Neil's Reviews > Fresh Fever From the Skies: The Collected Writings of IAO131

Fresh Fever from the Skies highlights some of the central aspects of Thelema, pointing to the universality of the doctrines of Thelema in a way that many people in a post-modern, post-God-is-Dead world can understand and appreciate. Many of us have abandoned traditional religious pursuits and have looked upon many of the modern esoteric and occult traditions with suspicion and often disdain, either due to lack of critical discourse in those traditions, intolerance of other points-of-view, outmoded approaches to human life, or whatever else. IAO131 does an admirable job at making the doctrines of Thelema accessible to those of us who have felt the need to engage genuinely with some form of religion or spirituality in a way that avoids the backwardness and ignorance that we may have found in traditional religious, spiritual, esoteric, or occult settings.

One of the qualities of this collection that stood out to me was the “life-aesthetic” that is expressed and exuded throughout. The “The Manifest of Ra-Hoor-Khuit” begins explicitly with a discussion, “On the Proper Spirit” in Thelema, which is primarily that of an “overflowing of joy and peace”. Conflict and adversity (obstacles, threats, intimidations, and criticisms) are to be met with this spirit, a spirit that runs throughout most, if not all, of the works in this collection.

You can open up the book randomly and read one of the essays whenever you feel like it. Most likely, you will find material that is pertinent to your day to day life as a Thelemite or upon whatever Path you tread. The essays don’t necessarily need to be read in sequential order; and, since they cover such a wide scope of subject matter, they prove themselves to be pertinent to the many faceted construct that is our modern world. The quotation by Nietzsche sitting at the beginning of the introduction is thus relevant: “I mistrust all systematizers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity”.

One of the shinning lights of this collection, in my opinion, is IAO131’s essay, "The Radical Re-Orientation of True Will", which uses the notion of Authenticity to characterize True Will; that is, True Will is authentic being, while want is a state of being that often keeps us blind to our latent potentials and powers, it is inauthentic in the sense that want keeps us back from fully realizing who we are and what our genuine needs, demands, and pursuits in life are. The essay blends existential themes seamlessly with those of Thelema in a way that sheds light upon both the concepts of True Will and Authenticity, thus bringing an influx of energy and perspective into contemporary Thelemic culture and discourse.

IAO131 draws from many resources to expound upon the theoretical and practical aspects of Thelemic Mysticism and Magick, sources such as Carl Rogers in “Thelemic Values: A New View of Morality”, Rudolf Otto in “Thelema & Otto’s Idea of the Holy”, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, William James, and many others; however, through it all, IAO131 gives the impression of advocating an experimental and experiential approach to Magick and Thelema. Try it out, see if it works, if it doesn’t, discard it, if it does, implement it into your practice. As he writes in the essay “New Aeon Initiation,” “In the New Aeon, we place no faith on the grace of any god or guru; we assert no need to become an Initiate beyond oneself” (67).

This is a rather large volume, and that being so, it is impossible to adequately cover all of it in this review. However, I recommend reading through these essays yourself. Like I said, the book can be opened up randomly, the essays do not need to be read in sequential order, which makes them accessible to us wherever we might be along our own Paths. Whether or not you agree with IAO131, I am fairly certain that you will find some elements in these essays inspiring and useful. IAO131’s writings mark an important point in the evolution of Thelemic thought and culture.