Don Webb - Overthrowing the Old Gods: Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law

This book is dedicated to the children of Set as yet unawakened that they may remember themselves amidst the distractions of the world of horrors, and to the First Beast and his hidden teachers.

I especially wish to thank Michael Aquino, Ph.D., for allowing me to reprint his commentary on The Book of the Law. I am indebted to the countless magickians and philosophers who have discussed, argued, and refined my ideas, especially the members of the Element of the Hawk-Faced Lord of the Temple of Set, and to Lady Aphanos, who is my inspiration.

Overthrowing
the
Old Gods

Aleister Crowley wrote many works himself, and many works have been written about him. Most of the latter focus on his colorful lifestyle, while others seek to interpret his meta-poetic words in terms of one or another Thelemite orthodoxy. In this volume, Don Webb goes beyond either of these approaches. Webb, who made his way along the same arduous initiatory pathways pioneered by the First Beast, here focuses on the initiatory and philosophical meanings of Crowleys life work. He does so in a way that can be of personal magical benefit to all who read the book.

STEPHEN FLOWERS, PH.D.,
AUTHOR OFLORDS OF THE LEFT-HAND PATH

PART ONE

Centers of Pestilence

Introduction

Two Paths Out of the Confusion of the World

The world is a confusing place. Various ideologies and commodities, religions, and fads compete for your attention. They want your soul, they want your flesh, and worse still they want your money. As the pace of human material progress quickens, each little demon and angel shouts for you to join its parade. This has been true for hundreds of years, maybe even thousands of years. These days the shouts are louder, and the myth that you can go down all the paths at the same time is stronger than ever. The good thing about this mishmash is that many paradigms old and newwell traveled or seldom traversed, ancient or modern, intellectual or simpleare available to the seeker.

Many of the paths in the West have their roots in the work of Aleister Crowley. From Scientology to Wicca, from the Rosicrucian Order to the Temple of Set, the First Beasts seeds have grown into a huge forest of magickal, philosophical, and religious trees. Crowley used the term magick to distinguish the Work of a magician from a stage conjuror. The spelling adds the eleventh letter of the English alphabet, which signifys (in Crowelys numerology) Willthe force used and refined by the practice of magick. This book is offered as an aid to some who wish to further their link to Crowleys 666 Work; to others it is a challenge to clarify their thinking; to others still, an explanation of their current spiritual and magickal paths. It is not written to offend anyone. It is not written as an ultimate Word or guide. If it makes you think, I am happy; if it makes you do, I am happier still. My viewpoint differs from much of mainstream occultism. I reject the purely pragmatic view of chaos magickians; I distrust the righteousness of my Right-Hand-Path brethren; and I deny the anything-goes approach of postmodernism. I assert that magick is a road to self-power and mastery over the self and the cosmos. I assert that all may enter our path and that the path of seeking measurable self-chosen goals in the world is the path of self-training. A Word, as we shall see, is an encapulization of a worldview. We might, for example, say that Liberty was the Word of Thomas Jefferson. As one aligns ones self with a Word, the Word both informs the soul and strengthens the deeds of the person who is learning/practicing/furthering it oras magickians sayWorking with it. Thelema, a New Testament Greek word, is usually translated as Willbut in its original context meant a strongly held desire. If I say, I will go to work tomorrow, a different word would be used because no matter what, I am going to be there. If I say, It is my will that you dine with me, then I would use the word Thelema. For the magickian, Thelema begins with self-knowledge (I know I want to eat with you) but grows into a Law of the Cosmos (because I desire it, it will happen, even if you think it wont). The word Thelema is my notable in the Lords Prayerthy Will be done on Earth as in Heaven. Crowleys system changes this into My Will be done! This becomes the essence of the Left-Hand Path, although he lacked the modern usage of that terminology. For a great understanding of the Left-Hand Path historically, the interested reader should consult Stephen Flowers Lords of the Left-Hand Path.

A Magus is a human that has become identified with a concept, an incarnation of it on Earth. One could call Thomas Jefferson a Magus because the concepts he spoke of have become an ideal pursued on this Earth by many. Consider his wish, Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity. I recognize that Thelema is the expression of a self-trained elite and that such an elite can and should create a civilization informed of their desire, joy, and love for mankind. Aleister Crowley by his choices and methodology led to the re-creation of the Left-Hand Path in the West. This book focuses on the central magickal moment of Crowleys life: the reception of The Book of the Law in Cairo in 1904.

Crowley reached a crossroads in his life in 1904. He had been a bad boy playing at the magickal arts in the British Initiatory group the Golden Dawn. There are numerous biographies of Crowley covering this period of his life (for two of the best see Resources and Suggested Reading). But a few words about the Cairo Working are in order. Crowley had decided to settle down and become a responsible sort. He allowed himself one last fling. He decided to show his new wife a demonstration of magick by invoking air elementals in the Kings Chamber of the Great Pyramid sometime before the Spring Equinox 1904. The invocation stirred up something in his wife Rose, and she began having trance states filled with utterances of They are waiting for you. Crowley had his first experience of Thelema at that moment, his desire had actually changed the subjective universe of another humanwhat he really wanted was what was coming into being. Rose led him (we shall see more of this below) to a funerary stele in the French Egyptologial Museum. Its number, 666, was the same taunt his pious mother had made of him. The Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu was a magickal device that allowed its owner to express his Will on Earth though his life had ended. It invoked various gods, especially Horus BehdetyHorus as War Godand Montu, a god who possessed elements of Horuss rival, Set. At the crossroads in our lives when the flame of day-to-day consciousness burns low, we can experience synchronicitiesmuch as one can see the stars at nighteven though the stars are there during the day. What separates magickians from regular people is that they act upon these messages from the other Hidden side of the universe. Emboldened by these signs Crowley used a Greco-Egyptian spell, the Invocation of the Headless One, to contact the gods. The gods repliedfor three days they gave him the three chapters of The Book of the Law. Crowley was not to become a respectable citizen, he was to change the world by teaching the primacy of desire. His deeds and words created attitudes that changed the world, not merely the occult worldhe introduced sex and drugs to the West as transformative methods, a strong ethos of personal liberty, and the notion that magick is not about putting a hex on your neighbors cowsbut a quest to change the level of Being a human possessed.