the book of the law
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Mine is in my signature
93, 93/93.
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But I also love II:70 - "There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!"
It has helped me figure out how to approach social and life situations, as a Sagittarius, and find joy even if things aren't perfect. It also reminds me why I should strive to be strong. (A younger me would not have been able to come up with a good reason to be.)
93, 93/93.
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Invoke me under my Stars. Love is the Law, Love under Will.
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"I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice."
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"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
-II:09 -
I:29. For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
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It's without a doubt "every man and every woman is a star" to me. It has a very, very personal load.
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@RegentLynx said
""Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
-II:09"Seconded.
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@IAO131 said
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@RegentLynx said
""Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
-II:09"Seconded."
Thirded.
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"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." I:40
"Love is the law, love under will." I:57
"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." III:60And no, I'm not trying to score obvious brownie points with these quotes. The words truly are divine; very full of POSSIBLE meaning. "Love is the law" is a very interesting thing to have in betwixt the other two verses (I:40, III:60), very clever.
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@Frater 639 said
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@IAO131 said
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@RegentLynx said
""Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
-II:09"Seconded."
Thirded.
"Fourth-ded
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@IAO131 said
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@RegentLynx said
""Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
-II:09"Seconded."
It definitely isn't always easy to maintain this attitude. Especially in times like I am going through right now personally. My wife of six years passed away last month which has left me feeling like a part of me dyed as well. It can sound so trite and commonplace that I hesitate to use the expression but she really was my soul mate. There is such a big hole in my life right now that I am not sure what really remains for me?
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@Dar es Alrah said
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@RegentLynx said
"It definitely isn't always easy to maintain this attitude. Especially in times like I am going through right now personally. My wife of six years passed away last month which has left me feeling like a part of me dyed as well. It can sound so trite and commonplace that I hesitate to use the expression but she really was my soul mate. There is such a big hole in my life right now that I am not sure what really remains for me?"If it were just intended to foster an* attitude* then Thelema would be a pretty cruel and heartless thing, and really of very little value to anyone in the world at all. Merely having an 'attitude' cannot mend wounds, not make the bitter parts of life sweet. An 'attitude' can be a shield to your emotions when faced with trivial short-term griefs. It offers no consolation to the wounded. Indeed, it appears as a mockery and an insult to deeply felt loss. When you lose a partner and a soul mate, it is a wound that is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. A tearing apart of two that had been one, and leaving the remaining partner bereft and in tatters. Like all wounds, this one will take time to heal. What remains for you is the same as has always been there for you.
A woman who had lost her child, took the body of him to the Blue Buddha and asked that he restore her child to life. The Buddha told her that he would do this if only she could procure a sesame seed from a house that had known no sorrow. The women departed and visited every house in the neighbourhood. They were all willing to give her sesame but there was no house that had not know sorrow. She went back and the Blue Buddha told her that this was the only thing he had to offer her - that all human beings share this suffering. The women left the Blue Buddha and took up her dead child again. The Blue Buddha's words were wise but now when she wept, all the tears and suffering of mankind also fell upon her shoulders and she felt ashamed of her single grief in the face of the suffering of the world. Despairing, she prepared to take her life and follow her son but just then the Red Buddha appeared before her full of flame. Her tears were quenched by the heat of his radiance. Wordlessly, he took the body of her dead child and burnt it to a crisp. Without explanation he undressed the woman and conceived a child upon her. Who is to say that he did not give her exactly what she had asked for?"
Here I think the word "attitude" has been mistaken for the negative loading that has been, by some, associated with it. An attitude does not mean the way one huffs themselves, or struts, or bad mouths or whatever is popular to call "he's got attitude." Attitude means "the angle of approach from which we see the world around us."
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@Dar es Alrah said
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@Takamba said
"Here I think the word "attitude" has been mistaken for the negative loading that has been, by some, associated with it. An attitude does not mean the way one huffs themselves, or struts, or bad mouths or whatever is popular to call "he's got attitude." Attitude means "the angle of approach from which we see the world around us.""You could have asked me. I meant precisely what I said. Sometimes one's conscious 'attitude' - in your own word - "the angle of approach from which we see the world around us" - that we have adopted until it seems a part of us, meets a situation where it is useless, Takamba.
This proclamation of "Life is pure joy" is an affirmation that is not remotely to do with the species-centric attitude of human beings in it's origin. I don't believe that Liber Al is in the business of advising the sorrowful to get a stiff upper lip and go out and party already. I don't believe the proclamation is meant to blame people experiencing grief for not having the 'right attitude'. And actually - I'm getting really tired lately by how many people with a complex who are looking for someone to blame are coming to Thelema thinking they have a free ride to get their anger off on people by justifying it via obscure points of the book.
Blame is the flip side of the coin to pity. The people that can most easily appreciate the horror of the pity game are the ones that have the most difficulty perceiving the blame game, and those who are horrified by the blame game have far more difficulty perceiving the pity game. Can anyone on this forum do better than the other one and tell me why this is so? Can you explain this dynamic?
p.s. - to void boredom for the next few posts - please imagine the above was being delivered in calm and melodic measured tones and with a smile.
"I should have pointed out I was only talking about one line of yours, "If it were just intended to foster an attitude then Thelema would be a pretty cruel and heartless thing, and really of very little value to anyone in the world at all. " Please read none of my words as a form of attack. Let me clarify my point, attitude does not mean the results of one's way of looking, but it is one's way of looking.
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@Takamba said
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@Dar es Alrah said
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@RegentLynx said
"It definitely isn't always easy to maintain this attitude. Especially in times like I am going through right now personally. My wife of six years passed away last month which has left me feeling like a part of me dyed as well. It can sound so trite and commonplace that I hesitate to use the expression but she really was my soul mate. There is such a big hole in my life right now that I am not sure what really remains for me?"If it were just intended to foster an* attitude* then Thelema would be a pretty cruel and heartless thing, and really of very little value to anyone in the world at all. Merely having an 'attitude' cannot mend wounds, not make the bitter parts of life sweet. An 'attitude' can be a shield to your emotions when faced with trivial short-term griefs. It offers no consolation to the wounded. Indeed, it appears as a mockery and an insult to deeply felt loss. When you lose a partner and a soul mate, it is a wound that is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. A tearing apart of two that had been one, and leaving the remaining partner bereft and in tatters. Like all wounds, this one will take time to heal. What remains for you is the same as has always been there for you.
A woman who had lost her child, took the body of him to the Blue Buddha and asked that he restore her child to life. The Buddha told her that he would do this if only she could procure a sesame seed from a house that had known no sorrow. The women departed and visited every house in the neighbourhood. They were all willing to give her sesame but there was no house that had not know sorrow. She went back and the Blue Buddha told her that this was the only thing he had to offer her - that all human beings share this suffering. The women left the Blue Buddha and took up her dead child again. The Blue Buddha's words were wise but now when she wept, all the tears and suffering of mankind also fell upon her shoulders and she felt ashamed of her single grief in the face of the suffering of the world. Despairing, she prepared to take her life and follow her son but just then the Red Buddha appeared before her full of flame. Her tears were quenched by the heat of his radiance. Wordlessly, he took the body of her dead child and burnt it to a crisp. Without explanation he undressed the woman and conceived a child upon her. Who is to say that he did not give her exactly what she had asked for?"
Here I think the word "attitude" has been mistaken for the negative loading that has been, by some, associated with it. An attitude does not mean the way one huffs themselves, or struts, or bad mouths or whatever is popular to call "he's got attitude." Attitude means "the angle of approach from which we see the world around us.""
You put it perfectly Takamba, that was exactly what I meant when I used the word attitude. Grief can so easly cloud our vision so that we are no longer looking at reality in the proper way. I am well aware that something such as this will be a healing process that I must go through, there is no quick and easy solution. Also, intellectually I am well aware that death is an illusion but that doesn't relieve my emotional pain. When I think about this the only true solution would mean becoming not just aware intellectually of this truth but to also have the ability to feel this truth emotionally. How is one to do this? I think the solution would be having certain mystical experiences which convinced one not just intellectually but also emotionally, so that one's head and heart would be in complete agreement on the matter. As it was written in the "Confessio Fraternitatis", "Were it not a precious thing, that you could always live so, as if you had lived from the beginning of the world, and, moreover, as you should still live to the end thereof?".
However, even if one had this experience and Understanding there would still be the issue of missing the departed. Once again time will be what it takes to ease the sting at least some what. -
"Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all."
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I:45. The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay, are none!
I love this riddle and what appears to be its simple answer: 28+28=56
28 is a Perfect Number. 56 is semi-perfect. 56 is also the word of Nuit who should be called None.93