abefrohmn
03-12-2003, 12:58 PM
This was a nugget I found on http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/crowley.html
It was a fasinating look at Crowleyana juxtaposed against Christian thought. I thought it was pretty penetrating anylisis, worth a gander,
Let's Get Philosophical for a Moment
At the heart of The Book of the Law is the instruction: Do what thou wilt. Under "Law," this is a conscious development of one's personal will to power. Nietzsche's message of the superman is that, on the will to power theory, values are mutable. Thus one's own values prevail, rather than conforming to the values of the collective which endeavour to pursue peace and harmony. When the question of basic values is open in society, the essential victory has been won.
Identifying with the conscious will to power, one wants to set the terms, insisting on the principle, "I will not serve." Satan thought much the same thing: "I will climb to the sky; higher than the stars of God I will set my throne. I will sit in the mount of assembly, on the summit of Zaphon [the abode of the gods]: I will mount the back of a cloud ( I will match the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13,14).
Satan is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and his lie to humans is to "eat" from him in order to become a divine being. The Book of the Law says that every man and every woman is a star (1:3). The "sovereign power" of thought is a real and actual fact: if I "will" to kick up my foot, so it is done. If I am powerful enough, and I will order the dropping of an atomic bomb on civilians, so it is done. If technology is but a tool of people, then surely it is controlled by will.
Through development of the conscious will, we are in the process of strengthening the ego. As created human beings, the realm of ego consciousness and the spiritual and psychic realm are indissolubly united with the body. As the ego grows stronger, it detaches itself more and more from the body.
In the individual will to power, one's ego detaches from the collective ego. It is a struggle and a creative act. Such an act brings on a sense of loneliness; it also introduces suffering, toil, trouble, evil, sickness and death into a person's life as soon as this separation is perceived by the ego. When Adam and Eve made their decision to will to power rather than will to God's will, God told Adam: "Cursed be the ground because of you; by toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life: Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be grasses of the field; By the seat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground ( for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:17-19).
To be the outsider or revolutionary is to be isolated and alone. The individual is pitted against the world, and becomes part of a higher, different unity. To become a "star" and will to power is to have knowledge of good and evil and is accounted sin, and one is expelled from paradise. To Gnostics, this feeling of privation becomes the driving force of the world process. The way of salvation lies in heightening consciousness with the will to become 'Sons of God'. Jesus Christ says that such transmutation can only occur if a person is spiritually reborn from above (John 3:3-8) through repentance the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
Where does God fit into all this?
The Crowley/Gnostic self-hood process fits in with the prophesied progression of the human race. In this Present Age wherein God's grace to be spiritually reborn has been extended to non-Jews, the majority of people will remain cold of heart and will grow in sin. Paul says people will be self-loving, money-loving, brutal, hateful of good, plus a number of other unpleasant attributes (2 Timothy 3:2-5).
The message of The Book of the Law is eschatological. Revelation is also eschatological. The Present Age will not last much longer, for the Christian heritage is being expunged, and the fig tree (Holy Land) has blossomed. Thelemites believe that this age will be followed by the 2,000 year reign of Horus. Christians say the Present Age will be followed by the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on Earth, to be followed by the last judgement. Thelemites now say "Abrahadabra" (meaning Father-Satan-Father); Christians say "Amen! Come Lord Jesus."
Perhaps Thelemites should take heed to the words of the nineteenth century mage, Eliphas Levi: "To will evil, is to will death. A perverse will is a beginning of suicide."
It was a fasinating look at Crowleyana juxtaposed against Christian thought. I thought it was pretty penetrating anylisis, worth a gander,
Let's Get Philosophical for a Moment
At the heart of The Book of the Law is the instruction: Do what thou wilt. Under "Law," this is a conscious development of one's personal will to power. Nietzsche's message of the superman is that, on the will to power theory, values are mutable. Thus one's own values prevail, rather than conforming to the values of the collective which endeavour to pursue peace and harmony. When the question of basic values is open in society, the essential victory has been won.
Identifying with the conscious will to power, one wants to set the terms, insisting on the principle, "I will not serve." Satan thought much the same thing: "I will climb to the sky; higher than the stars of God I will set my throne. I will sit in the mount of assembly, on the summit of Zaphon [the abode of the gods]: I will mount the back of a cloud ( I will match the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13,14).
Satan is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and his lie to humans is to "eat" from him in order to become a divine being. The Book of the Law says that every man and every woman is a star (1:3). The "sovereign power" of thought is a real and actual fact: if I "will" to kick up my foot, so it is done. If I am powerful enough, and I will order the dropping of an atomic bomb on civilians, so it is done. If technology is but a tool of people, then surely it is controlled by will.
Through development of the conscious will, we are in the process of strengthening the ego. As created human beings, the realm of ego consciousness and the spiritual and psychic realm are indissolubly united with the body. As the ego grows stronger, it detaches itself more and more from the body.
In the individual will to power, one's ego detaches from the collective ego. It is a struggle and a creative act. Such an act brings on a sense of loneliness; it also introduces suffering, toil, trouble, evil, sickness and death into a person's life as soon as this separation is perceived by the ego. When Adam and Eve made their decision to will to power rather than will to God's will, God told Adam: "Cursed be the ground because of you; by toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life: Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be grasses of the field; By the seat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground ( for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:17-19).
To be the outsider or revolutionary is to be isolated and alone. The individual is pitted against the world, and becomes part of a higher, different unity. To become a "star" and will to power is to have knowledge of good and evil and is accounted sin, and one is expelled from paradise. To Gnostics, this feeling of privation becomes the driving force of the world process. The way of salvation lies in heightening consciousness with the will to become 'Sons of God'. Jesus Christ says that such transmutation can only occur if a person is spiritually reborn from above (John 3:3-8) through repentance the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
Where does God fit into all this?
The Crowley/Gnostic self-hood process fits in with the prophesied progression of the human race. In this Present Age wherein God's grace to be spiritually reborn has been extended to non-Jews, the majority of people will remain cold of heart and will grow in sin. Paul says people will be self-loving, money-loving, brutal, hateful of good, plus a number of other unpleasant attributes (2 Timothy 3:2-5).
The message of The Book of the Law is eschatological. Revelation is also eschatological. The Present Age will not last much longer, for the Christian heritage is being expunged, and the fig tree (Holy Land) has blossomed. Thelemites believe that this age will be followed by the 2,000 year reign of Horus. Christians say the Present Age will be followed by the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on Earth, to be followed by the last judgement. Thelemites now say "Abrahadabra" (meaning Father-Satan-Father); Christians say "Amen! Come Lord Jesus."
Perhaps Thelemites should take heed to the words of the nineteenth century mage, Eliphas Levi: "To will evil, is to will death. A perverse will is a beginning of suicide."