Book of Law Study Group 1.3

Grigori

On of the most famous lines from the BoL, and known even in pop culture, to people with no idea of who Crowley was. While looking at references to this line, I found it linked to the following quote, made famous by Nelson Mandela.

Marianne Williamson said:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Though its not saying the exact same thing as I understand Crowley as saying, this does seem to be one of the ways this line is often interpreted.
 

thorhammer

The way I see it, that "pop culture" way of seeing the line does have some bearing on its meaning in the context of the discussion we're having in this Study Group. It's just that telling oneself that you're your own God/dess is all very well and good, but what does it mean??

The interpretation is correctish . . . as far as it goes. But once a person has decided to go about life believing that they are the supreme divine force in their own particular version of the Universe, what next? Without the context and that Great Work that was mentioned often in the 1.2 thread, there is no guidance or direction. There seems to be no point, even.

\m/ Kat
 

Yygdrasilian

Avalon

Strange Loop (3) Every man & woman is a Star

I’m understanding this as a shape warping in upon itself:
a torus ring in the proportion of an apple
- its central column as the world tree: ( ) axis mundi ( )
How ever far up or down the Tree you go, one always returns to where I began.

Speaking of verities, our words taste more like a menu than the meal.
And, when the main coarse turns logical parameters inside-out, without-within, above-below, then a mytho-poetic approach is far better equipped at communicating its paradoxes...

So, this Apple of the World Tree is a Star whose Eye is open.
 

Abrac

By 'star' Crowley means Khabs.

"This 'star' or 'Inmost Light' is the original, individual, eternal essence." -New Comment 1.8

Every man and woman is an individual with their own light.
 

Grigori

thorhammer said:
The interpretation is correctish . . . as far as it goes. But once a person has decided to go about life believing that they are the supreme divine force in their own particular version of the Universe, what next? Without the context and that Great Work that was mentioned often in the 1.2 thread, there is no guidance or direction. There seems to be no point, even.

Yes I think that is the difference too. What Crowley advocates is to learn to communicate with the HGA, and allow the HGA to lead you, be your guiding light.

The pop culture version seems to apply the same basic philosophy of the importance of the individual, but everything is under the guidance of the individual ego as an intellectual decision, and not guided from the perspective of the HGA.

Unless of course "We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us" is read as the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
 

Aeon418

thorhammer said:
The interpretation is correctish . . . as far as it goes. But once a person has decided to go about life believing that they are the supreme divine force in their own particular version of the Universe, what next?
Where does belief come into it? If you try to view Thelema as a faith or a belief system it becomes little better than any other belief system out there. The main emphasis within Thelema is direct experience and action. Doing not believeing.

In it's initial stages, consciously accepting that your central self is divine takes a bit of work. You can't just sit back and have faith that it's going to work. It's a conscious effort. But as time goes by it begins to change your outlook on life. And not just your own life. You can't claim divinity for yourself alone. How you relate to other people and world around you begins to change. Maybe in slow and subtle ways at first, but as the hard shell of your own ego begins to crack the light within begins to shine through. At first it may only manifest as brief moments of insight and clarity, flashes of direct realisation. But, as time goes by, it begins to manifest more and more.
thorhammer said:
Without the context and that Great Work that was mentioned often in the 1.2 thread, there is no guidance or direction. There seems to be no point, even.
But everyone is involved in the Great Work. But for most people it's not a conscious involvement. Their souls have yet to be brought to that particular stage of inner "ripeness", that prompts the individual to go looking for their own answers. It's at that stage that the "truths" of conventional religion cease to satisfy. But not everyone is at that point, yet. For some belief and faith still satisfy and provide answers. But the message behind the Aeon of Horus is that increasing numbers of people will reach inner ripeness and begin to look within to their own Star for answers.

It's time to take the training wheels of religion off the bicycle and ride it on your own. Where you ride to is up to you now. ;)
 

Aeon418

ONE STAR IN SIGHT
by Aleister Crowley


Thy feet in mire, thine head in murk,
O man, how piteous thy plight,
The doubts that daunt, the ills that irk,
Thou hast nor wit nor will to fight —
How hope in heart, or worth in work?
No star in sight!

Thy Gods proved puppets of the priest.
"Truth? All's relation!" science sighed.
In bondage with thy brother beast,
Love tortured thee, as Love's hope died
And Love's faith rotted. Life no least
Dim star descried.

Thy cringing carrion cowered and crawled
To find itself a chance-cast clod
Whose Pain was purposeless; appalled
That aimless accident thus trod
Its agony, that void skies sprawled
On the vain sod!

All souls eternally exist,
Each individual, ultimate
Perfect - each makes itself a mist
Of mind and flesh to celebrate
With some twin mask their tender tryst
Insatiate.

Some drunkards, doting on the dream,
Despair that it should die, mistake
Themselves for their own shadow-scheme.
One star can summon them to wake
To self; star-souls serene that gleam
On life's calm lake.

That shall end never that began.
All things endure because they are.
Do what thou wilt, for every man
And every woman is a star.
Pan is not dead; he liveth, Pan!
Break down the bar!

To man I come, the number of
A man my number, Lion of Light;
I am The Beast whose Law is Love.
Love under will, his royal right —
Behold within, and not above,
One star in sight!
 

thorhammer

Aeon418 said:
Where does belief come into it? If you try to view Thelema as a faith or a belief system it becomes little better than any other belief system out there. The main emphasis within Thelema is direct experience and action. Doing not believeing.
I didn't say that I viewed Thelema as you state - I implied (perhaps too indirectly, for which I apologise) that people in general, upon hearing the maxim "every man and woman is a star" infer that it gives them the right to believe in themselves as their own God/dess. I didn't mention Thelema, because most of the time this line from the BoL is taken out of context. The first time I read the line, I had no idea who Uncle Al was, much less what Thelema or even the BoL was.

My post did not refer to my "beliefs" or point of view (of Thelema). I was contributing my understanding of the pop culture approach to this line.

\m/ Kat