The canon of the Holy Books of Thelema provides an entirely new source of Gnosis that more than rivals and contemporizes the ancient Gnostic codices. In particular, the beauty of verse in Liber VII, also called Liber Liberi vel Lapidus Lazuli even rivals and overcomes the beauty of verse in the Psalms of David. In this sermon, we provide a brief introduction to this holy book and hope to inspire our congregation to pursue a deeper reading of this marvelously spirited work.
The beginning of one’s aspiration to Gnosis starts with the Hermetic Axiom: Know Thyself. This look within starts with the contemplation of the self in isolation and away from all others. Even one may come to find oneself to be somehow, special with the onrush of spiritual ecstasy; mistaking the beginning for the end. It’s simply an unavoidable step that is worth taking, despite the fact that one can stand so pompous before the world. Note that ‘this too, shall pass’ and accept this blind step for what it is. Soon the grace of Gnosis will be as the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and one’s steps will become more rational and more certain.
It can be said that the mind capable of holding cosmic consciousness is a mind as far beyond the human mind, as the human mind is so far beyond the mind of an animal. Animals hold a preceptual level of consciousness, and humans can group those precepts into concepts; holding a conceptual level of consciousness. Now, imaging a mind, able to group concepts together to produce such an awareness that trancends human consciousness by a quantum leap; a quantum-consciousness.
Now is all we have; this moment, that’s it! If you’re living in the past and waxing nostalgic always, you’re not here and your life is a misery you’ve chosen not to look at. If you’re always chasing goals and repeatedly dying for a future that may fail you, you’ve found a way to cheat yourself out of your life. Now, the now, can only be found in a deep concentration for the present moment. And realize your ability to shape this moment in any way that you would have it to be. You simply have to want to do this; to know that this is here for you in this moment and seize it for yourself.
Humor in our view, is intimately entwined with laughter; the most misunderstood and underrated emotion in the human satchel. It builds health and vitality, as much as it enriches the enjoyment of life, and its gusto. How great it is that we can really develop our perception of humor, as a tool to produce all the forms of laughter that are available to us.
The Doctrine of Predestiny that serves as a core philosophy for Calvinist Christianity has an echo among some physicists that take the explosion of the Big Bang Theory to have set particles in motion in a mathematically pre-disposed manner. For them, eveything that has happened is, has been, and will be inevitable. So to assert that there is such a thing, as Free Will is as radical a notion, as anything that Gnostic philosophy has ever brought forth.
The alarming amount of meaningless words and phrases that are poured into our brains in a constant stream on a daily basis is an immanent and potent danger to our individual beingness. In order to gain clarity of mind and self-determination, we need to get the clutter out of our mental closet and return it to the trash heap that is our consumer culture. What this onslaught offers us is an opportunity to practice the process of attaining Gnosis, simply by paying attention to that which we generally ignore in our day-to-day experience of culture.
