College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

The military does not include OTO the same reason it does not include Masons. That is that these are fraternal organization that require official lodges, since the US armed forces are not such a lodge, they are not equipped or authorized to perform the complex rituals necessary. I mean imagine a chaplain having to himself be an initiate and having to gather a full mass team so that one soldier might attend a Mass before going out on his mission.

@gmugmble said

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@Jim Eshelman said
"Treated as Hebrew, they enumerate to 406, the same as the word Tav,"

Also, the word "Attah". So does that mean when performing the Qabalistic Cross, one begins in effect by opening the gates of "Hell"?"

No - not all words with the same enumeration frame the main characteristics of that number, but the really important ones establish its basic nature.

By expressing Tav, one thing both the Qabalistic Cross and the phrase under discussion have in common is that they both articulate a cross, a four-fold extension from a center idea - and "cross" is the simple meaning of Tav.

This could digress into a separate discussion - perhaps started elsewhere? - of what we might examine to get the root idea of a given number. IMO the main points are: (1) The prime factors of the number. (2) Other key mathematical roots and relationships such as summations. (3) How the numeral is written in Hebrew, with the meanings distinctive of its letters. (4) The few most important words with the same numeration.

In the case of 406, ThV (Tav) is the way the numeral is written in Hebrew, and it can be more deeply understood by placing The Univers and The Hierophant side by side and meditating on them. It's prime factors are 2 x 7 x 29, so we can see ideas of Chokmah, Netzach, and Qoph (an interesting lineup on the Tree!) flowing into the single idea. Also, Tav is intimately related to 7 in another way, since the sum of the first 7 positive integers is 28, and the sum of 1 through 28 is 406. Related to the latter, we have to note that it is the Mystic Number of the Path of Tzaddi. Of its most important numerative correspondences, probably the most important are ThV and AThH already mentioned, with secondary words that support some of the themes above such as ADVN KL-HARTz, "Lord of all the earth," and ShVQ which, among other things, means "to desire." (Ther eare others.) Without synthesizing all of this, I submit that these are the core ideas from which a basic understanding of 406 would be based.

"Until there's sufficient evidence, it's not correct to think that there are leprechauns. Once there is sufficient evidence, it not correct to remain a non-believer in them."

Yet, my main point is there are (and was all throughout history) things that are "real" and simply have not been proven yet. To tease or look down your nose at, or mock those who have a legitimate model that explains how it may be POSSIBLE, seems silly.

If you ultimately agree something is possible, no matter how unlikely, why mock it? Unless, of course you have a whole other hidden motive. THAT, is really my point.

@Bryan said

"Oh it's the Book of the L- HEEY WAIT A SECOND. huffs, puffs, LBRPs

Fun game: Try reading it all the way through without laughing. If you fail, post how far you got. I got to I:8 before cracking up."

That verse gets me every time.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

@frateruranus said

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@Alias55A said
"Jim' , you said in one of the links above that "we all have to deal with lilith in malkuth"? explain?"

Check out Liber LXV for an explanation of that one..."

I never found what quote you meant... but, reading this today, I think I might have meant the following:

@Liber 24 said

"It is even said that to every Neophyte of the Order of A.'.A.'. appeareth a demon in the form of a woman to pervert him; within Our own knowledge have not less than nine brethren been utterly cast out thereby."

@Confessions said

"I believed then, and believe now, that. . . the neophyte is nearly always tempted by a woman."

Under the title, "The Ordeal of the Nephesh" in M&MAA, I wrote:

"Related to the awakening powers of astral per-ception, and those personal energies that accompany their awakening, are certain ordeals, common enough for Crowley to have issued special warnings... A few comments are warranted here.

First, in our experience and observation, this is a reasonable warning.

Second, despite the sexist and heterosexist phrasing of Crowley’s remarks (possibly due, in this instance, to his having observed the phenomenon only with male Neophytes and in this form), the ordeal is as likely to appear to female Neophytes as to males, and is by no means limited to heterosexuals.

Third, the real demon with which the Neophyte struggles is within. However, this does not prevent the ordeal from manifesting as an outward projection onto an individual in the environment, if the real inner battle is not fought and won."