On the Nature of Masters A Polemic

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

Have you ever looked around at the leaders of various groups, listened to their various claims of attainment, looked at the chaos of their lives, the turmoil and pain of their mortal coils, and wondered how they ever made it to Tiphareth, much less made it across the desert of illusions? Do you ever wonder why someone with such high spiritual understanding could have such a miserable mortal existence? How is it that these men and women who have spent so much time in spiritual and magical contemplation could be so vulnerable to irritations of the physical, emotional, and mental faculties?

Does it follow, though, that spiritual attainment means a lack of vulnerability in other aspects of life? We know that the crossing of the desert to the City of the Pyramids results, eventually, in a new star that is “cast forth in the Heavens to enlighten the Earth, so that he may possess a vehicle wherein he may communicate with mankind.”¹Crowley, Aleister, Mary Desti, and Leila Waddell. 1997. Magick: Liber ABA. Edited by Hymenaeus Beta. Weiser Books, 490–491. Absolutely nothing in that statement says anything about the divine qualities of physical, emotional, or mental endurance. That we have created myths around the attainments of individuals who have traversed spiritual heights is something of a grotesque worship in the negative.

Masters of the Temple—and indeed the Magi themselves—are not Gods. They are human with unique perspectives on life, the universe, and everything.²Thanks, Douglas Adams! Conversely, rather than honouring these attainments as previous religions have honoured their spiritual leaders (or eventually have), Thelemites have ridiculed theirs. K–S— says those who talk don’t do. Yet the very nature of the Adept cast forth in the Heavens is in order to “communicate with mankind.”³Crowley, Magick: Liber ABA, 491. (The irony is particularly amusing.) Rather than listen carefully and critically, Thelemites tear at the very sinews of attainment itself, proclaiming that anyone can do it … so long as it isn’t the one who says they have done it. Rather than learn variations of this path of attainment,⁴Crowley, Magick: Liber ABA, 490. [“Members of the Order are each entitled to found Orders dependent on themselves on the lines of the R. C. and G. D. orders, to cover types of emancipation and illumination not contemplated by the original (or main) system. All such orders must, however, be constituted in harmony with the A∴A∴ as regards the essential principles.”] picking from the fruit of the Tree of Life, Thelemites tear at the limbs and reach longingly for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil while denying that either exists.

I regularly observe conservative pundits on the internet dissecting leaders of various fraternal Orders, and while some of their barbs sting with a certain truth, it is their lack of focus on subjects that matter to the world at large that sets them apart as carnivores of the soul. Quoting philosophers and addicts with voices that pander to their prejudices is all well and good, but there is no relationship back to the Law. All their talk is about the temporal forms of this Order or that hierarchy, all the while posturing about questioning authority under the pretence of propping up their own authoritative notions of a superior interpretation of Thelema that bears no resemblance to that of the Prophet.

While I’m not impressed by blogs—even the fact that I’m writing this on a blog is no sign of profundity—or advancement reports for various fraternities, watching these half-wits is like watching teenagers pissing in the kiddie pool and then snickering when the toddlers don’t understand the joke as they suck in water and don’t spit it back out. I keep waiting to see an astute rebuttal to anything they despise that is more substantial than silly, profanity-laced invectives. I keep waiting. Except that shaming is their goal rather than conversation or understanding or even true corrective intent. They prove nothing more than they can swing a stick on a playground of their own making, but they lack the sophistication to participate in anything beyond the fence they’ve built around themselves. That’s enlightened. (Not!)

Of course, if they believe—in blind, malicious faith—that someone’s progress from one arbitrary point to yet another arbitrary point in a fraternity endows them with a privilege of opinion that is worthy of some higher calling than that of another, I’m certain we’re all for it; but the opinion of a foul-mouthed, illiterate, working class fry cook like R–A–M—claiming to be an Adept would be the least of Crowley’s interests and more likely in his scorn—at least by the standards of K–S—, who propped him up every chance he could get because R–A–M— was just easy prey, and just as easily manipulated into being the rabid attack dog they needed him to be. Though that said, those who claim K–S— is “greatly influential” must have a different dictionary than the rest of the world. His subset of Conservative readers is smaller than the rest who can read Crowley and walk away with a view different from his. That he believes himself correct and merely waves his hand to dismiss those who disagree with him as “part of the lumpen class” is the only thing that sets him apart. He couldn’t reach past the middle class if someone handed him a rope and climbing boots. He would only hang himself in the process.

These aren’t Masters. These aren’t Adepts. These are morons mooning each other outside in the temple playground. They are conflicted enough that any amount of their own logic applied to themselves would eat them alive and leave nothing left. Maybe that would be for the best.

What is it that sets apart Masters of the Temple, indeed, even those who attain to the state of Adept? Clarity of Thought, Temperament of Word, and Elocution of Spirit; these are the three qualities, in varying degrees, that set apart those who can see dispassionately through the masque of Nature’s sordid atrocities, whether that be influenza or genocide or merely a broken affair of the heart.⁵I wrote in a footnote elsewhere, ironically referencing K–S— as well: “[Many should] brush up on their occult literature as to what exactly the Masters of the Temple are like. They remind me of that quote from the movie The Prophecy (1995) about angels: ‘Did you ever notice how in the Bible, whenever God needed to punish someone, or make an example, or whenever God needed a killing, he sent an angel? Did you ever wonder what a creature like that must be like? A whole existence spent praising your God, but always with one wing dipped in blood. Would you ever really want to see an angel?’ Once you really grasp the concept of the Master of the Temple, would you ever really want to meet one? Can you imagine how not human they would seem to most people in this milieu, especially right now? Just by definition, they make K–S— seem like a homeless Salvation Army Christmas bell ringer.” That said, mortal men and women will remain mortal despite any spiritual attainment less than absorption into the infinite. A stubbed toe will hurt no less the Master than the Neophyte. The difference is not in how they cuss but in how they interpret that phenomenon as a particular dealing of “God” with their soul.

If there is one thing more than all else that sets apart the Masters and Adepts from those who are merely poseurs, it is the sharpness with which their elucidation on any subject—whether spoken or written—cuts through the most turgid confusion. It may be a sentence, or it may be a lecture, but it never fails to enlighten the smallest point to exceeding clarity. When you ask them a question, there is no superiority complex at work that delights in trickery and badgering of those it believes are inferior. There is no wafting stink of the feigned politics and false humility that accompanies those bloated airbags that cannot get enough of the sound of their own voice. It isn’t their personal lives that suddenly become golden or their bank accounts that overflow. They didn’t suddenly stop having to bathe or brush their teeth. Life, as a human being, continued on like the rest of us.

These Masters and Adepts, instead, move with a sense of authority that is not coerced or commanded but resonates on a level that comes to encounter the lowest and the highest among us with equal measure of wisdom and fraternity. They make no difference between Minerval and King. Listen well to their wisdom. Cultivate well their fraternity. These are the voices of a furious love, of a gentle violence of the soul, of a star that has been thrown back across the abyss to enlighten humanity, whether in a global conflagration or through a still, small voice in the rain.

Now, may we go out into the world of joys and sorrows, listening for the voice of our Angel, and to pursue the Great Work among the comfort and peace of our fellow Stars.

Love is the law, love under will.