Thelema: A Traditionalist Religion for the Kali Yuga

BY MANON WELLES   NOVEMBER 30, 2019

It might surprise some people to see Thelema and Tradition in the same sentence. They’re typically thought to be quite contrary and many Traditionalists are prejudiced against Thelema, considering it a syncretic, modern system that is in fact counter-Traditional. In this article, I will make the case for Thelema being a type of Tantra, the Tantras themselves developed within a Traditionalist framework but devised specifically for the Kali Yuga. (RELATED: Neotantra vs. Tantra: 6 Key Differences) 

In the Indo-European doctrine of the yugas, we are currently in the Kali Yuga or dark age. Unlike the Golden Age, our current epoch is when mankind is furthest away from the divine and the world is no longer functioning along divine guidelines. Thus a new method of seeking the Ultimate was created—the Tantras—as a way of working with the darkness of our current age rather than trying to swim against it. In The Yoga of Power, Julius Evola relates the teaching that the Traditional ways from the Golden Age are not even efficacious in the Kali Yuga:

It is claimed that the teachings, rites, and disciplines that would have been viable in the first age (the Krita or Satya Yuga, the equivalent of Hesiod’s “golden age”) are no longer fit for people living in the following ages, especially in the last age, the “dark age” (Kali Yuga, the “Iron Age,” the “Age of the Wolf” in the Edda). Mankind in these later ages may find knowledge, a worldview, rituals, and adequate practices for elevating humans over and beyond their condition and for overcoming death (mrityun javate), not in the Vedas and in other strictly traditional texts, but rather in the Tantras and in the Agamas. It is stated therefore that only Tantric practices based on shakti (shakti-sadhana) are suitable and efficacious in our contemporary age: all the others are considered to be as powerless as a snake deprived of its poison.

Aleister Crowley was a seeker using Tantric practices, a fact that led to him being misunderstood. (RELATED: Was Aleister Crowley a Satanist?) And while he didn’t set out to create Thelema—it kind of happened to him—with the A∴A∴, he specifically created a system for a modern person who is balancing the demands of work and family while also seeking spiritual liberation. In addition, the tenets of Thelema are essentially Tantric—such as seeing the divine in everything, not shunning anything as not-God, embracing left-hand practices and morality, and not believing in sin in the Christian sense.

Like most religions, Tantra has the goal of union with the divine and spiritual liberation. But unlike their traditional counterparts, which some say have now become hollow and impotent ritualism, the Tantras incorporate unorthodox spiritual practices. So too, Thelema, and it also encourages the aspirant to experiment with a variety of religious practices to figure out what works for him.



Unlike Traditionalism and Tantra, Thelema doesn’t espouse the doctrine of the yugas. At first glance, congruity may seem impossible, since Crowley says last century we entered into the New Aeon, the era of the crowned and conquering child and this New Aeon is usually seen as something positive. But if we read Crowley’s descriptions of the New Aeon, much is similar to the Kali Yuga; in true Tantrik fashion, however, the “dark” forces are celebrated rather than eschewed. And similar to Tantric philosophy, Thelema teaches that the ways of the Old Aeon are no longer as efficacious. (RELATED: Aleister Crowley on the Aeon of the Horus as the Era of Childishness) 

Why is a new religious system even needed today? Evola describes the situation in The Yoga of Power:

During the Kali Yuga, the bull of dharma stands on only one foot (it lost the other three during the previous three ages). This means that the traditional law (dharma) is wavering, is reduced to a shadow of its former self, and seems to be almost succumbing. During [the] Kali Yuga, however, the goddess Kali, who was asleep in the previous ages, is now fully awake. I will write at greater length about Kali, a prominent Tantric goddess, in the following pages; for now, let us say that this symbolism implies that during the last age elementary, infernal, and even abyssal forces are untrammeled. The immediate task consists in facing and absorbing these forces, in taking the risk of “riding the tiger,” to use a Chinese expression that may best describe this situation, or “to transform the poison into medicine,” according to a Tantric expression.

There are other parallels between Tantrism and Thelema, the latter which certainly can be modified to one’s preferences and predilections to fit paths as diverse as Shaktism in Tantra to traditional Catholicism. (RELATED: What Is True Will in Aleister Crowley’s Thelema?) Like Tantra, Thelema could be described as a left-hand path given the individualistic, yet divinely inspired, nature of its practices:

He who travels along this path is dvandvatita: superior to all opposites (good and evil, shame and honor, merit and demerit, etc.), not only as a detached being but also as svecchacari, as a man for whom his own will is the only law, for whom all the laws, rules, and rites of the ordinary “bound” man, pasu, have fallen away. This may, of course, lead to dangerous deviations. The path—as the texts state—may be compared to walking on a razor’s edge or to riding a tiger. However, as for the corresponding spiritual atmosphere, there can be no doubt about an absolutely “virile” attitude. (Evola, East and West)

We’ve seen that in the Kali Yuga, Evola claimed that Traditional paths were no longer efficacious, that the Tantras were developed as a way to work with the current of the modern world rather than try to swim against it. And that Crowley’s philosophical system, Thelema, is essentially a modern-day Tantric path, and that he created the A∴A∴ as a means for modern man to achieve liberation even with the confines of a 9-5 job and family. The main difference between Tantra and Thelema is that Crowley’s system was developed for Westerners. Regardless of whether you want to follow Crowley’s system, it provides a valuable outline for how to go about seeking spiritual enlightenment in the modern world.