College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

@Edward Mason said

"Any thoughts on the 18-month timespan for the operation, as opposed to Mathers' published six months?"

Haven't had the chance to read anything above - was only responding to the aside in your post.

However, within the A.'.A.'., Ritual 8 has already updated and quintessentialized the operation (and uses even a smaller time span): ordoaa.org/liber8.htm

And, of course, the individual Adeptus Minor will have guidance during the planning and execution of the operation.

@Steven Cranmer said

"
Interesting! My primary association for Hadit is usually the sephira Chokmah, which is even further "beyond" normal ego-consciousness than is Nuit/Binah. In other words, the lightning flash naturally produces Ra-Hoor-Khuit (in Tiphareth) only after Hadit and Nuit are manifested. RHK is their first "merging" in the middle pillar as the lightning flows down."

I should point out that he discussed this in the context of spiritual evolution from one Aeon to another, with the predominance of subconsciousness during the Aeon of Isis, ego-consciousness during the Aeon of Osiris, and super-consciousness during the Aeon of Horus. So don't take this as him saying that Nuit is primarily or only subconsciousness and Hadit consciousness. And also take into account my misunderstandings of what he said.

@Parzival said

"
"College of Thelema has always recommended against this Motta edition. Even where the original commentary is authentic to Crowley, Motta's further remarks aren't well differentiated and it is easy to confuse them."

Is there something the matter with Motta's commentary?"

You mean besides his being a massive fraud with substantially skewed views more often than not?

This isn't to say he had nothing to contribute; but, rather, that the rare jewel is hidden in a large manure pile, and the beginner isn't likely to be able to tell the difference.

It's pretty good, yeah.

93, PainMeridian,

Thanks for the explanation -- very informative.

93 93/93

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

I question this approach. I understand the thread of thinking that led Yorke in that direction, but I find it suspect.

Osiris, before his death, was meant to signify specifically natural humanity - particularly the maturing Ruach, but then (as a transcendental symbol) the evolution through which that passes. Horus already represents "the next generation" of ourselves and is already a transcendental symbol, a "stand-in" for the HGA, etc. His age (in his various incarnations) is a symbol of the maturity of that awakening in us.

Nonetheless, since the question was raised...

I have no problem with RHK as "perfected" (1) because I see the Thelemic forms of the Horus archetype already having that quality and (2) because he has matured, i.e., is the seed-idea newborn in Harpocrates having come to maturity. OTOH, sure, Heru-Ra-Ha is more abstracted and therefore "higher." Even more, we can turn to Hrumachis as a form so transcendental that it is used as a symbol of that which spans all the aeons, being a (currently useful) token of each "new dawn" that breaks upon humanity.

I agree with you on your root interpretation, I think, but will paraphrase it to make sure: Osiris is the symbol of the cross, the 4. Horus is the symbol of the Pentagram, the 5. Osiris in life is the Elemental Cycle of the First Order of the traditional Order, where one is taken apart into pieces and relies on the Portal to reintegrate them. Isis then pulls off the magick that completes him - adds "his secret 5th part" - and in his post mortem formulations he has become perfected by the addition of the 5th. OTOH, Horus already fulfills that - in Temple of Thelema we sacramentally show Horus, the 5, as that which completes and thereby transcends the 4-ness of Osiris - and, therefore, is the natural next step.

Compare the original formulations in the early A.'.A.'. grades: The 1=10 (Malkuth) initiation is of the Four Elements and the highest ideal is a form of Osiris. The 2=9 (Yesod) initiation adds something from beyond that framework and introduces Horus as the new high ideal, specifically manifested as separate aspects at the four quarters which are integrated in Ra-Hoor-Khuit as the central fifth about which they are placed.

FWIW.

I finally read it. Yes, I definitely see why we should get the second edition. It doesn't give much of a hint as to how to actually carry it all out, but it does, like the Ciceros say in the quote from them in my first post, give a reality check about the difficulty and serousness of this work. Geez... the guy nearly died afterwards!

But I imagine one's results are extraordinarily individual. <rhetorical question>I wonder how different this book would read if written by someone who hadn't approached the work as a New Age Christian or who had done substantial magical work prior to beginning the operation.</rhetorical question> I guess I'll find out somewhere down the road.

@WarEngine said

"Personally I think what is silly is how people have to call something that happened to me a conspiracy. I do not know why people have to make up crap about what happened to me, how I found the material and the fact that I had never read the majority of the books I started to get drawn to after finding the prophecy."

If this refers to my statement above (from July 3) that "The conspiracy stuff on this site is silly, of course (at least to me)." . . . then I certainly apologize if I mis-characterized the content of the site as "conspiracy" related, if it is not. I did not mean to make up anything that was not on the site. It's true that I didn't find much of particular interest (to me) when I first took a look at the site, and I used the particularly insensitive shorthand-term "silly" to convey that. Bad choice of words, certainly. I will give the site another look.

Steve

@sasha said

"In the AA, the magician does the work necessary to open one's self to the powers of the sephirah associated with the next grade. Having done so, you attain that next grade."

Exactly! "Follow Hwy X to Pittsburgh. Having done so, you'll be in Pittsburgh." 😄

"At that point, you then work on both stabilizing those powers within one's self and opening one's self to the powers associated with the next grade."

Broadly, yes - though I picked stabilization in that particular example because stabilization per se is an essential 2=9 task, e.g., the Change = Stability formula, the specific yoga as creating steadiness, etc.

Gunner,

Yeah, it was the same basic talk, though it developed differently for the particular audience. In any case, here's the thread discussing the CD availability: heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?t=356

@BlackSun9 said

"Most people do not approach the practice of Liber O with these preliminary skills in place and as such have to gain them along the way."

Great answer. Coincidentally, the new Thelema Coast to Coast episode that came out today discussed this. The guest, Keith418 comment on the relationship between Liber E, Liber A, and Liber O. Phonetically, you get IAO, which, according to him, indicates something about the order in which you should approach these. And, of course, we see Liber O listed last.

Anyway... interesting coincidence.

By the way... John Crow, the host of TCTC, really wants an AA muckety muck on the show for an interview. I thought there might be one or two around here.

@gerry456 said

"[Moreover, Crowley would have had great familiarity with "aeonic" approaches to history in general. Although they had largely fell into disuse by the time of Liber L, many people crafted these sorts of histories of eras characterized by unique political and economic organization and drivin by some objective and singluar impulse towards some pre-determined goal. Adam Smith, Condorcet, Marx, etc. And then Blavatsky also had her racialized aeonic history, which surely Crowley knew inside and out.

============
yes and didn't Marx borrow/build from Hegel's theories on this?"

Yes, definitely, though they had very different ideas about what drove history. I didn't include Hegel in the list because he didn't have a clear cut set of "aeons". His history was much more fluid. I do, however, suspect that Crowley drew very strongly on Hegel for his aeonic history by employing a fairly simple dialectic of aeons.

Excuse, my english is so so.

😊

@Fraterdeen said

"Interesting enough, T.O.T. sequence, the flow would be consistent with YHVH: Y/Fire. H/Water. V/Air. H/Earth. As it flows down the Tree of Life.

Where the other sequence represents YHHV: Y/Fire. H/Water H/Earth V/Air.

If the above premise is correct? "

Since Ann Davies isn't around to ask, there may be no way of knowing what was intended. My sense of how she wrote things points to this having nothing to do with the sequence - probably more an issue of culminating the energies in Tiphereth instead.

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

I only have a passing knowledge of asana yoga. However I've studied zazen in two different Japanese Buddhist traditions. I wouldn't necessarily say that a zazen posture is a relaxing position. If zazen is done correctly - at least as taught by a traditional Japanese schools - the posture has just enough musculature tension that if the practitioner isn't vigilant the position will slip. This is one of the tools used by zazen to ensure the mind is focused - in this case on posture - and not wandering all over the place.

Within zazen identifying the fact that the mind wanders if not vigilantly managed and understanding the nature of the wandering mind is the first realization / accomplishment of zazen. Most people are able to acknowledge their inability to control their mind after they sit zazen the first time.

The next accomplishment is the ability to control the mind from wandering and stay focused on a selected focal point (chakra within the body, an external image, etc.) for a length of time. This is much harder than it seems. Most people after some diligent zazen practice over a few weeks can keep focus for 30 seconds to a few minutes before the vigilance is lost and the effort starts again. There will be a bunch of other stuff that happens to a practitioner during this portion of development - the sense of weightlessness, floating or falling for instance, which is an experience of the formless realm within Buddhist parlance. Some people experience uncontrollable emotions for no reason such as crying.

The third accomplishment, and this is a major one, is ability to enter this focused state at will and maintain it for as long as one desires. This is very difficult and takes some time to master - at least within my experience and those people I'm familiar with who also practice zazen.

The state of being able to hold the minds focus at will is called samatha in Sanskrit (pronounced shamatta). In Chinese it is referred to as chi and Japanese as shi. In English it's been translated by Thomas Cleary (prolific translator of many Asian Buddhist texts) as Stopping [the mind] - which has been misunderstood, many taking the stopping to mean stopping the mind from thinking, one hasn't stopped the mind, just stopped it from wandering. Those that have translated Tibetan Buddhist texts into English have translated samatha as the calm abiding. This is probably the best English translation as that gives a good account of what it feels like when one gets very adept at this practice.

The calm abiding, or samatha is the entry into numerous other practices. Of interest here it is the entry into the practice of samadhi. There are other skills that need to be developed to gain a full samadhi experience, such as vipasina meditations.

Where does this all fit into Western esoteric studies? We'll I'm a beginner myself, but I definitely see correlations between the ability to control and focus the mind within the zazen practice and having the skill to control and focus the mind for magickal operations. Buddhist Tantric meditations share a very close affinity to the skills needed for visualizations conducting while one executes a magickal ritual.

@Draco Magnus said

"Well, 'purification exercises' from Vishnudevananda's book include swallowing some strand of cloth a few feet long and then pulling it out, for the purpose of cleansing the stomach, or similar practices with the nasal cavities. All these physical body cleansings are called 'kriyas.'"

gasps Then I see the difference. 😀

@Draco Magnus said

"Not sure what you mean by "get out"?"

Yes, what Heru cited fits excellently with my meaning.

Thanks again! And merry yule everyone here! 😄

@Redips said

"I think the only advantage in counting breaks is just that you're bringing attention to a break."

There is also - at least, at some non-beginner stages - the advantage of documenting the exact day-to-day progress in one's level of control.

"Crowley himself said that the number of breaks isn't particuarly as important as the continual effort itself to note the breaks."

I don't remember that quote (where is it?), but I would agree that the increase in mindfulness is important.

"In fact, as you get better you might be deceived that that you're having more breaks when in fact you're simply just more aware of more of them."

Yes. That's a definite advantage of documenting the number and type.

Hi there, JMiller! 😀 Hi Jim!

(previously-Sasha said:)

I have adapted these four invocations to my Liber Resh work. For almost the last two months, I have recited the appropriate one prior to each of my daily solar adorations. I find that it adds a great deal to it, providing much material for meditation. The invocations have a very devotional feel to them that stengthens the adorations for me. ... I recommend the practice to others.

Wow. I have tried to read as much of the archives as I can in an attempt to get up to speed, but I totally missed this thread! I love these new adorations, Jim!! Thanks for posting them!

JMiller, this is such an amazing thread, thank you for willing to be so transparent in your descriptions; it really helps me to understand better and so much of it pings back and forth as I read your words. (You see, I told you that you were WAY ahead, so thanks from dropping these awesome bread crumbs, lady!)

I've printed these out and will start incorporating them into my Resh beginning tonight. Voicing the original adorations consistently has opened up a new channel in my heart -- adding this new material can only make it better.

Again, thank you Jim for sharing this. Can't wait to see the book!

Donna

Words are words.
Beyond their meaning, there is no connotation.

Please do not unjustly discriminate against words.
They exist out of Love so that you may communicate with others.

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