BY TAU MEITRAS
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
TAs I write these words during the Thelemic Holy Season, I am keenly aware that we stand at a pivotal moment.
This year marks the 121st year of the New Aeon of Horus – the Aeon proclaimed in 1904 with the reception of Liber AL vel Legis. Crowley himself hinted that the first 120 years of the Aeon would serve as an incubation period, a time for the Law of Thelema to take root before its full flourishing.
Now that this span has elapsed, the Post-Thelemic Manifesto declares it is time to take action:
In 2024 e.v., 120 years will have passed since the reception of the Aeon of Horus: it is now time to move beyond, creating new ways free of Crowley’s shadow.
The culmination of this Holy Season in Year 121 feels distinctly like a call to arms – a call to The Next Step that Liber AL vel Legis foretells for those who would carry the Law of Thelema forward.
This sense of urgency is not born of ritual sentiment alone. Across the globe, we witness the resurgence of forces that echo the very oppression and tyranny Thelema was meant to overcome. Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, and assaults on individual liberty are on the rise in many societies. We find ourselves, as Crowley once lamented, “hemming us in” with “Ferocious Fascism, cackling Communism, equally frauds” and other stifling ideologies.
In such times of crisis, the Thelemic community cannot afford complacency or mere commemoration. The culmination of the Holy Season in this 121st year is not just a time to read and reflect – it is a time to act.
The message resounding through the ethers is clear: the long-prophesied Next Step must be taken now, in order to fulfill our charge as Thelemites to resist oppression and liberate humanity. As we shall see, this call to action aligns perfectly with both the introduction of Liber AL vel Legis and the principles of the Post-Thelemic Manifesto that I helped author.
Liber AL’s Introduction: A Blueprint to Defy Tyranny
It is often said that the Law of Thelema is the Law of Liberty.
To understand how Thelema guides us in overcoming tyranny, we need look no further than Crowley’s own introduction to Liber AL vel Legis. In that introductory text – written after the initial reception of The Book of the Law – Crowley paints a stark picture of the world’s slide into conformity, repression, and authoritarian rule. He observed the early 20th-century rise of mass movements and dictatorships and warned that
Above us today hangs a danger never yet paralleled in history. We suppress the individual in more and more ways… Every new measure of the most democratic and autocratic governments is… always restriction. We are all treated as imbecile children.
Crowley’s words speak of a world beset by the “abortive births” of the New Aeon – fascism, communism, and other herd-minded cults of control – which threaten to strangle the very freedom Thelema promises. In his view, these forces of oppression were failed attempts to realize the Aeon of Horus, twisted into tyranny by those who would rather rule over a docile herd than see individuals empowered.
What, then, did Crowley propose as the antidote to this encroaching tyranny? Nothing less than the full establishment of the Law of Thelema in society.
He boldly asserted that “The establishment of the Law of Thelema is the only way to preserve individual liberty and to assure the future of the race.” In Liber AL’s introduction, under the section pointedly titled “The Next Step,” Crowley makes an impassioned plea for all awakened individuals to step forward and implement Thelema’s principles in the world, by saying:
…the absolute rule of the state shall be a function of the absolute liberty of each individual will.
This paradox neatly encapsulates the Thelemic ideal: a society in which each person’s absolute freedom to do their true will creates a natural order, obviating the need for oppressive governance. It is a vision of maximal liberty, where Do what thou wilt becomes the sole criterion of ethical action and all forms of tyranny are rendered obsolete.1
In essence, Liber AL’s introduction provides a blueprint for revolution against oppression. It calls on us to reject the slave mentality of the passing Aeon and to recognise that “Every man and every woman is a star” – sovereign and free. The Book’s injunction that “The word of Sin is Restriction” (AL I:41) is a concise rebuke of all forms of unjust limitation on human freedom. Crowley’s exegesis makes clear that to truly follow the Law of Thelema, we must actively work to dismantle the instruments of oppression (whether they be political, social, or spiritual) and replace them with a culture that honours the True Will of every individual. This radical message, penned over a century ago, aligns perfectly with the ethos of the Post-Thelemic Manifesto. The Manifesto is, at its core, an attempt to realise Crowley’s call to action in our contemporary context – to finally take that “Next Step” by breaking the shackles that have kept Thelema from evolving beyond its first century of incubation.
Beyond Institutional Stagnation: Why I Wrote the Post-Thelemic Manifesto
If the introduction of Liber AL is a rallying cry to overcome oppression, then the Post-Thelemic Manifesto is an attempt to answer that cry after long decades of delay.
One might ask: why was such a Manifesto necessary at all? The short answer is that Thelema, as a movement, has in many ways stagnated in the very institutions meant to nurture it. Over the past century, organised Thelemic bodies – from the O.T.O. and related orders to various Thelemic churches – have often become mired in dogma, internal politics, and an almost religious fixation on Aleister Crowley the man, rather than the forward-looking spirit of his message. The living, dynamic current of Thelema has at times been treated as a closed canon or a personality cult, when it should be an evolving quest for Gnosis. I and many others observed this ossification with growing concern. Thelema was at risk of becoming precisely what it was meant to overcome: an organized religion trapped in the past, clinging to the letter of Crowley’s words but missing their liberating spirit.
The Post-Thelemic Manifesto was written to shake Thelemites out of this trance and re-focus us on the future. Its very first principle is that we must move fully beyond the shadow of Crowley – not to reject the Law of Thelema, but to carry it forward now that its 120-year gestation is complete.
As the Manifesto proclaims, “In 2024 e.v., 120 years will have passed since the Aeon of Horus: it is now time to move beyond, creating new ways free of Crowley’s shadow.” Crowley’s shadow, in this sense, includes both the literal influence of his personality (with all its flaws and brilliance) and the figurative shadow he cast over Thelemic practice, which can discourage innovation. After 120 years of propagation, study, and consolidation, Thelema must evolve or die.
The Aeon of Horus is the Aeon of the Child – and a child must eventually grow up. Crowley himself acknowledged this when he wrote of the New Aeon’s early growing pains, noting that:
How this new Aeon of Horus will develop, how the Child will grow up, these are for us to determine, growing up ourselves in the way of the Law of Thelema.
In writing the Manifesto, I took those words to heart. It was (and is) time for Thelemites to determine how the Child grows up: to consciously guide the next stage of our Aeon’s unfolding by applying Thelemic principles in bold new ways, unencumbered by the institutional baggage of the last century.
The motivations behind the Manifesto also stem from witnessing how institutionalisation has, in some cases, led to the betrayal of Thelema’s core values. When I see gatekeeping hierarchies jealously guarding “secrets” rather than sharing Liberating truth, or church officials more concerned with their titles and apostolic succession than the Light, Life, Love, and Liberty that Thelema promises, I know something has gone awry.
The Manifesto is intended to re-centre us on the Great Work itself – the spiritual and social revolution Thelema calls for – rather than on the institutions that have claimed ownership of that Work. It is not about destroying those institutions per se, but about transcending their limits. In practical terms, this means encouraging Thelemites to explore new forms of community, new rituals, new interpretations, and to address modern issues (from social justice to scientific paradigms) through a Thelemic lens.
We can honour what came before – indeed, the Manifesto is steeped in Liber AL and Thelemic philosophy – but we must not be constrained by it. We owe it to the next generation of Thelemites (and to the world at large) to actively manifest Thelema in fresh, creative, and impactful ways. This is the spirit in which the Post-Thelemic Manifesto was conceived: as a catalyst for Thelema’s renaissance beyond the walls of orthodoxy.
Facing the Backlash: Debunking the Critics
No revolution is ever welcomed by the establishment, and the Post-Thelemic Manifesto has been no exception. Since its publication, there has been a predictable backlash from what I’ll call the organised religion faction of Thelema – those invested in the old institutional status quo. Certain Thelemic traditionalists and members of official bodies reacted to the Manifesto with public denunciations and, sadly, some mischaracterizations of our intent. It’s essential to address these criticisms head-on, for they reveal exactly why our Manifesto is so necessary.
One common refrain from critics is the claim that we are trying to “cancel Crowley.” Detractors allege that the Manifesto’s authors (myself included) want to cherry-pick Crowley’s philosophy while disavowing the man himself for his personal faults. For example, an article on Thelemic Union summarised the Manifesto’s stance in blunt terms:
“We like Thelema and every concept created by Crowley, but we don’t like Crowley himself… Crowley is cancelled because he does not live up to progressive values from 2021… But we still like the entire magical and philosophical system of Thelema he left behind.”.
This caricature suggests that Post-Thelema is nothing more than an attempt to distance ourselves from Crowley’s documented sexism, racism, and other bigotries in order to appear morally pure by modern standards.
Let me be crystal clear: this is a misunderstanding (if not a willful misreading) of our position. Neither I nor my colleagues have ever advocated “cancelling” Aleister Crowley or expunging his works.
How could we? The Book of the Law remains the central sacred text of Thelema, and Crowley’s vast corpus of magical and mystical writings is an invaluable treasure. We stand on the shoulders of this giant – but that does not mean we must close our eyes to his shadow. A mature spiritual movement can acknowledge flaws in its prophet and still move forward with his legacy of truth. Indeed, part of moving beyond Crowley’s shadow is owning up to those aspects of his worldview that were a product of his time (or personal demons) and consciously choosing not to perpetuate them.
If Crowley’s personal behaviour or language at times contradicts the very Law of Liberty he transmitted, then setting those contradictions aside is not “cancellation”; it is integrity. The Manifesto challenges us to live Thelema without excuses – to practice Every man and every woman is a star in full, which inherently means rejecting racism, misogyny, or any ideology that denies the sovereignty of another star. Far from being an imposition of “21st-century liberal morality” onto Thelema, this is bringing Thelema’s own ethical implications to their logical conclusion.
Another criticism levelled at the Post-Thelemic Manifesto is that it offers nothing new – that it is simply repackaging Thelema while pretending to be revolutionary. One commentator scoffed that there is “nothing ‘Post-Thelema’ whatsoever” about it, calling it “absolutely dripping in… Traditional Thelema”. In this view, since we continue to use Thelemic terms like Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit and we open our text with “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law”, we haven’t actually gone “beyond Thelema” at all – we’ve merely tacked on a provocative label.
To this I say: exactly! We are not interested in going “beyond Thelema” as a philosophy; we are interested in going beyond the current state of the Thelemic community.
The phrase “Post-Thelemic” implies after Thelema-as-we-know-it, not after the Law of Thelema itself. The critic who wrote “this is not Post-Thelema at all, but Post-Crowley Thelema” inadvertently got it right while trying to be dismissive. We fully acknowledge that what we advocate is Thelema – in fact, it is Thelema taken seriously and applied earnestly, perhaps for the first time on a mass scale. The Manifesto’s principles are drawn from the pure source of Liber AL and the best of Crowley’s teachings; what’s “post” about it is the decision to no longer wait for permission from any Outer Order or Caliph or self-appointed guardian of Thelemic “tradition” to carry those principles into new territory. It is a break from fossilised structures, not a break from Thelema’s truth.
The organised critics also fear that our approach undermines their authority – and in a sense, they are correct.
We are explicitly saying that one does not need to be a dues-paying initiate of any particular Order to embrace the Post-Thelemic revolution (the Manifesto even states this plainly: “The Manifesto is a seed: if by reading it you are moved by its words, then work diligently… towards the manifestation of your True Will.”). This inclusivity has upset those who derive power from gatekeeping. They have responded with predictable scaremongering, accusing us of everything from heresy to hubris.
Yet, tellingly, for every loud detractor in public, I have received multiple private messages from Thelemites – including members of those very institutions – thanking us for saying what needed to be said. The ratio is easily five to one in favour of quiet support. Why quiet? Because many intelligent, dedicated Thelemites have felt exactly as we do but have been intimidated into silence by the clergies and councils that dominate organized Thelema. These well-wishers, who span from solitary practitioners to senior initiates, confide that the Manifesto gave voice to their own long-held frustrations and aspirations. They see, as do I, that Thelema’s future will not be secured by clinging to the past or by idolising Crowley or any other prophet. It will be secured by courageous adaptation, experimentation, and the willingness to challenge dogma – even dogma that marches under the banner of Thelema itself.
In clarifying these misunderstandings, let me be unapologetically clear: I stand by the Post-Thelemic Manifesto and the vision it presents. Those who insist on viewing it as an attack on Crowley or as empty posturing are, perhaps unknowingly, exemplifying the very problem the Manifesto highlights.
They are so entranced by form that they miss essence. They exalt the letter of Crowley’s legacy but betray its spirit, which is one of continual discovery and rebellion against tyranny (spiritual or temporal). The backlash from the entrenched interests only reaffirms that we struck a vital nerve. As Thelema enters its next phase, we must expect and accept that some will cling to the old Aeon ways, even as they pay lip service to the New. Their noise should not deter us; if anything, it should strengthen our resolve to carry on with the Great Work in new, living forms.
Embrace the Future: A Call to Action for All Thelemites
The time has come to put aside fear, passivity, and the comfortable routines of business-as-usual occultism.
The Post-Thelemic Manifesto is more than a statement of principles – it is a call to action. Each one of us who calls ourselves Thelemite must decide whether we will be mere reciters of Crowley’s words or the living embodiment of the Law of Thelema in this world. The Manifesto’s challenge is simple: embrace the principles of Thelema fully, and do so beyond dogma and institution. This means trusting yourself to interpret and apply the Book of the Law without an official priesthood telling you what it “really” means. It means forming communities of equals, not hierarchies of masters and disciples. It means engaging with the urgent issues of our time – oppression, inequality, environmental collapse, digital authoritarianism – from a stance of True Will and courageous Love, rather than hiding in lodges and temples muttering the same old incantations while Rome burns around us.
For those who have felt the spark of this revolution in your hearts, now is the moment to act. Do not wait for approval from any Outer Head or Grand Secretary. You are the authority in matters of your own True Will.
If the Law of Thelema is to be “the whole of the Law” for mankind, it will become so because free individuals like you and me make it so by example and effort. Recall the charge given in Liber AL’s introduction: “All men and women are invited to cooperate… in this, the Great Work.” The Master Therion extended that invitation to everyone, not just to a select few. Let us accept that invitation anew, in our own era. Let us cooperate in the Great Work of establishing the dominion of liberty, love, and understanding – not as a distant utopia, but here and now in our communities.
I urge my fellow Thelemites: read the Post-Thelemic Manifesto with an open mind and an open heart. Look past whatever provocations or discomfort it may stir – those are growth pains. Instead, feel the current that flows through its words. It is the same current that inspired Rose Edith Kelly to point out the Stele of Revealing in a Cairo museum in 1904; the same current that spoke as Aiwass and thundered “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”
It is alive in you at this very moment, urging you toward your true purpose. Follow it. In doing so, you honour Crowley far more than by merely venerating him. You honour the Aeon of Horus by taking responsibility for its direction. The Manifesto does not provide all the answers for how Thelema will evolve – nor was it meant to. It plants the seed. The cultivation and harvest depend on our collective will.
In conclusion, let us remember that Thelema is a revolution of the spirit that must continually renew itself or else ossify. We stand at the threshold of that renewal.
The 121st year finds the world in great turmoil, but also ripe for the radical message of Thelema. Crowley, in his introduction to Liber AL, wrote with both urgency and optimism: “Liberty stirs once more in the womb of Time.” Those words ring truer today than ever. The stirrings of liberty can be felt across the globe – in every protest against injustice, in every soul that refuses to be a slave. As Thelemites, it is our duty and our destiny to midwife that birth. The Post-Thelemic Manifesto gives us a clarion call and a direction. Now each of us must answer that call in our own life and work.
Will you dare to step beyond the long cast shadow and into the full light of a new dawn? I have made my choice. I invite you to join me – join us – in taking The Next Step.
The future of Thelema will be forged by our will, or not at all. The opportunity is before us in this Holy Season of the New Aeon: to affirm, with all our being, “Every man and every woman is a star”, and to act accordingly. There is no time left for hesitation.
The New Aeon is depending on its torch-bearers. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Now, let’s prove it with our lives.
Love is the law, love under will.