Colin D. Campbell - Thelema: An Introduction to the Life, Work & Philosophy of Aleister Crowley

I dedicate this book to Aleister Crowley and to all
Thelemites who were, and are, and are to come.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ordo Templi Orientis for allowing me to use the copious references to Crowleys work (and images) that were necessary to adequately explain his life, philosophy, and practices, all of which are in their careful custody. We owe them a debt of gratitude in the protection and preservation of the legacy of the Master Therion.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Henrik Bogdan and Katherine Palakovich. I would also like to thank Cheri Gaudet, Michael Estell, and James Strain for their thoughtful review and comments on the work in progress, as well as Lon Milo DuQuette for his kind foreword.

Contents

by Don Milo Duquette

Foreword

Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign? So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.

Liber AL vel Legis, I. V. 26.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Aleister Crowley died in 1947 at the age of seventy-two. The whereabouts of his ashes remain a mystery. For twenty years after his death, his name and his voluminous writings remained for the most part undiscovered, unread, and unappreciated by all but a tiny band of former disciples, bohemian artists, and a handful of revolutionary thinkers. Then, on June 1, 1967, Crowleys unmistakable visage appeared (glaring out at us from between the faces of Indian holy man Swami Sri Yukteswar and sex goddess Mae West) on the (then) most eagerly awaited objet dart on the planetthe album cover of the Beatles newest LP, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band .

The cover art was the creation of artist Peter Blake, who wanted to surround the band with what he called a magical crowd. The inclusion of Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda, and other Hindu yogis was George Harrisons idea. Among characters John Lennon liked was the poet and wickedest man in the world Aleister Crowley.

Do not misunderstand me. Im not suggesting that the Beatles or Peter Blake were directly responsible for the spiritual and cultural upheavals of the 1960s or the storms that are still echoing (actively or reactively) in todays chaotic world. Nor am I suggesting John Lennon or Peter Blake should be singled out and credited for igniting the revival of interest and appreciation of Aleister Crowley, Thelema, magick, or any of the progressive spiritual movements that continue to proliferate today. Like all great artists at pivotal moments in history, these sensitive pioneers were merely among the first to react and respond to the effects of a dramatic shift in human consciousness.

Consciously or subconsciously, their works gave voice to the new reality. The art they and their contemporaries created during those golden years pealed like a mighty bell that vibrated with the master note of this new universal consciousnes, a note that rang out like a broadcast signal that triggered sympathetic responses in the hearts and souls of all who were poised and ripe for awakening.

The concept of evolving shifts in consciousness is not a new one. Almost every ancient culture had its version of ages (i.e., the Golden Age, when humanity walked with the gods , or the Dark Age, when the gods abandoned us) . The Hindus call the various ages Yugas , which predictively rise and fall in cycles of thousands of millennia as our entire solar system careens around the galactic center in a huge elliptical orbit.

Astrologers have their own version of the cosmic cycles based on the apparent backward movement of the signs of the zodiac relative to the position of the rising sun on the spring equinox. It takes 2,160 years to traverse one complete sign, and most astrologers compute that we have recently passed (or will soon pass) from the astrological Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius.

Now, you may think it odd that I should begin these introductory words to Mr. Campbells marvelous book about Thelema by talking about 1960s pop stars and Hindu theories of astrology, but (in my mind, at least) it illustrates the most important thing to first understand when attempting to comprehend the meaning and significance of Thelema; that is, whether any of us are consciously aware of it or not, within the last hundred years or so there has been a profound and dramatic shift (advance, transformation, mutation, amendment, metamorphosis, transfiguration, leap, refocus) in human consciousness. We are all now functioning in an entirely new and different reality than the one in which our recent ancestors functioned. The old ways of doing business on every level of our lives will never again work exactly like they used to.