College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

@Her said

"The corresponding Qliphotic sigil appears to indicate that something has gone wrong."

Maybe that's the point? The difficulty of comparison probably makes it more valuable.

@Jim Eshelman said

"Does that help?"

It does indeed! Thanks Jim. 😄

@Jim Eshelman said

"PS - Thanks for getting the book. I really hope you enjoy it. I'm quite interested in what results you get."

I'm enjoying it already. The introductory chapters were/are excellent. Although I have to admit that I did have to grit my teeth a bit through some of the astrology sections. It's just not my forte.

When I saw your suggested method of reading the visions my eyes lit up. The concept of turning the abstract and symbolic into something constructive and usable is highly appealing to my practical side. As soon as I read that part I instantly knew that's how I wanted to tackle the rest of the book. It never occured to me that the content of Liber 418 could be used in that way. Great call Jim. 😀

@Her said

"
@Alrah said
"I think that sometimes people get a little too hung up on the martial aspect of Geburah without taking account of it's other attribute. Once the fighting is done then the other attribute that comes online is active reverence."

I thought "fighting" was only one aspect of Geburah. What about the intense discipline that Geburah brings? That would seem to make it the perfect counter-point for the expansive, jovian, out-pouring energy of Chesed. Also that same discipline reflects, on a lower level, the initial restriction of Binah with regard to Chokmah. In my opinion it's one of the things that makes Geburah such a perfect fit on the Pillar of Severity."

When it comes to the Tree or the Palaces I like to have things rooted in the tradition. I'm not interested in Chaos Magic.

Thus I suggested the idea of 'Reverence' in respect of Geburah due to a Hekhalot text from antiquity (or it may have been the Zohar actually... I mention it on the thread on Liber 231 of this forum.)

I'll be happy to discuss with you what you think is a Geburah quality of discipline if you can reference a main text in Judaic literature that directly ascribes this quality of discipline to Geburah.

@Her said

"Pentagram rituals like the LBRP open and close with the Qabalistic Cross. But if you are doing several rituals of this sort back-to-back, do you need to repeat the QC's in between each ritual."

Not necessarily. That's where the art part comes in.

The main rule I'd suggest is that beginners do things in the most rigorous ways, and when one is well past beginner then start feeling your way through the fine points on each occasion.

"An example would be the LBRP immediately followed by the LIRP. You naturally close the LBRP with the QC. But do you then have to perform another QC to begin the LIRP?"

Not necessarily. Sometimes you'd want to, in order to have a sense of conclusion, grounding, etc. But... not necessarily.

In my own case, I don't know that I've ever done the two back to back without something in the middle. (Or, if I have, it's been a long time ago.) Generally I'd have something else happening in the larger ritual between the initial preparation of the space and the subsequent invocation.

"Or are the rituals like snap-together modules where the closing QC of the first becomes the opening QC of the next?"

That's cool too 😀

One example that comes to mind is the G.D.'s Portal ritual, where the space is prepared (early in the Opening) by a Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and, after a small amount of intervening business, the rest of the Opening amounts to a Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram.

@gmugmble said

"
@Jim Eshelman said
"I'd been meaning to post a note on this book, and hadn't gotten around to it. I've had it sitting around for several weeks, but haven't started reading it."

So Jim, did you ever get around to reading Gunther's book Initiation in the Aeon of the Child and do you have any thoughts?"

Actually, no, not yet. (I hit a patch of doing three people's jobs at work for the last five months - just recovering from that with some new hiring this week and diving right into a huge project through February.)

Additionally, I lost energy on it because person after person told me they'd felt it wasn't worth their time to read it. So, my hopes of gaining something intrinsic for myself are (rightly or wrongly) low right now, and I have it transplanted to the "you need to read it as a matter of duty - just because" pile.

The general principle of reversal is common enough in magick. For a certain amount of "reversal" to happen within magick practised in the New Aeon which relates in any way to the changes in the world in comparison to the old aeon wouldn't be so surprising.

@Jim Eshelman said

"Something commonly missed in St. John's Dark Night of the Soul... I don't know if you're missing it, but it's commonly missed.

Inherent in the definition of the Dark Night is that it was preceeded by a day - it is the experience of the loss of (a level of) intimate connection with God, not a "having not gotten it yet." There was always a prior kindling (in the present incarnation), otherwise we're talking about a different phenomenon."

I would suggest it is both a "loss" and a different phenomenon. The loss is of an impression of an intimate relationship with God, whereas the *different phenomenon *pertains to a different order of relationship. A relationship experienced after a different manner, via different faculties.

Assuming I understand your point correctly.

This form of Christian mysticism made much of the distinction between meditation (what we might call prayer and visualisation) and contemplation (what modern Westerners, in common with Eastern practice might generally call meditation).

The "dark night" represents the loss of the value and psychological affect that comes with holding images of God and the enflamed emotions that come with it (meditation). The "dark night" stage is required before becoming able to accept the "imageless prayer" and the direct numinous experience (without images or emotion) of God (contemplation).

In a sense, it is to move from the Briatic consciousness of "archetypal images" to the Atziluthic consciousness of "imageless archetypes". (Forgive a very limited and clumsy use of Qabalistic reference there).
It is also a move from "love of another" to a direct unitary experience of reality. From loving God, with all the ideas and images implicit, and the absorption into a non-dualistic awareness.

By the way, much as I admire the Spanish Carmelites and the Rhineland mystics, I would suggest the anonymously written "The Cloud of Unknowing" as the best elaboration of these points.

TaMo

@Nudor said

"Jim, is Cyril Fagan's book, "Zodiacs Old & New" still available?"

It's been OP for decades. However, if you really want to spend $400 for a used copy 😆 , they'll let you do that here:
www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000CHXKB/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212952996&sr=1-1

Thanks, I didn't see that as the heart swelling up, nor the heart girt with a serpent. However I did see that the sunflower had 12 petals which correlated it to Anahata, the heart chakra. I think Crowley is relating Key XIX to the heart chakra, the Sun being one of the 7 planets, although he doesn't mention it in his comment (he only mentions the 12 zodiac signs).

By correlating it as such, with the wall as the emerald green kundalini, he would have made the connection that the kundalini beginning to rise from the heart to the higher Vishuddha (which he correlated to Binah) was the initiation of the ordeal of the abyss (when the heart as he says begins "aspiring to the heavens"). He may also have seen then that Key XX The Aeon symbolized this ordeal, and that Key XXI The Universe as the vesica pisces in Binah represented the attainment of enlightenment, as Crowley says "the Great Work accomplished".

@Ankh said

"Captivating answer Jim. I have always been under the impression that the decanates or minor arcana where specific groupings of the Major Arcana to produces specific results in tarot meditations and possibly rituals."

The Majors can be used as a tool for meditation on the Minors - which isn't exactly what you said, but maybe close enough 😄

"Such as the 6 of wands, (*Tiphareth in Atziluth: Jupiter in Leo: Atu-10 the *Wheel of fortune & Atu-11 Strength) produces an attitude and the conditions of Victory in life."

Or, perhaps, the meditation on the Kaph and Teth cards (for Jupiter + Leo) can be expected to give insight into exactly what the word "Victory" means when applied to that card (in contrast to the four 7s, expessions of Netzach, which each show what is necessary to attain Victory in the respective worlds.)

"Or say, the 10 of pentacles (*Malkuth in *Assiah: Mercury in Virgo: Atu-1 the magician & Atu-9 The Hermit) produces an attitude and the conditions for Wealth in life. Am I in left field on this? 😕"

Again, I'd put it differently: I think these meditations answer the question, "What does the card really mean?", which indirectly becomes, "Why is it called Wealth? What does that really mean?

In this present example, Malkuth in Earth nearly gives the whole answer: It is the fulfilment of manifestation to the level of Assiah, the peak abundance of potentiality of manifestation. (Etc. Other words would serve, other ideas would give nuance. This is off-the-cuff.) Mercury+Virgo gives further insight, which might include how to align oneself with that idea of "wealth," etc.

In the prior example, again, the Sephirothic expression nearly tells us the whole story. Tiphereth in Fire tells us this card is expressing the Beauty of the Will - the equilibration, balance, centered vitality, etc. of the Will idea. Sun + Jupiter (the Sephirah and the symbolic decanate ruler) give an inherent idea of blessedness, royalty, abundance, the highest quality and dignity, etc. The Kaph and Teth cards can lead us down other meditative avenues that give much more subtlety.

@Her said

"For example, how does Crowley attribute the 43rd hexagram to the 10 of Swords?"

Ah, that. Whole 'nuther story.

Hexagram 43 corresponds, in the Chinese system, to the third month of the year. Crowley didn't understand that this was the Chinese year (which begins a little more than a month before the Vernal Equinox), nor did he understand that it rightfully refers to a lunar calendar, etc. Because it relates to the third month of the year, he took this to be the time that the Sun is in the third sign of the Tropical Zodiac, Gemini.

We know better now. Roll that back a month (it can still be treated as if it were Tropical dates familiar to most in the West simply because of the time period when these aphorisms were composed), and you find that the Sun would be in Taurus; but, being in reference to a lunar calendar, it is referring to the time when the Moon was full in Scorpio. Hence "Breakthrough."

@Aum418 said

"Traditionally, Salt is Venus/Empress (her arms are in the shape), Sulhpur is Emperor (again, his body is in the shape), and the Magus is Mercury for more reasons than one (one being that the shape of his body and the images at his feet make the symbol of alchemical Merucury).

Therefore the first is a typo. 'Atu II' should read 'Atu I'. Perhaps check again to make sure this isn't what it says.

IAO131"

93 IAO131!

Considering the 'Thoth/Atu II vs Thoth/Atu I' conversation we had earlier, I wouldn't, now, be so sure about that!(I shouldn't be so dubious either!) 93 93/93

Ah, I'd actually missed the point of confusion.

That's an unfortunate paragraph. I don't think it was a mistake, I think he'd gone on to explain another point of view - a way of talking about "fire unfolding" through three aspects or expressions and not exactly consequential to what he had been writing just before that.

@Jim Eshelman said

"Nope. It's not elemental. Tiphereth is an Air sephirah, and therefore there are two Air and no Earth - which makes me doubt even further that there is anything elemental implied."

Oh well. Shot down in flames again. 😆

@Jim Eshelman said

"PS - What would happen if you turned your aspiration in the direction of the unknown... and keep it as the unknown, rather than seeking to turn it into the known?"

Oh god....... 😆
I don't even know how to reply to that. 🙄

@Jim Eshelman said

"Are you incorporating elements from the rest of your life? This is the real "circle" of your work - a number of different topics are possible."

It's amazing what a little nudge in the right direction can achieve sometimes. My pen has begun to sing. (Not literally of course. 😆 )
Thanks Jim. 😄

Thanks Jim. I always appreciate practical, common sense solutions. 😄

I have been considering using this practice as part of my own daily ritual.
If you notice, the Sun is referred to as a feminine, and to my thinking at least this equates to the inner sun (ie the self).
My thinking is that this is a recognition of the Anima, (if you will excuse the Jungian terminology) and is therefore a useful tool to help balance the conscious (solar) with the unconscious (Lunar) ; at least that's the theory, only practice will tell.

I'm also thinking along the lines of the mark of the beast, which is the union of sun and moon, getting these things right in you mind might be a good way of beginning to realise this union of opposites in one's self. in other words, it's pure alchemy.

You might also say that just as you can only work with the Anima when she chooses to manifest, so it is right to be opportunistic about doing the lunar adoration as and when you sight the moon, rather than trying to nail her down to certain times.

Just my two cents.

@Her said

"I recently started to re-read Liber Aleph, and as usually happens, the bits I brushed over the first time bite me in the {@$$} the second time around. 😆

From the first chapter of Liber Aleph:

"Firstly, then, I would have thee to know that Spiritual Experience and Perfection have no necessary connection with Advancement in our Holy Order. But for each Man is a Path: there is a Constant, and there is a Variable. Seek ever therefore in thy Work of the Promulgation of the Law to discover in each Man his own true Nature.

For in each Man his Inmost Light is the Core of his Star. That is, Hadit; and his Work is the Identification of himself with that Light.
It is not every Man who is called to the sublime Task of the A.'.A.'., wherein he must master thoroughly every Detail of the Great Work, so that he may in due Season accomplish it not only for himself, but for all who are bound unto him."

First off, which "Holy Order" is Crowley refering to here? I'm assuming it's not the A.'.A.'. because he mentions that particular order later on in a way that rules it out. Is he refering to Thelema in general or maybe the OTO?

There's a section in the above quote that puzzles me. "Spiritual Experience and Perfection have no necessary connection with Advancement in our Holy Order". I'm assuming that what Crowley is talking about here is the discovery of the True Will. But doesn't the discovery of the True Will through the methods laid down by Crowley entail some measure of "perfecting" and spiritual experience? 😕"

It is neither A.'.A.'. nor O.T.O., nor any other physical manifestation of that Aethyric Order of which Crowley speaks, nor is it even that Aethyric Order of which he speaks.