Preliminary Thoughts on H.O.O.R.
(c) 1994ev
FOOTNOTES AND GENERAL NOTES IN {CURLY BRACKETS}
Issued by Order of and under the Authority of the Chancellor of the
A.:A.:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
On the Genesis of H.O.O.R.
The Holy Order Of RaHoorKhuit was conceived in mid August 1978ev.
H.O.O.R. was officially founded as the new outer Order of Thelema
in 1992ev. The Order was founded to fulfill and to teach the
concepts and principles of the method of Theurgy known as Thelema.
H.O.O.R. is an Order which works in harmony with the A.:A.: .
(Another organization formerly filled this niche but owing to the
great schisms of the late 1980's ev that order no longer serves Us
and has, it seems, fallen.) H.O.O.R. is currently organizing
Temples and Lodges in various metropolitan centers around the
country. Initiation into the 1st Grade is open to any Human being
who wishes to go through this Initiation. The 2nd Grade is reached
through trial by Ordeal in an open Lodge of the Order.
The teachings vary with the Grade but they include all of the
"Initiated" interpretations of Spiritual Birth, of Spiritual Life
and of Death in this new Aeon. These 'Lesser Mysteries' are taught
in the Outer Triad. {For more information on these terms see the
Structure Document} The Greater Mysteries are taught in the Inner
Triad and can only be hinted at. (But an intuitive individual will
be able to get an idea of their composition by reading the Structure
document.) H.O.O.R. is concerned not only with celebrating these
"Initiated" interpretations through ritual and symbol, but also with
social progress, justice and freedom in the world.
An Introduction to Thelema
The term Thelema requires definition for those who may be reading
this introductory paper without the benefit of previous exposure to
the teachings and the philosophy of Edward Alexander Crowley, better
known as Aleister Crowley. Thelema is a Greek word, spelled in that
language {ThELEMA [Greek not available for ASCII],} and it means
will. Thelema is also a word of paramount importance in the
philosophy of Aleister Crowley as will shortly be described.
Thelema in the context of this essay will be taken to refer to the
philosophical and Spiritual system founded by Aleister Crowley.
Who was Aleister Crowley? He was Born 1875 e.v. in Leamington
Warwickshire England and died in 1947 e.v. in Hastings England.
The intervening 72 years were spent traversing nearly every part of
the globe, mastering and synthesizing systems of spiritual
attainment as diverse as Buddhism and Western Ceremonial Magick,
writing, climbing mountains, experimenting with mind altering drugs
and generally pushing the envelope of societies' acceptance of
change. Aleister Crowley was a man whose influences can be found
in such diverse places as C.G. Jung and H.L. Menkin and from Timothy
Leary to Anton LaVey. In fact almost every person who now talks
about, experiments with or writes about anything to do with raising
spiritual awareness, expanded consciousness or altered states of
awareness owes a debt to Aleister Crowley's research and writings.
One is hard pressed to find, in today's literature on these topics,
an area not modified or influenced by his writings and ideas. {For
more information cf. "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley" by A.
Crowley. This book is an Autobiographical panorama, fascinating,
witty and erudite.}
While the above paragraphs may suffice for the "yellow journals"
(and I don't mean Chinese newspapers!) a more in-depth definition
is needed here so that the reader, especially the first time reader,
might have a better grasp of the subject. For instance; what is the
origin of the term Thelema? The word, {ThELEMA}, was used in a text
of inspired writing, dictated to Crowley (as Crowley himself put it,)
on three successive days in Cairo Egypt on April 8, 9 & 10, 1904 e.v.
{A more complete account of this experience and the events leading up
to the experience can be found in "The Equinox of The Gods" by
Aleister Crowley & in "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley" by the
same author,} known as The Book of the Law or Liber AL vel Legis.
This Book of the Law purports to be the pronouncement of (again in
Crowley's words) 'a praeter human intelligence' and to present a
new Spiritual, ethical, moral and social system to humanity. The
jaded intellectual and the just plain jaded may superficially remark
"big deal, him and every other snake oil peddler in history"....
well read on before you roll back your eyes and give a knowing prod
to your neighbor.... for here is how Liber AL puts it: "Every man
and every woman is a star.", "The word of the Law is {ThELEMA}.",
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." and "Love is the
law, love under will." With these four short sentences the Book of
the Law, if applied, strikes off all of the fetters of human
slavery. {Assuming that the reader is aware of their oppression.}
How?
1. It declares every human being complete, unique and divine.
2. It declares that will, or the unique purpose of each individual,
is the law.
3. It declares that doing one's will is the function of each
individual star.
4. It declares that love is the agent, under the regency of the
will, which binds all things to their course.
How do these statements strike off the fetters of slavery?
1. The Law does away with all vicarious arrangements of priests or
preachers or "moral leaders" to one's own divinity. (In the
silence of each heart that which is divine speaks, they have but
to train themselves to listen.) In dissolving these
'relationships with the divine' through others, no more divine
than themselves, the way becomes clear for every man and woman to
shine of their own light. the Law presents every man and every
woman with the opportunity to be free from the tyranny of
priests, "gods" and "community leaders" who would use them for
their own benefit (usually monetary) by showing them what they
truly are; Gods! every one!
2. The Law declares that the will of an individual is supreme in its
own sphere. Thus the individual is empowered to obtain and hold
the freedom to decide on his or her movements, associations,
speech, worship, dress, living arrangements... in short all of
the activities that are now decided for him or her by society
with its laws and religion with its dogmas.
3. This Law charges every person with the task and the
responsibility of seeking out and doing that, only, of which
they are uniquely capable. The Law says that once one's unique
purpose has been discovered, that this purpose then becomes
one's sole guide for action in the world. Thus every person is
motivated from within, so to speak, and is working in an
'ecological' harmony or balance with every aspect of their
environment. Through the intelligent application of these
principles, the individual becomes Master of himself or herself.
This is freedom.
4. Love is declared, by this Law, to be the binding force between
any sets of circumstances. Once understood this concept is of
extreme importance as its ramifications touch every aspect of
one's relationship with everything else.
The above numbered points being merely the informed opinion of the
author of this paper, the reader is encouraged to read for
themselves the Law and to form their own idea of the merits of that
document from those readings. The reader is encouraged not to take
the word of the author of this paper for any of these statements but
rather to study and to decide, on the validity or non-validity of
these statements, for themselves. This too is part of the Thelemic
way you see. We, in Thelema, do not encourage blind obedience.
Rather, we encourage research, questioning and study so that all of
our actions might be informed actions.
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." has been
interpreted by the crass as a maxim of unfettered abandon and
license; in reality it is almost anything but this. The attentive
reader will understand that this is so from the four points in the
above paragraphs. To the not so attentive reader I state adamantly,
"Do what thou wilt" does not mean do anything you want! I'll say it
again in case I am misunderstood ... "Do what thou wilt" does not
mean do anything you want! Maybe I had better phrase this in a more
clear way for those who are disinclined to listen at the first or
the second repetition ... "Do what thou wilt" does not mean do
anything you want! Got it! Oh yes, for all of the intelligence
services; for you I want to say this especially .... "Do what thou
wilt" does not mean do anything you want!
What is Thelema then? Thelema is a system of theurgy, a system of
Initiation and a philosophy for dealing with all aspects of life on
the planet Earth. Whether that be the relationship of the Aspirant
to his/her "God", the spouse to his/her spouse, the politician to
his/her constituency, or the worker to his/her boss. Let me end
this introduction by way of a quotation from "The Confessions of
Aleister Crowley" {The quotation is from chapter 49 of that work.}
to emphasize a very important distinction between the "philosophy"
as stated in Liber AL vel Legis and other philosophies; this being
the relative, rather than the absolute, nature of the "philosophy"
as given in Liber AL.
THE HISTORICAL CONCEPTION ON WHICH THE BOOK OF THE LAW IS BASED.
Just as The Book of the Law reconciles an impersonal and infinite
interpretation of the cosmos with an egocentric and practical
viewpoint, so it makes 'infinite space' speak in the language of a
goddess and deals with the detail of eating and drinking:
"Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine apparel; eat rich foods
and drink sweet wines and wines that foam! Also, take your fill
and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But
always unto me."
The emancipation of mankind from all limitations whatever is one of
the main precepts of the Book.
"Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between
any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt."
It reconciles cosmological conceptions which transcend time and
space with a conventional, historical point of view. In the first
place it announces unconditional truth, but in the second is careful
to state that the 'Magical Formula' (or system of principles) on
which the practical part of the book is based is not an absolute
truth but one relative to the terrestrial time of the revelation.
(It is a strong point in favor of the Book that it makes no pretense
to settle the practical problems of humanity once and for all. It
contents itself with indicating a stage in evolution.)"
Love is the law, love under will.
939.:
OverSeer of H.O.O.R.