College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Err, no...Just my old impressions.

@DavidH said

"One version ends with:
WHO HATH THE TAO IS HERE AND NOW
..........IN SILENCE OF THE PATH"

This is the end of the second part of Liber XXI, which suggests that this is the complete liber.

@DavidH said

"and the other version ends with:
THIS SACRED TAO TO MEN THAT VOW
..........THEMSELVES TO FATHOM IT."

This is the conclusion of part one. The former version looks like the way to go.

Yes, yes, yes :

There are variations. Some contexts don't differentiate; some do. When there is intentional differentiation, symbolism is introduced, and side of the body is a major consideration.

Here is an image of a composite God - Set and Horus with two heads - from the tomb of Ramses VI, valley of the kings.
(I wish I had a good photo of it.)

www.truthcontrol.com/files/truthcontrol/styles/large/public/images/horset.gif

Thanks everyone for the input!

@Jim Eshelman said

"David, there are hints scattered through the early chapters of Pearls of Wisdom (which I happen to know you have 😀 ). I haven't published anything comprehensive on the "how," though, because it isn't the kind of thing you can get from an instruction manual.

You can absorb it, though, from those who know what they're talking about if you are open to it. I've long recommended a little book by Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, as the single best thing I've ever seen in print on the subject. "

Yes, and I'm enjoying Pearls very much! Also read Palmer years ago at your suggestion - another great one!

I think what spurred my question is recent exposure to a few things. One friend showed me his Scientology book ,Self Analysis, and I thought it had good ideas to look at one's thoughts, despite the major problems with Scientology as a whole. I also saw another friend's paper on Nightly Examination of consciousness from a Rosicrucian source. It basically is another form of self analysis to help one look at actions and thoughts in a more conscious way as opposed to being unconscious, or "asleep." I guess I was looking for a Thelemic "version" of something like that.

Very nice list so far. I'd add that, though I don't think it's "out in the open" (whatever that means in a quantum multiverse), Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is for good reason seemingly Thelemic, he was at the least a Probationer [here], and I vaguely remember reading more about that, but the details escape me (however The Internet remembers).

I would add to the list some fictions:
*
[:81evx7zw]Philip Kindred Dick: Ubik, Valis, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, The Divine Invasion; [ paraphrased summary, "What is Real?" ].[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Philip José Farmer: Dark is the Sun, Riverworld, The Unreasoning Mask; most of his other works too, he's prolific. [here's Farmer mentioning Crowley][/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Dan Simmons: Hyperion Cantos; [to paraphrase: "Love is the Law of the Void Which Binds"] I've heard good stuff about his other works, but not vetted for my Self.[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Alan Moore: Promethea; I'd highly recommend this to everyone interested in Thelema, Magick, Kabbalah, and even Comics. [Alan Moore's Mindscape a brief docu where he explains a lot.][/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Robert Anton Wilson: Cosmic Trigger Trilogy; warning, may cause what it says on the cover.[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Neal Stepehenson: Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon; SC gets into the Sumerian psycholinguistics of magic, in a technomantic near future.[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Jack L Chalcker: And the Devil Will Drag You Under; a quest across multiverse to retrieve Artifacts for / from "Demons".[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
Some unfiction:

[:81evx7zw]Philip K Dick: Exegesis; After his Henosis like experience he spent the rest of his life recording his analysis of the event and "what it all means". [/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Robert Anton Wilson: Quantum Psychology; title is accurate, has exercise for group psychology.[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi; Simplicity.[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]
[:81evx7zw]Don Miguel Luíz: The Four Agreements; Syncretic Self awareness with talk of Magick and Maya, etc.[/Ⓜ81evx7zw]

I second the mention of Gibran, would add Hafiz [The Gift]. I don't think the 25year publish date holds well for most of these, but then the rest of the thread didn't seem to care, so... But also, what is Time? 😉

I liked the publication that you referenced. Here are some of my thoughts on Thelema, ethics and shadow work. - unusmundus-melie.blogspot.com/2011/05/writing-by-me-thelema-morality-and.html

There were times where my consciousness would shift up an octave and I'd have to maintain psychological resolve because the new awareness was such a stark contrast to my previously held perspectives. The thing that I reminded myself is that nothing changed but my perception.

That reference is specifically to the Lord of the Universe, and infers that He is self-begotten: Not birthed from the creation, but inherently Creator.

Without changing the meabning, one can approach it differently: "Nature," though most commonly meaning Assiah, is a common word for that which comes from Yetzirah, the World of Formation. In that sense, the phrase just means that the object of adoration is from a higher world than Yetzirah.

@Foolster said

"My two friends in the back flung themselves on their backs and screamed and cried to Jesus. These were 19 yo kids btw. I dismissed the spirit and they all cried for some time until calming down and i drove them all back into town. Obviously this story spread about me and a lot of kids feared me.

Was I envoking to appearance an aspect of my own sick psyche? They saw it too, but was i digging down to a level where the same being existed in them and they were able to witness it?"

This is a pretty wild experience. I would be interested in the reply to your question from a practicing Thelemite.

Foolster, how many times prior to this had you done this sort of thing?
(and how many since?;)

Have a general purpose, but do not make it an exercise in fulfilling said purpose. The more you think/care about fulfilling said purpose, the more likely you are to suffer from 'lust of result.'

I've decided to care, but not care. Whatever may happen, I just record in my magickal diary and move on.

Or, another way to say that: Becoming a Zelator means that one has already "reached" Yesod, rather than indicating that one has a new leg up on getting there.

But, of course, the Four Worlds are even more important, so, in this example, the most important distinction is that one is moving from Malkuth in Assiah to Yesod in Yetzirah (and has "made it").

@DavidH said

"But what about when the subject of the Ritual is not connected. Take your Voodoo doll example. Your Ritual has the doll as a link from the Yetziratic to Assiah correct? But the subject itself, the person, never has touched or seen, or even knows of this voodoo doll which holds the link? So I get how it gets from Y (yetzirah) to A (assiah), but how does it get from A to the ultimate subject? In the newspaper example it goes from Y to A, and then A to the subject."

To make a proper voodoo doll, you have to have something from the person it targets - such as a lock of hair etc. Otherwise, you can't link it up (at least, not in the classical sense). The doll therefore is a direct physical link to the person, which, therefore, through his or her body can affect his or her mind.

93 David,

I'm sorry to hear that this time in your life is difficult, as Froclown pointed out, it can be helpful to remember that even dark times will pass. Sometimes it helps to compare what's going on now with other difficult times, and remember how those difficult times also passed, and how the many months or even years of suffering are in some way balanced by the joy and relief of the return to normalcy.

I don't know of any specific Thelemic texts that might help you; I expect everyone has different texts that resonate with them. All I can say is that one benefit I have gotten from Thelemic philosophy is a sense of freedom in dealing with suffering. When I suffer I don't feel guilty about suffering or the way that I suffer. I embrace it, I weep, I blow off work and go for long walks, I spend extra time meditating, I watch cartoons I used to enjoy as a kid, I listen to music and sing really loudly. It all sounds so trivial, but in times of great adversity a lot of time the small comforts are all we have left.

I think you have to be free to explore your own individual response to your suffering, and to not be afraid to embrace it, work through it, and then let it pass.

I hope this helps in some small way.

love=law

C

Thanks. I understand that. I'd like to know if it is true that AMORC used "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" in one of it's higher degree papers.

It might be worth reviewing what Buddhist literature was available at the time. Most westerners had a very narrow view of Buddhism, even the converts, and regarded Hinayana/Theravada as the "true" path - which would have corresponded to Crowley's own training. However, Theravada monastic practice had largely decayed, and it took a Westerner to reintroduce Vipassana, which was taken nack to Sri Lanka from Thailand (I think). Crowley's understanding of the seventh stage may have been flawed by inadequate teaching, or it may have been a particular sectarian interpretation given as being universal to Buddhism.
Reminds me of my fervent wish that Crowley had studied Zen.

@DavidH said

"...Liber L states that each star is an agregate of experiences, and that eventually, when each star has all experiences then the consciousness is the same as all others.... How can all experience be lawful if certain things are not. For example, killing a person is an experience, yet it is against Thelema to deprive another of their will. So, in order to get all experience, we must break our own laws?"
these aren't doctrinal requirements, but stipulated ideas which some of the Thelemic subculture finds useful or accurate.

the idea is one with respect to 'orbit of (true) will' and it is supposed that this cannot be intruded upon, obviated, or in some other way encroached.

this is a type of cosmic order belief, descending, it seems to me, from the 'Will of God' notions popular amongst Christians who maintain that their divinity is in a position of control and manages all things like a grand hierarch. some Thelemic religious believe that such an ordinal system is at work discerning and making it impossible for 'individual true wills' to come into conflict. they will operate from this premise as an AXIOM but not always understand how to go about determinations of conflict due to their unfamiliarity with the instructions.

to see how the Beast tries to resolve it, see his "Magick (in Theory and Practice; Part Three of Book Four)" writings on the true will of Napoleon. it is my opinion that all of this is faith-based, projected, and unfounded. true will notions function as manipulation tools ("That is not your True Will!"), license for excuse ("It is not my True Will do to that!"), and kernels for motivation ("I am discovering that it is my True Will to achieve this!").

David,

It seems to me that the ultimate effect of crossing the abyss is a mystery.

Fear arises from Ignorance.

93,

I should remind people that Jung's work was all before the Sexual Revolution of the 60s where adopting Eastern religions & themes & ideas was the norm. If he had seen this, I am guessing he would've realized its quite easy to adopt other religions, especially when we aren't such a Christian nation (America) / area (Europe) as 50 or 100 years ago.

I agree with Nudoro in the sense that we should investigate the religion we are brought up by and such... there is no point simply cutting oneself off from it and moving away. The best way, I think, is to integrate this religion one supposedly grew up with, but not necessarily making one not move on to other religions ideas & symbols.

Again: There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.

IAO131