The term "secular saint" has no strict definition, but generally refers to someone venerated and respected for contributions to a noble cause, but not recognized as a canonical saint by any particular religion. The ranks of secular saints, like those of religious ones, are often filled by martyrs.
George Orwell began his "Reflections on Gandhi": "Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent…" Orwell concluded his essay with an attack on the idea of sainthood but praise for Gandhi:
One may feel, as I do, a sort of aesthetic distaste for Gandhi, one may reject the claims of sainthood made on his behalf (he never made any such claim himself, by the way), one may also reject sainthood as an ideal and therefore feel that Gandhi's basic aims were anti-human and reactionary: but regarded simply as a politician, and compared with the other leading political figures of our time, how clean a smell he has managed to leave behind! [1]
The term "secular saint" has also been used with reference to the incel community, which has been observed referring to mass-killer Elliot Rodger as "Saint Elliot" within the online spaces and discourses of the community and celebrating the anniversary of the 2014 Isla Vista killings as "Saint Elliot Day". Some academics, such as Taisto Witt, have suggested that, while the incel community is apparently nonreligious, their treatment of Rodger suggests that he has been appointed to a position that functionally operates as that of a saint within the community. [2]
Thelema, a philosophical movement, has generated a list of saints including individuals such as Roger Bacon. [3]
Moved by the liturgy of St. Basil, Crowley also wrote his Gnostic Catholic Mass. [...] The deacon begins the Mass by proclaiming the Law of Thelema, and at other points during the ceremony recites a Thelemic profession of faith and a list of Thelemic saints, including Roger Bacon, Sir Edward Kelly, Éliphas Lévi, Goethe, Wagner, Nietzsche, Carl Kellner, Sir Richard Burton, Theodor Reuss and, of course, Crowley.
Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, philosopher, political theorist, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.
Misogyny is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practised for thousands of years. It is reflected in art, literature, human societal structure, historical events, mythology, philosophy, and religion worldwide.
Thelema is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. Central to Thelema is the concept of discovering and following one's True Will, a unique purpose that transcends ordinary desires. Crowley's system begins with The Book of the Law, a text he maintained was dictated to him by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass. This work outlines key principles, including the axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," emphasizing personal freedom and the pursuit of one's true path, guided by love.
Liber AL vel Legis, commonly known as The Book of the Law, is the central sacred text of Thelema. The book is often referred to simply as Liber AL, Liber Legis or just AL, though technically the latter two refer only to the manuscript.
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), or the Gnostic Catholic Church, is a Gnostic church organization. It is the ecclesiastical arm of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), an international fraternal initiatory organization devoted to promulgating the Law of Thelema.
Aleister Crowley wrote The Gnostic Mass — technically called Liber XV or "Book 15" — in 1913 while travelling in Moscow, Russia. He described it as representing "the original and true pre-Christian Christianity." The structure is similar to the Mass of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, communicating the principles of Crowley's Thelema. It is the central rite of Ordo Templi Orientis and its ecclesiastical arm, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.
True Will is a foundational concept in Thelema, the philosophical and magical framework established by Aleister Crowley early in the 20th century. It represents the intrinsic and divine purpose unique to each individual, transcending mere personal desires and societal expectations. At the core of Crowley's teachings is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law", a central dictum of his received work, The Book of the Law. This principle asserts not a license for unchecked indulgence, but rather a mandate for individuals to align their actions with their truest spiritual calling. By adhering to their True Will, practitioners of Thelema seek to fulfill their spiritual destiny by harmonising with the cosmic order.
In Thelema, the Abyss represents a metaphysical concept that signifies the great chasm or void separating the manifest world from its divine source. Aleister Crowley, the founder of Thelema, extensively explored and integrated this concept into his esoteric teachings, imbuing it with deep spiritual significance.
Within Thelema, the Great Work is the spiritual endeavor aimed at realizing one's True Will and achieving a profound mystical union with Nuit, the Thelemic personification of the infinite and boundless expanse of the universe. This path, crafted by Aleister Crowley, draws inspiration from Hermetic alchemy and the Hermetic Qabalah. The cornerstone of Thelema is the Book of the Law, received by Crowley in 1904 through a communication with the entity Aiwass. This text became the central scripture, heralding a new Aeon for humanity and outlining the principles of Thelema.
In ceremonial magic, a magical formula or a word of power is a word that is believed to have specific supernatural effects. They are words whose meaning illustrates principles and degrees of understanding that are often difficult to relay using other forms of speech or writing. It is a concise means to communicate very abstract information through the medium of a word or phrase.
/r9k/ is a board on 4chan, an English-language imageboard. Created in 2008, the board implements Randall Munroe's "ROBOT9000" algorithm, which prevents exact reposts of content.
Wilfred Talbot Smith was an English occultist and ceremonial magician known as an advocate of the religion of Thelema. Living most of his life in North America, he played a key role in propagating Thelema across the continent.
The 2014 Isla Vista killings were two misogynistic terror attacks that occurred in Isla Vista, California, United States. On the evening of Friday, May 23, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others by gunshot, stabbing and vehicle-ramming near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) before fatally shooting himself.
The manosphere is a diverse collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism. Communities within the manosphere include men's rights activists (MRAs), incels, Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists (PUA), and fathers' rights groups. While the specifics of each group's beliefs sometimes conflict, they are generally united in the belief that society is biased against men due to the influence of feminism, and that feminists promote misandry, or hatred of men. Acceptance of these ideas is described as "taking the red pill", a metaphor borrowed from the film The Matrix.
A vehicle-ramming attack occurred on April 23, 2018, when a rented van was driven along Yonge Street through the North York City Centre business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The driver, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, targeted pedestrians, killing 11 and injuring 15, some critically. The incident is the deadliest vehicle-ramming attack in Canadian history.
Incel is a term associated with an online subculture of people who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one, and blame, objectify and denigrate women and girls as a result. The movement is strongly linked to misogyny. Originally coined as "invcel" around 1997 by a queer Canadian female student known as Alana, the spelling had shifted to "incel" by 1999, and the term later rose to prominence in the 2010s, following the influence of misogynistic terrorists Elliot Rodger and Alek Minassian.
Men Going Their Own Way is an anti-feminist, misogynistic, mostly online community advocating for men to separate themselves from women and society, which they believe has been corrupted by feminism. The community is a part of the manosphere, a collection of anti-feminist websites and online communities that also includes the men's rights movement, incels, and pickup artists.
Misogynist terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by the desire to punish women. It is an extreme form of misogyny—the policing of women's compliance to patriarchal gender expectations. Misogynist terrorism uses mass indiscriminate violence in an attempt to avenge nonconformity with those expectations or to reinforce the perceived superiority of men.
Liber Resh vel Helios, commonly referred to as Liber Resh, is a set of daily solar adorations composed by Aleister Crowley, the founder of the religion of Thelema. The practice involves a series of invocations to the Sun at specific times of the day: dawn, noon, sunset, and midnight. These rituals are intended to align the practitioner with the natural cycles of the Sun, thus integrating the physical and spiritual dimensions of existence in accordance with Thelemic principles.
"Reflections on Gandhi" is an essay by George Orwell, first published in 1949, which responds to Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. The essay, which appeared in the American magazine Partisan Review, discusses the autobiography and offers both praise and criticism to Gandhi, focusing in particular on the effectiveness of Gandhian nonviolence and the tension between Gandhi's spiritual worldview and his political activities. One of a number of essays written by Orwell and published between Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), "Reflections on Gandhi" was the last of Orwell's essays to be published in his lifetime and was not republished until after his death.