College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

93

Didn't know whether to post here or on solunars.net, but it does concern magical performance.

This month's solar eclipse occurs on my birthday, in fact it begins pretty much the same time of day that I was born.

First of all, what might this mean for me? Anything I should watch out for or avoid?

Secondly, I have a personal ceremony that I do every year on my birthday. It's a solar ritual, involving Liber Samekh / Bornless Ritual, and a eucharistic ritual. The idea is to connect and give thanks to the Holy Guardian Angel, the Sun of my life. How might the eclipse effect this? Should I move the ritual to the day before or should I avoid it altogether this year? Should I avoid doing any magick on that day? Or is there something magical in particular that would be best to do during the day of the eclipse?

Many thanks

93 93/93

In the scan of the Consecration Ritual for Elemental Weapons in In The Continuum Vol. III No. 6, the page containing the charge for the Wand is missing, and the introduction notes that "each main idea contains its opposite as a necessary element to fulfill the basic principle."

Any thoughts on what the opposite to Will and/or Wisdom might be, to be included in such a charge?

(As an example, the one for the Air Dagger goes *: "Before Thee, all ye Mighty Ones of the realm of Air, I present this Dagger, a material symbol of my own Self-conscious Reason. It is written, 'For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.' Yet, 'Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite and unknown.'
Thereby, in the offering of this tool unto Thee, Most High, for thy consecration, do I as well recognize myself as thine own winged thought. With thine aid let my reasoning be acute and clear; and its name shall be Unity, beneath that Light of Ineffable Beauty whereby all is sanctified and illuminated.")

Slightly off topic, and apologies for that, but just wanted to remark that this:

@Jim Eshelman said

"you might want to observe that any ritual that has you charging east, south, west, and north in sequence with Cube of Space attributions stimulates four chakras in sequence, from throat downward."

...is really cool. Connecting with the fibonacci sequence in the geometry of the pentagram: 3, 5, 8... 358 = serpent = messiah. Revealing the "central magical force" at the root of this "Medicine of Metals and Stone of the Wise".

I would say Abramelin incense, interpreting it as an invocation of the four elements and then spirit active (Set Triumphant) and spirit passive (Baphomet) sees it doing the same thing Liber Samekh does: invoking the Holy Guardian Angel. Abramelin incense is most appropriate then, and I would say frankincense (a Solar incense) would be a good secondary choice.

"Hadit now identifies himself with the Kundalini, the central magical force in man." -Old Comment to Liber Legis, II:22

"I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one." -Liber Legis, II:26

It would seem that the sexual drive is an expression of Kundalini, though not the entirely of it: Kundalini would seem to be bigger and more significant than merely being the sexual force.
In light of Liber Legis, II:26, is to be understood that orgasm involves the release of the Kundalini briefly?
And from this should it be presumed that sexual stimulation without orgasmic climax is a means of building the magical energy of Kundalini? Is this an advisable practice?
Therefore is it advisable for the aspirant to refrain from sexual release unless absolutely necessary? Could too frequent 'spending' of the sexual force inhibit the awakening of the Kundalini?
In Gopi Krishna's book he mentions the idea that the reproductive "seed" is used to fuel the awakened Kundalini. Can one conclude from that frequent ejaculation of the semen would inhibit the awakening - or if already awakened, the energy - of the Kundalini?

One other thing I'm curious about, any idea / educated guesses on when exactly Crowley had his own complete Kundalini awakening and rising? Did he ever write about it specifically in his diaries or other books?

Excellent stuff, thanks for that, it has cleared up a lot.

And yes, there are decades between Gopi Krishna's awakening and the enlightenment and receiving inspired texts, decades spent dealing with the crisis of apparently forcing Kundalini, seemingly up Pingala (ferocious febrile heat being a particular symptom of his - extremely unpleasant and life threatening - condition).

In the A.'.A.'. system, with one properly going through each of the grades / completing all the tasks, is the complete rising of the Kundalini generally to occur after K&C of the HGA? I recall a mention before that Soror Meral had her Kundalini rising experience right after K&C...

I'm curious because Meditation SSS is a task of the grade of 3=8. Is complete Kundalini rising not induced by this meditation?

And one final question, just how linked are the K&C of the HGA, the awakening into Briatic consciousness, and the full rising of the Kundalini? Are they all, or all part of, the same event? I was under the impression that the K&C is the awakening into Briatic consciousness (stabilising as the 'baseline' consciousness), and yet the enlightenment results of Kundalini awakening also sound like a shift into constant Briatic consciousness. And Gopi Krishna also reports receiving inspired poetic texts (which made me think of both the reception of Holy Books and the voice of the HGA as personal genius).

A couple of questions on the practice on this ritual:
If the individual is "bound and hoodwinked" throughout a large portion of this ritual, how exactly are they expected to perform various actions, such as the cuttings, anointings and gestures during this portion?
Towards the end, the "brow" (forehead?) is anointed with a cross and circle in - I presume - Abramelin oil. Is there not a risk of the oil dripping into, and burning, an eye?

Well that gives me a project - no bad thing!

I'm feeling drawn to work with these meditations again, and have a couple of questions I didn't think to ask the first time round:
The changes in posture (fall supine with arms outstretched, leap to one's feet, position of the hanged man in MMM, rise and stand in line 13 of AAA), are these intended to be physically done or to be done in the imagination / done in the astral body alone?
The end of MMM, "partake mystically of the Eucharist of the Five Elements", for the practice of this meditation, should one literally have incense, fire, wine and bread prepared to actually consume, or is it - being a "mystical" partaking - more metaphorical, representing, say, the return to the sense and normal consciousness?

I'd say that discomfort is inevitable and to be worked through, but unbearable pain isn't good.
I encountered a similar thing once I got past the 40 minute point of daily asana, with more pain than discomfort and numbness / loss of circulation in the legs. What I did was to find a hatha yoga teacher (more particularly a teacher of the kind of yoga-as-physical-exercise, rather than raja yoga, what most people would think of as yoga and easily found in the west), explained that I wanted to practice extended meditation in one posture without moving, and got them to teach me a series of stretches which would help loosen me up for that posture in particular. So I got a series of stretches which take about half an hour to do before my asana / meditation practice. It helped immensely and I was easily able to reach doing one hour of asana in pretty much complete physical stillness.
Another major advantage of loosening up with those stretches is that, now, when I'm in asana and I get discomfort, stiffness or tension somewhere in the body, it's a sign my posture is slightly incorrect - indicating either that I slightly slipped out of the still asana a little bit or that I was a little incorrect in doing the posture right as the start of the session - and so it's a lot more clear why the discomfort, stiffness or tension is there, and how to correct it.
A zafu cushion might be of benefit also, especially for cross-legged postures as it raises the hips and aids keeping the back straight .

Wonderful, that clears up a lot for me while giving me a lot to meditate upon, many thanks for taking the time to post such a great reply.

I'm wondering if James or anyone else can clear up / give some insight into one area of Elemental / psychological attributions of the Sephiroth that I find particularly and persistently confusing, which is:
Yesod is attributed to the element of Air, the Sword, Moon, subconsciousness (and also reactivity and sexual drives) while Hod is attributed to Water, the Cup, Mercury, intellect.
Where I get confused is in how the Sword is also attributed to intellect / reason, with the Cup to emotions. In this way, it feels almost like the Yesod and Hod attributions of the elements and weapons have been swapped around somehow... Yesod as "the deep" of the subconscious and reactive emotion would seem to suit Water more (and also there is the connection of the Moon with tides - though I get the Moon as part of the Middle Pillar as it reflects the light of the Sun and also the path of Gimel), while Hod as intellect would a more fitting sphere for the Sword / Air. I've considered Air maybe suiting reactive emotion in terms of "blowing all round the place" like wind, and the Cup suiting intellect in terms of "form" (that which holds "content"), but even with this in mind, it still feels in many ways that Air/Sword is tied with intellect and the Cup with emotion.
Any thoughts on this?

@93magick said

"
", also notice how Air and Water + Fire and Earth have polar locations,"

Yes, I noticed that, too:) however, Water and Air are directly connected on the Pentagram and Fire and Earth are connected via Spirit it seems."

Yes, all these things are worthy of meditation for sure. A neat thing about the Spirit pentagrams is that the first line of Active links the Fire and Air points of the pentagram and the first line of Passive links the Earth and Water points.

@Gnosomai Emauton said

"If I'm reading you correctly here, I think you might have this bit mixed up. The Archangelic directions of the Pentagram ritual are according to the winds, not the Sephiroth."

Oops, yes, ADNI clockwise rather than Sephiroth, thanks!

@Gnosomai Emauton said

"
@93magick said
"The intellect of Air seems to offer a perfect foil to the emotion of Water and so it is tempting to see a necessary converse link between the two."
"

An interesting (and somewhat puzzling, to me) thing about intellect as Air and emotion as Water though, is that - while intellect can correspond to Air in terms of the Sword (and maybe emotions to the Cup because people get emotional when they get drunk ) - they are actually switched around when it comes to the elemental attributions of the Sephiroth (which informs the Air - East, Fire - South, Water - West, and Earth - North distribution of the elements in the Pentagram ritual, also notice how Air and Water + Fire and Earth have polar locations, now notice how the relevant points on the Pentagram are mirrored... also each Spirit Active is balanced by a Spirit Passive in a polar manner): Hod - intellect - is Water, Yesod - subconsciousness (and arguably the origin of reactive emotion?) - is Air.

I find it tricky myself, Yesod in terms of "the deep" subconscious can feel like it would lend itself to Water, but then the "blowing all over the place" aspect of Air is a good fit for emotion too (and as humans we are blown about all over the place by our subconscious a lot). Then Hod as intellect feels like it should be a fit for Air, but the Cup is about "form" - as opposed to content - which is related to the intellect.

The chapter on the Hexagram ritual in Pearls Of Wisdom also has an alternative Analysis Of The Key Word created by James Eshelman which replaces the old aeon elements with a Thelemic one.

All due respect to Lon DuQuette - I love many of his books and have had the pleasure of attending excellent workshops and lectures by him - but his Magick Of Thelema book contains same versions of the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals that one will generally find in print elsewhere which are little more than the Liber O "crib notes" which lack a certain amount of explanation on some details. Namely, in the case of the Hexagram ritual, the macrocosmic elemental attributions and the use of the notariqon / acronym ARARITA (as with AGLA in the case of the Pentagram ritual). I still think it's a book worth reading, but do so along with Pearls Of Wisdom. Also I highly recommend experimenting with these different versions of the rituals and seeing what works best for you.

Regarding Thelemic versions of the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals (also Middle Pillar rituals) which have been developed by different individuals and groups, the Analysis Of The Key Word in the Hexagram ritual is about the only thing in any of these rituals which can be called "old aeon" and could be at all considered by any stretch "un-Thelemic". Even then, I think that would be a little a bit over the top to say. It still has value for the Thelemic practitioner up to a certain point. James explains it, and alternative options, in the relevant chapter of Pearls Of Wisdom. In most circumstances, and especially for one early in the path of their magical practice, the use of the classic Analysis Of The Key Word isn't going to be of any hindrance to the efficacy of the Hexagram ritual. But again, read up, and experiment, and see what works for you.

As for everything else in the Hexagram ritual, Pentagram rituals, and Middle Pillar ritual, there is nothing un-Thelemic about anything to do with them. Indeed, generally all that's need to transform the standard Pentagram ritual into a Thelemic Pentagram ritual is the vibration of Aiwass at the heart centre during the opening and closing Qabalistic Cross. I've seen many, many new versions of Pentagram, Hexagram and Middle Pillar rituals - especially online - which replace the Hebrew words and names with those from the Thelemic pantheon, and while these are interesting to read, one could take away the very mistaken belief that the Hebrew Qabalistic god-names are somehow antithetical to Thelema and to be avoided. Pretty much all of Crowley's ceremonial magical work, and the ceremonial magical methods and tools he taught, are based on Hermetic Qabalah.
I understand that some Thelemites see YHVH in a ritual outline and are concerned by connotation that it's Judeo-christian / old aeon and therefore un-Thelemic. However, that point of view is - imho - mistaken since the formula of YHVH appears throughout some of the most Thelemic of texts and rituals. Also, if an individual Thelemite magician is so hung up on being opposed to Judeo-christianity then that resistance / reactiveness will have to be confronted and worked through at some point in their path (just as the potential reactiveness of one from a christian background will encounter within Thelema when confronted with the use of archetypes, ideas and names of Satan, Beast 666, Baphomet etc... it works both ways).
I'm aware of some Thelemic groups who practice the Star Ruby in place of traditional banishing Pentagram rituals and Reguli in place of traditonal invoking Pentagram rituals. That's fine, no problem with that, but I would argue that the Star Ruby is somewhat different in effect from the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and that Reguli is considerably different in effect from the Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. Once again, only the individual's own experimentation and prolonged work with these rituals will reveal what is best for them.
Finally, a point to consider on this topic, if the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals were un-Thelemic, why would Crowley still continue to use, teach and recommend them long after he received and accepted the Law of Thelema? To my knowledge (looking at the editorial notes in Liber ABA / Book 4) he was still recommending the use of the Pentagram ritual in the 1940's, long after he had created the Star Ruby.

@93magick said

"
It appears to me right now that according to Liber O, the Invoking Water Pentagram is the same exact direction as the Banishing Air Pentagram, and that the Banishing Water Pentagram is the exact same direction as the Invoking Air Pentagram.

Assuming I didn't miss something and they are exactly the same, how does this work exactly??? How do you differentiate between the two in a ritual setting? Does it go off of intention? I.e. "I intend this to be a Banishing Air Pentagram and not an Invoking Water Pentagram"?"

Intention and colour make the distinction. With regards to the latter, it's the colour the pentagrams are being visualised drawn in - generally the standard thing for pentagram rituals dealing with specific elements is to draw / trace the pentagrams and connecting circle in the visualised colour of the complimentary colour to that of king scale of the path of the element in particular against a background / field of the colour of the king scale of the path of the element. So, in practice, in a ritual dealing with Air, you would draw the pentagram in violet light on a yellow background (violet being the complimentary colour of yellow, which is the colour of the king scale of the path of aleph, attributed to air). While in a ritual dealing with Water, you would visualise drawing the pentagram in orange light on a blue background (orange being the complimentary colour of blue, which is king scale colour of the path of mem, attributed to water).

I'd say too that if rituals are leaving one feeling drained it could be an indication that the performance is - I don't want to say "incorrect" but - maybe not as efficient as it could be.

As an example, for many years I had used the technique of vibrating divine names in the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals in section III of Liber O - forcefully using the sign of the enterer - before I came on here and read James Eshelman's thoughts on this as a seperate technique as "Vibration by the Formula of the Middle Pillar", and his suggestion to rather touch the centre of the Pentagram / Hexagram and intone the divine name.

Now I'm aware that many Thelemic magicians and writers go with the former practice / interpretation of Liber O, but from having had quite a few years of experience of using both methods, I opt for Eshelman's version, for the simple reason that - in my opinion - the forceful vibration of divine names using the sign of enterer, which is supposed to "entirely exhaust (one's) physical strength" and "cause (one) to grow hot all over, or to perspire violently, and it should so weaken (one) that (one) will find it difficult to remain standing", simply requires far too much energy / "energised enthusiasm" to be practical. The alternative of simply touching the centre of the Pentagram / Hexagram and vibrating (intoning) the name is a lot more efficient, and doesn't take away from the efficacy of the ritual, in my experience.

Considering that one may well be doing a ceremony which requires a LBRP and LBRH at the start, followed by a GIRH and finishing with a GBRH, forcefully vibrating every divine name with the sign of the enterer method is going to be an incredible test of stamina!

As already said, a LBRP should not leave one feeling drained. Also make sure you are closing the Pentagrams correctly when drawing them, and that you are using the correct colours in visualisation / intention (i.e. don't be banishing Earth over and over when you are just trying to do a generic banishing).

When it comes to invoking in the morning and banishing in the evening, or vice versa, experimentation in this regard is worth undertaking. I've done both and my preference would be for banishing in the morning and invoking in the evening (I don't want to frontload anyone's experience but this had a definite and remarkable particular effect on my night's dreaming anytime I did it). The "crazy busy" energy and also a general sensitivity / vulnerability in mental / psychic terms matches my own experience when invoking in the morning. I have found that general invocation is very useful at the start of a session of meditation, with a general banishing to close the session. Also this indicates the importance of always banishing if one has invoked. As far as I know, the only invocations that don't require a likewise banishing are the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel and the Middle Pillar ritual (provided one is using the Queen Scale colours or only white light) including the circulations of light (being a general invocation but with the circulations being able to strengthen the aura and in some cases forming an astral shield).