A New Aeon Ecclesiastic Rebuilding Trust in Leadership

I want to make a couple of sweeping statements. They aren’t precisely correct, but they are correct enough to get us headed in the right direction. However, I want to lay down a foundation for what the continuity and claim of the administration of authority within a community looks like before I proceed. I’m using Western, Christian forms here for simplicity since most people are familiar with them and there is at least a genetic connection to Thelema at some level that allows for this discussion to move forward.

The nominal Catholic form of the priesthood is sacramental and mediatory, grounded in apostolic succession and the sacramental character of Holy Orders. The authority of a priest or bishop is not their own, but transmitted through an allegedly unbroken chain from Christ to the Apostles to the present hierarchy. This magisterial shepherding of the flock is primarily, though not exclusively, known through its institutional model of the Church, as outlined in Pope Paul VI’s Lumen Gentium: The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,¹One can find the full text of the Lumen Gentium here. issued in 1964.

In contrast, the Protestant doctrine of the “priesthood of the believer(s)” democratizes spiritual authority, insisting that every individual has direct access to God without the necessity of an ordained mediator. Here, the priesthood is not abolished but universalized—each believer is their own priest, responsible for the discernment of scripture, prayer, and moral conscience. Nietzsche would be so proud. The herd is dead. (Long live the herd!) However, the formal ordination of a minister is more an affirmation by a community that an individual has achieved a recognized level of competency in education and leadership quality, thereby being qualified to shepherd the flock of God. Yet the dangers of Protestantism and its free-for-all radicalism is a topic for another time.

Of course, both of these proposals, even in these generically imprecise forms, assume there is some kind of Great Spaghetti Monster in the sky that needs a priesthood in the first place.

But I get it. Some people are still stuck on the idea that there is a dominator hierarchy that has to be preserved for the universe to spin around on an imaginary axis, or it will implode the moment we deny “The Gods™” their due acknowledgements.²For a clear understanding of the emergent developmental levels involved, Wikipedia offers a helpful breakdown. The levels I tend to ridicule, as I have here, are Purple/Magenta, Red, and the early stages of Blue/Amber. Thelema appears to have emerged as at least a Yellow/Teal, if not a Turquoise, level of human existence. If not the latter entirely, then moving in that direction before the end of the aeon. But, I mean, there are still some people out there proclaiming Flat Earth ideas too. We’ll just have to deal with the crazies and move on.

What does this have to do with leadership? Great question.

Thelema brought about new ideas. Of course, the current mode of thought in many Thelemic communities is that life is some kind of Thunderdome free-for-all and that leadership is dead.

Granted, this approach has to willfully ignore all the direct instructions in the Book of the Law, like (my favorite—you read sarcasm, right?) “Obey my prophet!” [AL 1.32a], and others such as, “They shall gather my children into their fold” [AL 1.15c], “He must teach” [AL 1.38a], and “Ye shall see [Kings] at rule, at victorious armies [AL 2.24j–k] and even “Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way” [AL 3.41]. All of this is leadership material right out of the box that defies the radical notions of frustrated individualism foisted upon modern Thelema by the middle-class management material who revived the 1970s O.T.O.

And to be clear: there is a distinct difference between leadership and management.

A New Proposal

One of my favorite movies is The Prophecy (1995). There is a scene between two angels that strikes me every time:

Gabriel: No one hears the Word anymore. No one!
Simon: Without the Word—
Gabriel: There’s only the argument.

It reminds me often of many Thelemic communities I’ve visited over the last 30-plus years where conversations drag on about anything except meaningful engagement with life itself and the Word [of the Law: Thelema]. There’s only the argument left, the repetitive discussion of minutiae and insignificant elements of cosplay that weigh down conversations from ever reaching beyond the tit-for-tat of obscure occult trivia acquisition.

It continues today on esoteric social media where 90% of essays and articles are about irrelevant rehashing of archaic notions that are well past their prime or comic book advertisement level nonsense trying to sell ESP and UFO escapism to the gullible.

Yawn.

We have such bigger fish to fry in this world and these are distractions by those who have nothing else to offer. They have no practical advice, no solutions, no game plan, nothing to rally behind. They are impotent and The Occult™ is all they have as a brand rather than any kind of motivation to change the world.

Magick has become performative. Fraternity has become a spectator pay-for-view. Occultism has become the focus, and even that is little more than a novelty for collectors, biographers, and the stray academic here or there. Thelema remains in the hands of those who make videos for clicks. For all the ideas, the best anyone can do is recycle Victorian models of masonry or attempt to recreate the Catholic church.

What the 1960s, 70s, and 80s did for occultism was suggest that anyone with a handmade “renn faire” cloak and a Chaos Star necklace could declare themselves a spiritual leader, and no one could disabuse them otherwise or be shouted down as an elitist snob, a fascist bigot, or an out-of-touch gatekeeper.

I’d like to propose something more than an idea and less than a plan—but at least something along the lines of an expectation.

And so, before we dive into the broad strokes of a curriculum, let us first acknowledge what undergirds any leadership program: a shared expectation of rigor, integrity, and vision. I’m not merely sketching out another checklist. I’m proposing a covenant with community itself—one that demands we stop treating leadership as a cosplay hobby and start forging those who would guide our communities in the furnace of discipline and lived practice. Only once we’ve raised that bar together can we speak of leadership without wincing.

And I refuse to apologize for suggesting that we raise the bar—really, really high for those we call “leaders” in our communities.³For the purposes of this essay, I’m going to use the terms ecclesiast and ecclesiastic and leader and leadership in rotation to keep things from being too redundant while also keeping things fairly generic and from offending those who feel priest, minister, cleric, and other similar terms are too Christian in nature for Thelema. I don’t personally have a problem with the latter. The Book of the Law uses the word priest (and even priestess) multiple times, and I think it’s perfectly acceptable, but I understand the objections of many.

This is where you call me a snob. Go ahead. I can take it.

A Program for Thelemic Leadership

Ideally, before anyone sets out to lead a community, let alone assumes the role of leadership, they ought to be run through a gauntlet of study that, paradoxically, has little to do with theology or community leadership at first glance.

Before one begins pontificating on gods or mysteries, before they take up any mantle of spiritual or pragmatic leadership in Thelema or otherwise, they should submit themselves to a long road of intellectual and ethical discipline—a training ground for clarity of mind, depth of soul, and strength of Will.

These are in no particular order, only as they came to mind, and, quite frankly, each of these could probably use an essay in explanation for what they need for a course of study.

Grammar & Language

No one should open their mouth on the mysteries without command over their native tongue, at least one other modern language, and a working knowledge of the basics of sacred language—Greek and Latin, for starters, and Hebrew, if you can. That just gets you in the door of understanding the basics of Western theology and philosophy on the whole. Thelema is a religion of the Word, and the word must be sharp.

And when it comes to Thelema, English—because of the “original language of the Book of the Law”—is paramount. I cannot stress this enough knowing, as I do, that the English language is a bitch to learn for those not native to its craziness.

Add to this the study of logic and rhetoric—not the dead dialectic of pedants, but the living fire of poetry and speech. A Thelemic ecclesiast must be both a reader of signs and a maker of them: one who discerns truth and wields it with eloquence and precision.

Ethics

No community leader who adheres to Do what thou wilt can afford to be shallow in matters of right and wrong. Ethics, not as a moralistic posture, but as a deep inner inquiry: What is good? What is just? What does it mean to act from Will rather than impulse or convenience? This isn’t about memorizing tenets—it’s about grinding your soul against the whetstone of multiple ethical systems until your own code is forged, tested, and conscious. Integrity must be chosen, not inherited.

When it comes to leadership, it also means ensuring the well-being of a group of people as a whole and the effective functioning of an organized body. This requires being able to look at the larger picture and making hard decisions for the common wealth of those around you.

Art & Culture

Leadership in the New Aeon must know beauty, not just the austere beauty of temples and symphonies, but the raw, ecstatic beauty of graffiti, laughter, fashion, dance, pop songs, memes, and dreams. It does not sneer at culture, but celebrates the divine in it. A well-grounded ecclesiast should have the soul of an artist, the eye of a critic, and the humility to know that the spiritual can reveal itself as easily in a comic strip as in a cathedral.

History & Comparative Religion

In Thelema, a leader inherits not a single tradition but the burden—and the glory—of the whole human spiritual endeavor. They should know the myths, rites, wars, and revelations of the past, not to regurgitate them, but to stand atop their ruins and build anew. Know the ancient initiations. Know the saints and the heretics. Know how every priesthood before them rose, ruled, and rotted. And understand the world’s living faiths, not to debate them, but to honor the myriad reflections of Truth in them.

Physical Science

There is no room in Thelema for leaders who fear knowledge. The stars are not mere symbols. They are suns. The world is not flat, nor six thousand years old, nor ruled by superstition. Our leaders must not only tolerate science but embrace it: cosmology, biology, climate, neuroscience. You don’t have to be a physicist, but you damn well ought to know what the physicists are saying. Will is not ignorant; it is awakened.

Psychology, Sociology, & Politics

To serve the Law of Thelema, one must understand both the psyche and the polis. Know how the mind works—its traumas, illusions, and glories. Know how people move in masses, how systems rise and fall, and how power flows through institutions. If you are to speak to the individual Star, you must know the gravity of the social systems that shape it. A leader ignorant of politics or psychology is a shepherd ignorant of wolves.

Scripture, Philosophy, & Theology

I know I said these were in no particular order, but only now—only now—may you begin to study the holy books. In Thelema, our canon is slim and dangerous, and our theology refuses to be boxed in. But whether it be Liber AL, the Tao Te Ching, the Gospel of Thomas, or the dialogues of Plato, these must be approached not as authorities but as gates of wisdom. However, the Law of Thelema requires speculative courage and reverent irreverence. It requires a broad understanding of world religion and philosophy, not to tame the divine, but to wrestle with it.

Each of these domains—language and logic, ethics, art and culture, history, the sciences, social theory, and sacred texts—serves as both hammer and anvil in the forging of an ecclesiastical endeavor. Taken as a whole, they form a crucible in which character is tested, insight is tempered, and the capacity to serve is refined.

Sound like too much? Probably. But if you’re going to preach the Law to the world—if you’re going to expound the Law to me and mine—if you’re going to bless our unions, guide our dead, and bear witness to our lives—then I want three things from you:

• I want you to be a person of character and consequence.
• I want you to be merciful, just, and fierce in love.
• And I want you to know something—or at least know where your limits are, and cede the floor when wiser voices speak.

No school grants that level of acumen for our people. No certificate confers authority—nor should it. And yet we need more: more paths of study and initiation, more unorthodox training grounds, and more open fields where scholar-practitioners can be encouraged and wisdom cultivated.

As an aside, you’ll see that these come close to the same cultural areas that I’ll approach in an upcoming essay on tackling Thelema in society.

But Wait! There’s More!

Oh, you sweet summer child. You thought that just reading some books and a little homework was enough?

That just gets your foot in the door. That’s just enough to ensure you’re serious.

Thelema is not a cloistered path. It is the Law of the strong, the free, the radiant—meant to be lived in the wide world, not merely meditated upon in temple shadows. So if you would seek a role of priesthood or leadership, here are three forms of practical experience I would recommend to supplement the above course of study. I’m sure you can come up with others, but these are three I like.

Service in the Greater Community

I remain of the firm opinion that a leader in a Thelemic community has to be engaged in the community itself. And I don’t mean just the immediate company of stars, but in the larger community outside our own. Volunteer somewhere that puts you in contact with human struggle and human beauty alike: shelters, hospitals, mutual aid networks, libraries, schools, conservation projects. Learn to deal with real people and real lives. You cannot preach “Every man and every woman is a star” if you’ve never been among the downtrodden and the joyful alike, and if you do not know what service looks like in the world. I wrote last year,

… until you have served in a soup kitchen line, don’t tell me about Kings and beggars or the nature of Will in the real world. The Book of the Law doesn’t say “Some men and some women are stars.” It says “Every man and every woman is a star.”

I meant it.

Real-World Engagement with Difference

Thelema is a global current. If your experience is limited to a closed circle of like-minded friends, you are no leader—you are a hobbyist. You must seek real-world engagement with those who are different from you in culture, race, class, faith, or worldview. This isn’t about diversity box-checking; it is about knowing how to move through the world without arrogance, knowing how to listen, and knowing when to lead and when to learn. A leader who cannot move among many kinds of people cannot serve Thelema, which is for all stars in the company of heaven.

Experience in Organizing and Leading Groups

It is not enough to grab some faux-aristocratic titles, wave your hands, and get a charter for a group. If you would lead, you must know how to organize human beings toward a shared purpose. That means running actual classes, circles, study groups, ritual gatherings, community projects. Learn the mechanics: recruitment, scheduling, conflict management, fostering cohesion, and above all, sustaining momentum over time (and when to let go for the next person to take over). Too many would-be leaders can pontificate but cannot organize. If you can’t hold a room, you’re not ready to hold a temple.

That’s the beginning of praxis. Books alone make scholars. Thelema needs actual leaders, not managers.

Finally, you must create. Birth something into the world that wasn’t there before—write, paint, teach, sing, organize—something that contributes to the culture of Thelema in the wider world. Not every leader is an artist by trade, but all must know the act of creation. Thelema is a current of Becoming, not of rote repetition. Your leadership should be part of the inspiration for others to create around you.

With both the core material and the practical experience combined, I think leadership within a Thelemic community would be elevated. I think we deserve that much.

Love is the law, love under will.

Note: The image credit for the “social preview” picture is from Logos373. It is from the set of pictures of their incredibly beautiful priest robe design.