College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Of course it isn't, that's a change in the style of the letter. I would easily say that! Now Do what thou wilt SHALL NOT be the whole of the Law. DIfferent story.

I've used this formula as suggested by Crowley in 8 Lectures to great affect. I suggest it to people as a way to bring their own negative thoughts back in line, a sort of NLP approach.

I love Oz personally, he's a great guy in my correspondences with him. His accent does kind of whip me out of the readings at times though LOL

@gmugmble said

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@Angel of Death said
"ps Personally Chaos is feminine in my world."

Yes, I think the classical concept of Chaos (as "the original dark void from which everything else appeared", to quote Wikipedia) is more like Binah (or Ain) than Chokmah. Crowley's use of the term seems idiosyncratic."

Crowley's use of Chaos for the Father comes from the Vision and the Voice so his usage is from the root book of Thelemic cosmology. Liber 418 is a sorely neglected text in Thelemic circles and yet it answers so many of these questions that people repeatedly ask or wonder about.

My own experiences bear out the hypotheses of the OP in this thread. I believe Liber LXV lays out the symbolism in which the HGA speaks with you.

I knew Astron Argon before I had even heard of Rovelli or worked with him... I've been around a long time too...

Actually I am incredibly manic depressive at time. I go ok for long periods of time but every now & then, say 6-8 months I will have a period of a month or two where I swing back and forth but not instantly, the depressions linger and the manic states are intense but short lived. The rest of the time I am kinda just happy

Pyramidos is not the Neophyte self-initiation ceremony, it was specifically constructed based on Liber Throa, the initiation ceremony of the neophyte for Crowley's 6=5 working.

The Jews have the half... right there in the Book of the Law...

Well, don't confuse Black Brothers and Black Magicians, two entirely different creatures... Crowley considered Spare a black magician, but a Black Brother is an Adeptus Exemptus who refuses to give up himself to the ALL.

Even then, it depends on your level of initiation in the system of the A.'.A.'. Pay attention to the syllabus of the grades. Until one is a Neophyte, some things just don't apply because until one become Ra Hoor Khuit, one is STILL Osiris. Osiris is a black god doesn't mean the formula is dead, evil etc. just not the main point of initiation anymore.

recently I have been doing the Bornless one with some dramatic results, requests answered etc. almost immediately. SOme of the stranger phenomenon involved a very bad incident I won't get into but afterwards I continued to do the Bornless One as a form of self-exorcism. One day I came out of the temple and was writing my entry when I heard a crash from the kitchen. I went in and my room mate was spraying bug spray in the window at HUNDRED's of flies that came out of nowhere by her words. A day or two later, a water line busted, not at the seam, but the tubing itself and flooded my neighbours bedroom, goody for them because they are nosy old folks who spread a lot of rumours about someone I care about so more to them I say... LOL. All of this culminated in a vision of the Rosycross at a festival during the climax of the main ritual. I had been seeing flashes of it before, but during the main ritual it was omnipresent and for the rest of the night as well. The theme of the festival and the ritual? K&C of the HGA.

The central ordeal of the Probationer is indeed a tough nut to crack...

I have taken up performing Liber Samekh with some spectacular results but had a question on a technical point of the ritual, namely when performing the LVX signs in the climax point following the tracing of the Mark of the Beast... do you perform the WHOLE analysis of the keyword or just recite the names of the signs or say nothing at all? Also in tracing the fire elemental symbol, the sun wheel like thing, all versions look incredibly complicate, is there a specific manner to trace that SOB or what? LOL.

I have seen it for the last two and a half weeks with a demon called Opiate...

Actually NOX comes into play much earlier if you review the grade materials. The formula of the 0=0 is LVX but with the 1=10 the materials begin to implement and work with the NOX formula.. the Ruby, Star Sapphire, Liber V etc. as the aspirant travels to the 5=6 and K&C. Once he becomes a D.L. the formula returns to LVX for the Invocation and the R&C grades until the Babe of the Abyss where it returns to the NOX formula.

The single biggest influence on me was indeed the Book of the Law but I think the Vision & the Voice has been a huge part of the worldview I have developed along with the Book of Enoch. Outside of that, well, I think too many to list really. Peter Carroll has had a big impact, Marcelo Motta's work, especially Astral Attack & Defense. You really don't need any of his other work because it just re-emphasizes what he expounded in AA&D. I think very subtly Steve Englehart's comic book work influenced me magickally and he turns out to have been an early, early member of the OTO revival and integrated a lot of the work into the books that inspired me, like Madame Xanadu, which is where I first saw the Thoth deck. I'd also say my former mentor's work has been an influence even if I disagree with about 75% of what he has to say. Nema, GRant and others used to be a big influence and well could be again in the future but I no longer pursue them as I have become a bit more orthodox in my spiritual views. All the eclecticism was getting me nowhere except right back to the beginning. Have some nice forward momentum spiritually now, if I can just conqour my depressive states or bring them back under control again.

Mistaking the 1=10 experience is actually a pretty common mistake amongst those who do not understand there is a definite difference. This is part of the reason we have so many "Adepts" running around Thelema who don't seem very Adept. In the old aeon GD sense, sure, yer a frakking Adept but you haven't achieved 5=6 in the A.'.A.'. so stop acting like it.

To get back to the OP's question... there really aren't any lineages of the A.'.A.'. for the order is one and every member can trace their line back to Crowley, the head of the Order. Even according to the Book of the Law he is the sole authority on Thelema and the A.'.A.'. As such though there are several broken links in the chain.

Crowley's reference to charlatans in One Star in Sight was in reference to the then recently expelled C.F. Russell who went on to found the Great Brotherhood of God, aka the Choronzon Club, wherein he claimed to be presenting a short cut to initiation. Whether Russell was a charlatan as a magician is not the issue, Crowley was under the belief that Russell was still presenting himself as a representative of the A.'.A.'. and that was the issue.

The broken links I refer to are people who were expelled by Crowley but continued the work or people who were lost in the shuffle when their superior had resigned/been expelled etc. Another factor in this "broken chain" affair is that in a lot of cases most members of the A.'.A.'. never officially passed beyond Probationer, let alone Neophyte or Zelator. In this I am referring to those who held onto the flame of the order following Crowley's death and the disorganization that occurred in the following years under Karl Germer. He was just as lax in his running of the A.'.A.'. as he was the OTO. Even Germer's primary student never technically passed beyond Neophyte, but claimed the Zelator grade shortly before Germer's death. I think the only initiation Germer mentioned outright was Phyllis Seckler's 5=6 status and then that was a reference to being under her HGA's guidance.

So the various "lineages" exist because of the fracturing of the order under leadership that was not ready, nor willing, to bear that responsibility. It was a time where dormancy was probably best as well, cultivating a small group that would bear greater fruit in the next generation when the world might be ready. Germer I think did what was necessary with what he was given.

There are several people out there with legitimate links to the A.'.A.'. in the sense of they signed Oaths & Tasks under people who signed Oaths & Tasks that go back to Crowley but the authority of the A.'.A.'. itself as a formal organization? As a working hierarchy with a direct link to the Secret Chiefs of the order? Well, that is debateable. I have my own opinion on that issue but I tend to keep it to myself. I know who I feel is the head of the Order on the material plane based on what I have seen & read.

All you need to know about someone's A.'.A.'. grade is if they are a Neophyte and then if they are a Zelator etc. ad nauseam until you get to a certain point and from there you're usually on your own.