Crowley the Great Beast 666

What is Satan?
A Thelemic Perspective



Interesting depiction. I like the dual sexuality. Balance in all things.

I was poking around the Thelemic Studies site; reading a few posts and replies. Came across one that piqued my interest; someone was asking "What is Satan?"

Not who but what; I like the take on that one.

In brief; the individual has been doing his astral travels. Met Azazel & then apparently, in a later journey - Satan, himself. (The whole astral travel - creating an astral temple is mandatory for Thelemites. It is a necessity.) This kind of freaked the guy out and he went to the web
site to ask if these "visions" were, perhaps, a manifestation of his
higher self, breaking through censors.

I begged to disagree with his interpretation. I figure, it is a
breaking through of conditioned censors (society's conditioning) but not
of the higher self, rather an exposé of what lies in his own
psyche.

See, for Thelemites, the big dealie is Will - to do your Will, you have
to have a very thorough understanding of what True Will is and to understand that? You have to understand yourself. You have to break down all the barriers of your mind - society's conditioning of our behaviour is a tough one but the most difficult for everyone, is breaking through the barriers we, ourselves, create through the development of our personalities and our egos.

Not ego in the popular interpretation but ego as the driving force of who we are. Our essential, or the foundation of the individual's psychological make-up.

The problems inherent in facing our own dark side of the "soul", really seeing who we are and not shying away because it is too distasteful to acknowledge, admit and accept is, pretty much, self-evident. No one likes to admit to a dark side of the soul.

On the other hand - seeing the light side of the soul and not getting carried away with it. Patting ourselves a little too hard, a little too long over our "nicer" nature. That creates a deeply hidden conceit and that one is a tough one to battle as well. It destroys any altruistic tendencies by creating a little, very secret voice.

A powerful voice but one people will deny hearing. The voice that has us do things because it will make others see us in a higher light. Not a good thing. That is another barrier we create and needs to be knocked down.

Commit to a good work - absolutely but to ensure our own motivations aren't selfish - hidden way deep down, to be sure, but selfish none the less.

Crowley hated the concept of charity - he believed that charity kept people (ok, he said "man", specifically but that was him; he had or seemed to have a great deal of animosity toward women) down, robbed them of their True Will and weakened them.

In some cases? He was right but in other cases, charity is the only way some people can survive. We created that. As a society, this is how we do things. If you can't make it? Society steps in and does it for you.

That separates us from the animal world where only the strong survive. Thelema has this concept built into its foundations. Only the strong must survive. Leave the weak and the haunted behind. The wolf and sheep analogy springs to mind. Its a very uncomfortable philosphy and one that I have the most trouble accepting. I probably never will; makes me a baaad Thelemite, I guess.

Maybe that hinders my progress - maybe it reinforces Crowley's opinion that women are, basically, weak.

So be it, I guess. I do have limits though; if I feel someone is capable of better things and refuses because charity is easier? I will leave them to sink or swim. It isn't up to me to feed their lower selves. In fact, that would be a wrong action on my part.

But...the sick? The mentally ill? The old and infirm? Leave them to the wolves? No. Can't...WON'T do it. If it goes against old A.C's directives? Tough noogies. Call me a rebel without a clue.

Here's where it gets tricky though; you have to make your own judgement calls. That's where you have to rely on your own interpretation of True Will through your life experience, your knowledge or lack thereof in the situation you find yourself facing.

A friend in an abusive relationship, for example. You extend a hand, based on your knowledge of the workings in the mind of the victim but when the victim seems to fail to recognize where he or she is failing in their own True Will. You have to withdraw that hand or in the end? Believe me, it will be bitten off.

The person who is stuck in stasis - unable to move forward in their
lives because the hill seems too high to scale. You extend a hand or push their butts up a few steps. If they remain there or allow themselves to fall back - you have to, again, withdraw your hand or be tainted by their lack of drive, their life apathy.

It can only harm your own life. (Most often, these people are vampires..no,
not your Bela Lugosi, I vant to suck your blauauaud kind - the other, more insiduous
and dangerous kind, the psychological vampire.) My own life experience has
taught me that the Pagan community is chock right full of these kinds
of people.

My guess is that this is one of the reasons I pulled out and away. I met far too many of these people and had my life sucked out of me.

Needed a damn good slap upside the head because I let these people
do it, over and over again. Dope!

Cycles right back to....EGO. Didn't want to be seen as a mean person, wanted to be seen as a good person and that made me bait.

So, really? These people taught me a valuable lesson. To rely on my own judgement before extending a hand, in the future.

Understanding that my past behaviour was fueled by ego and the need
to build it on the false premise or interpretation of what is and is not a "good" person. There's a fine line between being good and being a sucker.

Sometimes, for your own search for True Will and maybe even your own safety and peace of mind; you have to leave the weak and the haunted behind.

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