magical orders...aagh
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Since my discovery of magick (and shortly thereafter, Thelema) I have spent much time reading about traditions of magick and the orders that practice them. On the one hand, this has given me a great magical education (albeit broad and somewhat shallow- I am by no means qualified to take the Student exam). On the other hand, I am now faced with the conundrum of being interested in initiation under -at last count- 9 magical orders. Based on what I know about any order's workload, this is too much! Has anyone else experienced this problem and can you give me advice?
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I'm not sure what the conundrum is. Are you thinking you need to do all nine?
After an initial "seeker" stage (that time when we all look around and sample everything), the normal growth of the soul is to settle into one path and pursue it until one "comes out the other side."
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(apologies for the threadomancy- currently the magic discipline in which I am most advanced
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Looking over the orders I'm interested in joining, it occurred to me another means of choosing would be to first seek entrance to the groups with K&C of the HGA as a stated aim or part of the curriculum. What is your (all of your, not just Jim's) opinion on non-Thelemic orders also seeking K&C? Is this accepted in the A.'.A.'. if I try to join it later, or would I have to perform the A.'.A.'. ordeal as well (something I have no problem with doing)? -
I am not a member of any order, but thought I'd give some feedback.
@veritas_in_nox said
"it occurred to me another means of choosing would be to first seek entrance to the groups with K&C of the HGA as a stated aim or part of the curriculum."
I personally do not know of any other training systems that refers to this phenomenon specifically. I believe there are equivalencies because the nature of the phenomenon is not excluslively Thelemic, as I understand. However, I don't know of any systems that spell out the K&C of the HGA specifically.
There are references I think to that stage I believe though. The Golden Dawn refers to this as the "Divine Genuis" and the whole concept stems from the book "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage" translated by Mathers. It is based on attaining to Tipareth - so presumably any order based on a graded system via the Tree of Life could be referencing this.
@veritas_in_nox said
"What is your (all of your, not just Jim's) opinion on non-Thelemic orders also seeking K&C? Is this accepted in the A.'.A.'. if I try to join it later, or would I have to perform the A.'.A.'. ordeal as well (something I have no problem with doing)?"
From what I understand - the A.'.A.'. , in its outer form, is a specific training system and must be followed from beginning to end regardless of what stage you are in within another system.
For example, in a letter from Crowley to Karl Germer:
"To show you the difference, Theodore Reuss was Supreme Head of the O.T.O .. but was not even a probationer in the A.'.A.'."
Edit:
I also have found it intersting to know that A.'.A.'. was founded before Crowley had accepted the Book of the Law. Thus, in its creation the system was not Thelemic by definition (just budding probably).
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@veritas_in_nox said
"(apologies for the threadomancy- currently the magic discipline in which I am most advanced
)
Looking over the orders I'm interested in joining, it occurred to me another means of choosing would be to first seek entrance to the groups with K&C of the HGA as a stated aim or part of the curriculum. What is your (all of your, not just Jim's) opinion on non-Thelemic orders also seeking K&C? Is this accepted in the A.'.A.'. if I try to join it later, or would I have to perform the A.'.A.'. ordeal as well (something I have no problem with doing)?"from my p.o.v., if one is working with/through the A.'.A.'. system, all other magical orders are outer; it's the skeleton structure of the initiation process, and the outer orders may be the muscles, soft tissue, etc.
if one wants to engage in such activities, one has to ask him/herself "what is the purpose of this", or "what do I need that for" or similar == examine your true motives for wanting to join such a group, and then choose a group that can satisfy those needs, plainly speaking. -
A lot of the magical orders appear to be the same somewhat. Everything they do has an equivalent thing in another order. At this point I have not joined any order but read a lot of books and practiced some or all of the magick in the books.
If there is a book about the orders practices you may want to study it, or at least scan through it. Truthfully I considered several organizations as I was growing up, but not all at the same time. I believe what has attracted me to A .â. A .â. is the fact that it teaches a lot of what I have already believed, but my belief is based on the culmination of studying or reading about a lot of beliefs, religions etc.