College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

There's the "yeheshua" ritual of the GD wich they practiced "between" pentagram and hexagram.

interesting etymology. I'd always been told it meant "bisected." (The Paths in question are "bisected" in that they have two different sets of attributions, Tav for Earth as well as Saturn, and Shin for Spirit in addition to Fire.)

@gmugmble said

"Gail Sheehy? Did you mean someone else?

Elaine Pagels's new book Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation covers this territory well."

Yeah, mind-burp 😀 Duh. (Read my first book from both of them at the same time decades ago. But YES, absolutely, meant Elaine.)

@Aegis55 said

"

While chaos and rigid periodicity are at odds, chaos and observable, relatively stable cycles are not necessarily so. At least not to my mind. In other words, watching the morning weather report has enough of a statistical degree of accuracy that I can usually plan my day pretty well. But it's not always right.

"

you are right in that "chaos theory"{which is not equivalent but related to chaos in the colloquial sense} is not at odds with relatively stable cycles but demonstrates that every once so often there is a change or sometimes drastic change or "quantum leap" {in the colloquial sense} of apparently periodic systems, these are the "bifurcations" of that system. my point is that the Aeonic cycle cannot be consistently every 2200 yrs or 2500yrs or whatever it is supposed to be, due to these bifurcations. And that the concept that it was/is may have been largely due to the knowledge available at the time. Dynamical Systems theory is a new branch of mathematics{hence the title} which was not discovered till late in last century. In the first article "Chaos and the Millennium" this concept is explained clearly, amongst others, in lay man's terms.

93 93/93

@mojorisin44 said

"Israel Regardie has written about this. From the little I know, the Middle Pillar technique forms a base for developing a "healing" energy. Regardie coupled this with a Reichian form of therapy, from what I remember, in his own practices.
"

I see it this way myself. I also view the middle pillar as the focus of the energy produce from the "Big Bang Singularity" and neccessary to stay inline with the universe.

This is the only way I know how to describe a proccess that for me is very mysterious.

There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.

@RobertAllen said

"If you are responding in earnest, then it gets a lot murkier. But you know, as someone posted on another topic, in response to one of my posts, 'what is reality?' Or something to that effect. Please, don't feel as if you have to answer the question.

Take care. If we are ever in the same bar at the same time, I swear, I will drink you under the table! The drinks are on me!"

I'm enjoying this very much. I think there's a lot of profit in these kinds of discussions. I'm not participating as much as I'd like as time is limited. "What is reality" would certainly be a fun and challenging topic! By the way, if the drinks are on you I hope you make it to Berkeley sometime.
🍸

@_aLL_seEIng_eYe_ said

"Can a Magical oath be violated before it is taken?"

Certainly the general answer is No. I suppose one must make allowances for kinds of scenarios one doesn't contemplate.

"or in any way can a man/woman compromise his/her integrity irredeemably in a Magical sense in ignorance of the fact?"

I don't believe in redemption, so I can't accept the premise of irredeemable compromise, ignorant or otherwise. At most, one can fuck up a few incarnations until the force of karma has gotten one back on track.

The path of Tav; the intersection of the verticle and the horizontal; the meeting of Yesod with Malkuth (change and permanence)--these things comprise what we might call "common sense:" the circle squared. 😉

An equally good case might be made for Binah, however.

How fascinating.. Have you tried to "see" the colour of the car? i imagine that would be a very exciting detail to work on..

I live in england and Master used to live in canada.. i thought i had a pretty good grasp of perception until flying ove canada at all that woodland! and how big yet tiny the town Master comes from is, and how its 30mins to drive to the nearest store, and over an hour, 100 miles to each proper town is... Canada is pretty good at "fooling" you to beleive that the spaces are much bigger than they are...
(unrelated but fascinating...in england you see stars...but in canada you see STARS man.. they are so much brighter and so ...MANY... breath taking and awe inspiring..where there isnt so much light and light pollution... sighs..here in england, outter londen, you're very lucky to see a star, let alone many of them... canada they seem lower also...not sure why i've put this too but maybe its something that will interest you)

i dont remember waking life well enough (recently brought the dvd but finding a time Master fancies watching it is pretty hard lol, especially with so much information on all matter of things via the net have a bigger priority... however i'm recouperating from a dentist trip at the moment and so will settle down and watch it on my own in the next few days i think, ill take extra note on that scene and we can chat on it grins

@_aLL_seEIng_eYe_ said

"i think such a system would be more comprehensive and less convoluted. if the Qabalah is supposed to map the relation of all space-time phenomena then I don't see why consolidation is an unrealistic goal. Thanks for the information"

At this point, I see Astrology as something akin to the bathroom fixtures in the building of the School of Kabbalah.

A student will likely need to make use of them at some point in the course of the day. These can be most useful and functional tools but they are not what the goal is about. Yet the knowledge of how to properly use them is most desirable. Many are so impressed that they drop out and make plumbing their career.

Note: A PHD in Electrical Engineering will usually hire an electrician to wire his house.

Why would there be a "Thelemic definition" of respect?

Respect is respect.

I can't give you a "Thelemic definition" of respect.

I can give you SHARIYF's definition of respect.

In fact I'll do better. I won't define it. I'll illustrate it.

The bully beats up the wimp Monday.

The bully beats up the wimp Tuesday.

The bully beats up the wimp Wednesday.

The wimp beats up the bully Thursday.

The bully and the wimp eat lunch TOGETHER Friday.

Somewhere in that parable is your answer.

I think this looks like malkuth to kether.www.zeropoint.ca/kabb-4trees2.jpg

theres the link, I dont know how to paste pics on here yet 😀

@Edward Mason said

"The universe is an ecology, and to stress the violent aspect over the greater totality that contains and absorbs it, strikes me as dubious, if not silly."

heh... or daft and absurd?

Or maybe just a necessary step. Recognizing and accepting the reality of the violence is not "stressing" it but merely recognizing it and accepting it as a reality to be dealt with.

One can see and accept the reality or not. Take it or stall. You choose. For myself, I have accepted reality and I have chosen to carve out my own corner of reality on the edge of the insanity.

Were it not for my wife's vehement opposition to living in Mexico I would easily join my ex-pat pals there.

"If then you do not make yourself equal to God, you cannot apprehend God; for like is known by like. Leap clear of all that is corporeal, and make yourself grow to a like expanse with that greatness which is beyond all measure; rise up above all time, and become eternal; then you will apprehend God. Think that for you nothing is impossible; deem that you too are immortal, and that you are able to grasp all things in your thought, to know every craft and every science; find yourself at home in the haunts of every living creature; make yourself higher than all heights, and lower than all depths; bring together in yourself all opposites of quality: heat and cold, dryness and fluidity; think that you are everywhere at once: on land, at sea, in heaven; think that you are not yet begotten, that you are in the womb, that you are young, that you are old, that you have died, that you are in the world beyond the grave; grasp in your thought all this at once, all times and places, all substances and qualities and magnitudes together; then you can apprehend God. But if you shut up your soul in your body, and abase yourself, and say, "I know nothing, I can do nothing, I am afraid of earth and sea, I cannot mount to heaven; I do not know what I was, nor what I shall be;" then, what have you to do with God? . . . For it is the height of evil not to know God; but to be capable of knowing God, and to wish and hope to know Him, is the road which leads straight to the Good . . . ." "

Hermes-Trismegistos, Corpus Hermeticum, xlii, John Everard translated from Ficino's Latin, in the British Library Collection, London: 1650. As read in Goddard, David. The Tower of Alchemy: An Advanced Guide to the Great Work. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc., p. 75-76.

All that to say... These are some metaphors that help me not to endlessly chase the wind. I seem to have all the strengths and weaknesses of being born and raised in that particular briar patch. If you have something better to tame the wind, what can I say? I'm just a student and a seeker.

Namaste.

"
"
"Which is more important the Spirit of the law or the letter of the Law? ❓ ❓"

More important for what? (And why would you suspect that it's an either/or gambit?)"

In a situation of an either /or gambit, in an apparent contradiction which does one follow? ⬆"

"I dispute the question. That's dualistic thinking, usually fuelled by emotions or by misperceived thought. Generally one must find a way to honor both."

in a situation where they don't contradict then i affirm that this is a natural law being somehow expressed, however not every man made law is universal and divinely inspired just because it has an official stamp on it, in such situations of doubt how does one tell? Logically one must go with the Spirit of the Law over the Letter 💡 ⬆

@JPF said

"
@Tesla said
"My thought experiments into explorations of alternate time-lines have led me to the point that i have become obsessed with everything backwards; Such that i conceive a Man travelling backwards in time would change polarity to become some type of a woman[that is revert from an explosive sexuality into an implosive one], i watch movies backwards with the 'search' function i read and write backwards at this point it is hard for me to conceive of anything being complete without it's reflection. 👽"

I am suprised that nobody has mentioned Liber Thisharb.

I quote:

"Let the Exempt Adept first train himself to think backwards by external means, as set forth here following.
("a") Let him learn to write backwards, with either hand.
("b") Let him learn to walk backwards.
("c") Let him constantly watch, if convenient, cinematograph films, and listen to phonograph records, reversed, and let him so accustom himself to these that they appear natural, and appreciable as a whole.
("d") Let him practise speaking backwards; thus for "I am He" let him say, "Eh ma I".
("e") Let him learn to read backwards. In this it is difficult to avoid cheating one's self, as an expert reader sees a sentence at a glance. Let his disciple read aloud to him backwards, slowly at first, then more quickly.
("f") Of his own ingenium, let him devise other methods.

In this his brain will at first be overwhelmed by a sense of utter confusion; secondly, it will endeavour to evade the difficulty by a trick. The brain will pretend to be working backwards when it is really normal. It is difficult to describe the nature of the trick, but it will be quite obvious to anyone who has done practices ("a") and ("b") for a day or two. They become quite easy, and he will think that he is making progress, an illusion which close analysis will dispel.
Having begun to train his brain in this manner, and obtained some little success, let the Exempt Adept, seated in his Asana, think first of his present attitude, next of the act of being seated, next of his entering the room, next of his robing, et cetera, exactly as it happened. And let him most strenuously endeavour to think each act as happening backwards. It is not enough to think: "I am seated here, and before that I was standing, and before that I entered the room," etc. That series is the trick detected in the preliminary practices. The series must not run "ghi-def-abc" but "ihgfedcba": not "horse a is this" but "esroh a si siht". To obtain this thoroughly well, practice ("c") is very useful. The brain will be found to struggle constantly to right itself, soon accustoming itself to accept "esroh" as merely another glyph for "horse." This tendency must be constantly combated.
In the early stages of this practice the endeavour should be to meticulous minuteness of detail in remembering actions; for the brain's habit of thinking forwards will at first be insuperable. Thinking of large and complex actions, then, will give a series which we may symbolically write "opqrstu-hijklmn-abcdefg." If these be split into detail, we shall have "stu-pqr-o---mn-kl-hij---fg-cde-ab," which is much nearer to the ideal "utsrqponmlkjihgfedcba."
Capacities differ widely, but the Exempt Adept need have no reason to be discouraged if after a month's continuous labour he find that now and again for a few seconds his brain really works backwards.
The Exempt Adept should concentrate his efforts upon obtaining a perfect picture of five minutes backwards rather than upon extending the time covered by his meditation. For this preliminary training of the brain is the Pons Asinorum of the whole process"
"

thanks for that this provides a point of correlation between my developing system and Crowley's.

@Bryan said

"Honestly, your dialectic would be much more interesting and effective if you wrote your opposition to be a little less idiotic. It's not difficult to build straw men and sand castles to beat down with a stick."

This is an improvisation, spontaneous writing written in less than 5 mins, i thought i did pretty good, i am merely having fun my dear friend, everything above is subject to edit, this is practical voyeurism allowing everyone bear witness to my creative process I do not even know how this dialectic will end myself. although sometimes i do feel I am l misunderstood and these simpleminded "straw men' by way of exaggeration did enable me to highlight that. 🍸 I actually did think of it myself also so don't be surprised if the next characters are endowed with some intelligence as we proceed, so point taken. 😄

I think we've come to twist some the meanings in the words with our individual egos(ergo division), something we are ALL guilty of. You can come to so many conclusions, and next week it could totally flip around. Too, where things might have been meant in a more...abstract(doesn't seem quite the word), we make it concrete. In fact, while our conclusions of the moment might not, perse, be wrong, we cloud it with our ego.

@Shiva Tseba'oth said

"
Read TAZ by Hakim Bey.
You can get it here"

thanks for that, looks very interesting.

@Edward Mason said

"Neo, 93,

"My question; might not this metaphor be applied to "a mind at rest" and a "mind in continuous motion"? and if not, why not? a practical example of this question from one perspective might be, can one meditate while driving ? riding a bicycle? or performing any other rhythmic real or simulated automated body movement? the virtual world might be able to provide infinite variations of uniform motion only limited by the creativity of the concept creator(s)."

Silence is not just inactivity on an auditory level, it's a complete cessation of ***mental ***activity. Sometimes It enters into us (in my experience) and sometimes we enter into It. Asking a set of pre-thought-out questions about it doesn't actually have any relevance to it. It's not an issue for intellectual inquiry. Going by your other posts, you think a lot. So do I. But from a magical/mystical perspective, thinking is mostly just mental froth.

"Moreover Edward your statement is "Period Specific" as regards to "This Aeon" seemingly to suggest to a certain extent that the "Silence" is a means and not an end in itself, especially in the "Next Aeon". I am most curious as to your opinion, and would be flattered for you to conjecture about the Next Step/ Next Aeon."

I don't give a hoot about the Next Aeon, and I just don't think about it. This Aeon has a lot of lifetimes to run yet.

Again, it sounds like you're trying to think your way through to an answer. What will that get you ... ? More thoughts.

Thought is useful on the plane of Assiah, so we can decide (as I just did) which shirt to wear, what needs buying today, and so on. And it's useful for ***planning ***a ritual . For actually ***doing ***a ritual, it's a hindrance. For reviewing it afterwards in the magical diary, sure, thought comes back into play. But it won't - can't - get us to Silence.

"I shall know whether 2 declare myself a Mutant or not! "

In other words, so you can think about another thought - in this case, a label that is just as provisional as any other you have attached, or will attach, to yourself. Labels can be fun: "I am a magician! I'm a social misfit! I'm a renegade! I'm a complex thinker!" But once we move to any sort of mystical perspective, labels are the first thing that dissolve.

93 93/93,

Edward"

I could argue and go into more conjecture about the actual nature of this "Silence" and further as a student of "Chaos" contest the periodicity of the universe; However in this instance, I will for once concede that maybe I don't have enough direct experience with the phenomena to which you allude. Something within this position of "Silence" intuitively is compelling, and I can admit to a bad habit of procrastination in certain areas at times, in the form of diversions and escapism; so I really should test this diagnosis and witness the results in myself. 🌞

Thank you both.