Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

As we write in Part I of the Introduction to Thelemic Qabalah:

The creature then attains to equivalence of form with the Creator and pursues the thought behind the Creator; rather than to consider the actions of creation.  In other words, the creature no longer views the events of his or her life as things happening to him or her.  But rather, the creature seeks the emanating Light that is a perfect and absolute love; summarized in the second half of the Thelemic mantra: Love is the law, love under will.  In this regard, the creature then seeks to be creative; the very sign that the Light is flowing through him or her.

The principle of ‘Equivalence of Form suggests one’s bonding with the attributes of the Creator; that as lesser gods, we also act in the same manner as the godhead.  And what we are actually doing is bonding with the root of our own soul, which is the spirit.  Through the creative process, we then complete the involutionary process by bonding with the interior force that is the creator within.  This creative process requires the discipline of the various internal egos to serve the overriding will that is love.  And we know that the Hebrew word for love (Aheba) is equivalent to the Hebrew word the describes God (Achad); both being equal to 13—by gematria.

And through creative production, we then complete the evolutionary process by bonding with the exterior forces and the creator without.  Our own growth raises the bar in nature as it serves the collective soul.  And interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for nature is 86 as is the name for the Hebrew god worshipped in nature, Elohim.  We then find here, an allusion to the two phases of the Adeptus Minor Grade in the A.’.A.’. –Adeptus Minor (within) and Adeptus Minor (without).  For more on this, we read in Magick in Theory & Practice:

The Grade of Adeptus Minor is the main theme of the instructions of the A.’. A.’. It is characterized by the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. (See the Equinox, “The Temple of Solomon the King;” “The Vision and the Voice” 8^th Aethyr; also “Liber Samekh”, etc. etc.) This is the essential work of every man; none other ranks with it either for personal progress or for power to help one’s fellows. This unachieved, man is no more than the unhappiest and blindest of animals. He is conscious of his own incomprehensible calamity, and clumsily incapable of repairing it. Achieved, he is no less than the co-heir of gods, a Lord of Light. He is conscious of his own consecrated course, and confidently ready to run it. The Adeptus Minor needs little help or guidance even from his superiors in our Order.
His work is to manifest the Beauty of the Order to the world, in the way that his superiors enjoin, and his genius dictates.
To attain the Grade Adeptus Major, he must accomplish two tasks; the equilibration of himself, especially as to his passions, so that he has no preference for any one course of conduct over another, and the fulfilment of every action by its complement, so that whatever he does leaves him without temptation to wander from the way of his True Will.
Secondly, he must keep silence, while he nails his body to the tree of his creative will, in the shape of that Will, leaving his head and arms to form the symbol of Light, as if to make oath that his every thought, word and deed should express the Light derived from the God with which he has identified his life, his love and his liberty — symbolized by his heart, his phallus, and his legs. It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel; for that is the particular secret of each one of us; as secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother’s God, or the Rite that invokes Him.

In order to establish a bond with the spirit within, one must apprehend the intention of the creative force of the godhead, which is to gain the experience of pastimes; they being the only way the infinite can become more than it already is.  It is this affirmation of desire that moves the godhead to manifestation as finite, individualized creatures and things.  In Thelema, this desire is symbolized by the goddess—BABALON.  And it is that Bhakti Yoga in her name that produces the identification and bonding with this force.  Per our quote of the Cindy Weinstein article in A Token of Babalon, she writes:

In the beginning, before there was force or form, when only the void existed and the void was filled with nothing there was only cause. Cause had not even potential. Cause owned nothing. Cause created nothing. Cause was roaming and motionless. Cause had a name and the name was secret. The secret was everywhere known and ineffable and growing.  The void became cause and the secret name became silence.

Prophecy can be defined as creative energy invested in spiritual pursuit.  Indeed, prophecy is inaugurated by the contemplation of the Spirit.  And for that matter, knowledge of the thought or intent of the creator (Gnosis) is the only true pleasure that exists.  This is why she, who is “all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense” (cf. AL:I.61) bids us to “arouse the coiled splendour within” or in other words, to contemplate the Spirit within that we might come to identify with the intent of the creator and be creative.  There is no greater wisdom than this…no greater Magick!

Nuit then becomes an important Thelemic symbol that involves the contemplation of the Spirit within and without; especially due to her claim in Liber AL that she is “the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.” (cf. AL:I.64)  Indeed, as would be expected of this Spirit that parses itself into individuated and finite consciousness, Nuit states in AL:I.13—“ I am above you and in you.  My ecstasy is in yours.  My joy is to  see your joy.”  This is the Spirit within and without.

Humanity must cling to the thought of the creator (cf. commentaries to various Gnostic codices at: http://www.gclvx.org/?p=874) as this is the only true point of Liberty.  To do this, every thought, perceived phenomenon and event in one’s life must be regarded (re: the Oath of the Abyss) as “a particular dealing of God with [one’s] soul.”  Indeed, all our egoism moves us in this direction as the function of the ego is to move us toward pleasure and away from pain.  Yet, our fractured egos really don’t know how to do this without the unifying guidance of that most important of Thelemic symbols: the Knowledge of Conversation of Thine Holy Guardian Angel.  Of this, Crowley writes eloquently; though somewhat cryptically:

Let me declare this Work under this title: ‘The obtaining of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel’”, because the theory implied in these words is so patently absurd that only simpletons would waste much time in analysing it. It would be accepted as a convention, and no one would incur the grave danger of building a philosophical system upon it.

Liberty is the most powerful force in the Universe; the pure expression of Will being the instinctive purvey of that which (Thelemic symbol) we call the Beast and upon which Babalon rides; she being the object of love and desire.  The problem is that in order to obtain liberation from ignorance, we must come to realize that all the tiny egos within us have been fooled; each thinking they are alone, absolute in the same way that all the egotists in our society think that their opinions are absolutely the truth.

As is stated in Liber AL:I.41 – :  “The word of Sin is Restriction.  O man! Refuse not thy wife, if she will!  O lover, if thou wilt, depart!  There is no bond that can unite the divided but love:  all else is a curse.  Accursed!  Accursed be it to the aeons!  Hell.”

The creator does not change, but is eternal and hence, one’s actions doesn’t change one’s relationship with the divine; though we live in a world where change is a constant.  We are bid then to “deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other.” (cf. AL:II.58)  Rather, it is incumbent upon every generation to establish its own relationship  with the divine and to produce its own prophecy.  There are no prayers that can appeal to the creator; no magickal formulae that can appeal to and/or bribe the creator or the creative force.  This is an act of superstition, and a very ancient superstition that Thelemites must come to see for themselves.

Effective prayer is self-judgment or self-analysis so that a person might align him or herself with this creative force in order to practice that most ancient Hermetic virtue: Know thyself.  We accomplish prayer by seeking ways to chage our awareness so that we can attain Gnosis through a process the ancient Gnostics called the ‘dialogue with the Savior’ and that we can call the Gnostic Dialogue; expressed beautifully in the Thelemic canon in Liber Cordis Cincte Serpente (Liber LXV).

Love is the law, love under will.