College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

I think I got confused because in the Donald Micheal Kraig book, 11 Lessons in Modern Magick, he has the readers doing: morning - air (Ra), noon - sun (Ahathoor), sunset - water (Tum) , midnight - earth (Kephra)

Are those Golden Dawn correspondences or something? I realize Liber Resh is a Thelemic ritual, but Im just trying to figure out where the hell he got that formula."

I think he just made it up. The use of these signs if someone doesn't have an A.'.A.'. grade come from marginalia Crowley wrote in his own copy of The Equinox, and Donald Craig likely didn't have access to that information so he made up something he liked.

Yes, those attributions of elements to directions form the Microcosmic scheme of the elements, which is what the Golden Dawn used in its First Order. The scheme comes from taking the letters of the name Adonai (ADNY) clockwise from the east.

I think it's also a good idea not getting too hung up on a specific interpretation of gods (or anything else, for that matter!). Personally, I've found it best to have a "light grip" when it comes to defining such abstract concepts, specifically so that you're left with room for your understanding of concepts (such as the definition of a god or gods) to evolve as your own understanding evolves -- but also because, on a practical level, it's generally good to approach things "scientifically," by which I mean trying not to allow your preconceived notions color the results of your studies and experiments.

That quote from Peter Carroll, by the way, is a fascinating take on things! Food for speculation. But it's easy to use that as an example of what I mean -- if you acknowledge the fact that both the "religious" and "scientific" views describe potential viewpoints of reality without having to get attached to one or the other, it gives you a useful stance for experimentation and exploration; simply accepting one or the other because it "sounds right" is fine if your goal is to find a definition that you like and sits well with you, but will necessarily color any further exploration.

When defining words I always find it's good to remember the lessons learned by empirical philosophy, and recognize that our predisposition to attributing "truth-in-itself" to our words is something we ought to be ever aware of in the modern world.

Fra. AL H-ShMATh

I use this for latin-english:
www.stars21.com/translator/latin_to_english.html
in the box on the left you can choose which translator(s) do you want. I usually select only CTCWeb, because it gives me useful grammatical info about the words used, and a couple of words as options for translation, not only one.

I also experimented with some greek words with it, but not sure how accurate the results were.

comments on the overall accurateness of this translator will be appreciated.

@pinealman said

"Also I revisted stuff I had on the Thelemic pantheon of gods and it still doesnt seem like the gods from Resh (Ahathoor, Ra, Kephra, Tum, Tahuti) are part of the Thelemic pantheon, with the exception of maybe Ra-Hoor unless he's different than Ra-Hoor-Kuit."

I'd agree with that more than disagree.

"So is it possible that Crowley was instructed to insert the gods of Resh for the purposes of a new Aeon solar formula while still retaining their historical identies???"

Anything is possible.

@Alias55A said

"
"2) Never do astral work when you're sick!"

that just applies to astral vision and traveling right? LBRP and meditation is still ok? im asking because at the moment i am sick with sinus and chest congestion"

Yes, that's what I meant.