Thelema

is a system of philosophical law and magic, developed by Aleister Crowley.
Several important Thelemic aspects and concepts are featured in the story of Toaru Majutsu no Index, and are involved in Aleister Crowley's plan.
==Principles==
In 1904, Crowley traveled to Egypt on a honeymoon with his wife, Rose Kelly. While there, she entered into some kind of connection with the Egyptian god Horus. To test this, Crowley subjected her to tests involving arcane and Qabalistic knowledge of Horus, which she apparently passed with flying colors. After performing a ritual, an entity known as Aiwass dictated to Crowley for an hour. Crowley titled the result The Book of the Law, and this book would become the central tenet of Crowley's new religion, Thelema ( for will).
The central belief behind both the Book of the Law and Thelema can be summed up in three sentences from the book:
*
*"Love is the law, love under will."
*"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."
===Aeons===
An important concept in Thelema is that of , divisions of human history named after Egyptian deities, Chapter 2 Part 4 and each characterized by certain forms of belief and expression.
There are three primary Aeons; the first is the , the time of primitive religions, before the establishment of Christianity. The second is the , a period in the classical and medieval centuries, believed to be one of stagnation, where humanity worshiped a single god during the spread of Christianity. The third and newest is the when it is believed humanity will enter a time of self-realization and self-actualization, achieving a true awakening after the downfall of Christianity.
The Aeons influence several other aspects of Thelema, such as the based around the concept and featuring The Aeon as its twentieth Major Arcana instead of . Unlike the Golden-style Tarot, in which the Major Arcana connected to the 22 paths on the Sephirot tree tell the story of the Son of God, from birth to execution and resurrection, in order to draw on a portion of his power and acquire a technique of entering the realm of god with a human body, the Thoth Tarot's Major Arcana (with different cards and a different meaning for The Hanged Man) starts at the birth of Christianity and follows it through to its destruction at Armageddon and to the new Aeon arriving afterwards, aimed at destroying the 'closed ceiling' of god's territory and bringing humanity to the next stage above it.
===True Will===
 is a central concept within Thelema. True Will originates from within the individual and could be referred to as their "true calling." In essence, it is the idea that a fully actualized person will act in accordance with their personal drive to act according to what they truly need to do. This is differentiated from a person merely doing what they want to and is not simply a call to hedonism; instead, it is a person who surpasses the limitations of normal people by abandoning ideas of "right" and "wrong" as imposed by social norms and instead creating their own concept of morality that is true to themselves.
This concept, itself also referred to by the term Thelema in the Toaru series, forms a key part of Aleister Crowley's plans; his overall plan based on his own to proceed onwards towards his goal regardless of success or failure, Epilogue Afterword and Academy City's set-up being modelled after Kamijou Touma's, in order to draw in Imagine Breaker and draw out its potential. Chapter 3 Part 14
===Entities===
There are a number of deity-like figures and other similar entities which appear within the works of Thelema, a number of which are derived from other sources, such as Egyptian Mythology. These include , , , , , , and Choronzon.
One particularly notable entity is the being known as Aiwass, who dictated the contents of the Book of the Law to Aleister Crowley. Prologue
===Other===
The number is a key number in Thelema, associated with both the term Thelema itself and Aiwass, Chapter 3 Part 9 being the sum of numerical values assigned to the individual letters of certain variants of the terms via the technique of isopsephy.
==Background==
Thelema was devised in the early 20th century by the magician Aleister Crowley, most likely influenced by his desire to find the proper rules and answers that the god who created the world could not in order to make the world a better place, a wish which started him down the path of magic. Epilogue
Like many other European magicians who had reached a dead-end in their research and sought new material elsewhere to make a breakthrough, Aleister Crowley traveled to Egypt, conveniently located just across the Mediterranean. While he was in Egypt, Aleister experimented in summoning a demon which no one had ever heard of, Between the Lines 3 and incorporated the names of Isis, Osiris and Horus into his concept of Aeons, a concept which a number of people within the Golden Dawn didn't support during his time with the cabal, being considered an extreme view even within that cabal. During one of his trips, Aleister apparently used his wife who had accompanied him around the world as a medium to contact the entity known as Aiwass, who taught Aleister the secrets which he would incorporate into the Book of the Law. Chapter 2 Part 1
After severing ties with the Golden Dawn, Aleister continued his work on Thelema. At one point, he established the , however it collapsed due to a certain accident. At least part of this work was an attempt to suppress the creation of sparks from phase collisions by creating a new mythology as cushioning between those many phases, which was ultimately thwarted by the Christian churches sending billions of their followers after him in order to protect their monopoly on the concept of god. In the present day, it forms a key part of his plan with Academy City. Epilogue
==Chronology==
===Toaru Majutsu no Index===
Various elements of Thelema, such as The Book of the Law, the concept of Aeons, and the entity Aiwass, are featured over the course of Toaru Majutsu no Index and play a key part in events in the story. Prologue Chapter 3 Part 13 Chapter 4 Part 3 Epilogue
===Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index===
The elements of Thelema previously referred to are referenced at various points during Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index, along with certain new elements. Epilogue Epilogue Epilogue
====Kamisato Rescue Arc====
When Kamijou Touma, Misaka Mikoto, Karasuma Fran and Toyama Luca examined the core of the original Anti-Art Attachment, Luca observed magical elements within the core derived from Thelema and in a trance-like state, made a link between the Temple of Thelema and the use of drugs in adolescents to induce paranormal phenomena. Chapter 2 Part 13
Luca incorporated multiple Thelemic elements into the spell she and Fran performed in order to rescue Kamisato Kakeru. Chapter 2 Part 5 Chapter 2 Part 8 Tsuchimikado Motoharu later told Fran that to Aleister, Academy City is the return of Thelema.
====Aleister Crowley Arc====
Various elements from the system are featured during the struggle against Aleister Crowley and the exploration of his past, Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Part 7 including how he used it in the set-up of Academy City and his plan.
====Coronzon Arc====
Numerous Thelemic elements were involved in the events surrounding the Crowley's Hazard invasion of the United Kingdom and the Ceremony of Mo Athair.
===Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index===
====Post-Handcuffs Arc====
On December 29th, during his encounter with Touma and the boy's rejection of his help in resolving the situation surrounding the escaped prisoners who survived Operation Handcuffs in favor of trying to overturn the fixed bad ending he had been told awaited, Aleister expressed frustration at seeing a glimpse of the Thelema leading to the 21st Aeon in the home he had already abandoned, remarking how the things he pursued always seem to elude him and the things he discarded turn out to be treasures. Chapter 3 Part 4
====New Year's Arc====
During events between January 1st and 3rd, Aleister Crowley and the sealed Anna Sprengel referred to the Aeon of Horus and its implications (including those of the phrase "every man and every woman is a star" found in the Book of the Law)), during the former's interrogation of the latter and the exploration into the nature of the Bridge Builders Cabal, its Transcendents and its plans. Chapter 2 Part 7 Epilogue In a separate case, the term Therion (associated with an entity in Thelema) was used as part of the fictional concept of a Personal Therion in an Academy City New Year's TV PR drama. Prologue
On January 4th, as the Bridge Builders Cabal were concluding a ceremony involving summoning a superhuman soul into an unborn fetus, heavily influenced by Aleister's system and theories, Chapter 3 Part 4 and it was revealed by Anna Kingsford that it was to create a person rather than a god or demon, Aleister mentioned several Thelemic entities as examples of beings that one might expect a person to choose given the nature of the ceremony. Epilogue
On January 5th, when Aleister confronted "CRC" at Heaven Canceller's Hospital, with support from both Aiwass and Coronzon, and shifted the phases to cut themselves off from the normal world, allowing them to clash without endangering the hospital and those within it, he referred to his past, thwarted attempt to suppress the creation of sparks by creating a new mythology (that of Thelema) as cushioning between the phases. Chapter 3 Part 13
==Uses of Thelema in the story==
Name 	Description 	Usage in Toaru Majutsu no Index
 	A key word featured in The Book of the Law (first and last), derived from , described as "the Word of the Aeon" (not to be confused with "the Word of the Law of the Aeon", Thelema, meaning "Will") and the magical formula of a new age, with multiple mystical interpretations. 	Abrahadabra was present in a curse-reversal triangle engraved on the core of the Anti-Art Attachment.
Aeons 	Thelemic concept in which the history of humanity is divided into several different Aeons, named after Egyptian deities. 	
*Aiwass refers to himself as a being from the Aeon of Horus during his encounter with Accelerator and refers to Accelerator's black wings as something from the Aeon of Osiris.
*During his encounter with Fiamma of the Right, Aleister Crowley refers to how Fiamma used the wrong format in his plans, saying that if he'd based his plans in the Aeon of Horus rather Osiris he would have achieved a position similar to him.
*Nephthys, who had laughed as Aleister named the Aeons, Between the Lines 3 mentioned the concept to Kamijou Touma during her and Othinus's lecture on European magic and Africa.
Aiwass 	An entity encountered by Aleister Crowley, from whom the Book of the Law originated. 	Aiwass itself appears within the series, first appearing during the end of 's confrontation with Shiokishi. Chapter 3 Part 13
Babalon 	Goddess and consort of Chaos, also called the Scarlet Woman and Mother of Abominations. 	
*Aleister Crowley refers to Babalon while inspecting the female body of an alternative possibility of himself. Prologue
*Aleister made use of Babalon in a spell he used in a diving attack on the reproduced Mathers, Chapter 3 Part 18 and in blood-related spells against Coronzon. Chapter 3 Part 15 Chapter 4 Part 14
The Book of the Law	Also known as Liber AL vel Legis. The central sacred text of Thelema, written by Aleister Crowley and originating from Aiwass. 	The Book of the Law is a coded grimoire, widely considered to be very dangerous by many on the Magic Side.
Cake of Light 	A special cake which contains blood and can be used as a substitute for a sacrifice. 	Containers possibly meant for researching the Cake of Light were present on the Queen Britannia. Chapter 3 Part 10
Hadit 	A deity of the Thelemic Trinity, lover of Nuit. Described as the center of the circle, an infinitely small point at the core of everything, the infinity of an ultimately contracted universe. 	
*Coronzon invoked Hadit of Vengeance in the incantation for her Magick: Flaming_Sword. Prologue
*Aleister mentioned Hadit while talking about the Bridge Builders Cabal summoning a superhuman soul into an unborn fetus and the kind of beings one would expect to be the target of such a ceremony.
Hoor-paar-kraat 	 	Aleister mentioned Hoor-paar-kraat while talking about the Bridge Builders Cabal summoning a superhuman soul into an unborn fetus and the kind of beings one would expect to be the target of such a ceremony.
Nuit 	A deity of the Thelemic Trinity, derived from the Egyptian sky goddess , who was said to swallow and rebirth the stars, along with the sun. Called the Lady of the Starry Heaven among other things and often depicted as a naked lady covered with stars, Nuit represents an infinitely-expanded circle whose centre is everywhere.	
*Coronzon invoked Nuit of Resurrection in the incantation for her Magick: Flaming_Sword. Prologue
*The first part of Lilith Crowley's full name is Nuit. Chapter 3 Part 8
*Aleister mentioned Nuit while talking about the Bridge Builders Cabal summoning a superhuman soul into an unborn fetus and the kind of beings one would expect to be the target of such a ceremony.
Probationer 	Initial rank in certain Thelemic groups created by Aleister Crowley on a grading system derived from that of the Golden Dawn, occupying the 0=0 position that the rank of Neophyte was associated with in the original Golden Dawn. 	Coronzon refers to the term during conversations with Accelerator and Hamazura Shiage during the events surrounding the Ceremony of Mo Athair.
Ra-Hoor-Khuit 	A deity of the Thelemic Trinity, a composite of the Ancient Egyptian gods and . Called the Crowned and Conquering Child of the union of Nuit and Hadit, he is the Lord of the Aeon of Horus. 	Coronzon refers to the Circle of Ra-Hoor-Khuit in the incantation for her Magick: Flaming_Sword. Prologue
Thoth Tarot 	A variant of Tarot, devised by Aleister, named after the Egyptian god of knowledge Thoth, and connected to the concept of Aeons. 	
*Nephthys and Othinus refer to the Thoth Tarot during their lecture to Touma.
*The name of Aleister's AI, Reading Thoth 78, is derived from the Thoth Tarot. Epilogue It is later revealed to also be an original grimoire comprised of and named the Thoth Tarot. Chapter 4 Part 7
Unicursal Hexagram 	A hexagram drawn in a single-stroke and an important symbol of Thelema, representing microcosmic forces interweaving with macro-cosmic forces. 	
*A unicursal hexagram was one of the elements of the spell which was going to be used to erase Index's memory.
*A unicursal hexagram was one of the Thelemic elements which Luca incorporated into the spell intended to rescue Kamisato Kakeru. Chapter 4 Part 4 Afterword
==External Links==
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==References==
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