THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi
From: "Fr. A.o.C." 
Subject: Re: The Winged-Disk and Hadit
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 19:17:37 GMT

A last word regarding Jesse K's 'denouncement' of Thelema on the basis
of historical 'fact':

This is the kind of argument no theologian would bother with. It went
out of style in the Middle Ages.

The value of code is not in it who wrote it or how it was created but in
what it does.

Two thousand years has brought us to Christianity in it's death-throes,
dooming its adherents to a poverty of mind and soul in subjugation to a
jealous god. Less than one hundred years has shown the power of Thelema,
as the vigorous changes to society it proposes are already occurring,
even without the active efforts of its initiates. As Toynbee said, while
coining the term "Industrial Revolution": steam engines come when comes
steam engine time. 

Now is Thelema time. Witness: the ever-growing "New Age" and Neo-Pagan
revival; the liberation of sexuality, free from government control of
"morals"; the equality of man and woman, socially and sexually; the
questioning of all authority, even it's own. And include the Internet as
well -- now anyone with a computer can write as voluminously as Crowley
and reach many times the audience Crowley reached while he was alive.
Every man and woman a 'virtual' Sovereign, able "to speak what he will;
to write what he will; to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he
will; to dress as he will... to drink what he will; to dwell where he
will; to move as he will on the face of the earth." -- Liber OZ

It's Thelema time -- even if most of the world doesn't know it has a name.

In terms of the 'historicity'  of Thelema:

1) scholars have long concluded that there is no longer any historical
evidence for the gospel story, especially the crucifixion and
resurrection. Who cares? Certainly not Christians, who still stubbornly
celebrate Easter. There is no evidence for, and considerable evidence
against, the story of the Jewish Exodus. Who cares? Certainly not Jews,
who still stubbornly celebrate Passover.

2) the historical bits that did feed into Thelema were jumping off
points or inspiration for a new formulation to be generated from. Paul
of Tarsus went to Athens and was upset by the pagan idols there, but he
used a plaque, "To An Unknown God", as a springboard to introduce Jesus
to the Athenians. He said this "Unknown God" was Christ, whom he had
come to proclaim. He quoted Greek poetry and comedy. He spoke to his
target audience in the way that would inspire them. 

Crowley, inadvertently or not, via 'Aiwass' or not, spoke to the
"Egyptomaniacal" Victorian Brits -- his peer group -- the same way as
did St. Paul to the Athenians. Egypt and it's gods were only a
springboard. He used the Stele of Revealing the same way St. Paul used
that plaque in Athens. But you don't hear a philosophical debate raging
between Christian and non-Christian theologians on whether or not Paul's
interpretation of that plaque and what it said was "correct" in terms of
Greek Theology, and if not, all of Christianity is therefore invalid. In
a theological school, such an argument wouldn't even be worth talking
about -- by either side.

Hadit is not an Egyptian god. Hadit is a Thelemic god. Argument settled.
Anyone who 'mistakenly' adopted Thelema as a religious belief solely
based on this misspelt misinterpretation of Stele #666 is welcome to
depart and spread the word that "Hadit" was unknown to the Egyptians.
See who cares.

Certainly not Thelemites.

It is amusing that Crowley was very caught up on trying to
demonstrate/prove the preternatural origins of the texts but frankly
that was an obsession of that era, not ours. Today scholars understand
that most scriptures are pious forgeries by today's standards (i.e.
Moses wrote the Torah). Here we know who, where and when, if not exactly
how. That makes it more of an easy target. But it doesn't change the
nature of the debate -- it's still meaningless. 

As far as Jesse himself is concerned, I got this message in my e-mail
recently on a totally different subject, but it certainly applies here:

"My house mates got an adorable puppy recently. (this is not a
non-sequitur, trust me)  We all train her a little, with instructions
from the main dog-owner who takes her to puppy training class and
teaches us the methods.

When she jumps on you, that's her way of getting attention.  Since
jumping is an undesirable behavior which we don't want to reinforce, we
don't give her attention.  Even yelling at her would be a kind of giving
attention, so when she jumps, we turn around and walk away.  I didn't
believe this would work as well as punishment, but in fact it's working
much better.

So when [Jesse], being an attention-monger and indefatigable
self-promoter, really wants you to ask what [Thelema] is for, and to
argue pointlessly and rudely about it, unless you want to reinforce this
activity, turn around, walk away, pay no mind."

What a specifically great idea.

- Fr. A.o.C.


"How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of
making progress." -- Niels Bohr