Dear friends,

Si Valetis, Valeo

I hope you’ll indulge me in a personal observation which is a matter of great concern to me.

Many years ago, I wrote about the decline of religion, fraternal organizations and churches in general. Rather than write about Christian churches and attempting to explain their demise, I approached the subject as a Thelemic person serving in various capacities in a Thelemic organization. Frankly, I didn’t care what was happening with those other churches, they were, after all, the enemies of truth.

In that piece I pointed out that the way we were treating our congregants and initiates was turning people OFF to Thelema. I implied that we hadn’t set a good example for those seeking something new and left it at that because I had not yet formed an opinion on the spread of intolerance and fascism that was quietly growing in our own country and abroad. I saw it as a problem mostly created and effected by the Christian ministries.

Now I am much older, and dare say, much wiser. If I were to write that piece again… let’s just say I wish I knew then what I know now.

My interest in the occult, or the unseen world began in the late 70’s. During that time, I studied as many books as I could get my hands on, attended lectures and classes. After all, like the song goes, they were not teaching this stuff in college. I made no committent to any organization but studied everything I could get my hands on and observed the goings on of various religious paradigms. I was even fortunate enough to have a mentor. Someone I could have a teacher/student relationship with.

Religious/philosophical movements seemed to be thriving during this time. The old established institutions began to enjoy a new set of members from a much younger generation. There were even NEW movements created during that time. There was no shortage of people seeking “something more.”

In fact, it was during this time that interest in Crowley, and by extension Thelema, began to gain momentum. I do wish it had been the other way around, but interest in Crowley came first, and maybe that is part of the problem. It would have been interesting if Thelema had been the focal point rather than Crowley’s bad-boy reputation. It was done by design, but I digress. At that time, people were drawn in because they wanted to exercise rebellion, either against their parents, “the man,” or “the system” in general. Others had a greater and deeper understanding of Crowley’s vision and felt they could change the world.

In any case, the 70’s and 80’s seemed to be a boom for religion and fraternal institutions. There was a lot of growth, and for the most part these groups could be counted on having people in them from all walks of life and political inclinations. But in the late 80’s and early 90’s something began to change. I first noticed it with the Christian sects.

The GOP began to co-opt the Christian churches, especially those of the Southern Baptist persuasion. It wasn’t long before one could see a paradigm shift within those churches. It seemed every Republican politician had suddenly become the voice of Christ. In retrospect, it now seems to me like it was a direct attack on the separation of church and state. The hate speech grew worse, and organizations like the Traditional Values Coalition began to rear their ugly heads, which eventually helped to fund 1992 Oregon Ballot Measure 9. In that same year a “white nationalist” organization in the form of racist clowns came to hold a rally at Ashland Park, which ended rather badly for the skinheads since the High School football team there decided to attend said rally.

Simultaneously, the “gospel of prosperity” grew into a billion-dollar industry which was little more than channeling money donated by church members to feed the Conservative agenda. The idea is that the more money, wealth and leer jets a preacher or minister could accumulate, the more God must love them. It is an old recycled medieval idea in which the king of a country was believed to have been chosen by God, and the plebes were to support them at any cost. The financial backing of support of these fanatics continued, even when there were one scandal after another. Whether god loving GOP representatives were caught in extramarital affairs, toe tapping at airport bathrooms hoping to hook up with other gay men, or wife beating, it didn’t matter. There was nothing the GOP could do wrong, even if it was flying in the face of the values that they said could not be forgiven in other people. The money just kept pouring in. I suspect because Christians, seeing important political types violate the very teachings of Christ meant they could also ignore those teachings. In a way, adherents were liberating themselves from the bonds of superstition and tyranny but were not sufficiently mentally or emotionally mature enough to drop Christianity altogether. They still wanted to be “good people” without doing what good people did, according to their paradigm.

Any pretense of humility or using donations for doing the work of Christ, like feeding the homeless, taking care of the sick and the elderly flew right out the window, as did the Holy Spirit. In fact, poor, gullible but hard-working people began supporting these mega churches to the point of hurting themselves financially in the hopes that God might reward them as well. It was like playing Lotto for Christians. “The more you give, the more you get in return” was the new Christian mantra.

Slowly but surely, these organizations, having sold out to the GOP began to lose what few real believers and levelheaded members they may have had. They did not want to be associated with the hatred involved in churches that once preached love and living the life of Christ. They were replaced with people that now had a metaphysical justification for the hatred of the proverbial “other.” They wanted an end to women’s rights and bring them back to the kitchen, ruin homosexuals and falsely taught that it led pedophilia. In short, that they represented god and they should be believed. They were the new Pharisees.

Baby steps, I thought to myself. That house of cards cannot stand.

During those years I was very involved in promulgating the law of Thelema with others. I was a member of a fraternal organization, was a chartered initiator and infected people with the virus of freedom and self-reliance and accountability everywhere I went. I was personally watching the fall of Christianity and interpreted the phenomena as an opportunity to witness the rise of Thelema in the world… in MY lifetime! I began to understand what this “battle for freedom” was all about, and the unprecedented opportunities that were being created by this foul political movement that had taken over the established religions. My crew were true soldiers committed to the cause. Only to be betrayed down the road for trying to accomplish the instructions laid out in the founding documents, and doing so with Beauty and Love.

All of this to say, that what was occurring in the Christian churches with the hatred, homophobia, sexist, and racial discrimination is now occurring in that very organization I worked for all those years. One which has been the face for Thelema (mostly Crowley, but again much more on this later) since it’s reconstruction in the 70’s and has failed to teach or explain anyone anything. It spent its precious time creating “Crowley experts” instead of teaching about Thelema. Recently, it has taken the attitude that it is more than happy to house, abet, and otherwise tolerate racist, conservative, misogynistic, members who apparently support the same political overlords that are working so hard to squelch the very essence of Thelema in the real world. If dues are getting paid, people don’t get in trouble with the law or get caught implicating the organization they seem okay with it. (Not making the organization look bad?!?!?!)

So, what has been the result of such tolerance? Thelemites are leaving in droves. They claim a membership number which is unrealistic at best and spend much of their time defending their position, trying to convince people that Thelema does not have anything to do with politics, or being a decent human being, for that matter.

Does that concern me? Hell no, it doesn’t. One gets what they deserve, as one sows, so shall they reap, karma is real, and Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. I certainly wouldn’t want the karma of being CHARGED with the task of birthing Thelema only to drop the ball this badly.

So, if I am not concerned you may well be wondering why I bothered to write this in the first place. It is very simple: When people join an organization, and invest years’ worth of dues, time and energy supporting it’s mission, only to find out it is little more than a sham, they don’t just lose faith in that organization: They associate Thelema with the actions and values of the officers of the organization. The droves of people abandoning Thelema is what concerns me. An officer in ANY Thelemic organization is an ambassadors of Thelema. Like it or not. That is their karma when they agree to do the job. It is also the karma of the person appointing these representatives.

So, just like with Christianity in the 80’s and 90’s, more and more sincere seekers throw Thelema out with the proverbial bathwater because they are no longer able to see any difference between it and any other corrupt church that tolerates the very people wishing to stop Thelema from becoming the all-encompassing, vibrant spiritual movement The Prophet saw it could be. Whether they realize this or not, they are aiding and abetting the enemy. They have become the thing they dreaded the most.

Something to think about. Thank you for the indulgence.

Pax