College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

"Quote JAE: Read the original John Dee record for July 13, 1584. These are the names as originally given.
In writing the book, I had theories about a "why." Patterns... but couldn't unquestionably filter my own projections or innate patterning. I'm not sure the "why" matters much. But I've given you where they come from.
"

Thank you Jim, I am very new to the system and I am just trying to wrap my head around it. BTW, I have been using the ATU’s meditation you suggested in your book for about a month to explore the Aethyr’s. So far,... interesting 😉

A quote from the website selling Damon Brand books:

"Q: Can you provide a translation for the Hebrew and Latin in all your books?

A: Although we could do this, it doesn’t help. By using an unfamiliar language, you are actually more likely to get results, because it cuts out your judgment and interpretation of the words, otherwise we would just write everything in English. In many cases, the shapes of the Hebrew letters are considered magickal, so you do not need any knowledge of Hebrew. You only need to look at the letter shapes for them to work. Also, many words can’t be translated directly as they are angelic names. All Hebrew words are sounded out phonetically, so you only need to make the sounds and see the letter shapes to get results."

What a load of garbage. I know I know, writing is the ultimate joke upon mankind by Hermes, but this is like the opposite. One should know what one is working with, letters words and the like, to be successful in their workings.

I would send that book back with a bookmark smeared in horse(radish) sauce if you catch my drift. It would certainly improve the book's overall odour of bull-$hit.

(Actually I don't know which is kinder to the olfactory: bull or horse cakes.??..)

"Quote JAE: I recommend just hitting your favorite book store - or especially a museum book store - and getting any of the large, glossy, color plate laden coffee table books on mythology."
Thank you kindly Jim.

@Ankh said

"
"Quote JAE: Kether wasn't in mind when it was written. The intention was to place the three above the four - specifically, a Briatic triad about a Yetziratic tetrad."

Thank you for the reply Jim, it a beautiful ritual by the way. 😀

Interesting, I was under the impression after reading chapter 16 in 776 ½ (Ritual Construction). That the order should be Atziluth, B’riah, then Yetzirah, did I miss something? Or is that a rule with exception?"

Well, there obviously is an inherent Atziluthic presence in these gods, no doubt about it. And the Yetziratic tetrad ("the gods of men," i.e., gods with clear images and of the nature of pantheons usually called mythologies) are generally Yetziratic. On the other hand, the Kerubs are unquestionably Yetziratic, so you could also scale it as Atziluth-Briah-Yetzirah.

Not my experience as a standard or common phenomena. One isn't really working Paths in doing that, for example. (Get onboard with the Tarot project elsewhere on this site: It will eventually build to working the minors.)

"JAE wrote: It's mostly a curio. Some useful stuff. Maybe buy it for your overflowing wizardry library when you reach 6=5 "
You made me laugh… All the 5’s scare me Jim, I am not that tough. Thanks again for the delightful response and of course the teasing.

Thank you for your generous answers and time Jim. It’s appreciated. 😀

Thank you Jim. 😄

Thanks Jim, 😀

Yeah, it was bugging me, you articulated what I was thinking very well. It’s too simple of a map.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

@Scarecrow said

"Out of curiosity - does anyone think that there is anything more valid in this statement:

Every man and woman is a star

Or this statement:

Every man and woman is a cabbage

Both statements seems like the discordian Law of 5. However, I do see that in the case of the 1st metaphor, AC was using it within the context of a much larger symbolism.

Are you all seeing a Catma or a Dogma?

And as or Ave de Prata - you seem like a pleasant enough person but when you write I feel like I'm reading Kenneth Grant... just a comment."

OK obviously youve been reading hte Principia or other Discordia lately but still, man and woman is a cabbage in a way but htere is a HUGE amount of symbolism with Stars.

There is the Neo Platonic symbolism of Sol as Monad. There is the symbolism of the 'perfect celestial order of the heavens' and the corresponding 'moral order' in men that Kant was famous for writing about (think that had some influence?). Theres all the esoteric connotations of the Sun/Stars. There is all the normal symbolism of a star - i.e. light giving, center of its own self-radiant energy, pursuing a unique course while intertwined with similar entities, etc.

IAO131

93 Gmugmble,

"Yes. The "F" in "FIAOF" is not really an "F"; it stands for a letter in the ancient Greek alphabet called a digamma. In appearance, the digamma looked like an "F", but its phonetic value was like a "U" or "W". Its numerical value is 6."

I didn’t know that gmugmble, thanks. Also, I appreciate the link. 😄

93 Jim,

"Correct. FIAOF or VIAOV (depending on where it's written - it's the same thing) is pronounced: WEE-AH-OO."
Aha, thank you for showing the pronunciation Jim. 😆

93 Aum 418,

"With your mouth."

Well… I sure would hate to imagine it coming from any where else! 😆

"Jim Eshelman wrote:

How do you chant ABRAHDABRA? On what note? On one single breath? "
BTW, you have JAE quoted as asking the question when it was me. No big deal. I am sure Jim wouldn’t ask such silly questions. 😉

"I suggest looking in Magick in Theory & Practice on the formula of IAO / VIAOV ... BABALON is explained in many places like the intro to the Urn, places in Voice of Silence commentary, and in Vision & the Voice of course. It is essentially draining all of your blood (ego/attachments) out into the Cup of Abominations/Babalon/Saints. BABALON could also be taken etymologically as The Gate/Door (BAB) of the God (AL) ON (ON)."

Thank you for the reference Aum418 they should be a big help ❗ I will pick these books up payday. 🆒

93 gmugmble,

"You might talk to some of the "regulars" -- the people who have been attending the lessons for some time -- to see what their experience has been."
Yeah, how does that saying go? Yea shall judge the tree by there roots, fruits, and nuts? 😆

"Chances are, you've found a good deal, and I hope you get a lot of benefit from it."
Thank you for the encouragement, since I don’t know a whole lot about the subject of yoga, I am sure that why I’m little skeptical.

"I signed up for yoga at a place that was conveniently on my way home from work. They had an up-and-up store front and the people who ran it seemed nice. But the lessons were unlike any kind of yoga I had read about, and I found myself being pressured to adopt the views of their founder, and especially to spend lots of money on special lectures, special equipment, special lessons, etc. When I declined to do this, I was pressured all the more. Finally, I just quite attending. (Later, I looked this school up on the internet, and found that other people were calling it a cult.)

I hope this doesn't frighten you away from the school you've found. I think my experience is the exception and that you've probably found something of use. But caveat emptor."
Thank you for sharing your story gmugmble. Caveat emptor! 😉

No comment on your mantra technique, but answering a few questions where I can.

@Ankh said

"in the timeless state of orgasm this is the moment that you and the object of your desire become one. "

Not just any orgasm; but there are orgasm where this is true. Without training, it varies from person to person and circumstance to circumstance. With training (or, at least with practice!) one can increase the frequency with which this kind of "mind suspending" happens, especially by prolongation of orgasm and the extent to which one throws oneself into it.

"Has anyone on this forum tried chanting the Ain Suph Aur in place of sex magick?"

LOL! This one needn't be an either-or! 👿

"Also, I am curious. Is sex magick a part of Temple of Thelema curriculum for it's Initiates? My first guess would be yes but, I just wanted to ask. 😉"

Yes.

More than ritual etc., the real preparation for this is to look at unresolved psychological patterns, look at the integrity and health of your close emotional relationships, etc. The most useful meditation is that which simply lets you get closer to listening to your psychological roots, and being nonreactive and at peace with whatever is true about yourself (whether your label it 'good' or 'bad').

But also be open to be taken by surprise! This transit is more likely to be rough if you try to plan for it and control it. You can't control it - control will be ripped away from you. The whole point is that it strips away things that are inauthentic and not arbitrary, and leaves your emotional state more honest and free of them. The key, when it happens, is to manifest the best of the Moon: feel, surrender, respond, adapt in real-time relationship to what is arriving in your life both internally and environmentally.

😀

@Jim Eshelman said

"Recently (say, last 10 years) research in neurology has shown that neuroplasticity - the ability of the brain the grow and reshape itself and repurpose areas to new functions - continues far into adulthood. It's no longer theory, but redundantly demonstrated fact, that intense, concentrated learning - including just about any repetitive practice of intense concentration, as well as the repetitive undertaking of new physical tasks - physically alters the brain in sometimes dramatic ways."

Hi Jim, 93.

I see this often in children who, due to physical handicaps, have no frame of reference for new movements or skills. I pattern new things into their motor memories with repetitive movements or tasks and this changes (and expands) their scope of what is possible and sets up a new section in their neural grid. Those who focus and participate "get it" and move on to more. There's no doubt in my mind that this principle generalizes to other things as well. Thanks for that insight!

93s,
Donna

"By giving oneself to faith and devotion in "God" and "Jesus", without wavering, this becomes apparent in that the false bindings of reality become less of a concern the more this faith becomes certainty; as the way "God" functions in the world (or at all) is through Love."

"What I see as central to Christianity is that one should live like Christ."

If we aim at knowing/experiencing the most exalted gifts of Thelema, I think that we must also have adequate information about the before-it things, the exalted side of christian patrology etc.

Central to Christianity IMHO is not to live like christ, but to transmute individual life to a trinitarian mode of being, which means that one is not to accept his reality as an existential monad but as a part of a RELATION, which then is the "real" christian. God is Trinity means that there is no God as an ontological monad, "one God", but only IN RELATION TO- The father is not a God who, aside from that, happens to be father; he exists because a Son exists, and the father is considered THE god only asmuch as the holy spirit is.
The same with Love- the only definition of god in the new testament is "God IS love"; not God loves or god is loving eternally, that is not "There's God; and he loves". god exists because he loves.
Combined with the trinity, we see that this love is more or less in the Crowleyan sense. Further, in as
This all is extremely exalted IMHO, however humanity in the Osirian Age was not ready to percieve the crystalline clearness of Nuit and Hadit- in my oppinion, only in future generations will there be large groups with not EXTREMELY degrading concepts of Nuit and Hadit.

QUESTION: We have seen that these christian concepts were never really embraced in a large scale before the end of the previous Aeon, only a distorted image was embraced as "Christianity". Should we suppose that the world will not see a LARGE SCALE thelemic (not necessarily by name) humanity??? I mean -successfully- thelemic, not only post-1904 thelemic.

[What many newbie Thelemites seem to be missing is that, as far as Thelema is concerned, core Christianity (patrology) HAPPENS to be "WRONG" from Now (i.e. 1904) on; this is almost antithetical to the widely spread "core Chstnity -IS- WRONG"- apart from the fact that the latter attitude actually degrades Thelema by making it an "opponent" of a corrupted form of worship generalised as the worship itself- it makes the whole of Thelema a political party of some kind.]

You may be right on the date - I was going from memory, being away from home and all references, and, now that I think about it, was probably wrong. (I should have said late 1920s in any ase - maybe it was earlier - I have the main diary entry in my papers somewhere.)

i passed the student exam for the A' A' and was assigned a neophyte who live clear on the other side of the country. then after not hearing from him much, and just waiting around, i found out he had left the order. i got assigned a new neophyte who lives almost as far away, and though i have plans on going o meet him, it will be quite some ime before i can, so i am beginning the probationer stuff on my own, and then when i take the oath, ill just be that much further along the path. i dont see anything wrong with going it alone tho. in the A' A' i have joined, u only know one other person, and that is the person above you. well, after becoming a neophyte, u may be assigned a probationer. they also have no meetings or anything like that. i think that basically the great work and conversation with nes holy guardian angel is a very personal experience and can only be done alone. i think that help and advice is all anyone can give. sorry if i babble, but it's early and i havent slept.
good luck on ur journey, brother.