04/08/2023
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Still working on the Latin, but I think Triduum Legis is sufficient for a truncation of the three holy days that are the Three Days of the Writing of The Book of the Law, that ibid demands a feast to commemorate in Ch. 2, v. 38. These three days, April 8th, 9th and 10th, are the three days when Aleister Crowley took down the central text of what became his religion of Thelema, a glad word for the New Aeon, that of Horus, which had been initiated some 20 days previous in 1904.
This book marks a new law for a new age characterized by a new pair of zodiac signs that would be at the two horizons at dawn on the Vernal Equinox for the next couple thousand years, those being Leo in the East, The Beast, and Aquarius in the West, Babalon, the Scarlet Woman. These twain forces define the initiatory interplay of this Aeon, the solar aspirant and the saturnine initiator. In the previous Aeon, by contrast, the signs were Virgo, the Virgin bride, and Pisces, the fish, the Psychopomp savior, such as Jesus Christ.
Aleister Crowley taught that this new covenant implied a shift in the spiritual prerogative and potential of mankind that was necessary to reckon with, not only for the individual aspirant seeking communion with the eternal but also for society as a whole. It was therefore incumbent upon every person so called, and especially of those chosen, to look forth upon men and tell them this glad word, ie to promulgate the Law of Thelema - which means Will - that mankind might make the next step.
Initially Aleister Crowley saw this revelation as a promising shift away from the tired religious and philosophical quagmire of previous traditions, those which denied life and venerated suffering for its own sake. But over the course of his adult life, that being the former part of the previous century, he witnessed disaster after disaster on a global scale as aristocracies fell from grace and the mob and all its indiscretions snatched the wheel from anything resembling noble or spiritual authority. He later understood Thelema to be a tradition that might serve as a means to set mankind back on course and map this dark landscape, an uncharted abyss.
What lies beyond is not yet known and aspirants should be cautious of the siren's song of simple solutions for either society or the soul. But for us the mechanism of redemption is clear - new heroes must emerge from their own epics, whether grandiose or peculiar, and new castles must be built so that treasures can be crafted and preserved. For these heroes we have a new law, the law of the strong, which was pronounced to Aleister Crowley and transcribed by him on this day 119 years ago, in Cairo, circa noon:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Love is the law, love under will.
We invite those who have accepted our law as being written on their hearts to read with us together tonight or individually today at noon the first of the three chapters of The Book of the Law, that we might orate our initiation, affirm our aspiration, and invoke our obligation as soldiers of freedom.
Love is the law, love under will.
