title: Cruel Intentions

text: Kathryn tells Sebastian that she intends to use Cecile to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend Court Reynolds, who dumped her for Cecile. Kathryn enlists Sebastian, a notorious womanizer, to seduce Cecile, thereby ruining her in Court's eyes. Sebastian refuses because he is planning to seduce Annette Hargrove, the virgin daughter of the new Headmaster at their school, who has written an essay which was published by a magazine in support of chastity until marriage. After some negotiation, they agree on a wager: if Sebastian fails to seduce Annette, Kathryn gets Sebastian's vintage Jaguar XK140; if he succeeds, Kathryn will have sex with him.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: Sebastian's first attempt to seduce Annette fails, as she is apparently already aware of his reputation. Sebastian initially suspects Greg, Annette’s friend from Kansas who is a popular football player and closeted homosexual. Sebastian convinces Greg to put in a good word about him to Annette, blackmailing him with a photo of him and Sebastian’s openly gay friend in bed. Sebastian also finds out that Mrs. Caldwell was the one who warned Annette about Sebastian. Sebastian finally agrees to corrupt Cecile as revenge. Meanwhile, Cecile confides in Kathryn about her romance with her music teacher, Ronald Clifford. Kathryn reveals this to Mrs. Caldwell, who orders Cecile to end the relationship, but only because Ronald is black. Sebastian lures Cecile to his house by claiming he has a letter to her from Ronald. He then gets Cecile drunk and blackmails her into allowing him to perform oral sex on her. The next day, Cecile confides in Kathryn, who advises her to be as promiscuous as possible to learn how to please Ronald.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: Sebastian begins to truly fall in love with Annette, who returns his feelings but is still hesitant. Sebastian calls her a hypocrite for resisting the chance for true love despite claiming that she was waiting for it. Annette finally relents, but Sebastian, confused about his own feelings, now refuses her. Annette flees to the estate of her friend's parents. Sebastian finds her and professes his feelings, and they make love.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: Kathryn offers herself to Sebastian after he wins the 'bet', but he rejects her, now only wanting Annette. Sebastian informs Kathryn that he was planning to tell Annette the truth, but a jealous and enraged Kathryn warns him that doing so will destroy both his and Annette's reputations. Sebastian lies to Annette, claiming that she was just a conquest and that he has no real feelings for her. Devastated, Annette tells him to leave. Sebastian informs Kathryn that he has broken up with Annette and now wants his reward for winning the bet. Kathryn reveals that he, not Annette, was the true target of her scheme and that she manipulated him into abandoning Annette for her own amusement. She then dismisses him, telling him that she doesn't sleep with "losers".


title: Cruel Intentions

text: Sebastian tries to contact Annette to confess the truth and beg for a second chance, but she refuses to see him. He gives her his journal, in which he has detailed Kathryn's manipulative schemes, their bet, and his true feelings for Annette. Seeking revenge, Kathryn calls Ronald, claiming that Sebastian hurt her and slept with Cecile. Ronald violently confronts Sebastian, and the ensuing fight migrates to the middle of the street. Annette tries to intervene but is thrown into traffic. Sebastian pushes her to safety but ends up getting hit by a taxi. Sebastian and Annette confess their love for each other before he dies. Ronald witnesses this and leaves angry once he finds out from Annette that Kathryn used him.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: At Sebastian's funeral, Kathryn delivers a eulogy, which people start leaving midway through. Kathryn rushes outside to find Cecile handing out copies of Sebastian's journal. As the details of her manipulations and drug abuse are made public, Kathryn's reputation is finally destroyed. Feeling guilt over his role in causing Sebastian's death, Ronald writes a detailed confession of how she lied to him about Cecile not being a virgin and her claims about Sebastian hitting her in order to have him killed. It is implied that the disapproving headmaster will expel her from the school, especially after finding cocaine hidden in the cross of her rosary. In the final scene, Annette drives away in Sebastian's car with his journal at her side, recalling their fondest moments together.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: One of the filming locations was Old Westbury Gardens in Nassau County, New York, as well as the Harry F. Sinclair House in New York City. In a 2016 interview, Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed that the original title of the movie was to be "Cruel Inventions".


title: Cruel Intentions

text: "Cruel Intentions" received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval score of 54% based on reviews from 114 critics, with an average rating of 5.20/10. The site's consensus states: "This darkly comic drama and its attractive young cast are easy on the eyes, but uneven performances and an uninspired script conspire to foil "Cruel Intentions"." Metacritic gave the film an average score of 56 out of 100 based on reviews from 24 critics.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: Charles Taylor of "Salon.com" described the film as "The dirtiest-minded American movie in recent memory – and an honestly corrupt entertaining picture is never anything to sneeze at." Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" stated, "You have the queasy sense that the whole thing is just an elaborate stunt and, in this case, an exploitative one." Despite this, Roger Ebert, a noted film critic for "The Chicago Sun-Times," praised "Cruel Intentions" and gave the film three out of four stars in his review, stating that it was "smart and merciless in the tradition of the original story."


title: Cruel Intentions

text: "Cruel Intentions" was a commercial success, grossing $13,020,565 in its opening weekend, ranking #2 behind "Analyze This"; released in 2,312 theaters, the movie raked in $76.3 worldwide against a $10.5 million budget.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: The "Cruel Intentions" soundtrack is a compilation soundtrack released on March 9, 1999, by Arista/Virgin Records. It reached number 60 on the Billboard chart. The lead track for the film was "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by rock band The Verve.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: "Cruel Intentions 2" was released direct-to-video in 2001, written and directed by Roger Kumble, assembled from three episodes filmed for "Manchester Prep," a prequel series scrapped by Fox. The story features younger versions of Sebastian Valmont and Kathryn Merteuil played by Robin Dunne and Amy Adams.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: "Cruel Intentions 3" followed in 2004, directed by Scott Ziehl, starring Kerr Smith and Kristina Anapau, as Cassidy Merteuil, cousin to Kathryn.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: NBC announced in October 2015 that they had picked up a television pilot for a continuation of the film's storyline. The pilot was set seventeen years after the events of the film and sees Bash Casey, son of Sebastian Valmont and Annette Hargrove, discover his late father's journal. Upon discovering this he is thrown into a world of lies, sex and power. The potential series will also see Kathryn Merteuil, Bash's step-aunt, attempt to gain power of Valmont International.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: In February 2016, Taylor John Smith and Samantha Logan were cast, with Smith playing the male lead role of Bash Casey, Sebastian Valmont and Annette Hargrove's son. Gellar reached a deal with producers to reprise her role as the female lead, Kathryn Merteuil. In March, Kate Levering was cast to replaces Witherspoon for the role of Annette Hargrove.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: On October 31, 2016, NBC announced that it had passed on the project and that the series would not go forward.


title: Cruel Intentions

text: In October 2021, it was announced that a television series reboot of "Cruel Intentions" was in development for IMDb TV (now Amazon Freevee).


title: Cruel Intentions

text: A 1990s jukebox musical by Kumble, Rosin, and Ross, was first staged in 2015. After two runs in Los Angeles and a pop-up engagement in New York, "" made its Off-Broadway debut at the Greenwich Village nightclub Le Poisson Rouge in November 2017 and ran through April 2018. Set to pop and rock hits of the 1990s and songs from the film's soundtrack, the plot follows the manipulations of Sebastian Valmont and Kathryn Merteuil, out to destroy anyone who gets in their way.


title: Jake Lacy

text: Jake Lacy (born February 14, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Pete Miller on the ninth and final season of "The Office", as Fran Parker in the fourth and fifth seasons of HBO's "Girls", and his role as Shane Patton on the HBO limited series "The White Lotus", the latter of which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Other television roles include those in the ABC sitcom "Better with You" and the Showtime series "I'm Dying Up Here". In addition, he played Robert Berchtold in the Peacock miniseries "A Friend of the Family".


title: Jake Lacy

text: In film, he has starred in "Obvious Child" (2014), "Carol" (2015), "How to Be Single" (2016), "Christmas Inheritance" (2017), "Rampage" (2018), and "Being the Ricardos" (2021).


title: Jake Lacy

text: In 2008, Lacy graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) in Winston-Salem. After graduation, he worked odd jobs in the state of New York. He worked as a gym receptionist, a bar-back at a club, and a waiter, while going to auditions during the day, until being cast in the role of Casey in "Better with You".


title: Jake Lacy

text: Lacy acted in high school and performed on professional stages in the productions of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as Demetrius (in Hartford Stage's production), and "Much Ado About Nothing" as Conrad (in the Oberon Theater Ensemble's production). Lacy played brief roles in a few episodes of "Guiding Light" before its cancellation. In 2010, he had a lead role in the Columbia thesis film "C'est moi".


title: Jake Lacy

text: From 2010 to 2011, Lacy starred as Casey in the ABC sitcom "Better with You". He starred as Pete Miller, or "Plop", in the ninth and last season of "The Office". His next role was in the independent sports comedy "Balls Out", where he played the lead Caleb Fuller who leads an intramural football team. In 2014, he starred in the comedy-drama film "Obvious Child" opposite Jenny Slate. He also appeared in the HBO comedy "Girls" as Fran, a love interest of Lena Dunham's protagonist Hannah. Lacy starred opposite Rooney Mara in "Carol" (2015), as Richard, her character's boyfriend.


title: Jake Lacy

text: In 2016, Lacy appeared in the WWII-set dramedy "Their Finest", directed by Lone Scherfig, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and "Miss Sloane", a political thriller directed by John Madden, which had its world premiere at the AFI Fest. In 2017, Lacy co-starred in "I'm Dying Up Here", a comedy series on Showtime. In 2019, he appeared as a love interest of Gwen Verdon, played by Michelle Williams, in "Fosse/Verdon", on FX.


title: Jake Lacy

text: Lacy married long-time girlfriend Lauren Deleo on August 22, 2015, in Dorset, Vermont; they have two sons.


title: Jake Lacy

text: Lacy supported Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but also stated that people should not necessarily listen to actors regarding politics.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of "Cannabis sativa" cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants on Earth. It was also one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 50,000 years ago. It can be refined into a variety of commercial items, including paper, rope, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, and animal feed.


title: Hemp

text: Although chemotype I cannabis and hemp (types II, III, IV, V) are both "Cannabis sativa" and contain the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), they represent distinct cultivar groups, typically with unique phytochemical compositions and uses. Hemp typically has lower concentrations of total THC and may have higher concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD), which potentially mitigates the psychoactive effects of THC. The legality of hemp varies widely among countries. Some governments regulate the concentration of THC and permit only hemp that is bred with an especially low THC content into commercial production.


title: Hemp

text: The etymology is uncertain but there appears to be no common Proto-Indo-European source for the various forms of the word; the Greek term () is the oldest attested form, which may have been borrowed from an earlier Scythian or Thracian word. Then it appears to have been borrowed into Latin, and separately into Slavic and from there into Baltic, Finnish, and Germanic languages.


title: Hemp

text: In the Germanic languages, following Grimm's law, the "k" would have changed to "h" with the first Germanic sound shift, giving Proto-Germanic *"hanapiz", after which it may have been adapted into the Old English form, , . Barber (1991) however, argued that the spread of the name "kannabis" was due to its historically more recent plant use, starting from the south, around Iran, whereas non-THC varieties of hemp are older and prehistoric. Another possible source of origin is Assyrian , which was the name for a source of oil, fiber, and medicine in the 1st millennium BC.


title: Hemp

text: Cognates of hemp in other Germanic languages include Dutch , Danish and Norwegian , Saterland Frisian , German , Icelandic and Swedish . In those languages "hemp" can refer to either industrial fiber hemp or narcotic cannabis strains.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp is used to make a variety of commercial and industrial products, including rope, textiles, clothing, shoes, food, paper, bioplastics, insulation, and biofuel. The bast fibers can be used to make textiles that are 100% hemp, but they are commonly blended with other fibers, such as flax, cotton or silk, as well as virgin and recycled polyester, to make woven fabrics for apparel and furnishings. The inner two fibers of the plant are woodier and typically have industrial applications, such as mulch, animal bedding, and litter. When oxidized (often erroneously referred to as "drying"), hemp oil from the seeds becomes solid and can be used in the manufacture of oil-based paints, in creams as a moisturizing agent, for cooking, and in plastics. Hemp seeds have been used in bird feed mix as well. A survey in 2003 showed that more than 95% of hemp seed sold in the European Union was used in animal and bird feed.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp seeds can be eaten raw, ground into hemp meal, sprouted or made into dried sprout powder. Hemp seeds can also be made into a slurry used for baking or for beverages, such as hemp milk and tisanes. Hemp oil is cold-pressed from the seed and is high in unsaturated fatty acids.


title: Hemp

text: In the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs treats hemp as a purely non-food crop, but with proper licensing and proof of less than 0.3% THC concentration, hemp seeds can be imported for sowing or for sale as a food or food ingredient. In the US, hemp can be used legally in food products and, , was typically sold in health food stores or through mail order.


title: Hemp

text: A portion of hulled hemp seeds supplies of food energy. They contain 5% water, 5% carbohydrates, 49% total fat, and 31% protein. Hemp seeds are notable in providing 64% of the Daily Value (DV) of protein per 100-gram serving. Hemp seeds are a rich source of dietary fiber (20% DV), B vitamins, and the dietary minerals manganese (362% DV), phosphorus (236% DV), magnesium (197% DV), zinc (104% DV), and iron (61% DV). About 73% of the energy in hemp seeds is in the form of fats and essential fatty acids, mainly polyunsaturated fatty acids, linoleic, oleic, and alpha-linolenic acids. The ratio of the 38.100 grams of polyunsaturated fats per 100 grams is 9.301 grams of omega‑3 to 28.698 grams of omega‑6. Typically, the portion suggested on packages for an adult is 30 grams, approximately three tablespoons.


title: Hemp

text: The amino acid profile of hemp seeds is comparable to the profiles of other protein-rich foods, such as meat, milk, eggs, and soy. Protein digestibility-corrected amino acid scores were 0.49–0.53 for whole hemp seed, 0.46–0.51 for hemp seed meal, and 0.63–0.66 for hulled hemp seed.


title: Hemp

text: Despite the rich nutrient content of hemp seeds, the seeds contain antinutritional compounds, including phytic acid, trypsin inhibitors, and tannins, in significant concentrations.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp oil oxidizes and turns rancid within a short period of time if not stored properly; its shelf life is extended when it is stored in a dark airtight container and refrigerated. Both light and heat can degrade hemp oil.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp fiber has been used extensively throughout history, with production climaxing soon after being introduced to the New World. For centuries, items ranging from rope, to fabrics, to industrial materials were made from hemp fiber. Hemp was also commonly used to make sail canvas. The word "canvas" is derived from the word "cannabis". Pure hemp has a texture similar to linen. Because of its versatility for use in a variety of products, today hemp is used in a number of consumer goods, including clothing, shoes, accessories, dog collars, and home wares. For clothing, in some instances, hemp is mixed with lyocell.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp as a building construction material provides solutions to a variety of issues facing current building standards. Its light-weightiness, mold resistance, breathability, etc. makes hemp products versatile in a multitude of uses. Following the co-heating tests of NNFCC Renewable House at the Building Research Establishment (BRE), hemp is reported to be a more sustainable material of construction in comparison to most building methods used today. In addition, its practical use in building construction could result in the reduction of both energy consumption costs and the creation of secondary pollutants.


title: Hemp

text: The hemp market was at its largest during the 17th century. In the 19th century and onward, the market saw a decline during its rapid illegalization in many countries. Hemp has resurfaced in green building construction, primarily in Europe. The modern-day disputes regarding the legality of hemp lead to its main disadvantages; importing and regulating costs. Final Report on the Construction of the Hemp Houses at Haverhill, UK conducts that hemp construction exceeds the cost of traditional building materials by £48per square meter.


title: Hemp

text: Currently, the University of Bath researches the use of hemp-lime panel systems for construction. Funded by the European Union, the research tests panel design within their use in high-quality construction, on site assembly, humidity and moisture penetration, temperature change, daily performance and energy saving documentations. The program, focusing on Britain, France, and Spain markets aims to perfect protocols of use and application, manufacturing, data gathering, certification for market use, as well as warranty and insurance.


title: Hemp

text: The most common use of hemp-lime in building is by casting the hemp-hurd and lime mix while wet around a timber frame with temporary shuttering and tamping the mix to form a firm mass. After the removal of the temporary shuttering, the solidified hemp mix is then ready to be plastered with lime plaster.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp is classified under the green category of building design, primarily due to its positive effects on the environment. A few of its benefits include but are not limited to the suppression of weed growth, anti-erosion, reclamation properties, and the ability to remove poisonous substances and heavy metals from soil.


title: Hemp

text: The use of hemp is beginning to gain popularity alongside other natural materials. This is because cannabis processing is done mechanically with minimal harmful effects on the environment. A part of what makes hemp sustainable is its minimal water usage and non-reliance on pesticides for proper growth. It is recyclable, non-toxic, and biodegradable, making hemp a popular choice in green building construction.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp fiber is known to have high strength and durability, and has been known to be a good protector against vermin. The fiber has the capability to reinforce structures by embossing threads and cannabis shavers. Hemp has been involved more recently in the building industry, producing building construction materials including insulation, hempcrete, and varnishes.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp made materials have low embodied energy. The plant has the ability to absorb large amounts of CO, providing air quality, thermal balance, creating a positive environmental impact.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp's properties allow mold resistance, and its porous materiality makes the building materials made of it breathable. In addition hemp possesses the ability to absorb and release moisture without deteriorating. Hemp can be non-flammable if mixed with lime and could be applied on numerous aspects of the building (wall, roofs, etc.) due to its lightweight properties.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp is commonly used as an insulation material. Its flexibility and toughness during compression allows for easier implementation within structural framing systems. The insulation material could also be easily adjusted to different sizes and shapes by being cut during the installation process. The ability to not settle and therefore avoiding cavity developments lowers its need for maintenance.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp insulation is naturally lightweight and non-toxic, allowing for an exposed installation in a variety of spaces, including flooring, walling, and roofing. Compared to mineral insulation, hemp absorbs roughly double the amount of heat and could be compared to wood, in some cases even overpassing some of its types.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp insulation's porous materiality allows for air and moisture penetration, with a bulk density going up to 20% without losing any thermal properties. In contrast, the commonly used mineral insulation starts to fail after 2%. The insulation evenly distributes vapor and allows for air circulation, constantly carrying out used air and replacing with fresh. Its use on the exterior of the structure, overlaid with breathable water-resistive barriers, eases the withdrawal of moisture from within the wall structure.


title: Hemp

text: In addition, the insulation doubles as a sound barrier, weakening airborne sound waves passing through it.


title: Hemp

text: In addition to the absorbed CO during its growth period, hemp repeats during the creation of the concrete. The mixture hardens when the silica contained in hemp shives mixes with lime, resulting in the mineralization process..


title: Hemp

text: Hemp is most commonly used as concrete in building construction due to its lightness (roughly seven times lighter than common concrete). The building material is made of hemp herds (shives), hydraulic lime, and water mixture varying in ratios. The mix depends on the use of concrete within the structure and could differ in physical properties. Surfaces such as flooring interact with a multitude of loads and would have to be more resistible, while walls and roofs are required to be more lightweight. The application of this material in construction requires minimal skill.


title: Hemp

text: The most common variation of this building style is hempcrete; made of concrete-like blocks. Such blocks are not strong enough to be used for structural elements and must be supported by brick, wood, or steel framing. In the end of the twentieth century, during his renovation of Maison de la Turquie in Nogent-sur-Seine, France, Charles Rasetti first invented and applied the use of hempcrete in construction. Shortly after, in the 2000s, Modece Architects used hemp-lime for test designs in Haverhill. The dwellings were studied and monitored for comparison with other building performances by BRE. Completed nine years later, the buildings were found to be one of the most technologically advanced structures made of hemp-based material. Following the discovery, it pioneered hemp's use in UK construction. A year later the first home made of hemp-based materials was completed in Asheville, North Carolina, US.


title: Hemp

text: Cannabis seeds have high-fat content and contain 30-35% of fatty acids. The extracted oil is suited for a variety of construction applications. The biodegradable hemp oil acts as a wood varnish, protecting flooring from mold, pests, and wear. Its use prevents the water from penetrating the wood while still allowing air and vapor to pass through. Its most common use can be seen in wood framing construction, one of the most common construction methods in the world. Because of its low UV-resistant rating, the finish is most often used indoors, on surfaces such as flooring and wood paneling.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp-based insulating plaster is created by combining hemp fibers with calcium lime and sand. This material, when applied on internal walls, ceilings, and flooring, can be layered up to ten centimeters in thickness. Its porous materiality allows the created plaster to regulate air humidity and evenly distribute it. The gradual absorption and release of water prevent the material from cracking and breaking apart. Similar to high-density fiber cement, hemp plaster can naturally vary in color and be manually pigmented.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp ropes can be woven in various diameters, possessing high amounts of strength making them suitable for a variety of uses for building construction purposes. Some of these uses include installation of frames in building openings and connection of joints. The ropes also used in bridge construction, tunnels, traditional homes, etc. One of the earliest examples of hemp rope and other textile use can be traced back to 1500 BC Egypt.


title: Hemp

text: Cannabis geotextiles could be put in both wet and dry conditions. Hemp-based bioplastic is a biodegradable alternative to regular plastic and can potentially replace polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a material used for plumbing pipes.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp growth lasts roughly 100 days, a much faster time period than an average tree used for construction purposes. While dry, the fibers could be pressed into tight wood alternatives to wood-frame construction, wall/ceiling paneling, and flooring. As an addition, hemp is flexible and versatile allowing it to be used in a greater number of ways than wood. Similarly, hemp wood could also be made of recycled hemp-based paper.


title: Hemp

text: A mixture of fiberglass, hemp fiber, kenaf, and flax has been used since 2002 to make composite panels for automobiles. The choice of which bast fiber to use is primarily based on cost and availability.


title: Hemp

text: Various car makers are beginning to use hemp in their cars, including Audi, BMW, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda, Iveco, Lotus, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Saturn, Volkswagen and Volvo. For example, the Lotus Eco Elise


title: Hemp

text: Hemp paper are paper varieties consisting exclusively or to a large extent from pulp obtained from fibers of industrial hemp. The products are mainly specialty papers such as cigarette paper, banknotes and technical filter papers. Compared to wood pulp, hemp pulp offers a four to five times longer fibre, a significantly lower lignin fraction as well as a higher tear resistance and tensile strength. However, production costs are about four times higher than for paper from wood, since the infrastructure for using hemp is underdeveloped. If the paper industry were to switch from wood to hemp for sourcing its cellulose fibers, the following benefits could be utilized:


title: Hemp

text: However, hemp has had a hard time competing with paper from trees or recycled newsprint. Only the outer part of the stem consists mainly of fibers which are suitable for the production of paper. Numerous attempts have been made to develop machines that efficiently and inexpensively separate useful fibers from less useful fibers, but none have been completely successful. This has meant that paper from hemp is still expensive compared to paper from trees.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp jewelry is the product of knotting hemp twine through the practice of macramé. Hemp jewellery includes bracelets, necklaces, anklets, rings, watches, and other adornments. Some jewellery features beads made from crystals, glass, stone, wood and bones. The hemp twine varies in thickness and comes in a variety of colors. There are many different stitches used to create hemp jewellery, however, the half knot and full knot stitches are most common.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp rope was used in the age of sailing ships, though the rope had to be protected by tarring, since hemp rope has a propensity for breaking from rot, as the capillary effect of the rope-woven fibers tended to hold liquid at the interior, while seeming dry from the outside. Tarring was a labor-intensive process, and earned sailors the nickname "Jack Tar". Hemp rope was phased out when manila rope, which does not require tarring, became widely available. Manila is sometimes referred to as Manila hemp, but is not related to hemp; it is abacá, a species of banana.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp shives are the core of the stem, hemp hurds are broken parts of the core. In the EU, they are used for animal bedding (horses, for instance), or for horticultural mulch. Industrial hemp is much more profitable if both fibers and shives (or even seeds) can be used.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp can be used as a "mop crop" to clear impurities out of wastewater, such as sewage effluent, excessive phosphorus from chicken litter, or other unwanted substances or chemicals. Additionally, hemp is being used to clean contaminants at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site, by way of a process which is known as phytoremediation – the process of clearing radioisotopes and a variety of other toxins from the soil, water, and air.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp crops are tall, have thick foliage, and can be planted densely, and thus can be grown as a smother crop to kill tough weeds. Using hemp this way can help farmers avoid the use of herbicides, gain organic certification, and gain the benefits of crop rotation. However, due to the plant's rapid and dense growth characteristics, some jurisdictions consider hemp a prohibited and noxious weed, much like Scotch Broom.


title: Hemp

text: Biodiesel can be made from the oils in hemp seeds and stalks; this product is sometimes called "hempoline". Alcohol fuel (ethanol or, less commonly, methanol) can be made by fermenting the whole plant.


title: Hemp

text: Filtered hemp oil can be used directly to power diesel engines. In 1892, Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine, which he intended to power "by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils, which earlier were used for oil lamps, i.e. the Argand lamp".


title: Hemp

text: Production of vehicle fuel from hemp is very small. Commercial biodiesel and biogas is typically produced from cereals, coconuts, palm seeds, and cheaper raw materials like garbage, wastewater, dead plant and animal material, animal feces and kitchen waste.


title: Hemp

text: Separation of hurd and bast fiber is known as decortication. Traditionally, hemp stalks would be water-retted first before the fibers were beaten off the inner hurd by hand, a process known as scutching. As mechanical technology evolved, separating the fiber from the core was accomplished by crushing rollers and brush rollers, or by hammer-milling, wherein a mechanical hammer mechanism beats the hemp against a screen until hurd, smaller bast fibers, and dust fall through the screen. After the Marijuana Tax Act was implemented in 1938, the technology for separating the fibers from the core remained "frozen in time". Recently, new high-speed kinematic decortication has come about, capable of separating hemp into three streams; bast fiber, hurd, and green microfiber.


title: Hemp

text: Only in 1997, did Ireland, parts of the Commonwealth and other countries begin to legally grow industrial hemp again. Iterations of the 1930s decorticator have been met with limited success, along with steam explosion and chemical processing known as thermomechanical pulping.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp is usually planted between March and May in the northern hemisphere, between September and November in the southern hemisphere. It matures in about three to four months.


title: Hemp

text: Millennia of selective breeding have resulted in varieties that display a wide range of traits; e.g. suited for a particular environments/latitudes, producing different ratios and compositions of terpenoids and cannabinoids (CBD, THC, CBG, CBC, CBN...etc.), fibre quality, oil/seed yield, etc. Hemp grown for fiber is planted closely, resulting in tall, slender plants with long fibers.


title: Hemp

text: The use of industrial hemp plant and its cultivation was commonplace until the 1900s when it was associated with its genetic sibling a.k.a. Drug-Type Cannabis species (which contain higher levels of psychoactive THC). Influential groups misconstrued hemp as a dangerous "drug", even though hemp is not a recreational drug and has the potential to be a sustainable and profitable crop for many farmers due to hemp's medical, structural and dietary uses.


title: Hemp

text: In the United States, the public's perception of hemp as marijuana has blocked hemp from becoming a useful crop and product," in spite of its vital importance prior to World War II. Ideally, according to Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the herb should be desiccated and harvested towards the end of flowering. This early cropping reduces the seed yield but improves the fiber yield and quality. In these strains of industrial hemp* the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content would have been very low.


title: Hemp

text: The seeds are sown with grain drills or other conventional seeding equipment to a depth of . Greater seeding depths result in increased weed competition. Nitrogen should not be placed with the seed, but phosphate may be tolerated. The soil should have available 89 to 135 kg/ha of nitrogen, 46 kg/ha phosphorus, 67 kg/ha potassium, and 17 kg/ha sulfur. Organic fertilizers such as manure are one of the best methods of weed control.


title: Hemp

text: In contrast to cannabis for medical use, varieties grown for fiber and seed have less than 0.3% THC and are unsuitable for producing hashish and marijuana. Present in industrial hemp, cannabidiol is a major constituent among some 560 compounds found in hemp.


title: Hemp

text: "Cannabis sativa" L. subsp. "sativa" var. "sativa" is the variety grown for industrial use, while "C. sativa" subsp. "indica" generally has poor fiber quality and female buds from this variety are primarily used for recreational and medicinal purposes. The major differences between the two types of plants are the appearance, and the amount of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) secreted in a resinous mixture by epidermal hairs called glandular trichomes, although they can also be distinguished genetically. Oilseed and fiber varieties of "Cannabis" approved for industrial hemp production produce only minute amounts of this psychoactive drug, not enough for any physical or psychological effects. Typically, hemp contains below 0.3% THC, while cultivars of "Cannabis" grown for medicinal or recreational use can contain anywhere from 2% to over 20%.


title: Hemp

text: Smallholder plots are usually harvested by hand. The plants are cut at 2 to 3 cm above the soil and left on the ground to dry. Mechanical harvesting is now common, using specially adapted cutter-binders or simpler cutters.


title: Hemp

text: The cut hemp is laid in swathes to dry for up to four days. This was traditionally followed by "retting", either water retting (the bundled hemp floats in water) or dew retting (the hemp remains on the ground and is affected by the moisture in dew and by molds and bacterial action).


title: Hemp

text: Several arthropods can cause damage or injury to hemp plants, but the most serious species are associated with the Insecta class. The most problematic for outdoor crops are the voracious stem-boring caterpillars, which include the European corn borer, "Ostrinia nubilalis," and the Eurasian hemp borer, "Grapholita delineana." "A"s the names imply, they target the stems reducing the structural integrity of the plant. Another lepidopteran, the corn earworm, "Helicoverpa zea," is known to damage flowering parts and can be challenging to control. Other foliar pests, found in both indoor and outdoor crops, include the hemp russet mite, "Aculops cannibicola," and cannabis aphid, "Phorodon cannabis." They cause injury by reducing plant vigour because they feed on the phloem of the plant. Root feeders can be difficult to detect and control because of their below surface habitat. A number of beetle grubs and chafers are known to cause damage to hemp roots, including the flea beetle and Japanese beetle, "Popillia Japonica". The rice root aphid, Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale, has also been reported but primarily affects indoor growing facilities. Integrated pest management strategies should be employed to manage these pests with prevention and early detection being the foundation of a resilient program. Cultural and physical controls should be employed in conjunction with biological pest controls, chemical applications should only be used as a last resort.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp plants can be vulnerable to various pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, viruses and other miscellaneous pathogens. Such diseases often lead to reduced fiber quality, stunted growth, and death of the plant. These diseases rarely affect the yield of a hemp field, so hemp production is not traditionally dependent on the use of pesticides.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp is considered by a 1998 study in "Environmental Economics" to be environmentally friendly due to a decrease of land use and other environmental impacts, indicating a possible decrease of ecological footprint in a US context compared to typical benchmarks. A 2010 study, however, that compared the production of paper specifically from hemp and eucalyptus concluded that "industrial hemp presents higher environmental impacts than eucalyptus paper"; however, the article also highlights that "there is scope for improving industrial hemp paper production". Hemp is also claimed to require few pesticides and no herbicides, and it has been called a carbon negative raw material.


title: Hemp

text: Results indicate that high yield of hemp may require high total nutrient levels (field plus fertilizer nutrients) similar to a high yielding wheat crop.


title: Hemp

text: The world-leading producer of hemp is China, which produces more than 70% of the world output. France ranks second with about a quarter of the world production. Smaller production occurs in the rest of Europe, Chile, and North Korea. Over 30 countries produce industrial hemp, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Ukraine.


title: Hemp

text: The United Kingdom and Germany resumed commercial production in the 1990s. British production is mostly used as bedding for horses; other uses are under development. Companies in Canada, the UK, the United States, and Germany, among many others, process hemp seed into a growing range of food products and cosmetics; many traditional growing countries continue to produce textile-grade fibre.


title: Hemp

text: Air-dried stem yields in Ontario have from 1998 and onward ranged from 2.6 to 14.0 tonnes of dry, retted stalks per hectare (1–5.5 t/ac) at 12% moisture. Yields in Kent County, have averaged 8.75 t/ha (3.5 t/ac). Northern Ontario crops averaged 6.1 t/ha (2.5 t/ac) in 1998. Statistic for the European Union for 2008 to 2010 say that the average yield of hemp straw has varied between 6.3 and 7.3 ton per ha. Only a part of that is bast fiber. Around one tonne of bast fiber and 2–3 tonnes of core material can be decorticated from 3–4 tonnes of good-quality, dry-retted straw. For an annual yield of this level is it in Ontario recommended to add nitrogen (N):70–110 kg/ha, phosphate (PO): up to 80 kg/ha and potash (KO): 40–90 kg/ha.


title: Hemp

text: FAO argue that an optimum yield of hemp fiber is more than 2 tonnes per ha, while average yields are around 650 kg/ha.


title: Hemp

text: In the Australian states of Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales, and most recently, South Australia, the state governments have issued licences to grow hemp for industrial use. The first to initiate modern research into the potential of cannabis was the state of Tasmania, which pioneered the licensing of hemp during the early 1990s. The state of Victoria was an early adopter in 1998, and has reissued the regulation in 2008.


title: Hemp

text: Queensland has allowed industrial production under licence since 2002, where the issuance is controlled under the Drugs Misuse Act 1986.


title: Hemp

text: Western Australia enabled the cultivation, harvest and processing of hemp under its Industrial Hemp Act 2004, New South Wales now issues licences under a law, the Hemp Industry Regulations Act 2008 (No 58), that came into effect as of 6 November 2008.


title: Hemp

text: Most recently, South Australia legalized industrial hemp under South Australia's Industrial Hemp Act 2017, which commenced on 12 November 2017.


title: Hemp

text: Commercial production (including cultivation) of industrial hemp has been permitted in Canada since 1998 under licenses and authorization issued by Health Canada.


title: Hemp

text: In the early 1990s, industrial hemp agriculture in North America began with the Hemp Awareness Committee at the University of Manitoba. The Committee worked with the provincial government to get research and development assistance and was able to obtain test plot permits from the Canadian government. Their efforts led to the legalization of industrial hemp (hemp with only minute amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol) in Canada and the first harvest in 1998.


title: Hemp

text: In 2017, the cultivated area for hemp in the Prairie provinces include Saskatchewan with more than , Alberta with , and Manitoba with . Canadian hemp is cultivated mostly for its food value as hulled hemp seeds, hemp oils, and hemp protein powders, with only a small fraction devoted to production of hemp fiber used for construction and insulation.


title: Hemp

text: France is Europe's biggest producer (and the world's second largest producer) with cultivated. 70–80% of the hemp fibre produced in 2003 was used for specialty pulp for cigarette papers and technical applications. About 15% was used in the automotive sector, and 5-6% was used for insulation mats. About 95% of hurds were used as animal bedding, while almost 5% was used in the building sector. In 2010–2011, a total of was cultivated with hemp in the EU, a decline compared with previous year.


title: Hemp

text: From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Soviet Union was the world's largest producer of hemp ( in 1970). The main production areas were in Ukraine, the Kursk and Orel regions of Russia, and near the Polish border. Since its inception in 1931, the Hemp Breeding Department at the Institute of Bast Crops in Hlukhiv (Glukhov), Ukraine, has been one of the world's largest centers for developing new hemp varieties, focusing on improving fiber quality, per-hectare yields, and low THC content.


title: Hemp

text: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the commercial cultivation of hemp declined sharply. However, at least an estimated 2.5 million acres of hemp grow wild in the Russian Far East and the Black Sea regions.


title: Hemp

text: In the United Kingdom, cultivation licences are issued by the Home Office under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. When grown for nondrug purposes, hemp is referred to as industrial hemp, and a common product is fibre for use in a wide variety of products, as well as the seed for nutritional aspects and the oil. Feral hemp or ditch weed is usually a naturalized fibre or oilseed strain of "Cannabis" that has escaped from cultivation and is self-seeding.


title: Hemp

text: In October 2019, hemp became legal to grow in 46 U.S. states under federal law. As of 2019, 47 states have enacted legislation to make hemp legal to grow at the state level, with several states implementing medical provisions regarding the growing of plants specifically for non-psychoactive CBD.


title: Hemp

text: The 2018 Farm Bill, which incorporated the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, removed hemp as a Schedule I drug and instead made it an agricultural commodity. This legalized hemp at the federal level, which made it easier for hemp farmers to get production licenses, acquire loans, and receive federal crop insurance. The bill allows Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and South Dakota to continue to ban the growth of industrial hemp in those states. However, some of these states have enacted their own legislation to allow the research and production of hemp.


title: Hemp

text: The process to legalize hemp cultivation began in 2009, when Oregon began approving licenses for industrial hemp. Then, in 2013, after the legalization of marijuana, several farmers in Colorado planted and harvested several acres of hemp, bringing in the first hemp crop in the United States in over half a century. After that, the federal government created a Hemp Farming Pilot Program as a part of the Agricultural Act of 2014. This program allowed institutions of higher education and state agricultural departments to begin growing hemp without the consent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Hemp production in Kentucky, formerly the United States' leading producer, resumed in 2014. Hemp production in North Carolina resumed in 2017, and in Washington State the same year. By the end of 2017, at least 34 U.S. states had industrial hemp programs. In 2018, New York began taking strides in industrial hemp production, along with hemp research pilot programs at Cornell University, Binghamton University and SUNY Morrisville.


title: Hemp

text: As of 2017, the hemp industry estimated that annual sales of hemp products were around $820 million annually; hemp-derived CBD have been the major force driving this growth.


title: Hemp

text: Despite this progress, hemp businesses in the US have had difficulties expanding as they have faced challenges in traditional marketing and sales approaches. According to a case study done by "Forbes", hemp businesses and startups have had difficulty marketing and selling non-psychoactive hemp products, as some online advertising platforms and financial institutions do not distinguish between hemp and marijuana.


title: Hemp

text: Gathered hemp fiber was used to make cloth long before agriculture, nine to fifty thousand years ago. It may also be one of the earliest plants to have been cultivated. An archeological site in the Oki Islands near Japan contained cannabis achenes from about 8000 BC, probably signifying use of the plant. Hemp use archaeologically dates back to the Neolithic Age in China, with hemp fiber imprints found on Yangshao culture pottery dating from the 5th millennium BC. The Chinese later used hemp to make clothes, shoes, ropes, and an early form of paper. The classical Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 480 BC) reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapors of hemp-seed smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation.


title: Hemp

text: Textile expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber summarizes the historical evidence that "Cannabis sativa", "grew and was known in the Neolithic period all across the northern latitudes, from Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, Ukraine) to East Asia (Tibet and China)," but, "textile use of Cannabis sativa does not surface for certain in the West until relatively late, namely the Iron Age."


title: Hemp

text: "I strongly suspect, however, that what catapulted hemp to sudden fame and fortune as a cultigen and caused it to spread rapidly westwards in the first millennium B.C. was the spread of the habit of pot-smoking from somewhere in south-central Asia, where the drug-bearing variety of the plant originally occurred. The linguistic evidence strongly supports this theory, both as to time and direction of spread and as to cause."


title: Hemp

text: Jews living in Palestine in the 2nd century were familiar with the cultivation of hemp, as witnessed by a reference to it in the Mishna ("Kil'ayim" 2:5) as a variety of plant, along with Arum, that sometimes takes as many as three years to grow from a seedling. In late medieval Germany and Italy, hemp was employed in cooked dishes, as filling in pies and tortes, or boiled in a soup. Hemp in later Europe was mainly cultivated for its fibers and was used for ropes on many ships, including those of Christopher Columbus. The use of hemp as a cloth was centered largely in the countryside, with higher quality textiles being available in the towns.


title: Hemp

text: The Spaniards brought hemp to the Americas and cultivated it in Chile starting about 1545. Similar attempts were made in Peru, Colombia, and Mexico, but only in Chile did the crop find success. In July 1605, Samuel Champlain reported the use of grass and hemp clothing by the (Wampanoag) people of Cape Cod and the (Nauset) people of Plymouth Bay told him they harvested hemp in their region where it grew wild to a height of 4 to 5 ft.


title: Hemp

text: George Washington pushed for the growth of hemp as it was a cash crop commonly used to make rope and fabric. In May 1765 he noted in his diary about the sowing of seeds each day until mid-April. Then he recounts the harvest in October which he grew 27 bushels that year.


title: Hemp

text: It is sometimes supposed that an excerpt from Washington's diary, which reads "Began to the Male from the Female hemp at Do.&—rather too late" is evidence that he was trying to grow female plants for the THC found in the flowers. However, the editorial remark accompanying the diary states that "This may arise from their [the male] being coarser, and the stalks larger" In subsequent days, he describes soaking the hemp (to make the fibers usable) and harvesting the seeds, suggesting that he was growing hemp for industrial purposes, not recreational.


title: Hemp

text: George Washington also imported the Indian hemp plant from Asia, which was used for fiber and, by some growers, for intoxicating resin production. In a 1796 letter to William Pearce who managed the plants for him, Washington says, "What was done with the Indian Hemp plant from last summer? It ought, all of it, to be sown again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raised, but to have disseminated seed to others; as it is more valuable than common hemp."


title: Hemp

text: Other presidents known to have farmed hemp for alternative purposes include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and Franklin Pierce.


title: Hemp

text: Historically, hemp production had made up a significant portion of antebellum Kentucky's economy. Before the American Civil War, many slaves worked on plantations producing hemp.


title: Hemp

text: In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed in the United States, levying a tax on anyone who dealt commercially in cannabis, hemp, or marijuana. The passing of the Act to destroy the U.S. hemp industry has been disputed to involve businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst and the Du Pont family.


title: Hemp

text: One claim is that Hearst believed that his extensive timber holdings were threatened by the invention of the decorticator that he feared would allow hemp to become a cheap substitute for the paper pulp used for newspaper. Historical research indicates this fear was unfounded because improvements of the decorticators in the 1930s – machines that separated the fibers from the hemp stem – could not make hemp fiber a cheaper substitute for fibers from other sources. Further, decorticators did not perform satisfactorily in commercial production.


title: Hemp

text: Another claim is that Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America at that time, had invested heavily in DuPont's new synthetic fiber, nylon, and believed that the replacement of the traditional resource, hemp, was integral to the new product's success. DuPont and many industrial historians dispute a link between nylon and hemp, nylon became immediately a scarce commodity. Nylon had characteristics that could be used for toothbrushes (sold from 1938) and very thin nylon fiber could compete with silk and rayon in various textiles normally not produced from hemp fiber, such as very thin stockings for women.


title: Hemp

text: While the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 had just been signed into law, the United States Department of Agriculture lifted the tax on hemp cultivation during WW II. Before WW II, the U.S. Navy used Jute and Manila Hemp from the Philippines and Indonesia for the cordage on their ships. During the war, Japan cut off those supply lines. America was forced to turn inward and revitalize the cultivation of Hemp on U.S. soils.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp was used extensively by the United States during World War II to make uniforms, canvas, and rope. Much of the hemp used was cultivated in Kentucky and the Midwest. During World War II, the U.S. produced a short 1942 film, "Hemp for Victory", promoting hemp as a necessary crop to win the war. By the 1980s the film was largely forgotten, and the U.S. government even denied its existence. The film, and the important historical role of hemp in U.S. agriculture and commerce was brought to light by hemp activist Jack Herer in the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes".


title: Hemp

text: U.S. farmers participated in the campaign to increase U.S. hemp production to 36,000 acres in 1942. This increase amounted to more than 20 times the production in 1941 before the war effort.


title: Hemp

text: In the United States, Executive Order 12919 (1994) identified hemp as a strategic national product that should be stockpiled.


title: Hemp

text: Hemp has been grown for millennia in Asia and the Middle East for its fibre. Commercial production of hemp in the West took off in the eighteenth century, but was grown in the sixteenth century in eastern England. Because of colonial and naval expansion of the era, economies needed large quantities of hemp for rope and oakum. In the early 1940s, world production of hemp fiber ranged from 250 000 to 350 000 metric tonnes, Russia was the biggest producer.


title: Hemp

text: In Western Europe, the cultivation of hemp was not legally banned by the 1930s, but the commercial cultivation stopped by then, due to decreased demand compared to increasingly popular artificial fibers. Speculation about the potential for commercial cultivation of hemp in large quantities has been criticized due to successful competition from other fibers for many products. The world production of hemp fiber fell from over 300,000 metric tons 1961 to about 75,000 metric tons in the early 1990s and has after that been stable at that level.


title: Hemp

text: In Japan, hemp was historically used as paper and a fiber crop. There is archaeological evidence cannabis was used for clothing and the seeds were eaten in Japan back to the Jōmon period (10,000 to 300 BC). Many Kimono designs portray hemp, or "asa" (), as a beautiful plant. In 1948, marijuana was restricted as a narcotic drug. The ban on marijuana imposed by the United States authorities was alien to Japanese culture, as the drug had never been widely used in Japan before. Though these laws against marijuana are some of the world's strictest, allowing five years imprisonment for possession of the drug, they exempt hemp growers, whose crop is used to make robes for Buddhist monks and loincloths for Sumo wrestlers. Because marijuana use in Japan has doubled in the past decade, these exemptions have recently been called into question.


title: Hemp

text: The cultivation of hemp in Portuguese lands began around the fourteenth century. The raw material was used for the preparation of rope and plugs for the Portuguese ships. Portugal also utilized its colonies to support its hemp supply, including in certain parts of Brazil.


title: Hemp

text: In order to recover the ailing Portuguese naval fleet after the Restoration of Independence in 1640, King John IV put a renewed emphasis on the growing of hemp. He ordered the creation of the Royal Linen and Hemp Factory in the town of Torre de Moncorvo to increase production and support the effort.


title: Hemp

text: In 1971, the cultivation of hemp became illegal, and the production was substantially reduced. Because of EU regulations 1308–70, 619/71 and 1164–89, this law was revoked (for some certified seed varieties).


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Maximilian I (, ; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor of the Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution on 19 June 1867. A member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, Maximilian was the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. He had a distinguished career as commander-in-chief of the Imperial Austrian Navy.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: France, together with Spain and the United Kingdom, had occupied the port of Veracruz in the winter of 1861 to pressure the Mexican government into settling its debts with the three powers after Mexico had announced a suspension on debt repayment; the Spanish and British both withdrew the following year after negotiating agreements with the Mexican government and realizing the true intention of the French, who were aiming at regime change. Seeking to legitimize French intervention, Emperor Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish what would come to be known as the Second Mexican Empire, which gained the collaboration of Mexican conservatives and certain moderate liberals. With a pledge of French military support and at the formal invitation of a Mexican delegation, Maximilian accepted the crown of Mexico on 10 April 1864.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The Mexican Empire managed to gain the diplomatic recognition of several European powers, including Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The United States, while it did not protest formally against the empire, continued to recognize Juárez as the legal president of Mexico and saw the French presence as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. The U.S. was unable to intervene politically due to its ongoing civil war. Maximilian and his French allies never completely defeated the Mexican Republic, but pushed them to the border with the U.S. Republican forces led by Juárez continued to be active during Maximilian's rule. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States began providing more explicit aid to Juárez's forces. French armies began to withdraw from Mexico in 1866 in part due to the Austro-Prussian War. The Mexican Empire collapsed without French aid, and Maximilian was captured and executed by the restored Republican government in 1867.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Maximilian was born on 6 July 1832 in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire. He was baptized the following day as "Ferdinand Maximilian Josef Maria". The first name honored his godfather and paternal uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I, and the second honored his maternal grandfather, Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria. His father was Archduke Franz Karl, the second surviving son of Emperor Francis I, during whose reign he was born. Maximilian was thus a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, a female-line cadet branch of the House of Habsburg. His mother was Princess Sophie of Bavaria, a member of the House of Wittelsbach. Intelligent, ambitious and strong-willed, Sophie had little in common with her husband, whom historian Richard O'Conner characterized as "an amiably dim fellow whose main interest in life was consuming bowls of dumplings drenched in gravy". Despite their different personalities, the marriage was fruitful, and after four miscarriages, four sons – including Maximilian – would reach adulthood. Rumors at the court stated that Maximilian was, in fact, the product of an extramarital affair between his mother and Napoleon II, Duke of Reichstadt. The existence of an illicit affair between Sophie and the duke, and any possibility that Maximilian was conceived from such a union, are dubious.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Adhering to traditions inherited from the Spanish court during Habsburg rule, Maximilian's upbringing was closely supervised. Until his sixth birthday, he was cared for by Baroness Louise von Sturmfeder, who was his "aja" (then rendered "nurse", now nanny). Afterward, his education was entrusted to a tutor. Most of Maximilian's day was spent in study. The hours per week of classes steadily increased from 32 at age seven to 55 by the time he was 17. The disciplines were diverse, ranging from history, geography, law and technology, to languages, military studies, fencing and diplomacy. From an early age, Maximilian tried to surpass his older brother Franz Joseph in everything, attempting to prove to all that he was the better qualified of the two and thus deserving of more than second-place status.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The highly restrictive environment of the Austrian court was not enough to repress Maximilian's natural openness. He was joyful, highly charismatic, and able to captivate those around him with ease. Although he was a charming boy, he was also undisciplined. He mocked his teachers and was often the instigator of pranks – including even his uncle, the emperor, among his victims. Nonetheless, Maximilian was popular. His attempts to outshine his older brother and his ability to charm opened a rift between him and the aloof and self-contained Franz Joseph that would widen as years passed, and their close friendship in childhood would be all but forgotten.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: In 1848, revolutions erupted across Europe. In the face of protests and riots, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favor of Maximilian's brother. Maximilian accompanied him on campaigns to put down rebellions throughout the empire. Only in 1849 would the revolution be stamped out in Austria, with hundreds of rebels executed and thousands imprisoned. Maximilian was horrified at what he regarded as senseless brutality and openly complained about it. He would later remark, "We call our age the Age of Enlightenment, but there are cities in Europe where, in the future, men will look back in horror and amazement at the injustice of tribunals, which in a spirit of vengeance condemned to death those whose only crime lay in wanting something different to the arbitrary rule of governments which placed themselves above the law".


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: At a court ball in Vienna, while still a bachelor, he had fallen in love with a young Moldavian noblewoman, Viktoria Keshko (1835-1856), paternal aunt of the future Queen of Serbia. As her family was Orthodox and did not belong to the reigning or former reigning ones, the question of marriage was impossible. When their romance was discovered, her father Ioan Keshko (1809–1863), who served as Russian Marshal of Nobility in Bessarabia, quickly sent her back home and forcefully married her off to her longtime admirer, local rich nobleman of Greek descent, Alexander Dimitrievich (1826-1903), son of (1771-1846).


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Maximilian was a clever boy who displayed considerable culture in his taste for the arts. He also demonstrated an early interest in science, especially botany. When he entered military service, he was trained in the Imperial Austrian Navy. He displayed zeal in his naval career and his direct link with Emperor Franz Joseph enabled the diversion of resources to what had previously been a neglected service .


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: He was made a lieutenant in the navy at the age of eighteen. In 1854, he sailed as commander in the corvette "Minerva", on an exploring expedition along the coast of Albania and Dalmatia. Maximilian was especially interested in maritime matters and undertook a long-distance journey to Brazil on the frigate "Elisabeth". In 1854, when he was only 22 years old—as a younger brother of the emperor, and thus a member of the ruling family—he was appointed as commander-in-chief of the Imperial Austrian Navy (1854–1861), which he reorganized in the following years. Like Archduke Friedrich (1821–1847) before him, Maximilian had a keen personal interest in the fleet, and with him the Austrian naval force gained an influential supporter from the ranks of the imperial family. This was crucial, as sea power had never been a priority of Austrian foreign policy, and the navy itself was relatively little known or supported by the public. It was only able to draw significant public attention and funds when it was actively supported by an imperial prince. As commander-in-chief, Maximilian carried out several reforms to modernise the naval forces, and was instrumental in creating the naval port at Trieste and Pola (now Pula), as well as the battle fleet with which Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff would later secure his victories. He was however criticised for diverting excessive funds to ship building to the neglect of training, sea going experience and morale. He also initiated a large-scale scientific expedition (1857–1859) during which the frigate SMS "Novara" became the first Austrian warship to circumnavigate the globe.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: In his political views, Archduke Maximilian was very much influenced by the progressive ideas in vogue at the time. He had a reputation as a liberal, and this was one of several considerations leading to his appointment as viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia in February 1857. Emperor Franz Joseph had decided on the need to replace the elderly soldier Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, to divert growing discontent amongst the Italian population through token liberalization, and to encourage a degree of personal loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: On 27 July 1857, in Brussels, Archduke Maximilian married his second cousin Charlotte, the daughter of Leopold I of Belgium and Louise of Orléans. They lived in Milan, the capital of Lombardy-Venetia, from 1857 until 1859, when Emperor Franz Joseph, angered by his brother's liberal policies, dismissed him. Shortly after, Austria lost control of most of its Italian possessions. Maximilian then retired to Trieste, near which he built Miramare Castle.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: At the same time, the couple acquired a converted monastery on the island of Lokrum as a holiday residence. Both estates had extensive gardens, reflecting Maximilian's horticultural interests.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: After gaining independence in 1821 Mexico had soon divided itself into liberal and conservative parties, the latter of which contained a monarchist faction. Monarchist plans had most clearly been laid out in an 1840 essay by the statesman José María Gutiérrez de Estrada, which argued that after two decades of chaos, the republic had failed, and that a European prince ought to be invited to establish a Mexican throne. Such ideas received official interest during the presidency of Mariano Paredes and during the last presidency of Santa Anna, but by the late 1850s the liberals had appeared to have achieved a decisive victory through the promulgation of the Constitution of 1857, and their triumph in the subsequent Reform War.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Mexican diplomat Jose Hidalgo had been officially tasked by the Santa Anna administration to sound European courts for interest in establishing a Mexican monarchy, but after the fall of Santa Anna in 1853, Hidalgo had lost his accreditation and continued his efforts independently. Hidalgo's childhood friend, the Spanish noblewoman Eugénie de Montijo was now wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of France, and it was through her that Hidalgo managed to gain the attention of Napoleon. By 1861, the United States was now embroiled in its Civil War and unable to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. In July of that year, Mexican President Benito Juarez had also suspended the payment of foreign debts, providing a pretext for intervention. Napoleon saw the opportunity to establish a French client state which could also serve as a buffer to the expansion of the United States. France gained the aid of Britain and Spain, under the pretext of arranging an expedition simply to renegotiate Mexico's debt agreements. Plans for such an expedition were formalized at the Convention of London on October 31, 1861.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The name of Maximilian came up swiftly in discussions among the Mexican monarchists on potential candidates for a Mexican throne. It was perceived as impolitic to propose a noble from one of the nations involved in the expedition and Maximilian already had a reputation as a capable administrator from his time spent as viceroy of Lombardy Venice. It was then decided that Gutiérrez de Estrada due to his pivotal role in the history of Mexican monarchism, was to be given the role of inviting Maximilian to assume a Mexican throne.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Gutiérrez de Estrada received Maximilian's answer at the beginning of October. The archduke would accept the throne on two conditions: 1st, that Mexico should spontaneously ask for him 2d, that he should also be assured of the support of France and Great Britain. Maximilian's brother, Franz Joseph Emperor of Austria, now sent Count de Rechberg, the Austrian minister of foreign affairs to brief Maximilian on what lay in store in the case that France did militarily intervene in Mexico, and a Mexican plebiscite approved of Maximilian.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Meanwhile agreements between France, Great Britain, and Spain broke down as it became increasingly clear that France intended to overthrow the government of Mexico. France began military operations on April, 1862. They were eventually joined by conservative Mexican generals who had never been entirely defeated in the War of Reform. After Charles de Lorencez's small expeditionary force was repulsed at the Battle of Puebla, reinforcements were sent and placed under the command of Élie Forey. The capital was taken by June, 1863 and the French now sought to establish a friendly Mexican government. Forey appointed a committee of thirty five Mexicans, the "Junta Superior" who then elected three Mexican citizens to serve as the government's executive. In turn this triumvirate then selected two hundred fifteen Mexican citizens to form together with the "Junta Superior", an "Assembly of Notables".


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The Assembly met on July, 1863 and resolved to invite Ferdinand Maximilian to be Emperor of Mexico. The executive triumvirate was formally changed into the Regency of the Mexican Empire. An official delegation left Mexico and arrived in Europe on October. Upon meeting the delegation, Maximilian set forth the condition that he would only accept the throne if a national plebiscite approved of it. By February, 1864 Franco-Mexican forces controlled territory compromising the majority of Mexico's population, and returns from a plebiscite claiming to show that a majority of Mexicans were in favor of the Empire were sent to Maximilian, which he accepted. Maximilian formally accepted the crown on 10 April 1864, and set sail for Mexico.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: In April 1864, Maximilian stepped down from his duties as chief of Naval Section of the Austrian Navy. He traveled from Trieste aboard SMS "Novara", escorted by the frigates (Austrian) and "Thémis" (French), and the Imperial yacht "Phantasie" led the warship procession from his Miramare Castle out to sea. They received a blessing from Pope Pius IX, and Queen Victoria ordered the Gibraltar garrison to fire a salute for Maximilian's passing ship.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The widespread doubts amongst informed persons concerning the wisdom of Maximilian's venture were reflected by the French colonel Charles du Barail, who while returning from arduous service in Mexico sighted the "Novara" during its Atlantic crossing. Wrote du Barail: "If you succeed in bringing order out of this chaos, fortune into this misery, union into these hearts you will be the greatest sovereign of modern times. Go poor fool! You may regret your beautiful castle of Miramar!"


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The new emperor of Mexico landed at Veracruz on 29 May 1864, and received a sparse reception from the townspeople due to a yellow fever break out. In addition, Veracruz was a liberal town, and the liberal voters were opposed to a monarchical government. The imperial couple’s arrival at the capital was more celebrated, with fireworks and hundreds of triumphant arches. Maximilian and Carlota were crowned at the Cathedral of Mexico City. He had the backing of Mexican conservatives, clergy, some native Mexican populations, and Napoleon III, but from the very outset he found himself involved in serious difficulties, since the Liberal forces led by President Benito Juárez refused to recognize his rule. There was continuous fighting between the French expeditionary forces (who were supplemented by Maximilian's locally recruited Imperial Mexican troops) on one side and the Mexican Republicans on the other.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The imperial couple chose their seat at Mexico City. The emperor and empress set up their residence at Chapultepec Castle, located on the top of a hill formerly on the outskirts of Mexico City that had been a retreat of Aztec emperors and Spanish viceroys. Maximilian ordered a wide avenue cut through the city from Chapultepec to the city center named Paseo de Chapultepec or Paseo de la Emperatriz (now known as Paseo de la Reforma). He also acquired a country retreat at Cuernavaca.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: As Maximilian and Carlota had no children, they adopted Agustín de Iturbide y Green and his cousin Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán, both grandsons of Agustín de Iturbide, who had briefly reigned as Emperor of Mexico in the 1820s. Agustin's mother, Alicia Iturbide, an American who was born Alice Green, agreed under duress to give up her child. Soon after, she pled with Maximilian to renounce the adoption contract, but he had her forcibly deported from Mexico without her child.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Agustin and his cousin were granted the title Prince de Iturbide and the style of Highness by an imperial decree of 16 September 1865, and were ranked next in line after the reigning family. Apparently, the royal couple intended to groom Agustín as heir to the throne. Maximilian never really intended to give the crown to the Iturbides because he believed that they were not of royal blood. It was all a charade directed at his brother Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, as Maximilian explained himself: either Karl would give him one of his sons as an heir, or else he would bequeath everything to the Iturbide children. In October 1866, "With dreams of founding an imperial dynasty vanquished, Maximilian now wrote to Alice Iturbide that he was returning her son, Agustín, to her care."


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: To the dismay of his conservative allies, Maximilian upheld several liberal policies proposed by the Juárez administration, such as land reforms, religious freedom, and extending the right to vote beyond the landholding classes. At first, Maximilian offered Juárez an amnesty if he would swear allegiance to the crown, even offering him the post of prime minister, which Juárez refused.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: After the end of the American Civil War, President Andrew Johnson invoked the Monroe Doctrine and recognized the Juárez government as the legitimate government of Mexico. The United States applied increasing diplomatic pressure to persuade Napoleon III to end French support of Maximilian and to withdraw French troops from Mexico. Washington began supplying partisans of Juárez and his ally Porfirio Díaz by "losing" arms depots to them at El Paso del Norte at the Mexican border. The prospect of an American invasion to reinstate Juárez caused a large number of Maximilian's loyal adherents to abandon his cause and leave the capital.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Meanwhile, Maximilian invited ex-Confederates to move to Mexico in a series of settlements called the "Carlota Colony" and the New Virginia Colony, with a dozen others being considered, a plan conceived by the internationally renowned U.S. Navy oceanographer and inventor Matthew Fontaine Maury. Maximilian also invited settlers from "any country", including Austria and the other German states.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Maximilian issued his "Black Decree"' on 3 October 1865. Its first article stated that: "All individuals forming a part of armed bands or bodies existing without legal authority, whether or not proclaiming a political pretext, whatever the number of those forming such band, or its organization, character, and denomination, shall be judged militarily by the courts martial. If found guilty, even though only of the fact of belonging to an armed band, they shall be condemned to capital punishment, and the sentence shall be executed within twenty-four hours". It is calculated that more than eleven thousand of Juárez's supporters were executed as a result of the decree, but in the end it only inflamed the Republican resistance.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Nevertheless, by 1866, the imminence of Maximilian's abdication seemed apparent to almost everyone outside Mexico. That year, Napoleon III withdrew his troops in the face of Mexican resistance and U.S. opposition under the Monroe Doctrine, as well as to strengthen his forces at home to face the ever-growing Prussian military. Carlota travelled to Europe, seeking assistance for her husband's regime in Paris and Vienna and, finally, in Rome from Pope Pius IX. Her efforts failed, and she suffered a deep emotional collapse and never went back to Mexico.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Though urged to abandon Mexico by Napoleon III himself, whose troop withdrawal from Mexico was a great blow to the Mexican Imperial cause, Maximilian was reluctant to desert his followers. Uncertain as to his future course of action, Maximilian allowed a conference of twenty-three of his supporters to vote against his abdication.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Faithful generals such as Miguel Miramón, Leonardo Márquez, and Tomás Mejía vowed to raise an army that would challenge the resurgent Republicans. Maximilian fought on with his army of 8,000 Mexican loyalists. Forced to withdraw from Mexico City in February 1867, Maximilian and most of his remaining forces fell back to Querétaro City, and sustained a siege for several weeks. On 11 May, Maximilian resolved to attempt an escape through the enemy lines. This plan was sabotaged by Colonel Miguel López who secretly agreed with the Republican General Escobedo to open a gate and lead a raiding party to seize the Imperial headquarters. López appears to have assumed that Maximilian would be allowed to escape.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The city fell on 15 May 1867, and Maximilian was captured the next morning after a failed attempt to escape through Republican lines by a loyal hussar cavalry brigade led by Felix Salm-Salm. A court-martial was convened by the now victorious Republicans; Maximilian was convicted and sentenced to death. A number of the crowned heads of Europe and other prominent figures (including the eminent liberals Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi) sent telegrams and letters to Mexico requesting that the Emperor's life be spared.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Although he respected Maximilian on a personal level, Juárez refused to commute the sentence in view of the Mexicans who had been killed fighting against Maximilian's forces, and because he believed it was necessary to send a message that Mexico would not tolerate any government imposed by foreign powers. Felix Salm-Salm and his wife devised a plan to allow Maximilian to escape execution by bribing his jailors. However, Maximilian would not go through with the plan unless Generals Miramón and Mejía could accompany him and because he felt that shaving his beard to avoid recognition would undermine his dignity if he were to be recaptured. The sentence was carried out in the "Cerro de las Campanas" at 6:40 a.m. on the morning of 19 June 1867, when Maximilian, along with Miramón and Mejía, was executed by a firing squad. He spoke only in Spanish and gave each of his executioners a gold coin not to shoot him in the head so that his mother could see his face. His last words were, "I forgive everyone, and I ask everyone to forgive me. May my blood, which is about to be shed, be for the good of the country. ¡Viva México, viva la independencia!" Generals Miramón and Mejía standing to Maximilian's right, were killed by the same volley as the emperor, fired by the fifteen-man (twenty-one in other accounts) execution party. Maximilian and Miramón died almost immediately, the emperor calling out the single word "hombre", but Mejía's death was more extended.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: After Maximilian's execution, his body was embalmed and displayed in Mexico. Early the following year, the Austrian admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff was sent to Mexico aboard SMS "Novara" to take the late emperor's body back to Austria. After arriving in Trieste, the coffin was taken to Vienna and placed in the Imperial Crypt on 18 January 1868. The Emperor Maximilian Memorial Chapel was constructed on the hill where his execution took place.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Maximilian has been praised by some historians for his liberal reforms, genuine desire to help the people of Mexico, refusal to desert his loyal followers, and personal bravery during the siege of Querétaro. Other researchers consider him short-sighted in political and military affairs, and unwilling to restore republican ideals in Mexico even during the imminent collapse of the Second Mexican Empire. Today, anti-republican and anti-liberal political groups who advocate the Second Mexican Empire, such as the Nationalist Front of Mexico, are reported to gather every year in Querétaro to commemorate the execution of Maximilian and his followers.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Maximilian is portrayed in the 1934 Mexican film "Juárez y Maximiliano" by Enrique Herrera and the 1939 American film "Juarez" by Brian Aherne. In the 1939 film "The Mad Empress" he was played by Conrad Nagel. He also appeared in one scene in the 1954 American film "Vera Cruz", played by George Macready. In theater, he appeared in the play "Juarez and Maximilian" by Franz Werfel, which was presented at Berlin in 1924, directed by Max Reinhardt. In the Mexican telenovela , Maximilian was portrayed by Mexican actor Mario Iván Martínez.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: In the wake of his death, carte-de-visite cards with photographs commemorating his execution circulated both among his followers and among those who wished to celebrate his death. One such card featured a photograph of the shirt he wore to his execution, riddled with bullet holes.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The composer Franz Liszt included a "Marche funèbre, en mémoire de Maximilian I, empereur de Mexique" (a funeral march, in memory of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico) among the pieces in his famous collection of piano pieces entitled "Années de pèlerinage".


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The Emperor Maximilian Memorial Chapel was built on the site of his and his generals' execution on the Cerro de las Campanas in Queretaro.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: A statue of Maximilian stands today in the 13th district of Vienna in front of the entrance to the Schönbrunn Palace Park. In Bad Ischl, the Maximilian fountain on the Traun, built in 1868, is a reminder of him. Another statue of Maximilian is in Trieste. It was brought back to its original place, Piazza Venezia, from the park of the Miramare Castle in 2009. Maximilian now “overlooks” part of the port of Trieste again. The Rostrata Columna, dedicated to him in 1876 in Maximilian Park in Pula, a work by Heinrich von Ferstel, was brought to Venice in 1919 as Italian spoils of war and is now, rededicated, on the edge of the Giardini pubblici.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Mementos of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico are on display at the Schatzkammer Museum in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: The nearest living agnatic relative to Maximilian is the head of the Habsburg family, Karl von Habsburg, and members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine still reside in Mexico, among them Carlos Felipe de Habsburgo, the first male of the former ruling house to be born in the country. Carlos Felipe is an academic who has given many interviews, conferences, and presentations regarding his family’s history, Maximilian and Carlota, and the Second Mexican Empire.


title: Maximilian I of Mexico

text: Conspiracy theorists allege Maximilian was not executed and that, having entered a secret agreement with Juárez, lived in exile in El Salvador as Justo Armas until 1936.


title: Thelema

text: Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word "thelema" is the English transliteration of the Koine Greek noun (), "will", from the verb (): "to will, wish, want or purpose."


title: Thelema

text: Adherents to Thelema are called "Thelemites", and phenomena within the scope of Thelema are termed "Thelemic".


title: Thelema

text: Crowley wrote that, in 1904, he had received a text or scripture called "The Book of the Law", dictated to him by a potentially non-corporeal entity named Aiwass. This text was to serve as the foundation of the religious and philosophical system he called Thelema.


title: Thelema

text: Crowley identified himself as the prophet of a new era in humanity's spiritual development, a novel age he termed the Æon of Horus. According to Crowley, the facticity of his prophethood was mainly predicated upon his reception of "The Book of the Law" from Aiwass, an experience that formed the crux of a broader spiritual ordeal that he and his wife, Rose Edith, underwent in Cairo, Egypt in March of 1904.


title: Thelema

text: By Crowley's account, Aiwass contacted him through Rose and subsequently dictated "The Book of the Law" or "Liber AL vel Legis", which outlined the principles of Thelema, to him.


title: Thelema

text: The Thelemic pantheon—a collection of gods and goddesses who either literally exist or serve as symbolic archetypes or metaphors—includes a number of deities, primarily a trio adapted from ancient Egyptian religion, who are the three narrators or "speakers" of "The Book of the Law": Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. In at least one instance, Crowley described these deities as a "literary convenience".


title: Thelema

text: Crowley's later writings included related commentary and hermeneutics on Thelema and Thelemic topics, but also additional "inspired" writings that he collectively termed "The Holy Books of Thelema". He associated Thelemic spiritual practice with concepts rooted in occultism, yoga, and Eastern and Western mysticism, especially the Qabalah.


title: Thelema

text: Aspects of Thelema and Crowley's thought in general inspired the development of Wicca and, to a certain degree, the rise of Modern Paganism as a whole, as well as chaos magick and some variations of Satanism. Some scholars, such as Hugh Urban, also believe Thelema to have been an influence on the development of Scientology, but others, such as J. Gordon Melton, argue against there being a connection.


title: Thelema

text: Since Crowley's death, various adherents to Thelema, including direct disciples of Crowley himself, have made significant contributions to the propagation of and discussion surrounding the religion. For example, Jack Parsons, Kenneth Grant, James Lees, and Nema Andahadna are several influential Thelemites who have arguably contributed to a broader and richer understanding of Thelemic spirituality and philosophy.


title: Thelema

text: The word () is rare in Classical Greek, where it "signifies the appetitive will: desire, sometimes even sexual", but it is frequent in the Septuagint. Early Christian writings occasionally use the word to refer to the human will, and even the will of God's created faith tester and inquisitor, the Devil, but it usually refers to the will of God.


title: Thelema

text: In his 5th-century Sermon, Augustine of Hippo gave a similar instruction: "Love, and what thou wilt, do." ().


title: Thelema

text: In the Renaissance, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" of the Dominican friar Francesco Colonna. The protagonist Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic. Colonna's work was a great influence on the Franciscan friar François Rabelais, who in the 16th century, used "Thélème", the French form of the word, as the name of a fictional abbey in his novels, "Gargantua and Pantagruel". The only rule of this Abbey was "" ("", or, "Do what thou wilt").


title: Thelema

text: In the mid-18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed the adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham, where it served as the motto of the Hellfire Club. Rabelais's Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant and James Rice, in their novel "The Monks of Thelema" (1878), and C. R. Ashbee in his utopian romance "The Building of Thelema" (1910).


title: Thelema

text: " is a rarely used word in Classical Greek. There are very few documents, the earliest being Antiphon the Sophist (5th century BCE). In antiquity it was beside the divine will which a man performs, just as much for the will of sexual desire. The intention of the individual was less understood as an overall, generalized, ontological place wherever it was arranged.


title: Thelema

text: The verb appears very early (Homer, early Attic inscriptions) and has the meanings of "ready", "decide" and "desire" (Homer, 3, 272, also in the sexual sense).


title: Thelema

text: "Aristotle says in the book "On Plants" that the goal of the human will is perception - unlike the plants that do not have " (translation of the author). "", says the Aristoteles, "has changed here, "", and ", and that " is to be neutral, not somehow morally determined, the covetous driving force in man."


title: Thelema

text: In the Septuagint the term is used for the will of God himself, the pious desire of the God-fearing, and the royal will of a secular ruler. It is thus used only for the representation of high ethical willingness in the faith, the exercise of authority by the authorities, or the non-human will, but not for more profane striving. In the Septuagint, the terms "boule" and "thelema" appear, whereas in the Vulgate text, the terms are translated into the Latin "voluntas" ("will"). Thus, the different meaning of both concepts was lost.


title: Thelema

text: In the original Greek version of the New Testament the word "thelema" is used 62 or 64 times, twice in the plural ("thelemata"). Here, God's will is always and exclusively designated by the word "thelema" (θέλημα, mostly in the singular), as the theologian Federico Tolli points out by means of the "Theological Dictionary of the New Testament" of 1938 ("Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"). In the same way the term is used in Paul the Apostle and Ignatius of Antioch. For Tolli it follows that the genuine idea of Thelema does not contradict the teachings of Jesus.


title: Thelema

text: François Rabelais was a Franciscan and later a Benedictine monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left the monastery to study medicine, and moved to the French city of Lyon in 1532. There he wrote "Gargantua and Pantagruel," a connected series of books. They tell the story of two giants—a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures—written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein.


title: Thelema

text: Most critics today agree that Rabelais wrote from a Christian humanist perspective. The Crowley biographer Lawrence Sutin notes this when contrasting the French author's beliefs with the Thelema of Aleister Crowley. In the previously mentioned story of Thélème, which critics analyze as referring in part to the suffering of loyal Christian reformists or "evangelicals" within the French Church, the reference to the Greek word θέλημα "declares that the will of God rules in this abbey". Sutin writes that Rabelais was no precursor of Thelema, with his beliefs containing elements of Stoicism and Christian kindness.


title: Thelema

text: In his first book (ch. 52–57), Rabelais writes of this Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It is a classical utopia presented in order to critique and assess the state of the society of Rabelais's day, as opposed to a modern utopian text that seeks to create the scenario in practice. It is a utopia where people's desires are more fulfilled. Satirical, it also epitomises the ideals considered in Rabelais's fiction. The inhabitants of the abbey were governed only by their own free will and pleasure, the only rule being "Do What Thou Wilt". Rabelais believed that men who are free, well born and bred have honour, which intrinsically leads to virtuous actions. When constrained, their noble natures turn instead to remove their servitude, because men desire what they are denied.


title: Thelema

text: Some modern Thelemites consider Crowley's work to build upon Rabelais's summary of the instinctively honourable nature of the Thelemite. Rabelais has been variously credited with the creation of the philosophy of Thelema, as one of the earliest people to refer to it. The current National Grand Master General of the U.S. Ordo Templi Orientis Grand Lodge has opined that:


title: Thelema

text: Aleister Crowley wrote in "The Antecedents of Thelema" (1926), an incomplete work not published in his day, that Rabelais not only set forth the law of Thelema in a way similar to how Crowley understood it, but predicted and described in code Crowley's life and the holy text that he received, "The Book of the Law". Crowley said the work he had received was deeper, showing in more detail the technique people should practice, and revealing scientific mysteries. He said that Rabelais confines himself to portraying an ideal, rather than addressing questions of political economy and similar subjects, which must be solved in order to realize the Law.


title: Thelema

text: Sir Francis Dashwood adopted some of the ideas of Rabelais and invoked the same rule in French, when he founded a group called the Monks of Medmenham (better known as the Hellfire Club). An abbey was established at Medmenham, in a property which incorporated the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1201. The group was known as the Franciscans, not after Saint Francis of Assisi, but after its founder, Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer. John Wilkes, George Dodington and other politicians were members. There is little direct evidence of what Dashwood's Hellfire Club practiced or believed. The one direct testimonial comes from John Wilkes, a member who never got into the chapter-room of the inner circle.


title: Thelema

text: Sir Nathaniel Wraxall in his "Historical Memoires" (1815) accused the Monks of performing Satanic rituals, but these reports have been dismissed as hearsay. Daniel Willens argued that the group likely practiced Freemasonry, but also suggests Dashwood may have held secret Roman Catholic sacraments. He asks if Wilkes would have recognized a genuine Catholic Mass, even if he saw it himself and even if the underground version followed its public model precisely.


title: Thelema

text: Aleister Crowley's system of Thelema begins with "The Book of the Law", which bears the official name "Liber AL vel Legis". It was written in Cairo, Egypt, during his honeymoon with his new wife Rose Crowley (née Kelly). This small book contains three chapters, each of which he said he had written in exactly one hour, beginning at noon, on April 8, April 9, and April 10, 1904. Crowley wrote that he took dictation from an entity named Aiwass, whom he later identified as his own Holy Guardian Angel. Crowley stated that "no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles" and that study of the text would dispel all doubts about the method of how the book was obtained.


title: Thelema

text: Besides the reference to Rabelais, an analysis by Dave Evans shows similarities to "The Beloved of Hathor and Shrine of the Golden Hawk", a play by Florence Farr. Evans says this may result from the fact that "both Farr and Crowley were thoroughly steeped in Golden Dawn imagery and teachings", and that Crowley probably knew the ancient materials that inspired some of Farr's motifs. Sutin also finds similarities between Thelema and the work of W. B. Yeats, attributing this to "shared insight" and perhaps to the older man's knowledge of Crowley.


title: Thelema

text: Crowley wrote several commentaries on "The Book of the Law", the last of which he wrote in 1925. This brief statement called simply "The Comment" warns against discussing the book's contents, and states that all "questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings" and is signed Ankh-f-n-khonsu.