Duality and Thelema
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@Dar es Alrah said
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I must say - you're a very well read young man. I'm not sure I'd heard of the Eleusinian Mysteries when I was your age, never mind looked into them.
I find myself being continually impressed by just how educated young people are these days about a broad range of topics. I assume that's down to the internet, with innate intelligence and curiosity making the most of the these avenues open to it. In short - you seem quite 'up there' to me. "I have my moments
I've felt a draw to mythology since I was five or six years old, so it's always been something I could sit down and talk about. It frustrated me when I was younger that no one else seemed to realize the fact that all the religions everyone seemed so worked up about were just cultural redundancies of older and far more sublime mythologies. Zeus and Hermes made a much better Christianity in my eyes than the Father and Son of my mother's leaning. Ending up in Thelema was just the natural progression of that kind of thinking.And I can tell you that my education(and that of my peers) had absolutely nothing to do with my schooling. In fact, I dropped out last October. The sheer insanity of the school system in this country(the U.S. of course) nearly drove me over the edge. Tainted history, outdated science, taught by people with no handle on their egos whatsoever is not the kind of institution to look for psychological progression. No learning, only superficial memorization of information. Even though I got A's on all of my tests, I was considered a delinquent by the powers-that-be. Then, once I was opened up to Crowley(and all of the Karmic madness that surrounds such an occurrence!), I had my alternative path and out the door I went.
It's like this for so many young people here. We look to our parents, our trusted elders, and we see them even more lost, scared, and confused than we are. Just egos self-destructing in the face of all the chaos. All we can try to do is get out of the way and hope they don't make too big of a mess of the Earth we all hoped to inherit. But I can also tell you that there is a phenomenon altogether unique and magical occurring in the minds of the young. There is an Indigo fire burning behind their eyes; the children readily await the coming of the Hierophant, to be taught something REAL by a teacher that deserves our attention, and to unleash our true creative capabilities.
So, again, thank you for showing me that there actually are adults in the world that are still setting an example and foundation for true evolutionary progression. Warms my heart
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
@Dar es Alrah said
"I was watching a couple of Ted talks by Sir Ken Robinson about **(http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_148916&feature=iv&src_vid=iG9CE55wbtY&v=r9LelXa3U_I:fnlpg5ne)."
Neat, I watched those same talks myself a while back, and I agree with much of what he says. He is certainly a noteworthy contemporary in my book.
By the way, my own understanding of "passive" has rarely been rendered as "intert/incapable" in the framework of my own mind. Although I have come across that in my readings, I more often understand it better as "recieving," which I have always understood to be an action in its own right. "Observation" also comes to mind as an appropriate example.
Activity is no less apparent to a silent mind. In fact, a silent mind would seem to me to be even more aware of any action taking place. By my take, Nuit is all-embracing of Hadit's lordship, even as maintaining the peace of perfect stillness is in itself a call to action. Indeed, how can any of us hope to "achieve Hadit" without the embrace of Nuit? This, of course, implies a reciprocal of equal importance, and I think this thread could use a good dose of 0=2, whether the reality of either of the two parties on the right half of the equation are being imagined or Not (see Liber NV and Liber HAD).
I hadn't realized definitions like "inert" which, to me, imply such underpinnings as "incapability," had become in anyway predominate to people's understanding the concept of "passive." While that emphasis may be important in certain situations or circumstances, it in no way relates to how I commonly understand the term, and I felt a need to come back here and clarify that.
Love is the law, love under will.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Dar, that etymological analysis was enlightening; thank you for sharing that.
It is now absolutely clear to me that there are indeed important distinctions between "passive" and "receptive" that beg to be clarified for all intents and purposes.
I have to agree the "giving/recieving" terminology is a much more accurate discriptor than "active/passive" for multiple reasons, many of which have already been enumerated.
Love is the law, love under will.
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@Dar - As much as my devil would like to play, and protest, and play at protesting, he agrees with you too much in essence...
boo... guess I'll..., um, I mean I guess he'll... he'll have to go look elsewhere for some good, honest bedevilment...
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I personally think that the word passive is not inappropriate at all, and now that the origin was shared I think so even more.
I don't recall what the gland is called, but women have an extra gland in our body. This glands sole purpose is to make a woman forget the pain and suffeing of childbirth.
My own body it seems is working against me, for the sake of the species.
Sure wished it worked on wiping out other memories.....
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@Dar es Alrah said
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I declare... I just don't understand how us watery and earthy females manage to get up in the morning without the the stimulation of you men... and obviously there has to be a man somewhere behind me pulling my strings and putting words into my mouth too - as my intellect is so obviously inferior to you lot.. oh my wise Lords and Masters of Magick! Please, please - rouse me from my static, latent forces and insert your dynamic potency into my latency! Oh hang on... that was too enthusiastic wasn't it...? pretends to be passive once more so as not to upset the men."
It seems someone wandered out of the kitchen.
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@Middleman said
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@Dar es Alrah said
"I declare... I just don't understand how us watery and earthy females manage to get up in the morning without the the stimulation of you men... and obviously there has to be a man somewhere behind me pulling my strings and putting words into my mouth too - as my intellect is so obviously inferior to you lot.. oh my wise Lords and Masters of Magick! Please, please - rouse me from my static, latent forces and insert your dynamic potency into my latency! Oh hang on... that was too enthusiastic wasn't it...? pretends to be passive once more so as not to upset the men."
It seems someone wandered out of the kitchen."
Priceless.
Although it may end up being your last post, tact is a vital skill my friend, learn it.
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@Dar es Alrah said
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@Middleman said
"It seems someone wandered out of the kitchen."It seems something wandered out of the zoo."
Seems all this talk of Duality is descending to the level of Nephesh?
Remember: As Brothers (and Sisters) fight ye!
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Really?
You think?
Ya know what thou, Dar is a big girl and can speak for herself, but.......
If you know that what you are saying is going to illicit a negative response, and the comments really do not add at all to the growth and health of life.....And I know that it is known to many of the regulars and longtime posters, that some members are extremely different, explosive and in the cyber world may seem extreme....
Why would you carry it on?
do you think she forgot, do you think she came back for more?
Janet is an extremely carring, considerate and honest young lady and I know I count my lucky stars that she was able to return to TOT, with her head on straight and her passion on her sleeve.She is not a bird, she is a human being with feelings.
I spend hours a day in my kitchen, and I love it. I am a wonderful human being, maybe if more people spent time in the kitchen learning how to nurture life, life that was brought into this plane through suffering you blokes can only dream up, maybe then you can experience passion, and understand what the F she is getting at.
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Awww... But you've misinterpreted my man-compliment.
Dar is a ferocious bird of prey in the intellectual realm, and I don't think she aspires to anything less.
And you yourself have shown more courage in dealing with me than most, and at one time in particular when I was particularly bent and really appreciated the pushback.
At times, I require gloves as well, so there's no lesser-than intended.
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@Sardonyx said
"Awww... But you've misinterpreted my man-compliment.
Dar is a ferocious bird of prey in the intellectual realm, and I don't think she aspires to anything less.
And you yourself have shown more courage in dealing with me than most, and at one time in particular when I was particularly bent and really appreciated the pushback.
At times, I require gloves as well, so there's no lesser-than intended."
Which was why I quoted Liber AL, not to make a holier than though statement, I find it helps to look at these things with a healthy dose of humour.
Apologies though for any offences caused though.
The whole us/them mentality thing, be it in regards to gender, race, or whatever is laughable to be honest, and I find that when I notice it creeping into my sensorium I tend to put it in it's place with humour PDQ.
That doesn't stop the ol' lizard brained tribalism in me sometimes getting out of hand, call it a post-patriarchal Aeon hangover. 2000+ years of hard wired (often by necessity) bigotry doesn't just disappear over night.
I consider myself quite liberated really, but I'll admit to occasionally having thoughts that are beneath me.
At least most of the guys and gals on here are actually working on it.93 93/93
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@Middleman said
"Seriously though, I've always thought that 'receptive' was a better word than 'passive' as both sides are 'active'."
Its an etymological problem then.
I'm sure Dar knows exactly what she means by passive, and I'm equally sure that others know exactly what they mean by it.
The moral is, if your going to use a potentially contentious term in a discussion and it causes friction, its worth while discussing exactly what each party means by choosing that particular word. Otherwise we'll just get more of these off-topic posts.
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When I took advanced writing courses, I learned an important fact.
Verbs, action words, are considered either active, or passive. One is not right or wrong, but in different pieces of writing one is more appropriate.
Verbs are not receptive, from what I gleened.
I ate my sausage......active
The sausage was eaten by me.....passiveI also learned how we as a culture have been taught to dehumanize others, espicially others that do not conform, that challenge and confront, that make us uncomfortable. For years, I referred to my husbands mother as, my mother in law, and it took my adept sister to point out that I was doing this, and that it was because she MIL was challenging. I have to stop an d pause a moment, but I call her Maryann now.
While we may think that it is a term of endearment, or a compliment to be compared to an animal, I know I have a strong affinity to Tiger, it is dehumanizing, and IMO in this stage of the game we as a species would do well to embrace humanity, and being human and all the blessings that gift has to give us.