Lion of Light: This Knight of Thelema

 

Page from Promethea # 17: "Gold" (Artwork: Jose Villarrubia)

Lion of Light: "Do What Thou Wilt" pg. 156-171


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

Wilson’s crescendo leading to the gut punch of meaning in his last sentences of “Do What Thou Wilt'' consists of some appropriately fantastic writing; some of it will be incredibly familiar as Wilson discusses themes that would carry over into his later written, but earlier published, works. We have Wilson theorizing about the Holy Guardian Angel--the goal of all worthwhile magic, according to Crowley himself--and a brilliant little exegesis of Liber Al vel Legis as well as the overarching cosmology, worldview and philosophy of Thelema. Finally, we have Wilson’s exhortation of the necessity of consciousness expansion and even the expansion of human habitation into the stars as the Exponential Age was already becoming overwrought and the very biosphere began to tremble under the treads of seemingly unlimited growth.

First, we must find ourselves. Much of magic consists of orienteering: from the simplest affirmations to the more elaborate rituals, it can be reduced to exercises in location. The only Maybe Logic course I was able to take, during the Academy’s brief reopening in 2012, was Lon Milo Duquette’s "Initiation" class. In that course Duquette breaks down the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram as simply finding out where we are in the universe that we propose to move through and thereby gain some understanding. The magician, during the ritual, is centering the universe around their perspective, which is the only reasonable course of action as most of us are hopelessly shackled to our individual purview of the world, no matter how many times we experience ego death through drugs, meditation or compassion. The magician maps and purifies the four quarters and invokes the four basic elements to prepare themselves for existence. The mere act of existence is, of course, the biggest act of magic possible: something from nothing, experienced anew upon each awakening. (There is a very good reason that what we now call The Egyptian Book of the Dead was originally called The Book of Coming Forth By Day.) To aid in their lofty endeavor the magician utters/vibrates divine names and calls forth the four Archangels; schematically, if we are to, at least temporarily, accept this particular magical interpretation of existence, they are the four largest pillars that uphold creation. These “angels” are not personal forces but concepts as large as the four fundamental forces of nature, or they are simply abstractions of the four fundamental forces- either way, we’re cooking with oil at this point. Bookending the locational aspects of the ritual, the magician simply recites the end of the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew. A simple, but for many mnemonically powerful, acknowledgement that one is smaller than One.

(The other “basic rituals” given in Liber O are all of a similar nature, excepting perhaps the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram. The Greater Ritual of the Pentagram is a more detailed conjuring of the elements and cardinal directions with some further divine nomenclature thrown in for good measure. Therefore, we can now see clearly that the Pentagram represents the terrestrial and microcosmic aspects of the magicians universe. The Greater Ritual of the Hexagram is a poorly written, but magnificent when finally decoded and executed, alignment of the magician according to the classical model of planetary or extraterrestrial/macrocosmic forces. The Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram is not as explicitly concerned with orienteering as the other three but focuses on the equally important explicit alignment of the microcosmic and the macrocosmic. I would propose that execution of the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram would give a further experiential understanding of the knowledge alluded to at the end of this section in the essay which, according to RAW, is known to LSD trippers, magicians, pagans and yogis. Crowley’s Thelemic “updates” on the Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram and the Hexagram, respectively known as the Star Ruby and the Star Sapphire, make the symbolism more obvious and emotionally powerful.)

But when we find ourselves in the midst of such a vast and, from the ego’s perspective, frankly uncooperative universe, we need a friend. Preferably one who isn’t as much of a deluded jackass as our regular self can be; thus, the Holy Guardian Angel. Unlike Raphael and Co., the HGA is an incredibly personal force that can helpfully be seen through a variety of lenses. These various interpretations only become cumbersome when we search for a definitive and singular explanation as Wilson helpfully spells out by quoting Konx Om Pax, The Book of the Law and Magick in Theory and Practice. Oz’s footnote draws the reader's attention to a mistake in Wilson’s writing but also points toward the ceremony that Crowley penned to invoke the Holy Guardian Angel for the previously mentioned Frank Bennet: Liber Samekh. As Oz notes, this isn’t derived from The Book of Abramelin the Mage, but rather from “A Fragment of Graeco-Egyptian Work upon Magic.” Samekh follows the elemental/quaternary schema already familiar to the practitioner from rituals such as the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and impregnates them with passionate, sometimes nigh-frenzied invocations and exhortations of command and obedience. Naturally, most of the spirits the aspirant desires to be subject unto themself are the discordant and disarrayed aspects of their own selves. Naturally, as this is serious work trying to not only orienteer ourselves but also to contact something that already knows more than we do, the magician also invokes “the fifth element:” spirit.

Now, Liber Samekh, is not, for all its repetition, an easy work to memorize and execute. I have only managed to commit it to memory for a brief six-month period and practice it regularly during that time. I will be quite honest, at no point was I bathed in glory nor did I hear an authoritative voice telling me exactly what to do in order to gain health, wealth and length of days. My Angel won’t even tell me one of the winning lottery numbers or how to fix horse races. But during this time I felt more aligned with my “self” and privy to the obfuscated possibilities of life. Like an alchemical process, the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel seems to be steady and incremental; it is not something that one possesses after executing a single ritual, no matter how beautifully written or enthusiastically performed. There are many paths to this Knowledge and Conversation, I would like to share one that I was also using at the time and still use to this day.

As Wilson has his favorite psychologist in Wilhelm Reich, I have one in Roberto Assagioli. By way of one of my best teachers/therapists, Will Parfitt, I was introduced to Assagioli and his system of psychosynthesis. Central to psychosynthesis is the practice of self-identification and disidentification. The exercise can be found in almost all of Parfitt’s works on Qabalah and Psychosynthesis. Essentially, self-identification and disidentification consists of understanding the mutability of your physical, emotional and intellectual composites and finally the unchanging centrality that we all dub “I.” This exercise ends in the understanding and affirmation that I “am a centre of pure self consciousness. I am a centre of will…” and the unmitigated experience of that ever present, though necessarily obscured, state of being. I have also had great success while playing the Alien Game administered to Benny "Eggs" Benedict by Cagliostro the Great in The Universe Next Door:

““Suppose I were an extraterrestrial,” the man said gently. “Suppose I were several million years ahead of this planet. What one question would you ask me?”

“Why is there so much violence and hatred among us?” Benny asked at once.

“It’s always that way on primitive planets,” the main said. “The early stages of evolution are never pretty.”

“Do planets grow up?” Benny asked.

“Some of them,” the man said simply.

“How?”

“Through suffering enough, they learn wisdom.”

Benny turned and looked at his odd companion. He is an actor, he thought. “Through suffering,” he repeated. “There’s no other way?”

“Not in the primitive stages,” the man said. “Primitives are too self-centered to ask the important questions, until suffering forces them to ask.”

Benny felt the grief pass through him again, then leave. He grinned. “You play this game very well.”

“Anybody can do it,” the man said. “It’s a gimmick, to get outside your usual mind-set. You can do it, too. Just try for a minute- you be the advanced intelligence and I’ll be the primitive Terran. Okay?”

“Sure,” Benny said, enjoying this.

“Why me?” The stranger’s tone was intense. “Why have I been singled out for so much injustice and pain?”

“There is no known answer to that,” Benny said at once. “Some say it’s just chance- hazard- statistics. Some say there is a Plan, and that you were chosen to learn an important lesson. Nobody knows, really. The important thing is to ask the next question.”

“And what is the next question?”

Benny felt as if this was easy. “The next question is: What do I do about it? How ever many minutes or hours or years or decades I have left, what do I do to make sense out of it all?"

“Hey, that’s good," the stranger said. “You play Higher Intelligence very well.”

“It’s just a gimmick,” Benny said, feeling as if a great weight had been taken off him.

They laughed.

“Where did you ever learn that?” Benny asked.

“From a book on Cabala,” the man said. “It’s a way of contacting the Holy Guardian Angel. But people don’t relate to the metaphor these days, so I changed it to an extraterrestrial from an advanced civilization.”

“Who are you? I keep feeling I’ve seen your face…”

The man laughed. “I’m a stage magician,” he said. “Cagliostro the Great.”

“Are you sure you’re not a real magician?” Benny asked.”

I don’t think I’ve ever reproduced that scene in full before; I’m glad I did as it is remarkably beautiful. But that’s what I call “the Alien Game.” I highly reccomend trying it sometime. You might be suprised what’s already inside you, waiting to speak. I don’t know what book that might have come from originally, or if there ever has been such a book, but I’m terribly grateful to Wilson for sharing it with us. (For that matter, I’m not sure where Wilson gets the idea that Maimonedes was trained in Sufi sex-yoga rites, but I’m going to just let that possible-canard stand.)

After discussing the Holy Guardian Angel, Wilson moves on to give a brief, incredibly cogent interpretation of Liber Al vel Legis. I should note that I accept The Book of the Law as a received text, but some of the “accurate” prophecy therein is par for the course as far as such works are concerned. If it were Crowley who intentionally authored Liber Al, (again, I don’t believe it entirely was) he wouldn’t have been foolish to place money on the idea that war and strife would rule the 20th Century. The shadows of Empire grew long across the world as technology, marvelous and amoral, proliferated across the Earth. It doesn’t take a divine intelligence to see that homo bellicosus would turn our wonders into horrors soon enough. That’s why The Revelation of St. John can be used to convince the convincible that the signs of the End Times are upon us, at any time; War, Famine, Pestilence, Death…the four are always riding, throughout history. But please study Wilson’s writings about the visions presented in The Book of the Law. Wilson was truly an amazing exegete of Crowley’s.

Earlier, while discussing Leary, the HGA and immortality, Wilson quotes Leary as saying that “Consciousness is energy received and decoded by a structure.” Since we are, in a sense, only privy to the matters of our own consciousness, this is certainly worth meditating upon. It also gives us a way to look forward. This is helped by a definition of magic, always one of the funniest and most frustrating pursuits of magic is defining it, given by Alan and Steve Moore in their upcoming Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic: magic is “a purposeful engagement with the phenomena and possibilities of consciousness.” With this energy decoded and engaged with, what possibilities could wait for us in the future? As he closes his essay, Wilson concerns himself with the primitive stages of evolution and whether our planet will grow up. It would be in bad form for our author to despair over whether we can, but whether we will is another matter entirely. All we can do is try, keep asking the next question. Move forward, with the stars in our eyes.

Love is the law, love under will.


A. C.

Practice: After writing to Mr. Parfitt, he has graciously given his leave to republish his version of "the

Self-identification exercise." I would very much like to recommend the practice, which does not typically afford immediate, "fireworks;" but, with the proper applicaltion of Will, it does yield sparkling Results. 

THE SELF-IDENTIFICATION EXERCISE

The following exercise is a tool for moving towards and realising the consciousness of

the self. This exercise is of vital importance, and should be done with the greatest care.

Affirm to yourself the following: I have a body but I am not my body. My body may find

itself in different conditions of health or sickness, it may be rested or tired, but that has

nothing to do with my self, my real I. I value my body as my precious instrument of

experience and action in the world, but it is only an instrument. I treat it well, I seek to

keep it in good health, but it is not myself. I have a body but I am not my body. 

Close your eyes, recall what this affirmation says, then focus your attention on the

central concept: I have a body but I am not my body. Attempt to realise this as an

experienced fact in your consciousness.

Now affirm to yourself: I have feelings, but I am not my feelings. My feelings and

emotions are diversified, changing, sometimes contradictory. They may swing from love

to hatred, from calm to anger, from joy to sorrow, and yet my essence - my true nature -

does not change. I remain. Though a wave of anger may temporarily submerge me, I

know that in time it will pass; therefore I am not this anger. Since I can observe and

understand my feelings, and can gradually learn to direct, utilise, and integrate them

harmoniously, it is clear that they are not my self. I have feelings, but I am not my

feelings.

Close your eyes, recall what this affirmation says, then focus your attention on the

central concept: I have feelings, but I am not my feelings. Attempt to realise this as an

experienced fact in your consciousness.

Now affirm to yourself: I have thoughts but I am not my thoughts. My mind is a valuable

tool of discovery and expression, but it is not the essence of my being. Its contents are

constantly changing as it embraces new ideas, knowledge, and experience, and makes

new connections. Sometimes my thoughts seem to be independent of me and if I try to

control them they seem to refuse to obey me. Therefore my thoughts cannot be me, my

self. My mind is an organ of knowledge in regard to both the outer and inner worlds, but

it is not my self. I have a mind but I am not my mind.

Close your eyes, recall what this affirmation says, then focus your attention on the

central concept: I have thoughts but I am not my thoughts. Attempt to realise this as an

experienced fact in your consciousness.

Next comes the phase of identification. Affirm clearly and slowly to yourself: After this

disidentification of the self, the I, from my body, my feelings, and my mind, I recognise

and affirm that I am a centre of pure self consciousness. I am a centre of will, capable of

observing, directing and using all my psychological processes and my physical body.

Focus your attention on the central realisation:

I am a centre of pure self-consciousness and of will. 

Realise this as an experienced fact in your awareness.

When you have practised this exercise a few times, you can use it in a much shorter

form. The important point is to keep to the four main, central affirmations:

I have a body and sensations but I am not my body and sensations.

I have feelings and emotions, but I am not my feelings and emotions.

I have a mind and thoughts, but I am not my mind and thoughts.

I am I, a centre of pure self-consciousness and of will.

You may have to repeat the exercise a few times to start with to get its full flavour, but

then you will be able to do it daily from memory. The effort will be well worth it. All the

influences which try to capture your attention and demand identification will no longer

have the same hold over you.

(by Will Parfitt)