Divine Names and Formulae
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Something like: A sequence of steps or stages, reflecting progressive modes or conditions of consciousness, which executes or activates a specific pattern.
The dictionary definition most applicable to this particular situation is probably something like this: "a method, pattern, or rule for doing or producing something, often one proved to be successful."
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@Dar said
"And Meletiros - why did you want to know the definition of a formula for? It seems like you're simply playing a silly and very childish psychological game. And why ask Jim?"
it seemed like a legitimate question to me. Crowley and other occultists use the word "formula" in a peculiar sense, and dictionary definitions are not very helpful. Usually a formula prescribes the input or ingredients you need to produce a specific result. For example, if I know the radius of a circle and want to know the circumference, there's a well-known formula. I can put in the radius and get the circumference. Or if I have a formula for rocket fuel, that means I know what ingredients to mix and how to mix them to wind up with rocket fuel. But what does it mean to say that INRI is a formula? What do I put in, what do I do with it, and what comes put at the end?
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That is a frightening picture.
PS - I thought it was a perfectly decent question.
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If you look up the word "Formula" on this online etymology dictionary:
www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=formula&searchmode=none
The top definition is:
"1630s, "words used in a ceremony or ritual," from L. formula "form, draft, contract, regulation; rule, method, formula," lit. "small form," dim. of forma "form" (see form). Modern sense is colored by Carlyle's use (1837) of the word for "rule slavishly followed without understanding""
Interestingly
"Mathematical use is from 1796; use in chemistry is from c.1846."
so the word is used by Crowley in it's original meaning and the basic definition is exactly the top definition above.
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When a preacher says, "I now pronounce you husband and wife" at the conclusion of a wedding ceremony, that's a formula in the sense of "words used in a ceremony and ritual." I don't think that's what Crowley meant at all here. If you recite the creed at a gnostic mass, you're reciting a formula in the sense of Dar's Victorian dictionary, "a formal enunciation of doctrines". (By the way, which Victorian dictionary is it?)
When Crowley says that ALIM is a formula of witchcraft, he seems to mean that the symbolic values of the letters suggest a way of magically manipulating the four elements to effect a desired change. To say that INRI is a formula of initiation seems to mean that the letters represent the outline of a ritual or some sort of procedure for initiating someone. I say "seems" because it is very unclear to me. I'm a big believer in using the dictionary, but in this case I don't find the dictionary definitions helpful at all.
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Yes - "formula" in the ecclesiastical sense is a specific stream of words, such as Robert gave as an example. Crowley used it in a different sense.
Besides... I'm not happy with the trend that some questions are valid and some aren't, or that I shouldn't be wasting my time answering some when the person could look up. If somebody wants or needs to know something, we'll probably answer it.
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"it seemed like a legitimate question to me. Crowley and other occultists use the word "formula" in a peculiar sense, and dictionary definitions are not very helpful. Usually a formula prescribes the input or ingredients you need to produce a specific result. For example, if I know the radius of a circle and want to know the circumference, there's a well-known formula. I can put in the radius and get the circumference. Or if I have a formula for rocket fuel, that means I know what ingredients to mix and how to mix them to wind up with rocket fuel. But what does it mean to say that INRI is a formula? What do I put in, what do I do with it, and what comes put at the end?"
I.N.R.I., ABRAHADABRA, VIAOV, and so forth are formulas much like the formulas employed in physics or mathematics, in my understanding. Just as someone without basic training in calculus has difficulty making sense of physics formulas, one needs occult training and experience to understand these formulas. The formulas are of broad use, and the results depend on what you apply them to. These formulas can be applied to a person as in the case of initiation, invocation, and so forth, or to items to perform consecrations, as well as being useful to a wide variety of other purposes. The Golden Dawn offered many examples of methods for applying the formula of the Neophyte to numerous operations, including alchemy, evocation, and, of course, initiation.
In a mathematical sense, I understand each of the letters in the magical formulas to represent both a variable and a function. The functions must occur in a particular order, according to specific relationships. The variables change according to the nature of the first matter. For example, I in I.N.R.I., corresponding to Virgo, quickly suggests purity of the first matter. So, if a person is the subject of the formula's application, that person must be purified before the operation even begins.
Of course, this is just my opinion, based on independent study and practice. Others may have learned differently, or come to different results. I just find this the most useful, practical available interpretation, as it limits speculation and makes the various formulas more clear and adaptable. Take what you will from my ideas, and leave the rest as the unneeded mental baggage it could easily become.
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So then i'm thinking in relation to INRI specifically, and applying it heavily to the christian relationship.
I: Purification by water as with john the baptist
N: A form of death and renewal (into solar consciousness = R) based on dying on the cross of the four elements
R: Entering into communion with the light/sun/father^
I: Resurrected anew as a purified being, god-manIf you want to use it as a HGA ritual old aeon style.
On the right track??
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There's nothiing INTRINSICALLLY Old Aeon aboout I.N.R.I. That's one specialized application of it, but by no means the only one. There are (for example) pristinely Thelemiic developments of it.
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Yeah I get a gist of how it might swing either way. Seems how you approach the N portion would play the greater role?
I get this notion from the shift in view of the sun (or god) as not dying, but being eternal and perpetual and realising them as expressions of the one thing. "Thrill with the joy of life and death!" -
Is it possible to get direction to an example of a pristinely thelemic development? Or something close to it?