Tradition
Thelema
A religious and philosophical system promulgated by Aleister Crowley after a 1904 episode in Cairo, founded on the maxim “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” It is the doctrinal framework of the modern Ordo Templi Orientis but exists independently of any single organisation.
Thelema is a religious and philosophical system founded by the English writer and occultist Aleister Crowley after a sequence of events in Cairo in April 1904 that produced the text Crowley regarded as the foundational scripture of a new religious era: Liber AL vel Legis, “the Book of the Law.”
The central maxim of the system, drawn from that text, is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” complemented by “Love is the law, love under will.” Thelema is the doctrinal framework of the modern Ordo Templi Orientis and the A∶A∶, but it is not identical with either organisation; significant Thelemic practice exists outside any institutional body.
