Introspection as an initial step to the Magical Diary
-
Hi,
I recently read the book 'Aleister Crowley and the Practice of the Magical Diary'. On the last page is a letter to a Roy Leffingwell in which Crowley describes very concisely the value and basic method of keeping a magical diary.
I was especially intrigued by the idea of taking a "summary of your life" as a sort of conceptual foundation to the work - a mapping out of how you arrived at this point, of how your past choices and experiences led you to this place. He goes on to say that this is extremely helpful when picking your motto and in helping to select the right practices.
How many people here have done this and found it helpful? I've never heard this preliminary practice mentioned by another Thelemite (usually ppl simply preach the virtues of keeping a diary). It seems like a very good way of leading the student into the habit of introspection and analysis ... and might just reduce the volume of "Merlins" and "Arthurs" in the world ...
-
Something similar to that (though a bit more extensive) is a standard, mandatory practice in both Course I of College of Thelema and the first initiated degree of Temple of Thelema.
-
@Jim Eshelman said
"Something similar to that (though a bit more extensive) is a standard, mandatory practice in both Course I of College of Thelema and the first initiated degree of Temple of Thelema."
Jim, do you find that this helps students formulate a clearer motto - as in a more personal/meaningful aspiration based on their background? Since I started reading Crowley's work over the last year I've often wondered why more explicit introspection was not included in the program. I've done the first couple of chapters of Bardon's "Initiation Into Hermetics" (shamefully 3 times having let it slide ...) and the introspection work in that system was very useful. In the A.'.A.'. curriculum character transformation is tackled (explicitly) after a while, but there doesn't seem to be the same taking stock period before hand - or at least little guidance seems to be given. Any thoughts on why this isn't stressed more explicitly in the A.'.A.'. curriculum?
-
@Halcyon said
"
@Jim Eshelman said
"Something similar to that (though a bit more extensive) is a standard, mandatory practice in both Course I of College of Thelema and the first initiated degree of Temple of Thelema."Jim, do you find that this helps students formulate a clearer motto - as in a more personal/meaningful aspiration based on their background?"
That's not a task in front of the two groups I mentioned when they are doing this assignment. (For example, in Temple of Thelema they already have their motto by the time they undertake this.) However, yes, it would certianly have that benefit.
"Since I started reading Crowley's work over the last year I've often wondered why more explicit introspection was not included in the program."
Despite the writings of Freud and his peers and predecessors, psychology as we know it today was essentially unknown in the years that the A.'.A.'. system was created. - Despite this, there is a very great deal of introspection in the specific process, in A.'.A.'., by which one moves from 0=0 to 1=10.
College of Thelema and Temple of Thelema explicitly incorporate much of what has been learned (over the last century) about self-knowledge.
"In the A.'.A.'. curriculum character transformation is tackled (explicitly) after a while, but there doesn't seem to be the same taking stock period before hand - or at least little guidance seems to be given. Any thoughts on why this isn't stressed more explicitly in the A.'.A.'. curriculum?"
See above for the main reason. On the other hand - that's what why you've got a Superior in the Order! That individual is to serve as teacher, guru, therapist, guide, and numerous related roles, including to have sufficient insight and forthrightness to bring you to come up against character imbalances.