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whoops, only just now noticed this section was here. i do hope it hasn't been terribly rude of me to be posting without introducing myself!
i started reading books about magick when i was young, around 11 or so... around the same time i was fascinated by various religions... i read the bible and tried to follow christianity, but i didn't last long, i was then obsessed with hinduism and ancient egyptian religion, before discovering the western magical tradition. i started collecting tarot decks around then, until the late '90s. when i was around 13 or 14 i got into contact with TOPY (temple of psychic youth), which i was involved with for a couple of years, before abandoning all magical and spiritual practice after quite a bit of psychic fall out. looking back on it (with not a little embarrassment), i cant help feel that while TOPY introduced me to many interesting artists and traditions, unfortunately it really was a cult of personality which irresponsibly advocated extremely dangerous techniques without any guidance or discipline whatsoever. around the same time i briefly had correspondence with, and some interest in, the illuminates of thanateros (IOT) stuff, another group practicing chaos magick techniques but i found them ineffective. these days to me it strikes me as being based on a misunderstanding of austin spare's work.
for a short while after this i did try to practice and appreciate buddhism, however i dont have much time for their nihilism, and was also put off the fact that when i did meet some lamas in the school i was in, they were all tremendously arrogant, and of a very conscending and patronising demeanour.
my interest in magick and sprituality in general was rekindled when i was around 19 by a series of visions. what certainly helped was that the university i was studying in at the time had a massive occult collection in their library which included all the works of crowley. so i began working again in more consciensious and self-disciplined way. i continued working with magick during that time and up until now. mainly i would be using the methods outlined by aleister crowley though i am somewhat ambivalent about self-identifying completely as a "thelemite", as to some extent i would believe any sort of such self-categorisation to be a limitation (i'm thinking of that groucho marx quote about clubs...), though of course "those who call us thelemites will do no wrong, if he but look close into the word..." (amongst other vast reservoirs of illuminating and thought provoking knowledge on here, last year's meditations on the book of the law have certainly confirmed that text as originating from absolute genius...)
outside all that, i am a musician, with my other interests including hypnosis + nlp, and i enjoy asian food and comedy tv shows.
I liked your introduction and certainly sympathise with your comments concerning identifying as a Thelemite.