@Ra-Imhotep said

"93,

Hey guys, my name is Shariyf Clark. I live in South Amboy, NJ right now but I'm originally from Queens, NY. I've always been attracted to magick and the occult. As a kid, I loved Jean Grae from the X-Men comics and found myself attempting to send telepathic messages to people when I was like 6 years old. I've also had a tremendous fascination with the ancient Egyptian culture since a child. I started pursuing a magical path at the end of my junior year in college with a book called 'Egyptian Magic" by Cassandra Eason. I eventually ran into someone who put me onto the Chakra system, auras, the Tarot and "The Celstine Prophecy" which really got me searching. I then looked into Wicca, which was cool but wasn't really for me so I kept searching. Eventually I came across Richard Metzger's "Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to the Occult" which warped my fragile little mind. This is was my first encounter with Crowley, Thelema and Liber AL. I remember thinking to myself "Damn...this Crowley dude is effed up." I dabbled in some Chaos magick, but needed something more concrete and systematic, which led me to Dion Fortune's "The Mystical Qabalah", which was another blow to my mind. I became so intrigued with her work that I took up a heavy interest in the Golden Dawn and enrolled in the Sanctuary of Ma'at self-initiation course but quickly realized that I may not be ready for such intense solitary work. One day I left my backpack on a subway train which had my Rider Waite deck in it, so I went out and got the Thoth deck and became interested in Thelema (I ended up getting my bag back, which is nuts, because if you lose something in NYC you're pretty much SOL.) I eventually ran into the Aiwass study group which peaked my interest in the TOT. It was here that I met Anael and Metzareph, who warmly embraced me, helped me with my magick studies, and became my good friends. At this point I knew that I had found my path and here I am now, writing a novel for you guys. 😆
93 93/93"

93
Ra-Imhotep:
Yes, I also loved the Celestine Prophecy books, by James Redfield. And I definitely ate up Richard Metzger's "Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to the Occult." Dion Fortunes work has been wonderful to read too, as well as Frater Achad's Liber 31 and his Revised Egyptian Kaballah stuff. Nice to meet ya!

@Stella said

"I have painted pictures of he and I (as a dragon and dove) and written poem(s) about us entitled "The Dragon and The Dove". "

I have no advice at all but I am reminded of this piece of Liber Legis:

*Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. **There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! *He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God.

I appreciate the term "wombanifesting."

Welcome!

@Thanateris said

"My dad first introduced me to the ideas of Thelema while I was growing up, but I've been left on my own to study and attempt to understand them."

This is probably pretty unique. I don't know of too many Thelemites who learned the basics from their parents!

"And the rest...37 tomorrow, independent, media/publishing, a dog and a cat and no kids, Philadelphia, and I suppose anything else might come out in the process of posting."

And a Futurama fan! 😄 (My first userpic here was a photoshopped Professor Farnsworth wearing a Golden Dawn Nemyss...)

I went to Drexel University as an undergrad. There are some cool esoterically-oriented places in Philly. Is there still that occult-heavy used book stall in the Reading Terminal Market?

Steve

@Istvan said

"OTO was prohibited by the state."

(Sadly, I do not write French.) Do you know when and why the OTO was prohibited?

Ah, my understanding is that
Umbanda=Santeria=Voudon Radha school
Candomble=Lucumi, no precise Haitian equivalent
Quimbanda=no precise Cuban equivalent = Voudon Petro school

Umbanda and Santeria and Radha school Voudon include Christian saints, Candomble and Lucumi don't, Quimbanda and Petro are the "darker side".

EM: Certainly I understand functional rules! I'm self-employed; self-discipline and punctuality are key to my wellbeing. Ooh, and just so you don't get the wrong idea, even though I may look like a menace, recreational drug use isn't a regular thing for me anymore, though it was a necessary part of my life to reach the point I am at now.
What I meant was that I tend to be very skeptical of so-called authority figures, and usually avoid putting myself in a position where I become part of a subculture or group which results in me assuming the group's general traits in the eyes of others.

I would like to pop in to a discussion group just to see how it goes sometime. After all, my life can always use an extra splash of wizardly colloquium! 😉

With Love,
Neko

Dear Paolo,

@Paolo_Samm said

"I have just been accepted to this list and thought I would introduction myself to everyone.

I am a 30ish magician based in St Albans in the UK. My mundane life is in IT and I live with my magical magically inclined girlfriend Karen, a host of chilli plants and a perpetually hungry cat. For me however magic and the paranormal are very important parts of my life.

I have been working for something like 12 years albeit with occasional breaks. Initially this was with the Servants of the Light Qabalah course which I took for 4 years. After this time however I moved on to study Crowley and the work of Kenneth Grant. I personally find Grants work most inspiring and "meditatively" working through his books has provided me much inspiration and insight although I am certain there is much more to find in these books.

The key thrust of my work has always been communication and exploration - I consider myself an explorer rather than a magician or mystic. - and have spent a lot of time investigating the paranormal, taking the magic out of the lodge room and into the real world. This has inspired me to undertake psychic questing activities such as described by the author Andrew Collins in his earlier books. In fact this is such a major thrust to my work that I have a website and forum based on these subjects along with Typhonian/Grantian magic, working with LAM and other interesting areas. I believe that there is a whole range of entities and realities to explore and taking meditation and some ritual outside to encounter the occult "flora and fauna" of the world opens up a lot on my own path. In a sense I see this as returning to an almost shamanic state from which the more ceremonial techniques evolved from.

Moving into the future I am also intending to branch into Enochian work very soon once I have completed my summer project of constructing a set of three dimensional elemental tablets.

I do have a website which talks about some of these things (<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.spectrallight.com">www.spectrallight.com</a><!-- w -->)

I do hope that we can find much to talk about.
"

It's really great to see you here. There are some extremely interesting discussions on these forums across a whole range of topics in magick, mysticism, qabalah, gematria and more. I'm sure you'll have an enjoyable time.

Best wishes,

Mick.

Welcome, Frater Lucius, and good luck in finding that rose.

@Parzival said

"Hello everyone, my name is Parzival and I'm an enormous kitten from outer space."

Welcome, P. Could we offer you a small dish of the Milk of the Stars?

Everything from Classical to Death Metal; I'm not keen on Country or Ditzy Pop though. Favourites would have to be the big four original classic Metal bands; Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd. Then come the 80's classics; Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. My favourite Metal/Rock acts at the moment would have to be Opeth, Cradle of Filth, Children of Bodom and Tool.

It's not just all heavy though. In the middle I have; Aerosmith, My Chemical Romance, Alice Cooper and Placebo.

On the lighter side I dig; Ben Harper, America, Jewel and Charlie Hunter.

Then of course there are my muso faves like; Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen and John Petrucci.

I also love Hip Hop, Rap, Techno and any other experimental electronic noise

I also edit and create music for the students at my school when they have stage productions to do.

I have also been playing guitar for about 23 years.

93

G.'.D.'.

Nice to meet you, Soror, we're very glad you're here!

😄

@kuniggety said

"Welcome to the site Paul. I enjoy perusing lashtal.com very much and have been doing so for a little while now. Thanks for what you do - running that site. This site has a bit different of a focus 😄"

Thanks kuniggety... A "different focus" indeed, but with a rather intriguing overlap...

Welcome!
Good to have fellow OTO mates. The people here are very nice and informative, hope you enjoy your stay.

-Kenneth Sheppard

Welcome aboard!

We discussed that very issue quite thoroughly recently:
heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?t=1588

Nice to meet you Mike welcome to the forums here.

Your work sounds cool 👿 😀

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

i just spent a good twenty minutes bugging out on your website 😄

Love is the law, love under will

@HPK said

"
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

Nice to meet you. In the former republic of Macedonia there is Thelemic community, I think some of them are Albanians. I am not sure, but I think they translated (even maybe published), Liber L in Albanian language. If you are interested maybe I can try to find for you some thelemic contacts in this region?

Love is the law, love under will

B."

that would be great thank you,
but unfortunately i live in italy, and i can't go in Macedonia.
I've heard before that there is this Thelemic comunity.
anyway, if you can find any contact, e-mail for example i'd be happy to get it.

Love is tha law, love under will.

93!

Thanks for the welcome! I am actually in the military and got stationed here. I absolutely love it here 😄 I've been here for 2 years already and have at least 2 more left.

93 93/93

93,

Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to interacting with you.

93 93/93
Shariyf 🆒

Faaaar too many, although i do enjoy testing my tollerance at any given chance 👿