On Magick and the Occult (Part I)
Episode 27 - Aleister Crowley, Thelema, ritual and the pursuit of your desires
Greetings Dear Reader,
Hope your evening is going well. Is it not evening? It was, the last time I checked.
Anyway, welcome back to the campfire. Today I wish to take you on a journey through ritual, magic, symbols and the work of Aleister Crowley. Some of you may be familiar with this guy. If you’ve never heard of him, then this is the perfect place for you to be today.
What is Magick?
Magic(K) as opposed to ‘MagiC’ is a word used by occultist Aleister Crowley to indicate a type of… hmm, how can I define it? Will-Power or Conscious Manipulation of the unfoldment of Life/Nature/the World through psychic/mental means, as opposed to what is commonly known as ‘Magic’ with a ‘c’ that denotes techniques of concealment and illusion. The latter aims to impress, bewilder and ultimately entertain. While the first? Well, that’s where it gets interesting.
We could say the first is also known as ‘Ceremonial Magic/K’ because it’s usually accompanied by, well, ceremonies and rituals. This often involves the use of various types of incense, symbols and theatrical-like costumes and environments.
This has always fascinated me deeply, and I’ve always been extremely interested in this topic. Why would people do this if, according to popular mainstream culture, it’s all hogwash? Well maybe because it’s not all hogwash and popular mainstream culture isn’t always right? Could it be?
Aleister Crowley
There aren’t many who popularised occultism and magick quite as much as Mr.Crowley. Probably one of, if not the most famous representative of the so-called ‘occult arts’ in the modern era, Crowley was a fascinating figure, still studied to this day. He was a prominent writer, painter, poet and, among other things, founded his own religion (called Thelema), which is more than what most people can claim as a life achievement.
Crowley (1875-1947) had a few bones to pick with Christianity, and I think it’s thanks to him that modern popular culture often depicts ritualised pentagram symbols carved on the ground with Hell/Demons/Satan. You may have seen many movies featuring this stuff.
This is because Crowley was raised in a fundamentalist Christian household. His father was very devout and read a chapter of the Bible for his family at breakfast, every day. Imagine that. His mother, on the other hand, called her only child by such affectionate names as ‘the Beast’; something that was, I imagine, quite hurtful for lil’Aleister as a child, but which later in life he took on with pride.
When he was 8, Crowley got sent to to an evangelical boarding school in Hastings. After the early death of his father, he inherited his wealth and started kinda doing his own thing, such playing chess, climbing exotic mountains and having lots of sex; three things which, again, are fine accomplishments.
In 1898 he joined the secretive, esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in Ceremonial Magic. After that he went travelling the world, hiking mountains in Mexico, chilling in Hawaii and then reaching Hong Kong and even India, where he studied Yoga in a temple and hoped, like most of us (?), to reach advanced states of awareness. Unfortunately the only thing he reached was malaria, but that didn’t stop him from continuing his journeys.
Eventually he went to Paris, then Scotland (where he purchased a famously haunted house that I want to visit), got married, then went to Egypt with his wife. It is there that he began to summon various gods, and eventually managed to make contact with Horus himself, who apparently told him it’s time to become a prophet for a new religion.
This seems to have worked well for others in the past, so, hey, what the hell, right? And so Horus (or one of’em, it’s a bit unclear), started to dictate a holy book, which Crowley wrote in three days. This became ‘The Book of the Law’, foundational text for his new religion, Thelema.
We shall leave Crowley aside for now, to remain in Egypt writing this gospel. Let’s look at this scripture of his.
What is Thelema?
So Thelema is a sort of modern mix of ancient Egyptian mythology with modern occultism, and peppered with some alchemical stuff too. The word itself refers to ‘Desire’ or ‘Will’ and, in fact, its chief cardinal claim is: ‘Do what thou will’ or rather ‘Live according to your own Will’.
Obviously this differs from traditional religions, which more often than not, proclaim: ‘Live according to the Will of God’, or at least some sort of transcendental principle that goes beyond the Ego. (I don’t think or know if Crowley himself would have called this a ‘religion’, but more of an esoteric philosophy.)
Now: a surface-level reading of this could imply that one should simply do what one wants, and that personal desire for self-indulging pleasure should be the chief pursuit of one’s life. This, in fact, would be a main criticism towards Crowley’s work, and magickal pursuit in general (since you would never perform a magick ritual if you didn’t want something).
Naturally, as you may already start to see, this goes completely against traditional Christian doctrine, which is why Crowley was later accused of worshipping Satan. He took lots of satisfaction in that and began to call himself ‘The Beast’ and use the number ‘666’ as a way, I and many of his biographers think, of giving everyone the middle-finger.
However, beyond a surface-level reading, what Thelema aims to say is that one should discover their true spiritual calling, something that goes beyond the desire for self-gratification. This is known as the ‘True Will’, and should reflect the deepest, most authentic self.
As you may know, it’s very difficult to reach this self without proper introspection self-discipline and self-inquiry. This is where a psychological/spiritual path becomes necessary. The path to this discovery is known as ‘The Great Work’, a term which Crowley clearly borrowed from Alchemy. I wrote more on that Here.
It’s because of Alchemy that Thelema also borrows the figure of Baphomet in its, ehm, ‘theology’(?). Baphomet is an alchemical symbol representing the union of opposites, and often portrayed as a horned creature. This symbol was often criticized by Christians for very obvious reasons, and associated to the Devil. This permeated our popular culture for a long time, and even today we still easily make the associations between Baphomet and Satan.
One of my first ever pieces of digital art was, in fact, Baphomet, and you can see it below:
It is also worth mentioning that one needs to think deeply about such statements as ‘live according to your own will’. In pursuing your own selfish desire for pleasure you must realise that you are not Free. For example, let's say you crave chocolate ice-cream. Absolute freedom, as interpreted today, would mean having chocolate ice-cream three times a day, every day, for as long as you want. But is that really freedom?
Are you free, or are you slave to chocolate ice-cream? A slave to your own desire?
This idea echoes across ALL disciplines that pursue self-realisation and understanding. Even Jung agrees, because he states (and shows) how everyone is ruled by their unconscious cravings, mistaking them for their own ambitions. Why do you want to be rich? Why do you want a partner? Why do you want power? Like, seriously, you must deeply investigate the point of origin of all your greatest desires. Especially those which torment your every waking hour.
This is the beginning of the way to self-mastery.
We’re not quite done with Crowley, or with magick in general. So stay tuned for the next episode, where we continue our journey.
Blessings,
