College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

@Ab-ul-Az said

"I am an idealist aristocrat, and when it comes to the common man, I don't care whom you are sleeping with so far you're not interfering and effecting your folk and nation's well being, unity and evolution (ie. continuity through family), something sadly most gay people for instance can't wrap their heads around."

I'll only add that I think it an indefensible position that people need to be committed to procreation. We'd do much better as a species and part of the larger ecosystem if, say, half the people on the planet decided not to procreate for a generation or two. If we overdo that, recovery will be quite easy.

I'm not overly concerned with continued biological evolution. It will continue to happen - continue to tweak the mix a bit - but it's probably near its upper arc. I've known for decades that the human species needs to take its next evolutionary steps within each generation, which is what the training systems for spiritual acceleration are all about. We have enormous untapped genius within the biological structures we've already evolved.

If I'm understanding you correctly (I necessarily had to read this at a rapid pace, I have about five minutes to read and answer), you are working on a specific issue - perhaps authenticity of the experience, trying to escape bullshit and get outside your own preconceptions. (If I worded that incorrectly, please forgive; as mentioned, I'm writing this quickly).

I that case, my advice would be, sure, use the tool as you see fit for your personal, individual, immediate goal - just don't confuse it with the training specific to the A.'.A.'. system, which has quite other goals.

There's a bit of psychological projection going on here: You distrust yourself and want to prove-up yourself, so you express this by distrusting the technique and turning a training exercise into a requirement that the technique prove itself to you. If your goal were, as you state, to enter into a more productive relationship with subconsciousness, then the most direct path is, in fact, to train your rational, verbal mind in the same language subconsciousness speaks, so that you will understand it when it speaks. Memorizing the lists increases your vocabulary of the language of subconsciousness.

@sinistralkool said

"...another part of my mind resists the former viciously, resisting any such attempts to 'impose' a system, and is especially hostile to the idea of adopting any set of symbols that have not arisen spontaneously."

That half of you is winning. Since you asked my opinion, I will give it: Why should this arise spontaneously? Where'd that crazy idea come from? Since when is communication from a suppressed, brutalized, maligned, neglected mind expected to be spontaneous and clear?

"But if the correspondences are natural or universal, why is it required to saturate the mind in those symbols prior to invoking the vision first?"

Natural yes; but not normal. We are distorted. Most of us are twisted messes on such things. We have (for example) habits of thought that are entirely normal to us, but not at all natural. That's kind of the whole point: The species as a whole has mostly suppressed nature, and the normal reflex of most people's intellect is to set us up to keep it that way. Ego wants to be king, and not have a competitor!

"Let's say Mars is invoked in the body of light, one sees a landscape that is of the correct colours, mythical creatures, smells, materials associated with Gevurah etc. Is the value in the exercise in being able to tune the mind to a natural reality or to be able to recreate an adopted convention faithfully, and ultimately, how could you tell the difference? Is it perception or recreation? "

Your question presumes that these attributes are incorrect. An "adopted convention" that is artificial - just somebody's arbitrary ego assertions - would be crap. That's not how these were obtained. - But I can't I imbue you with trust, where you plainly distrust. (PS - How you tell the difference is that, as you progress in initiation, you develop a deeper instinct or truth sense for such things, as you undergo changes yourself.)

You are so obsessed with the testing aspect. That comes later. Your obsession with it is still your intellect trying to stay in control. It's ego winning out and continuing to lord it over subconsciousness. Screw testing until later.

"My sense is that there's an intuitive knack that develops after a while of practice, but if that knack can't be systematised, where is the value in the common methods of testing visions qabalistically? "

If I had another half hour, I'd break down the illogic in this sentence. You actually changed topics mid-sentence, and then leapt to conclusions based on facts not in evidence. I advise struggling with this sentence a bit.

"It makes sense to want to be able to invoke pure forms of force, elemental or astrological, but I'm not sure why the test of the successful invocation of that force shouldn't be more peculiar to the individual. "

Again: BECAUSE IT'S NOT ABOUT AN INDIVIDUAL. IT'S NOT INDIVIDUAL. IT'S PREMATURE TO TEST UNTIL YOU'RE PAST THE PLACE OF IT BEING YOUR INDIVIDUAL CONTENT. YOUR EGO CENTER IS IRRELEVANT TO THIS. THAT'S ALMOST THE WHOLE POINT.

"I am particularly interested in the Sleep of Siloam, in contrast to the lunar sleep"

That's a 6=5 practice. You are still working on getting a starter skill on 1=10 practices. Nothing to stop yu from attempting, of course, and getting what success you may.

@sinistralkool said

"1) What would one expect to see and experience in using the hexagram ritual to invoke a planetary force in the Body of Light, and having done so successfully? "

Quite a range of possibilities but, if successful, they will be substantially consonant with the nature of what is invoked.

"2) Why are the tables of 777 memorised first prior to making invocations of particular forces? If the correspondences represent facts of nature in some way, wouldn't they be able to discovered without prior memorisation? Wouldn't it be better to attempt to invoke the force/idea, observe results, and then compare them to the correspondence tables afterwards?"

It's not all a test. Before you can be tested, you have to learn to have the experience. A primary purpose of the training is to ensure one can access the right channel. The GD was even more explicit: Saturate your mind with the symbols immediately before he practice because this helps tune your psyche to the right "channel."

Worry about being tested after you've had a hundred or so trips. (Your question and the final paragraphs suggest that you think it's all about passing a test and that one will have the knack to get it right on the first try.)

"If each aspirant has an astral universe peculiar to them, are the correspondences an attempt at establishing a conventional, consensus set of interrelated pieces of information? Why is knowledge of a convention that has to be pre-memorised valuable?"

Every aspirant has their own little corner of the bay off the ocean. That's highly personalized and "local." As you build strength and experience, you eventually swim out past the refs into the full ocean. At that point the practice changes from merely exploring your own psyche to exploring more universal aspects of consciousness.

@AliceKnewI said

"I am having trouble finding the first post in this thread.... Was it deleted?"

It must have been. There is no Draco210 on the forum any longer, so either he deleted it himself, or it was purged with other posts if he was administratively moved.

From the parts quoted, it looks like the question wasn't one of despair, but of hitting a wall - of trying to be self-guided but having, for the moment, hit the limit of that and thus not being able to go further without assistance.

@Quaestor Lucis said

"Mr. Eshelman, I have question about SRP of four elements: in what color should one visualize the pentagrams and especially the connecting line? "

I recommend seeing the background in the elemental colors, and the pentagrams on them in the flashing colors, e.g., green on red for Fire.

For the four elements, it gets complicated. Here's where you need to trust your astral senses more than your imagination and, perhaps, try not to be obsessive about transitions. Each quarter thus has a different background color, the line changes color between them etc.; I think it a (minor) mistake to try to force it too extremely, e.g., making sure the room is exact quadrants etc., though often it will turn out this way by the end. Reality gets fuzzy mid-quadrant, but quite acute and concentrated at the quarters where the pentagrams appear.

If I say I agree, then I'm only confirming whatever those words already mean inside your thought matrix, and I have no idea whether I agree with that or not.

I suppose I'd say its the sum of all the faculties below N'shamah. You have to understand, though, that it's an artificial construct - an artifice - that never existed as a being, just as the inference of one.

BTW there is also important sense in which the infant is the whole world; and another in which it is the Magister's specific work.

I take it to be the magician - At this point we could say rhe Babe of the abyss - From which the master has been liberated.

@Anchorite said

"Do the elementals acquire a HGA...?"

There is always help ;upstream' in the hierarchy. I can't say I can speak exactly of elementals' experience, but I can say with certainty that humans - especially trained humans in the Work - routinely serve in the same relationship to elementals that the HGA serves to us. The potential for this is encoded in primary symbols from the earliest steps of training, though not everyone consciously takes up that responsibility.

"If the HGA is already perfect, why does it need to evolve energies?"

I don't k now what this question means.

"If it is our higher self If it knows the lessons why does the Briatic consciousness need to learn lessons?"

I guess I don't know what this question means either, because I don't know where it's coming from. It looks like you have certain preconceptions that are leading you to certain conclusions which you are then not fully understanding nd are questioning... or something like that?

"In short, what the bugger is going on? Is the universe being raised in consciousness in the four worlds through the influence of Atziloot ? "

The universe isn't going anywere at all. The universe already fully exists in all four worlds.

I wonder if you mean your universe, i.e., your awareness of different aspects???

And finally - by signing the Oath and dedicating your energies to the AA , will the forgone conclusion be that one will have to reincarnate to serve humanity? Or is that choice made MUCH further down the line and it is a choice in actuality?
Thanks for your time.
93/93"

@wanderer-exile said

"Have you considered going the print-on-demand route."

That would be completely against our underlying goal of producing the highest quality physical books, created to last a century.

Thanks for your vote. It probably doesn't matter now (the question was asked years ago and I don't expect to have time to completely, top-to-bottom, rewrite and restructure the book in the next few years - it would be about a year of work if I had nothing else big on my docket.) I'd like to do some significant rewrite before I die, so I'll have have to plan not to die in the immediate future

It's out of stock, but being reprinted. I just asked the other day when the copies are due. This usually only takes a few weeks.

I doubt one was ever physically made. It's a description of a state of consciousness with which the MT is robed.

@Quaestor Lucis said

"1) Why the crosses in ritual text above should be drawn in the corners and not in the quarters?"

You're forming the cube, so you create the corners.

"In their 12 steps Regardie says to draw them in the quarters, so I'm confused. And why do these crosses is connected in the form of square and not of a circle?!"

I'd be very surprised if it's the quarters, but I'm not where I have that book handy. Why a square? Because you're making a cube with a vaulted ceiling.

"2) What is the orientation crosses over one's head and under the feet? ( I mean the direction of the longer arm of the cross)"

I always make it along the axes that are being drawn through it, which makes it an X.

"3) How to draw the cross under feet? It's not convenient! Though I may not understand something "
The idea isn't under feet at the moment, but under the center, at the center of the floor where you were standing. You can just step aside for a moment.

"4) The final cross involves two names. If I vibrate ABRAHADABRA instead of YEHESHUA, what I need to vibrate instead of YEHOVASHA?"

You'd have to make that up yourself.

@gerry456 said

"Does the Opening of Resh for the zelator induce a crisis of status anxiety?

If so, why and how?"

I've not heard of that (certainly not of a generalization).

I can add that, not the opening of Reysh, but the formal stabilization in Hod - my admission as a Practicus - brought a huge surge what I probably should call nervous energy. It was fiercely Mercury-like in that way, in the particular form of all the prior Kundalini results and stabilization just re-surging through my brain and whole-body nervous system for days after. But that's not what you asked about.

I remember Reysh opening as rather difficult to distingish from the intense yellow / solar (reflected Sun, I suppose) of Y'sod, a great opening in me in many ways. (If I thought my particular details mattered to anyone else, I'd give the; I'm holding back a couple of things that I think do matter in general because I think people should discover it on their own).

@gerry456 said

"The aspirant's first meeting with the Pillar of Severity appears to be within the Zelator grade."

You mean this, I take it, in the sense that Paths are worked that reach left. You might consider that the Neophyte task already includes preliminary work with Liber HHH, which is assigned in relation to Shiyn (just as the Neophyte task includes divination, which is the task assigned to Qof).

"What do the Zelator's rituals and work do to the aspirant and his relationship to his Ruach and Nephesh?/quote]
That's a big, general question. Have you read the literature on this, e.g., the 2=9 chapter of my M&MAA? (Also, part of this answer is unique to each person.)

"If we take the approach to Hod as being the first connection to pure transcendental spiritual Briatic consciousness then would I be correct in saying that there would be a general severe stirring up of the Ruach and it's attachments to the five-sensory bound Nephesh (see path of* Shin *connecting Guph/Assiah to Hod (pure mind))? "

Your reference to "first connection to pure transcendental spiritual Briatic consciousness" is a bit inflated, but on the right track in this sense: Having opened oneself to Y'tziyrah in the progress from Neophyte to Zelator, the plateau at Y'sod does a couple of things. First, it stabilizes that transition - strengthens it and stabilizes the individual. Second, it starts the next leg of the Four World journey, which is building bridges between Y'tziyrah and B'riyah. This is mostly done in 3=8, 4=7, and Dom Lim, but there's a bit of it in 2=9. Many have found a spontaneous 4D consciousness open, and one can expect new levels of connection with the HGA (as Samekh works on one).

I don't know what you mean by "generally severe stirring up of the Ruach" etc. I suppose things can be interpreted that way, but I don't want to say yes or no without knowing what ideas you have attached to those words. One remains fundamentally a Ruach-Nefesh creation occupying a body (with at least more distinction of not being that body, from the work that made one a Zelator.

"With regards to the path of Resh, is there also therefore a challenge or an attempt to purify and transmute the Ruach which up until then is stuck in or attached to Yetzirah i.e. it's own subconscious i.e the reactive Yesodic Nephesh?"

The eventual awakening of the Ruach into Briatic consciousness that you describe occurs in the Dom Lim / Adeptus Minor range, although certainly early intimations are possible once one stabilizes in Y'sod. PS Y'tzirah is not "it's own subconsciousness;" that's a misleading idea.

Yes, the work at Y'sod certainly has to do with addressing reactivity, especially the deep, historic patterns of it. That's spelled out in the Task paper, though in more archaic language.

"In other worlds this is the first realization that we are in effect transcendental to the outer world as we exist in the realm of the pure and infinite?"
"

Surely not the first realization. One might wonder what one has been spending his or her first two grades doing if that were the case, On the other hand, it is hardly a submergence into "the pure and infinite." Above all, the initiate at Y'sod is aware of the nature of Change, and is living the fabric of the transient. Growing awareness of the distinction between the transient and the eternal is a gradual process for most folks.

@gerry456 said

"The aspirant's first meeting with the Pillar of Severity appears to be within the Zelator grade."

You mean this, I take it, in the sense that Paths are worked that reach left. You might consider that the Neophyte task already includes preliminary work with Liber HHH, which is assigned in relation to Shiyn (just as the Neophyte task includes divination, which is the task assigned to Qof).

"What do the Zelator's rituals and work do to the aspirant and his relationship to his Ruach and Nephesh?/quote]
That's a big, general question. Have you read the literature on this, e.g., the 2=9 chapter of my M&MAA? (Also, part of this answer is unique to each person.)

"If we take the approach to Hod as being the first connection to pure transcendental spiritual Briatic consciousness then would I be correct in saying that there would be a general severe stirring up of the Ruach and it's attachments to the five-sensory bound Nephesh (see path of* Shin *connecting Guph/Assiah to Hod (pure mind))? "

Your reference to "first connection to pure transcendental spiritual Briatic consciousness" is a bit inflated, but on the right track in this sense: Having opened oneself to Y'tziyrah in the progress from Neophyte to Zelator, the plateau at Y'sod does a couple of things. First, it stabilizes that transition - strengthens it and stabilizes the individual. Second, it starts the next leg of the Four World journey, which is building bridges between Y'tziyrah and B'riyah. This is mostly done in 3=8, 4=7, and Dom Lim, but there's a bit of it in 2=9. Many have found a spontaneous 4D consciousness open, and one can expect new levels of connection with the HGA (as Samekh works on one).

I don't know what you mean by "generally severe stirring up of the Ruach" etc. I suppose things can be interpreted that way, but I don't want to say yes or no without knowing what ideas you have attached to those words. One remains fundamentally a Ruach-Nefesh creation occupying a body (with at least more distinction of not being that body, from the work that made one a Zelator.

"With regards to the path of Resh, is there also therefore a challenge or an attempt to purify and transmute the Ruach which up until then is stuck in or attached to Yetzirah i.e. it's own subconscious i.e the reactive Yesodic Nephesh?"

The eventual awakening of the Ruach into Briatic consciousness that you describe occurs in the Dom Lim / Adeptus Minor range, although certainly early intimations are possible once one stabilizes in Y'sod. PS Y'tzirah is not "it's own subconsciousness;" that's a misleading idea.

Yes, the work at Y'sod certainly has to do with addressing reactivity, especially the deep, historic patterns of it. That's spelled out in the Task paper, though in more archaic language.

"In other worlds this is the first realization that we are in effect transcendental to the outer world as we exist in the realm of the pure and infinite?"
"

Surely not the first realization. One might wonder what one has been spending his or her first two grades doing if that were the case, On the other hand, it is hardly a submergence into "the pure and infinite." Above all, the initiate at Y'sod is aware of the nature of Change, and is living the fabric of the transient. Growing awareness of the distinction between the transient and the eternal is a gradual process for most folks.

What you might be remembering is that the 7=4, in the course of finishing the task of the grade, does certain things that turns them into the leader of a school of thought.

@gerry456 said

"Apologies I meant 7=4 not 6=5

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPyIMW2whN4 David Shoemaker on True Will 13m55s in."

None of these grades have anything to do with your mundane career, per se.

I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that this has anything to do with your earthly occupation. Soror Meral and Frater Saturnus were successful in their professional lives, but I wouldn't say "leaders in their field." That wasn't their real work.

Soror Meral's real work, for instance, involved founding and running College of Thelema, and in this was became a great success and a major contributor to "her line of work." Germer was especially a supporter of Crowley in diverse ways including seeing to the publication of several unpublished works after Crowley's death.

@Ankh said

"
"Quote JAE: "It hurts less when you're trying to flow with immeasurable force flowing through you than when you try to fight it; and you're more effective and energy-efficient doing that, too." "

O.k. but what if your True Will is lame, is that a sign that it isn't your true will?"

Your True Will may look tame on the outside, but every one of us has the entire force of the universe primed to stream through us in one particular direction. The nature of what flows through you is never tame, even if the behavior it sponsors looks tame

@LD330 said

"My questions are regarding the phrase "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law".

Why should you do your will in the first place? What does a person get out of it? (What value is being posited by doing one's will?)

Is it possible to -not- do your will? Isn't everything you do, on some level, willed?"

I hate to sound like I'm trying to sell a book, but I really do think you should read my Pearls of Wisdom.

That aside, you're confusing what is commonly called "will-power" (energized personality application of choice fortified by disciplined) with what is meant by Will in the mysteries (divine momentum of the universe moving through you). If there were no other reason at all, it would be sufficient reason IMO to say, "It hurts less when you're trying to flow with immeasurable force flowing through you than when you try to fight it; and you're more effective and energy-efficient doing that, too."

It's entirely possible (and even commonplace) for a person "not to do their will." As a simple example, anytime you act in a way untrue to your real nature (which most people do several time before lunch) is "against your will." Also, even in your interpretation, having "some level" of being in alignment with Will is hardly the same as "doing your will." Liber L. says you have NO RIGHT - no right at all! - but to do your Will, meaning that all the scraps and parts that are NOT in alignment are "illegal." The Book also speaks of an ideal of Will being pure, purged of all the parts that are at odds with it.

"Say I don't, or attempt not to, do my will. As this is said to be a law, who is enforcing the law and what happens if one does not follow the law?"

The same "whoever it is" that enforces the law of gravity. The Law of Thelema is not a law in the sense of a regulation that someone has to enforce, but of a "law of nature" that is just stating the way things are.

So, ultimately, you're right: You can't disobey it any more than you can disobey the law of gravity. The requirement is to do it mindfully, knowingly, and purely - to become able to perceive and respond to the force of the universe moving impelling you through it, and align your conscious choices with this rather than place conscious choices at odds with it.

@Gnosomai Emauton said

"In Chapter 9 of The Tree of Life, Regardie gives instructions in the vibration of God-names, using the example of Elohim Gibor, that pretty closely matches the instructions of Liber O. However, at the end of the instruction, he notes that using the Sign of the Enterer, a characteristic pose of Horus, is done because Elohim Gibor is the God-name of Geburah. "Other gestures and other signs exist for each of the Gods, and a study of the Egyptian God-forms will confer a knowledge of what these signs are."

Is this one of those places where Liber O fails us by being teaching notes rather than a complete text? Should the Sign of the Enterer only be used for Martial vibrations?"

No, I think one shouldn't tie these quote together too closely or take Regardie too rigorously here, I read it either as a bad example or, more likely, a statement in the fashion of, "There are many ways one can go about things and, since I'm doing a Mars thing here, I'm going to pick the easy and familiar method which also happens to be especially martial." (But I'm not rereading him in context.)

To answer your specific historic question: No, the Vibration of Divine Names by the Formula of the Middle Pillar (the full name of the technique Liber O teaches) was recommended for all (maybe I should say "any") Divine Names.

PS - Regardie's instructions cited above arguably can be classified as Old Aeon or Aeon-transitional instructions. In the New Aeon, Horus is everywhere!