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College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

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    @zeph I love how deeply you're pondering this chapter. I'd like to provide my own interpretation of what RAW was saying about the linguistic attributes of describing an experience scientifically/objectively, how often it relies on Aristotelian logic, and the hang ups you mentioned in your response. I do not think that your ideas were in conflict with RAW at all, and instead illustrate that you have done precisely the work he is describing. To give you context, I read this chapter and took away three things from it. First, that language is abused when people try to make statements about how things are for everyone when we can only know how things are for ourselves. Second, that any measurement of reality only seems to be true relative to the instrument measuring reality (including all of the strengths and weaknesses of the instrument and the units it measures in). Third, most of the statements we make about something using the verb "to be" (most commonly seen in the form of "is"), inherently imply a true/false dichotomy and fails to acknowledge that there are further states of indeterminism. I found it interesting that you brought up feeling as if this meant RAW doesn't want us to ask questions we can't adequately use language to describe. I had not thought that far past what he was saying, and instead believed that he was emphasizing the idea of relativism. Naturally, to an initiate of Thelema, relativism might seem like a given, but to someone who has not initiated, this might seem novel. RAW's background, as you may already know, was in Catholicism. In other books, he describes Catholicism as the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas relied heavily on Aristotle to justify and fill out Christian doctrine. Aristotle, and by extension Aristotelian logic, relies heavily on "True/False" dichotomies. It does not even consider the idea of a third, or synthesis of the two terms, much less a fourth, indeterminate/unknown term. Jung has also written about how Christian doctrine largely encourages this kind of thinking, hence his emphasis on the "Union of Opposites." Of course, to someone who is initiated, this third, synthetic term is not entirely new. Needless to say, in my own experiences in life, most of my encounters are with people who largely have not pondered the idea of a third term, the opposites seemingly impossible to reconcile in their minds. I imagine that those are the people that RAW is largely trying to address, which leads me to my next point. RAW is emphasizing that language cannot describe a "deep reality" in the Old Aeon sense that what I see and am describing is objectively and ontologically correct for absolutely everyone. I am sure you have heard the old joke, If you want to kill an idea, send it to a committee? Whatever I say about reality is ultimately just describing my own experience about reality. I would be abusing language to assert to you that I somehow know better than you about what your reality is supposedly structured as, no? This flies in the face of Thelemic teaching. He also describes two forms of unknown variables in addition to true and false: Indeterminate (Not Yet Testable), and Meaningless (Untestable). I bring this up to mean that if Indeterminate means Not Yet Testable, then this provides ample reason to use language to describe things we cannot adequately symbolize in language yet. We simply have not yet developed the symbols necessary to test such a thing. This brings up a further point, how do we differentiate between Not Yet Testable and Untestable given that we cannot test either one yet? It seems like RAW is highlighting another issue within linguistics and the philosophy of language. Your statement, "All is One," is fascinating in relation to this chapter. I agree that by his definition of "noise" (noise being that which is untestable by scientific standards), it certainly can be interpreted as noise. I don't think RAW would disagree with the semantic meaning of your statement, especially given that it is not hard to conceive of creating a single symbol that collapses all of creation down into it (in this case, the word, "One"). However, I am led to believe that you are using the verb "to be" in this statement to assert that you've collected enough evidence to confirm that for yourself. I also know from your response that you recognize it is just a symbol trying to describe something but it is not the thing in and of itself. I think RAW would've been just fine with your formulation, given that you are a skillful perceiver who has been collecting data over a period of time and have found a consistent pattern. "All is One," also, is not the statement he specifically calls into question. Instead, it's, "My boss is a male chauvinist drunk, and this is making me sick." He seems to be illustrating that a statement like, "My boss is a male chauvinist drunk, and this is making me sick," does not seem to be formulated properly because it doesn't acknowledge relativism. If this statement is true, then maybe this person's boss did act this way. But we can only know that this person's boss acted that way based on this person's measurements. I have not met this boss. Depending on how well I trust the person making this statement, I might decide that this statement "is not" true. Even when I make this statement that it "is not" true, I am only making this statement for myself, based on my own information and data I've collected from my experience of this situation. Therefore, both the "is true" and "is not true" statements exist, neither fully describe the reality of the situation, and yet both appear true to each individual? This highlights a significant term he has coined, but I realize was not heavily emphasized in this chapter. We can only perceive what is within our own "Reality Tunnel." In other words, I can only perceive what I am capable of perceiving. The bandwidth of my perception is my reality tunnel, and it describes my view of the All that is One. Like I said above, I cannot tell you your True Will because I do not occupy your reality tunnel, just the same as you mine, and therefore we cannot adequately make statements about a "deep reality" that I can somehow make my reality tunnel see everyone else's and then make ontologically correct statements about the All for everyone. If I did that, it would just seem like I have a really big ego. Ultimately, he is trying to describe how the ego protects itself by creating these ontological statements through the verb "to be" while embracing irrelevant measurements. He implies to me that we often phrases things in this way to give up responsibility, instead giving in to, "This is just how things are!" Rarely do people say that when things are going well! Specifically, he is trying to illustrate how much our minds create how we perceive reality. Not, create our own reality, as that implies that one could effectively remove that unknown element out of their lives. Rather, we can craft the model we use to perceive the Universe. I think that if we take this to the logical extreme, he would completely agree with your statement that a human who has been trained to be a skillful perceiver can make much more accurate ontological statements than someone who has not. In fact, I'd venture to guess that part of what makes that person a skillful perceiver is that they have become aware of the ways in which the instrument that is our body misfires and gives us faulty or irrelevant information. All of this is to say that I do not think RAW would've disagreed with your perspective, instead, I think he would've pointed out that you have done a lot of the work he is pointing to. Nonetheless, I am biased towards RAW, so my own perceptions are equally faulty!
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    The no longer pretend that my Astral Cartoon that had me fooled in 2017 that I was a kind of Jon From Cincinnati with Aiwass the strange angel at my side. I understand now that it was a deliberate prank but not one out of spite. The cartoons painted a moving mostly silent picture that was the most brilliant satire I have yet to see. And I understand I am not a person who has had much influence or legitimacy. I’m a bit of a pig, a slob and all the worst of my weaknesses were written before I was even a possibility. Knight of Cups. A vain person whose wisdom and intellect are earned by virtue of avoidance and a pride most false. One with risk of developing what may be a latent potential for schizophrenia and madness ignorant to the art and discipline of indulgence and skilled in the art of consecration, with an integrity to his intent that hopefully serves as a first deliberate step in search of a treasure that no wealth or authority can match. Knowledge and Conversation with one’s own HGA. I know not whether they lie untouched and appointed at birth or some other time or if nobody has one until they begin to seek it out. I know that faith is optional. Should one follow steps with devotion and discipline with consistency ones off two things is certain. I.A.O. I doubt have worked hard at anything in my life to confidently brag that I completed the cycle in any meaningful way. I fizzle at the threshold of phase A. I have become too much comfortable. I have much to be thankful for. I know Aiwass just a little. He knows me so well he could spin a graphic novel or cartoon people could watch the story of a coward with a bite unmatched for battle and a mouth that always gets what he deserves. I Am the Boy Who Cried Wolf. It gets worse. In High School we read Oedipus the King. Suddenly I could remember events in my earliest childhood that still disturbed an ability to flow with ups and downs, I was born without a burning desire or skill that could provide just enough that I could learn, with the help of one Adept to provide the perspective who’s skill with the sword of intellect to know when I need to be left alone or simply give me a foundation and a wit that both disturbs because it is above my head, yet sticks an uncomfortable scorn in my side and I have to look to down to assure myself this is not a dream and my clothes are still on. But their shame and recoil that comes when we are not prepared to be exposed or called out. A pull up that you hope people will forget. That’s true kind of initiation I have endured by the hand and unexpected arrival and ready to take me for a ride that was Aiwass. I lay no claim to having been introduced to any other discarnate intelligence. But I stumbled upon him knowing not the meaning of list of result. For better or worse he showed up to play a few games that put where I was destined to receive at least one last lesson from the voice of the new aeon himself. The clandestine lodge where this Cartoon humbled me even more that my 5th ayahuasca experience was no place other than Salt Lane County Jail. It was a cirque du soliel kind of musical with long intermission that gave me not a break for a soda or smoke or time to digest a perfect parade of everything wrong of too which I was blind,, as if that weren’t enough the show would pause while Aiwass interrogated as though we were in a court of law where all the evidence was right there no forensic team necessary. Just the relentless questioning from a being that turned up the intensity and the heat with the master and treasurer of your entire life and everything thought was a free for all. Then once I was left with no further questions the brilliance of the carnival of light and sound songs and things done at the expense of another followed by terrible news.. and by the way he warned me that he would “kill” me if used his name anymore in the modified version of the LBRP where his name is vibrated at Tipharath. I didn’t find out for at least a year later that Crowley continued to teach his students LBRP, but no longer to use the name of Aiwass in this ritual. Im not here to suggest how you should or shouldn’t do it at all. I was warned he effectively crucified my false eagle with a joke, a toy, an honorable mention and a consolation prize. This “degree” I earned was called False Pride. This perfect penalty was a gift like in the movie wizard of oz was even less than a toy or consolation prize. And he didn’t give it to me. I had been earning it all my life even when I was acting what I thought to be random acts of kindness. Not one good deed nor excuse to wrong another hat not been possible with my blind practice makes perfect refining a weapon that usually didn’t help me attain much. Now I had an ache every time I had to lean on this now conscious delusion. I don’t talk to him anymore. The step in fhe right direction I have a hunch that if I truly want to discover, or be given a responsibility that I do not want yet a subtle amount of encouragement and I imagine it will feel a little uncomfortable if it’s worthy of doing at all. True Will. How dangerous and terrifying a concept. Yet it is the only thing that gives me a modicum of hope and desire. I will try to keep my posts concise and too the point. I haven’t told anybody these in awhile, I dare there is nobody alive that needs to believe this. If I know one thing Aiwass needs not witness or first hand accounts that he exists. It’s lonely having experienced hallucinations and High Art that I have zero potential, wisdom and skill to come up with the things said when he killed me for the first time. Rebirth and the taste absent of the bitter ashes lebt even more gravity to an inability to take care of myself. I was “of the Outcast and Unfit. In a world of slaves and masters I had been deemed unworthy of closure or even a new chapter or preview of anything remotely hopeful or an eye trained to know what is my next line where do u belong. For better or worse with my lack of direction, vision or desire to guide me to learn anything but how to keep making the same mistakes with what is still failure I earned the nick name “safe improvement “ by the imaginary Elect that were certainly made up by the trauma and fractionation of my soul. I had to bury the Deida books in order to be ready for what the next step was. I am awake now and know that it never comes. And no matter how much an authority may appreciate or reject you they do not answer your intentions in ways that you could ever see coming. Sometimes the answer to a prayer is a temptation to really fuck things up for yourself with little awareness as to what point your missing and your going to learn something the hard way no matter what choice you make. Silence is an action that may produce good fruit. But inaction is no choice at all. I am a sceptr of pestilence. Rebuked by the greatest comedian and prosecutor and Minister and I’m sure that there is no God where he is true. That’s comforting to me. I don’t have any use for redemption or forgiveness because I feel there is little to anything to forgive. Not that I am pure without sin or immmune to the wrath and mercy of any being who holds dominion and some degree of authority over us, rarely do they see the use in getting involved. We are masters of our own destiny. A figure of speech which both bullshit and the strangest secret to my knowledge. My firs