College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

My thought on the LBRP was at one point that you are doing two things in one; doing the work of the snake that climbs the Tree and coaxing the Thunderbolt from on High, both at the same time. Or in another way, you are preparing the vessel and invoking the higher powers.

My feeling on it is that it scrubs away shit that obscures the HGA and its influence, rather than scrubbing away the HGA or its influence.

@danica said

"

• It looks like all levels of polarity shown here (the alchemical animals, children, King&Queen and their magical weapons) arise from the wings of the Egg; and as if the whole process depicted in this card is an “elaboration” of the ATU I theme: here, the spiral forces of Caduceus are particular beings (polarities incarnated), and the Wand itself is personified and “mature” (the Priest-figure).
• Every phenomenon of the phenomenal world has its complementary opposite, an in this, its annulment. EVERYTHING, except for the Winged-Egg, which is not a phenomenon of the phenomenal world, but which lies in its core – being its root. “…But there is that which remains.”"

Ah, love those insights, thank you!

@Al-Shariyf said

"The cherub carries a bow and a container of arrows; the container has the word Thelema on it. Love under will. "

Ah yes, Love under Will indeed, how did that obviousness elude me! Thank you.

Now, for the labor of my days:

Day 1

Cupid is blinded (love is blind), but he is guided. This is love ordained and guided from above! The card is filled with signs of intertwined dualism, repeating that yin/yang releationship in multiples: black7white, male/female, lance/grail, snake/egg, club/fower. The winged egg girt with a snake promises offspring. The meanings of Gemini, the mental sphere and swords intertwine in my mind. This is a "mental marriage" of some kind, perhaps reflecting union on a higher level. Not a union of two, but a union of one! The orange meditation color calls to mind the color of oranges, ie. fruit, thus it is about seeds.

Day 2

Mercury, intellect, sword, .. Solve! Tet it seems that Lovers would be about Coagula, I need to understand this apparent paradox...

The fact that there are so many symbols of dualism/polarity implies that this card is not about any single dualist pair or even the concept of it, but about an unfolding process. Wherever I look, I see it happening. It is not an instance of Solve, but the process of Solve itself! The symbols and their stark contrasting colors implies that the key thing is distinction, ie. knowing one thing from another. Which is exactly what Solve is! The result of all this dissolution and the process is the winged egg... Cupid is guided by a sense keener than eyesight. Thelema! True Will strikes through even if it is blinded. The cupid strikes me as the magus, playful and creative, concerned with things. Love requires Solve. For love, you must distinguish and appreciate differences! And this is exactly what this entire process of Tarot meditation does! I am falling in love!

I note that once more I have the same revelation. That whatever is happening or depicted in the card is happening in my meditation. The idea keeps repeating itself in my meditations.

Day 3

The two women in the card, who are they? Eve and Lilith? Venus and ? Heh and Heh Final? Division leads to order, which is harmony. The twins (Gemini) seem to come out of the egg. The serpent (in the man's robe and also around the egg) and the dove (in the grail) are also seen in the Hierophant. Hermes is the Magician/Magus and it is he who is performing the marriage. The marriage is his magic! He is the primary actor in this card. This seems equal to the active mental component that is raised in this meditation. Suddenly I see and feel division happening on a cellular level. My body is teeming with life and alchemy. Alchemy is a kind of attention! Then I am drawn into sharp one-pointedness (zayin).

Posting the fruit of my meditations late, but here they are!

Day 1

The Hierophant strikes me as a very earthy card. He is a bearded man, old and wise. He does not appear as a father, but as a wise man. He wields divine power (trinity) in his right hand and is connected to the lower realms with his left, giving. Light shines from behind his head. The card seems to displaying the union of the microcosm and macrocosm. The man in the pentagram is the microcosm, but also man's lower nature, in this card guided by the greater influence. The same micro/maco pattern seems reflected in the Hierophant and the woman (Heh-Final? Malkuth? Earth?). The Hierophant is earthy, in the sense of being composed of lower matter, but he is still very much in control. The four cherubs bring the powers of the sphinx to mind.

Day 2

Is the bull a sacrifice? At least it is in service to Hierophant (as his throne). This show that he controls and dominates his lower self (and the lower world). Indeed, he is it's refined manifestation (note how his robes sort of grow from the ground and are the same shade of color, only brighter, more golden). His phallic hat denotes that his energy and power is a higher power, mental and/or spiritual This act of meditation in which I am IS the Hierophant, ie. the revealer of mysteries. So, this meditation brings about the union of the microcosm with the macrocosm. Nails (vav) are about binding and penetration. Now the four animals remind me of the archangels from LBRP, albeit on a lower manifestation

Day 3

In the card we see Earth in its strongest manifestation! It is not a shy element. It is not ashamed! Is is an experiential element! Nails are earthy in themselves, metal, binding this world to the upper. The Hierophant is what binds the micro to the macro, thus he is the nail. The woman, armed, is justice. One must come before the Hierophant, ready, equipped and armed. Your house must be in order. The truth will be nailed only on the strong walls of your house, lest they be shattered.

@Legis said

"Well, that really solves it for me.

In a nutshell, I can change the way I talk about it for communication sake, but then... then one HAS to talk about the HGA as if it is a distinct individual, which... solves some problems while creating others.

'Cause when one uses the term "individual" to describe "4th dimensional" beingness, one is using a "3rd dimensional" term to describe a "4th dimensional" reality. As it speaks phenomenologically, it captures and emphasizes the primary experience of "otherness" (and that's useful), but it simultaneously creates an ultimately false sense of separateness and (at least temporarily) sacrifices the attempt to communicate the concept of transdimensional identity and the interplay within the various levels of such an identity (imo)."

I can't but agree with you myself. Then again, I do believe that a belief in that otherness as exhibited by the idea of separate existence might be a necessary ingredient for parts of the journey.

I like to read people's accounts after I've done my meditations. I might start reading them on the third day, though. The differences and connections are all so interesting. I can't say I have noticed a great influence from these cards playing out in my life, but the whole exercise is certainly building/revealing a narrative in my mind and that way the themes do stay with me. A very enjoyable experience!

So onto my first day of meditation on the Priestess. I see the web of Indra before. I see the mind, the web that thoughts are hung on. The web is the veil of the goddess. The goddess is naked behind this veil, but seeing her takes unique vision. On her lap the goddess holds the bow that must be held and cocked to ascend the upward path. Meditation is the path. This exercise is the path. This is gimel or the path of the camel. The goddess is Artemis. At the bottom of the card, there are sacrifices: jewels, fruits, etc. They are worldly things which are sacrificed in order to begin the journey. This card is about astral activity. The scene is atrium-like, like a temple, a house.

On the second day, I note that gimel looks like a candle. Candles, of course, burn with light. They are a sacrifice which turns itself into light by the act of sacrifice. The sacrifices at the feet of the goddess are not just sacrifices to the goddess, but gifts from the goddess to us. Using them reaffirms our relationship to her, so this card is actually a two way street. I'm struck by an odd similarity between that idea and the burning of a sacrificial candle. I find it very difficult to convey this realization in text. The act of devotion is the aim of devotion. We are Light! I am the candle.

On the third day, I see chaos and order in the card. Chaos is power and order is shape. Even the material things at the bottom are just power packaged in forms. Eating a grape, breaking its form, fuels us. This card is about peeling back the layers, but as we do so the truth changes at each stage. Though truth is mutable in this way, all is ultimately Light! Oneness! The world is not there to distract us (though it often does), it is there to feed and empower us. In meditation, all the distracting thoughts that may arise are Light too! Just unpackage them and recycle!

Just haven't gotten 'round to sharing yet, but taking the time to do so now.

First day! From darkness, comes brilliance. The brilliance assumes shapes and form, in gold, and the four weapons of the Magician are among them. So, it isn't so much about material things taking shape. From the Magician's hand, the cosmic egg takes flight - the wings symbolize that it has been fertilized. I realize all is gold (gold is Light) before it is sullied by contact with things. The Magician gives these things that he has formed as gifts and a part of the gift is the freedom inherent in releasing the gifts, instead of holding onto them. Though he is giving, his left hand is receiving. The Magician's mind is active, but perhaps on a divine level, not material. I wonder what is opening behind him? The moon? A storm? The world? A pearl?

On the second day I realize I am seeing the creation of the world (which world? A higher one!). The papyrus or scroll seems to be either melting as it ascends or forming as it descend, ie. either reverting to its original molten gold (pure Light) or forming out of it. The Magician stands on bones and is exercising his lordly power! He is naked. He is gold himself, ie. a "thing" he creates. Below, the dark creature threatens the created things, threatening to soil them with dirt, burying the gold. Thus the things are "naked" too, until soiled by the world. Thoughts (and emotions) are things too! Sometimes naked and even when soiled, they can be cleansed.

On the third day I was feeling a little distracted and tired at the outset. I noted how there is something theatrical here in the card, as if the symbols/things are for entertainment/education, as gifts in that manner. The night background is the empty mind.

On the first day of meditation, my mind followed the spiraling path that wraps the Fool. It is a curved, unformed path and with it comes transformation (butterfly) and healing (caduceus). I also saw the coins with astrological symbols as Norse runes, but not manifest though there, as if held in a bag. The card - and my meditation - brimmed with vitality and it was difficult to remain seated.. and then I realized the card seemed to be about creative frustration, but not of a bad kind, but the kind that fills you. All dressed up and nowhere to go, but full of energy!

On the second day I saw the runes as the astrological symbols and the parallel between the two kept occurring to me. I soon felt full of the same creative frustration and I realized it felt much like an erection and physical arousal! There was a great enthusiasm about everything. The Fool seems oblivious to dangers and threats.

The third day's meditation's quality was less aroused and bursting with energy and more post-coital. I noticed the fruit, with the connotation on seed. The Fool is like a boy who had just discovered the function of his penis to his amazement. There is no shame for the Fool! I felt bewildered by all the imagery, just like the Fool before me. In his right hand was a crystal, reflecting all light like a prism and that was displaying all these images before me. All seems illusion.

I'm on this one as well! Just what the doctor ordered.

Right now I'd say something like this: according to the conventional world view where you need to be a conformist person with no soul, but have a house and bank account instead, do what you're told and play nice, chase what the tv tells you to chase and all that crap, Crowley was indeed a bad, bad man.

I believe I have a relatively good idea as for the use and benefits of the LBRH/LIRH as preliminary/auxiliary to other ritual work, but I'm not sure if either is intended for general use in what is usual termed "magickal hygiene", such as LBRP/LIRP. This is often suggested by some sources, but equally often it's curiously absent from discussion. The context and necessity for the LBRP usually gets explained in detail, while LBRH tends to get a more purely technical explanation. As I understand it, these Hexagram rituals are usually introduced later to practitioners so they wouldn't factor in that kind of daily work at least for the beginner. But is the intention for them to gain a place in daily work?

Additionally, while I sort of get the idea of purging positive/planetary influences that distract you (especially as preliminary to other ritual work), the necessity for the daily LBRH still retains some elusiveness and connected to that is the differences between the banishing and invoking forms. I found the ideas regarding that - and the synergies between the Pentagram- and Hexagram rituals it proposes - that are proposed here to be of interest.

Perhaps I'm also thinking of Banishing as too much "purging", instead of just "clearing the windows". How much do attributions of the pentagram = microcosm and hexagram = macrocosm factor in these questions? What do I need to understand in regards to Elemental and Planetary influences to dig deeper into this?

While these are very much questions regarding basics, I'd love to hear all your insights and experiences on these topics.

Thank you. I assumed as much, but a doubt crept in that I hadn't grokked something obvious and I couldn't shake it.

I've got at least a seemingly simple question about picking correspondences in the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram, but I guess the question is as valid for other rituals as well. As an example, Venus can be attributed to the Sephiroth Netzach (7) or the letter Daleth (14) and depending on which is chosen, some of the correspondences such as Colors, Divine Names, etc. may vary. The question is simply this: is there a simple, established way of resolving which set to use?

Quite often for specific things and much more rarely - once, twice, thrice or so a year - to get general insights. Mine is in electronic format too though, which makes looking for specific things rather easy.

@kasper81 said

"am not interested in voodoo at all, but thanks anyway"

Thanks for letting us know.

@ldfriend56 said

"
You are the one that is making the claim, not I. I don't investigate OBE and am not making any claims about the phenomenon other than I had an experience where my consciousness was outside of my body. You say there is no evidence that people leave their bodies and all the evidence suggests they have not.

SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE/STUDY/RESEARCH PLEASE. You think you can just make a claim and expect me to believe it?

there you go making claims again. You keep on citing some research or study that shows that astral travel never leads to anything, yet continually fail to cite the research or even replicate the argument beyond a few sentences. You're not being very transparent as to how you are coming to your conclusions."

To be fair to Los here, the burden of proof is on you. You don't go out proving the negative and then there's the old extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary evidence. I guess some folks are saying OBE are not extraordinary though, but the point about not needing to prove a negative still stands. Just as an aside.

@Angel of Death said

"Excitement is a choice.
In each and every moment you have a choice, to be on or off, happy or sad. Excited or bored.
It is a choice."

Exactly! and I think this can be learned from Resh or any other practice/ritual you impose on yourself. Resh definitely gave me a lesson on this, though admittedly, I do Resh only when it isn't terribly inconvenient (very often it means at least one is skipped because I'm asleep, but/and most days it adds up to three).

I think what AoD is saying here is very profound. To be banal about it, learn to get excited by waving your hands in patterns of (ultimately) your choosing and via your spoken word.

Look at traditional Church ritual, for example. Why does it have an impact on so many people? Some would argue for spiritual intervention, some might call up the weight of a few thousand years of tradition, but ultimately when these things were decided somebody chose some gestures and some words, putting them together in order to move people. While a magician can have similar motors to power his excitement (partaking of a secret tradition or belonging to a society) ultimately I think a magician has to learn to create the effect by himself, on some level pulling something out of nothing, the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

@Laura Marx said

"Just had a look at Liber Ru (Liber CCVI - RV vel Spiritus) for interests sake, saw the section now quoted:

"4. Second practice. Pranayama. --- This is outlined in Liber E. Further, let the Zelator accomplished in those practices endeavour to master a cycle of 10, 20, 40 or even 16, 32, 64. But let this be done gradually and with due caution. And when he is steady and easy both in Asana and Pranayama, let him still further increase the period.
Thus let him investigate these statements which follow: ---

a. If Pranayama be properly performed, the body will first of all become covered with sweat. This sweat is different in character from that customarily induced by exertion. If the Practitioner rub this sweat thoroughly into his body, he will greatly strengthen it.
b. The tendency to perspiration will stoÿ as the practice is continued, and the body become automatically rigid.
Describe this rigidity with minute accuracy.
c. The state of automatic rigidity will develop into a state characterised by violent spasmodic movements of which the Practitioner is unconscious, but of whose result he is aware. This result is that the body hops gently from place to place. After the first two or three occurrences of this experience, Asana is not lost. The body appears (on another theory) to have lost its weight almost completely and to be moved by an unknown force.
d. As a development of this stage, the body rises into the air, and remains there for an appreciably long period, from a second to an hour or more.
"

Seems to be exactly what you guys are talking about. 'The body hops gently from place to place,' especially that 'movements of which the Practitioner is unconscious' - seems very similar to what Jim was describing, and d. seems to be referring unambiguously to the so-described levitation. Crowley seems to suggest that the levitation is a direct result of the movement from place to place."

Interesting explanation for that experience.

Also, very timely of you to bump this thread since I just recently started working on pranayama myself and actually looked at this thread just last night. Certainly not the easiest or most comfortable practice.

@Laura Marx said

"I wonder if other people have experienced a change in sexuality on the Path?"

That's an interesting question, because since embarking on the path more .. solidly, I guess .. I have nudged a little bit towards bisexuality. I've never been very discriminating really, but it does seem the last of the false inhibitions and mental structures have been blown away. The androgynous nature of the Godhead as a whole certainly appeals to me and it might be that working its magic. That said, I've only felt sexually stirred by women (until now anyway) and it is the feminine that I cherish in that sense. It has that lovely that way of moving me, which is utterly absent from masculinity. The other side certainly has its merits as well (even aesthetically), but they don't really map onto sexual activity for me.

@Laura Marx said

"Out of my depth, perhaps. (Funnily, and no pun intended, the next day there was an earthquake in Croatia, while we were in the waters nearby, and I was swallowed up by the waves and my girlfriend had to pull me ashore - what a coincidence I should mention being out of my depth!)"

And pulled to shore by a goddess, too!