“Boldly defying Crowley’s warning not to comment on the Book of the Law, Ipsissimus Don Webb provides in-depth interpretation from both Black and White Magical perspectives, including commentary from Dr. Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996. Webb examines each line of the Book in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, existentialism, and competing occult systems such as the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought. Discarding the common image of Crowley formulated in a spiritually unsophisticated time when the devotee of the Left-Hand Path was dismissed as a selfish evil doer, Webb unveils a new side of Crowley based on his adoption of the Loki archetype and his aim to become a vessel of love for all humanity. In so doing, he shows how the Book of the Law is connected to both Right- and Left-Hand Paths and reveals how Crowley’s magical path of mastery over the self and Cosmos overthrew the gods of old religion, which had kept humanity asleep to dream the nightmare of history.

“Providing in-depth analysis of Crowley’s sources and his self-identification with the First Beast of Revelations from a profound esoteric perspective, Webb takes his views out of the Golden Dawn matrix within which he received the Book of the Law and radically recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal sovereignty and a relevant tool for personal transformation.”

***

Ipsissimus Webb’s teaching - as well as Ipsissimus Aquino’s - has been instrumental to my own Understanding of Thelema - The True Law of Liberty - and the Work of the First Great Beast in the context of the emerging Aeon. I know this will be a worthwhile read and respectfully encourage anyone curious about the teachings of Crowley as relevant to the present day to consider giving it a look.

XEPER::REMANIFEST::REYN TIL RUNA

Brother Virgil

A traditional religion, one built on “right belief,” requires a closed information system. That is why the Catholic Church put an official seal of approval on some ancient texts and banned or burned others. It is why some Bible-believing Christians are forbidden to marry nonbelievers. It is why Quiverfull moms home school their kids from carefully screened text books. It is why, when you get sucked into conversations with your fundamentalist uncle George from Florida, you sometimes wonder if he has some superpower that allows him to magically close down all avenues into his mind. (He does!)

Religions have spent eons honing defenses that keep outside information away from insiders. The innermost ring wall is a set of certainties and associated emotions like anxiety and disgust and righteous indignation that block curiosity. The outer wall is a set of behaviors aimed at insulating believers from contradictory evidence and from heretics who are potential transmitters of dangerous ideas. These behaviors range from memorizing sacred texts to wearing distinctive undergarments to killing infidels. Such defenses worked beautifully during humanity’s infancy. But they weren’t really designed for the current information age.

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A brilliantly stated summary of ideas I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of years or so. While broadly-stated “religion” as such is unlikely to disappear from human culture in any foreseeable future, the old monoliths are going away. It’s a done deal.

The emerging 24/7 interconnected Information Age will be what finally brings the old edifices of conventional religion to a state of permanent obsolescence. The sheltered propaganda bubbles that protected the obsolete ideologies from competition and critical scrutiny just don’t work anymore.

The false premises of Abrahamic monotheism don’t hold up to critical scrutiny; they cannot compete in the arena of ideas with our refined and continually evolving understanding of how our world really works, who and what we really are, and the way we should see ourselves.

Understand this, and the last few years of hysteria, desperation and moral panic from the guardians of the expiring Aeons will make a lot more sense. Look for the “true believers” to publicly double down on their rigid dogmatic ideologies for a time. The retreat to ever-shrinking home-schooled, sheltered enclaves will continue. Then look for phony tears of victimhood and persecution when their opinions are not magically exempt from criticism and the rules of evidence.

Others, who follow conventional religions more from conditioning and habit than anything else, will begin to catch on. The emotional implications of such a transition can be difficult (take it from me). Now is the time to encourage the best kind of curiosity in our friends and loved ones, and make the most of the freely-available knowledge and learning at the disposal of most anyone reading these words. Now is the time to question old assumptions about what our options are (i.e., monotheism vs. atheism) and proactively shape the emerging Aeon into one that maximizes actual - as opposed to rhetorical - Life (in the life-worship, “really living instead of just existing” sense of the word), Liberty (i.e., “more, not fewer choices for future action”), and the Pursuit of Happiness for all, not just married religious straight Americans.

Every end of every “world,” every “age,” every Aeon is the birth of a new beginning. This is a great time to begin remaking your own.

XEPER::REMANIFEST::REYN TIL RUNA

—Brother Virgil

tessmunster:

Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves.  You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path.

“Every man and every woman is a star.” — Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law) I:3