Original poster wrote (responding to a citation of this post): Interesting, although I’m sort of grasping at the concept. It gives me the idea that, since the true nature is clothed in self-awareness (er,that’s how it reads to me, I’ll happily be corrected if I’ve picked itup wrong), one may be able to develop another […]

Tom wrote: I think it’s a good idea to distinguish between “awareness” and “narration”. What is often referred to as “self-awareness” is the ability to conceive of oneself as a character in a story and to narrate the events which happen to this character. Awareness, on the other hand, is our response to our environment. […]

(This essay is also available in printed form) Will is, clearly, the fundamental concept of Thelema. It is what the Greek word Θελημα literally means, and it figures in all three of the core statements of Thelemic conduct: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. (AL I, 40) So with thy […]

In his introduction to the Book of the Law, Crowley writes: Every event is a uniting of some one monad with one of the experiences possible to it. “Every man and every woman is a star,” that is, an aggregate of such experiences, constantly changing with each fresh event, which affects him or her either […]

[From private correspondence] Correspondent: What exactly is ‘permanent’ in each person? Their existence as a unit. When someone dies, the story of their life is written and sealed. What they did, what they were, the sum totality of their lives isn’t going to change, ever. It is fixed. This is why “death is the crown […]

[From private correspondence] Correspondent: Could you give me a ‘definition’ of Love in concise terms as possible? Certainly. Love is the expansion of the individual, its consciousness, and its Universe: in all directions equally; without partiality; and free from any restriction. We could get this shorter whilst saying an identical thing — “Love is the […]

[From private correspondence. Names changed to protect the guilty.] Correspondent: 1) To you, what is fundamental to “Thelema?” You ask: “Once again, what IS fundamental to Thelema? Simply Liber AL?” In short, yes. Yet, as I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, “simply” is hardly an appropriate word in that context. Here is what […]

Vilaven: Was Thelema just another expression of “choose your own path”, in so many ways? I’d honestly struggle to think of something that is more completely opposite to what Thelema really is about than this idea. Papanick: If it’s not exactly that, then what is it? Let’s assume you did fall into “Will, Resh and […]

Aum418:It is necessary that we stop, once for all, this ignorant meddling with other people’s business. Each individual must be left free to follow his own path…the original brand of American freedom — which really was Freedom — contained the precept to leave other people severely alone, and thus assured the possibility of expansion on […]

Aum418: Really, I should have said ‘The highest Sin in Thelema is to restrict Will’ (including self as well as others). This would indeed have been better, but I still don’t think it’s right. “The word of Sin is Restriction” indeed, but there is nothing herein that suggests that “restriction” means “to restrict the will […]