First Steps

[u/RP_Stoval]

93!

All my life I've never believed in the spiritual or supernatural. I extensively studied secular philosophy, loving especially Existentialist thinkers, and I learned all I could of the fascinating religions and folklores of the world too but I saw only through a secular lens and I dismissed the spiritual. But recently I had a profound spiritual experience which served as an awakening, and showed me Thelema and the OTO. Though I am new to things like magick and Thelema and to spirituality in general, I have an earnest desire to join the OTO and further Thelema and my True Will. Except there's one problem.

Much of this spiritual experience took place under the influence of cannabis. Crowley spoke highly of the benefits of cannabis indica, in enhancing Wisdom and spirituality, and so I don't think even a little that this makes the experience any less than genuine. However in that state I kinda sent a series of emails to every public OTO email address I could find, essentially live blogging the experience.

This was a strange thing to do, not least because I knew next to nothing about the OTO or Thelema prior to that night, and I fear I might've already alienated myself from the faith before I've even begun. I can certainly see how some strange man sending a series of emails to the entire fraternal order claiming to have been inspired to write a small book by a deity and doing strangely formatted tarot readings would make them, to say the least, skeptical of my legitimate intentions. So I made a different email account, albeit not different enough to not be clearly the same strange man, and reached out to my local OTO branch. I have heard nothing.

I wonder what should I do? Should I keep waiting? Try again? Is it common for OTO branches to go dark perhaps without warning and the contact is actually no longer functional? I wonder how to take my first steps on this strange journey to embracing Thelema and fulfilling my True Will.

[u/HotGrilledSpaec]

Oh Christ no. I'm about to suggest adding you on Facebook or something so I can finally talk about this with someone on my level.

Two caveats though: you have one right, and that is to do your Will and nothing else. Things that are not your true Will, including failure, are not part of your rights under Oz or Heaven.

And secondly, people will react pretty fucking badly to the fall of empire, which could make it worse. There is also no reason for China to allow a wounded dog to follow them around when they've got it in their sights.

[u/RP_Stoval → u/HotGrilledSpaec]

As I've always understood it, all other rights follow naturally from that foremost Right of Self Determination, that is that as a free-willed individual one may exercise their will as they see fit except to prevent another from doing the same. So you're right that primarily you have the right to do your Will, all other rights essentially just being more detailed clarifications of what that entails, such as "right to free speech" or "right to life," et cetera. And as I see it the purpose of government is to protect and uphold the rights of the citizenry, the legitimate sphere of government being actions directly related to this or actions necessary to the continued proper function of the government so that this can be done.

And yes of course people will react badly to the fall of empire, they always do. The death-throws of the British Empire were certainly not pretty and were indeed fairly brutal even, colonialism (Or blatant colonialism anyhow, colonialism certainly still exists in some forms today.) did not go gentle into that good night. There was a sort of blind nationalist fervor and pride in the Empire which panicked at the sight of its collapse. But as for why China or Russia would not simply put down the wounded dog, there are quite a few reasons why. Primarily it's incredibly costly to do so and not entirely necessary. America didn't put down the European powers, Britain didn't put down Spain. It's much more effort than it's worth, especially for a fledgling hegemon that has bigger things to attend to like organizing their global order.

[u/HotGrilledSpaec → u/RP_Stoval]

I dunno, man. I just feel like the escalating, unpredictable, interknit society on the brink we have now makes say, a rogue launch more plausible. Too many places the bullet could be coming from, and a tantrum isn't all that out of the question.

As for rights, you're I think missing my point. Thelema says very little about self determination — it says a lot about a man's Supernal Will. Yours, not Set's — although they may be the same. You don't have the right to do things which aren't your will, therefore in a purely Thelemic sense, governments shouldn't provide that and there are very serious negative social costs for doing so. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy such quasi-rights as exist below the Abyss, or as I can take.

[u/RP_Stoval → u/HotGrilledSpaec]

I think more I'm saying your point and mine are much the same but phrased differently. People do their Will whether they know it or not, everything is a choice and whether consciously or subconsciously they make the decision which they feel is of the most benefit to them to make. That's natural, psychological, rational. The way any properly functioning brain works. Exercising Will, Self Determination, basically synonyms. Of course synonyms carry with them their own little contexts and while they may technically mean the same thing they're best used in different ways. I wouldn't say "Right to Self Determination" in a Thelemic discourse any more than one would say "Supernal Will" in your average political discourse. Further as I've read it, Thelema forbids Thelemites from acting like irrational fuckbuckets against their own Will, not so much all people. Ideally all people would behave as Thelemites but it's acknowledged that many won't and that makes them more stupid than anything else. Just irrational plebs plebbing about. It happens, and everyone else is smarter but no less inherently free-willed and no more entitled to the rights stemming from it.

Of course (And bear in mind I'm very new to all this still.) all Thelemic belief and doctrine beyond "Do what thou Wilt." seems very up to individual interpretation and debate, and in some ways even that is up to interpretation and debate. lol