College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

"But this is the whole idea of the method in the first place: That each aspirant has someone to work with them directly. Much of the system is only delivered person-to-person."

Guidance from another's personal experience is a useful thing, but having someone who is able to actual offer tricks and specific refinements to the methodology sounds like a very useful thing indeed.

"For the proper balance, I might suggest you read in this regard Liber E, Cap. VII, pars. 6-7."

This has always been one of the most encouraging of Crowley's stances I've come across.

Thanks for the discussion.

From Liber E:

7. Let him further remember that he must in no wise rely upon, or believe in, that master. He must rely entirely upon himself, and credit nothing whatever but that which lies within his own knowledge and experience.

@Jim Eshelman said

"Any that I could write down are things I received under obligation, and can only communicate the same way. They're in writing, but only distributed to the Second Order of Temple of Thelema.

...

It's actually not that hard to get an A.'.A.'. 1=10 on the right path pretty fast when they have the preliminaries down that I mentioned above.
"

Jim,

Is this usually the case in the standard A.'.A.'. system? I.e. that ones mentor will be able to provide direct one-on-one assistance in such cases where a student is having trouble (or at least initial hurdles) with this technique? I had thought this relationship was usually a matter of written advice and reference.

Thanks,
Halcyon.

@Jim Eshelman said

"Something similar to that (though a bit more extensive) is a standard, mandatory practice in both Course I of College of Thelema and the first initiated degree of Temple of Thelema."

Jim, do you find that this helps students formulate a clearer motto - as in a more personal/meaningful aspiration based on their background? Since I started reading Crowley's work over the last year I've often wondered why more explicit introspection was not included in the program. I've done the first couple of chapters of Bardon's "Initiation Into Hermetics" (shamefully 3 times having let it slide ...) and the introspection work in that system was very useful. In the A.'.A.'. curriculum character transformation is tackled (explicitly) after a while, but there doesn't seem to be the same taking stock period before hand - or at least little guidance seems to be given. Any thoughts on why this isn't stressed more explicitly in the A.'.A.'. curriculum?

Hi,

I recently read the book 'Aleister Crowley and the Practice of the Magical Diary'. On the last page is a letter to a Roy Leffingwell in which Crowley describes very concisely the value and basic method of keeping a magical diary.

I was especially intrigued by the idea of taking a "summary of your life" as a sort of conceptual foundation to the work - a mapping out of how you arrived at this point, of how your past choices and experiences led you to this place. He goes on to say that this is extremely helpful when picking your motto and in helping to select the right practices.

How many people here have done this and found it helpful? I've never heard this preliminary practice mentioned by another Thelemite (usually ppl simply preach the virtues of keeping a diary). It seems like a very good way of leading the student into the habit of introspection and analysis ... and might just reduce the volume of "Merlins" and "Arthurs" in the world ...

"The Probationer curriculum contains pretty much everything from the grades 1=10 through 4=7. Gaining familiarity with these sets one up for undertaking each piece in turn in the grades following. "

So the focus here is to experiment and try various techniques, and "considerable attainment" can be taken to mean that you actually worked and applied yourself to things (thus gaining the early results each practice leads to).

Thanks for the clarification - I'm still "casing things out" as they say

In the TOT description of the Probationer Journey the following quote is given (below). What is meant here by "considerable attainment"?

The practices as described in Liber E take effort (over some time) to master to the extent that they become tools that can be applied to more advanced practices such as those in section 5 & 6 of Liber O. Surely a probationer would be better served by applying themselves consistently to meditation, asana (and perhaps pranayama) and the basic ritual work of Liber O, before beginning work on more advanced astra-mental separation exercises? (which seem a part of the 1=10 grade anyway).

The grade outline for 0=0 seems to either imply that you need a certain mastery of each exercise listed below (which seems much to much for 1 year, and these are in any case often assessed in later steps), or seems to imply that rather than taking things in a natural sequence the student is to attain notable results at magical practices ... while still working on their preparatory exercises.

Could someone shed some light on this?

Thanks,
Joe.

Quote:
I am authorised to say that no one will be admitted as a Neophyte unless his year’s work [as a Probationer] gives evidence of considerable attainment in the fundamental practices, Asana, Pranayama, assumption of God-forms, vibration of divine names, rituals of banishing and invoking, and the practices set out in sections 5 and 6 of Liber O. Although he is not examined in any of these, the elementary experience is necessary in order that he may intelligently assist those who will be under him.

@Rev.D said

"I have a rather pagan/heathen background in magical/spiritual terms so if anyone could point me in the right direction I'd be most grateful."

Depends what you mean by pagan/heathen - these terms mean different things to different people. Most magical systems deal with spirituality to an extent, though they often don't lean towards a particular religion. Crowley's Thelema is taken by many as a religion, but Crowley wrote about this almost as a distillation of spiritual concepts.

@Jim Eshelman said

"That is, outer stillness has a reciprocal relationship with inner stillness."

That's an interesting statement. From reading some of Crowley's yoga references I kept finding statements promoting concentrating on an infinity - the horizon etc as an aid to stillness. When I experiment with this and similar ideas I find that such concentration does in fact make my posture go still - or at least still-er.

@Jim Eshelman said

"The main result being targetted by this task is that one become able to sit for very long periods of time without the body disturbing one.

The secondary goal is training in will. I know of nothing at all (accessible to pretty much all people on demand) which will SO train the will and show you the strengths and limits of your own strength, endurance, perseverance, and heroism as does training in asana the way that Crowley assigns and tests it."

Not to mention sheer bloody-mindedness ... Crowley mentioned somewhere [paraphrasing] "by doing certain things certain results will follow .." (always admired that statement ...) - I can't remember the exact quote but it's in Liber 0 I think. I'm going to see how accurate this is applied to his work before I commit more.

I'm presently sitting for 30 minutes once per day. I've found that my practice has improved a little since I began in that, once settled in, I will become relatively still for random short periods of time. At this point my still periods are when what I'd call "major tremors" generally cease and my muscles just have little spasms/shifts. This is NOT easy nor comfortable yet

Since you seem knowledgeable in this - Would there be an advantage in practicing twice a day after a bit (I'll probably give this another month)? Also, care to venture an estimate as to the time it generally takes to reach the stage of "steady and easy"? In "Magick" Crowley simply alludes to "... in the final months of my own practice".

Thank you both for your insights into this.

@Jim Eshelman said

"The answer is YES if, by "personalize," you mean also study whatsoever you want along the way, supplement the instruction, etc. The answer is NO if, by "personalize," you mean "change the requirements and alter either the tasks or the nature of examination.""

Yes, I get what you mean. This is what I was after - I've only recently been considering this system and I'm still wrapping my mind around things.

I've set myself a technique from Crowley's "Magick" (Asana) to "test the waters" so to speak and have been doing this for the last month. I'll keep at this daily till christmas and then see where I want to go.

@dshoemaker said

"Quick answer: There are some places where mastery of the result is required, and others where one clearly needs to be well-versed with a specific technique or other material from an official Liber. Regardless, I can't imagine a situation where anyone would be discouraged from experimentation with "outside" materials, as long as the criteria described above were met."

Thanks for the reply. What I'm considering here is the idea that this seems allow th student the chance to personalize the work to themselves in a way that many other systems don't. This seems a powerful concept as it should allow people to "slant" their approach to those methods they find the most natural - be they hermetic, ritual, what have you.

Hi,

I have a question regarding the A. A work for someone who knows about such things. Each grade has certain tasks and tests that the student must master, and for each grade certain texts (the various libri for example) are recommended. I'm curious to know if the student is in any way constrained or discouraged from choosing texts and techniques from outside this body of work? I.e. am I right to assume that the student can follow his/her own intuitions/judgments in selecting particular non-crowley derived techniques to work at so long as they lead to the mastery of the tasks required for their grade?

For example Astral Projection could be approached from the method in Liber 0, or using something akin to the "Llewellyn Guide to AP", or the student might devise their own approach.

This understanding seems in line with Crowley's comments regarding his approach, but I'd be interested to hear peoples views.

Regards,
Joe.