Thelema

People often ask me about Religion. Am I a Christian or Atheist? What motivates me spiritually? Firstly let me say that I believe in God as the Grand Architect of the Universe, to me God is not a physical thing in the sense of our limited understanding. God is not a he or a she rather God has no persona. God is the Universe.

My first brush with religion was born out of my interest in a girl I was chasing at the time. I became involved in the church of Nazarene young peoples group in Coquitlam BC where I grew up. I wasn’t into the whole Jesus/Bible thing. The church at that time for me was more or less a social function. It was a part time thing but in 1971-72 the church was my social network. That was all. Religion never even entered the picture in the 1970’s. In 1980 this all changed when by accident I discovered Thelema.

Thelema is the Greek word for “Will”. The human Will that is, which drives the human species to become more then the animal kingdom. The human Will is the spiritual component of the survival instinct of man. Will, is the philosophical aspect of the survival instinct in all of us. Most of us barely realize what Will is. Will is a "magical formula" best outlined in Liber Oz a document chronicled at the pen of Aleister Crowley. The Principle axiom of Thelema can be summed up thus: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, love is the law love under will.” This can be summed up in a small book called “The book of the Law.” Liber CCXX. There is no real order of appearance. A Thelemite in my humble opinion is someone that accepts The book of the Law as an authentic document and appreciates and agrees with its content. Liber CCXX was received on 3 separate days April 8th, 9th and 10th in 1904 in Cairo Egypt. The 3 parts were “received” through the process of automatic writing. Aleister Crowley forgot about this document until he discovered it by accident years later cleaning house.

I discovered Thelema by accident as well while trying to rescue my girlfriend from a rival out to take my girlfriend away from me at his apartment. It was my goal to extract her from there to play chivalric knight. Raja was gracious and offered me wine and I discovered this curios piece of paper on his wall. I read it and it blew me away. It read Liber Oz and I was hooked. My intention to rescue my girlfriend failed and turned into quite an evening. Not that I’m complaining.

May 12th of that year I took it upon myself to initiate the opening of The Great Work: My Daily diary. That Sumner of 1980 I attended my first Gnostic Mass. In September 1981 I received my Minerval initiation at the Jane Wolf Chapter. In 1982 while Grady MacMurtry was on tour here in Canada OHO Outer (Head of the Order) of the OTO (Order Templi Oreintis) I took my 1st degree initiation with Nepthyse Lodge. I took my 2nd degree initiation in 1987 with Heru Anapu Camp all here in Edmonton Alberta. I tool my finale initiation the 3rd in 1992 again with Nepthyse. I specialized in the study of Hermetic Qabalah and Ceremonial magic. After 1992 my work in Thelema centered around Nepthyse Lodge. In 1994 I wanted to explore Freemasonry and even went so far as to gather a petition but nothing came out of it. My father died in 1996 and I chased a girl into the Pentecostal Religion and became a Christian with a touch of Amway tossed in as the girl I chased into Thelema was onto Amway. This lasted 3 years. I got out, alive. By 1999 I wanted no more to do with Christianity and I wanted to renew my old contacts with Thelema. I found that Nepthyse lodge closed down during those 3 years and so did the OTO here in Edmonton. I discovered a few Usenet newsgroups on Thelema and I’m mostly a lurker there today. During all those years I’ve kept my daily diary and always opened it with “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” and closed my diary with “Love is the Law Love under Will” If I have my way I will have this on my tombstone. Aleister Crowley wrote “Magic is the aim of Science of the method of Religion."

e. Jim Shannon