Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social and spiritual philosophy, and a new religious movement. It was founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. Central to Thelema is the concept of discovering and following one's True Will, a divine and individual purpose that transcends ordinary desires. Crowley's system begins with The Book of the Law, a text he maintained was dictated to him by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass. This work outlines key principles, including the axioms "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and "love is the law, love under will", emphasizing personal freedom and the pursuit of one's true path.
The Thelemic cosmology features deities inspired by ancient Egyptian religion. The highest deity is Nuit, the night sky symbolized as a naked woman covered in stars, representing the ultimate source of possibilities. Hadit, the infinitely small point, symbolizes manifestation and motion. Ra-Hoor-Khuit, who is believed to be a form of Horus, represents the Sun and active energies of Thelemic magick. Crowley believed that discovering and following one's True Will is the path to self-realization and personal fulfillment, often referred to as the Great Work. The Creed of the Gnostic Mass also professes a belief in Chaos, Babalon, and Baphomet.
Magick is a central practice in Thelema, involving various physical, mental, and spiritual exercises aimed at uncovering one's True Will and enacting change in alignment with it. Practices such as rituals, yoga, and meditation are used to explore consciousness and achieve self-mastery. The Gnostic Mass, a central ritual in Thelema, mirrors traditional religious services but conveys Thelemic principles. Thelemites also observe specific holy days, such as the Equinoxes and the Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law, commemorating the writing of Thelema's foundational text.
Post-Crowley figures like Jack Parsons, Kenneth Grant, James Lees, and Nema Andahadna have further developed Thelema, introducing new ideas, practices, and interpretations. Parsons conducted the Babalon Working to invoke the goddess Babalon, while Grant synthesized various traditions into his Typhonian Order. Lees created the English Qaballa, and Nema Andahadna developed Maat Magick.
Historical precedents The word () is rare in Classical Greek, where it "signifies the appetitive will: desire, sometimes even sexual", but it is frequent in the Septuagint. Early Christian writings occasionally use the word to refer to the human will,e.g. and even the will of the Devil,e.g. but it usually refers to the will of God. In his 5th-century sermon, Catholic philosopher and theologian Augustine of Hippo gave a similar instruction: "Love, and what you will, do." ().
In the Renaissance, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican friar and writer Francesco Colonna. The protagonist Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic. Colonna's work was a great influence on the Franciscan friar and writer François Rabelais, who in the 16th century used Thélème, the French form of the word, as the name of a fictional abbey in his novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel. The only rule of this Abbey was "" ("", or, "Do what you will").
In the mid-18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed the adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham, where it served as the motto of the Hellfire Club. Rabelais's Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant and James Rice, in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878), and C. R. Ashbee in his utopian romance The Building of Thelema (1910).
Definitions In Classical Greek In Classical Greek there are two words for will: thelema () and boule ().
means 'determination', 'purpose', 'intention', 'counsel', or 'project' means 'divine will', 'inclination', 'desire', or 'pleasure'
The verb appears very early (Homer, early Attic inscriptions) and has the meanings of "ready", "decide" and "desire" (Homer, 3, 272, also in the sexual sense).
In the New Testament In the original Greek version of the New Testament the word thelema is used 62 or 64 times, twice in the plural (thelemata). Here, God's will is always and exclusively designated by the word thelema (θέλημα, mostly in the singular), as the theologian Federico Tolli points out by means of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament of 1938 ("Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven").
François Rabelais and the Abbey of Thélème
François Rabelais was a Franciscan and later a Benedictine monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left the monastery to study medicine, and moved to the French city of Lyon in 1532. There he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, a connected series of books. They tell the story of two giants—a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures—written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein.
Most critics today agree that Rabelais wrote from a Christian humanist perspective. The Crowley biographer Lawrence Sutin notes this when contrasting the French author's beliefs with the Thelema of Aleister Crowley. In the previously mentioned story of Thélème, which critics analyze as referring in part to the suffering of loyal Christian reformists or "evangelicals" within the French Church,Hayes, E. Bruce, "Enigmatic prophecy" entry in . the reference to the Greek word θέλημα "declares that the will of God rules in this abbey".Rothstein, Marian, "Thélème, Abbey of" entry in . Sutin writes that Rabelais was no precursor of Thelema, with his beliefs containing elements of Stoicism and Christian kindness.
In his first book (ch. 52–57), Rabelais writes of this Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It is a classical utopia presented in order to critique and assess the state of the society of Rabelais's day, as opposed to a modern utopian text that seeks to create the scenario in practice. It is a utopia where people's desires are more fulfilled. Satirical, it also epitomises the ideals considered in Rabelais's fiction. The inhabitants of the abbey were governed only by their own free will and pleasure, the only rule being "Do What Thou Wilt". Rabelais believed that men who are free, well born and bred have honour, which intrinsically leads to virtuous actions. When constrained, their noble natures turn instead to remove their servitude, because men desire what they are denied.
Some modern Thelemites consider Crowley's work to build upon Rabelais's summary of the instinctively honourable nature of the Thelemite. Rabelais has been variously credited with the creation of the philosophy of Thelema, as one of the earliest people to refer to it. The current National Grand Master General of the U.S. Ordo Templi Orientis Grand Lodge has opined that:
Aleister Crowley wrote in The Antecedents of Thelema (1926), an incomplete work not published in his day, that Rabelais not only set forth the law of Thelema in a way similar to how Crowley understood it, but predicted and described in code Crowley's life and the holy text that he received, The Book of the Law. Crowley said the work he had received was deeper, showing in more detail the technique people should practice, and revealing scientific mysteries. He said that Rabelais confines himself to portraying an ideal, rather than addressing questions of political economy and similar subjects, which must be solved in order to realize the Law.
Rabelais is included among the Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.
Francis Dashwood and the Hellfire Club Sir Francis Dashwood adopted some of the ideas of Rabelais and invoked the same rule in French, when he founded a group called the Monks of Medmenham (better known as the Hellfire Club). An abbey was established at Medmenham, in a property which incorporated the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1201. The group was known as the Franciscans, not after Saint Francis of Assisi, but after its founder, Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer. John Wilkes, George Dodington and other politicians were members. There is little direct evidence of what Dashwood's Hellfire Club practiced or believed. The one direct testimonial comes from John Wilkes, a member who never got into the chapter-room of the inner circle.
Sir Nathaniel Wraxall in his Historical Memoires (1815) accused the Monks of performing Satanic rituals, but these reports have been dismissed as hearsay. Daniel Willens argued that the group likely practiced Freemasonry, but also suggests Dashwood may have held secret Roman Catholic sacraments. He asks if Wilkes would have recognized a genuine Catholic Mass, even if he saw it himself and even if the underground version followed its public model precisely.
Crowley’s system was built on his time in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (he joined in 1899), on Rosicrucian currents and on early Theosophical ideas from Helena Blavatsky and others.
Beliefs
The Book of the Law
Aleister Crowley's system of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law, which bears the official name Liber AL vel Legis. It was written in Cairo, Egypt, during his honeymoon with his new wife Rose Crowley (). A small book, Liber AL vel Legis, contains just three chapters, each of which Crowley said he had written in exactly one hour—beginning at noon on April 8, April 9, and April 10, 1904, respectively. Crowley also maintained that the book was dictated to him by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass, whom he later identified as his Holy Guardian Angel. Crowley stated that "no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles" and that study of the text would dispel all doubts about the method of how the book was obtained.
Besides the reference to Rabelais made in the book, an analysis by Dave Evans found similarities to The Beloved of Hathor and Shrine of the Golden Hawk, a play by Florence Farr. Evans says this may have resulted from the fact that "both Farr and Crowley were thoroughly steeped in Golden Dawn imagery and teachings", and that Crowley probably knew the same materials that inspired some of Farr's motifs. Sutin also found similarities between Thelema and the work of W. B. Yeats, attributing this to "shared insight" and perhaps to the older man's knowledge of Crowley's work.
Crowley wrote several commentaries on The Book of the Law, the last of which he wrote in 1925. The latter commentary, dubbed "The Comment", warns against discussing the book's contents, states that all "questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings", and is signed by Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i.
Other core Thelemic works include The Vision and the Voice (1911) and the serial journal The Equinox (1919–23).
Axioms Three statements from The Book of the Law distill the practice and ethics of Thelema. Of these statements, one in particular, known as the "Law of Thelema", forms the central doctrine of Thelema. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law". The first statement is then supplemented by a second, follow-up statement: "Love is the law, love under will." These two statements are generally believed to be better understood in light of a third statement: "Every man and every woman is a star."
These three statements have specific meanings:
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law": Adherents of Thelema should seek out and follow their true path, known as their True Will.