Downward Facing Blog

Exploring the connection between Thelema and Yoga

As long as I can remember I’ve been obsessed with religion, occult and mysticism. I’ve hung out with Hare Krishnas, Satanists, Christians, Occultists, and all manner of freaks with varying convictions. Before yoga totally had my full attention, my mystical exploration centered a great deal on the teachings of Aleister Crowley, and Thelema. Thelema is a religion for the individual, and teaches that within each human is a kind of superior dharma, a Supreme will that when realized, the greatest personal spiritual evolution and societal balance will come about.

Thelema came to be structured as a kind of secret initiatory fraternal order, similar to the Masons. The teachings of the order are summarized in their iconic maxim;

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law; love is the law- love under will“

Will is not the same as “willpower” or individual desire; it is a core of intelligence within each human, a divine nature.

The central goal of Thelema is to discover his or her True Will, which is the innermost nature or proper life course within. There are also strong political, ethical, and cultural aspects to Thelema. The primary themes in Thelema involve personal freedom, a recognition that men and women have an inherent divine nature, and that LOVE is the basis of this work.

Of course the central goal of Yoga is to merge with his or her highest inner nature; GOD.

The problem is, adherents to Thelema often confuse personal ego and “divine will”, which means mundane promptings get interpreted as revelation, and end up being assholes in the process; running over those who get in their way. I mishandled thelema myself it in the beginning, I remember a few circumstances where I could have had more social deference but had to do it my way, which rarely lead to the supreme cosmic result.

Despite his widespread influence, it doesn’t seem that Aleister Crowley reached the supreme cosmic result either; he died broke, addicted to cocaine and infected with syphillis. His close followers didn’t fare to well for the most part either.

However, Crowley was a fascinating genius who went to the most extreme far reaches to discover what the true will is, breaking all taboos in the process. To discover the higher will, he advocated the use of mainly magick, and would undertake arduous and dangerous magickal rituals, stopping at nothing in the interest of his spiritual illumination.

Crowley advocated two methods to discover your Divine Will: ritual magick and yoga. This part didn’t really register with me before, but now that I’ve delved as deep into yoga as I have, I enjoy revisiting my earlier pursuits in the light of of the development I’ve made practicing yoga.

The connection between these ideas is that your authority comes from the inside. We need clarity of the mind to hear the guidance from within. Of course to have clarity of mind, a clean, light body with clear energetic channels will bring the clearest results and the loudest signal.

Yoga is freedom; freedom from bodily constrictions, mental habits, and dogma. Inside of you is perfect intelligence, pure creative energy of God. Yoga is realizing this as your own identity; not the limited identity of having X amount of looks, money, ability, power, etc.

It’s all inside of you, unlimited sense of self. How to get there? Calm your mind’s patterns.

Meditate on this yoga sutra (I:3)

Tada drashtu svarupe avasthanam

“when the inner being is realized, the true Self (Divine Will) shines without obstruction”

Interesting parallel. I would welcome thelemites and yogis to help me hammer out parallels between Divine Will, and Brahman consciousness. Are they the same?

Love love! Adrian