Abadia de Thelema

Este artigo encontra-se parcialmente em língua estrangeira. Ajude e colabore com a tradução.

Foto recente da Abadia de Thelema em Cefalù

Abadia de Thelemase refere a uma pequena casa usado como um templo ou local de práticas envolvendo a Lei de Thelema.

A Abadia de Cefalù

Aleister Crowley, junto com Leah Hirsig, fundou uma Abadia de Thelema em Cefalù, uma comuna italiana da região da Sicília, província de Palermo; em 1920 e.v. The name was borrowed from Rabelais's satire Gargantua,[2] where the "Abbey of Theleme" is described as a sort of anti-monastery where the lives of the inhabitants were "spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure."[3] This idealistic utopia was to be the model of Crowley's commune, while also being a type of magical school, giving it the designation "Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum", The College of the Holy Spirit. The general programme was in line with the A.'.A.'. course of training, and included daily adorations to the sun, a study of Crowley's writings, regular yogic and ritual practices (which were to be recorded), as well as general domestic labor. The object, naturally, was for students to devote themselves to the Great Work of discovering and manifesting their True Wills.

Crowley had planned to transform the small house into a global center of magical devotion and perhaps to gain tuition fees paid by acolytes seeking training in the Magical Arts; these fees would further assist him in his efforts to promulgate Thelema and publish his manuscripts. What both the Abbey and its master actually became was the subject of much rumor and hearsay, partly the gossip of locals but mostly the product of John Bull, a British yellow journalist with a particularly vindictive attitude towards Crowley. These included charges of sexual orgies, animal and child sacrifices, drug use, and bestiality. Crowley never admitted to these, but neither did he deny them, feeling that there was no such thing as bad publicity. However, the accounts of one of Crowley's disciples who lived at the Abbey from 1920 to 1923, deny many of these claims.

Fim da Abadia

Por volta de 1923, um estudante não-graduado de Oxford chamado Raoul Loveday (ou Frederick Charles Loveday) morreu na Abadia. Sua esposa, Betty May, originalmente acusou que isso teria sido fruto de uma participação dele em um dos rituais de Crowley. Mais tarde, porém, ela aceitou o diagnóstico do doutor de grave febre tifóide contraída pela ingestão de água de uma nascente da montanha. (Crowley havia advertido os residentes da Abadia contra a ingestão de água não-fervida.) Quando Betty May retornou a Londres, ela concedeu uma entrevista a um jornal. O Sunday Express incluiu sua história em seus avançados ataques à Crowley.

Com estes e outros rumores sobre as atividades "estranhas" na Abadia, o governo de Mussolini exigiu que Crowley deixasse o país em 1923. Após a partida de Crowley, a Abadia de Thelema foi eventualmente abandonada e seus residentes locais pintaram de branco os murais do local.

Referências

• Wikipedia - 23/04/2007 e.v.