Karma and evolution in Thelema
-
Sorry, I know it does look like a worn out topic, but when I searched "karma" I didn't find anything about this particular topic...
Likewise, a Google search didn't turn up anything except a bunch of "you can speculate all you wish about what kind of karma Crowley incurred due to his lifestyle, but..."
So, my question is really basic. Basically, because I can't remember!
What did Crowley say about Karma? Whatever it was must've been quite different from, you know, other "karma ideas" because I know he just shot animals for the hell of it while floating in a boat. Not really hunting for sport or for food, just picking 'em off. Who knows how badly they were left suffering while he floated on his merry way? So, obviously, he wasn't giving a crap about the animals karmic evolution upward or his karmic evolution downward for killing.
Did he believe in karma? What did he say about it?
-
@Redd Fezz said
"What did Crowley say about Karma?"
I'd literally have to start rereading everything in order to answer that. It saturated most everything major he wrote, though he scarcely wrote anything on it as a separate topic.
He briefly mentioned Karma Yoga in Liber Aleph, Cap. 159. OTOH, karma is mentioned quite frequently in Magick Without Tears, for example:
"This is one small case of the big Equation "Free Will = Necessity" (Fate, Destiny, or Karma: it's all much the same idea.) One is most rigidly bound by the causal chain that has dragged one to where one is; but it is one's own self that has forged the links (p. 20)."
And,
"It is almost laughable to think that the Great Work consists merely in "letting her rip"; but Karma bumps you from one side of the toboggan slide to the other, until you "come into the straight" (p. 142)."
There is a bit more discussion of it intermingled with issues of reincarnation in Cap. 47, "Reincarnation," and a worthy reflection near the end of Cap. 49, "Thelemic Morality," and a very important discussion for a very specialized situation at the end of Cap. 52. Etc.
There are about a dozen references scattered through Magick in Theory & Practice and one of the few truly descriptive discussions of it anywhere in the Atu VIII section of The Book of Thoth.
Perhaps that will provide a start?
"Whatever it was must've been quite different from, you know, other "karma ideas" because I know he just shot animals for the hell of it while floating in a boat."
I don't know that his ideas about it were much different from any other teacher's, though he, of course, had his own unique way of talking about the subject.
"So, obviously, he wasn't giving a crap about the animals karmic evolution upward or his karmic evolution downward for killing."
Apparently not true, if his writings are to be taken as a guide. (I leave open the possibility that his writings and his beliefs may not have coincided.) He routinely taught that in taking an animal life one was assuming complete responsibility for the sould slain and its karma.
-
Wow, thanks, Jim. That last bit is startling! He is absolutely right about the fact that you can't but help kill things accidentally, too. I wonder what he thought as he shot those animals? Maybe that he was doing them a favor.
I am also starting to see the True Will and "let her rip" statements above in a much clearer light. I had a horrific dream last night in which I found myself in the middle of "nothing." I know my thoughts and practices led me to this state and it was totally unpleasant. The first thing I started to do was panic. Then, I started yearning for God, for comfort, please let there be something else beside just my own isolation! When no answer came, I knew there was no God (so it felt). It was devastating. Next thing I know I'm dreaming normally. It was as if everything hid behind a curtain and said, "You want to know what your 'True Self' is? Here it is: you're nothing without everything." Then, when I basicaly screamed for God and thought no God responded, what really happened was the "world" came back (world of dreams, that is). So, it was kind more comprehensible to me how empty everything is and yet how full the Whole Unit (Universe) is. It made the "drop in the ocean" metaphor very real. And if people want to personify God, I say let 'em. That belief can be quite comforting I now realize!
Thanks. I'm glad you're helping me out again, Jim.
