Thelemic Family Resources
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With the upcoming planned cesarean birth of our son on the 23rd I have been searching unsuccessfully for any resources for bringing up children within the New Aeon. Allowing him to find his True Will, being careful not to impose my Will on him too much, and reading Liber Al have been my only ideas so far. I would appreciate any recommendations.
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I can only tell you what I do as a parent. Let them be. Let them do. Guidance is a natural element that parents learn when the time comes, no books will teach what nature does. Be a good example of living Thelema, thats the best teacher! We are different people, I see that clearly as she embarks into adolescence. Her will is different than mine. She is my magical child, therefore, has much to teach me as well. Tons! Your ceremonies will unfold with good intent! Diaper changes are rituals.
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Read Liber Aleph. Besides a couple of sections on rearing children specifically, much of the rest of the work addresses the broader topic you've been researching.
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The Art of Personality by the Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan is now public domain and covers the education of the child at each stage starting at infancy. It can be read online below:
While not specifically Thelemic, his teachings are very complimentary to the subject.
A small snippet from the section on training infants: HIK tells a short story about an Indian sage who used to live among elephants and then relates it to raising the infant:
"What does this show? It shows that there are two ways of controlling. One is the way of mastering, and the other is of becoming friends. By mastering you will diminish the will of the person you master. By being friends you will sustain his will power, and at the same time help. In the one case you make of the person a slave; in the other case you make out of that person a king. In training an infant one must remember that his mind-power, which means will power, must not be diminished, and yet an infant must be controlled."
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"In training an infant one must remember that his mind-power, which means will power, must not be diminished, and yet an infant must be controlled."
Mind power.... In other words, telling a child he is stupid is destructive, yet a child must learn to control himself. Strong discipline is part of a parent's job. Sending a child into the world with no discipline training is tantamount to child-abuse.
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@ARYK said
"With the upcoming planned cesarean birth of our son on the 23rd I have been searching unsuccessfully for any resources for bringing up children within the New Aeon. Allowing him to find his True Will, being careful not to impose my Will on him too much, and reading Liber Al have been my only ideas so far. I would appreciate any recommendations."
if you honestly follow your Path and are consequent in your deeds and words - that's the best example a parent can give. no verbal teaching can do as much as this simple thing.
from the Thelemic viewpoint, and the question of not imposing your own will on the child (I say will not Will, cause someone's true Will can not realy be imposed on anyone...) a good thing to do could be understanding the difference between your and child's core consciousness identity through astrological analysis of Sun Constellation (both yours and the child's).
so true