I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net
I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net
I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net
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crucifixion of a toad symbolizing Jesus. Identifying himself with the godhead<br />
of the apocalyptic monster foretold in Revelations, he took the name To<br />
Mega Merlon 666 (Great Beast 666), and set for himself no lesser aim than<br />
"to set in motion occult forces which would result in the illumination of all<br />
by 2000 A.D." Crowley's law for human conduct, uttered by his followers<br />
with alarming frequency, is "Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law." In<br />
practice, the Law of <strong>The</strong>lema compels those who accept it to seek the one<br />
thing that they were meant to do in this incarnation, and to fulfill one's Will<br />
regardless of any external opposition – to be what you most truly are. A full<br />
exploration, acceptance, and mastery of one's sexual desires is an important<br />
part of this quest. Just as we have noted that one of Crowley's other wellknown<br />
dictums "Love is the Law, Love Under Will" bears a suspicious<br />
resemblance to his sex magical predecessor P. B. Randolph's "Will reigns<br />
Omnipotent; Love Iieth at the Foundation", so is Crowley's <strong>The</strong>lema and its<br />
law of Do What Thou Wilt clearly appropriated from a much earlier source.<br />
In the bawdy French novel Gargantua, by Francois Rabelais, written<br />
in 1542, we find an Abbey of <strong>The</strong>leme, whose randy <strong>The</strong>lemite libertines live<br />
under the motto Fay Ce Que Vouldra – Do What Thou Wilt. Sir Francis<br />
Dashwood's eighteenth-century society for aristocratic rakes and orgiasts, the<br />
Hellfire Club, emblazoned this same motto from Rabelais over the entrance<br />
to their own mock Abbey at Medmenham. (Crowley founded his own lowbudget<br />
Abbey of <strong>The</strong>lema in a Sicilian farmhouse during the 1920s.) At the<br />
263<br />
very least, then, Crowley's religion of <strong>The</strong>lema and its Do What Thou Wilt<br />
philosophy must be considered repackaged goods. To those who pointed out<br />
the earlier appearances of these key <strong>The</strong>lemic concepts to him, Crowley<br />
brazenly insisted that Rabelais was in fact a secret Adept who anticipated the<br />
coming of Crowleyanity. In deference to this prophetic vision, Crowley<br />
canonized Rabelais as a <strong>The</strong>lemic saint. Crowley, like most founders of<br />
religions, twisted the sometimes awkward facts of history to meet the needs<br />
of his budding faith.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>The</strong>lemic injunction of "do what thou wilt" can be compared to<br />
the Tantric left-hand path level of initiation known as Svecchacaya. <strong>The</strong><br />
Svecchacari adept is said to literally follow the way of "do as you will."<br />
Such initiates have transcended all pashu dualities. <strong>The</strong> Svecchacari is free<br />
to act according to will, having passed beyond the strictures binding the<br />
uninitiated. Crowleyan Will, like Tantric Svecchacaya is not a license for<br />
anarchy, rape, and murder as has commonly been assumed. At least in<br />
theory, the <strong>The</strong>lemite and the Vama Marga initiate are permitted to act<br />
according to self-volition, rather than obey the laws dictated by society and<br />
religion, because they operate from a divine state of consciousness. Whether<br />
Crowley can be said to have mastered himself sufficiently to exercise his<br />
Will with such impunity is open to question. Nevertheless, it's apparent that<br />
he himself entertained no doubts on the matter.<br />
Shortly after declaring himself an Ipsissimus, a grade of initiation<br />
in the Western magical tradition roughly equivalent to the Eastern left-hand<br />
path Divya, Crowley composed a revealing initiatory self-portrait. <strong>The</strong><br />
mixture of brutally honest self-examination leavened with flashes of<br />
megalomania typifies the Crowleyan approach to his favorite subject:<br />
"I am myself a physical coward, but I have exposed myself to every form of<br />
disease, accident and violence; I am dainty and delicate, but I have driven<br />
myself to delight in dirt and disgusting debauches, and to devour human<br />
excrements and human flesh. I am at this moment defying the power of<br />
drugs to disturb my destiny and divert my body from its duty. I am also a<br />
mental and moral weakling, whose boyhood training was so horrible that its<br />
result was that my will wholly summed up in hatred of all restraint, whose<br />
early manhood, untrained, left my mind and animal soul like an elephant in<br />
rut broken out of the stockade. Yet I have mastered every mode of my mind,