The vast majority of aspirants clearly perceives the path of Magick and Mysticism. We have correctly defined everything so far, but when it comes to Thelema, it seems that our mind wiggle, as if it is from mercury instead of gold. From all the noise we have made today, we can not hear the voice of Thelema. From here work becomes more difficult.
If we perceive Magick and Mysticism as the name and surname of reality, Thelema would be its nickname. And as many of us officially are known by name and surname, yet we will turn in the street if someone shouts our nickname. Think about this, your nickname is not written in any of your public documents. There is a year of your birth, various social security codes, places and names, and yet most of our dear and close people call us by our nickname which often has no similarity with the name nor surname.
In royal Rāja Yoga, the idea of Thelema is also present but it is not reserved for the beginning. Although Yama and Niyama in the old system are introduced before Āsana, many aspirants deal with it in parallel or after Āsana and Prāṇāyāma. There are several reasons for this and we will certainly have an opportunity to discuss it later. After the practice in Āsana and Prāṇāyāma comes training of our moral and ethics, and this is exactly where Thelema can be found. Training of moral and ethics. Can they be trained at all? Is not the way of Thelema in their release to rape patterns of behaviour within our soul with their furious intentions and to bounce like Pan’s goat along the thick highways of ordinariness? Thelema is a condition for every good Magick, not the contrary; only after understanding this a serious work can begin and there are no words that can more direct our students to accept this sacred principle.
A suitable aspirant does not equalize Mysticism with Yoga, as he does not identify Magick with Thelema. Of course, this equation does not have to be in the technical, but rather in a conceptual sense. Unlike Magick which is more practical in nature, Thelema is a philosophical system that depends solely on your personal progress. And most of all on your personal intelligence. You can not learn or read about Thelema. Either you know it or not. There is no practice nor exercise that can give you an insight into Thelema. I often like to say that Thelema is just one of the ways in which a dialogue between you and your God is being made; even more, Thelema is exactly that between.
We can not know with the certainty if Thelema is the cause or consequence of a change in human development. But from our point of view, Thelema is always the cause of good Magick. Think of it, the relationship between Magick and Thelema is like the value of a dollar. Magick is a dollar in your wallet, Thelema is the value of that paper on a stock market. Today, with one piece of paper, you can be a millionaire, tomorrow that paper may not be worth a cent. Magick is an accomplishment, Thelema determines how valid and worth that accomplishment is. A lot of banknotes have no value if you find yourself in a blizzard. All you can do is to burn them and to get some warmth. Think about that relation.
In the end, I would like to briefly review the Probationer Oath. The most important thing is to fully understand the meaning of the Oath itself because within the frames of these words exactly the whole work is covered. If a Probationer could be aware of every word of his Oath, at that moment he would found himself as an Adept, therefore, it takes patience here, this work is impossible to do at haste and it takes time. And one year of Probation is precisely for that purpose.
Oath of the Probationer goes as follows:
I,______________________, being of sound mind and Body, on this ___ day of ______ (An _____ ☉ in ____° of ______) do hereby resolve: in the Presence of ______________________, a Neophyte of the A∴A∴ To prosecute the Great Work: which is, to obtain a scientific knowledge of the nature and powers of my own being.
May the A∴A∴ crown the work, lend me of its wisdom in the work, enable me to understand the work!
Reverence, duty, sympathy, devotion, fidelity, trust do I bring to the A∴A∴, and in one year from this date may I be admitted to the knowledge and conversation of the A∴A∴!
The student expresses that he will acquire “scientific knowledge” that can be obtained only by scientific observation of all phenomena and processes within his own being. One should always think that our method is science as our goal is the religion. What is required is to obtain a scientific knowledge of the nature and powers of our own being. It is precisely in this “own” that this nature is hiding, while in “scientific knowledge” is all power. The Oath is a brilliant puzzle, but more than anything is a signpost. Think about it.
One of the most powerful weapons in this is certainly his scientific logging, which in first should have the form of the experiment record. His whole Probation is an experiment, which should indicate whether he is suitable or not, and nothing more. And as much as he does his best to gain scientific knowledge about the nature and powers of his own being, he will be so close to that very being. His suitability to the Order consists in that he touches this being, to feel the form and the concept of “his own” and according to that to determine the shape of his. Is there anything more powerful than knowing the nature, is not the Conversation possible when the Knowledge passes through the aspirant?
Yes, our method is science and our goal is religion. Think about that always. But intuition, this divine whore, both mother and virgin, always changing us in a way just as she wants. And always and constantly in the same way, we choose what is already been accomplished. Because what you want and what you do not want is the one same thing. That is the dance of Pan. Regardless of the scientific approach in his work, the aspirant should always have an open relation toward his intuition. Which in no way means that he will listen to her.
Today, many Thelemites condemn customs of the old aeon; for instance, one of favourite sparing position in Thelema is the issue of marriage, and indeed, more and more people find nonsense to give marital signature and obligation. If somebody wants to be with someone he will be no matter what, and if not – then tons of signatures and convincing will do no good. The wedding ring reminds on attachment, but it can not give something if there is nothing. And if we attach to someone, is there need for reminding? A man does not carry his ID card with him just to know who he is. Thelemites refuse to believe in a prince on a white horse and they give love under the will; when, where and with whom they will.
But what is the function of signing the Probationer Oath, is it not the paper as any other? What is the difference in relation toward marriage oath? Even more so, in marriage we have a concrete person who is now and here beside us, while with the A∴A∴ Oath we give ourselves to the Knowledge and Conversation, something that we have no idea what it means, something that we never know what it is, even through other people who again hear about it over some third party. If we are so daring that we are questioning marriage, will we equally dare to question our A∴A∴ Oath? To question our own thinking about the Knowledge and Conversation? Is the A∴A∴ Oath a consequence of our Grade or our Grade is a consequence of our Oath? How much are we really pure to accept that all of this may be the same model of thinking and the same mind mechanism? A girl refuses to believe in a prince on a white horse, why would you then believe in your Holy Guardian Angel? We direct ourselves to achieve Him through a program that is more like a fairy tale than anything else, are we ready to give up when it comes to a conclusion that all this is just one big empty story? Why should one give an Oath? To whom? Toward what? Can we strive to an Angel freely, openly and unconditionally? Does the fact that we do not have nor will ever have wings prevent us to strive toward heavens?
These are the questions that we need to openly set before ourselves, and in the spirit of Thelema allow them to be put into scientific consideration, just like the issues of marriage, job, sex or money. In each topic we see Angel and in each Angel we see suspicion; here everything is possible and nothing is certain.
Could you burn your Oath? Is that thought disturbing you? Would you see something more than dead matter in that ash? Would a relationship with the Angel be the same? But an aspirant of the A∴A∴ should both adore that flame and that ash. For him is both that Oath and that Angel, and he is part of that same kind; in this place, everything has an infinite value yet nothing is worth, just one thing before he is worthy to bring judgment on all other values. He must be aware that all molecules and atoms and their connections in the universe are part of one same mechanism, and that every Oath is tied to the next one, as each molecule is related to the other by the laws of living nature.
Each Oath is primarily a natural phenomenon or more precisely – a natural occurrence, and its giving cannot be constrained to words, the shape of lips, a scribble on a piece of paper, but by Will. Once proclaimed, is not the Will expression of the whole universe? Who then gives an Oath when that universe is that pen, and that paper where the Oath was written, and those lips that pronounce it, and the one who witness it, and the one who swear it? In a similar way, as we have mentioned it earlier, the Aspirant’s Oath is the magical Link of the highest kind, the Aspirant knows that every act in the universe is only a different form of one decision:
“to prosecute the Great Work: which is, to attain to the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.”
Frater Aureus 273∴
If you liked this text, feel free to subscribe to my Blog.
Frater 273 | Reflections on Thelema 