sk4p
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Greetings, everyone. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
My name is Shawn. I've been a long-time student of the mysteries, first opening Magick in Theory and Practice in 1992. I've done a lot of work with gematria, raja yoga, and other practices since then. I've also obtained some good results with systems of Chaos magic. I've had fairly informal students at times, people who had read less or tried fewer magical experiments than I had and who wanted to hear from someone a little more experienced; I've hosted both in-person (at my house) and online discussion groups about Thelema and magick in general.
But I feel at length that I need a real, thorough, systematic grounding, and I'd like to pursue attainment of the K&C, and there could be no better way to get that grounding and preparation for that attainment than through the A∴A∴ program. When you assemble all my past work, I feel I'm still a student, a dabbler. So I'd like to say hello, express my desire to learn, and see where things will lead.
Love is the law, love under will.
--Shawn
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Welcome, Shawn. Where do you live?
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Greetings, Jim,
I live in the great city of Pittsburgh, PA. I am willing and able to travel (given sufficient notice) from time to time (were I to pursue initiation, I'd be able to plan for things like ThROA, etc.) but I fear a lot of my work, correspondence, etc. would have to involve mail, electronic or snail.
--Shawn
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You might want to look into the NYC temple of Temple of Thelema. helema.org/temple_of_thelema/locations.html
Or, possibly that wouldn't interest you. Just making an option available.
In any case, welcome to the forum.
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Thanks for the welcome, Jim. Looking forward to catching up and seeing the discussions.
I think my question is, given the distance, what is the role the Temple can play on an ongoing basis? I see:
"Once a Pronaos develops a certain maturity and stability, and meets the criteria for Temple status, it is fully warranted as a Temple and then performs its own initiations and Degree Work locally."
So what sort of program does one develop in my position? Would it be something like "go to NY for signing of pledges and initiations"? I'd only be able to make that trip once every 2-3 months at best, so would there be some correspondence process involving sending a Record to a senior member there, and having occasional in-person discussions of such?
I guess I'm just sort of looking for how this works in actual practice. I assume TOT has initiates outside NY and LA, so how do they work?
Best,
--Shawn -
Although the best use of the system is for people local to a Temple, there is a category of membership for people who don't live in geographic proximity. The simple details are that you have to be present for actual iniitiation / degree advancement, and your attendance expectations are "whenever possible," plus ongoing communication. You miss out on certain things, but have the opportunity to work the tasks and develop the skills.
Fine points would be discussed / worked out with the Chiefs of the particular temple, within the above framework.
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Or you could astral travel Shawn.
I am curious, is there any Temples of Thelema in Australia?
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Only in North America at present (though we do have some members elsewhere).
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Shame
Oh well.