Thelema for Muggles
I thought of calling this page "Thelema for Dummies" except: (a) if you've made it this far, you're no dummy, and (b) if I called it that, Wiley Publishing would be knocking at my door within a week. The current title isn't much better, infringement-wise, but it does adequately represent the content.
Thelema is a philosophy -- one that many people around the world consider a way of life. The word was first coined by Rabelais but is best known for it's connection to a book published by Aleister Crowley in the early 1900s. The Book of the Law was "received" by Crowley in 1904 via what might be called "channelling" today. It claims to usher in a New Aeon of enlightenment for the world.
Despite what some might consider a dubious pedigree, most who follow this philosophy do so because of the message of universal Freedom that it conveys. The most famous passage among Thelemites (followers of Thelema) consists of seven simple words: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law".
The first thing you might think when reading those words is that this is a philosophy of instant gratification and selfish misanthropy. You would be wrong. For one thing, while the passage seems to grant the reader license to do as he or she wishes, followers of the philosophy actually consider that "what thou wilt" refers to one's own particular Path in the Universe. Everyone has a purpose in life, even if they do not, at first, realize what that is. Thelemites believe that if everyone is following their Path, rather than spending their time interfering with the Paths of others, there would be far fewer conflicts in the world.
So this Law of Thelema (as stated above) is no more a license to run wild than any other Law we may encounter. On the contrary... it is a statement of purpose. That every person has a responsibility to discover their purpose in life (what we call their "True Will") and to do that will with single-pointed determination.
Thelemites use the phrase "Do what thou wilt..." as a greeting to each other to remind themselves of this responsibility. Notice that in so doing, the greeter refers to the other person as "thou". So, in essence, every Thelemite overtly acknowledges that everyone around them also has this dual-edged freedom with responsibility. For example, if you were to acknowledge that your neighbor has the right to worship whatever God(s) he sees fit, then your responsibility to him is one of tolerance.
Yes... Thelema is ultimately about tolerance. And minding one's own business. What others do has nothing to do with your True Will so long as it doesn't impede you from achieving that Will. You can easily see that if everyone practiced this sort of tolerance -- if everyone spent their time achieving their own goals instead of worrying about what others were doing to achieve theirs, the world would have fewer conflicts. And those that did arise could, for the most part, be settled by looking at the True Will of the respective combatants.
Freedom has been with us far longer than the Book of the Law. The framers of the US Constitution, mostly Freemasons, had this kind of freedom in mind when they composed the delicate system of checks and balances that established the greatest free nation in history. Liberty has been something that people of all ages have cherished. We may well be at a turning point where the entire human race can experience that same Liberty.
This is the basis of what we call Thelema. It is a principle for which most of us would be willing to fight and, if necessary, die. The word itself may be controversial because if its origins but the principle is one which burns at the very core of every human being alive. It is what the Thelemic League is all about.
