THE |
|
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects. |
To: alt.magick From: tim@toad.com (Tim Maroney) Subject: Re: Rabalais and Themela (was Re: The Pact & the OTO) Date: 499410xx Quoting: |> Unknown |>I have just read Rabalais "Gargantua and Pantagruel" for a humanities |>class. Is the Thelemic Abbey set up by Gargantua Crowley's basis for |>Thelema. Is this part of an older tradition, invented by Rabalais, or what? It is not exactly the "basis," but it is one literary source from which the tradition draws. Unfortunately, like most of the literary antecedents, it is little known by members of the tradition except by indirect reference. That's a shame, because to me everything worthwhile about "Do what you will" can be derived from the inscription above Father John's arch, together with the accompanying interpretive text. The grandiose and inconsistent philosophical edifice Crowley erected around this psychological concept are to his discredit, and their unquestioning acceptance reflects badly on the Crowleyan tradition. In essence he took the attributes of the God of the Plymouth Brethren and grafted them forcefully onto the quieter and more profound Rabelaisian ideas. Among these attributes are pre-existence of birth, survival of death, omnipotence, and transcendent moral righteousness. In the process he gave Crowleyan Thelema its own version of the insoluble "problem of evil" that dogs traditional Christianity. If will is pre-existent and omnipotent, then how is it that there is such a thing as restriction of the will? If it wills its own restriction, then why should we be concerned with will at all, since whether we attend to it or not, it will be done? If all these restrictions are manifestations of will, then why is restriction referred to as undesirable in various contexts? If will is only a force which can run afoul of other forces, then how can we assign it the attribute of transcendent righteousness? Crowley glosses over these issues in a quite unconvincing fashion, together with similar objections that could be raised to both his idea of will and to the traditional Christian God: How do we know that it exists? What is the meaning of its attribute of righteousness? Why should we prefer it to other things? It is primarily for these reasons that I have sometimes said that I am a Rabelaisian Thelemite, but not a Crowleyan Thelemite. The idea of Rabelais is not beset by such difficulties. That idea is that within people who have cultivated virtue in themselves, there is an inner spur or goad which impels their actions towards further virtue; and that this faculty is a thing to which we can attend in order to better ourselves. It is not necessarily of a "spiritual" nature; no mention is made of its extracorporeal existence. It is not an omnipotent force, but a psychological source of motivation, so of course it may be restricted by other forces. It is not transcendentally righteous or necessarily unerring, but simply some part of ourselves which we are enriched by knowing. (There still remain some problems with assigning it the moral label of "virtuous," but since the label is less extreme and exagerrated than Crowley's, it comes in well under the bar for an existentialist view of human judgment.) It should be noted in passing that what I am referring to as the Crowleyan idea is developed in his commentaries to Liber AL. It is highly questionable whether any of his questionable doctrines are clearly present in the Book itself. This makes little difference to me, as I do not feel myself constrained to affirm the Book of the Law as correct, but it may be of interest to AL-identified Thelemites. locklin@phyast.pitt.edu (Lupo LeBoucher) writes: >Almost certainly invented by Rabalais, though I am certain there are >conspiracy theories to the contrary. If I remember correctly, John Dee >may have used the Thelemic motto before R. which probably generates all >kinds of paranoid conspiracy theory. I think "Do As You Will" by Geoffry Ashe >is a decent historical reference on the topic. Yes, it's a shame that Ashe's very interesting book has been so long out of print. Given that the occult book mills are still grinding out Crowleyan pap and apparently selling it well enough to stay in business, I would think one of them would realize the benefits of bringing this book back for a wider audience. I keep seeing other books by Geoffrey Ashe coming into print, but never this one. Haven't heard of the Dee usage, though. Since Dee was only seven or eight years old when _Gargantua_ was published, it seems unlikely that he could have used "Do what you will" first. -- Tim Maroney, Communications and User Interface Engineer {apple!sun}!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "The Diabolonian position is new to the London playgoer of today, but not to lovers of serious literature. From Prometheus to the Wagnerian Siegfried, some enemy of the gods, unterrified champion of those oppressed by them, has always towered among the heroes of the loftiest poetry." - Shaw, "On Diabolonian Ethics"
The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org. |
Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site. |
The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories, each dealing with a different branch of religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge. Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit: |
|
interdisciplinary:
geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc. |
SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):
OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST
Southern
Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo,
including slave narratives & interviews
|