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Thelema and Cult

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.thelema,alt.magick.order,talk.religion.misc,talk.religion.newage
From: nagasiva@luckymojo.com (nigris (333))
Subject: Thelema and Cult (2)
Date: 23 Jul 1999 22:21:01 -0700

49990301 IIIom

E6
Rodney Orpheus re why Kenneth Anger and his works are 'Thelemic':
#># He's says he's a Thelemite. 

nagasiva@luckymojo.com  (333):
#> an easy standard. how does he prove it?
 
Cavalorn :
# Y'all _need_ to prove it? 

of COURSE. that is the point of providing the Thelemite Cushion Label
atop which to set the Elite of the Cult. thereafter we can arbitrarily
determine by our own prejudicial standards who it is that qualifies
for the appellation which we have glorified beyond all reckoning.


[and quoting from the Evul Book, that Crowleyite cult classic:]
# 'Who calls us Thelemites will do do wrong'. I don't see the point 
# in calling _yourself_ any damn thing... the label seems to be 
# there for the benefit of others. 

of COURSE! and the entire focus of the cult is not how one might
use the term oneSELF to indicate targets of admiration, but instead
how to identify social authorities and betray the sovereignty of
the individual to the System of the Master (he called himself the
Master for a good reason, he knew the Slaves would not be long
behind him).
 

# Yes, there is benefit (up to a point) in having identifiers and
# signposts - it makes things like this list possible, for one - but to
# invest in a label-identity? Feh. (You may as well go for a fashion
# statement like 'chaos magick' if you're going to do that. ;) )

now now, magical and religious groupies have been reformatting their
favorite sources into unrecognizable clutter in order to put one over
on the newbie for YEARS. is it so surprising that the newbies should
then begin to think that there is a Certain Set Standard away from
which one should not deviate when there were so many officious idiots
proclaiming it so? and more surprising when those who got sick of it
decided that their own inheritance from the same source should there-
fore be called something which indicated its FREEDOM (i.e. "chaos")?

you can hardly fault Chaos Magick as a subgroup of Thelema for wanting
to distinguish itself from the stodgey Goldawnian authoritarian
clusterfucks masquerading as the Last and Proud Inheritors of the
World's Greatest Mysteries. this is far more than a mere fashion
statement. it is more a POLITICAL statement.
 

# I know I've called myself a Thelemite in the past, but having given the
# matter a fair deal of thought I've come to the above conclusion. I'm not
# saying I'm not one, but I'm not going to call myself one either.

hey, 'bout time. I've contended this since I first entered into the
'Thelemic culture' decades ago and I've wondered when it would catch
on (I have no idea what has brought it any degree of popularity but 
I'm certainly happy for it).
 

# Besides, if you do start down the road of self-identification as a
# 'Thelemite' then you inevitably get on to this whole brouhaha of whether
# anyone has the _right_ to use that term. See elsewhere on this very
# thread.

that's correct, and then policies and rigid standards come into
prominence for establishing the protocol for linguistic and
award-winning usages. you have the devolution into 'Good Guy Badges'
as LaVey has called them. suddenly you say with a big foisted pride
"I am a Thelemite!  Hear me ROAR!"  all well and good, but then
someone you don't like says it, and the competition to control the
term begins (consider the example with 'Satanist' and 'Witch'
elsewhere, though 'Thelemite' has a less controversial history).
 

# There's _such_ a danger in fetishising the symbolic language and in
# mistaking the shell of methodology for the object of the exercise. If
# Thelema is a system indended to efficiently express one's identity, then
# to call oneself a Thelemite is to say that the individual is dependent
# upon the system, and not the other way around. The driver gets mistaken
# for the vehicle. Next thing you know, you have orthodoxies, standards of
# Thelemicness, 'official editions' and other ghastly horrors.

too late, the Crowleyanity (Crowley insanity) has already begun.

all we can do now is to argue against its inherent problems and
hope that those who have been deceived by the babble of cultspeak
learn to distinguish Thelema from Thelemitude.

E666 
 333
nagasiva@luckymojo.com 
-- 
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