What is Thelema?
Thelema is a religious and philosophical movement founded by the English occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). Its name comes from the Greek thelema, meaning “will.” The central text is The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis), which Crowley said he received in Cairo in April 1904. Its followers are called Thelemites. Thelema grew out of the late nineteenth-century occult revival, and it draws on ideas also found in the wider occult tradition.
Origins: Cairo, 1904
Crowley’s account is that, while in Cairo with his wife Rose, he wrote down The Book of the Law over three days in April 1904, as dictated by a non-human intelligence he called Aiwass. He presented it as the founding revelation of a new age. This is his own account; historians treat it as part of the movement’s sacred story rather than as an independently verified event. Crowley did not publicise the text widely at first, and Thelema took shape gradually over later decades through his other writings.
The Law: “Do what thou wilt”
The best-known line in the book is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” It is often read as permission to do whatever one likes. Thelemites generally reject that reading. The law is paired with the line “Love is the law, love under will,” and “will” refers to True Will, discussed below, rather than to whim or impulse.
A fair summary is that the phrase calls on each person to discover and follow their own purpose, rather than to indulge every desire. Thelemic texts also stress that each person’s true will does not conflict with another’s, though critics question how well this works in practice.
True Will
True Will is the idea that each person has a fundamental purpose or direction, a path distinct from ordinary wants. Discovering it is said to be the aim of Thelemic practice. Methods include meditation, ritual and self-examination. The concept has some resemblance to ideas in other traditions about vocation or destiny, but it is specific to Thelemic thought, and different Thelemites understand it differently.
Deities and the Aeons
The Book of the Law names three principal figures, drawn in style from Egyptian religion:
- Nuit, the goddess of infinite space.
- Hadit, her counterpart, the point of individual existence.
- Ra-Hoor-Khuit, a form of Horus, associated with the new age.
Crowley described history in three “Aeons”: those of Isis, Osiris and Horus. Thelemites say the world entered the Aeon of Horus in 1904. The scheme is sometimes compared with the astrological ages behind the Age of Aquarius, though the two are separate ideas. Different groups interpret these figures as literal gods, as symbols of psychological forces, or as a mixture of both.
Symbols
Several symbols are associated with Thelema.
- The unicursal hexagram, a six-pointed star that can be drawn in a single line, is often combined with a flower at its centre.
- The Stele of Revealing, an Egyptian funerary stele that Crowley connected with the origins of the book.
- The winged sun or globe, an Egyptian motif.
- The Eye of Horus.
No single symbol is official for all groups, and what each represents depends on the tradition using it. The unicursal hexagram is usually read as a symbol of the union of opposites and of the Great Work.
What does 93 mean in Thelema?
In Greek, letters have number values, a system called isopsephy, the Greek counterpart of Hebrew gematria. The Greek words thelema (will) and agape (love) both add up to 93. Thelemites therefore use “93” as a greeting and a signature, standing for the two key ideas: will and love. “93/93” is a common closing, and some write “93” where others write “regards.”
What did Crowley say about Jesus?
Crowley’s views were complex and changed over time. He rejected the Christianity he was raised in, and often wrote in hostile terms about institutional religion and its doctrines of sin and sacrifice. He saw his own work as marking a break with the older Christian “Aeon.” On Jesus personally, his comments vary by text and by period. Anyone wanting a precise claim should read the original passages in context rather than rely on a summary or a quotation circulated online.
Organisations and practice
Thelemic organisations include the A∴A∴, an initiatory order founded by Crowley, and Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), which Crowley led for a time and which adopted Thelema. The OTO’s central public rite is the Gnostic Mass. Practice often includes daily devotions, meditation, yoga and ritual work. Many Thelemites use banishing rituals taken from the Golden Dawn, such as the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and use the spelling discussed in magic versus magick.
Criticism and controversy
Crowley was a controversial figure in his lifetime and remains one. He cultivated a scandalous image, sometimes calling himself “the Beast,” and was attacked in the press. Modern critics point to accusations of racism, sexism, and exploitative behaviour in his life and writings, and some Thelemites acknowledge these problems while still valuing parts of his thought. Thelema is also sometimes confused with Satanism. In practice they are different, and Thelemites are not generally Satanists. Readers should weigh primary sources and scholarly biographies and not rely on sensational accounts, favourable or hostile.
Learning more
For the ideas that underlie Crowley’s definition of magick, see magic theory. For the practical side, the sigil methods in how sigil magic works belong to a related, though separate, strand of twentieth-century magic.