a glossary of thelema' cover

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xCopyright 2007 Adam Newman

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this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means,

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Published bywww.scribeworx.net


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AGLOSSAR Y

OF T HEL EM A

The Modern Dissemination of the Mystical Dogma, Archetypes, Qabalism

and Theology of Aleister Crowley

By Frater Pyramidatus


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A GLOSSARY OF THELEMA

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E XO R DI U M

ince the publication of Israel Regardies The Golden Dawn the general public has become used to magical dictionaries, compendiums

yclopaedias. Our bookshops are replete with endless titles promising concise data on the Western Mystery Tradition. However, I still fee

or the beginning student many of these are bewildering, and that they leave the reader more mystified than ever. This is certainly more so

he Thelemic tradition, where we find Crowleys strict and precise control of Victorian English verbose, confusing and often cryptic to the

f excess, let alone the excursions into Eastern occultism that even the Golden Dawn adepts knew little of, let alone the average person

ompiling this volume three aims emerged as paramount: a) to be as comprehensive as possible, covering all aspects of the Thelemic traditi

t stands in the Crowley corpus of writings this could be termed orthodox, or traditional Thelema; b) to avoid waffle and remain as co

nd brief as is convenient; and c) to aim at the everyday reader, and to avoid esoteric, mysterious and unusual terms.

The amount of occult material available is immense and confusing. We often encounter contradictions between texts, differenc

ronunciation, spelling, and style. Most of the great occult books are deliberately confusing, and occasionally filled with malicious errors o

alse premise that secrets should be confined to a small circle of initiates, and that flagrantly publishing similar secrets would lea


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ersecution, be it from the Church, rival societies, or even disenchanted entities from the spirit world. Suffice to say that most of the med

rimoires, and great manuscripts of magic, do contain purposeful mistakes. Crowley, with his A.?. A.?. and revised Ordo Templi Orientis,

ome great distance to dispelling superstition, and dogmatic infighting, but a lack of scientific spirit is still painfully prevalent in the gen

terature of occultism. In this volume I have tried to be as simple, lucid and practical as possible. The reader who does not understand the

f correspondences in other books, will take solace in the Latin alphabet, a tool certainly at his disposal, and perhaps find a pointer to a cl

lateau. I do not pretend to provide detailed information here, but slight guidance through the literary labyrinth, and a little something to

ump start the creative processes. This volume is jam packed with archetypes, symbols, and correspondences, and simply flicking through

hould find what you are looking for, at least in part. Admittedly it is a scholarly contribution to occultism, rather than any original or ins

work.

The point of reference is, as usual, the Holy Qabalah this gives us a synthetic, elastic and virtually omniscient method of referring inform

ack to a synergistic model. It was perhaps Crowleys greatest academic inertia to prop up all of his discoveries on the Tree of Life, and

lossary shares that inertia. To help the beginner many of the Hebrew words have been transliterated into English as well as given in

riginal script. The author also hopes this will help prevent the scribal error, and runic entropy, that he has so often encountered in

esearches. Wherever possible I have tried to distinguish the authentic Hebrew Qabalah from the Golden Dawn and Thelemic extensions, a

wo can never be fully reconciled a painful defect in the endless literary ambition of the Victorian G. D.. There is essentially no seam

onnection between the Rabbinical teachings, a.k.a. the esoteric interpretation of the Torah, and experimental works such asLiber 777

ue credit has been given to the Qabalistic tradition per se. It seems Crowley himself was less anxious to draw the same distinctions.

erfect method is found the 72 angels of the Schemhamphoresh and the only extension into the Hermetic teaching is the allocation to

uinaries of the Zodiac, which may be discarded if the reader wishes to experiment with the unadulterated tradition.

The Enochian Watchtowers of Dr. Dee are given in depth, as are the names of the Governors, and some guiding notes on pronunciation o

Enochian script. The superfluous spelling methods of the Victorian Golden Dawn have been discarded in favour of the restored method

y Mr. Hulse. The author had, for the sake of brevity, to chose from three of four different methods, and he chose from the lesser of two e

Considerations of style have made me give the 21 letters of the Enochian language, and although he agrees with Hulse as to their incred

cholarly value, many ceremonial magicians have commented on their usefulness in the creation of sigils that is their direct action o

ubconscious mind rather than from the standpoint of grammar and phonemics.

Crowleys famousBook of Thoth has been tentatively covered with some brief descriptions of each individual illustration and their Qabal

atiocinations.

The Gnostic Mass of the O. T. O. gives one many names of the so termed Gnostic Saints, and the author has endeavoured to provide

iographies of most of them, which adds many colourful historical characters to the work, and perhaps reminds us that Crowley (et alibi) w

nk in a grand tradition rather than the insane and militant individualist that the general public accuse him of being. These names will pro

he reader with many avenues of the occult world, titles of works, names and dates etc., without giving more than a superficial resonance o

ndividuals concerned.


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Thelema has always tried to be a truly synthetic exploration of all previous systems of attainment, and has added an Eastern flavour to

trictly Hermetic canon of the the Golden Dawn. The 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching have been included, using a combination of the Ric

Wilhelm translation, Hulses Liber 888 and CrowleysLiber 216. The author has endeavoured to uncover inconsistencies between these

works, and thankfully has found none. They are arranged in the awkward and often unpronouncible Chinese names, as these are the most

ncountered in other standard works of reference. The Tattva symbols, seven Chakkras of yoga, and the three vital nadis are also giv

eveloped by Westerners rather than from any specific textus receptus.

The major alphabets are arranged according to the English transliterations of the names of the letters. Included are Arabic, Hebrew, Gree

Coptic as well as Enochian, but in this case only as a single paragraph. These five languages are the most often used in Thelemic ceremon

Demonology is a subject which frankly cannot be ignored in a work of this kind, and it is common knowledge that the malefic universe i

brushed aside in Thelema as in many other magical traditions. Thus we find included the 72 Spirits of the Lesser Key of Solomon, (wit

igils, sometimes in duplicate), the principal demons of the Satanic Bible of Anton LaVey (with Biblical notes), and the 22 Sentinels o

Qliphoth, with the respective sigils, which are found inLiber 231. The metaphysic and cosmology of the arch-demons is also given, in brie

Also given are the rather obscure 231 Gates of the Sepher Yetzirah (called such through a concept communicated in the text rather than

ctual listing). These have a unique permutation of the symbols pertaining to the Hebrew alphabet, with a kind of magical antithesis a

eneral thread of reason (however tenuous it may appear at times). This hopefully will provide the reader with an entirely new (in term

odays literature) method of Qabalistic exegesis. Some elementary data on the astrological allocations is also given.

Another entry quite unencountered in modern literature, and seemingly unique to the authors research, is the Geomantic Qemea and Un

Geomantic Shields. Although these are not strictly part of the Thelemic canon, geomancy is, and any insight garnered on this much negl

radition can do nothing but good.

Lastly, I can never pretend to have a full intellectual grasp on all the data contained within. This is not so important as one might guess, a

many cases lack of knowledge has lead me to an impartiality an expert could never hope for.

a glossary of thelema' cover

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