College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Im embarking on the path of A.A. again after a hiatus and not going beyond the initial reading the last time. I see now I didnt have the resolve to see it through let alone any magickal work. But I'm in a different place now and starting the reading process again but my question is: should I consider doing the things I know like LBRP and sigil magick or does that interfere with the initiation process?

So, helpful...

So I've been keeping a magick diary the last couple of days and it is okay I guess but I'm trying to figure out how to get the most use out of the exercise? For those of you that have been doing it for a bit, what have you looked back at and found as the most helpful notes? How detailed to you get to determine success/failure variables??

Below is my entry of today using the format given in the book Modern Magick:

Date: Feb 9 2015 ** Day: ** Mon Time: 7:03 PM

Phase of Moon: Waning Gibbous 75%
**
Weather Conditions:** hot. rained earlier

**Emotions: **calm and somewhat collected mentally

Physical Condition: tired

Name of rituals performed: Relaxation Ritual, LBRP, Tarot contemplation






Performance: I think I did better at vibrating the angel names more than I ever have and I felt like I was in a holy place, especially with the addition of the black tau robe. It felt very warm all around me, which has dropped off dramatically since the ritual ended. I also had the feeling like I’ve done all of this before many times, perhaps I was in the Golden Dawn or similar in a past life? I think I need to put more into the relaxation ritual before hand perhaps and not let my concentration break for neighbor noise.

**Results: ** I got the “Fool” trump and I felt like it was indicating to be filled with the energy of the sun (or God) and to bring that into my endeavors especially in regards to creative things.

Any feedback or insight you could provide would be very appreciated!

I think I'd like to choose a magickal name and there seems to be several variations on how to go about it but I'm not sure. I assume the whole frater/soror thing is just for A.A. initiates but what if you are not? How would you go about it?

Cool, I really like that Jim!

I admit that I have never really understood much about this tenant. I suppose it has something to do with love being subservient to the will and also if you divide 93 by 93 you of course get 1, so it could have something to do with the oneness of all things?

I don't know. Insight is appreciated.

Thanks. I will keep reading it.

Well, right now I am stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba so I'm pretty closed off from the "normal world" so to speak. I'm supposed to be headed to Virginia in May/June timeframe which should be a lot better.

So, after reading the material for A.'.A.'. (well most of it, very difficult to finish all that in 3 months when you work full time) I got to the test and just didn't feel right about it. I'm not sure how to explain it exactly. I still feel called to the magickal path...perhaps now more than ever but my gut feeling is that A.'.A.'. is not right for me at this exact moment. So, I will continue learning on my own.

With that said, any advice for the solitary practitioner? I just started reading "Modern Magick" by Donald Michael Kraig and I'm really enjoying the clear, no B.S. way things are laid out in that so far in learning magick. It's more or less the kind of book I've been needing for the past year. I would however greatly appreciate any other advice as far as advancing myself on the path.

I heard someone say recently that "the only thing Thelema is really missing is a compassion practice". I didn't really think of it much then but it's kind of interesting now that I think about it. It could be that he (nor I) have plunged deep enough to discover such but I would say I kind of agree with that.

What do you think?

I constantly find myself intrigued by Aleister Crowley and a lot of what he had to say and what he tried to create through the system of Thelema but I simultaneously disagree with him on so many points (ex. social darwinism). I mean, I think he was a very misunderstood genius in a lot of ways but I've never quite understood how people could practically worship him? Even calling him a "prophet" makes me a bit squeamish (not necessarily saying he wasn't, it's more just the word). I see him as a very important instigator who synthesized a great many concepts but beyond that I don't know what I think about him.

Someone once told me though that there is a big difference between "Thelema" and "Crowleyism" -- what do you think about that?

So, here's something that has had me scratching my head for awhile. I feel like I've read a fair bit of Thelemic material at this point and for the most part, I really haven't come across how to create your own ritual to obtain a certain goal. I know of the rituals of the pentagram and hexagram, star sapphire and ruby (though honestly I haven't ventured much beyond LBRP in practice) but even as far as they go, I don't quite know what they are for, or how they pertain to making your own rituals. I realize a lot of the material pertains to yoga and just overall learning to direct magick force which makes sense but I feel like I've been reading about that forever and understand naught. On a couple of occasions I've just ended up finding a wiccan spell of some sort (dime a dozen those are on the web) and opening and closing with a pentagram ritual. That's probably not the proper way to do things I'm guessing?

93

My name is Eric, I'm currently stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with the U.S. Navy. I kind of stumbled upon Thelema by accident one day when a friend posted a picture of the book "Living Thelema" and so I naturally asked "what the bleep is Thelema?". I was already deeply interested in the tarot, the concept of astral projection and other related topics so it was cool to read about something that was a synthesis of so many ideas and practices. So, I read a couple books by Lon Milo Duquette and others just out of curiosity --that was almost a year ago. I've felt time and time again that Thelema (or at least something related) is in fact my path or "will" yet it can be a very confusing maze for the beginner which I still am. So, I'm looking for, what I hope, will be some respectful and helpful discussion on Thelema and the path of AA.

93/93