College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

93 and Thankyou for sharing your thoughts on loving scarlet women. I've never explained anything like that to any of my lovers, but there's thoughts that run along similar lines somewhat. I remind myself of this: "Love is the law, love under will. Nor let fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove and there is the serpent. Choose ye well!" When I am attracted sexually to a woman or man, I ask myself if this love will be received by me through dove or serpent. Then I will ask myself how will I give my love-by dove or serpent. Whatever choice I make, the winged-serpent of Hadit is what I will achieve, but when loving either I have different methods in gaining this union. One that is easy to explain and which serves in both cases relates to the House of Tum (or Atum)-Atum's fellatio with himself created the cosmos; so this sexual act is felt by me as though it is auto-fellatio also, and in particular worship of Hadit because it is two to one, reverting from the creative act of one to two-knowledge of death and of devouring- and there be nothing fertile about it. By their very nature, a dove will always give you this. If I am the dove to their serpent, I will be the one to give. However, I am often most in my sexual element in bdsm practices where serpentine energy is generally always powerful within everyone involved- so the caduceus; and bdsm is a communication, it is very mercurial in varying in so many controlled degrees, and is both healing and harmful; although I wouldnt express it as that literally, but to mean pleasure and pain. Now you may see why I would never begin to explain certain things to my lovers (less talk, more action!); besides I feel there is no reason for them to know.

Re: Holy whores. No wonder the nun fetish is popular in our times.

93 Red Fezz,

No need to walk on eggshells, I don't feel attacked when questioned. It's good for me to know when I'm not expressing myself well.

I’m also not the type of person who claims to express absolutes; I don’t believe I really have any absolutes especially when it comes to human structures like colour symbolism’ our eyes can’t even register a lot of the colour spectrum. At the same time though,
I do feel that there is a certain truism to how different cultures are aware of colour in representing various wavelengths in their own environment; and their most aware spiritual systems are in-tune with some aspects of universal energy . Primal genetic make-up of a particular group, and their interaction with different cultures would all influence how the colours are categorized; so I didn’t mean to say they are, or should be all the same.
They differ because they are talking about different things –I realize this-the traditional Tibetan mandala is divided to represent the 5 Buddhas. By the colour correspondences I mentioned this would all apply to some of the teachings of air. The colour correspondences I mentioned initially are some of the teachings of earth because I said they are indigenous and they are the earth-orientated people- that’s why it’s talking about all the different people and how they implement what they have learned on earth and how they use it on earth- Course it doesn’t all stop anywhere at some universal ‘fact’; circles don’t really have divisions, but they have a center. The directions are not even four only, there’s “up”, “down”, and then the inner-the circle’s center. The only evidence you really need for any of this is your own observations; but to tell you where this particular one came from; it’s part of a prophecy which comes from Nunavut in the Arctic and from the Hopi and from South America -which isn’t to say all their cultural colours match up. The colours aren’t even the important part here but that’s why I consider it appropriate: it all depends how closely we look into it as it’s hidden when we’re distracted by ‘facts’. Don’t take my word for it, but I see African culture as very rhythmic like water and very musical for example, plus the Nile is pertinent to its survival. Thelema is African in its deities; yet we acknowledge yoga and asanas, etc. Fire gets along with air very well; Fire and water though…history is some evidence of that. I find this all interesting and it works for me; just thought I’d share some of it.

Or to be a little more on-topic, I asked my ouija board if any of this was true but it just told me to Eff off.

93

Yeah, that linear chronology of space-time beginnings and endings would not really explain shifts of consciousness, imo, this happens slowly on the larger level; things tend to overlap each other for long periods of time or we may consider these gaps as 'aborted' births of Horus.

93

Interesting; I've never really given this much thought. But no disciple for Leo? Well then, I'm going to put Mary Magdalene there. It's one of the more masculine signs, but she would have to be somewhat different than most women of her day, like non-docile, to have lived that lifestyle as a follower of Jesus, and Leos have a reputation of being quite sexual so that fits. There's also the theory she was well-off financially, or at least her father was and was able to finance some of the traveling. Sounds like a Lioness feeding the men alright. I think they can like being center of attention at times, and dramatic; maybe a reason why some of those guys were not too fond of her and acted jealous.

93

I agree with that MQL; Liber Al vel Legis can be explored and partially understood on so many different levels; it's both personal and universal and changes just as much as we do personally and collectively.
So Malaclypse, only you can answer that question to your satisfaction throughout your life; I tend to see the different groupings of the past as star-systems, clusters even. Maybe even constellations of Nuit. They change and merge and drift away, but it would be a shame to dismiss insights from the ancient past.

Because we know more about each other today, we are able to learn from each grouping's manifestation of an element. For instance, from the East-air; Yoga has become a way to learn how to breathe properly. It's just a way to understand the world we live in, and how it's all interconnected and also helps to synthesize such teachings on the micro and macro.

If it were too subjective I wouldn't mention it, but the elements act as they do; get into alchemy though, and that would be a little more difficult to articulate(at least for me).

93
Ra-Imhotep, it's always a good idea to keep a respectful relationship with the plant itself; think of it from an animist perspective. Marijuana is very feminine, I'm sure you've noticed; Mary Jane right? Comes on like a warm, soothing blanket, but prone to flighty emotional states; if you ever get 'the fear' or paranoia then she is displeased. It's the disposition of the plant; its spirit. Indigenous people recognized that and so had many ways to show their respect; it can turn on you at anytime. And some plants just aren't suited to everyone's temperament. If Mary Jane works with you well, then by all means use it, in moderation but it is a short-cut and it's also temporary; she won't help indefinitely. And like a jealous girlfriend, might not always get along well with other kinds of energy; so in magickal operations you should take this into account. But there's far more unforgiving plants people deal with. It's always somewhat risky though.

I read this one, and although most occultists probably won't learn anything particularly new to them or of major importance, I think it's a good idea to promote more proper uses for this tool. There's been incidents of unwanted invocation, let alone evocation. When I was a silly kid I played with it all the time and unharnessed energy blew the tube on the television.

Malaclypse, youre quite right about electricity and fire; are you aware of the colour/element associations found in certain indigenous cultures that relate to the four directions and the four groupings of people? It relates to what you just asked, because for the more southern tribes in north america, they tend to associate the west, which is basically Caucasian people with the element Fire; this is why the western world has been so dominant; electricity is a powerful manifestation but most dangerous and volatile; our society does tend to burn others and ourselves; its used the wrong way a lot. The others are red-earth-north,
yellow-air-east,
black-water-south
notice how these people are best in their element, and how their traditions and culture and religions focus on it...its a cool topic to look at.

93
Excellent topic; especially since I feel it is related to Crowley’s 0=2.
And Mesoamerica did have a sophisticated knowledge of mathematics and most importantly zero which I can’t help but always relate to the Ouroboros and as was mentioned, the cosmic egg.
The association between Quetzalcoatl’s celestial status as Venus seems to represent a dual nature between him and his counterpart, and more negative aspect Xolotl-this is especially Toltec pre-dating Mayan and Aztec. Quetzalcoatl is the Morning Star and Xolotl the Evening Star-a duality which we find in other cultures when Twins are mentioned. He’s also shown with two-heads at times.

But Quetzalcoatl’s specific iconography as a Feathered Serpent then expands to represent the entire Milky Way galaxy. The mayan words for “sky” and “serpent” both mean the same thing. This is exciting to me, because I was once trying to make some sense of quantum theory and the zero-point field; the physicist I was reading mentioned how it behaves like a cat chasing its own tail-well I appreciated the metaphor but a snake eating its own tail is more appropriate, not only that but part of the theory is how it refreshes itself also-‘shedding snakeskin’ is another metaphor they should have added.

But to answer the question in a more kabbalah way: I’d associate the symbolism (not the status of the figure(s) since that is most likely a title in the Venus-Lucifer sense) to yesh and ayin or 'yesh mai'ayin: acting from physicality (snakes always so grounded to malkuth), 'ayin,' from spirituality, 'yesh.' (bird’s ability to be the highest in flight)…. so not specific sepiroth ,its too all-encompassing. And here’s another reason why I associate it as such: there’s that Gnostic/Gospel of Thomas quote attributed to Jesus, ‘be ye wise as serpents and innocent as the dove’. I think this is found somewhere in Matthew as well. Metaphors and the allegories which contain both go so well with this Flying Serpent; but I’ve made this post long enough. It’s a most excellent symbol and always impressive for being so universal.

93
Oh yes, that giddiness that has nothing to do with response to amusement; I see it as a different kind of laughter, practically uncontrollable and somewhat related to a form of madness. How I’ve understood it so far is a type of coping mechanism when the center is moving-even a process of persona suicide, which in Jungian terms they call egocide (a very positive thing to do). You know you are advancing from this since for if you didn’t emit that energy it would just turn into something less pure. Unlike other laughter and joy, I don’t think it is a response to anything that came in externally per se; it is spiritual pleasure and an inkling of what can really be obtained as a state of being (but not to say,an end result); after all it’s part of shedding something that has served its purpose; and doing it in one of the best ways possible.

It is what some of the Christian holly-rollers are attempting to do at some of their revivals; all it takes is one person to be “drunk with the holy ghost”-for it to be a chain reaction of giddy orgasmic laughter. In these cases I’ve noticed it can be pretty much psycho-somatic; but I still feel there is something in it at times, at least for some people. Either way I see no harm in it, really. But when it’s a personal occurrence that visits you without any warning, definitely keep track of these because too many could be just as bad as none at all.

Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf tries to describe the process, since I don’t think it can really be defined; which is good, a definition would just limit our understanding of it.