@Jim Eshelman said
"
@Froclown said
"It might be best it picture Aiwass as a pink light reflected from a soviet satellite."
I suppose I'd be disappointed if you weren't as friggin' insane as ever."
HAHAHAH! Im sorry I just broke out laughing for a whole minute when I read this.
@Jim Eshelman said
"
@Blythe A. Blanche said
"
@Jim Eshelman said
"...which I reproduced just before Chapter 1 in The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'.)."
Always advertising something. =P
But I'll be buying a copy in a few days. Can't wait to read and study it. 
"
My actual thought, when writing that, was that, these days, it is more likely that a reader would have a copy of M&MAA than a copy of The Equinox."
93,
Or you could find it online at the-equinox.org or in the many online PDF copies of the Equinox.
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@Alias55A said
"Actually her book "Solitary Witch' was the first book I read in the occult subject, and she covers quite a bit in that book, and plenty of exercises to keep ya busy, she just has this crafty wit about her work
"
Thats definitely by Silver Ravenwolf, not Dion Fortune.
The book about Crowley & Fortune was boring to me, and not very well researched. Maybe we are just spoiled by the likes of Kacyznski's Perdurabo etc.
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@Ash said
"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Seriously, though; where can one go to learn about these 4 aspects/deities in a Thelemic context? I see the names popping up in various places and they frequently have things co-attributed to them; for instance, I've heard both RHK and HPK described as "stand ins for the HGA," presumably as two different aspects of the HGA (although what specifically separates them, aside from HPK being the Silence, is beyond me)."
93,
They arent 4 deities. They are 4 names for one thing: Heru/Horus/the Crowned and Conquering Child: Thou that art One, our Lord in the Universe the Sun, our Lord in Ourselves whose name is Mystery of Mystery...
Each name emphasizes a different aspect. Ra Hoor Khuit emphasizes activity, force, and fire, Becoming; Hoor Paar Kraat emphasizes passivity, security, the egg of Spirit, Being. They are understood as the two aspects of Heru-Ra-Ha (a name that equals 418), a specific name for Horus as the Lord of the Two-in-One.
Read the Book of the Law and its commentaries to see much more subtle analyses of these names.
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@Escarabaj said
"Figured it was better to add on here than start a new thread: does anyone know how common it is for seating positions (easy pose, half lotus) to induce pins and needles aka legs fall asleep after 15-20 minutes? Is this a sign that something's wrong, or do you gradually grow into it?"
93: Extremely common. Try persisting for a bit, but don't push it. What is best is to continually and gradually sit longer and longer, not push yourself hard once a week. Sitting for 15 minutes at first is a good start - soon you wont get pins and nedles until 25 minutes, then not until 35 minutes or not at all, etc. Good luck. 93 93/93
@kuniggety said
"I enjoyed your first podcast and think it is definitely one of the better offerings out there. I look forward to listening to the second. What part did you play in it, Aum418?"
93,
Thanks! I help edit & organize, being part of ARARITA.
@seekinghga said
"93,
I just listened to the first podcast and all I can say is beautiful, very well done. The music and the spoken dialogue are almost like a ritual unto themselves. I echo kuniggety's sentiment in saying that I can not wait to listen to the next one.
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Regards Frater"
Thanks... Feburary 18 is release date for Episode #3, i.e. when Sol enters Pisces.
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93,
I have no clue what the other poster is talking about. Bailey's writings are chock-full of BS. BS upon BS, and BS diagrams of BS. She is obsessive about the rays, the planes, and seems to take her map to literally be the territory whereas Crowley was much more adaptable and careful. Nothing in her writings comes close to the sublimity of 'Do what thou wilt.' DK is probably just Bailey's excuse to get her own ideas accepted by the spiritualist - theosophist crowd, and it generally worked. Even if the 'connection is legit,' DK is at best an astral entity similar to Amalantrah. /opinion
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93,
Episode #2 is now out at www.speechinthesilence.com
In this episode:
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Speech in the Silence is the official podcast of the ARARITA San Diego Thelema Group.
December 21, 2009 marks both the Solstice and the release of our first episode. The focus of Speech in the Silence podcast is on Thelema, Aleister Crowley, and Ordo Templi Orientis while also touching upon the subjects of magick, yoga, and initiation.
We will include lectures, music, interviews, discussions, and more. Also, we will feature readings of the Holy Books of Thelema and other important texts written by Aleister Crowley. Speech in the Silence is also a creative outlet for Thelemites, and we encourage listener feedback and participation.
In this episode:
I wrote an article entitled 'Thelema & Buddhism' which you can d/l for free (Vol.1 No.1-No.2) at ThelemicStudies.com and talks about AC's views on Buddhism. Just fyi
I assume absolutely none of you had read 'Septem Sermones ad Mortuos' which is decidedly gnostic and has been out for years... Jung talked incessantly about the Self, the transcendence & union of opposites, and many other ideas that fit nicely with Thelema. That being said ,its said that so many new age folk and others essentially conflate & misunderstand his work (e.g. his notion of hte collective unconscious which has NOTHING to do with a shared consciousness in the sense described by 99% of new agers) to pander to their own prejudices.
@FiliusBestia said
"I agree on one hand, but I find "All is" and "I Am" as the same statement. Maybe not on an ego level, but on a higher one. I'm not really sure how to express my thoughts on it. I Am encompasses All. All is One(I), and(which I struggle to understand) One is Nothing."
That is because, from that point of view, I am All.
"I also am a Star in Space, unique and self-existent, an individual essence incorruptible; I also am one Soul; I am identical with All and None. I am in All and all in me; I am, apart from all and lord of all, and one with all.
I am God, I very God of very God; I go upon my way to work my Will; I have made Matter and Motion for my mirror; I have decreed for my delight that Nothingness should figure itself as twain, that I might dream a dance of names and natures, and enjoy the substance of simplicity by watching the wanderings of my shadows."
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@AquarianRenegade said
"Anyone else get the initial feeling of WHAT THE {shag}?
i read chapters I and II with great interest and love but was initially disgusted or rather taken back by some of the words in chapter III. So much that i at first couldn't read past the line or rather i had to pause before continuing
Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them!
I forced myself to read through the chapter and am left confused and amused.
It is the All piercing Love of God that allows Free Will to take form completely free; even in forms of Evil and Blasphemy or it would not truly be Free Will
But it is my free will to accept or reject what has been written as a truth, a lie or TRUTH
Is anyone else or rather has anyone else felt this same initial discomfort with chapter III in the book of the law?"
Yes. If you didnt feel that way on the first reading you weren't reading very carefully, or, as above, you are a sociopath.
@FiliusBestia said
"93, How can you know your Will unless you've experienced enough to at least move in that direction? Too, as I read Liber AL, how can you unite all unless you have experience of all? Just a thought."
Because it is a perceptual shift from "I am here, world out there" to simply "All is" or "I am" which are coterminous statements from that Point-of-View. Its not an accruing of experience in your memory.
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IAO131
"All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life" - Swami Vivekananda
Love is the law... love under will.
@PainMeridian said
"Just sitting on a park bench is a spectacle?
I wasn't insinuating public meditation as trying to grab anyone's attention."
Sitting on a park bench is not meditating in public first of all - you are trying to play it down. People dont just sit normally with their eyes closed, they fold hteir legs up, put their back straight, and close their eyes. Its a spectacle. I cant imagine how knowing there are people walking around looking at you will help meditation - in fact I cant imagine how or why you would do this unless you wanted attention.
@modernPrimitive said
"I'm sure Crowley formed the opinion later in his life that Aiwass was a distinct entity, and I'm paraphrasing: "one that was possibly once a human like ourselves in the distant past".
Originally this led me to some skepticism about Crowley in that if others are calling it the "higher self", didn't he produce a type of "psychological schism" by his magical practices? And this ties in with my question in the Magick forum about psychology, Goetia and binding vs "bargain-making" - ie: integration vs purification, if I could use those terms loosely."
Explicitly all over his texts he says the HGA is the Secret Self. Liber Samekh is written entirely around this idea. People place 'aiwass' at the Tiphareth center in the Qabalistic Cross - is that to invoke some external entity? And Liber LXV is about a sexual meeting between two physical people? And to find your will you need to find this guy and have a grand old chat with him about your purpose or something? Really? You seriously think all that?