What Is Thelema? History, Beliefs and Practice Explained

Thelema is a religious and magical philosophy founded by the English occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) on the basis of The Book of the Law, a text he said was dictated to him in Cairo in April 1904. Its central teaching is that each person has a True Will, a unique purpose in life, and that discovering and doing it is the whole of the Law. Thelema is practised today by small communities worldwide, organised principally in the A∴A∴ and the Ordo Templi Orientis.

The Name and Its Prehistory§

The Greek word thelēma ("will") appears in the New Testament for the will of God, as in the Lord's Prayer. Its esoteric use begins with François Rabelais, whose Gargantua (1534) describes the Abbey of Thélème, an anti-monastery whose single rule was Fay ce que vouldras, "Do what you will," on the ground that free and well-bred people are naturally inclined to virtue. In the eighteenth century Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed the motto over the door of Medmenham Abbey, home of his notorious club. Crowley took up both word and motto, but gave them a religious content: "will" in Thelema means not passing desire but the deep purpose of one's nature.

Crowley, Cairo and the Founding of Thelema§

Crowley was trained in ceremonial magic in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn from 1898. In March 1904, honeymooning in Cairo with his first wife Rose Edith Kelly, he was told by Rose, who had shown no previous interest in Egyptology, that the god Horus was waiting for him. She identified Horus on a funerary stele in the Boulaq Museum, catalogued as exhibit 666, the "Stele of Revealing." On 8, 9 and 10 April 1904, Crowley wrote down three chapters dictated, he said, by a voice called Aiwass, a messenger of Horus. The circumstances and the text are discussed in Thelema and The Book of the Law, and Crowley's life in Aleister Crowley.

Crowley initially resisted the book and only gradually accepted his role as its prophet. In 1907 he and George Cecil Jones founded the A∴A∴, an order of spiritual training, and published its teachings in the journal The Equinox (1909–1913). From 1910 he joined the Ordo Templi Orientis, a German-founded fraternity whose leadership he later assumed, and reorganised it around the Law of Thelema.

Core Beliefs§

Thelemic doctrine, treated at length in Thelemic Doctrine, rests on a few short formulations from The Book of the Law:

• The Law of Thelema. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," balanced by "Love is the law, love under will." Thelemites read these as a command to find and perform one's True Will, not as a licence for whim.
• Every man and every woman is a star. Each individual is a unique, sovereign centre with an orbit of their own; conflict arises when people deviate from their true courses.
• The Aeon of Horus. History is divided into aeons. Crowley described an Aeon of Isis (the mother), an Aeon of Osiris (the dying and resurrected father god, associated with Judaism and Christianity) and, from 1904, the Aeon of Horus, the crowned and conquering child, an age of self-realisation.
• Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The three speakers of the book personify infinite space, the infinitely small point of individual consciousness, and the active, martial god of the new aeon.

The greeting "93" used among Thelemites refers to the shared gematric value of thelēma (will) and agapē (love) in Greek, a sign of how closely Thelema links will and love. Thelemites date years in an era beginning in 1904 and celebrate feasts on the anniversaries of the writing of the book.

Practice: Magick, Ritual and the Great Work§

Crowley defined magick, which he spelled with a final "k," as the science and art of causing change in conformity with will, and he understood almost any disciplined action as magical in that sense. Thelemic practice includes:

• Liber Resh, adorations of the Sun at dawn, noon, sunset and midnight.
• Banishing and invoking rituals, such as the Star Ruby and Liber Reguli, adapted from Golden Dawn models.
• Yoga and meditation, set out in Crowley's Book Four and the A∴A∴ curriculum, together with the keeping of a magical diary.
• The Gnostic Mass (Liber XV), written in 1913 and celebrated publicly by the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the ecclesiastical arm of the OTO, with a priest, priestess, deacon and two children.
• The Great Work, the long path of attaining the "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel" and crossing the Abyss, mapped onto the Kabbalistic Tree of Life; see Tarot and Qabalah in Thelema.

Sexual magic was taught in the higher degrees of the OTO, which Crowley interpreted as a sacramental technique. Practitioners vary greatly in which of these practices they adopt, and many describe Thelema primarily as a philosophy of life.

Key Figures in the History of Thelema§

Thelema was shaped by a circle of students and companions around Crowley. The poet Victor Neuburg (1883–1940) was his partner in the Enochian visions of 1909 recorded in The Vision and the Voice. Leah Hirsig (1883–1975), his "Scarlet Woman," led the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù in Sicily with him from 1920 until its closure in 1923. Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad, 1886–1950), a Canadian student, claimed around 1916 to have attained the grade of Master of the Temple and developed his own Qabalistic theories. The actress Jane Wolfe (1875–1958) spent years at Cefalù and later at the Agape Lodge in California. Karl Germer (1885–1962) became Crowley's successor as head of the OTO and published his works after his death. Their stories, and those of later leaders such as Grady McMurtry and Kenneth Grant, are told in Thelemic Orders.

Thelema Today and Its Wider Influence§

Thelema remains a small movement; the OTO, its largest organisation, has a few thousand members in dozens of countries, with lodges and camps that hold rituals, classes and public Gnostic Masses. Its influence is much broader. Gerald Gardner, founder of modern Wicca, was initiated into the OTO and borrowed passages from Crowley; chaos magick and many later currents of the left-hand path, such as the Temple of Set, developed from or in dialogue with Thelema. Crowley's image has also had a long life in rock music, literature and film.

Scholars such as Marco Pasi, Henrik Bogdan, Hugh Urban and Manon Hedenborg White now study Thelema as a significant new religious movement of the twentieth century, examining its ideas of the self, its sexual magic and its gender politics. Whether Thelema is a religion, a philosophy or a magical system is debated among its own adherents; most accept that it can be all three.

Frequently asked questions§

What does Thelema mean?§

Thelema is the Greek word for "will." In Crowley's system it names the philosophy and religion based on discovering and fulfilling one's True Will.

Is Thelema a religion?§

Many Thelemites regard it as a religion, with scripture, prophet, sacraments and a church, the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. Others treat it as a philosophy or a system of magical training, and Crowley himself presented it in both religious and scientific terms.

Why do Thelemites say "93"?§

In Greek gematria, thelēma (will) and agapē (love) both add up to 93. Thelemites use the number as a greeting that recalls the Law of Thelema and the principle of love under will.

Do you have to join an order to be a Thelemite?§

No. Anyone who accepts the Law of Thelema may call themselves a Thelemite. The A∴A∴ and OTO offer structured training and community, but many practitioners work independently.

Sources and further reading§

• The Equinox of the Gods — Aleister Crowley, 1936
• Magick: Liber ABA, Book Four — Aleister Crowley, ed. Hymenaeus Beta, 1997
• Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley — Richard Kaczynski, 2010
• Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley — Lawrence Sutin, 2000
• Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism — Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr (eds.), 2012
• Aleister Crowley: The Biography — Tobias Churton, 2011
• The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism — Manon Hedenborg White, 2020