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To: alt.magick From: eric@gadgetguru.com (Eric O'Dell) Subject: Re: Thelemic Prophets ? Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 20:33:51 GMT threskia@lar.forthnet.gr (Evangelos Rigakis) wrote: >QUESTION : > If we are to take Thelema as a new religion, then is it not correct to >believe that a religion has many Prophets and that the Master Therion >is initiated as the first of the "Thelemic Prophets" of the Book of >the Law ? If there be such a possibility, then by what measure can a >Prophet be proven ? Crowley himself addresses this question in his discussion on the legitimacy of Liber AL. In my opinion, the conditions he sets forth for the acceptance of any given prophecy, AL included, as genuine are quite adequate to both common sense and to Thelemic orthodoxy. I object to the assertion that a religion must have many prophets, though. This may be true, but it is a baseless assertion. I see no reason to believe that there could not be a religion with a single prophet and a single revelation. To the extent that Christianity, for example, represents a break from the old law of the OT, Jesus might be regarded as the first and last prophet of Christianity. Mohammed is regarded as the final prophet of the Peoples of the Book, and while not denying the legitimacy of previous prophets from Moses through Jesus, the final revelation posited by the Quran does at least assert a finite number of prophets. In the case of Thelema, the Book of the Law prophesies at least one, and maybe two, prophets to follow Therion. Crowley initially believed that the two were one, and that the one was Achad, but he eventually retreated from both positions to a certain extent. Although the record is rather unclear, due both to scanty records and the deliberate obfuscation of Achad partisans, I believe that the position Crowley finally took was that Achad, as his magical son, did indeed bring the key to the Book, but that he fell from his post and descended into the Abyss --- a point that is more than adequately supported by Achad's own confused and chaotic writings. However, Crowley decided, the "one" who was prophesied to come after and reveal further mysteries of the Book is a separate entity. Being able to satisfactorily expound upon these mysteries was, to answer the original question, Crowley's chief criterion for accepting the legitimacy of any would-be prophet. The assertion made by another poster, that Achad could be regarded as a prophet for his contribution to the Qabala outside of his revelation of the Key, is, I believe, absurd. Unless, of course, you take his spectacular conversion to the Black Brotherhood to be a divinely-inspired object lesson: no man is exempt from the Law, not even prophets. ---EO *------------------------------------------------------* | The opinions expressed here are strictly my own and | | do not necessarily represent those of my employer, | *------------------------------------------------------*
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