@Shadow Self said
"The main difference I noticed between Thelema in Christianity, is Christianity has a lack of emphasis on doing one's true will. It would not necessarily be considered a sin to do things against ones nature the way that I understand it now in Thelema. However, I noticed in my life how the things I did that were unthelemic lead me to do things that others would generally consider to be wrong, as well as regretting the actions myself.
When I was a Christian, I did not consider there to be anything wrong with suffering through something, after all, Christianity has a certain emphasis on suffering as being spiritual. What I did not understand as a Christian, is how sorrow could become joy, because I did not understand the internal changes described in the Book of the Law."
Yeah.. Somehow the message has been completely distorted or they just had no idea of what was trying to be put across.
To me, what this jesus character was trying to illustrate is that the whole exultation of the body is given up in favour of the spirit, which you love as you could never love the body, that its from beyond the barriers to love that love calls, and that they are surmounted by the attraction of what lies beyond that... us wanting fear seems to hold those barriers in place.
The temptation and the devil thing seemed to me as describing an ordeal where we stand in terror before what we always swore never to look upon, so we look down clinging to the promises we make to our allies.. that delicate appeal of sin and guilt and the fear of the vengeance of the ego that we swore never to abandon.. If we lift that veil all of our allies will be gone forever.
Thats where i think he was describing them as illusory fears.. all that happens is the re-establishment of your will where you are never again at the mercy of forces you cant control, thoughts that come to you against your will.. that it's actually your will to look upon this and that what attracts you from beyond the veil is deep within you, unseperated and completely one.
Thats my personal take on it but that's in no way what the Church actually teaches and i can imagine was quite an anathema to what they want from people.
I mean imagine them trying to incorporate passages that speak from the angle of feminine divine power.
For instance a passage that was omitted called Thunder, Perfect Mind.
"For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin....
I am the barren one, and many are her sons....
I am the silence that is incomprehensible....
I am the utterance of my name."
You can see combining of opposites in the text.
