My spiritual background is in the Thelemic and Enochian traditions. For those unfamiliar with the former, this article serves as an introduction to Thelema and Thelemic practice. Like modern Paganism, Thelema is a Neo-Gnostic system that embraces rather than rejects nature and the physical world. The Gnostic Catholic Church in which I am ordained descends from older Christian Gnostic traditions, but accepts the Thelemic reframing of the physical world.
Thelema is a spiritual system founded by British occultist Aleister Crowley in 1904. On April 8th, 9th, and 10th of that year Crowley received The Book of the Law, the first text of a collection that would come to be known as the Holy Books of Thelema. These books would describe the various mystical realizations that resulted in the creation of Thelema as a coherent system of magick and mysticism.
The term Thelema means will in Greek, and the two essential tenets of Thelema are “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” and “Love is the law, love under will.” The Thelemic concept of will differs from the colloquial usage. “True Will” is considered the expression of your true and authentic spiritual self from moment to moment. “Love under will” does not imply that will supersedes love. Rather, as I see it love is the foundation of will, and therefore essential to its exercise.
One of the big misunderstandings of Thelema is rooted in ignorance of this usage. Being a Thelemite does not mean you are free to do whatever you want without repercussions or consequences, or that you should actively engage in harming others. What it does mean is that the spiritual forces of the universe will not punish you for being yourself. In Thelema there is no judgmental god looking to cast us into perdition for who we are. Thelemic ethics are based around recognition of individual rights, with the caveat that any right you claim for yourself must also be extended to everyone else equally for your actions to be considered ethical.
Another big misunderstanding of Thelema is that it is some sort of Aleister Crowley fan club or cult of personality. Many introductions to Thelema do focus on the life of Aleister Crowley, who is, after all, the founder of the system. It is important, however, to keep in mind that the point of Thelema is doing your own will, not that of Aleister Crowley. Crowley was an accomplished poet, a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, a mountaineer, a chess enthusiast, a world traveler, a bisexual man living in Victorian England, an upper-class British imperialist, and an avid practitioner of both Asian and European mystical and magical practices.
Only the latter of these has any bearing whatsoever on the practice of Thelema, and even that is only relevant in the sense that those practices led Crowley to the spiritual realizations that make up the foundation of the system. He documents those realizations comprehensively in his magical diaries and other works so you can read them and judge for yourself whether resonate with you and with your will. This documentation, modeled on scientific experimentation, is what I believe is Crowley’s greatest contribution to both esotericism and spirituality – Scientific Illuminism, which he defined as “the method science, the aim of religion.” This approach involves using the scientific method to evaluate magical techniques and practices. It is not as clear-cut as in the physical sciences because consciousness is a key component of magical operations, but we apply the method as fully as we can given that limitation.
Crowley believed that magick was entirely scientific, just based on science that had not yet been completely worked out. It is, in effect, a science that involves consciousness. Up until Crowley, magical techniques were fiercely guarded by secret orders who never shared their procedures or results, and this has led to magick lagging centuries behind the physical sciences. If we are ever going to catch up, we need a more open system of magick that performs experiments, publishes results, and submits those results to peer review. We also need a viable model of consciousness that explains how the various processes in the brain somehow connect with subjective experience. This approach treats magick as a technology, an important perspective for practicing Scientific Illuminism.
Modern science is slowly catching up to this idea. The leading theory of general consciousness right now is called Integrated Information Theory, proposed by Giulio Tononi. It implies a form of panpsychism in which consciousness is a component of matter closely linked to quantum information, and within which awareness arises with sufficient complexity. The leading theory of how the brain works with consciousness is called ORCH-OR, short for Orchestrated Object Reduction, proposed by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff. According to ORCH-OR, structures in the brain called microtubules interact with particles at the quantum information level.
However this process eventually turns out to work, what we know about Thelemic magick is that it is a powerful and effective system for both practical operations and spiritual development. Thelemic magick merges theurgy, divine magick oriented towards spiritual growth, with thaumaturgy, practical results-oriented magick. The basic structure of a Thelemic operation begins with setting a working space, then a general invocation of the divine, then the tuning of the working space to a particular quality. Once this is done, the forces employed in the ritual can be called in and addressed. Finally, the charge for the operation is given and the called forces licensed to depart, after which the working space is closed.
Before starting that process, though, it is important to be clear about your intent – that is, your will. As a technology magick is neither “black” nor “white.” Whether magick is helpful or harmful depends on how it is used, just as it makes no sense to talk about black versus white electricity. Thelema is sometimes criticized as unethical based on its two primary maxims – “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” and “Love is the law, love under will.” Thelema does not incorporate the “An it harm none” as found in the Rede, and it does not include ideas like the Threefold Law or the Theosophical version of “karma” that permeates New Age thought today. However, this does not mean that there are no ethical considerations involved in Thelemic magick.
Thelemic ethics are based on individual rights extended to all people. Being a Thelemite does not mean you are free to do whatever you want without repercussions or consequences, or that you should actively engage in harming others. What it does mean is that the spiritual forces of the universe will not punish you for being yourself. In Thelema there is no judgmental god looking to cast us into perdition for who we are. Thelemic ethics are based around recognition of individual rights, with the caveat that any right you claim for yourself must also be extended to everyone else equally.
For example, a Thelemite who steals negates their own right to property. A Thelemite who engages in violence against others negates their own right to safety from violence. A Thelemite who murders negates their own right to life. And so forth. The protection and expansion of rights is considered ethically good, so an ethical Thelemite will work to expand their own rights while at the same time working to uphold the rights of others. The political beliefs of Thelemites vary, but the idea that a Thelemite would support taking away rights is incoherent under this system of ethics.
The takeaway from this is that for any Thelemic magical operation, it is just as important to work out whether or not you should take action, and in the latter case what action you should take, as it is to work out how the operation will be done. Much of Thelemic mystical practice, which supports practical magical work, is based on exploring and understanding the nature of your True Will – that is, the nature of your innermost spiritual self. Operations performed in harmony with your True Will are generally going to work better, because they resonate with the nature of your consciousness at the deepest levels.
It is also useful to look at framing your intents in ways that will not violate the fundamental rights of others. One of the examples I like to use is casting a love spell. While this is an entirely reasonable application of magical technology, if you cast it on a specific person who does not love you it would be a violation of that person’s rights. If, on the other hand, you use an intent like “bring me a romantic partner who is in harmony with my will, and with whose will I am in harmony with” the problem that needs to get solved becomes a kind of sorting problem, which magick is especially good at solving. It also avoids the diminished power that you tend to get when you cast spells directly against another person’s will.
Once you have your intent clearly worked out, you are ready to begin your operation. Aleister Crowley was originally trained in Golden Dawn magick. The Golden Dawn system as Crowley learned it at the end of the nineteenth century was essentially an esoteric Christian system that employed Egyptian godforms in a syncretic manner. This was much in line with the Egyptology craze going on at the time in Britain. The principal formula of the system was essentially that of the dying and reborn god, who was seen as represented by both Jesus and Osiris. This formula is based on the idea of attainment of virtue through self-sacrifice, in that each step along the initiator ladder was seen as the death of the previous self, resulting in rebirth into a new state of being. The Thelemic formula is different, and is based on the natural process of life, growth, and reproduction.
As an aside, what I am laying out here is not necessarily the Golden Dawn system as practiced today. I am not a Golden Dawn initiate myself and most of the modern Golden Dawn groups are based on material published by Israel Regardie in the 1930’s. This material was the work of the Golden Dawn’s successor organization, the Stella Matutina, which made many changes to the system in the 35 or so years between Crowley’s time in the group and Regardie’s initiation into it. So that’s just to say that if anyone here is a modern Golden Dawn initiate and wants to correct me, keep in mind that I am talking about the Golden Dawn system as it existed in 1899. This version of the system is the one that Crowley knew and from which he developed the Thelemic system.
In 1904 Crowley was on holiday in Cairo with his wife, Rose. He tried to demonstrate a magical operation for her, which had an unexpected effect. Rose fell into a sort of trance and claimed that she was a representative of the Egyptian god Horus. She channeled a ritual invocation of the god, which is now known simply as the Invocation of Horus. Crowley performed this invocation on March 20th of 1904, and received instructions to go to a specific room at noon on April 8th, 9th, and 10th of that year and to write down what he psychically “heard.” He followed these instructions, and the text he wrote down became The Book of the Law, the first of the Thelemic Holy Books.
The cosmology of The Book of the Law involves three principle re-imagined Egyptian deities. Nuit, originally the Egyptian sky goddess, represents the infinite space of the universe. Hadit, the winged solar disk, represents each point within that space and each individual manifestation of consciousness. Their union produces Ra-Hoor-Khuit, a synthesis of the solar gods Ra and Horus, called in Thelema the Crowned and Conquering Child. The Thelemic Aeon that began in 1904 is thus referred to as the Aeon of the Child, in which the polar forces of Nuit and Hadit, Mother and Father, give birth to a new manifestation of divinity in the Child. This union of polarities resulting in a new manifestation that acts as synthesis of both is part of the “Thelemic current” and is found throughout the system.
Stephen Skinner has claimed in his edition of Crowley’s Magick: Book Four that Rose “obviously” channeled The Book of the Law itself. There is no evidence of this. While it has been pointed out that Crowley likely embellished or changed some of the events that took place in his account, it is hard to say exactly what. And The Book of the Law is a clear example of automatic writing, which is not difficult to do. Rose nevertheless deserves a lot more credit than she is usually given for the creation of the Thelemic system. Prior to The Book of the Law, Crowley was fed up with magick and planned on becoming a Buddhist. And it was Rose’s communication from Horus and the ritual she channeled that set everything in motion, leading to the creation of the Thelemic system.
The reception of The Book of the Law got Crowley interested in ceremonial magick once more. He designed a schema for his own magical order, A.’.A.’., and published material intended for its students in The Equinox starting in 1910 and The Book of Lies in 1913. Around that same time he was approached by Theodor Reuss, the head of Ordo Templi Orientis. Reuss claimed that Crowley had published the “supreme secret” of OTO in The Book of Lies and inducted him into the Order. This is likely related to the creation of the magical child, which I will be discussing in more detail later in this presentation. Crowley would go on to become the head of OTO in Great Britain and Ireland. Crowley would succeed Reuss as Outer Head of the Order in 1923. The OTO initiatory system was based on that of Freemasonry, while the magical and mystical system of A.’.A.’. was based on the structure of the Golden Dawn. Both were infused with Thelemic principles that changed various aspects of those systems.
The Golden Dawn system of that time may be thought of as Thelemic magick’s most direct ancestor. In the Golden Dawn system, the working space is set up with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram. In Thelemic magick the corresponding rituals are the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire. The latter rituals were written by Crowley as “improved” versions of the former. They call upon Thelemic godnames and are designed with a key functional change – the Star Ruby is explicitly a banishing pentagram ritual, and the Star Sapphire is explicitly an invoking hexagram ritual. The pentagram represents the microcosm – that is, the magician’s sphere of awareness – and the hexagram represents the macrocosm – the exterior world. By banishing in the microcosmic sphere and invoking macrocosmic forces into that sphere, a working space is set up where the microcosm and macrocosm come together. In this space, magical operations work more smoothly and effectively because the boundary between mind and matter is temporarily suppressed.
Exactly how these two rituals are performed depends on the setup of your temple. For most practical operations the general setup is a circle with an altar in the center. On top of the altar is placed a containment structure such as a Trithemian table, Goetic triangle, or Enochian Sigillum Dei Aemeth. For practical work, it is into this structure that the forces will be conjured. It does not imprison spirits or forces or anything like that, but rather separates them from the magician’s full working space and concentrates their intensity. Incense is often burned in the containment structure, and sometimes devices such as scrying mirrors are placed within it. Crucially, magical links to any external target must be placed there along with any objects to be empowered such as talismans and any offerings to be given to the spirits. The sigil of any spirits that will be conjured is also placed within this structure.
There are two kinds of magical links, similarity and contagion. A similarity link is generally an image that looks like the target. A contagion link is something that came from or belonged to the target, such as hair or fingernail clippings or even something like a piece of clothing or jewelry that belonged to them. These are placed within the containment structure along with the sigil of the spirit to provide a single connection between the interior of the structure and the outside world – the link. This maximizes the power delivered to the target for whatever purpose. When healing, it ensures that all the conjured force makes it to the target in the most efficient way possible. With more dangerous energies, it again delivers that energy effectively and efficiently and also prevents it from affecting the magician. I am convinced that many observations supporting ideas the Threefold Law or Theosophical karma happen only because the energies do not cleanly separate from the magician due to a lack of a containment structure during those operations.
With a central altar and containment structure, the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire are performed around the altar, for example by standing to the west of the altar and casting to the east, and doing the same in turn for each direction. This casts across the altar and creates a sort of vortex of force in the center of it as the magician goes around to the quarters. With a setup for operations affecting only yourself, no containment structure is necessary, and the Star Ruby, Star Sapphire, and other forms can be done by standing in place and turning to each quarter. In the case of such a ritual, you want any magical vortex of force conjured to be centered on yourself. Note that this applies to the Greater ritual forms used for tuning the space later in the sequence. With an altar and containment structure, cast across. For a ritual affecting only yourself, stand in the center and rotate. Note also that when creating a talisman, even if that talisman is only intended to affect you, it should be treated like an external target because it is a separate external object that will be maintaining the force, and as such the containment structure method should be used.
The next step of a Thelemic magical operation is called the Preliminary Invocation. This is a general invocation of divine consciousness. Crowley recommended a ritual called The Bornless Ritual for this purpose, which was adapted from a text from the Greek magical papyri called the Stele of Jeu. This ritual was originally a rite of exorcism, in which the magician invokes the Headless or Bornless Spirit – a manifestation of the dynamic ground of being – to obtain authority over spirits. Crowley adapted this ritual into a general invocation identifying the magician with the divine, a key Theurgic step in Thelemic magick.
Thelema, like the Golden Dawn, makes a technical distinction between invocation and evocation. If you look these two words up in the dictionary, you will find that both can be defined as “to call up spirits” and thus are synonyms. However, in Thelemic magick, invocation refers to calling spiritual forces into the magician’s sphere of awareness while evocation refers to calling those forces into an external structure. People online who dislike “lodge magick” commonly point out that those two definitions are not standard English, and they are correct in that regard. However, the distinction is very useful in the specific context of discussing magical operations and how they are performed.
Thelema is also designed based on the assumption that we are all gods of our own universes. Therefore, the use of an invocation like the Bornless Ritual is seen as awakening the divine spark within the magician rather than calling on some external force completely separate from them. The magical working space is a symbolic and energetic representation of this. The circle created by the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire represents the magician’s sphere of awareness and thus their personal universe, and it is within this universe that the magician awakens the divine by means of the preliminary invocation.
But make no mistake here – Thelemic magick is not some form of psychology. In his 1904 edition of The Goetia, Crowley penned a rather unfortunate article called “The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic” implying that the “demons” of The Goetia could be thought of as “portions of the human brain.” This was written prior to the reception of The Book of the Law, after which Crowley would refer to Aiwass, the messenger who allegedly delivered the book to him, as a “preterhuman intelligence.” In effect, Crowley may not have believed in the external reality of spirits before he met one, but he certainly did afterwards and worked as such. Despite this, thanks to the works of figures like psychotherapist Israel Regardie, many have gotten the impression that Thelemic magick in general is a sort of psychological-only system. This could not be further from the truth – the Thelemic system is as powerful and effective as it is because of how it interacts with spirits and the external macrocosmic world as a whole. Spirits are regarded as other forms of consciousness with which the magician may “ecstatically unite” in the context of magical operations.
It should also be noted that the Bornless Ritual is not the only method that the Thelemic magician may use to accomplish this preliminary union with the divine. Liber V vel Reguli, Crowley’s more elaborate version of the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram, is another possibility. In traditional grimoire magick specific prayers are employed for this purpose, and those can suffice for this purpose as well. I have also used The Elevenfold Seal, which is a portion of Liber V vel Reguli, in my own magical work with good results. Another method I am currently experimenting with is a ritual that I refer to as Liber Shemesh, which combines elements from the Liber Resh solar adorations and Liber V vel Reguli.
Once this identification with the divine is established by whatever means, the working space is “tuned” to the quality / energy that the operation will be working with. Thelemic magick follows the basic structure of Hermetic Qabalah and classifies these into 34 distinct magical and mystical powers. The ten sephiroth are attributed to a series of mystical visions, beginning in Malkuth (sephira 10) and ending in Kether (sephira 1). The 22 paths are attributed to practical magical powers, with two additional powers added to the 21st and 22nd paths respectively. These map to the elements, planets, and signs of the zodiac. The full list of these powers and visions can be found in Crowley’s Liber 777, under column XLV: Magical Powers (Western Mysticism).
As in the Golden Dawn system, tuning the magical working space is accomplished by means of the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram and Greater Ritual of the Hexagram. The “Greater” and “Lesser” distinctions in these rituals come from Crowley’s Liber O, in which the rituals were first openly published. Unfortunately, this nomenclature is a little confusing. The Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram are, like the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire, general rituals that are used to set up your working space. They are not less important or inferior in some way to the “Greater” rituals. In practical terms, “Greater” just means specific, in contrast to “Lesser,” which means general. You don’t learn the “Lesser Rituals” and then replace them with the “Greater Rituals” because greater is better. These two classes of ritual do completely different things and are both necessary.
The Greater Ritual of the Pentagram is used for elements, while the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram is used for planets and zodiac signs. I have been told that some of the modern Golden Dawn groups use the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram for signs of the zodiac. In the Thelemic system, the hexagram of the planet ruling the sign is employed. I would assume that if the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram were employed, it would be the pentagram of the element to which the sign corresponds. The hexagram makes more sense, though, since the pentagram is the symbol of the microcosm and the hexagram is the symbol of the macrocosm. The zodiacal realm is cosmic, and thus more macrocosmic than even the planetary realm.
With the working space set up and tuned, the operation itself is performed. This can involve a standard grimoire structure, with a conjuration, charge, and license to depart. Liber 777 lists many spirits and the corresponding godnames for such operations. It can also involve energy work, or in the case of mystical operations, spending time in meditation after activating a particular vision. The structure can even work for completely different kinds of magick so long as the energy / qualities being worked with are consistent. I teach my students that the banishing pentagram / invoking hexagram combination found in the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire can be used to “bookend” most other kinds of magick and improve their results, due to them setting up a working space in which mind and matter flow together more efficiently.
Once this is complete, the working space can be closed in one of two ways. First, for an operation directed at or anchored on an external target, close by repeating the Star Ruby. For a mystical operation or practical operation anchored on or targeting yourself, close with just the Qabalistic Cross portion of the Star Ruby. The general pentagram banishing separates you from the conjured forces so that they can operate on their own. The Qabalistic Cross portion on its own seals and grounds the operation into your sphere of consciousness so it can operate in connection with you. This is the basic structure of a Thelemic magical operation. At Leaping Laughter Lodge we teach this style of magick at our ritual workshop every Tuesday evening, and have been doing so for many years.
Material components are commonly used in Thelemic magick. These are of two basic types. The first of these is the eucharist. Crowley writes that eucharistic magick is performed by imbuing a substance with magical force and then consuming that substance. This grounds the force into the body of the magician and over time will increase their identification and affinity with that force. Eucharistic magick can be done in a general sense, in which the force imbued is that of undifferentiated divinity, or for more specific purposes.
Our Gnostic Mass is an example of the general case, in which cakes and wine are imbued with the power of divinity, and in which following consumption each congregant declares “There is no part of me that is not of the gods!” A more specific example would be our series of zodiacal elixir rites that we have been performing at Leaping Laughter for seven years now. In those rituals, juice or wine is empowered with the force of a particular sign of the zodiac. This elixir is then consumed by all attending in order to accomplish a specific personal intent or gain insight related to the sign being worked with.
Talismans are also used in Thelemic magick. A talisman is an object into which a particular magical force that executes a specific charge is placed. Some authors get overly complex about this, for example claiming that such an object that draws something to you is called a talisman and one that keeps something away is called an amulet, but this does not add anything useful to the terminology. I use talisman as a general term for all such objects, since they all work by sustaining a probability shift over time in the direction of a particular outcome. These outcomes can be quite complex, and many defer the simple dichotomy of drawing towards or keeping away.
Talismans are made from materials that share an affinity with the magical force placed into them. Metals or stones are often used for this, such as silver for the Moon, copper for Venus, amethyst for Jupiter, and so forth. Herbs can also be used, and these may be steeped in water or alcohol to create an infusion or tincture, which can then be “painted” onto an object to provide it with the proper affinity for the operation. All these correspondences and many more can be found in Liber 777. The talisman should be placed in the containment structure during the operation. The charge to the spirit should be to empower the talisman to perform its function. The difference here is that, for example, a direct healing operation could use a charge like “heal me of all illnesses,” while a talisman to do the same would be created with a charge like “empower this talisman to heal me of all illnesses.”
A key concept related to both talismans and eucharistic operations is that of the Magical Child. As Thelema is based on the formula of life and growth rather than death and rebirth, it operates by means of the unification of polarities to create a new third individual manifestation of spiritual force. This force is the magical child of its two “parents,” the polarities that combined to create it. This follows the pattern of sexual reproduction in biology, but in a spiritual fashion. The advantage of this is that the “child” is separate from the magician or magicians who created it and has its own reservoir of spiritual power. It does not draw on the power of its creators and therefore does not in any way deplete their vitality or reduce their available power for subsequent operations. It can be linked to an object like a talisman or consumed as part of a eucharist to incorporate it into the body and consciousness of the magician.
Given this formula, it should be no surprise that Thelemic magick is well-known for incorporating a system of sex magick. When the television series Strange Angel was airing, let me tell you, we had some folks who showed up at our events thinking that our local OTO group was like the one on the show and would ask questions like “So when do you guys do the sex magick?” As far as I could tell these folks were pretty disappointed when there was no orgy after the Mass, or when we spent the whole ritual workshop practicing ceremonial forms without anybody having sex with anybody. Strange Angel took a ridiculous number of liberties with OTO, including a rendition of the Gnostic Mass that looked like they had read the script but never actually been to one. Thelemic sex magick does not necessarily involve physically having sex. Our Gnostic Mass is a sex magick ritual, but like the symbolic Great Rites performed in the Wiccan tradition, it is performed with magical tools – the lance and cup – rather than physical sexual union.
That being said, it also is true that the creation of the magical child can involve physical sexual activity as part of the operation, either alone or with a partner. Crowley was certainly a fan of incorporating physical sex into his rituals, as you can see in his magical diaries. But this is not something you are going to find at OTO events. We hold classes and such that teach how to do those sorts of rituals along with many classes on many other topics related to magical practice and esotericism. But the actual practice of sex magick on the physical plane is something that you must explore on your own.
Personal practice is important for Thelemic magick in general, not just for sex magick. Daily practice is like when elite athletes work out at the gym. Working out builds the strength and stamina they need for peak athletic performance, and to get peak magical performance you need the same. Shifting probabilities with paranormal forces is difficult and it requires a good amount of psychic “strength” to do it effectively and reliably. While different individuals will have differing levels of talent, as with any human skill, anyone can improve the abilities that they have by diligent practice, and a talented person who doesn’t practice can easily be surpassed. The key to the discipline of magick is to work steadily and practice every day. It is not about forcing yourself to endure unpleasant things or conquer pain. It is about the discipline of returning to your practice every day without fail.
Thelemites engage in a number of different practices that help to facilitate their magical work. There is no set formula, as individual will is paramount in the system, but most Thelemites engage in at least a subset of the following. Most Thelemites keep a magical diary or journal. This is an important part of the Scientific Illuminism system. The journal is essentially your lab notebook, in which you record both magical and mystical exercises and record the results. These can include descriptions of visions, reports on both successful and unsuccessful magical operations, and any key insights that come to you during the course of your practice. It allows you to look back on these things accurately, as memory can easily become distorted over time.
Meditation is a foundation practice in many spiritual systems. Thelema is no different. This can range from modern mindfulness meditation to Crowley’s system of yoga, which involves meditation combined with pranayama and holding specific body positions.
Energy work was one of the key innovations made by Thelema back when Crowley was developing the system. One of the issues with European grimoire magick is that there is no system of energy work associated with it. Similar effects can be attained by extreme asceticism, such as fasting, purification, and self-denial of various sorts. But the Asian energy work systems are far better developed and comprehensive. By bringing in these concepts, Thelemic magick imbues the European ceremonial forms with greater power and adaptability.
Pentagram and hexagram rituals, such as the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire mentioned earlier, are commonly performed daily by Thelemic magicians. Crowley also wrote a ritual called Liber V vel Reguli that is an invoking pentagram ritual designed for daily practice.
Eucharistic rituals such as the Gnostic Mass allow Thelemic magicians to consume elements imbued with spiritual force into their bodies and thus incorporate those forces into their lives. In addition to the Gnostic Mass which requires a group, Crowley also wrote The Mass of the Phoenix as an individual eucharistic rite.
Liber Resh outlines a system of solar adorations to be performed at sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight. This teaches self-discipline and according to Crowley, can be employed by advanced practitioners to draw spiritual power from the Sun itself.
Initiation serves to prepare the magician for spiritual development and advancement. The initiatory system of Ordo Templi Orientis, which I have been a member of for 28 years, is one such system that works with dramatic, in-person rituals. Crowley also wrote, though, that there were really only two initiations in magick. The first he called The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, adapted from a grimoire called The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. If any of you have seen the movie A Dark Song, it purports to depict the “Abramelin” working but barely gets any of the details right. The one thing that is correct about the movie is that the real Abramelin is a long magical ordeal that takes months, six according to some sources and eighteen according to others.
Aleister Crowley attempted the six-month version but was only able to sustain it for three and abandoned the traditional practice. He would later devise his own version of the operation based on The Bornless Ritual called Liber Samekh. This practice takes six months of daily work and at the end of it contact with the angel should be achieved. Thelemites generally undertake this practice when they feel they have learned all the necessary ritual techniques and are ready to move forward as magicians. Achieving Knowledge and Conversation is the mark of an Adept in the A.’.A.’. system.
The Holy Guardian Angel could merit a presentation all on its own, and there are varying opinions regarding its nature and powers. In one sense it represents your true spiritual self and can thus communicate to you the nature of your True Will. It also behaves like an entirely independent entity, at least at the Adept stage. Some psychologizers have mistakenly called it a “higher self” which is not quite accurate. The angel is linked to you but also objectively separate, as it originates on the spiritual plane rather than the physical. It is not a psychological projection and is of the same sort of nature as any other spirit, but in effect one personalized for your own spiritual development. According to Crowley, the angel is the most perfect teacher of magick and the necessary guide for the Adept once Knowledge and Conversation is achieved.
The second or these initiations is called Crossing the Abyss and confers the grade of Master of the Temple. This initiation corresponds to the full realization of non-dual consciousness that is addressed in most mystical systems in various ways. As such, it is difficult to explain in any meaningful way and profoundly difficult to summarize accurately. According to Crowley, the Adept’s angel will tell them how best to proceed magically and mystically, and will reveal to them when they are ready to proceed further. Crossing of the Abyss thus always follows the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
I have seen some “dark” magical groups over the years try to push students right into working with Crossing of the Abyss material, and while I think some of the dangers of that are overstated, I also will say that I have yet to come across anyone from one of those systems who exhibited the hallmarks of real non-dual consciousness. It may or may not be dangerous, but I suspect it is unlikely to work or even be that useful. There is no formal ritual for Crossing the Abyss, as the exact practice will differ between individuals. In the A.’.A.’. system part of the practice involves an oath called The Oath of the Abyss which is sworn by those seeking to undergo the process of crossing. Sources related to Crossing the Abyss are Crowley’s The Vision and the Voice and Liber Cheth. I will caution you that the latter text is not to be taken literally, and anyone who does so is going to have a bad time of it.
Thelemic magick is at its base scientific magick, or at least as scientific as we can make it given our current technological limitations. It combines ceremonial magick elements, energy work, and mystical practices into a coherent system that provides for both effective practical magick and enhanced spiritual realization. As our technology evolves, so does Thelemic magick, and there may very well come a time in the future when consciousness can be measured directly. Once that happens, the next step is to catch up with the physical sciences and from there explore the fundamental nature of spiritual, magical, and paranormal phenomena.
Leave a Reply