College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Thank you Jim - so in essence if all the teachings and so forth go back to the Rose Cross then why (aside from the masons) are there any new orders in the first places? What I mean is, why would there be Thelema or the A∴A∴ - why wouldn't everyone just join the order rosae crucis?

Hi everyone, and once again, thank you for your time and answers in advance...

I'm wondering if the Golden Dawn order, and even Thelema, like the freemasons, all goes back to the Rose Cross or to that teaching of Christian Rosenkreuz - I'm wondering if this is even so for the order of A∴A∴.

Any of your input is well appreciated. Thank you.

@Jim Eshelman said

"What Uni said.

Yes. At least north of the equator, the direction is clockwise.

One can change it, but one is then not doing the same ritual. One is doing a different ritual. I'm answering this based on the assumption that you want an answer about the ritual you actually asked about, the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram."

Absolutely and thank you both for your responses.

So why would he write the opposite direction? Any ideas why? Could he be adding a "blind" as he mentions in his article of which were applied to other parts of the ritual to compensate for exposing said blinds?

There's no way he just wrote that for nothing right? Now, I'm not saying he's right, but I wonder why he'd suggest that.

Any ideas?

Hello. I'm wondering if anyone would shed some insight into the directions one turns while performing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

Currently I go from East, to South, then West and to North and back to the East. But I notice in this article, at the end of the article where he describes the workings of the New Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, he says to go from East, North, West and so South.

Is any direction OK? Does a certain direction do certain things?

All your insights are highly appreciated, thank you.

Hello again everyone. So I've seen references to the banishing and invoking earth pentagrams, but I don't know the difference between the two in the case of when to perform either one and am I correct that the banishing is the LBRP and the invoking is the LRP?

Your help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

Well thank you Los, and I will read your essay - and to answer your question yes I am following a Thelemic Spark!

@Patrick Ossoski said

"
Morning and evening is a good approach. And yes, you will probably want to use the LBRP before other stuff almost always."

Thank you Patrick, and so I presume the other stuff would be things like other rituals or meditation. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you everyone!

Well I want to thank everyone again. I gotta tell ya this is no easy path...trying to understand everything, why to do anything, when to and so much more gets confusing but I know a time will get when I 'get my head around it'.

Well rather than start a new thread I suppose it would be better to ask one last question here, concerning the LBP - either the banishing or invoking - can someone tell me why I'm doing this?

As in why or when should or would one do the banishing or invoking ritual? Could it just be used as like a morning and evening prayer/meditation? Should either one of them be done before other work?

If I have more questions I'll start a new thread. Thanks again everyone.

Patrick, I have the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram memorized in word and movements, but that's pretty much it. I kind of don't really know why I'm doing it but I try to do it once a day. It does feel good to do.

All and all I want to say thank you to everyone who responded because you've given me some great help and direction. I'm moving forward and will obviously return in the future for more assistance and enlightenment.

Thank you everyone.

@Uni_Verse said

"Correct me if I am wrong: Are you referencing talk of the Path of Tav (which is associated with Saturn) ?"

Do you mean as in the 32nd path? Well actually I was directly, or I should say I didn't know/remember they were associated, but then yes, I believe I am.

@Uni_Verse said

"As direct Work with the planets, I say, is that of the Adepts
A beginners Work is with the Elements -
The Aspirant needing to learn to craft the Elements,
Before attempting to manipulate Planets which each include a subset of the Elemental Hierachy"

OK so working the planets would be in a way or form of manipulating them, am I correct?

OK so from all the responses, Uni_Verse if you could give me an understanding, even of how I should be beginning my treading on the 32nd path, how I would start elemental work and which book, Liber O or Liber Librae.

Everyone, forgive me if I sound like I have no clue what I'm talking about, I'm fairly new and so I don't have all the terms in order...

Thanks everyone!

@Faus said

"Working with a planet is basically attuning yourself, through the proper mystical and magical means, with that aspect of conscience that we call, for example, saturnine."

Yes and I think that's also what Takamba was alluding too, correct me if I'm wrong, but through 'proper', or maybe more established means. From everyone's responses Liber O seems to be the way to go, and the proper means of helping me learn to attune myself - am I right?

@Faus said

"If well done it unveils and strengths aspects of yourself that are related to the aspect you are working with."

Could you elaborate a bit on the above quote Faust?

@Faus said

"The general advice is to work with elements first than move towards the planets. The work should be done with careful vigilance of oneself to avoid bringing inner unbalance.

If possible, take a look at Liber Librae for some fine ideas on the matter of inner balance."

When working with the elements, should I start with Liber Librae or Liber 0?

@Takamba said

"I don't normally use that phrase or come across it but it sounds familiar enough. If I were to want to kicks some {}, get down and beat the (*) out of someone, that would be pretty Martian and I would make sure I wore red, burned red candles all day, burned tobacco for incense and rubbed it all over me, made sigils using Martian squares, invoked the angels and demons of Mars, had a five sided altar, maybe in a five sided temple, used a wand of oak, might even dare myself to bath (without water) in a pile of nettle!

That would be how I'd work Mars before coming to kick your {***}."

Takamba, I have to thank you! I know you're not kidding and if you are than someone correct me, but your response really actually made sense. I'd presume I'd channel some mental energy in there too.

Either way, your response kind of answered a lot of my questions.

@Patrick Ossoski said

"Why are you particularly interested in planetary work?

I should probably add that if you're on a level where you know little or nothing about this kind of working, then you probably don't need it yet.
The basics are in Liber O."

Thank you Patrick. Recently I ran software that gave me my natal chart and I also spoke to an Astrologer, who briefly looked at my chart, and saw that Saturn was slightly afflicted. Saturn opposed Midheaven and was Trine with Uranus. (I'll note for everyone here, for no real apparent reason on my part that in my chart Saturn is also in Gemini).

So seeing that Saturn was somewhat afflicted, I decided to look up what that meant, and in my searches found that if a planet is afflicted, you can do work on the planet.

Now you say if I don't know about this kind of working I probably don't need it yet and others who have responded have said that I should start with the elements. If that's the case, some help with learning how to do that would be appreciated as well.

Thank you

Hello everyone, I'm new here, I thank you all in advance for the help you'll probably be giving me over the years as I progress in my learning of the arts.

I've been seeing "Saturn Work" in various places and I'd like some help in understanding how to do Saturn Work and planetary work in general. I'm interestes in the work and specifically Saturn work as apparently working with Saturn is important on many levels. At this time I just don't know at all what I'd do.

Any ideas, suggestions and help are appreciated, and I thank you.