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Thelema is the English spelling of the Greek word 'Θελημα' which implies 'will' or 'intention.'

Thelema is also the name of a philosophical/religious system founded by Aleister Crowley in 1904. The central doctrine of this system is that knowing and doing one's True Will is the ultimate purpose and duty of every being. Crowley's 'received' text Liber AL vel Legis or The Book of the Law is the central document which provides the basis for Thelema. This book declares that "Love is the law, love under will", "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law", and "The word of the Law is Thelema".

The Greek Thelema is the basis of the word Thelemite, coined by François Rabelais, the 16th century French humorist-philosopher in his classic work Gargantua, where it is used to describe the dwellers in a sort of anti-monastery, the Abbey of Thélème. The word Thelemite appears in The Book of the Law, and is used self-referentially by the adherents of Thelema.

Two of the organizations that follow the tenets of Thelema are the various types of the Ordo Templi Orientis(e.g. the so called Caliphate-OTO which was established in the 1970s by Frater Hymenaeus Alpha, the SOTO under the brasilian occultist Motta, and the so called Typhonian OTO which was established by the british Kenneth Grant and the Argentinum Astrum. The AA is an independent body of Thelema although the Caliphate likes to state otherwise because Bill Breeze, Frater Hymenaeus Beta, leading OHO of the Caliphate, tries to control these thelemic groups too.

The biggest german thelemic group is the Thelema Society which is located in the northgerman area of Bergen. They have a very modern way to look upon the legacy of Master Therion ( Aleister Crowley ).

Compare with: Wiccan Rede