The Three Rivers of Thelema A Contemplative Refuge

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

My original release for this week isn’t finished, and I’m not happy with its progress. So, I decided to pull something from the archives, give it a quick spitshine, and throw it out here to fill in the gap. It’s from part of a larger piece on Authority in Thelema, and it’s foundational to that end, though not really its primary purpose.

Ultimately, I think there is a deeper, primitive¹Primitive, in the sense of an early ‘sign system’ that we can grasp emotionally and not merely intellectually. contemplative discipline inherent within Thelema. And that’s really what I wanted to share with you this morning. Other than some random bits and pieces here and there, I’ve never really shared this with anyone before.

Buddhism and Thelema

While I cannot pinpoint a specific moment in which I became aware of a connection between Thelema and the Triple Gem of Buddhism,²It’s also called the Three Jewels of Buddhism, but I prefer the Triple Gem personally, though I do flip back and forth. as best I can recall I was reading some thoughts from a Sister back in the early years of the new millennium in which she causally mentioned “taking refuge” in some personal work she had been pursuing. I could be mistaken in that memory, but suffice it to say, it stuck with me. I continued to explore such notions for several years and found additional references to taking refuge from other Thelemic authors. I had never really thought about that specific concept from Buddhism from a Thelemic standpoint before and yet there really is a perfect connection for it right within the Book of the Law itself.

I found out much later that only two Thelemic authors have approached the subject in depth. There are some stray murmurings here and there, but Gregory Peters and Sam Webster are the two who have attempted to provide some kind of Thelemic context for taking refuge with any authenticity. However, when I started to study the idea of taking refuge from the Buddhists themselves, I was perplexed by their conclusions.³In both of these cases, I have the deepest respect for their work, and I am not disparaging their work here. I merely disagree with some of the application of their conclusions out of what could entirely be ignorance of their personal approach and/or my own lack of depth on the subject outside of my own research. Either way, my material does not encroach on theirs at all. They have both been an inspiration for me to continue this particular work in my own direction.

While I cannot speak to their personal notions of taking refuge, as both seem to have carefully studied Buddhist concepts—and, at least in one case, claim to be an adherent of both Thelema and Buddhism directly—I can only speak to their published work, in which the concept of taking refuge does not resemble those of Buddhism.

Buddhism, like so many other religions, has a wide variety of doctrines and practices within the various sects. However, the basics of taking refuge are the same among them all, even when there are minor variations in interpretation.

In exploring the Triple Gem, Peters seems to ignore entirely what Crowley wrote on the subject, while Webster quotes Crowley and then heads off in an entirely different direction than both Crowley and the source material. My point here is not to criticize their approach. Webster is rambling yet elucidating, and Peters has an approach to taking refuge that is quite incredible on a magical level. But, so far as I can tell, neither truly taps into what the Buddhists would recognize as taking refuge.

The Triple Gem

With that in mind, I set out to understand the Triple Gem of Buddhism back in 2003. I was sidetracked for a while and then returned to it in 2015 when the issue of Authority was vectored into that same study. It was auspicious, to say the least.

Originally, it was merely a meditational breakdown of the Triple Gem and what it meant to Buddhists in both theory and practice. Then I wanted to explore how these concepts related to Thelema without merely reading a few superficial articles or creating something out of thin air. I came to understand, very simply and without anything extra, that the Triple Gem was the Buddha, the Sangha, and the Dharma.

The Buddha—that is the enlightened one—was a model of whom we can all follow and become, but it was more than merely the man himself. It was about this Buddha-nature, this inner self that was deeper than merely the man. While Thelema disclaims the idea of a Higher Self, I found a description once of the Buddha as the “original nature” that I really liked and borrowed. I think that really captures both the essence of this particular aspect of the Gem in Buddhism as well as the aspect I wanted to portray in Thelema as I moved forward in creating this similar concept for myself to share with others. The Dharma—the teachings of the Buddha—and the Sangha—which is the community formed around those teachings—were straight-forward in description and related directly back to both the Book of the Law and the Body of Nuit, as the community of Thelemites, respectively.

That’s about as simple as I can make it and do justice to the depth of the Triple Gem of Buddhism and, quite frankly, I’m still not really doing it justice. It’s a truly fascinating study. At the least I was satisfied with what I’d learned and the conclusion of my summary.

However, I needed to understand for myself how these three “jewels” might relate to the overall nature of the Law itself as a structure of study, a mnemonic of concepts, and eventually, what would become part of my own hermeneutic presuppositions. In that, I also didn’t want to copy the Buddhist concept directly either. The Triple Jewels are so constructed because they represent perfection, static ideas that never change. That’s by intention, it would seem.

Thelema eschews the static. Thelema is all about change. It is a current that flows through each of us. It was then that I realized that the metaphor of the river was appropriate for my reformulation of these concepts in Thelemic terms.

In moving to name this approach The Three Rivers, my thought was to see something more dynamic in play.⁴In doing so, though, I also discovered that the metaphor provided the basis for authority within Thelema on a scale that, to my knowledge, had never been explicated before. Authority is a touchy subject with solipsistic Thelemites who continue their rebellion with the Law and consider themselves to be outside any authority at all. Be that as it may, Thelema itself has a foundation of authority if only because Crowley set himself up as such. But authority is much more than just some guy determining that he is the authority on any subject at all—especially when it comes to the area of religion and philosophy. What I’ll attempt to share in a future essay is that The Three Rivers provides the scaffolding for a tripartite approach to authority through the spirit, the letter, and the tradition of the Law.

Crowley talks regularly in his corpus about how we are constantly in motion, constantly in change, and that this is the basis of our theology. “We have accepted Love as the meaning of Change, Change being the Life of all Matter soever in the Universe. And we have accepted Love as the mode of Motion of the Will to Change.”⁵Crowley, Aleister. 1996. The Law Is for All: The Authorized Popular Commentary to Liber AL vel Legis sub figura CCXX, the Book of the Law. Edited by Louis Wilkinson and Hymenaeus Beta. New Falcon Publications, 73–74 (emphasis mine). It seems fitting that the flow of the river is the metaphor of this refuge.

And what is refuge? For Buddhists, the basic idea of refuge is a life in which the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) is a core set of values. The same could be said for Thelemites with The Three Rivers.

The Three Rivers of Thelema

The Three Rivers is made up of three components: the Mind of the Magus, the Speech of the Soul, and the Going Forth of Heaven. I use the mnemonic of The Revealer, The Revelation, and The Revealed, respectively. Correlating these to the Buddhist concepts, we have the man (or the inner nature, if you will), the teachings, and the community, respectively. All of these flow together, constantly, making up the whole of The Three Rivers as one cohesive, contemplative discipline into which the individual “takes refuge.”

Allow me to introduce each of these individually. While each correlates to a Buddhist concept, I have taken the liberty of developing these liberally from the scaffolding of those concepts without being bound by them or necessarily referencing them again. I have changed them as needed to ensure Thelema was manifested to the glory of the individual and to the prophet of the lovely Star.

The Mind of the Magus

It is my Will to step into the current of the Mind of the Magus. — “That there was once a man [the Prince-Priest] who found the Way is my encouragement.”

Plenty of people have done biographies. Plenty of people have dissected nearly every aspect of his life. I certainly have no desire here to offer up any kind of additional biographical details and add to the redundancy of information. What is it that we need to understand about Crowley qua To Mega Therion? How does Crowley relate to the Law of Thelema and this specific instance of history in which we find ourselves now?

The Revealer of The Three Rivers is also called the Mind of the Magus and it is in this aspect that we have the greatest use for Crowley in all of Thelema. In one sense, we must deify (mythify) Crowley in order to kill him. Only then are we able to move past the man and recognize the Magus.⁶One of the greatest things I’ve ever seen for Crowley was creating graphic novels of him in various ways. Both fictional (Gaiman’s Sandman series, Von Buhler’s The Girl Called Cthulhu, Asmus’ Bill & Ted Roll the Dice) and semi-fictional (Hill’s Hell & Gone) or urban legend repeated entirely too many times, as in the “Yeats kicked Crowley down the stairs” stupidity (Reilly’s Herald—Lovecraft & Tesla—Fingers to the Bone). The graphic novel of the Book of the Law was brilliant, regardless of the absurdity of having an utter imbecile to write its introduction.

To take refuge in the Mind of the Magus means, first, that we do not take refuge in him as a person but take refuge in the fact of his attainment. We can place trust in the belief that he did awaken to the truth, that he did so by developing qualities we too can develop, and that the truths to which he awoke (not any emulation of his life or his behaviors or his personal ideologies) provide the best perspective for the conduct of our life. It can also mean, second, that by taking refuge in the Mind of the Magus, that which represents the core of every Star as it “whirls flaming through the sky,”⁷Crowley. The Law Is for All, 123. we recognize our own inner nature.

Yet there are three aspects of the Magus from which we can benefit.

1. The pragmatic aspect: that is, the elemental or external aspect of Crowley that is the man. I know that we spend a great deal of time talking about trying to separate the man from the Magus—and I literally just said that we should not emulate his life, behaviors, or ideologies—but yet so much of his life is still inspirational. And what I’m thinking here is a kind of larger-than-life approach to mythologizing Crowley for purposes of encouragement. He was a world-class mountaineer, chess player, poet, painter, author, and alleged spy.⁸Quite frankly, with all the blatant cash grabs by Tobias Churton, I’m a bit surprised no one has ever considered having Churton or Kaczynski just produce an LRH-like promotional series for Crowley since they’re all so fond of the personality cult approach. We disparage the man for his bullshit, but why not give the man his credit where due instead of groveling at the altar of embarrassment?

2. The ritual practices and foundations of the methodology of Magick and fraternity that he left behind. The only real difference between this approach and pragmatism is a matter of degree. If you like Crowleyan magick, have at it. I think it’s worthwhile, quite frankly, despite my taking people to task for overemphasizing it to the detriment of promulgating the Law in the world.

3. Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, the essence of individual attainment, and even beyond (though keep in mind that anything beyond the ‘knowledge and conversation’ isn’t a focus of the “next step of humanity” brought about by this current aeon).

Those who understand a little will comfort themselves with pragmatism. Those who understand a bit more will satisfy themselves in the rituals and fraternities of Crowley alone. Those who know themselves, however, will never be satisfied until they know the Heart of the Master itself.⁹You might also be able to see these as the three centers of consciousness of AL 1.6, though in reverse order: the tongue (pragmatic aspect), the heart (ritual practices), and the secret centre (attainment). That might be pushing it a bit, but I could probably make that case if given a bit more time.

Of course, we know there are all kinds of rivers: artificial ones, such as the Great Man-Made River in Libya; landlocked inland rivers, such as the Okavango River in Angola; and mighty rivers that connect with the oceans and seas of the world, like the Nile River in Egypt. All appear great at first glance, but like Crowley’s aspects, each has its place in our world.

• To place confidence in the life of Crowley, his deeds, and his works, for better or worse, is like bathing in the artificial river of Libya.

• To show respect and diligence in the practices of Crowley, allowing them to build and take flight within us, is to bathe in the landlocked river of Angola.

• Yet to reach the place of emulating that inner quality of To Mega Therion, allowing one to follow in his footsteps without slavish adherence to either his deeds or his practices, is to bathe in the glorious river of Egypt.

But—remember this: to bathe in any river is better than those who do not bathe at all. This is why we do not mind the stink of Guntherites, who smell of artificial waters. At least they washed off the sweat of their labors.

The Speech of the Soul

It is my Will to step into the current of the Speech of the Soul. — “The Law [Thelema] underlying phenomena and its unchanging certainty; the Law [i.e., the Book of the Law] given by the [Prince-Priest] to show us the Way.”

To take refuge in the Speech of the Soul refers not merely to The Revelation—that is, the Book of the Law itself—but also to the path of practice [a praxis] that we gather from its elucidation and edification. This also has three levels: (a) the words of the Law itself [Book of the Law], (b) the act of putting the Law into practice [the Great Work of each individual], and (c) the awakening that (potentially) occurs as a result of the Law in action [Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel].

I think it’s hard to separate these three aspects. Certainly, we can do it, but honestly, I think that once we grasp the idea of the Speech of the Soul, it truly becomes difficult to do so. There is the thing that just grabs you and won’t let go. For me, Thelema has always been that way. Since the first time I really got ahold of something more than the dark and spooky Crowleyanity idea that came across in my late teens, I was transformed by the momentum of the Law itself. There wasn’t a time after that thing that I’m not sure I can explain, that transformation moment, when I didn’t connect the book with the words, with the practice of life, with my life itself. I have never been able to look at my life since then and not see Thelema—even when my life was bottoming out—or peaking—either way.

There is a proper sense of value in desiring to study the rest of the Class A texts. I will never attempt to convince anyone privately of their lack of worth despite my public stance. I believe they are all worthy of study and are truly some of the most profound and beautiful of all inspirational writings in the world. That said, I do believe the Book of the Law alone is the revelation of Thelema that stands as the foundation of emancipation and exaltation for humanity.

I have said this so many times as to be blue in the face, but Crowley was quite clear when he said:

Far better, let him assume this Law [of Thelema] to be the Universal Key to every problem of Life, and then apply it to one particular case after another. As he comes by degrees to understand it, he will be astounded at the simplification of the most obscure questions which it furnishes. Thus he will assimilate the Law, and make it the norm of his conscious being; this by itself will suffice to initiate him, to dissolve his complexes, to unveil himself to himself; and so shall he attain the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel.¹⁰>Crowley. The Law Is for All, 184 (emphasis mine).

I love that last line. People want to make a big deal out of this “Crowley changed his mind late in life” idea. He didn’t. He really didn’t. This whole Holy Guardian Angel thing may have been one of few doctrines on which he was incredibly consistent,¹¹Aiwass was an exception to that consistency, of course, but then he wasn’t really consistent about Aiwass on any level. and everyone else wants the HGA to be a shoulder goblin!

However, the point is that the assimilation of the Law itself, alone, is enough to bring about this whole Knowledge and Conversation. Imagine that! Not decades of A∴A∴ work. Not months of evocations. Not battling down the Kings of Hell. Just simply applying Do what thou wilt to everything in daily life.

Huh. Amazing, right?

Must not be all about that shoulder goblin after all.

But I digress here. The point is that words have power in themselves. The Book has power in itself. Study of the Book—despite that stupid, stupid political statement that O.T.O. includes in the back of every copy—is encouraged at every level of every Order in which Crowley led, found in nearly every text he published on the promulgation of the Law, and is seen in every breakdown of student curriculum he handed out. Why? Because it holds the key to the emancipation of the individual to our very core.

Even now it’s difficult to separate these three concepts into different discussions. It all comes out into one mess of a blurb. It’s all one thing, really. The words, the practice, the result: it really is all the “Speech of the Soul.”

Granted, we could be even more specific here as to the “teachings” of the Law beyond merely these aspects, but I honestly think that gets into areas that I’m personally not comfortable. Ultimately, the Law is about the liberty of the individual and the Great Work of each person to discover and pursue their Will. Shouldn’t that be enough?

The Going Forth of Heaven

It is my Will to step into the current of the Going Forth of Heaven. — “These are not isolated efforts on my part; although in one sense isolation is eternally perfect and can never be overcome, in another sense associates [the Body of Nuit, i.e., other stars, the “company of heaven,” etc] are possible and desirable.”

There are three aspects to taking refuge in the Going Forth of Heaven: the auspicious, the conventional, and the ideal.

• In the ideal sense, the Going Forth of Heaven consists of all Stars; that is, all manifestations of Nuit regardless of awareness or attainment.

• In the conventional sense, it refers to the individuals as a whole, to the greater community of Thelemites, regardless of specific ideology, doctrinal adherence, or organizational loyalty.

• In the auspicious sense, it is a reference to those individuals, as a local community, who have accepted the Law of Thelema as their sole rule of existence and come together to support each other for the fulfillment of their individual Wills.¹²“The main ethical principle [of the Book of the Law] is that each human being has his own definite object in life. He has every right to fulfil this purpose, and none to do anything else. It is the business of the community to help each of its members to achieve this aim; in consequence all rules should be made, and all questions of policy decided, by the application of this principle to the circumstances.” [Crowley, Aleister. 1989. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography. Edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant. Arkana, 848–849.]

It is through the conventional and auspicious senses of the “Going Forth of Heaven,” specifically that the Law of Thelema is maintained and sustained through temporal history.

We are The Revealed. We are Thelema.

And yet, every man and every woman is a star, yes? Every man and every woman is sovereign, solitary, and singular in the universe while, paradoxically, connected to every other star in the universe. Such great responsibility comes from those connections.

Taking refuge in the Mind of the Magus, in the Speech of the Soul, and in the Going Forth of Heaven on an exterior level, there is little benefit to the average person. Anyone can imitate the man. Anyone can read the book. Anyone can join a fraternity. Yet to commit, as an individual, to a community of Stars; to uplift the Law as the core of one’s modus operandi; and to internalize that beacon of light of the Magus as a discipline toward that one purpose of liberating, first, one’s own self and then, second, the members of humanity from the blindness to their own Godhead, each as they will; that is the meaning of taking refuge on an interior level.

I would ask what we do with this, but this is the cultus itself. To take refuge in The Three Rivers is to accept the community of the Law directly. Certainly, it is a very specific community that adheres to the precepts of what I have just laid out, and most likely a set of as-of-yet unwritten virtues here, but a specific community nonetheless. Such are the dedicated principles of those who look to take Thelema sans O.T.O. or any other fraternal Order as a commitment in daily life rather than as a weekend game of initiatory putt-putt.

Summary

In summary, I would submit that The Three Rivers can be “taken” and then understood as such:¹³Each italicized portion is taken and then modified for my purposes from Crowley, Aleister. 1974. “Science and Buddhism.” In The Works of Aleister Crowley, Vol. 2. Yoga Publication Society, 259–260.

• It is my Will to step into the current of the Mind of the Magus

  • This means: That there was once a man, the Prince-Priest, who found the Way is my encouragement.

• It is my Will to step into the current of the Speech of the Soul.

  • This means: The Law of Thelema that is the underlying phenomena and its unchanging certainty; the Law of Thelema [i.e., the Book of the Law] given by the Prince-Priest to show us the Way.

• It is my Will to step into the current of the Going Forth of Heaven.

  • This means: These are not isolated efforts on my part; although in one sense isolation is eternally perfect and can never be overcome, in another sense associates [the Body of Nuit, i.e., other stars, the “company of heaven,” etc] are possible and desirable.

This provides the basics of the outer forms of the Three Rivers, a Thelemic form of the Triple Gem of Buddhism. There are also inner forms for each of these. Just as there are three Rivers, there are three Wellsprings at the source of each river. Those can wait for another time.

Love is the law, love under will.