[I know that this journal was recently "archived", but this is a Thelemic topic, so I'm briefly reviving it...]

I have been having an interesting discussion with omphalos111 in his thykaaba journal where he is discussing Thelema in the frame of sociology. In his series, he has been arguing that Thelema can be a successful New Religious Movement (NRM) because it conforms with Stark's list of 10 traits that describe successful NRMs. In this entry, he posited that Thelema conforms to this theorem: "New religious movements are likely to succeed to the extent that they retain cultural continuity with the conventional faith(s) of the societies in which they seek converts."

( Read on if you care what I think... )

This is a fascinating topic. I suspect that Thelema is destined to being a very small group (<10,000) unless it does something to radically change in some way. What are your thoughts? Can it thrive without changing? Are there any "conventional faith(s)" within modern society that Thelema can "retain cultural continuity"? If it does have to change to grow, what might that change be? Is it best kept small?

UPDATE:

Most of the conversations agree that Thelema as it currently stands (i.e. bounded by the works of Crowley) simply cannot link into any existing cultural norms in a way that leads to increased membership, resources, or influence. I offer the issue of cost/benefit. As it stands, Thelema's purported benefits simply do not justify the huge cost to joining. Such costs include the time, energy, and money needed to collect and decipher Crowley's works, as well as the dangers of social damage, including occupational and legal troubles. I and others agree that Thelema might be able to overcome these things and develop a working cost/benefit balance if it added a non-Crowley entry system that could interface with some segment of modern society. But that leads to the issue of changing Thelema to being more than Crowley, and too many Thelemites find this unacceptable. In all, therefore, NRM success for Thelema much beyond its current state seems highly unlikely.