College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Harpocrates first, ask questions later... 😀

Gotta establish the circle before you know what is "outside" of it.

Remember that invisibility is a fascination. Mercury is tricks.

@Crowley said

"4. Works of fascination, such as operations of invisibility, and transformations of the apparent form of the person or thing concerned. This consists almost altogether in distracting the attention, or disturbing the judgment, of the person whom it is wished to deceive. There are, however, "real" transformations of the adept himself which are very useful. See the Book of the Dead for methods. The assumption of God-Forms can be carried to the point of actual transformation. "

Book 4, Pat III, Chap XXI

Use whatever you have at your disposal. 😉

What Crowley writes here, I've found to be like my own experience. Fascination, through and through...people see what they want to see...

@Crowley said

"About invisibility, now? Of this I have so much experience that the merest outline could take us far beyond the limits of a letter. In Mexico D.F., I worked at acquiring the power by means of ritual. I worked desperately hard. I got to the point where my image in a pier-glass flickered, rather like the very earliest films did. Possibly more work, after more skill had come to me, might have done the whole trick. But I did not persist when I found out how to do it by fascination. (Here we are at last!)

Roughly, this is how to do it. If one is concentrated to the point when what you are thinking of is the only reality in the Universe, when you lose all awareness of who and where you are and what you are doing, it seems as though that unconsciousness were in some way contagious. The people around you just can't see anybody.

At one time, in Sicily, this happened nearly every day. Our party, strolling down to our bathing bay—the loveliest spot of its kind that I have ever seen—over a hillside where there wasn't cover for a rabbit, would lose sight of me, look, and fail to find me, though I was walking in their midst. At first, astonishment, bewilderment; at last, so normal had it become: "He's invisible again.""

-- MTP Chap. XXV

😆

He is the Magus of the Aeon even if one can't read between the lines.

😉

I don't really have the energy to reply right now, but, I just want to say: thankyou, thankyou, always, friends, thankyou so much. You have all of you been such a great help to me! I will reply in full another time. Thankyou so much

Quite often for specific things and much more rarely - once, twice, thrice or so a year - to get general insights. Mine is in electronic format too though, which makes looking for specific things rather easy.

Had you ever tried something similar prior to this experience ?

@Laura Marx said

"About... Five years ago, a spirit of some kind came to me. It appeared in visions and... blah blah. I wont name it publicly. So, I identified with this spirit, called myself by its name. You must understand: I suffered from schizophrenia at this time. So having visions of entities wasn't a strange thing, and I always knew they weren't real or at least 'not real' not real if you know what I mean. Maybe they were real, in some abstract Lacanian way, or in some astral way, but they were certainly not actually there. But this one was different. Anyway, blah blah, skip forward a few years. This spirit is guiding me through my madness and basically he is responsible for me not having schizophrenia anymore, or rather, without him I could never have done it. My psychiatrist just today was saying she's never seen such a miraculous recovery - within a few months all symptoms stopped and now almost two years on they've never recurred. That's just not how schizophrenia works. So, good lord, you know?"

The important aspect, in my opinion, is that the experience was real.
Whether or not there is any objective validity to it is inconsequential.
What did you learn ? How did it effect you?
Those are the things to focus on.

@Laura Marx said

"Anyway, blah blah. We had a falling out. I at one time believed he was my Holy Guardian Angel, and I think that grew to some tensions because we disagreed and it wasn't just me ignoring my better nature, we disagreed over politics and philosophy and damn... Sports. We were like angry flatmates. So we 'broke up' you might say. I told my mentor and he said, well, hey, it happens. You get one teacher, and eventually you move on to the next teacher... He suggested, in order to make things up, I cook him a meal some night, sit down and eat it with him, apologise, thank him, and we'll go our separate ways amicably. "

From my own experiences and what I have heard from others this is not an uncommon occurrence.
There is great magick power to be found in the embracing of things we otherwise disagree with or even are disgusted by.

Were you to meet who I was before I started walking 'the path' you might not believe we were the same person...

@Laura Marx said

"Did I do okay...? Is this okay...? I realise what I was doing was more or less a primitive evoking ritual. I got what I paid for, I guess. Was my banishing okay? Did I treat the spirit with enough respect? What should I do now? This is coming from somebody who does not practice magic or mysticism at all, I burn herbs now and again that's it, all experiences thus far have been totally passive. I thought it'd be good to resolve this before going on to do actual magic (planned to start Liber Resh tomorrow & am meeting with an OTO body this week), you know, to enter into a new stage clean and with clean hands and no lingering guilt or whatever."

Sounds like you got more than you bargained for 😄
I am unsure whether to consider this an evocation, you appear to have had a much stronger bond with this entity than one normally creates with one evoked.

Fortify your island,
Dung it about with enginery of War -
So that your next meeting is more pleasant 😀

"Ah! Thank you for commenting, Rocky! Yeah, I didn't think it was quite the same or anything. That sounds really wonderful, though, that feeling. Is there ever a romantic, or even sexual, relationship with a Lwa, in voodoo? I had read somewhere - but of course, as you would attest, reading things about voodoo are seldom accurate - that Marinette is far more sexual in the way she feels. I have heard stories of devoted Marinette worshipers in the south of Haiti who throw themselves full-bodied onto bonfires for her! But I am not sure if I am to believe such things."

Actually, there are many levels of relationships people have with the Lwa, from romantic to sexual. The Lwa crave experience be it food, attention, partying, and sex. Marianette is a very sexual Lwa that has darker tastes in her appetite, of which I will not go into any more detail. The level of devotion for the Lwa is tremendous by those who have faith in the religion, they perform true miracles and not just the feats they display during possession. Some people marry certain Lwa for various benefits including but not limited luck and prosperity. Having homes devoted to the spirits and practicing chastity for the spirit's day of devotion is common as well. Houngans and Mambos will not often admit to the depth of the relationships they have with the Lwa because most people would not understand. They are less like spirits and more like human beings in their tastes and manifestations. I'm sorry I can't directly answer your question, but I can tell you that you are not far off base. There are some that will deny such things, but I tell you they exist.

" Few here in the States are aware that the historical scaffolding of the first US constitutional idealism is essentially Welsh in intent and origin, a place to finally shake off the monarchy."

Wow! Really! I know the civil war was somewhat inspired by the Irish rebels. I didn't know about the Welsh current present. That's very very interesting. We shall be Celtic Revivalists in arms!

"All of the Celtic states have had their fair-share of pain due to imperialist powers; British history encases many shades of evil, from Rome to the Saxons to the French and Normans onto the 'proper' modern English, all placing a gangrene thumb on the native way of life. It's the same story with the Native Americans, eaten alive for the sake of business, the lowest of motivations worn as the highest of crowns. Celtic revivalism is a tributary of the greater revivalism of Wild Man and the Integral Life. "

Ah, you are singing my tune, dear Max ❤ My heart vibrates with yours, you might say. And yes, absolutely, about the Native Americans. And a lot of other places too, I'd dare say - South Africa, Algiers, Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, so on... The old 'slave races' of so long ago. Yuck! But yes, I'm very excited for the revivalisms right now. I believe there is a First Nation American indigenous mystic revivalist of some kind on this forum? I have seen some posts in that current.

"Magick was an essential part of these organic mindsets and I think it has a natural place in the resistance to powers of oppression, Peter J. Carroll and his "Knights of Chaos" project as an example(get and read The Apophenion and The Octavo by this man if you haven't, or perhaps ask your mentor about him--he used to be involved in various order under the banner of "Chaos Magick", though as of his second Saturn return he's achieved initiation in the Golden Dawn and began involving with the Druid circles around Brighton)."

Yes, definitely. Wasn't J Carrol the one who wrote 'Liber Null & Psychonaut'? I haven't read anything of him yet. I'll have to have a look! I didn't know about his druid work. Also: my mentor led a few rituals around the Giants Ringnot too long ago, he's very into the celtic revival too.

"Sounds like someone I could share easy hospitality with 😄 Though, I want to say, reading the whole "closeted earth" thing made me think to suggest a meditation upon the Princess of Disks in the Thoth Tarot. Take that as you will 👼 "

Ooooh really? Wow, I'll have a look at that. I haven't started doing anything yet - like I said before, my plan is to begin Israel Regardie's One Year Manual, which is a nice slow intro into meditation and ritual. After that I had planned to do a few months of Tarot Meditation - maybe afterwards I could explore in depth the Princess of Disks? Also, you know - the first initiation into the elements in the IOOT is earth 😜

"I personally avoided OTO as well, choosing A.'.A.'. as my sole path. I attended a few Masses and general get-togethers at a local Oasis and came to feel that it had nothing to offer me in particular that A.'.A.'. didn't already cover for me. Some time was also spent within the Chaos/Maatian current, which still inspires me in some ways, but again, A.'.A.'. is the basin into which it all collects. The closest thing to IOOT over here, I think, is HOOR, which many members of my lineage are involved with. Perhaps I'll see about that later on."

Mmm. Yeah, I had intended to just go through Freemasonry and then petition the A.'.A.'. but it all seems to be changing now. I really have no idea of where the path leads. But I hope to join the A.'.A.'. If I might ask, what grade are you? You can answer privately if you like. I wonder how you dealt with the Ordeal of the Siren, and I'd love to ask you about what level I need to be at before applying! (I want to take things very slowly though and go through a lot of therapy beforehand, and finish my hormone therapy course, because I suffer quite badly from mental illness - schizophrenia, anxiety, dysphoria and depression - and I know well the dangers of magic & madness, so maybe I would need to be much slower than you. Etc. But regardless!) Ah, interesting about the Chaos/Maat current. I played around with some Chaos Magic a few years ago, mostly cumming over sigils. Funny, actually - one of them just got realised a few days ago (from a few years ago!).

"Well there we are 😀 That progressed quickly!"

I found out today this is indeed the organisation my mentor was in, and he was very excited - very surprised! - and said I should have said to him, he'd have set me up. I told him it all happened so quickly! And it really did! Wow! I just emailed them asking them where they held their feasts and they gave me an invitation! Wow! Anyway, I was wrong about his reasons for leaving, before - it wasn't the OTO he left for those reasons, it was yet another organisation (he's been in a few!). He's on good terms with all of them. Actually, that website you said was so high-production - he's the one who made it!

"Looking forward to hearing about your experiences, Ms. Mary Maude Marx 😉"

Don't worry! I'll be keeping a meticulous magical diary ;D

"It seems as if all my friends, of recent, have been talking to Irish ladies
So here I am talking to you!
Er.. somewhat

Hullo 😄"

Ha! Wonderful! Hello!