"Do What Thou Wilt"

Any resemblances of Wicca and Thelema stem from the fact that Gardner drew heavily upon the influences of Crowley and the Golden Dawn in his foundation of Wicca.

Wicca and Thelema are not at all the same.

They are certainly not incompatible. However their inherent beliefs are slightly different and the rituals which many Wiccans incorporate are different to that which many Thelemites incorporates, of course these rituals are not part of the religions per se.

We have our own set of holy books, our own beliefs, and a set of deities which we can work with or not. This is the religious side of Thelema.

Thelema as a philosophy has only one rule "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." That is find out what your innermost nature is, what you were incarnated to do i.e. your destiny that part of God which is to be expressed through you and thendo it. It sounds simple but discovering the true will is a massive task in itself for most people.

If a wiccan seeks to carry out there task they are technically a Thelemite, as Thelema means Will in Greek and anyone whoseeks to carry out this task can be considered a Thelemite. However they do not have to follow the religious doctrine, beliefs and practicies set down by Aleister Crowley and his subsequent followers.

A wiccan can be a Thelemite philosophically speaking, they could also incorporates some Thelemic teachings, however their core beliefs are different. A Thelemite can often take teachings from anywhere and incorporate them, I myself am friends with wiccans we respect our beliefs and see much more similarities than differences, but the differences are still present and they are important.

When I speak of wiccans I am also not including the majority of young peopleo n this site who claim to be wiccan without thoroughly understanding what the religion is, nor am I included those people who believe witchcraft and wicca to be the same thing. I am including members of a specific belief system, who practice a certain set of specific beliefs who are also seeking spiritual expansion.

Gerald Gardener was also part of the OTO for a short time and that is probably where he took on some of Crowley's beliefs as the O.T.O was headed by Crowley for a long time and took on the book of the Law and became the first old aeon order to accept the Thelemic principles.

The post has nothing to do with wicca. He clarified that it means to do the next right thing. @ awake: link for abramelin operation?

What do you mean by doing the next right thing?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/abr/

That link is for the Sacred Magic of Abramelin, I will state that it is a ritual which lasts six months I believe.....it is not necessary and Crowley replaced it. Also magicians out there have achieved knowledge and conversation other ways. The vessel has to be ready for this endeavour which is the reason for the training systems of the A.'.A.'. and Golden Dawn.

"I have encountered a spirit that I believe to be an external being and who has made a deep impact on my life and my spiritual beliefs. However, beyond this, many rituals seeking contact with this H.G.A. more or less attune one's present mind with one's Higher Self, and thus help one better seek, follow, and attain True Will. Rarely does an individual truly conjure the presence of a true, external being through such works - at least insofar as I have observed."

So what you are saying is that you have experienced it externally but not found evidence that supports it truly existing outside of yourself? What you experience, if not shared by others, can still be an external perception of internal existences. Such instances can be seen in scrying for divination purposes. An individual can "see" and "sense" on the outside what is housed within through the vehicle (mirrored surface/fire/smoke etc.). But not everyone needs a vehicle if they can break down their own mental barriers. The difficulty with that, is once done, people that are not balanced believe all that they experience is really external and not projected perceptions from their inner self, and it ends up making them appear to be nutcases. It happens more often than not due to people self teaching themselves through books without proper guidance from at least one experienced mentor in person. The mind is a powerful thing and can not only be powerful but self-destructive.

Other individuals have encountered the spirit as well. Indeed, it was known to others well before I encountered it, and they used to avoid the place that it "haunted." However, after various events, it rather attached itself to me and is a positive influence in my life.

But yes, if I were the only one to have experienced it I would not be so quick to assume it was an external entity.

It's always good to have that validation. The way you worded it, I wasn't certain. I find it disturbing that most magick literature fails to mention the influence of the mind on perception because it is the most common misconception people make when going into spirit work. I feel that this is the mistake Crowley made. His mind colors his work intensely and I found that I needed to learn about him and his beliefs as a whole before being able to read between the lines and take in the meaning of his books. I will admit, he was incredibly knowledgeable and talented, but I also think he fell a little too far down the rabbit hole. :P

Unless I'm mistaken, he explored everything more or less so he could say if it was right or wrong to himself. It led him down that rabbit hole, as you say. And again, unless I'm mistaken, in his later years he lamented having gone down it so far.

I'm by no means a huge proponent of Crowley, I just wrote this post as a response to seeing his teachings so frequently taken out of context.

I concur. :)

It is true, his works are all clouded with his system and his knowledge, but his role was a teacher and all he could relay were his experiences.

He often told his students to find out themselves and not to agree with him, he stressed the importance of doing one's own work and arriving at your own conclusions.

A Thelemite is going to write from a Thelemic viewpoint, it would be impossible not to.