Magick Without Tears

31 Religion Is Thelema a "New Religion"? Cara Soror, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. "Would you describe your system as a new religion?" A pertinent question, you doubtless suppose; whether it may happen to mean anything is-is-is-well, is what we must try to make clear. True, it's a slogan of A:. A:.: "The method of science-the aim of religion." Here the word 'aim' and the context help the definition; it must mean the attainment of Knowledge and Power in spiritual matters-or words to that effect: as soon as one selects a phrase, one starts to kick holes in it! Yet we both know perfectly well all the time what we do mean. But this is certainly not the sense of the word in your question. It may clear our minds, as has so often happened, if we examine it through the lens of dear old Skeat. Religion, he says, Latin: religio, piety. Collecting or paying attention to: religens as opposed to negligens, neglecting; the attitude of Gallio. But it also implies a binding together, i.e., of ideas; in fact, a "body of doctrine." Not a bad expression. A religion then, is a more or less coherent and consistent set of beliefs, with precepts and prohibitions therefrom deducible. But then there is the sense in which Frazer (and I) often use the word: as in opposition to "science" or "Magic." Here the point is that religious people attribute phenomena to the will of some postulated Being or Beings, placable and 218