Arguments against Thelema being a religion

(Revision as of 21:16, 14 Jun 2005)

In contemporary Thelemic culture, there are many Thelemites who do not consider Thelema to be a religion. Among them have developed several arguments against Thelema being a religion. This article lists some of the more common ones.

Crowley's views

If one refers to Crowley to answer the question 'Is Thelema a religion?", it is possible to say "both yes and no". In Magick without Tears, (Ch.XXXI) Crowley writes:

True, [religion is] a slogan of A.'.A.'.: "The method of science—the aim of religion." Here the word 'aim' and the context help the definition; it must mean the attainment of Knowledge and Power in spiritual matters [...] But then there is the sense in which Frazer (and I) often use the word: as in opposition to "Science" or "Magic." Here the point is that religious people attribute phenomena to the will of some postulated Being or Beings, placable and moveable by virtue of sacrifice, devotion, or appeal.

He has even more to say on religion in chapter VI:

It is particularly to be noted that Magick, so often mixed up in the popular idea of a religion, has nothing to do with it. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of religion; it is, even more than Physical Science, its irreconcilable enemy.

So, from the context of rellgion being that which opposes physical science, Crowley was strongly opposed to the label being applied to Thelema. He clearly defined the primary "method" of Thelema as magick (Magick without Tears):

Magick investigates the laws of Nature with the idea of making use of them. It only differs from 'profane' science by always keeping ahead of it. As Fraser has shown, Magick is science in the tentative stage; but it may be, and often is, more than this. It is science which, for one reason or another, cannot be declared to the profane.

Therefore, if the method of Thelema is magick, by definition Thelema cannot be a religion, since it would oppose itself.

At the same time, Crowley was somewhat arbitrary about the term. He continues:

... our system is a religion just so far as a religion means an enthusiastic putting-together of a series of doctrines, no one of which must in any way clash with Science or Magick.

Call it a new religion, then, if it so please your Gracious Majesty; but I confess that I fail to see what you will have gained by so doing, and I feel bound to add that you might easily cause a great deal of misunderstanding, and work a rather stupid kind of mischief.

For Crowley then, the term was optional, and perhaps damaging to Thelema. In this context, it can be argued that if the term is optional, then Thelema is not, by definition or default, a religion.

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