College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

@Jim Eshelman said

"Yes, except the Aces. "

Ahh! That makes sense. I knew the math didn't quite add up, but in the haze of just waking up after eating a tremendous amount of turkey, I failed to process that.

@Jim Eshelman said

"It has to be completely restructured (incuding substantial rewrite) before I'll let it out again."

Ok, gotcha.

I have also done the same thing. I dont think I have purposefully done it in a dark room (kinky 😀) and right after went outside to a well lit area. But I deffinatley do know the high feeling you describe, it is much better then spinning in circles and fealing dizzy, without the dizzy barf side affect. Although the world didnt go green, more like big different colored sunspots. lmao.

@Jim Eshelman said

" At the time of writing Liber O, Crowley gave Ye-ho-wau. The Golden Dawn tradition employed the vibration of the individual letters, and Temple of Thelema continues with this tradition: the pronunciation, for us, is Yod Heh Vav Heh. (Not waw. That's a bastardization. I think it came from English-speaking misunderstanding that the German w is pronounced like the English v.)"

The individual letters makes more sense to me. I have to add, though, as a Semitist, that the original, ancient pronunciation of the letter ו was certainly the w sound. But it doesn't matter, and I think this is one of those contexts where tradition, and its development are more central to the 'correctness' of things than historical linguistics. Since the ritual was not likely performed/designed by a native speaker of Hebrew (since none existed) I will stick with what's handed down.

"With all of these considerations, I think it is far more valuable to retain it as unpronounceable that to debate its pronunciation."

That makes so much sense. Especially since * ye-ho-wau * is just the tetragrammaton with the voweling of * Adonai * superimposed on it to remind the reader what to say. Those Masoretes have sure made things hard, if not very detailed, for us!

@PatchworkSerpen said

"
I think you have the definition wrong: a break is nothing more than an interruption of concentration in whatever practice you're attempting- whether it's meditation, rising on the planes or frying eggs.
If one began to occur during the practice of another however, what may be an interesting side effect is ultimately considered a break."

Exactly the kind of answer I'm looking for; thanks.