#iao131

Dr. David Hill on 2nd Century Thelema

Introduction

How does recovery from alcohol or other addictions work in a Thelemic context?

At one point, I worked as a counselor in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center that functioned based on the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Many different people, including Thelemites, often balk at the aspects of the 12 Steps that involve giving up one’s power and/or the “God stuff”. In the process of working in this setting, I came up with a “Thelemic version” of the 12 Steps.

This is not offered as medical advice, nor is it offered as a perfect system. It is merely offered for contemplation, and especially for any who are in the process of recovery and might find this helpful.

Step 1

I found that following out the desires, wishes, and whims of my conscious self (ego) left me living a life with diminished purpose, less meaning, less fulfillment, and/or lack of wholeness.

Step 2

I came to realize that there is a source of greater wisdom and power than my ego, the True Will, that can bring my life to a place of increased purpose, meaning, fulfillment, and wholeness.

Step 3

I made a conscious and resolute decision to seek to progressively and more completely know and accomplish this True Will as I understand it.

Step 4

I made a searching and fearless inventory of my environment, of others, and especially of myself to find the ways this True Will is being both aided and inhibited in various ways.

Step 5

I honestly explained the exact nature of these aids and inhibitions of my True Will to myself, to my deeper Self with its True Will, and to another human being.

Step 6

I became entirely ready and earnestly committed myself to rooting out all these inhibitions and strengthening all these aids to the accomplishment of my True Will.

Step 7

I humbly asked my deeper Self, in whatever ways seemed genuine and earnest to me, to aid me in the rooting-out of inhibitions and strengthening of aids to the accomplishment of my True Will.

Step 8

I made a list of all persons I had harmed with my previous ways and all persons that I felt had harmed me in the past, and I became willing to make amends to those I had harmed and to forgive those who had harmed me.

Step 9

I directly made amends and gave forgiveness to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure myself, them, or anyone else.

Step 10

I continued to take an inventory of the ways in which my environment, others, and especially myself inhibit and aid the accomplishment of my True Will, and I promptly admitted to myself (and others when appropriate) when I was acting out of selfish desires, wishes, and whims of the ego rather than a desire to more fully know and actualize my True Will.

Step 11

I sought through meditation, ritual, prayer, and other means I found suitable to improve my conscious contact with my True Will as I understood it, asking only for knowledge of this True Will and the power to carry it out.

Step 12

Having progressively come through various struggles and awakenings to re-align myself from self-will to True Will, I tried to carry this message to others I found struggling, and to practice these principles in all of my affairs/in all parts of my life.

Thelema philosophy is tailor made for the liberal, open-minded, culture of the USA.

I stumbled across an excellent Thelema themed tumblr page:

IAO131.tumblr.com/

I slightly altered the above image to embed proper credit to Frater IAO131 for this wonderful image. 

...specifically through social media outlets [...] The basic argument against doing this is that promulgating on Facebook “dumbs down” the Law by just using a single quotation or image.

However, consider the following written by Frater IAO131:

Aleister Crowley wrote to Grady McMurtry (Hymenaeus Alpha) in August of 1945: “It is necessary to broaden the scope of presentation of the Law of Thelema so that people of all types may be able to appreciate that particular part which they can understand. In this manner the thought processes of the majority will be so directed that all those who can Understand the Law will be given the opportunity to do so while at the same time providing a guide for those whose Understanding is incomplete.”

“The Law is for all” after all, and I say: If we truly believe that Thelema is the Law of Liberty – the Key to our evolution as individuals and a species – we should give as many people as possible the “chance to abide in this bliss or no.”