College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

I thought the singularity already happened and we are living in one of its multiple parallel simulations 👿 👿

Great response. Thanks!

@Jim Eshelman said

"Things are clearer in the new book coming out 😄"

Already noted and added to the wish list. Great choice, and from what I've read so far in BP (and in your post above!) should be a very interesting journey, I have so far been far more drawn to V&V than AL.

@Jim Eshelman said

"I'm looking at this without Book of Thoth at hand, just with V&V at hand, so I'll skip the first part of the question."

I checked both book copies I own, and others online, and its a strange "mistake" to make, if that is what it is, including parts of both the 3rd and 4th Aethyrs under The Magus appendix footnoted as just the 3rd.

@Jim Eshelman said

"Crowley was newly admitted to 8=3, but the Aethyrs go beyond that. You can see the steps leading past Magister Templi, first in the three Paths (that are the work of 8=3) that lead to Chokmah: 8th Aethyr for Vav, 7th for Daleth, 6th for Heh. By the 6th, he's already starting to receive some of the distinctive experiences and doctrine relevant to 9=2, but often without suffucient understanding - make that Understanding - to get it all. (See par. 8 in the 6th azethyr for an overt statement of this.) By the 5th he has temporary passage to the Council of Magi and learns some of the superficial things he's prepared to pick up.

But, by this point, he's deep into turf that applies to a grade he doesn't yet have. That is certainly so by the 4th, which has the mystery of the Daughter reawakening the youth of the Father, the reawakening of the Yod.
"

Which is why I never understood the connection between the Daughter/Father embrace and ATU II that he makes in Thoth.

Though he includes the instruction that the vision is utterly beyond his understanding, in the notes I have I don't think he (in probably typical AC fashion) fully gives voice to what that implies for his interpretations.

@Jim Eshelman said

"But it is the 3rd Aethyr, in particular, that gives him a vision of the Path of Beth. Crowley is then an initiate of Binah. He is skrying an aethyr that is primarily expressive of Binah in Aziluth, and secondarily of the last stages of onramp to Kether. It is therefore expressed in terms of the Path which (in the right time) opens from Binah to Kether but (before that time) acts as a bar. He just isn't ready for it. And he's told all the way through the vision that all he's getting is delusion.

Almost every detail, of every standard way of examining these visions symbolically, breaks down for this aethyr. These are not simply a failure of one piece of symbolism or another, but (so they appear on their surface) a breakdown in the entire structure of almost everything that has been found fundamentally descriptive of the æthyrs and their consequent visions. This fact, perhaps more than any other, is what should draw our attention: Things are very different in the last three æthyrs; and, in this 3rd Æthyr in particular, we are repeatedly told that all is a blind, that the true vision and voice were not received. We should not build doctrinal bridges based on what came down this particular pipeline on this particular occasion.

In this sense (as the vision does portray very well), the vision is the spill-over chatter of the shadow side of the intellect. Not the Word of the Magus rightly heard through the ear of the Magister. (That should have been heard from Chokmah along the Path of Daleth - through the love of Binah for her eternal spouse, Chokmah. This Path of Beth is another function altogether!) the ninth whole paragraph of the vision (which I have numbered #8 in my commentary) gives him a message that essentially means, “Do not open the eye of real vision upon this particular æthyr, or your mental delusion will crumble!” The paragraph following that again asserts that as a mere Magister he didn't have any way to grasp all of this and was having devils thrown at him instead as he sat stuck in a closed gematria brain-loop that had him running in circles.

The vision is filled with fallacies. To begin, he had the name of the Aethyr wrong (he thought it was ZON, but it's ZOM). In building his gateway image at the start, he still was intuitively plugged in enough to select symbols that actually worked as well for the right name as the wrong - but he was off to a wild and crazy start. Qabalistic puzzles appeared that were framed on a wrong premise, misstated, and then misinterpreted to boot."

Makes a lot of sense, and helps explain the feeling of being lost by those Aethyrs. I've mainly read the Gems copy, which only has a 1 sentence summary for each Aethyr at the very end, though when I've looked up some of the "Comments" available online, they've done little to inform if I'm being honest.

@Jim Eshelman said

"Each Enocian letter has an astrological attribution. P is Cancer (analogous to Cheth, The Chariot); A to Taurus (analogous to Vav, The Hierophant); Z is Leo (analogous to Teth, Lust). The name of the 4th aethyr, then, is Cancer and Leo (the houses of the Moon and the Sun) standing on either side of a Vav, which literally means "and" or a fastening, so that the 4th Aethyr is a vision of the intimate joining of the Sun and the Moon in the person of the two figures. But each planetary principle has both a positive and a negative expression in the Enochian alphabet, and P is the positive (increasing) aspect of the Moon, while Z is the negative (southern declination) aspect of the Sun, so the vision shows the two figures joined but each infused with the other's essential nature."

Wonderful.

I'd missed the houses link.
Things become a lot clearer. Thanks.

@Jim Eshelman said

"The Demiurge is below the Abyss, and particularly below Binah-Chokmah (Sophia). The Path of Beth is above them - it is showing that there are things incomprehensible even to the Supernal Understanding - at least, at first. Beth is the lie that separates the Understanding from the Crown."

Glad he's back where he belongs. Was wondering how he'd gotten up to Beth. 😀

Thanks for all that!

"My question for the readers of this thread is as simple as this: How does one "get over" a traumitizing past?"

HI,
ive done alot of work with entheogens, with magick, yoga, and in therapy of all kinds though mostly Transpersonal Counselling. Life's a long hard road for some.
I respect your searching and the way i feel you openning into honesty about yourself. It's certainly hard to know which people's advice is really for you as well.
The main thing that comes to my mind is 'support', do you have any? is that why you reached out to this forum?
I know friends can offer supprt in many ways and thats important, though theres nothing quite like the supprt from someone who has the heart, experience, and training.
My own experience is that Magick (particularly working with a 'map' and 'tool' such as the tree, and a 'tradition') and entheogenic work goes very well with the 'right' counselling. A lot of 'progress' can be made in the direction you are seeking through combining what you are doing with honest, open, quality support.

Also currently my take on your question that i included above my post, is that, i know i have not, and currently dont feel i will ever really get over the deep experiences of hurt and trauma from my childhood, and i dont feel im meant to in the way i might have wanted as a younger person.

Its more that much of these experiences has found a place of worth and value inside of me, they have given my life purpose and meaning. I am learning to respect my wounds and know them with dignity.

But, i'm only going through it for myself and this is the best sense i can make from your question as it applies to my life and the experiences that inform it.

evolluap

Thanks all for the info. I will check the recommendations out.

93

Well, it was sincere.

Thank you for your detailed response.
😄

@Poe said

"I do see the possibility of a time where the do-gooders in their belief that Religion has caused all wars (rather than imperialism, caused by whatever root) will attempt to ban all Religions and expressions of Spirituality, much as any democracy based on fear moves to ban anything it does not wish to understand or deal with, and a Scientific dictatorship will play a similar (if reversed) role to the one the church once did against certain sciences."

Funny, that was one thing the Jehovah's Witnesses predicted (my childhood religion). They believe that when Revelation talks about the harlot of Babylon riding on the beast, the beast represents the UN, and the harlot is 'false' religion. When the beast throws the rider and destroys her, they say it means the UN will turn on religion.

I sincerely hope that this is not what happens, if only to avoid a lot of smug "I told you so"s... 😆

The TV program was a big hit with me as a child, and I'd have to recommend the book - not only because it is great fun and entertaining, but also because it contains some wonderful and witty discussions of Buddhism and the Way, and it is delightfully silly too. 😜

There is much in the character of Monkey which would suggest a link to the Magus, though seems to focus more on the as yet uncontrolled genius, the main theme of both book and series is the battle between Monkey and Trippitakka as Trippitakka seeks to perfect his self (along with his Piggish Nature, and, well, its never been clear exactly what Sandy is, 😱 )

But I do find the various ideas of Lucifer interesting, and the 3 schools idea goes a good way to enlightening the different ways its viewed.

Welcome, Poet!