It has always seemed presumptuous of me to explain the nature and meaning of the New Æon and Thelema and I have, in the past, merely spoken a few words on these topics and then referred the interested party to the best authority on the subjects--the Master Therion, Our Father Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast 666.  However, the questions persist and the demand is made upon me, so obviously there is need to speak.  Despite what some may think, I much prefer silence to speech.  Partly this is because I feel it is better to remain silent and be thought the fool than to speak and remove all doubt. 

We Thelemites refer to this present æon of the Crowned and Conquering Child as the "New Æon" because that is exactly what it is.  An æon is a period of time generally considered to be about 2,000 years in length--a "cycle" that may actually be several thousand years.  The old æon of the Slave-Gods and their religions was characterized by the burden of "original sin" as well as the guilt complex that goes with it and the idea of restriction--Thou shalt not this and thou shalt not that.  The present æon began upon the destruction of the old æon, as we measure time, on the Equinox of the Gods, March 1904 era vulgari, E.V., meaning "as commonly reckoned".  At this point in time a suprahuman entity calling himself Aiwass (also Aiwaz), the True Self or Holy Guardian Angel of Aleister Crowley, dictated to Our Father a book called Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law.  The three chapters of this book, which is the cornerstone of Thelema, were dictated between the hours of 12 noon and 1 o'clock on the 8th, 9th and 10th of April in that year.  The Book itself is a mysterious work that even Therion did not fully understand, and it is left to "the one to follow" to complete the analysis and explanation of Liber AL vel Legis sub figura CCXX, to give it its full title.  Now the nature of this New Æon is summed up nicely in a few verses from The Book, one such verse being "The word of Sin is Restriction."  Generally speaking, humankind's state of consciousness has risen above the barbarity of the old æon and to continue with this spiritual and intellectual evolution the artificial restrictions of the past, like a heavy chain holding humankind back, must be stricken and shattered.  Humanity must be set free and it is during this New Æon that this shall be accomplished, and it is through the Law of Thelema that this shall be done. 

One of the very first things said in The Book is that "Every man and every woman is a star."  That is to say, that we are all glorious and self-illuminated sources of Light in the universe of being, each glowing with his and her own individual magnitude, and each travelling his and her own individual and very specific orbit.  But the question then arises:  What is one's orbit? 

It is during this New Æon that we are all to discover and accomplish our True Will, our purpose for existing; to discover and follow our orbit in the universe of being.  This is our sole purpose for existing and it is the Law of Thelema:  "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." 

"Do what thou wilt" does not mean "do as you like."  It is, in fact, the strictest possible bond yet one that frees humankind from the foolishness of the petty ego and the restrictions that its desires bring about.  One is not truly free until one is within one's own element.  A bird, for instance, is restricted if it is not permitted to fly for it is the Will of the bird to fly.  A fish is restricted and "unhappy" if it is cast upon the land for its Will to swim is thwarted.  Although it is more complicated and individual with human beings it is likewise true that no human being can be free and happy if he or she is not doing his or her True Will. 

Now the nature and the means of discovering and doing this Will is Love.  This is not the sentimentality of Valentine's Day, but rather the union of the apparent opposites in life that lead to the sublime bliss of No-thing which is summed up in the equation 2=0 (i.e. +1 plus -1).  By this we do not mean to imply that "things" or being are essentially "evil" and to be transcended.  Such terms (all terms!) are relative.  "Good" and "evil" depend upon one's point of view.  Dirt, for instance, is "good" in the garden but "evil", or at least "bad", on the kitchen floor.  No, the desire is not to shed being because it is somehow wrong, but rather to encompass all being by becoming naught, thus ending the illusory restrictions of apparent individuality.  This may seem odd to you as to accomplish this feat one must first discover one's specific individual nature and purpose, however, it makes the most rational sense to first thoroughly know something and experience it before it can be given up.  It is not the Thelemic way to restrict and deny experience, but rather to embrace all experiences.  What one does not have one cannot give up! 

"Know thyself" is a phrase often recited in the Mysteries.  It is commonly regarded as meaning to delve deep into one's psyche and thoroughly know the nature of one's persona and ego.  However, it means much more than this.  It is only by way of knowing thyself, the ego and what makes it tick, that one can come to know one's True Self, that essential I or Individuality that is known by many names--Genius, Daemon, H.G.A., Augoeides, Zeitgest, Atman, just to name a few.  And it is only through a thorough knowledge and communication with this True Self that one may reach that state of not-being wherein one realizes the essential unity of all things and their illusory nature. 

This is, basically, what the New Æon and Thelema are all about.  We are here to discover why we are here and then to accomplish that purpose whose final crowning achievement is the dissolution of being into Naught--to be reabsorbed into the body of Our Lady of the Stars, Nuit, and realize ourselves as that burning Centre called Hadit. 

It is a very simple matter really, yet complicated and confused by those who falsely claim to be Thelemites in order to use Thelema for their own personal and petty goals, as well as those who have achieved some personal authority or material wealth by perverting the teachings that initiated the past aeon, those who fear that that which has given them this illusory position and power will be destroyed by anything that makes as much sublime sense as Thelema.  It is only because of this that myself and others like me, true Thelemites, are forced to leave our silence and speak--always taking the chance that our words too may further complicate and obscure the sublime, while doing our best to at least keep the scales of balance even and not allow them to be tipped too much in the "wrong" direction. 

Those who call themselves "Christian", for example, are often quoting their Bible to prove such as we to be "evil", yet can you, the objective reader, see anything "evil" in what has so far been written about the nature and goals of the New Æon and Thelema? 

Most of those "Christians" are merely pawns and ignorant of their religion.  They are not aware of the fact that their religion was not begun by the man named Jesus and called the Christ, and they are not aware of the fact that what he taught was simple and sublime and that what they are now calling "Christianity" is a perverse complication of those sublime teachings.  These people as well as those who know better and still set out to preserve their system, their vehicle, no matter the cost to humanity and its evolution, will always try to dirty the image of Thelema by noting that its founder styled himself the Beast 666, the Antichrist of Revelation, and that therefore it is all a trick of the Devil to undermine and destroy the "virtues" of Christianity.  In the first place, many of those so-called "virtues" have led to dissatisfaction, envy and contempt, and these in turn have led to inquisitions and world wars.  Secondly, "The Devil" is a Christian perversion of a concept that is very ancient--"he" is merely the other side of the coin, the compliment of "The Saviour".  Note how in the Old Testament Nechesh, the Serpent that is equated with "the Devil", is spelled in the Hebrew language NChSh (Nun, Cheth, Shin = 50+8+300), while "the Saviour" is written thusly:  MSHICh (Mem, Shin, Yod, Cheth = 40+300+10+8), and that the numeration of these two words is the same, 358, thus identifying them as merely opposing aspects of the same concept--opposing one another as night opposes day or as any of the apparent opposites oppose one another--merely to give the illusion of difference and being so that these can be fully understood and then done away with. 

In like manner, the Beast 666, the Antichrist, is given a bad reputation in order to blacken the image and preserve what is called Christianity.  Christianity is not bad in itself, but throughout the centuries it has been perverted by unscrupulous individuals and generally speaking humankind had outgrown it.  Christianity is today a fetter that must be removed so that humanity may evolve into something greater--so that humankind may come to realize its True Self and place in the scheme of things.  Yet the minions of the Slave-Gods wish to keep us in bondage to them and they do this by keeping their slaves in ignorance--the strongest of all chains that bind one in slavery.  These followers of the Slave Gods, slaves themselves, insist that the number 666 is that of "the Devil" and yet their own holy book called Revelation states that Six Hundred Threescore and Six "is the number of a man"--not the Devil or even the son of the Devil, but merely a man.  It is also worth noting that 6 is a solar number and that it is here in trinity which seems to indicate something definitely "holy".  Furthermore, 666 is also the numeration of Iapetus (Iapetos), known long before the birth of Jesus as a Titan, husband of Themis, Goddess of Law, father of Prometheus, one of the earliest saviours who brought Light (i.e. Wisdom) to humanity and who, for his trouble, was crucified upon a rock and had his internal organs plucked out by carrion birds until the day that he was rescued or, in a manner of speaking, resurrected.  Iapetus was also called by the ancient Greeks the father or grandfather of all humankind. 

Six Hundred Threescore and Six is also the numeration of many other words that show the nature of the Beast and dispel the lies told by those who falsely claim to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.  666 is, for instance, the numeration of lampetis, "the lustrous one", implying a being of Light rather than of darkness, and omiletes, "a scholar, an educator", and this is perfectly in line with the original Gnostic conception of the Beast who was called by them "the instructor"--"For he was found to be wiser than all of them". 

As for the term Antichristos or Antichrist--it should be noted that while the term pseudochrist (false-christ) is used in the New Testament it is not used in connection with the Beast 666.  Therefore one can automatically assume that there is a difference between these two terms antichrist (always singular in Revelation) and pseudochrist (always plural in Revelation), and that the former was employed for a specific reason as the latter was not used in connection with the Beast 666 for a very good reason.  The reason is simple:  the Beast 666 is not a false christ--he is a true Christ.  Now Christ or Messiah simply means "anointed" or "the Anointed One".  It is a title and not a name.  It represents a concept, that being a World Teacher, a leader and heirophant whose purpose it is to take humankind on to the Next Step. 

The Greek word "anti" is usually defined as "opposed to" and thus antichristos is generally defined as "opposed to Christ".  Yet throughout the New Testament the Greek word "antitheos" is defined as "godlike"!  How can this be?  It is because the prefix "anti" means far more than merely "opposed to".  Anti may also mean "like", "in behalf of", and "in place of"--none of which sound particularly "evil".  In fact the common definition is not even particularly "evil" since two concepts that oppose one another may both be "good".  Antichrst, then, may mean, and certainly does in my opinion, "Christ-like", "in behalf of the Christ (Principle)", and "in place of the (past) Christ" or World Teacher. 

The "evil" is not in the Antichrist, the Beast 666, nor in His teachings.  The "evil" is to be found in ignorance and those who would use this to enslave the earth's inhabitants. 

The Beast 666, known to us as Aleister Crowley, was the Logos of this present New Æon, and it was He who brought to us the Law of Thelema so that we may be free. 

And I, Frater Keallach, speak now because it is written in both the holy books of the old as well as the new æon: 

"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb (ram?), and he spake as a dragon. 

"And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast..." 
                  - Revelation, Chapter 13, Verses 11 and 12 

"...There cometh one to follow thee:  he shall expound it. 

"...in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine.  Let him not seek to try:  but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all." 
                  - Liber Legis, Chapter II, Verse 76, and 
                                 Chapter III, Verse 47. 

Frater Keallach 93/676 

G.M.Kelly, Editor 
The Newaeon Newsletter 
P. O. Box 19210 
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 U.S.A. 
  

A NOTE REGARDING THE TITLE: 

MLXI or 1061 is the numeration of epanalambano, which means "to take up again, resume, repeat". 

1061 is also the numeration of the following:  poimaino, tend like a shepherd, rule; apopsis, point of view; as well as Ra-Oor-Kut, Ra-Hoor-Khut (CCXX III.35) and to Therion ek ten gen, the Beast of the earth. 

NOTE FROM THE TITLE PAGE: 

Liber MLXI: The Message of the Master Keallach is purposely intended to be similar to Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion, to be found in The (Blue) Equinox, Volume III, Number 1, written from another Point of View, as the title indicates. 

(TNN.V.2.1-5, MAY 1986 E.V.)