part0030

In this section we will look at Thelema, the philosophy – some may call it religion – developed by Crowley and which suffuses the entire Thoth Tarot. Thelema is the Greek word meaning ‘will’ and represented to Crowley a key part of his philosophy and world-view.

I will briefly sketch out the context of Thelema through history, which may surprise those readers who have only associated the concept with the notorious Crowley, rather than Thelema being a general philosophy of life open to all.

We will see that Crowley is actually the sixth of many notable Thelemites in history, and hence why I refer to his presentation of Thelema to be Thelema v.6.

No doubt, Crowley was a Thelemite of some magnitude, and the most recent in popular memory. If we first consider Thelema as a way of life which itself engages life, and not seeks to escape it with distraction, then Crowley certainly engaged life.

At the age of 23, Crowley had already defined himself. He stated that he was a “Magus, poet, mountaineer, explorer, big game hunter, chess master, cook.” Later in life he updated his personal resumé to include; “poet, novelist and artist”. He also - in an application to design a series of golf courses for St. Andrews (which was turned down) - described his various gaming exploits including his golf handicap of +3, building a golf course on his own estate, and playing chess since the age of 4, to the standard where he could play “3 games simultaneously blindfold”.

When cards came into his gaming, not only had he invented a game called ‘Thelema’ like 5-a-side football, but also three new forms of ‘Patience’ and a new form of ‘Baccarat’.

He was certainly able to put his mind to many pursuits, and did so with vigour, as his whole life-story attests. My favourite of many stories is that he left a troupe of dancing girls stranded in Russia when he himself flitted off to some other country – China, perhaps, or back to Europe. I would not have wished to have often been in his irregular and wild company.

However, his taking up of the doctrine of Thelema, a Greek word meaning “Will”, comes through an interesting lineage – perhaps one that evolved (or devolved) over time, depending on your point of view. By the time he came to design his tarot deck, towards the latter end of his life, he saw it as an opportunity to fully illustrate his teachings, particularly Thelema, sexual magick, alchemy, astrology and the passing of the great “Aeons” of human history and evolution.

It is important that we appreciate how this simple word “Will”, infuses the deck so much, and how by understanding it as a core concept we can practically use the Thoth deck to provide extremely powerful and proactive readings for ourselves and others.

The origin of the doctrine of Thelema is attributed to an ancient Christian philosopher, Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430), which may also be surprising to some readers. In his Homilies , he wrote this:

The deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity.

Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt : whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”

This philosophy teaches that so long as we find ourselves in the love of the divine, no wrong doing can follow as a result in our actions. Therefore, it is of paramount importance we attain to this grace, to avoid sin and wrongdoing.

Crowley re-casts this doctrine in reverse by stating his fundamental doctrine of Thelema; “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”.

Augustine also points out that discipline can be in the service of charity, which Crowley later re-phrases as his second fundamental doctrine, “Love is the law, love under will”.

However, although Crowley was no doubt aware of Augustine, his prime influence for the development of Thelema was François Rabelais (1494 – 1553). This author, scholar and monk – who is now seen as a Christian Humanist - wrote several satirical books, critiquing the society of the time, the most well-known being Gargantua and Pantagruel (c. 1532 – c. 1564).

One section of the book describes the Abbey of Thélème, a place where the inhabitants live a life of freedom from social conformity and religious doctrine thus:

All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good; they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed,

because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden and to desire what is denied us.

It is this lifestyle, philosophy and sense of elegant freedom which Crowley sought to emulate and promote in his own life. Although, it might be argued that the philosophy was hard to manifest without some form of finance - such as the abbey he created at Cefalu in Sicily.

The Thelemic doctrine of “Do What Thou Wilt” was taken directly from Rabelais (and Augustine) by Crowley – however, others had also adopted it as a lens through which to view the world.

Whilst little-known, Walter Besant (brother-in-law of Annie Besant, a prominent author and theosophist) wrote a book styled on Thelema, The Abbey of Thelema as did Charles Robert Ashbee, whose book The Building of Thelema is a unique socialist tract promoting the virtues of a Thelemic lifestyle to the working man. Ashbee was a fascinating character – he was influenced in his life by a fellow homosexual, the poet Edward Carpenter (who might also be considered Thelemic), was possibly a member of The Order of Chaeronea , a group exploring homosexuality at the time it was illegal. He was also influential in the Arts and Crafts movement.

Our list of Thelemites is then:

I would like to pick out a few points from Ashbee’s work that help us understand the general concept of Thelema outside of Crowley whilst also supporting Crowley’s utilisation of it in the Thoth tarot.

In Ashbee’s book, the story is of travellers on a train who intend to visit the city, Thelema. In an almost-Harry-Potter-like train journey, they discuss the nature of this city and its fabled inhabitants. It is a socialist utopia, and various characters offer their insights, such as the London Cockney and the American, as well as a religious character and a homespun philosopher. Here is one such piece of dialogue where a character is interrupted by the rather direct American:

Whilst musing on “the thinking machine” which encloses the city in its “iron net”, let us consider what Crowley later wrote about his own Order of Thelema:

The Order of Thelemites is not a mystical, magical or occult order in the ordinary sense of these words. Its purpose is to enable its members to succeed in life. [The sublime principle is] to instruct the individual by allegory and symbol in the profound mysteries of birth, life, and death, and thereby to assist him discover the true nature of his purpose in life. [135]

This is in accord with the revelation of the “perfect machine” in Ashbee’s book, which turns out to be the mind of man, not a machine. The perfect machine that runs Thelema is:

Man – Man with his mind fixed upon the vital things; not upon the things of the moment, the foolish, the unimportant things, the things that merely sell. For the purpose of life is not how to get through it, but how to live it, how to unfold it, how to discover in it what it reveals, how to find out by instinct what is the finer spiritual purpose the senses convey. [136]

In fact, Ashbee’s book, for all its peculiar philosophy and views on race, socialism, etc., examines the application of Thelema to society in much depth. The “journey” to Thelema as a place is seen as slow and wearisome, and the city is constantly being constructed. It is of course, a metaphor for our life. We must shirk off our old luggage to make speed there, and doubt will assail us at all times.

One character muses on the conflict of the central thesis, “love and do as thy wilt”, in considering how it is appears a contradiction, much like the balancing of the Christian teaching of “love and the pity that comes of love,” and the Pagan teaching of “temperance and the beauty that comes of temperance”. It is both that must be understood – and both that must be practised, to enter that city. Further, the whole concept of work is questioned repeatedly in Ashbee’s treatise on Thelema; the first duty of its citizens is “the duty of finding out what [one’s] duties in life were”. Those who have “comfortable” duties (and jobs and roles in society) and speak convincingly of them are not to be trusted, for they have been compensated for their conformity, not for their joy. The gospel of Thelema is one of discovering the “Kingdom of Heaven” within, not without, and “pleasure realising its duties, that is joy, and joy is the thing to aim at, not pleasure” (p. 112).

When we come to consider the Thoth tarot, we must consider it a realisation of the doctrine of Thelema; an ethos that proclaims the individual will, and its discovery as the central duty (and freedom) of every human being. Every card is a facet of this doctrine of absolute personal freedom and shows the challenges and consequences of such a demanding and rigorous approach to life. It is a teaching that suggests a society of individualism.

In a private letter, Crowley wrote:

I have separated the essence of these doctrines from their dogmatic, racial and climatic accidents, applied a strictly scientific method of analysis and synthesis and harmonised the whole into a perfectly elastic yet perfectly rigid method. Further, the full development of these [doctrines] envisages a fundamental reconstruction of society whose essence is the acceptance of the law of Thelema as the canon of ethics.

Let us leave this first part of an introduction to Thelema by joining the company of Socrates, Jesus of Nazareth, and other luminaries, in the Orchard of Thelema, teaching together at the conclusion of Ashbee’s book. Rabelais himself storms into the celebration and joyfully toasts, holding up a great cup with “the amethyst of temperance glittering at its crown, and the sunshine dancing upon its silver tracery”, the following toast;

Having looked at Thelema, we now require a briefing on the ancient Egyptian deities that will be discovered throughout the Major Arcana, two visionary workings that provide an early glimpse into Crowley’s thinking on tarot symbolism, and then we are ready to start an exploration of the twenty-two Arcana in sequence. First, though, we must look at the most common question about the Thoth Tarot – how do you pronounce Thoth?