Zephyros
The Law isn't for me. Uncle Al must've overlooked me.
So... you don't believe in your own freedom and that of others to pursue their life paths?
The Law isn't for me. Uncle Al must've overlooked me.
I believe in freedom, just not Crowley's brand of so-called freedom.
Aleister Crowley said:Here then let me make open confession, and say thus: though I pledged myself almost in boyhood to the Great Work, though to my aid came the most puissant forces in the whole Universe to hold me to it, though habit itself now constraineth me in the right direction, yet I have not fulfilled my Will: I turn aside daily from the appointed task. I waver. I falter. I lag.
Let this then be of great comfort to you all, that if I be so imperfect–and for very shame I have not emphasized that imperfection–if I, the chosen one, still fail, then how easy for yourselves to surpass me! Or, should you only equal me, then even so how great attainment should be yours!
Be of good cheer, therefore, since both my failure and my success are arguments of courage for yourselves.
Again, great post.
Ok one might be a star, but an invisible, dying or even dead one, which is not much use. By studying, meditating and channeling the deities and uniting with them, one must become a bright star shining
Glad you found it helpful. I would like to get it too.
I'm not really sure what you mean here though?
I believe in freedom, just not Crowley's brand of so-called freedom.
My understanding of Crowley is not denial, but rather potential for the enlightenment of every souls and minds.
Surely Crowley must have said it allegorically, and you must then think about some of the qualities and nature of stars.
As I said previously, some stars are brighter, closer, visible and more influencial to us than others. Some are not, and not even known to us. Some are being born now, and some are dying, and dead.
Every men and women is a star, but stars are all different.
Your understanding sounds like saying, every men and women is a humanity or whatever, keep emphasising that every living being on earth be it initiates or not, whoever they are excluding no one.
Sure they are. but it doesn't really tell anything meaningful or significant for anything. People would think, eh? So what?
I agree Thelema promotes the law of freedom, but I don't really buy the premise that anyone who exercises their free will is practicing Thelema, even if unknowingly. [Removed reference. Looked it up and discovered my memory had played tricks on me.] Think about it, if Thelema is simply a codification of of something that people have been doing since the beginning of time and will continue doing forever, it doesn't really usher in anything new at all, except for those believe it does.
Not knocking what anyone else thinks or believes, that's just my opinion.
Edit to add: Also, it doesn't seem logical to me that a dictator could be a "good Thelemite" if that person deprives others the freedom to "pursue their life paths."
Yes, I get your point of the Book of Law and the underlying principle that every man and every woman is a star implying the deities are present in all of us humanities. However, I still feel that the deities only emanates to those who are the initiates, not to everyone, tom dick and harry on the street.
So every man and woman is a star, if and only if, they are the initiates or at least aware of the Thelemic teachings?
This thesis is fully treated in "The Book of Wisdom or Folly". Its main statement is that each human being is an Element of the Cosmos, self-determined and supreme, co-equal with all other Gods.
I wish I had written this book. Since I didn't, I'm thrilled that Parker J. Palmer did. It encompasses every instruction I have ever given a member of our Order on the pathway to meet, embrace, and resolve the mystery of True Will; and in his patient, considered authorship, he does it vastly better than I ever have.
This is a personal, human, moving, insightful, practical work on the discovery of True Will, and living life in conformity with it. While it enumerates principles, most of the book is autobiographical - the author notes that while everyone's journey is unique, instructive insights are commonly found in, rather than veiled by, the details of someone else's trip. Palmer is a Quaker, and a noted education writer. He is also an Adept as sure as any A.'.A.'. 5=6 (though he would likely never own the title), who understands, from experience, what we call the Holy Guardian Angel, even though he calls it something else.
A feeling for this book can, perhaps, be gotten from a series of brief quotations: "Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent." "True self, when violated, will always resist us, sometimes at great cost, holding our lives in check until we honor its truth." "...self-care is never a selfish act - it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others." "The attempt to live by the reality of our own nature, which means our limits as well as our potentials, is a profoundly moral regimen." "One dwells with God by being faithful to one's nature. One crosses God by trying to be something one is not. Reality - including one's own - is divine, to be not defied but honored."
He writes of finding "the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need." Where Liber Legis tells us that, "There is division hither homeward," Palmer speaks to the process of finding "the courage to live divided [against ourselves] no more."
One chapter explores how limitation and ordeal conspire to discover us to ourselves. He understands projections and how to approach them. He also understands that "the way to God is down" - down into the depths of ourselves - and is found only in embracing all aspects of what is found, without judgment. He explores the mystery of depression and - though speaking of a level way, way below "the Dark Night of the Soul" - insightfully addresses its understanding and resolution by means indistinguishable from those that apply to the sojourning of that most profound abyss. His moral thrust is reflected in a quote from John Middleton Murry: "For a good man to realize that it is better to be whole than to be good is to enter on a strait and narrow path compared to which his previous rectitude was flowery license."
My worst criticism of this hardbound little book is that it could benefit from a better binding, but that is the only weakness in its manufacture. Its contents can transform a life. I give it the highest of recommendations.