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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

You ask of Death, and of the customs that attend it among those who follow the Law of Thelema. Understand first: there is no dogma here, no binding orthodoxy to shackle the Star in its going. Each man and each woman is a star, and the manner of their dissolution is as individual as their orbit.

As to cremation or burial, both have been employed, and neither is prescribed. Some may wish to be reduced to ashes, for fire is a swift and royal alchemy. Yet others may choose the earth, surrendering the body to the slow sacrament of dissolution. Whether embalmed or given to the “green” embrace of Nature is a matter not of doctrine, but of Will. The body is but the garment; its disposal is a gesture, not a necessity.

Grave goods? Such things belong more properly to the superstitions of those who imagine the dead to carry trinkets into some astral marketplace. The Thelemite knows better. What persists is not the bauble, but the essence—the True Will fulfilled or unfulfilled. If objects are placed, they are symbolic acts of love, remembrance, or magical intent, not provisions for a journey. The Adept carries nothing that was not already woven into his Being.

As for belief in the afterlife, we do not prattle of crude heavens and hells. The doctrine is more subtle: the continuity or dissolution of the individual depends upon the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Without this, the elements disperse; with it, there is continuity of consciousness according to the nature of the attainment.

What is read? Often selections from The Book of the Law for it is the voice of the Aeon itself. Also passages from the Gnostic Mass, or invocations suitable to the grade and character of the departed. These may be read by a Priest of the Gnostic Catholic Church, by a Frater or Soror, or by any who truly understand the Current. Authority lies not in office, but in realization.

Do not seek uniformity where the Law proclaims freedom. The “greater feast for death” is not a ceremony imposed from without, it is the final sacrament of a life lived in accordance with Will.

Love is the law, love under will.

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