College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Christibrany-you make a great point. Exactly. At the end of Crowleys life, he was attempting to sell the highest secret of the OTO for money flat out. I find it really funny when this talk begins there is always this strange silence on the board amongst the real "Crowley believers" I never really can figure that out. So it makes little sense to me that a person who had so much occult knowledge would be trying to barter his secrets for cash, especially at the end of his life. Does that make him a black brother? Seems like it to me.

No,no, I made it up as far as I can see. I just used a combination of the name Valis as in the entity that got in Philip K Dicks mind for 20 odd years and cephala as in like cephalization. I thought that I could look up the letters in 777 or 776 1/2, and see if there was any numerical significancem, but thats not as as easy as I assumed. Also, as long as Im here, why does this forum automatically edit my spelling of Magick?

I was reading an overview of the Book Brother Curwen Brother Crowley that A.C. had some hidden interest Left hand tantra and pyscho sexual enzymes produced by the brain. I am curious as to what anyone else may see in LHP techniques such as those of Kenneth Grant and such, which is something I have asked before, to be sure, but I really want to know if there is relatively no difference in LHP, RHP, and Crowley was always one to speak in no uncertain terms regarding "the black brothers" -did he have some unspecified interest in LHP techniques? The thing that gets me, is that Crowley said in Magick Without Tears that the Book Of The Law was written my someone who was a qabbalist above and beyond what he had knowledge of. That being said, if there was a document above and beyond his interpretation, how do you know that all this LHP stuff of Grants and whoever else isnt just above most peoples interpretation? How can you be sure that all these steps to be taken in the AA arent just a big dead end...or what have you?

I have a question. I was considering the Magickal name Valiscephala, Valisefala, or some other permutation of that word, but I cant understand the charts in 777, and to be honest, 776 1/2 isnt that much help either. What I want to know is- is the word Valiscephala qabbalistically significant? what does it add up to?

I know that someone is going to laugh at this topic, though I think that its fairly valid, if not covered in some other post. I did at one point buy a wand from an online vendor, who makes such things, and had the intention of using it for magickal purposes. Before you mention that I "should have made it yourself" or whatever, I would like to emphasis that my location is North Dakota, which is akin to Mordor, for those not familiar. The concern I have is that it will not be fit for consecration, (something I am not at all adept at) being as that it was not my own self that went out and constructed the tool out of my own "ingenium." Does this make sense? I also want to know if certain wood used would make any differences, say for invoking VS banishing, working with different elements etc... and what exactly do I need to do to concecrate a magical tool?

so if my "Magickal record" is fairly slim, in other words, I simply havent done that much magickally, is it stilll aproppriate to do liber samekh?

What is the significance of Malkuth being called the "Gate of Tears" ? is it some kind of alchemical reference?

okay, well, Becoming comfortable with my psychological self is easier said than done, what would make such a thing happen?

Of all the "problems" facing new occultists, specifically ones like my self with lots of texts under the belt but still no where to look to, is-how does one get "off" of malkuth? leaving the sephira, in a manner of speaking? what would make it happen? I still havent finished my AA entrance test, I suppose that would be a good start, but for those that didnt have the AA to help them, say 200-300 years ago, how was this accomplished?

Maybe Im just not meant for this stuff, but I still dont get what the greater part of Liber 0 has to do with astral projection. I have read it over many times, and I DO REALIZE that the practice is mentioned in Liber O, but really it seems that its more of an after thought. It says something to the effect of "let the student imagine conciousness is being transfered......" and how exactly do I do this? it goes on to say "this may be the difficult part" and all the while I think, yeah, difficult because you didnt really explain anything. I am really surprised that it was kind of marginalized the way that it was. It just reads imagine a copy of you sitting next to yourself and then imagine it high above the earth, and you will see stuff. Great. Thats helpful. Im really starting to grow skeptical of this whole process, I really am. I shouldnt have any more trouble than any one else with this stuff, yet I consistantly do. Am I corect in thinking that I need meditation success before I can do this? If that is the case I guess it aint happening.........

"It seems more like hes writing fiction. "

Yes and wasnt it Crowley that said fiction has often been a medium for occultists for the revelation of truth? (Im paraphrasing, btw)"

So, does anyone have any thoughts about waldo vieira's Projectiology, or Ingo Swann, sylvan muldoon's literature, Oliver fox's Astral Projection, or John Magnus? I really want to learn this art of astral projection, but Ophiels lit is a little too simplistic, and I really dont (and probably wont) have any meditative ability.....So is there any chance these authors could give me the instruction I need?

Yeah well, WTF? I would think that its a proper inference to assume that since Crowley didnt always state his exact purpose, and that in the small instruction manual that comes with the deck it does say that the deck consists of white bordered cards, a OTO card giving the adress for contact and a WHITE BORDERED Unicursal hexigram card, that perhaps it is a real card and should be included in the deck, thats all I was trying to get at, Jared and his plaid pants excluded.

If a tarot deck has only 78 cards, why did the Unicursal hexagram get included with a white border like all the others? (in the little manual it says specifically that the cards are white bordered) this would make me think that it was to be included..........

Did anyone ever tell you that you look exactly like the Head of the Church of Satan?

So in other words you dont think that he descovered the Tunnels of set, or whatever it is he supposedly proposed in his books? I enjoyed The latest Starfire Journal, and even thought about joining the Typhonian Order, Maybe I'll reconsider......

Oh, I've got plenty. Some of it, in fact, is heavily annotated in the margins with out-and-out mistakes."

which include......what?

Well, I guess that puts a stop to my astral journey to the Sirius star system....So I take it Jim you dont have a lot of Grant in your Private collection, then?

funny, I have read quite a few of Grants books. Haha. Then how was it that he came upon the portrait of LAM?

"You should never let a particular artristic rendering (a particular deck) distract you from the core meaning of the card in the abstract"
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And this is discovered by? I never really did figure out where the esoteric names of the tarot came from, how would you tell?