What else?!

[Aeon418]

Well, you know, its all in the comparison; yours (generic you) "not that much" is others "blind faith" and fanaticism too.

I know full well that there are some weird "Crowley-ites" (not Thelemites ) out there. I've met a few, and for the most part they were harmless loonies looking for a hero. I can't see any of them posing any great danger though.

Personally I think Crowley's story is inspirational. But I can't imagine anyone being inspired to take up their cross and follow after him. His story just doesn't have that kind of significance. His Great Work was his particular Love under Will. That his story has the power to encourage and inspire others to search for their own truth is his chief legacy in my opinion.

Looking for a Messiah in Thelema? Save yourself would be my answer. Although I'm not sure anyone needs to be saved from anything, except maybe their own ignorance of themselves.

But it seems the will is sometimes weak.

Which will? Will with a capital W, or personality level will?

 

[Parzival]

What Else

In a way, yes and no. Chicken and egg question?

You can think of the New Aeon as a period in time when the conscious and spiritual evolution of increasing numbers of humans will reach a level where they are able to make direct contact with their own divinity. In the past this kind of attainment was the sole preserve of a few remarkable individuals. Everyone else had to follow the rules and regulations dispensed by a priestcraft or try to emulate a role model saviour figure like Jesus.

In my opinion many people are beginning to "grow out" of this kind of spirituality and instead of looking outside of themselves for guidance they are beginning to look within. Deus est Homo.

Of course we're only a little over 100 years in, so it's still early days yet.

Yes, we are -- as humanity-- getting away from all the saviour-dependence and guru-dependence, and moving forwards towards the enlightening "Daemon" within, but this is not so easily done. It includes a lot of sneering and damning at planetary pioneers and seekers by those who prefer to feel and believe and non-think through their sterile, straight-as-an-arrow patriarchal and matriarchal guides. Bruno and Blavatsky and Crowley (and others) took their blinders off and saw cosmically clearly but caught hellfire for it. As Crowley wrote, "Between the Fool and the Universe of the Thoth Tarot is the visualized path of the 'Great Work'."(-paraphrase) But each of us will walk through it with one's own starlight and no one else's. You find and shine your star, I find and shine mine. After that, multiple illuminations will interweave the New Aeon with new Vision of the Whole, minus prior outmoded conclusions of sciences and religions. Or so I see it. What do you see? As you express it so well, "direct contact with their own divinity" will be possible. It's both a shedding and a dawning.

 

[ravenest]

Yes, back to the point of it all;

What has this deck given you?

Whad did you get in return for the effort and for putting up with the feeling that your brain will explode?

It opened a (good) Pandora's box for me. The whole world of Hermetics opened up. I gradually began to understand the liberating concept of Thelema and adopted it as a clearer expression of what I was already feeling about things.

I began to see how apparently unconnected things were connected and progressed through their development and evolution ( with the theory of magical ) correpondences. The BoT continually dropped hints about the OTO which I eventually investigated until I realised they were sorta different expressions of the same thing. I progressed through the OTO and feel it has been an essential part of my development and understanding of myself, environment, relationships and world development.

I may have done all that without encountering the Thoth deck and looking into the things it represented and displayed but it certainly started the ball rolling.

it might help not to look at the big picture all at once as it IS a big picture. But if one is fascinated enough one will just keep going. Like a healthy life; there is no stasis point, it just keeps going on and developing and learning more. After a time one looks back and thinks wow! I did all that. Its not something one takes up to amuse onself for a few weeks.
And it can be great fun too!

 

[moderndayruth]

Yes, back to the point of it all;


It opened a (good) Pandora's box for me.

The whole world of Hermetics opened up. I gradually began to understand the liberating concept of Thelema and adopted it as a clearer expression of what I was already feeling about things.

I can totally relate to this! In the very little time that i am being aware of it - that's the exact effect it has on me too!

I began to see how apparently unconnected things were connected and progressed through their development and evolution ( with the theory of magical ) correpondences. The BoT continually dropped hints about the OTO which I eventually investigated until I realised they were sorta different expressions of the same thing. I progressed through the OTO and feel it has been an essential part of my development and understanding of myself, environment, relationships and world development.

I may have done all that without encountering the Thoth deck and looking into the things it represented and displayed but it certainly started the ball rolling.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience!

it might help not to look at the big picture all at once as it IS a big picture. But if one is fascinated enough one will just keep going. Like a healthy life; there is no stasis point, it just keeps going on and developing and learning more. After a time one looks back and thinks wow! I did all that. Its not something one takes up to amuse onself for a few weeks.
And it can be great fun too!

Lol, i am certain that there is much more to it than couple of weeks amusement! For what i see for now - it seems to be a life-long quest! But, as you say, it is fun!
I do hope we'll be able to share at least some of it it on boards here!
Thank you.

 

[CornissMagorniss]

Happy Lurker Sends Blessings

Fascinating thread, MDW. I have been following the readers of various Crowley biographies as well, and I hope at some time to be able to access and read a few of them. Crowley was an enigma and a genius and ahead of his time, so far that's about all that IS clear.

As far as his willingness to cross boundaries and push things to their limits, all I can say is that, as Garrison Keillor says, "Remember, the laws of physics are there for our guidance". Or, in the words of Firesign Theater, "If you push it hard enough, it WILL fall down".

Aeon, I don't think we are in danger of coming to hasty jugements about Crowley, whichever books we read. Most readers here seem to be a self-selecting group, seeking neither devils nor saviors and able to separate the wheat from the chaff for our own purposes.

 

[Aeon418]

Aeon, I don't think we are in danger of coming to hasty jugements about Crowley, whichever books we read. Most readers here seem to be a self-selecting group, seeking neither devils nor saviors and able to separate the wheat from the chaff for our own purposes.

History paints a different picture though. One of the reasons why there is ever increasing interest in Crowley these days is because of the ready availability of high quality biographies backed up by thorough reasearch. In the past this wasn't the case. Many (not all) were put off by what they read in works like John Symonds, The Great Beast. After reading that it's easy to see why Crowley remained in relative obscurity for so many years, dismissed as a nut and a person of no importance. Israel Regardie was so moved that he felt compelled to write his own book because he was so disgusted with what he read, and this in spite of the fact that he had had a big falling out with Crowley.

Hasty judgements are one thing, but judgements based on spin, innuendo, and distortion of the facts are something else. Like I already said before, if anyone wants to start their exploration of Crowley based on one of the older books good luck to them. But caveat emptor!

 

[Aeon418]

Yes, we are -- as humanity-- getting away from all the saviour-dependence and guru-dependence, and moving forwards towards the enlightening "Daemon" within, but this is not so easily done.

This is a personal view, but I think you can see the very beginnings of this happening within Christianity. The current split in the Anglican Church is a good example.

On the one hand you have the conservative traditionalists who are trying to remain within the framework of their scriptures, but are seen as increasingly out of touch with the world. And on the other there are the progressive moderates who are stuck between a rock and a hard place because the diety in their scriptures is, in some instances, a sexist, homophobic, bigoted throw-back who is 2000+ years out of date. How the moderates square this with their open acceptance of female and gay clergy, gay and lesbian congregations, and same sex marriage is quite a feat in my opinion. It's almost as if they are starting to out grow their own deity by their greater capacity for acceptance, respect, and love for their fellow human beings.

 

[Grigori]

To my mind this is the strength of tarot generally, and in my experience the Thoth particularly is that a reading gives us the opportunity to see beyond our normal perception and prejudices, into something different and hopefully more accurate. Of course much like in life I probably fall back into my usual sheep-person mode more often than not, but sometimes my blinkers come off and I'm surprised by what I see. For me the reward of thelemic thought has been not only challenging myself to be more conscious of what happens around me, but also to reflect on the moral judgements I make, as to their source and value. Or I can at least notice when I choose to be lazy and believe whatever nonsense people tell me even when it contradicts what I could plainly see with my own eyes if I tried to look What else?!

 

[CornissMagorniss]

Like I already said before, if anyone wants to start their exploration of Crowley based on one of the older books good luck to them. But caveat emptor!

Which is arguably one of the reasons he is such a fascinating subject! "Who is Alistair Crowley and why are they saying such awful things about him?" My curiosity was piqued by meeting the Thoth deck, reading Lon Milo Duquette's book about it, and seeing two absolutely wretched hysterical videos on YouTube. Whence the sharp arguments, the wild romanticization, the weird stories--and which of those are true?

You know, the history of the Second World War in Europe is being totally rewritten since the fall of the Communist regimes made countless documents from Eastern Europe available. We now have an entirely new perspective on many issues that was not accessible before.

Something similar may well be in the works with Crowley, especially if the passage of time has given biographers access to new source material. And we no longer live in Edwardian or post-Edwardian England; the general public is harder to surprise, let alone shock, than it was in Crowley's day. Our cultural background is arguably less deep, but broader nowadays.

I think we can handle it.

 

[Aeon418]

You know, the history of the Second World War in Europe is being totally rewritten since the fall of the Communist regimes made countless documents from Eastern Europe available. We now have an entirely new perspective on many issues that was not accessible before.

Something similar may well be in the works with Crowley, especially if the passage of time has given biographers access to new source material.

I think the answer is yes and no. I will try to explain.

John Symonds, author of the first Crowley biography, was the man who Crowley appointed as the official executor of his literary estate. He had access to everything. Published works, unpublished papers, private diaries, correspondence, and for a limited time Aleister Crowley himself. Not until the late 1990's would any other biographer have this kind of unlimited access (excluding access to Crowley of course). But Symonds squandered his opportunity and proceeded to write a hostile and sensationalist account that would have been worthy of a feature article in the, News of the World. (My apologies if that joke is lost on you.)

Why did Symonds do this? Who knows. Israel Regardie thought that Symond's personal prejudices got in the way leaving him unable to write a factual and balanced account. Other's have suggested that Symonds knew a sympathetic treatment would not sell at that time. The Beast had only been dead a short while, and people were expecting salacious scandal, debauchery, wild excess, and sensation. And Symonds, playing to the gallery, did not want to disappoint. After all he was a young and upcoming writer trying establish himself, so why risk a flop when a potential bestseller was there for the taking.

If there is a positive side to this it is that Symonds biography kept Crowley's name alive. The picture of infamy and excess that Symonds painted was highly appealing to the "rebels & devils" of the 60's and 70's. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Paige, and David Bowie were all influenced to one degree or another, quite probably via Symonds bio.