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From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.thelema,talk.religion.misc,alt.magick.order
Subject: Julianus: Rabelais and Thelema
Date: 19 Jun 1997 03:13:53 -0700
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[from thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org: julianus@enteract.com]

93!

John Everall wrote:

> Also to those who dispute the currency of the term Thelemite prior to its
> Crowleyan origins, my copy of the Imperial Reference Dictionary has only
> the following definition:
> "Thelemite, n. a monk of Rabelais's imaginary abbey of Theleme, an order
> whose rule was Do as you like. - Also adj."

Crowley himself never tried to "suppress" the connection with 
Rabelais-- he's one of the Saints in the Gnostic Mass, for 
Ra-Hoor-Khuit's sake!  And I seem to recall that AC mentions Rabelais 
and his Abbey on several occasions, and it is obvious that AC was 
conciously modelling the Abbey at Cefalu on Rabelais.   Crowley 
actually recommended Rabelais' works to the student in MTP (Appendix 
1) and far from trying to suppress this, HB give full bibiliographic 
referrences in the new Book Four.

And if you want me to put the icing on this little cake, there is 
Crowley's unfinished essay "The Antecedents of Thelema" which deals 
*specifically* with this issue concerning Rabelais.  The typescript 
resides in the Monty Evans Collection in the Lilly Library at Indiana 
University.  I believe that this will soon be published in the 
Oriflamme 2, which I understand is now in the proof stages so we may 
see it by the end of the year.  I saw this essay several years ago, 
and I don't recall that AC was making any great efforts to push the 
obvious resemblances under the rug, quite the opposite in fact.  I 
think he regarded it as an honour for his work be connected in some 
way with someone of Rabalais' caliber.

However I do not see that this has any bearing whatsoever on the issue 
of the "true authorship" of Liber AL.  One could just as easily say 
that Rabelais was in contact with Aiwass, conciously or otherwise.  A 
person's opinion on this tells a great deal that person's intellectual 
prejudices and little about the actual issue at hand.

93/93!

John