College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

It is Open Source, and none of it is particularly specific to me.

Here are the slides from a presentation I keep evolving.

TheurgyInTheoryAndPractice.pdf

There are adorations and annunciations to the Feminine and Daughter, but they are privileged.

I reach up to the sky, vast, Above!
A bolt flashes, piercing down through my center, Below!
On EURUS’ tempest a hawk speeds
Into the Setting Sun.
On the precipice of the day’s warmth giving way to
A cool night’s breeze.

As the night gives way to dawn, the hues transition—
Indigo to Gold-Amber and Rich Salmon.
Opening up into brilliant Yellow-Gold with a Pink Rose Translucency

On the horizon and On the periphery.

Awakening in wonderment from what seems an eternal sleep,

I observantly arise with the exuberance of a Child.

On the gentle wings of Zephyrus
I lift myself up, as an arrow pointed
Always toward the Rising Sun—
ALL of creation Below!
Oh, Mystery! Oh, Magesty! Oh, Might!
IAO!

Secret & Singular, ineffable LORD, fire burning in the heart of every star, and to which ALL will return; Let thy perpetual radiance hearten us to continual labour and enjoyment; so that as constant partakers of thy bounty, we may in our particular orbit give out light and life, sustenance and joy to them that revolve about us without diminution of substance or effulgence forever.

Source of Life, Source of Love, Source of Liberty, Source of Light, be thou ever constant and mighty within us that we may Dare to Know thy Will and Silently endeavor to accomplish the Great Work. As the center of the boundless, everywhere present, In thy goings is the knowledge of all phenomena, the Power of Creation.

Sun at the heart of our Souls, enkindle within us the Burning Passion that is Love under Will.

I think this is a terrific topic. I tried this type of analysis, and it was not effective for me, but most are blessed with better sleep than I have had for years. I feel like people opening up to the subconscious and feeling comfortable talking about intuitive information is super valuable. With gratitude @Stef

This post was made by a former forum participant. As it is a reference to a source I have maintained the post for posterity.

..."But I needed a person with similar goals and interests to monitor my progress and confirm if I had done the work as thoroughly as possible. It was with great good fortune that James Eshelman was taking an O.T.O. grade when I was visiting a fine O.T.O. person in Southern California. Jim immediately found an interest in what I was doing and opted to travel to my home in Dublin in Northern California for instructions and conferences. He was visiting only for about the third time when I knew he was to be my successor. In the many years that followed we helped each other to do the mandated A:.A:. work and, here was the person to monitor what I was working on and to give me encouragement and also advice. I did the same for him, of course. In our work, I had the assistance of the H.G.A. when needed."

—In the Continuum Vol. V, No. 10

https://www.limitlesslight.org/ITCarchive/ITCvol5.zip

https://thelema.org/aa

May Light Be Extended Upon All.

Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 13:22:13 EDT
From: JGraeb at aol dot com
Subject: Fwd: Soror Meral speaks up! (Again)

In a message dated 7/21/00 6:54:18 AM Pacific Daylight Time, alice814 at hotmail dot com writes:

A little bird asked me to include the following language which was at the end of Soror Mera'l's letter (Scroll down to below):

----- Original Message -----
From: <Cornelius93 at aol dot com>
To: <jl.hoogeweij at quicknet dot nl>
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 11:08 PM
Subject: (no subject)

93
To all whom it may concern,

The Following is the letter to Bill Breeze from Phyllis Seckler
dated June 22nd, 2000. Distribute freely,

Dear Bill,

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

There is now quite a crisis in the O.T.O. and in my 61 years of membership this seems to be the worst one yet.
What has happened to you? You used to believe in religious freedom and now you are acting with religious intolerance and suppression.
Crowley wrote that the AA and the O.T.O. were two separate Orders. I enclose copies of this letters [These are not included in this epistle. - JEC] and remarks written to clarify matters.
These were printed in I.T.C. Vol I, No. 2. You seem to believe that you should be the head of the AA as well as the head of the O.T.O. Why? I am inclined to ask where are your credentials?
The AA is guide by V.V.V.V.V. He wrote the tasks for each grade with George Cecil Jones. This is clear in LIBER 61.
V.V.V.V.V. is ever the head of the AA and there can be no other. He is still at work to guide his Order. He does not necessarily need a physical body to do this. Intelligences on the inner planes can make use of all sorts of persons. One of their easiest vehicles is a person of unbalanced or insane mind. Why do you think you were the victim of a stalker? Would it not be good policy to heed what ill fortune besets you?
You have been showing that you can't allow any divergence of view from you own. Why can't you take criticism?
Thelemites should be able to express a diversity of opinion without fear of reprisal. Perhaps if you had two revolutionaries to oppose your every decision and move you would not now be in so precarious a position.
The two revolutionaries were specified in Crowley's original constitution and their function was to strengthen a Supreme and Holy King, causing him to review his character and behaviour so that he could remain well balanced and so that he did not become an ego-maniac. You have not benefited from this provision and it makes one wonder if you have been afraid of criticism and opposition all along.
According to all accounts, you behaved in an unfair manner when Jerry Cornelius criticized your behaviour in claiming head of the AA. Your actions seem to point to the fact that you wish to bring every AA person under your leadership and jurisdiction.
Actually he was correct in his views on this matter. Crowley's instructions are clear enough for each grade of AA and presumably any person could accomplish a great deal in the work and studies on their own. The only catch is that when a person claims a grade in the Order, and there is no person in a higher grade to monitor his work and issue a paper upon completion, that his claims are hard to believe.
But you expelled Jerry for his opinion and also with some ferocity, for you gave him no chance to defend himself. This was unfair and also goes against O.T.O. procedures. Do what thou wilt means that one gives every other person a right to do what he/she wills without interference. Jerry was not hurting you in any way. He merely had an opinion. Is no opinion valid but your own? Have you forgotten LIBER OZ?

"3. Man has the right to think as he will:
to speak what he will
to write what he will ----"

You owe Jerry and apology and full reinstatement in the O.T.O.

You even threatened me with a lawsuit because I use the name of AA in my work. Do you think you should be the only one to use this name? That is, you and those of whom you approve?
I have been a part of V.V.V.V.V.'s AA since 1940 when Jane Wolfe inducted me into this Order and gave me a paper for Probationer. In her turn, she was inducted into this Order by Crowley while residing in Cefalu and studying under him.
Also, as everyone knows, Karl Germer was an 8°=3* in this Order due to Crowley's knowledge and word of his true grade.
Before that, Karl achieved the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel while in a prison camp in Nazi Germany.
When Crowley knew of this attainment, he recognised Karl as 5°=6* of AA Germer later recognised my own experience with the H.G.A. and wrote to me and to Jane that I was 5°=6* AA At the present with H.G.A. guidance I have founded a College of Thelema and one of my successors has founded the Temple of Thelema under the College. We have classes and college work which aids a student to enter the more difficult work laid out in LIBER 185 (to be found in the last section of GEMS FROM THE EQUINOX.)

When a student enters the AA, we work with strict compliance to the guidelines set out in LIBER 185. No one gets a paper from us for each grade unless they have completed the tasks set forth. If any one of our students is ever challenged, the papers show good, solid work which is overseen and checked by those of higher grades and by adepts if need be. According to Crowley's instructions, only Neophytes or those of higher grades may take on a student but if anything goes wrong, there is always help from our adepts. The work is private and secret and should remain thus as that is the way the AA is supposed to operate. With us there are no imaginary or false claims as to grades, no lies, no pretense and no frauds in all of this work, whether of C.O.T. or of the AA In our studies at all levels we give a background in Psychology and Astrology so that each person can know the self and can guide his work and choices according to his true nature.
Agreed, this is a difficult time, but as a IX* O.T.O. I would like to ask; does the O.T.O. intend to sue any publisher in the world who publishes Crowley writings, either in English or in translations?
The present suit seems also to very nearly impoverish the O.T.O.
Are all such lawsuits in the best interests of the spread of Thelema?
The O.T.O. is supposed to aid in the spread of Thelema world wide, but copyright restrictions could work thoroughly against this aim.
I am also concerned about this policy of lawsuits, as I think Crowley's work will not get a wide enough distribution due to publishers being afraid to publish. There is a good deal of merit in Jim Graeb's work on this matter. I do not see his exploration of other options as a threat to the final settlement of the Naylor, et al lawsuit.
A vast majority of lawsuits are settled out of court. By mutual agreement neither Naylor nor O.T.O. is to be affected by this preliminary exploration.
But you can't seem to view this effort in a balanced way and you want Graeb expelled immediately. How do you know how the lawsuit will turn out? What if O.T.O. should lose? Would not Graeb's suggestions then have been a better course to follow? You don't even wait to find out if he was right after all.
Jim Graeb is also fighting for religious and personal freedom and tolerance supposed to be taught in the higher grades of O.T.O.
But you are exhibiting intolerance and suppression of the freedom of religion of an AA person. Graeb is doing the work of a revolutionary and you react with haste and fear. Of what are you afraid? Your behaviour makes many others in O.T.O. wonder who will be expelled next. This leads to a lack of independent action on the part of others who hold high positions.
Are you intent on making them rubber stamps of yourself?
Yes, you really do need the ideas, the votes and the independent thoughts and work of the IX* O.T.O. and also of the VIII*. They must act so that the O.T.O. does not become a petty dictatorship.
In our telephone conversation of May 21, I told you that what you and others did with the AA was none of my business and that I hoped for the same courtesy from you. But when you offered to sue me instead because I work with the name of AA, I replied that if you interfered with me, I would have to fight. This is part of my fight.

As a IX* of O.T.O., I request you to reinstate Jerry in the O.T.O. with his full degree restored.
As a IX* of O.T.O., I request that you allow Jim Graeb to act as the present revolutionary without fear of retribution.
As an AA I request that you do not sue either me or my successors over the use of the name of the AA
If you intend to remedy your present actions with suggestions 1 and 2, please let me know by July 15. As for request No. 3, I request a written statement that you will not sue us over the name of AA This signed paper should be in my hands by July 15.
Of course you may ignore these requests and say nothing. But in that case, copies of this letter shall have a wider distribution.
It is my policy to give a copy of any letter which I write of a serious nature in which I have mentioned a person's name.
Therefore both Jerry and Jim Graeb shall have a copy and I ask that they exert extreme discretion in not showing it or reading from it to anyone else. Since your actions also included the Secretary and Treasurer, a copy goes to Marcus Jungkurth and Bill Heidrick. Finally, a copy of this letter shall go to David Scriven because he is head of the U.S.A. O.T.O. and should know of anything that goes on.
Finally, I have always praised you for your fine work with the publications. Also you have done a great deal of good work with the O.T.O. When you were elected to the headship of O.T.O., we believed in you and we would again like to believe in your intelligence, you spirit of fair play and your tolerance. Dear brother, please reconsider some of you present actions.

Love is the law, love under will

Fraternally with much love
Phyllis Seckler (Soror Meral)

The letter then goes on to quote:

SYSTEM O F THE O.T.O.

Cara Soror:

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

You inform me that the Earnest Inquirer of your ambit has been asking you to explain the difference between the A:.A:. and the OTO; and that although your own mind is perfectly clear about it, you find it impossible to induce a similar lucidity in his. You add that he is not (as one might at first suppose) a moron. And will I please do what I can about it?

Well, here's the essential difference between OTO and the A:.A:. concerns the individual, his development, his inititiation, his passage form "Student" to "Ipsissimus"; he has no contact of any kind with any other person except the Neophyte who introduces him and any Student or Students whom he may, after becoming a Neophyte, introduce.

The details of this "Pilgrim's Progress" are very fully set forth in "One Star in Sight"'; and I should indeed be stupid and presumptuous to try to do better than that. But it is true that with regard to the OTO there is no similar manuel of instruction. In the Manifesto and other Official Prounciamenti, there are, it is true, what ought to be adequate data; but I quite understand that they are not ordered and classified as one would wish; there is certainly room for a simple elementary account of the origins of the Order, of its principles, of its account of the origins of the Order, of its principles, of its methods, of its design, o fhte Virtue of its successive grades. This I will now try to supply, at least in brief outline.

Let us begin at the beginning. What is a Dramatic Ritual? It is a celebration of the Adventures of the God whom it is intended to invoke. (The Bacchae of Euripes is a perfect example of this). Now, in the OTO the object of the ceremonies being the Initiation of the Candidate, it is he whose Path in Eternity is displayed in dramatic form.

What is the Path?

The Ego is attracted to the Solar System
The Child experiences Birth
The Man experiences Life.
He experiences Death
He experiences the World beyond Death.
This entier cycle of Point-Events is withdrawn into Annhilation.
In the OTO these successive stages are represented as follows:

0* (Minerval)
I* (Inititiation)
II* (Consecration)
III* (Devotion)
IV* (Perfection or Exaltation)
P.I. (Perfect Initiate)
Of these Events or Stations upon the Path all bud three (ii*) are single critical experiences. We, however, hare mostly concerned with the very varied experiences of Life.

All subsequent Degrees in the OTO are accordingly elaborations of the II*, since in a single ceremony it is hardly possible to sketch even in the briefest outline the Teaching of Initiates with regard to Life. The Rituals V* - IX* are then instructions to the candidate how he should conduct himself; and they may confer upon him, gradually, the Magical Secrets which make him Master of Life.

To return for a moment to that question of Secrecey; there is no rule to prevent you from quoting against me such of my brighter remarks such as "Mystery is the Enemy of Truth"; but for one thing, I am, and always have been, the leader of the Extreme Left in the Council Chamber of the City of the Pyramids, so that if I acquiesce at all in the system of the OTO so far as the "secret of secrets" of the IX* is concerned, it is really on a point of personal honour. My pleadge given to the late Frater Superior and OHO, Dr. Theodor Reuss. For all that, in this particular instance it is beyond questions a point of common prudence, both because the abuse of the
secret is, at least, on the surface, so easy and tempting, and because, if it became a matter of general knowledge the Order itself might be indanger of calumny and persecution; for the secret is even easier to misinterpret than to profane.

Lege! Judica! Tace!

Love is the law, love under will,

Fraternally,

666

There is also a letter from 666 to Karl Germer, but I am too tired typing to include it at this time. It is dated September 16, 1946. I will type it in under separate cover. - JTG.

---

On Wednesday July12th, Bill Heidrick and Bill Breeze both visited Phyllis Seckler. I will not go into the details but I can say, Phyllis got her letter! It's in Bill Breeze handwriting and is very brief. It simply say:

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

This is to affirm that neither the Ordo Templi Orientis, nor myself in any other capacity, will ever contest in a court of Law the use of the name or Lamen of the August Fraternity A∴A∴

Love is the law, love under will.

Frater Hymenaeus Beta Frater Superior OTO."

July 12th was the 15th Anniversary of Grady McMurtry's death.

93 93/93 J. Edward Cornelius

From:
rahoorkhuit dot net /library/groups/aa/soror_meral_speaks_up_again.html

From my POV, Thelema is Pantheistic, which is a form of Monotheism. Considering Thelema with the lens of Spinoza's ethics makes a lot of sense.

It lives on:::: Thanks @AliceKnewIt @Marion @Hannah @BillieA93
https://babalonsalon.org

Harpocrates Temple No. 1
PO BOX 1433
Hawthorne, CA 90251

harpocrates@thelema.org

Hathor Pronaos No. 7
P. O. Box 81535
1057 Steeles Ave West
North York ON M2R 2S0
hathor@thelema.org

Aiwass Temple No. 8
PO Box 156
New York, NY 10185

aiwass@thelema.org

Burning Hearts Pronaos No. 9
195 41st St PO BOX 11194
Oakland, CA 94611-9991

burninghearts@thelema.org

I have found it useful to know what I am good at, develop areas where the skills are useful for my life, and employ professionals where neither of those things are true.

Jim's instructions on how to make simple Tau Robe are solid, I have used the methodology. I now pay professionals when there is a need for a Robe.

"I'm not being negative but, at present, although I agree with doing ritualistic hygiene work, drawing energy in, I am no longer interested in using "magic" ritual to try to "make things happen" i.e. manifest things in Assiah anymore. Believe you me, when I was younger it was important for me to try that and it gave me a thrill when I magically manifested events and circumstances."

This is an age old "argument" in magic. Making shit happen in Assiah is a "lust of results," or phenomenal magic and phenomenal magic is not magick per se.

This desire for externalized results is naive and is informed by a desire for power. Very likely you have evolved and are more mature than when it was important to you to manifest events and circumstances.

Ritual in the more mature individual is directed internally and is a form of discipline applied to the accomplishment union with the Divine/Knowlege and Conversation/etc...

I think it really depends on what you mean by "masters" and what you mean by "reincarnation."

The "divine" (One Thing) is eternal, as such does not die, and thereby there is no need for reincarnation in the common western sense.

The idea of self most people have is misaligned with the reality of Self. There is only One Thing, and humans are a reflection of the One Thing, an expression of it. Our particular "personality" is transient in life, and thereby there is no reason to consider the extension of such beyond physical death. Eventually our attachment to it becomes a stumbling block on the path.

Masters have largely overcome this misalignment of Self and are consciously at one with the "divine" (One Thing). Personality and its various trappings no longer present a condition of separateness to them. Thereby the transition to death is a shedding of "physical form," and "there is that which remains" with which the "master" has found conscious union.

Expression of the divine is constant and expanding, and thereby continuously manifesting. In this sense once a "master" has passed from the physical form, the conscious union formed in life is extended as the divine constantly expresses and expands.

I nominate this interaction as a shining example of what can be accomplished on this forum. The question and the answer, and the stuff in between were all very elucidating. It may actually encourage me to participate here a little more. I am pretty bored of Facebook anyway.

billheidrick.com/works/hgemat.htm

Very useful.

We are to fight a war against restriction, it is a war against the internal restrictions that we allow to dominate our lives.

The only way that our Will can be truly restricted is if we subjugate ourselves as slaves to others, false desires or fears.

By overcoming these failings of the psyche and putting them in line with our Will we stand as the Conquering Child.

This is a continuous battle and it must be fought vigilantly. Peace is found in every moment of the struggle, as it is the struggle itself that will bring us to our true desire.

Too much time is spent worrying about externalities when we do not have our own shit together. As "brothers" and "sisters" we should stand beside each other, giving each other strength and focus toward the one goal, the arrow of our aspirations. How does it benefit us individually or collectively to have infighting? How does it benefit us to give our energy to pettiness and avarice when the whole of creation lies within?

"I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice." NUIT from Liber DCCCXXXVII

@Ankh said

"I sat down last night, reread your post and typed a lengthy point by point response. But, on the way in to work this morning it occurred to me; what do you expect from humanity? What standards are you holding everyone up too?"

I am not holding humanity at large to any standard, the opening line was directed at people who approach this path. Everyone else is held to the standards of their oaths and the direction of their Angel. All of this could be completely presumptuous, however my point was to bring up the unhealthy fascination that many people have with strictly phenomenal magic. I would love to see more holes poked in what I have said, do not hold back.

@Uni_Verse said

"Would you say: it is our ego that makes the distinction between masturbation and union with Kether conciousness, God, whatever label it is that you prefer?"

How long did it take you to think that one up? There is no necessary distinction that needs to be made here. It was a descriptor that my ego choose to discuss vice.

"Always unto me" would be the standard that I would view my own vices by, and yes it would be my ego doing so as I am still caught up in many of the trappings that I have mentioned; as I still experience myself as separate. And perhaps, its words that are my vice. So now I will shut up...