The second book on my journey of spiritual development is all about Aleister Crowley and Thelema.
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I must admit that before I became aware and curious about The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, I began to feel drawn to a number of directions to explore. Buddhism, Christianity etc, are mainstream religions. While searching on Amazon for books about those subjects I came across the name and topic of Aleister Crowley and found myself instantly intrigued. So while looking up The Beast I discovered the Order of the Golden Dawn and thus this part of the journey began, I figured if it is where Crowley began, it’s also A good place for me to begin. But having seen the fantastical rumours and lore about this interesting character briefly online and on Youtube etc, I for sure had reservations about approaching the subject at all. But I reserved my judgement and decided t get stuck in. There is the mountain of literature written by Aleister Crowley himself, which I could have begun to go through but according to some reviewers, it is difficult to read unless you are already into A study of Crowley and Thelema so instead I needed something written about him rather than by him.
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Thelema: An Introduction to the Life, Work & Philosophy of Aleister Crowley stood out because it covers all the aspects of Crowley. It has A brief biographical history lesson, which I feel could have been written with slightly more detail and the author skips around some of the negative press about Aleister Crowley. Some of the accounts given by Colin D. Campbell, at first I thought were A tad far fetched but Campbell does give the notes on the bottom of each page that can be cross-referenced to be able to research the claims of The Great Beast. At the same time, throughout this book, Campbell does try to ensure the reader that the majority of the crazy stories and tales of Crowley fed to the public are simply not true and are works of fiction by the sensationalist media trying to run with whatever sells their publications, and A. Crowley simply played into it and went with them. The author tries to stress that the man Aleister Crowley was certainly misunderstood by the masses but did very little to change public opinion. Colin D. Campbell is A follower and Thelemite.
Although I have read some stories and watched A couple of videos online about Crowley and Thelema, it was A very limited and minimal intake because I wanted to go into this with A totally open mind, and I’m pleased I did because in the philosophy section of the book, it is explained in some detail the actual thought process and consideration of the construction of Thelema and how easily it can be misinterpreted. In Campbell making this point, to me could be paradoxical and what’s to say the author himself is interpreting Thelema ad, Crowley, out of context besides his own study (which is over many, many years). I hold judgement until I myself have studied this subject closely, but I am sure there is A middle point of some truth, some exaggeration and some fiction, even with Colin D. Campbell’s account in this book. One thing to note is that the author himself doesn’t detail any of his own experiences.
Thelema has its roots in A lot of the teachings from The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and from what I can tell they are the yin and yang of one another, without The Golden Dawn, you wouldn’t have Crowley’s Thelema, and without Crowley, you likely wouldn’t have a Golden Dawn that is as widely known as it is today. The Golden Dawn system is what drove Crowley in more than one way. There are, of course, the facts of what went on between them and how Crowley was A bit of A Trojan Horse but neither this book nor my knowledge on the subject is adequate enough to be able to speak on this subject, but I will after some more in-depth research for sure. The history given in this book’ I feel could have gone into more detail and had more substance to it. I find the author very bland and quite boring to read, to be honest, and neither does Colin d. Campbell detail any of his own experiences.
Magick… It’s quite funny because in my previous post (Lost in A Sea of Doubt Part 1) I wrote about one of my first memorable experiences as A child and it being inexplicable how the weather changed above head via what I consider an act of pure will and method. In this book, the author states that no one can control the weather. To me (and my uneducated and simplistic mind), my experience tells me differently, the aspect of and point of view remembering the event in the context of the purity of a child's belief and will, that as a child, I had no doubt that it was not possible. I performed the ritualistic magick without question that it was entirely possible to change the weather. After all, humans and science are changing the weather every day!
In fact, there are other inexplicable events I will be going into in future posts that within the context of this author's definition are contradictory. Campbell also says that “nature reigns supreme, and you must work within her laws.” Calling nature “her” to me, puts nature as A being, likewise, we are all beings, animals too, and we and everything is connected, thus making it totally possible to affect nature by our true will. Including weather as an individual and the collective. As I said, we do it every day. But I know nothing of this subject, especially to go against what A teacher of the elements of magical practice for over twenty-five years says on the topic.
To sum this up, if you are looking for a very quick crash course in Thelema then this might be a book you should read, but personally, I find the writing far to bland, boring and mundane to be able to enjoy reading it. There are other books out there that, in my opinion, will be better than this one. So keep watching this space because I intend to read, and write about them.
