Thelemic Government and Personal Work
The concept of Thelemic hierarchy is one which obviously consumed a great deal of Crowley's thoughts, and one which I don't really understand at present. He speaks often of what it isn't, and puts forth a theory for what it might be, but as of yet, has not really happened.
I suppose there has not been a purely democratic, or purely communist, or purely socialist culture or government, but I believe there have been Catholic and are right now Islamic cultures and governments which rule according to the precepts put forth by their holy books. How to do this with texts which break from the slave traditions.
While Crowley was a fan of the spirit of American Individualism, we can find his disdain for American government all through his writing. I think we can learn FROM the old aeon, but we certainly can not point to the governments created in the old aeon, and on egalitarian concepts, which rejects the inherent difference of all people, as being inherently Thelemic in nature.
To look at what a Thelemic government must be, we are left with the Blue Equinox and a number of his letters to members of the early OTO.
I was told the other day that these materials do not necessarily hold up in the light of today's world, and that we are left instead with a process where our leaders move through the initiatic path and from personal revelation form the Thelemic government of our Day. While this was certainly true of Crowley, he was also the LOGOS and he did not claim through divine vision to be creating the new Christianity, nor the new Islam, but rather Thelema, which consumed these slave religions and was instead something new. For so long as we claim to be a thing, anything, be it Thelemic, Christian, or otherwise, we must have some metric of that which is and is not that thing.
To this end, if someone, through personal revelation, comes to believe something which is directly contrary to the holy books, they are, despite personal revelation not Thelemic. The same is true of government. Giving leadership freedom to lead people away from their personal Will is not Thelemic.
America has been called "The Great Experiment" however, in today's secular world, we have turned to "Science" as the new religion, and just as Crowley predicted, not only do we see
"four hundred years hence perchance will some disciple of Lamarck {151} be torn to pieces in the rooms of the Royal Society by the followers of Haeckel, just as Hypatia, that disciple of Plato, was torn to pieces in the Church of Christ by followers of St. John. "
But the proponents of this great experiment, despising the present state of the endeavor, will not see the failure inherent from the start, and try through sheer force of ignorance to separate the effect from the cause. No, ladies and gentlemen, we must be willing to see the results of the experiment for what they are, and to proceed with steadfast bravery to the next experiment, not necessarily with trust that it will produce the utopia we all seek, but rather with the hope that we might learn from it, and refine, creating ever more subtle experiments as time goes on, and approaching the truth we seek.
Who will admit that when the founding fathers wrote: "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness" That is exactly what we got, not liberty, but "Safety and Happiness" for the masses, at the cost of individual liberty, and a dragging down of any star into the gutter of commonality.
The founding fathers of America did liberty a great service in taking a great leap in their time, but for so long as we cling to the ideals they held we stop ourselves from standing on their shoulders to continue the great work of freedom beyond that which they, being firmly ensconced in the last aeon, were even capable of conceiving.
Crowley, after a lifetime of study had proposed a brilliant new experiment which, to misquote better men than I, has been found too difficult, and hence not tried, rather than being tried and found too difficult.
What would the result of such an experiment be in today's world? Would it solve all our ills? I do not know. I know only that we can try it and find out, or we can not try it, and not know.
I have withdrawn all but completely from the OTO, so where does this put me? Am I in a place where I can criticize those who are doing something? Well, I am, but it does no one any good, as they surely won't listen, and Crowley was clear on how well he loved the busy body. So the question then becomes, do I join the war, and win others to the side of personal freedom in the form of Thelemic government, or do I opt out entirely, do my own thing, and pretend it does not affect me as the badge of Thelema is attached to old aeon egalitarianism, dragging every star down to the gutter just as the name of Christianity is affixed to everything in popular politics?
Perhaps I am brilliant beyond belief, as, at only the grade of Minerval I have already reached the crisis point which I have seen eject better men than myself from the fray. Now the trick is to stall and stall till I have no way to be effective, then sulk off to join the masons, or to stand up like a man and do something.
I suppose there has not been a purely democratic, or purely communist, or purely socialist culture or government, but I believe there have been Catholic and are right now Islamic cultures and governments which rule according to the precepts put forth by their holy books. How to do this with texts which break from the slave traditions.
While Crowley was a fan of the spirit of American Individualism, we can find his disdain for American government all through his writing. I think we can learn FROM the old aeon, but we certainly can not point to the governments created in the old aeon, and on egalitarian concepts, which rejects the inherent difference of all people, as being inherently Thelemic in nature.
To look at what a Thelemic government must be, we are left with the Blue Equinox and a number of his letters to members of the early OTO.
I was told the other day that these materials do not necessarily hold up in the light of today's world, and that we are left instead with a process where our leaders move through the initiatic path and from personal revelation form the Thelemic government of our Day. While this was certainly true of Crowley, he was also the LOGOS and he did not claim through divine vision to be creating the new Christianity, nor the new Islam, but rather Thelema, which consumed these slave religions and was instead something new. For so long as we claim to be a thing, anything, be it Thelemic, Christian, or otherwise, we must have some metric of that which is and is not that thing.
To this end, if someone, through personal revelation, comes to believe something which is directly contrary to the holy books, they are, despite personal revelation not Thelemic. The same is true of government. Giving leadership freedom to lead people away from their personal Will is not Thelemic.
America has been called "The Great Experiment" however, in today's secular world, we have turned to "Science" as the new religion, and just as Crowley predicted, not only do we see
"four hundred years hence perchance will some disciple of Lamarck {151} be torn to pieces in the rooms of the Royal Society by the followers of Haeckel, just as Hypatia, that disciple of Plato, was torn to pieces in the Church of Christ by followers of St. John. "
But the proponents of this great experiment, despising the present state of the endeavor, will not see the failure inherent from the start, and try through sheer force of ignorance to separate the effect from the cause. No, ladies and gentlemen, we must be willing to see the results of the experiment for what they are, and to proceed with steadfast bravery to the next experiment, not necessarily with trust that it will produce the utopia we all seek, but rather with the hope that we might learn from it, and refine, creating ever more subtle experiments as time goes on, and approaching the truth we seek.
Who will admit that when the founding fathers wrote: "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness" That is exactly what we got, not liberty, but "Safety and Happiness" for the masses, at the cost of individual liberty, and a dragging down of any star into the gutter of commonality.
The founding fathers of America did liberty a great service in taking a great leap in their time, but for so long as we cling to the ideals they held we stop ourselves from standing on their shoulders to continue the great work of freedom beyond that which they, being firmly ensconced in the last aeon, were even capable of conceiving.
Crowley, after a lifetime of study had proposed a brilliant new experiment which, to misquote better men than I, has been found too difficult, and hence not tried, rather than being tried and found too difficult.
What would the result of such an experiment be in today's world? Would it solve all our ills? I do not know. I know only that we can try it and find out, or we can not try it, and not know.
I have withdrawn all but completely from the OTO, so where does this put me? Am I in a place where I can criticize those who are doing something? Well, I am, but it does no one any good, as they surely won't listen, and Crowley was clear on how well he loved the busy body. So the question then becomes, do I join the war, and win others to the side of personal freedom in the form of Thelemic government, or do I opt out entirely, do my own thing, and pretend it does not affect me as the badge of Thelema is attached to old aeon egalitarianism, dragging every star down to the gutter just as the name of Christianity is affixed to everything in popular politics?
Perhaps I am brilliant beyond belief, as, at only the grade of Minerval I have already reached the crisis point which I have seen eject better men than myself from the fray. Now the trick is to stall and stall till I have no way to be effective, then sulk off to join the masons, or to stand up like a man and do something.