116-464: A pentacle (also spelled and pronounced as pantacle in Thelema , following Aleister Crowley , though that spelling ultimately derived from Éliphas Lévi ) is a talisman that is used in magical evocation , and is usually made of parchment , paper, cloth, or metal (although it can be of other materials), upon which a magical design is drawn. Symbols may also be included (sometimes on the reverse),
232-667: A pentagram in their design. This form of pentacle is formed upon a disk which may be used either upon an altar or as a sacred space of its own. The first documents to depict pentacles were the 16th-century grimoires called the Heptameron by pseudo-Pietro d'Abano , and the Key of Solomon . In the Heptaméron , there is only one pentacle, whereas in the Key of Solomon , there are dozens of different pentacles. The Heptameron 's pentacle
348-574: A " point-event " and all individual point-events within the body of Nuit. Hadit is said, in The Book of the Law , to be "perfect, being Not." Additionally, it is written of Nuit in Liber AL bel Legis that "men speak not of Thee [Nuit] as One but as None." The third deity of Thelemic theology is Ra-Hoor-Khuit , a manifestation of the ancient Egyptian deity Horus . He is symbolized as a throned man with
464-591: A 'k' to distinguish it from stage magic. He recommended magick as a means for discovering the True Will . Generally, magical practices in Thelema are designed to assist in finding and manifesting the True Will, although some include celebratory aspects as well. Crowley believed that after discovering the True Will, the magician must also remove any elements of himself that stand in the way of its success. Crowley
580-697: A 'pentacle' refers to a 'pentagram' circumscribed by a circle . The word is first recorded in English usage in 1561, from earlier French use. The French word had the meaning of "talisman". The French word is in turn from the Latinized word 'pentaculum' (using the Latin diminutive suffix -culum ), which is in turn from the Italian word 'pentacolo'. The Oxford English Dictionary in earlier editions (2nd edition 1989) went on to say that "some would connect it" with
696-492: A Thelemite is anyone who bases their actions on striving to discover and accomplish their true will, when a person does their True Will, it is like an orbit, their niche in the universal order, and the universe assists them: But the Magician knows that the pure Will of every man and every woman is already in perfect harmony with the divine Will; in fact, they are one and the same. For the individual to follow their True Will,
812-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
928-598: A common one being the six-point form of the Seal of Solomon . Pentacles may be sewn to the chest of one's garment, or may be flat objects that hang from one's neck or are placed flat upon the ground or altar. Pentacles are almost always shaped as disks or flat circles. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , though, a pentacle is placed within the triangle of evocation. Many varieties of pentacle can be found in
1044-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
1160-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
1276-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
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#17327726252571392-645: A genuine Catholic Mass, even if he saw it himself and even if the underground version followed its public model precisely. Aleister Crowley's system of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law , which bears the official name Liber AL vel Legis . It was written in Cairo, Egypt , during his honeymoon with his new wife Rose Crowley ( née Kelly ). A small book, Liber AL vel Legis , contains just three chapters, each of which Crowley said he had written in exactly one hour—beginning at noon on April 8, April 9, and April 10, 1904, respectively. Crowley also maintained that
1508-429: A great variety of shapes and images appear in the old magical grimoires , such as the Key of Solomon ; as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa summarises it, their use was to "fore-know all future things, & command whole nature, have power over devils, and Angels, and do miracles." Agrippa attributes Moses ' feats of magic in part to his knowledge of various pentacles. A Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy (c. 1565), which
1624-428: A practice Crowley also applied in his informal written correspondences. The two primary terms in these statements are 'will' and 'love', respectively. Using the Greek technique of isopsephy , which applies a numerical value to each letter, the letters of words thelema ('will') and agape ('love') each sum to 93: In this way, the first phrase is abbreviated to "93" while the second is abbreviated to "93 93/93", with
1740-552: A ritual for the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel ; eucharistic rituals such as The Gnostic Mass and The Mass of the Phoenix ; and Liber Resh , consisting of four daily adorations to the sun. He also discussed sex magick and sexual gnosis in various forms involving masturbation and sexual intercourse between heterosexual and homosexual partners; practices which are among his suggestions for those in
1856-648: A similar instruction: "Love, and what you will, do." ( Dilige et quod vis fac ). In the Renaissance , a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican friar and writer Francesco Colonna . The protagonist Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic. Colonna's work
1972-523: A symbol to represent the Universe", and engrave this on the disc. There is, therefore, nothing movable or immovable under the whole firmament of heaven which is not included in this pantacle, though it be but "eight inches in diameter, and in thickness half an inch." Fire is not matter at all; water is a combination of elements; air almost entirely a mixture of elements; earth contains all both in admixture and in combination. So must it be with this Pantacle,
2088-401: A third statement: "Every man and every woman is a star." These three statements have specific meanings: Thelema places its principal gods and goddesses—three altogether—from Ancient Egyptian religion as the speakers presented in Liber AL vel Legis . The highest deity in the theology of Thelema is the goddess Nuit (also spelled Nuith ). She is envisioned as the night sky arching over
2204-620: A wide range of interpretation of Thelema. Modern Thelema is a syncretic philosophy and religion, and many Thelemites try to avoid strongly dogmatic thinking. Crowley emphasized that each individual should follow their own inherent " True Will ", rather than blindly following his teachings, saying he did not wish to found a flock of sheep. Thus, contemporary Thelemites may practice more than one religion, including Wicca , Gnosticism , Satanism , Setianism and Luciferianism . Many adherents of Thelema recognize correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from
2320-482: Is Nuit , the night sky symbolized as a naked woman covered in stars, representing the ultimate source of possibilities. Hadit , the infinitely small point, symbolizes manifestation and motion. Ra-Hoor-Khuit , a form of Horus , represents the Sun and active energies of Thelemic magick. Crowley believed that discovering and following one's True Will is the path to self-realization and personal fulfillment, often referred to as
2436-603: Is a magic square , such as the Sator-Arepo-Tenet square . In the Golden Dawn magical system, the Earth Pentacle is one of four elemental "weapons" or tools of an Adept. These weapons are "symbolical representations of the forces employed for the manifestation of the inner self, the elements required for the incarnation of the divine." Other pentacles for the evocation of spirits are also employed in
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#17327726252572552-429: Is a hexagram that is embellished by patee crosses and letters, whereas the Key of Solomon 's pentacles have a very broad variety of designs, only two of which are pentagrammic. That contrasts with the later popular definitions of pentacles from the 1900s, which state that pentacles are inherently pentagrammic. Gerald Gardner , known by some as the 'Father of Wicca ', got his concept of pentacles in large part from
2668-575: Is a rarely used word in Classical Greek. There are very few documents, the earliest being Antiphon the Sophist (5th century BCE). In antiquity it was beside the divine will which a man performs, just as much for the will of sexual desire. The intention of the individual was less understood as an overall, generalized, ontological place wherever it was arranged. The verb thelo appears very early ( Homer , early Attic inscriptions) and has
2784-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
2900-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
3016-534: Is described as "A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema." It is not a numbered " Liber " as the other documents Crowley intended for A∴A∴ ; instead, it is listed as a document explicitly intended for Ordo Templi Orientis . There are four sections: In Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion , the Law of Thelema is summarized briefly as "Do what thou wilt—then do nothing else." Crowley describes
3132-598: Is little direct evidence of what Dashwood's Hellfire Club practiced or believed. The one direct testimonial comes from John Wilkes, a member who never got into the chapter-room of the inner circle. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall in his Historical Memoires (1815) accused the Monks of performing Satanic rituals, but these reports have been dismissed as hearsay. Daniel Willens argued that the group likely practiced Freemasonry , but also suggests Dashwood may have held secret Roman Catholic sacraments. He asks if Wilkes would have recognized
3248-466: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki ,
3364-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
3480-745: Is similar to the Mass of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church , communicating the principles of Thelema. It is the central rite of Ordo Templi Orientis and its ecclesiastical arm, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica . The Book of the Law gives several holy days to be observed by Thelemites. There are no established or dogmatic ways to celebrate these days, so as a result Thelemites will often take to their own devices or celebrate in groups, especially within Ordo Templi Orientis . These holy days are usually observed on
3596-708: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
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3712-540: Is the concept of discovering and following one's True Will , a unique purpose that transcends ordinary desires. Crowley's system begins with The Book of the Law , a text he maintained was dictated to him by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass . This work outlines key principles, including the axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," emphasizing personal freedom and the pursuit of one's true path, guided by love . The Thelemic cosmology features deities inspired by ancient Egyptian religion . The highest deity
3828-562: Is used in Tilings and patterns by Branko Grünbaum and G. C. Shephard to indicate a five-pointed star composed of ten line segments , similar to a pentagram but containing no interior lines. Thelema Thelema ( / θ ə ˈ l iː m ə / ) is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. Central to Thelema
3944-674: The Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from
4060-624: The Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are
4176-627: The Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of
4292-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
4408-735: The English Qaballa , and Nema Andahadna developed Maat Magick . The word θέλημα ( thelema ) is rare in Classical Greek , where it "signifies the appetitive will: desire, sometimes even sexual", but it is frequent in the Septuagint . Early Christian writings occasionally use the word to refer to the human will, and even the will of the Devil , but it usually refers to the will of God . In his 5th-century sermon, Catholic philosopher and theologian Augustine of Hippo gave
4524-821: The Equinoxes and the Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law, commemorating the writing of Thelema's foundational text. Post-Crowley figures like Jack Parsons , Kenneth Grant , James Lees , and Nema Andahadna have further developed Thelema, introducing new ideas, practices, and interpretations. Parsons conducted the Babalon Working to invoke the goddess Babalon , while Grant synthesized various traditions into his Typhonian Order . Lees created
4640-543: The Great Work . Magick is a central practice in Thelema, involving various physical, mental, and spiritual exercises aimed at uncovering one's True Will and enacting change in alignment with it. Practices such as rituals, yoga , and meditation are used to explore consciousness and achieve self-mastery. The Gnostic Mass , a central ritual in Thelema, mirrors traditional religious services but conveys Thelemic principles. Thelemites also observe specific holy days, such as
4756-541: The Holy Guardian Angel , a daimon unique to each individual. The spiritual quest to find what you are meant to do and do it is also known in Thelema as the Great Work . Liber AL vel Legis makes some standards of individual conduct clear. The primary of these is "Do what thou wilt", which is presented as the sum of the law and a right. Some interpreters of Thelema believe that this right includes an obligation to allow others to do their own wills without interference, but Liber AL vel Legis makes no clear statement on
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4872-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
4988-535: The Middle French word 'pentacol' (1328) or 'pendacol' (1418), a jewel or ornament worn around the neck (from pend- hang, à to, col or cou neck). This is the derivation the Theosophical Society employ in their glossary: ...it seems most likely that it comes through Italian and French from the root pend- "to hang", and so is equivalent to a pendant or charm hung about the neck. From
5104-657: The Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of
5220-641: The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament of 1938 ("Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"). In the same way the term is used in Paul the Apostle and Ignatius of Antioch . For Tolli it follows that the genuine idea of Thelema does not contradict the teachings of Jesus. François Rabelais was a Franciscan and later a Benedictine monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left
5336-555: The Vulgate text, the terms are translated into the Latin voluntas ("will"). Thus, the different meaning of both concepts was lost. In the original Greek version of the New Testament the word thelema is used 62 or 64 times, twice in the plural ( thelemata ). Here, God's will is always and exclusively designated by the word thelema (θέλημα, mostly in the singular), as the theologian Federico Tolli points out by means of
5452-581: The grimoire called the Key of Solomon . Pentacles are also used in the neopagan magical religion called Wicca , alongside other magical tools . In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Wicca, pentacles symbolize the classical element earth. In the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck (the pentacles of which were designed by Arthur Edward Waite ), and subsequent tarot decks that are based upon it, and in Wicca, pentacles prominently incorporate
5568-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
5684-465: The 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck , in which the pentacles are disks that are covered with a pentagram. In Gardner's 1949 book High Magic's Aid and 1954 book Witchcraft Today , Gardner defined a pentacle as a "five-pointed star", intending to mean a pentagram. In his 1959 book The Meaning of Witchcraft , Gardner defined a pentacle as a synonym of 'pentagram'. There is a particular definition of 'pentacle' among many latter-day Wiccans: Namely,
5800-589: The Earth, represented as a nude woman and typically depicted with stars covering her body. Nuit is conceived as the " Great Mother " and the ultimate source of all things, the collection of all possibilities, "Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof", and the circumference of an infinite circle or sphere. Nuit is derived from the Egyptian sky goddess Nut and is referred to poetically as "Our Lady of
5916-675: The French author's beliefs with the Thelema of Aleister Crowley . In the previously mentioned story of Thélème, which critics analyze as referring in part to the suffering of loyal Christian reformists or "evangelicals" within the French Church, the reference to the Greek word θέλημα "declares that the will of God rules in this abbey". Sutin writes that Rabelais was no precursor of Thelema, with his beliefs containing elements of Stoicism and Christian kindness. In his first book (ch. 52–57), Rabelais writes of this Abbey of Thélème, built by
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#17327726252576032-548: The Golden Dawn system; these are engraved with the name and sigil of the spirit to be invoked, inside three concentric circles, having painted on their reverse a circle and cross like a celtic cross . According to Aleister Crowley 's instructions for the A∴A∴ , the pentacle is a disc of wax, gold, silver-gilt or Electrum Magicum , eight inches diameter and half an inch thick; the Neophyte should "by his understanding and ingenium devise
6148-467: The Golden Hawk , a play by Florence Farr . Evans says this may have resulted from the fact that "both Farr and Crowley were thoroughly steeped in Golden Dawn imagery and teachings", and that Crowley probably knew the same materials that inspired some of Farr's motifs. Sutin also found similarities between Thelema and the work of W. B. Yeats , attributing this to "shared insight" and perhaps to
6264-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
6380-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
6496-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
6612-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
6728-405: The Law and the writings of Aleister Crowley. Aleister Crowley wrote in The Antecedents of Thelema (1926), an incomplete work not published in his day, that Rabelais not only set forth the law of Thelema in a way similar to how Crowley understood it, but predicted and described in code Crowley's life and the holy text that he received, The Book of the Law . Crowley said the work he had received
6844-404: The Law distill the practice and ethics of Thelema. Of these statements, one in particular, known as the "Law of Thelema", forms the central doctrine of Thelema."Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law". The first statement is then supplemented by a second, follow-up statement: "Love is the law, love under will." These two statements are generally believed to be better understood in light of
6960-453: The Stars" and, in The Book of the Law , as "Queen of Space" and "Queen of Heaven". The second principal deity of Thelema is the god Hadit , conceived as the infinitely small point , and the complement and consort of Nuit. Hadit symbolizes manifestation, motion, and time. He is also described in Liber AL vel Legis as "the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." Hadit has sometimes been said to represent
7076-420: The Thelemite. Rabelais has been variously credited with the creation of the philosophy of Thelema, as one of the earliest people to refer to it. The current National Grand Master General of the U.S. Ordo Templi Orientis Grand Lodge has opined that: Saint Rabelais never intended his satirical, fictional device to serve as a practical blueprint for a real human society ... Our Thelema is that of The Book of
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#17327726252577192-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
7308-452: The adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham , where it served as the motto of the Hellfire Club . Rabelais's Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant and James Rice , in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878), and C. R. Ashbee in his utopian romance The Building of Thelema (1910). In Classical Greek there are two words for will : thelema ( θέλημα ) and boule ( βουλή ). ' Thelema '
7424-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
7540-468: The book was dictated to him by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass , whom he later identified as his Holy Guardian Angel . Crowley stated that "no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles" and that study of the text would dispel all doubts about the method of how the book was obtained. Besides the reference to Rabelais made in the book, an analysis by Dave Evans found similarities to The Beloved of Hathor and Shrine of
7656-444: The covetous driving force in man." In the Septuagint the term is used for the will of God himself, the pious desire of the God-fearing, and the royal will of a secular ruler. It is thus used only for the representation of high ethical willingness in the faith, the exercise of authority by the authorities, or the non-human will, but not for more profane striving. In the Septuagint, the terms boule and thelema appear, whereas in
7772-431: The day and hour wherein thou wast born, after which thou shalt take heed to name every day ten times, the Name which is hung from thy neck, turning towards the East, and thou mayest be assured that no enchantment or any other danger shall have power to harm thee. The pentacle is of central importance in the evocation of spirits. A fairly typical evocation involves a series of conjurations of increasing potency, each involving
7888-423: The display of the pentacle: ... If they then immediately appear, it is well; if not, let the master uncover the consecrated pentacles which he should have made to constrain and command the spirits, and which he should wear fastened round his neck, holding the medals (or pentacles) in his left hand, and the consecrated knife in his right; and encouraging his companions, he shall say with a loud voice: Here be
8004-479: The division "93/93" symbolizing love "under" will. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of
8120-540: The effectiveness of magick in producing certain subjective experiences that do not ordinarily result from taking hashish , enjoying oneself in Paris, or walking through the Sahara desert. It is not strictly necessary to practice ritual techniques to be a Thelemite, as due to the focus of Thelemic magick on the True Will, Crowley stated "every intentional act is a magickal act." Crowley wrote 'The Gnostic Mass' — technically called Liber XV or " Book 15 " — in 1913 while travelling in Moscow, Russia . The structure
8236-454: The ego. If the aspirant is unprepared, he will cling to the ego instead, becoming a Black Brother. According to Crowley, the Black Brother slowly disintegrates, while preying on others for his own self-aggrandisement. Crowley taught skeptical examination of all results obtained through meditation or magick, at least for the student. He tied this to the necessity of keeping a magical record or diary, that attempts to list all conditions of
8352-402: The event. Remarking on the similarity of statements made by spiritually advanced people of their experiences, he said that fifty years from his time they would have a scientific name based on "an understanding of the phenomenon" to replace such terms as "spiritual" or "supernatural". Crowley stated that his work and that of his followers used "the method of science; the aim of religion", and that
8468-405: The everyday self's socially instilled inhibitions may have to be overcome via deconditioning. Crowley believed that to discover the True Will, one had to free the desires of the subconscious mind from the control of the conscious mind, especially the restrictions placed on sexual expression, which he associated with the power of divine creation. He identified the True Will of each individual with
8584-433: The fact that one form of pentacle was the pentagram or star-pentagon, the word itself has been connected with the Greek pente (five). Pentacles , despite the sound of the word, often had no connotation of "five" in the old magical texts, but were, rather, magical talismans inscribed with any symbol or character. When they incorporated star-shaped figures, these were more often hexagrams than pentagrams . Pentacles showing
8700-469: The following dates: The number 93 is of great significance in Thelema. The central philosophy of Thelema is in two phrases from Liber AL: "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" and "love is the law, love under will". Crowley urged their use in everyday communications, and himself used them to greet people. Today, rather than using the full phrases, Thelemites often use numerological abbreviations to shorten these greeting in informal contexts,
8816-480: The genuine powers of the magician could in some way be objectively tested. This idea has been taken on by later practitioners of Thelema. They may consider that they are testing hypotheses with each magical experiment. The difficulty lies in the broadness of their definition of success, in which they may see as evidence of success things which a non-magician would not define as such, leading to confirmation bias . Crowley believed he could demonstrate, by his own example,
8932-494: The giant Gargantua. It is a classical utopia presented in order to critique and assess the state of the society of Rabelais's day, as opposed to a modern utopian text that seeks to create the scenario in practice. It is a utopia where people's desires are more fulfilled. Satirical, it also epitomises the ideals considered in Rabelais's fiction. The inhabitants of the abbey were governed only by their own free will and pleasure,
9048-485: The good spirits of the superiour order, or of sacred pictures of holy letters or revelations, with apt and fit versicles, which are composed either of Geometrical figures and holy names of God, according to the course and maner of many of them; or they are compounded of all of them, or very many of them mixt. Francis Barrett , in his influential work The Magus of 1801 (Book 2, part 2), repeats these instructions almost verbatim. Another common design employed in pentacles
9164-529: The head of a hawk who carries a wand. He is associated with the Sun and the active energies of Thelemic magick . Other deities within the pantheon of Thelema are Hoor-paar-kraat (or Harpocrates ), the god of silence and inner strength and the twin of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, as well as Babalon , the goddess of all pleasure known as the Virgin Whore, and Therion , the beast upon which Babalon rides who represents
9280-541: The higher degrees of Ordo Templi Orientis . One goal in the study of Thelema within the magical Order of the A∴A∴ is for the magician to obtain the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: conscious communication with their own personal daimon , thus gaining knowledge of their True Will. The chief task for one who has achieved this goes by the name of "crossing the abyss "; completely relinquishing
9396-622: The ideas of Rabelais and invoked the same rule in French, when he founded a group called the Monks of Medmenham (better known as the Hellfire Club ). An abbey was established at Medmenham, in a property which incorporated the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1201. The group was known as the Franciscans, not after Saint Francis of Assisi , but after its founder, Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer . John Wilkes , George Dodington and other politicians were members. There
9512-533: The individual's rights implied by the overarching right, "Do what thou wilt". For every individual, these include the right to "live by one's own law"; "live in the way that one wills to do"; "work, play, and rest as one will"; "die when and how one will"; "eat and drink what one will"; "live where one will"; "move about the earth as one will"; "think, speak, write, draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build, and dress as one will"; "love when, where and with whom one will"; and "kill those who would thwart these rights". Duty
9628-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
9744-459: The innovation of Éliphas Lévi , contemporary English-language writers on tarot divination often prefer "pentacles" for the suite of coins. The 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck was the first to use an actual suit of pentacles , where Arthur Edward Waite designed the pentacles as golden disks with a pentagram on them. The influence of that deck resulted in widespread use of the pentacle symbol, particularly among Wiccans. The term pentacle
9860-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
9976-421: The matter. Crowley himself wrote that there was no need to detail the ethics of Thelema for everything springs from "Do what thou Wilt". Crowley wrote several additional documents presenting his personal beliefs regarding individual conduct in light of the Law of Thelema, some of which indeed address the topic interference with the will of others: Liber OZ , Duty , and Liber II . Liber OZ enumerates some of
10092-494: The meanings of "ready", "decide" and "desire" (Homer, 3, 272, also in the sexual sense). " Aristotle says in the book On Plants that the goal of the human will is perception - unlike the plants that do not have ' epithymia ' (translation of the author). " Thelema ", says the Aristoteles, "has changed here, ' epithymia '", and ' thelema ', and that ' thelema ' is to be neutral, not somehow morally determined,
10208-576: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
10324-890: The methods and practices of other traditions, including alchemy , astrology , qabalah , tantra , tarot divination and yoga . For example, Nu and Had are thought to correspond with the Tao and Teh of Taoism , Shakti and Shiva of the Hindu Tantras , Shunyata and Bodhicitta of Buddhism , Ain Soph and Kether in the Hermetic Qabalah . Thelemic magick is a system of physical, mental, and spiritual exercises which practitioners believe are of benefit. Crowley defined magick as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", and spelled it with
10440-413: The mighty One. Come ye promptly, and delay not to appear, and answer us with humility. If they appear at this time, show them the pentacles, and receive them with kindness, gentleness, and courtesy; reason and speak with them, question them, and ask from them all things which thou hast proposed to demand. But if, on the contrary, they do not yet make their appearance, holding the consecrated knife in
10556-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
10672-466: The monastery to study medicine, and moved to the French city of Lyon in 1532. There he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel , a connected series of books. They tell the story of two giants—a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures—written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein. Most critics today agree that Rabelais wrote from a Christian humanist perspective. The Crowley biographer Lawrence Sutin notes this when contrasting
10788-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
10904-405: The older man's knowledge of Crowley's work. Crowley wrote several commentaries on The Book of the Law , the last of which he wrote in 1925. The latter commentary, dubbed " The Comment ", warns against discussing the book's contents, states that all "questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings", and is signed by Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i . Three statements from The Book of
11020-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
11136-404: The only rule being "Do What Thou Wilt". Rabelais believed that men who are free, well born and bred have honour, which intrinsically leads to virtuous actions. When constrained, their noble natures turn instead to remove their servitude, because men desire what they are denied. Some modern Thelemites consider Crowley's work to build upon Rabelais's summary of the instinctively honourable nature of
11252-604: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation
11368-490: The pursuit of True Will as not merely detaching from possible results but also involving tireless energy. It is Nirvana but in a dynamic rather than static form. The True Will is described as the individual's orbit, and if one seeks to do anything else, one will encounter obstacles, as doing anything other than the Will is a hindrance to it. The core of Thelemic thought is "Do what thou wilt". However, beyond this, there exists
11484-408: The right hand, and the pentacles being uncovered by the removal of their consecrated covering, strike and beat the air with the knife as if wishing to commence a combat, comfort and exhort thy companions, and then in a loud and stern voice repeat the following conjuration: ... Once the spirit has appeared and been constrained, the pentacle is covered again, but is uncovered whenever demands are made of
11600-530: The ring on the little finger of your right hand; hang the pentacle round thy neck; (Note, the pentacle may be either wrote on clean virgin parchment, or engraven on a square plate of silver and suspended from thy neck to the breast).... One version of the Key of Solomon mentions both a "Great Pentacle" which is drawn in a book, as well as a collection of other pentacles which are drawn in ink on separate pieces of parchment for use as amulets: Thou shalt preserve them to suspend from thy neck, whichever thou wilt, on
11716-459: The spirit or when it is compelled to depart. In the Golden Dawn system, the pentacles are not suspended from the neck, but wrapped in a cloth covering. Instead of wearing a pentacle, the magician wears fastened to their breast a lamen . Much like conventional playing cards , the Minor Arcana of the tarot are divided into four suits. The suit names have evolved over time, and based on
11832-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
11948-499: The symbol of earth. A pentacle is also employed as a magical tool within Wicca , generally to summon certain energies or summon spirits. In many old grimoires dealing with magical evocation, the pentacle is described as being hung about the neck, providing protection and authority to the operator. Johannes Trithemius has the magician donning the pentacle just before casting the protective circle: Then taking your ring and pentacle, put
12064-402: The symbols of secret things, the standards, the ensigns, and the banners, of God the conqueror; and the arms of the almighty One, to compel the aerial potencies. I command ye absolutely by their power and virtue that ye come near unto us, into our presence, from whatsoever part of the world ye may be in, and that ye delay not to obey us in all things wherein we shall command ye by the virtue of God
12180-447: The various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
12296-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between
12412-457: The wild animal within humankind and the force of nature. According to Crowley, every individual has a True Will , which is to be distinguished from the ordinary wants and desires of the ego. The True Will is essentially one's "calling" or "purpose" in life. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" for Crowley refers not to hedonism , fulfilling everyday desires, but to acting in response to that calling. According to Lon Milo DuQuette ,
12528-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
12644-462: Was a great influence on the Franciscan friar and writer François Rabelais , who in the 16th century used Thélème , the French form of the word, as the name of a fictional abbey in his novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel . The only rule of this Abbey was " fay çe que vouldras " (" Fais ce que tu veux ", or, "Do what you will"). In the mid-18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed
12760-404: Was a prolific writer, integrating Eastern practices with Western magical practices from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn . He recommended a number of these practices to his followers, including: basic yoga ( asana and pranayama ); rituals of his own devising or based on those of the Golden Dawn, such as the lesser ritual of the pentagram , for banishing and invocation; Liber Samekh ,
12876-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
12992-505: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
13108-466: Was deeper, showing in more detail the technique people should practice, and revealing scientific mysteries. He said that Rabelais confines himself to portraying an ideal, rather than addressing questions of political economy and similar subjects, which must be solved in order to realize the Law. Rabelais is included among the Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica . Sir Francis Dashwood adopted some of
13224-473: Was falsely attributed to Agrippa, gives detailed instructions as to how pentacles should be formulated: But we now come to speak of the holy and sacred Pentacles and Sigils. Now these pentacles, are as it were certain holy signes preserving us from evil chances and events, and helping and assisting us to binde, exterminate, and drive away evil spirits, and alluring the good spirits, and reconciling them unto us. And these pentacles do consist either of Characters of
13340-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
13456-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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