War and Thelema
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I am willing to die for liberty. I am not willing to kill for it.
I stick by the following which I wrote 18 years ago in reference to a passage in Chapter III of Liber L.:
"Truly our entire world is weary from the war and suffering that has been wrought in the decades since [1904], in the birth-throes of the New Æon. It is our belief that the apocalyptic tones of Chapter Three of The Book of the Law refer primarily to a transformation of consciousness, such as began to touch the world in the 1960s, not an Armageddon between nations. Such radical reformation of consciousness is depicted in the Tarot Trump called The Tower. Nonetheless, we are all too aware that, if the impulse growing in humanity is denied for renewed freedom, dignity, and self-fulfillment on all planes, and if the necessary and predicted transformation of consciousness does not occur on a world-wide scale, it will indeed erupt in bloodshed and destruction that could annihilate the physical planet on which we live. Any strong desire that is suppressed becomes pathological, whether at the level of the individual or of a culture, and erupts in physical trauma in our lives if it is denied resolution within the soul. "
The extent of the presence of actual physical war is a measurement of our failure - as a species and as cultures, not so much as individuals - to actualize the real intent of Liber L., the transformation of consciousness. Suppression of those heightened and high-pressure needs will continue to erupt as lowest-common-denominator manifestations of bad paradies of the real need.
The key to world peace is the universal embracing and practicing of the Law of Thelema.
It is no accident nor conventional coincidence that all of this is occurring under a regime closely aligned with sectarian religion, and during a time when those drawn to nonconventional religious and spiritual are feeling threatened and (functionally) suppressed.
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""I am a god of War and of Vengeance. I shall deal hardly with them."
"With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you."
"I will bring you to victory & joy: I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay. Success is your proof; courage is your armour; go on, go on, in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for any!"
Tell me what you think..."
the Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" concept may shed light on war and evolution i.e. WW2 although negative and debased brought us the space-age and computer technology. Horus and Nuit aligned.
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@gerry456 said
"WW2 although negative and debased brought us the space-age and computer technology. Horus and Nuit aligned."
But these seems like a discourse of progress rooted in the Old Aeon. Technological progress as a thinly hidden path to salvation and heaven. Heiddegar says it better.
Also, the state demands so many different types of sacrifices to produce those. We must accept getting killed for them, regardless of our individual Wills. We must accept killing for them, regardless of our individual Wills. We must pay, and therefore work and produce, to support them, regardless of our individual Wills.
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@Sasha said
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@gerry456 said
"WW2 although negative and debased brought us the space-age and computer technology. Horus and Nuit aligned."But these seems like a discourse of progress rooted in the Old Aeon. Technological progress as a thinly hidden path to salvation and heaven."
Do not rockets ,space stations and computers (in short technological progress) take us to "heaven" i.e. THE HEAVENS
literally as oppose to the unnatural,artificial mystical,yogic and "spiritual" activation of post terrestrial right lobe circuits down here on earth?. Nietzche said something akin to the truth being hard Beyond good and evil Chapter 9.Did not DNA use amoral means ( WW2 primate military-industrial debasement shooting itself in the foot by being forced to accelerate rocket-computer technology) for evolutionary ends? Those higher ends being the tapping of resources of outer space to solve territorial terrestrial oil grabbing conflicts. Right lobe post terrestrial mutation in space habitats. Computer technology as a means to the end of toil and wage slavery.
Furthermore the "spiritual" movement of the 1960.s had to happen as a revolt against the horrors of WW2. You can't have one without the other ;
Chp 1 line 22 Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. -
@gerry456 said
"Those higher ends being the tapping of resources of outer space to solve territorial terrestrial oil grabbing conflicts. Right lobe post terrestrial mutation in space habitats. Computer technology as a means to the end of toil and wage slavery."
The "technological fix"...
This really highlights exactly what I meant. You pose here technology, rather than a revolution in our philosophy and social order, as the solution to our problems. At least in a US context, this discourse goes back most vividly to Manifest Destiny, in which Anglo-Americans saw it as their moral and racial duty to spread across the continent, killing so many. Technology, in the form of trains, steel, guns, etc., then became the image of progress itself, displacing any earlier sense of political progress or the "progress of the human mind", as Condorcet described it. This technology would take us to the beautiful future of peace and prosperity - heaven on earth. And God himself willed it to be so.
Technology, whether derived from military interests or otherwise, has acquired a cultural meaning of possessing an inherent drive towards progress - an inherent goodness. It has also, of course, aquired, following WWII, a cultural meaning as inherently bad, resulting in greater domination and alienation of people, as well as ecological devestation and war.
On the one hand, it is our savior - our Christ come to deliver us from our sins (war, pollution, "oil grubbing conflicts", etc.). On the other, it is the Satan - tempting and corrupting us. Both seem to have an underlying Christian morality of sin and salvation.
@Jim Eshelman said
"The key to world peace is the universal embracing and practicing of the Law of Thelema."
The technological fix, on the other hand, does not require any philosophical, political, or spiritual change. It provides, instead, a continuity of previously existing morality - the morality of the Old Aeon. I don't believe that we can rely on technological transformation, particuarly one rooted in Old Aeon morality, to end war, let alone produce a Thelemic revolution.
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93
Jim wrote:
"The extent of the presence of actual physical war is a measurement of our failure - as a species and as cultures, not so much as individuals -"
I'm going to take Jim's comment out of context. The quote above actually hits on a truism that I've come across in my readings of history and politics. War, any form of social aggression is a sign of weakness on the part of the nation instigating it. Think of any example. It is a reaction to a new situation, a new environment where things have become threatening or unpredictable.
Didn't Sun Tzu say something similar? I forget the quote..
Think of the same in human behaviour, esp. with respect to attraction. If one was to lash out at a competitor, it just confirms that that competitor is a real challenge, a threat; thus the act of aggression a display of weakness. The one lashing out shows his/her self-doubt.
Gerry- interesting comments. To add to the technological 'column,' the internet has already irrevocably changed our society, and what, in just 10 years. We are not really living the same daily lives.
93, 93/93
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yes your right as e.g. Wilhelm Reich was on the right track in his Mass Psychology Fascism with his critique of the patriarchy as mechanism gone mad ; the age of the war machine. However he himself was also a technologist re his orgone box,cloudbuster and numerous other inventions which his Institute will inform the public about this century (i ma told).
WR's untimely culmination of his work also pointed towards space i.e. UFOlogical interests so obviously i agree that a machine does not enlighten as such (regards your Thelemic revolution) but the enlightened must make good use of technological advancements. There's a famous Arthur C.Clarke quote which escapes me about primitive man knowing no distinction between magic and the wonders of futuristic technology and i think that is a valid point here.
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@MahadaResh said
"I don't understand all the peace mongering? Especially Eshelmens stance that you will not KILL for liberty? How do you relate to the story of Arjuna and KRSNA, when Arjuna throws a temper tantrum and says "i dont want to kill my cousins, it is better to die with honour than kill my very blood." KRSNA laughs and says, "Its your DUTY! Get over it. Besides, in the end it doesn't matter.""
Krishna's lesson to Arjuna is that Arjuna must fight because his particular dharma is to be a warrior. Mine isn't.
"If you aren't willing to die for something, then it ain't worth living for."
I'm willing to die for it. I'm just not willing to kill for it. There's quite a difference there.
"War is an inherent part of existence."
War (in the sense I believe you mean) is primitive and driven by genetics and fear. (It's also savagely disrespectful of others' sovereignty of their own lives and ways.) It's about time we started seriously outgrowing it.
"The whole universe is hostile and at war, galaxies swallowing galaxies, universes crashing into one another."
The whole universe is majestically and movingly harmonious, galaxies devouring galaxies, universes fusing with universes in ecstatic love...
...as well as enormous stretches of space wherein each thing moves in its own orbit without collision or conflict. There's room for everyone.
"The law of nature seems to dictate that one should devour to survive!"
Our intermediate duty as initiates is to transcend humanity. (But, of course, let our bodies fulfill their wills. Still feeding need not be hateful.)
"Now it is a fight between various strains of humankind,"
Now? Only now? When has it ever not been. It's hardly anything new. Quite the contrary. It's ancient.
"yet it is not an interspecies fight per se, it is an existential war over meaning and ideas."
What silly things to kill over.
"Thats just plain silly trying to interpret Liber AL in strictly internal meanings. It stretches from macro to micro. The great work knows no boundaries!"
The outermost meaning is the most superficial. The innermost, the most profound. In all matters of consciousness, the inner is invariably more fully true than its specialized exeteriorizations.
"I find it merely annoying when i meet peace mongers who look down their noses at the war impulse and pretend to greater moral heights."
Then I'm definitely going to annoy you. War marks failure. It's the cheap and easy way out.
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@MahadaResh said
"Eshelmen, has anyone ever accused you of being up your own {@$$}?"
Oh, sure.
"Letss zoom in a little bit and observe how species behave."
You continue to compare a species which has (in addition to its Nephesh) a Ruach and an emerging Neshamah to species that have only Nephesh and perhaps a trace of incipient Ruach. While there will be some similarities in the areas of overlap, for the greater part they won't be nearly so comparable.
"Now, if it came down to war and I assembled a vast army of like minded individuals vs. a crowd with such "high minded" opinions as yourself, You and your kind would be destroyed. What then of your purpose? What then of your stance and its perpetuation in further generations?"
I think the point, though, is that neither you nor anyone else is doing such a thing. That's no accident.
"I think your opinions expressed are signs of personal failed attempts to attain "enlightenment"."
You're entitled to your opinion.
"War is a force that gives us meaning among many."
Oh, brother!
Please excuse me as I decline to bother responding to any of your blather hereafter. -
@MahadaResh said
"Eshelmen, has anyone ever accused you of being up your own {@$$}?"
I'm sorry but I don't think rudeness is a sign of "enlightenment."
@MahadaResh said
"War is and always will be a part of existence. "
I agree with you... war as an internal event, as an internal struggle, not what we have now. "External war" is based on fear... and fear is failure. There is no honor in that. There is no need for that.
But you know what, there may be some redeeming purpose for those wars. I think is to learn they are stupid and a waste of time. The focus should be within not without. This is the only way to be a real warrior.
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Hi MahadaResh,
I'll bite. I'm not even an American leftie-liberal, but a Canadian one, so be happy - you can ramp up the scorn level to the max here.
What puzzles me is why you're on a Thelemic discussion group. There is one perspective - yours - and another one (us leftie lib wimps). Plus , I'm sure, a bunch of others among the Lurkers on the Threshold. Okay. So...?
Surely the idea of knowing and doing our True Wills is bound to produce a huge spectrum of different viewpoints. Thelemites cheerfully take a cosmic perspective anyway, not just a local one, which produces even more differentiation in the long haul. Why is it a sign of mental and spiritual degeneration if someone has a different take on the universe to yourself?
Speaking solely as a goddam Muzzie-lovin', peacenik etc. etc., I can understand people who are on the other side of the fence. I don't assume they're all idiots, even if I happen to think their side has gone way overboard with a set of blind reactions and manipulative lies.
So why can't there be a dialogue here instead of a string of put-downs?
And yes, this is a serious question. I've honestly never understood this about the US hard right, and I can understand it even less in the context of a Thelemic discussion group.. Please 'splain?
Edward
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"we are stirring up a hornets nest of nazi muslims"
Ah, at last! You said the magic words that invoke Godwin's Law and, by universal and hallowed Usenet-descended consensus, will terminate a thread.
You win. Thread terminated and locked.