation of the mysteries of creation."


3.Every man and every woman is a star.
4.Every number is infinite; there is no difference.

Here Nuit reveals two "mysteries" which seem to be at the top of her agenda.


5.Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!

Nuit appeals to Crowley to be her representative and spokesperson. The capital C in children implies to me an elect group of initiates rather than humanity as a whole.
 

Aeon418

Abrac said:
1.Had! The manifestation of Nuit.

Nuit represents that which is veiled or hidden, the mysteries of nature. The Old and New Commentaries clarify that Had (Hadit) is Nuit's revelator.

"The recipient of this knowledge is to identify himself with Hadit, and thus fully express the thoughts of her heart in her very language." -Old Comment 1.6

"Nuit formulates me as Hadit, especially in the three centres of consciousness of her Being." -New Comment 1.6

Thus, Crowley is Hadit.


2.The unveiling of the company of heaven.

Hadit's manifestation of Nuit involves the unveiling of the company of heaven. I believe the phrase "unveiling of the company of heaven" is a way of saying "the revelation of the mysteries of creation."


3.Every man and every woman is a star.
4.Every number is infinite; there is no difference.

Here Nuit reveals two "mysteries" which seem to be at the top of her agenda.


5.Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!

Nuit appeals to Crowley to be her representative and spokesperson. The capital C in children implies to me an elect group of initiates rather than humanity as a whole.
The links to this material have already been posted, Abrac. It's representative of Crowley's personal views and interpretations at particular points in time. But in no sense is it THE interpretation of Liber Legis.

What are your views on the meaning of the text, Abrac? What is the text saying to you beyond an intellectual nit-picking exercise?
 

Always Wondering

I think you both have good points.

Abrac said:
Nuit appeals to Crowley to be her representative and spokesperson. The capital C in children implies to me an elect group of initiates rather than humanity as a whole.

I can see this. I am always aware that Thelema is a graded system and I am uninitiated. At the rate I am going, I may forever be a student of the mysteries. But this is working for me right now.


Aeon418 said:
What are your views on the meaning of the text, Abrac?

You have obviously given this a lot of thought, Abrac, but I am never quite sure if you find it all useless, or find meaning in some of it.
I try to stay balanced and apply some skepticism as I tend to get carried away with myself. :| So I find value in your posts.
But I am curious . . .

AW
 

Abrac

Aeon418 said:
What are your views on the meaning of the text, Abrac?
I honestly don't think you want my views other than to find fault with them.

What is the text saying to you beyond an intellectual nit-picking exercise?
What's wrong with critical thinking and intellect? "Do what thou wilt" seems to actually mean "do what thou HGA wilt" or "do what The Universal Superconscious wilt." How is this any different from any of the other self-effacing dogmas of the past? One says surrender your ego to God, the other says surrender your ego to the HGA.
 

Grigori

Abrac said:
How is this any different from any of the other self-effacing dogmas of the past? One says surrender your ego to God, the other says surrender your ego to the HGA.

This line really caught my eye. I've been thinking a similar thing during our study so far. Just how is Thelema different to other religions whose doctrine is to give control of your life over to some higher power?

I know our study of Liber Legis is still in its infancy, and many of the particulars come later in the book, but its been interesting to me that so far there is little we have discussed that is unique to Liber Legis.

How is the foundations of Thelema, specifically the concept of the HGA, the same as other spiritual systems. How is it different? Is it different?
 

Abrac

Always Wondering said:
You have obviously given this a lot of thought, Abrac, but I am never quite sure if you find it all useless, or find meaning in some of it. I try to stay balanced and apply some skepticism as I tend to get carried away with myself. :| So I find value in your posts. But I am curious . . .
Hey AW,

Obviously I find the BoL interesting or I wouldn't be here, but I'm not a "true believer." I believe it has a worthwhile place in any magical curriculum and is worth trying to understand. My objective is to fill in some of the missing pieces; everyone can decide for themself what to believe. Some who have studied the BoL a lot might already know much of this, but there are others who will find it helpful in forming a more complete picture.

Most enlightened Christian scholars have no problem with archeological and historical research even though the Bible is their holy book, in fact virtually all encourage it. I don't see why the BoL should be any different. Just because it is Thelema's holy book that does not mean we can't learn from objective data. :)
 

Always Wondering

I appreciate your reply, Abrac, and I am sorry if my question caused a split.

AW
 

Abrac

No worries, the split happened before. :)
 

Aeon418

Abrac said:
I honestly don't think you want my views other than to find fault with them.
Not true. Quite the contrary actually.

So far I've read your views on the text, and about the text. But when it comes to the meaning of the text we don't seem to get much further than regurgitated Crowley and how the text relates to him.
Abrac said:
What's wrong with critical thinking and intellect? "Do what thou wilt" seems to actually mean "do what thou HGA wilt" or "do what The Universal Superconscious wilt." How is this any different from any of the other self-effacing dogmas of the past?
There's nothing wrong with critical thinking and intellect. On it's own plane reason is King. If you have an intellectual problem, reason is the tool to use. But it's only one suit in the deck, Swords. It's remit is within the realm of Air. But when it tries to dictate policy to Fire, Water, and Earth, it's heading for trouble. (The diatribe against Because in chapter 2 is a direct reference to this subject.)

Intellect alone won't help you understand the HGA or Superconsciousness. (Understanding - Binah is beyond the formative world on the Tree of Life.) It won't fit neatly inside your rational mind. You can't file it away under the heading "Solved". If you could it wouldn't be Superconsciousness any more, but merely your own toughts.

Nearly all the spiritual practices of East and West are aimed at one target. The Mind, the intellect, the reason. They either try to shut it down, shut it up, circumvent it, over load it, or turn it against itself. It's been known for centuries that if you can't step outside your own rational thinking processes, enlightenment won't occur. In much the same way that the Book of the Law won't fully reveal itself to you if you treat it as a solely intellectual problem. That would be like reading love poems to merely find spelling mistakes. The mistakes may seem important in their own sense, but are still small fry compared to the meaning of the poems. In fact, you can't even compare the two, because they relate to different planes. And any reader of Crowley will tell you how big he was on not confusing the planes. (No aircraft jokes please. :laugh:)
 

Aeon418

similia said:
Just how is Thelema different to other religions whose doctrine is to give control of your life over to some higher power?
The Christian Bible. The Hebrew Tanakh. The Islamic Koran.

In all three religions the aim is to surrender the individual will to the Will of God. If you want to know what that Will is, just look in the books themselves. There's a rule, a commandment, or an injuction from God or his priests for just about anything that might crop up in daily life. And if there isn't a direct rule, then there's always teaching by example. "What did Jesus do when X or Y happened?" The number of different laws and rules is truely mind boggling. Anyone who thinks the Hebrew Tanakh only conatins The 10 commandments, needs to take another look. [http://biblebabble.curbjaw.com/laws.htm] :laugh: And lets not even start on what happens when one book of rules contradicts another book of rules. There have been too many wars fought over that one already.

Thelema has one rule. Do what thou wilt.