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Tim Maroney's comments on Satanism and Thelema
July 1991
Dear Diane,
To expand on my earlier comments on Satanic symbolism in Thelemic ritual,
and their relevance to the question of whether Thelema is a form of
Satanism under some reasonable definition of that word.
You ought to get a copy of "Magick in Theory and Practice" if you're
interested in the issue. Crowley's ritual and meditative instructions
were his best writing, possibly because they dealt with what he knew best.
It's because of the power and importance of these instructions that I was
willing to overlook his appalling right-wing politics and cite Crowley
as a source in Twilight Crossing; LaVey and Aquino have made no
contributions that measure up to these.
I'm going to track through the various Liberi in Appendix VI, "A Few
Principal Rituals", in order.
Grimorium Sanctissimum. The O.T.O./A.'.A.'. sex magic expressed in the
form of a Black Mass, with a naked virgin as the altar.
The Star Ruby. Therion and Babalon, who are the Beast and the Scarlet
Woman from the Apocalypse of John, and who are explicitly Satanic symbols.
(The Star Ruby is the Thelemic recension of the Lesser Banishing Ritual
of the Pentagram.)
The Star Sapphire. Set, a very close Satanic cognate, and Baphomet,
the demon supposedly worshipped by the Templars.
The Mass of the Phoenix. The magician carves his or her breast with
the Mark of the Beast, soaks the blood into a cake, and eats it.
Liber V vel Reguli. "Being the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast".
The Beast 666, Therion, Babalon, Averse Pentagrams, "Saturn or Satan
is exalted in the House of Venus or Astarte", "the Father-Mother
Set-Isis", and so on.
The Gnostic Mass. Chaos, Babalon, Baphomet, Abrasax, Therion, Simon
Magus, and another reclaiming of the Black Mass with its naked virgin
on the altar. (The G.S. form above is more adapted to the ceremonial
use of two people, while this form is for the puhblic and is veiled
with a cloak of symbolism.) Interestingly, something very like this
ritual may have a great deal to do with our general conception of the
Black Mass, coming from the Star Chamber affair in France. It is
unclear how much of the accusations were exagerrated and brought into
line with the Inquisitional mythology, and how much was an actual
"amatory mass" as some of the sources refer to it.
This ends the appendix containing the principal Thelemic rituals, with
the exception of Liber Samekh. That is so important that it receives
its own appendix, IV. As you know, the emphasis of Liber Samekh on
Satan is intense. It also exalts the Beast and the Scarlet Woman yet
again. This is the ritual of "the Attainment of the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel" or Higher Self; in Crowley's
case, he believed this "devil or angel" to be named Aiwaz or Aiwass,
and to have delivered the Book of the Law, the foundation of Thelema.
I have not mentioned the constant repetition of the Serpent symbol,
which for Crowley was interpreted along the lines of Genesis -- or an
anti-Genesis which reclaimed the pagan symbol demonized in the Hebrew
myth. Someone could object, after all, that Serpent-worship is hardly
confined to Satanism; we have to see how much Crowley explicitly inverted
the tail of the Bible before we can know certainly that he did the same
with the head. So the Serpent or Snake has little evidentiary value
in itself, except where it is very plainly a reference to Genesis, as
in "I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge" in the Book of the Law.
As we can see, there is not one Thelemic ritual, among those Crowley
thought most important, which is lacking in Satanic symbols.
Now, we should also consider Appendix VII, "A Few of the Principal
Instructions Authorised by the A.'.A.'." These are much less Satanic
by and large. Many of them have no Satanic references worth mentioning,
such as the Yogic instructions of Liber HHH, Liber E, and Liber RV,
and the Golden Dawn derived ceremonial magick practices of Liber O,
Liber Yod, Liber Resh, and Liber A. Similarly for the past-life recall
practice (perhaps Theosophical?) of Liber Thisharb and the penultimate
practice of Liber B vel Magi. Yet there are other works in the same
appendix which contain notable Satanic symbolism, such as Liber Astarte,
Liber III, Liber Cheth, and Liber A'ash.
The interesting thing about the instructions of this category is that,
for the most part, they are not particularly Thelemic either. There is
little mention of the Thelemic trinity of Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit,
or of the Book of the Law, or of the word Thelema, or "Do what thou wilt"
or its cognates such as "the law of liberty". Where these do occur, they
are usually in passing rather than central to the instruction; and in
nearly every case, the degree of Satanic symbolism is proportional to
the degree of Thelemic symbolism.
That is, there is hardly a book that contains noteworthy Satanic symbolism
that does not also contain Thelemic symbolism of roughly equal note, and
vice versa. The books which don't contain one rarely contain the other.
Liber A vel Armorum could be taken as a counterexample, but even there
the quote from the Book of the Law is merely an opening clause having
no import to the teaching in itself; it is a single sentence stating
Crowley's authority to present the book. If it were omitted, it would
have no effect on the instruction of how to construct elemental weapons.
It's of no more significance than the mention of Typhon in Liber O.
In Liber Astarte and Liber III, the Thelemic and the Satanic symbolism
are both used in passing, almost as afterthoughts. (Astarte also contains
some of the anti-Satanic symbolism that Crowley sometimes uses; the
Thelemic devil is named Choronzon, and here he is presented as leading
the aspirant astray.) In Astarte, the little Satanic symbolism consists
of a reference to Babalon, which is also Thelemic symbolism; the only
other Thelemic references are to Choronzon and a single short clause
(out of fifty clauses) which urges the use of Thelemic books and aphorisms
in the practice. In Liber III, the Thelemic mythology is solely in an
opening benediction which (once again) could easily be omitted without
having the slightest import to the meditation practice, while the Satanic
symbol of "Cerebus, the great Beast of Hell" is almost as unimportant.
(Is it even Satanic at all? some might ask. After all, Cerebus is Greek.
Indeed, if Crowley had not craftily used the phrase "the great Beast"
there might be some doubt under a restrictive definition of Satanism.
The Twilight Crossing definition of Satanism as the reclamation of
demonized mthological figures would include it even without that
phrase, but there is simply no way that Crowley used the phrase "the
great Beast" except as an explicit reference to the demon of Revelation.
Crowley's "Cerebus, the great Beast of Hell" has a double meaning, both
of which are Satanic under the Twilight Crossing definition, and one of
which is Satanic even under the overly restrictive definition preferred
by anti-Satanists.)
Liber Cheth and Liber A'ash are the only books of the category which are
aggressively either Satanic or Thelemic. And each of them are both. In
them, we are back to the sex magic of the O.T.O. and the A.'.A.'., and
once again we are dealing with Babalon, the Beast, Hadit, Nuit, Set, Chaos,
and Baphomet. No knowledgable person would deny the centrality of these
sex practices to Crowley's systems, and no truthful person could deny that
every time they are set forth in ritual and meditation instructions, they
are flanked and upheld by a constellation of Thelemic and Satanic symbols.
Was Crowley a Satanist? Is Thelema a form of Satanism? Only the most
contrived definition of "Satanism" could answer these questions "no".
What would Crowley have answered? In a dedication to "Why Jesus Wept",
he told G. K. Chesterton that he, Crowley, had "found [his] Messiah in...
the Devil and all his angels", and showed through gematria that the
Serpent was the true Messiah. In "Magick in Theory and Practice" (cap.
IV) and "The Book of Thoth", and many other places, he praised Satan
at length. He sang rapturous love-songs to the devil in his ritual
practices, and gave him the unholy kiss referred to in the legends of
the templars and the Sabbat. He wrote, in the last chapter of "Magick
in Theory and Practice", that:
"The Devil" is, historically, the God of any people that one
personally dislikes. This has led to so much confusion of
thought that THE BEAST 666 has preferred to let names stand
as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ -- the solar-
phallic-hermetic Lucifer -- is His own Holy Guardian Angel,
and "The Devil" SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the
Starry Universe. This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of
Man, but HE who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil;
He bade "Know Thyself!" and taught Initiation. He is "the
Devil" of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the
Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection.
We have no need to speculate on the issue. The man has spoken clearly
for himself.
Tim
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law "
On this website I start and end all the posts with the law of Thelema. At the beginning I post 'do what thou wilt...' and at the end 'love is the law...'.But for casual correspondence, as well as for the comments fields i use the number 93. I have been asked twice in the last few weeks so Perhaps i should explain why 93 is used amongst thelemites as an informal greeting (if you haven't already googled it). The number 93 is often used as a short form of the law of thelema which is a standard greeting amongst Thelemites. This is 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law'. 93 is the number value of the word thelema meaning will. The standard ending is 'Love is the law, love under will. Here there are two words with the enumeration of 93, thelema (will) and agape (love) therefore 93/93. 93 is also sometimes used as a verbal greeting. Thelema is often referred to as the 93 current as Aiwass, Crowleys higher guardian angel's name also enumerates to 93. It becomes a bit of a cultural thing though for lodge, ritual and formal stuff the longform is used. It also allows the sneaking of such a greeting into less esoteric correspondence and opens the question of 'what's the 93 for?' I can then explain if people are interested without cramming the law in word down their throats.So in case you've been one of those wondering, thats why!
"Love is the law, love under will"
"At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say-and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple-To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant.- The Book of the Law, First Chapter"
For the many years that I have studied and contemplated the Book of the Law this passage in the First Chapter has always put me in mind of the Neo-Pagan practice of witchcraft. Although I didn't publish the essay until 2009, the basic research for my essay the Rosicrucian Roots of the Witchcraft Cult had been done many years previously and I had spent almost a decade looking for the connection between Thelema and Wicca.
Beyond the obvious connection between Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner, I was looking for something deeper, a shared symbolism that genuinely bridged these two new age spiritual paths which have sprung from the same root stock and developed in almost diametrically opposed directions. While witchcraft emphasizes a connection with the earth, encourages regular group gatherings to celebrate the cycles of life and is essentially a feminine form of worship; Thelema makes no connection with the earth, aiming instead at the stars, discourages groups activities of all kinds and is centered on the individual whatever their gender. And yet the above passage indicates strongly that Aiwass was making a prophecy about the rise of a new religion for the people, one that is directed by Priestesses that is based on the love of the Goddess, and hints that this is the outer form of worship for the new aeon of Horus while the inner form of practice is the path of Thelemite magick, the formula for which is supplied in the Second Chapter.
1. This is the secret of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rideth upon our Lord the Beast.
2. Thou shalt drain out thy blood that is thy life into the golden cup of her fornication.
"3. Thou shalt mingle thy life with the universal life. Thou shalt keep not back one drop.- Liber Cheth, Aleister Crowley"
The feminine principal in Thelema begins with the archetypal Goddess Nu although She has no demonstrable form or even an actual positive existence as She represents the negative principal that pre-existed before the first positive emanation issued from it. In this form She is the Ain Soph Aur of the Holy Qabalah, the Light that infuses the infinite void and yet is never illuminating until it crosses the abyss. Even before this She exists only in the quasi material form of the Queen of Heaven as the Goddess Nuit, although in this form she is still a void and represents the space between the stars that are depicted as clothing her in positive manifestations of the LVX. As such Nuit isn't really even a genuine goddess but instead she is the Mother of the Child God Horus and so a form of Horus as he was before he existed.
The first genuine division of the spiritual forces of Thelema into genders occurs below the abyss, at the upper edge of the actual existences, on the Nineteenth Path of Sepher Yetzirah, also called the Path of Teth. Here the feminine principal takes on the form of Babalon, a secret arcanum of magick that was first explored by Crowley in the Vision and the Voice. Crowley developed the symbolism of Babalon to suit his own style of magick, especially the sex magick that he was practicing in the OTO, but before he did that he had also managed to make the obvious connection between Babalon and the Scarlet Woman of the Book of the Law. The Scarlet Woman represents the most material form of feminine principal in the Book of the Law and together the four principals correspond to Tetragrammaton in a uniquely Thelemite manner. It is this Scarlet Woman that is the Priestess from the verse in the First Chapter and this progression from Archetypal to manifest femininity is the spiritual essence of what she worships in her temple by the use of her love chant.
"49. Thy tears, thy sweat, thy blood, thy semen, thy love, thy faith shall provide. Ah, I shall drain thee like the cup that is of me, Babalon. - Jack Parson, Book 49"
In a recent conversation with some other Thelemites one of them raised the question of whether the 1946 Babalon Working performed by Jack Parsons and L Ron Hubbard may have had some impact on the birth of the Wiccan movement in Britain at about the same time. Parsons was an acolyte of Crowley who is documented as having advised Gerald Gardner on points of magick and organization while he was in the early stages of establishing his first group of witches. The fact that Parsons was keenly interested in witches, contrary to the general interests of his contemporary occultists seemed to present a tantalizing link that might have been the bridge that I had been looking for.
This all had the effect of jogging my memory of performing a similar ceremony to that which was performed by Parsons and I went to the archives of my Magick Journal for the year 1997 and found that I had indeed worked a magick to Babalon but at the time I didn't understand the true significance of what I had found.
"... she shows me a vision of the progression of the lunar phases through its twenty-eight day cycle and as the moon passes the full BABALON begins to grow old until she is a withered crone who advances upon me, menacing me at first but as I hold my place, and following the rapid progression of the moon's phases, she is again a powerful young female and she once again stops her assault.- The Magick Journal of Ankhafnakhonsu, 2 September 1997, 12:30am"
I had used Babalon's symbol of the seven pointed star of even points inscribed with name as a portal to her astral plane and the passage quoted above was only a small portion of my communication with her. The vision made certain prognostications about my progress on the magickal path that later came to fruition and it was for these results that I had primarily recalled this particular operation, until the conversation mentioned above.
The feminine principal that is revered in both Thelema and by witches is the cycle of the feminine lifespan from the virginal Artemis, through the potently fertile Mother Goddesses and finally the crones that mark the approach of the dark moon and the potential for rebirth. This cycle is also replicated in the four feminine forms that are represented in the Thelemite feminine spiritual hierarchy as Nu is purely feminine and precedes the appearance of the male principal of Hadit which is the first emanation from the Ain Soph Aur. Nuit is the form of the Mother Goddess who gives birth to the Child God Horus and then the mortal form of the Scarlet Woman is the vehicle for the spiritual energy of Babalon and ensures that the spiritual force to feminine generation will inevitably fade and die as a part of its material existence while in its archetypal form it remains an infinite reservoir of new life that is as of yet uncreated.
Modern witchcraft is only beginning its development as a spiritual practice and, especially amongst the eclectic practitioners it is still forming a working discipline and consistent pantheon of spiritual archetypes. In many ways it is going through the same processes of development that modern Hermetic Magick has done since the occult revival of the last half of the Nineteenth Century and so it is around a hundred years behind the development of that discipline (although it seems to be making up ground at the present). Many modern witches are obtaining results from their magick that resemble the work of the Hermetic Magicians that have developed magick and Thelema into the disciplines that they are today so it will be of greater significance to more of them that there is a connection between Thelema and witchcraft that may help to define the most modern and popular of new age religions.
