Spirituality,Religion and Thelema
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Many People are already aware of the difference between Spirituality and Religion.They realize that having a belief system - a set of thoughts you regard as the absolute truth does not make you spiritual no matter what the nature of those spiritual beliefs is .In fact the more you make your thoughts into your identity the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself .How does this apply to Thelema since it is considered in places to be a religion and as far as I know , I may be wrong though has a belief system.
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IMO, Thelema can help you to put your self in the center of your own existence. No bulls*it, no excuses, no pretense, assuming full responsibility for your life.
It is not something you can join really (as, say, social club or a Church), it is something you have to experience and live, willingly, through intimate realization on a day to day basis.
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I for one don't like to imagine Thelema as being somehow immune to all the same problems of every other human endeavor. I think the benefits and perils of religions and belief systems also apply to Thelema. Practices at the individual and group level, designed to loosen the grip of intellectualism and dogma, are one solution.
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@Avshalom Binyamin said
"I for one don't like to imagine Thelema as being somehow immune to all the same problems of every other human endeavor. I think the benefits and perils of religions and belief systems also apply to Thelema. Practices at the individual and group level, designed to loosen the grip of intellectualism and dogma, are one solution."
Well said.
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@Avshalom Binyamin said
"I for one don't like to imagine Thelema as being somehow immune to all the same problems of every other human endeavor. I think the benefits and perils of religions and belief systems also apply to Thelema. Practices at the individual and group level, designed to loosen the grip of intellectualism and dogma, are one solution."
Practices at the individual level such as ?
I have been drawn to Crowley's work since the time I set my eyes on it .Even though Crowley does not have a particular Step by Step study approach like the kind you find with Franz Bardon , Starting from Initiation into Hermetics going forward .The Law Is for All: The Authorized Popular Commentary of Liber Al Vel Legis Sub Figura Ccxx, the Book of the Law is also out of stock , so I am thinking of getting Initiation in the Aeon of the Child: The Inward Journey as my starting book as I want to get the most I can in the clearest possible manner .
I don't want to form myself around Thelema , I want Thelema to merge with me
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@dknight93 said
"I have been drawn to Crowley's work since the time I set my eyes on it .Even though Crowley does not have a particular Step by Step study approach like the kind you find with Franz Bardon"
It's spelled out, step by step, here: helema.org/publications/mys_mag_sys_aa.html
"I don't want to form myself around Thelema , I want Thelema to merge with me"
"I don't want to form myself within the universe, I want the universe to conform itself to me."
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I often consider my self "Spiritual" as opposed to "Religious."
As of late, I have been considering this distinction I have the tendency to make.
At the root of this distinction is my discrimination between a words meaning and it's connotations in society and day to day communication.
People appear to associate Catholicism with religion, instead of Catholicism simply being a religion.
Then comparing its "stagnant dogmatism" to the "blissful changeability" of Spirituality.Though, slowly, in my own mind, there develops the idea that any philosophy when 'true' is both religious and spiritual.
As the moment one stops and says "There is only one Truth"one ceases to be religious and/or spiritual.
A descent into science? The Black Brotherhood?Love? Lust? I can not tell, though there is this longing to fall deeper.