College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Reviewed!

Just received my copy today.
Skimmed through it real quick,
Found more than a few golden nuggets of wisdom.
The book is also a lot larger than I expected.

Quick question: anybody know what kind of knot Crowley was talking about in the book of lies. There's a tom fools knot and quick release knot and a naughty knot. They're all pretty likely candidates.

The Tom Fools knot is like handcuffs that pull apart when you bring them together, which is what I think he's talking about. The quick release knot, can't be pulled apart by the horse that it would be tied to, but the owner can pull it apart by pulling one one end and the last one is a knot that is a sexy knot that girls where, which pulls apart right away. For what ever reason I'm compelled to know.

that link was pretty good.

Does anybody have any good sources of information on nirodha-samāpatti.

There's a good chapter (xix) in:
THE HERB DANGEROUS
PART II
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH
BY
OLIVER HADDO

I'm not sure if I get the idea.

My impression is that you burn out the fire of desire by giving up the chase after nirvana.
Or
that you reach some kind of union with the tao, by realizing that all that is, is tao.

Any thoughts?

Also: If you're not willing/able to speculate, please don't leave comments such as:
You won't understand until you cross the abyss/find your holy guardian angel.
As Thelemites, we should already know those are top priority.

First quote was from liber vel magi, second quote from one star in sight and the third from little essays(on love).

Maybe it has something to do with the oath of the magus:
"that I will make every act, a reflection of my magical formula."

There's two things we know about will. That it must be free of lust of result. Not caring about the outcome.
"...I laid my head against the Head of the Swan, and laughed, saying: Is there not joy ineffable in this aimless winging?"

The second is that it must have purpose. So the purpose might just be to express your magical formula.

So if the magus is love, the problem might be that he has no purpose or no center.

Also note: if the purpose is to express that magical formula, it doesn't have a direction. It's just being. Kinda like a point, rather than a line in the sense of, lets say, creating some political change.

If the magus is love, Then the ipsissimus must be will, right? Consider the following quotes:

• "Yet the Magus hath power upon the Mother both directly and through Love. And the Magus is Love, and bindeth together That and This in His Conjuration."

-"The Ipsissimus has no relation as such with any Being: He has no will in any direction, and no Consciousness of any kind involving duality, for in Him all is accomplished; as it is written "beyond the Word and the Fool, yea, beyond the Word and the Fool"."

-"Yet let it not be forgotten that though She be love, her function is but passive; she is the vehicle of the Word, of Chokmah, Wisdom, the All-Father, who is the Will of the All-One. And thus they err with grievous error and dire who prate of Love as the Formula of Magick; Love is unbalanced, void, vague, undirected, sterile, nay, more, a very Shell, the prey of abject orts demonic: Love must be "under will.""

Any thoughts?

Fair enough.

Are you sure?

What do you think about the references notes from this link: www.themagicalmandarin.com/page30.htm

"In Shanghai, on 14 April 1906, Crowley records in his diary:

The Operation of Abramelin being due to commence on Easter Sunday, methinks it would well to make a certain profound conjuration of A with a view to acquiring a proper knowledge of the G. R.

G.R. occurs several times in the diary of the period and, contextually, would appear to indicate ‘Great Ritual’. The True Greater Ritual of the Pentagram certainly represents the culmination of Crowley’s spiritual experiences in China and the Shanghai Working. "

Question: Should you have both the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram & the True Greater ritual of the Pentagram Invoked at the same time or only one at a time. I'm thinking that the GRP brings you from 10 to 6. & the TGRP brings you from 6 to 1. So technically it would be a good idea to have done both invocations to give you the whole metaphorical ladder.

Question 2: How come there is no "true greater ritual of the hexagram"?

A fair observation. I agree with you.
Although your observation is a little more theoretical than practical.
But I guess at the level at which the symbol conveys this is the best we can do with.

I guess what I'm really looking for is instructions.
Ouroboros seems to be an alchemical symbol.
Does it provide some type of alchemical instruction that can be applied to the self?

Awesome post Deus Ex Machina, I can totally relate with the ACID experience.

"t's a symbol of meditation - the mind trying to grasp itself."

That also makes total sense.

"The second one is a subset of what I said.

The others are certainly metaphors that could be derived, but they're terribly limited - minor things within an individual, whereas the basic symbol is one of eternity."

Fair.

I can't help but feel there is more to it than that.

A couple ideas I've found/had:

1. Mistaking the self for other.
2. εν το παν - One is All.
3. Things being kept in motion because we are unable to let go.

Etc.

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right spot or not.

But I'd like to request information on the meaning of the symbol of Ouroboros.

From what I've gathered on the internet, there isn't much available on regards to the symbol.

Except for a brief mention in The Wake World, Crowley rarely brings up the symbol as well.

I'm open to personal opinions as well, in fact I'd welcome any ideas what so ever.