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The System

Thirteen principles of Thelema, drawn from the commentary of Frater L.R.H. and stated whole. The commentary proves them verse by verse; this page holds them in one hand. Nothing here is original, and that is its authority: the Book teaches it, the commentary demonstrates it, the System states it.

▸ View the chart: Thelema at a glance
Flow chart: Nuit and Hadit meet in manifested experience, which leads to the individual star, True Will, Love under Will and the Great Work, set within the Aeon of Horus.
Tap the chart to open it full size.
  1. The Law is Do what thou wilt. Not license but the hardest discipline there is: find the one will at your root and do it, against every pressure to be something more convenient. I:40 I:42–44 III:60
  2. Every man and every woman is a star. Each life has its own orbit and its own light; no star is judged by the orbit of another. This is the metaphysical charter of an aristocracy open to all. I:3
  3. The world is two infinites in love. Nuit, infinite possibility, the circumference nowhere found; Hadit, the point of view, every center. Their meeting is every event that ever occurs. I:1 II:2–3
  4. Existence is pure joy. Sorrow is real and it is an error, the friction of a will off its line, and error can be fought. The religions of sorrow built on the opposite premise, and fell. II:9 I:30
  5. An Aeon turned in 1904. The formula of the Dying God expired; the Crowned and Conquering Child took the seat in the East, and the equinox of the gods dates every rite and every politics that follows. I:49 III:34
  6. The Book is the sole scripture, to the letter. Not one letter may be changed; the holograph is reproduced because the Book commands it; the comment is left to the appointed hand and to no other. I:36 I:54 III:47
  7. The Work is the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. One Angel, one aspirant, attained by graded method and proved in the written record; all else in the system serves this. I:7 II:61–64
  8. Magick and mysticism are one science. Ritual, mantra, posture, breath, and record: the methods are tested like any other instrument, and joy and beauty are the evidence of right performance. I:37 II:35–36
  9. The war is first against weakness. Sorrow, pity, and the sanctification of decay are the enemy’s colors; the first territory retaken is your own borders. II:17–21 III:18
  10. Kingship is of essence. No revolution makes kings of slaves and no catastrophe unkings a King; the one legible mark of rank is a will known and done. II:58 II:24–25
  11. Death is dissolved in continuity. The King dips in the pool and remains; the feast for death is greater than the feast for life, because the fear of death was the tyrant’s chief weapon. II:21 II:41 II:66
  12. The Abyss is crossed by renouncing the why. Reason is a fine servant and a fatal ferryman; what crosses is will with nothing in its hands, and what is born there is mightier than all the kings of the earth. II:27–33 III:45
  13. The Order keeps the record. Teaching owed freely, admission guarded fiercely, advancement by examined attainment, and the descent of authority documented in instruments and imprimaturs, not in assertions. I:38 the record