I have come to my desire for silence both through the teachings of Masonry and of my particular faiths, both of my youth in Christianity, and my adulthood in Thelema, and through my own observations on my mind when I participate in these discussions. Consequently, you will see these all mixed together below. I do not seek to conflate them and strongly caution that no one should, for they are all very different and stand on their own legs, excepting in the case of the individual who has within him all of these things intermingled. Please excuse my commingling of these many elements.
Let us start from Masonry, and expand from there:
“’tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that
Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular
Opinions to themselves ; that is, to be good Men and true, or
Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations
or Persuasions they may be distinguish’d ; whereby Masonry
becomes the Center of Union, and the Means of conciliating
true Friendship among Persons that must else have remain’d
at a perpetual Distance.”
— Andersons Constitution of 1723.
“Lord, help us to practice out of the Lodge, those great moral duties which are inculcated in it”
— Excerpt from a Masonic prayer.
Is “keeping our particular opinions to ourselves” a great moral duty? No, it is not. To wit, a number of great statesmen and religious leaders have come from our Fraternity, and for their sharing of their ideas, greater liberty and peace have come to many. Yet still, for me, trying to cultivate this practice out of Lodge has proven significantly beneficial, and improved my life greatly.
I used to be, if no great debater myself, at least proxy to great political and religious debates within the online Thelemic and libertarian communities. I felt that I got a lot out of it, and it certainly increased my knowledge and expanded my understanding. It also caused significant rifts and divided people. It lead to in-crowds and out-crowds, and many of those rifts have not fully healed in more than a decades time. I doubt they ever will.
I made my first post yesterday in over 2 years. I had quit posting years earlier because I did not wish to engage in the fighting any longer. What was intended as a very positive post on the works of Thomas Merton and my reflections on humility, became, for a full half of the document, a diatribe against the faith of my youth; a faith to which many good men I know aspire. I seek to cast no aspersions on them nor on whatever path they take which allows them to be who they are, yet as it was my own and for me was evil, I found myself hard-pressed not to argue against it.
This caused me to reflect on what it is I wish to discuss and why. Both our spiritual and political beliefs and the actions they inspire are critically important and require serious investigation and contemplation. Both are well served by a solid understanding of their history and a realistic assessment of their effects in the world today. More than anything else, these will affect how we perceive the world and what we will do to and for ourselves and our neighbor.
While the discussion of these can be a worthy or noble task, I have found, for me, that exercising silence on these matters is more noble. Why? Certain quotes from my chosen faith, Thelema, come to mind:
In Liber ABA, Crowley writes:
“Thus ‘non-killing,’ which originally meant ‘do not excite yourself by stalking tigers,’ has been interpreted to mean that it is a crime to drink water that has not been strained, lest you should kill the animalcula.
But this constant worry, this fear of killing anything by mischance is, on the whole, worse than a hand-to-hand conflict with a grisly bear. If the barking of a dog disturbs your meditation, it is simplest to shoot the dog, and think no more about it.”
While we can certainly argue his thoughts on any authentic niyama as practiced by the Yogi or Hindu, I am content to accept it as worthy advice to the Thelemite. In speaking of magical schools he said in Magick Without Tears:
“Contact with other students only means that you criticize their hats, and then their morals; and I am not going to encourage this. Your work is not anybody else’s; and undirected chatter is the worst poisonous element in human society.”
and from Liber Al, we receive:
“Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not; talk not overmuch!”
and
“to each man and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine or to drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds.”
But what good would we be, as Thelemites, if we did not test our work and our scriptures, “success is your proof!”
So what is success, to the Thelemite, but individual attainment? For some Will to war, and others to peace. Some to conversation and others to solitude. It is this which most distinguishes Thelema from the heard, that our sole unifying tenet is this: Do YOUR work. Find your own path as laid out by the Divine, and in that Divine Will which is uniquely your own, work.
For some, arguing politics and religion will prove fruitful. For me, peace and tranquility of mind, contemplation and reflection are what I most seek, at least for now. History has shown that the debates of religion and politics, both for myself and for others are sources of great division, and in that division, I find myself most disturbed and thrown from the Great Work.
So then, with all that laid out, the costs made clear, let us examine what can be gained.
Last night, against my inclination and intention, I got into a discussion over what libertarianism is, and why I ascribe to this belief system. It went well enough and we both parted ways amicably. While libertarian debate is old ground to me, he patiently listened and made himself the student. (and what else is the mark of a true master, but to remain always a student?) This is a challenging task at the best of times, doubly so when listening to your ideological “enemy”, and I think the better of him for it and aspire to the same myself.
He not only let me speak, but listened to me, and in such, heard my thoughts on the Non-aggression-principle, nuisance laws, immigration and wars of aggression along with my understanding of how the corporate shield and libertarianism are incompatible.
In short, we came to recognize that our ideals are not so different, that we see different means of achieving them, and we count different costs as higher to the individual, although we both recognize the trade offs as significant. It helped to build a bridge between two communities which often find the other immoral and created a personal connection which is the root of all love and respect between communities.
In performing these apologetics, we can, if they are done well, help heal rifts which require healing now more than ever. I do not pretend this is an ignoble or unneeded task.
But for this to happen, we must both start from a place of listening. We must both intend to be students more than teachers, and we must both be interested in hearing what the other has to say. This is harder every year, and so seldom done well, even by those of us who sincerely try. For me, this sincerity starts with listening rather than speaking, which is why to speak of these things so disturbed me. And still I have a very hard time listening to someone on a subject I believe myself somewhat knowledgable on. In part, it is because if I am listening at all, I find myself listening to an argument instead of a person, and in an argument, one listens to counter, not to learn.
Too often I find that we lead with our beliefs. We engage in a competition of who is right and who is wrong. We do not allow for the sharing of our humanity, humility and care for others; or if we do, it is so cursory as to be insignificant. If we lead with care only as it allows us to then convert, we have not lead with care at all but merely with strategy, and a transparent one at at that. In this, or even in the perception that this may be the case, we risk negating true good will and friendship, creating fear that it was all staged as an attempt to make our own philosophy look “compassionate”.
That this is even a concern is upsetting into and of itself, and yet it is something I have seen time and time again. This strategy has been so beaten into my head in my youth, that I refuse outright, to turn from my sincere and true affection for the purpose of preaching; that the former might remain uncorrupted.
In short, it troubles my mind and conscious, and leaves me the lesser for the conversation, however jovial it may be. So I have chosen instead to pursue the path of peace and tranquility.
This then is my reflection, and my ask of any who may stumble upon my writings. Not that you should or should not engage in debate or outright battle, but that you should know fully its cost, and decide wisely if you wish to pay it, with reasonable expectations as to what that cost may buy you.
Know Will Dare 