College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

As far as benefits, I can only say that I wish I knew the things I know know that I knew then. Although astral travel in itself was the most highly mystical experience I had ever had, there was no direction to it other than me attempting to astral travel. So when my consciousness was soaring through the astral, in amongst the stars, and I saw those beings of light, I made no attempt at communication, or to find answers or establish connections. Now looking back, there is so much more that I would like to do if I could just get back there. There not meaning "there" but deep within myself through the gateway to the anima mundi. I don't feel that astral travel is an external experience.

Hey Kasper (that actually is my brother’s name).

The name of the book is The Tree of Evil by Willian Gray.
He works the vice of each sephira and what do they mean in practical life. It is a good book (I am reading it myself).

@Edward Mason said

"93,

Also, written Ancient Egyptian used hundreds of pictograms and ideograms as well as phonetic signs. Why, if there was a far simpler and completely distinct system in use, doesn't it show up anywhere in the very extensive surviving records? "

I'm not sure exactly how he came to the conclusion of Abram getting the 22 letters from a mystery school, if I remember correctly he said he something about cross-referencing the 'meeting tent' with the 'rainbow serpent' and a 3rd source (can't remember) along with the Tarot. He said the Hebrew alphabet correlates to the 22 aspects of the Rainbow Serpent.

"As for Zoroastrianism, we can trace it back to around 1,000 BC, and - very tentatively - a few centuries before that. "

To my knowledge the Avesta was written aprox 1500 BC (300 years prior to the Torah).

"Abraham, if he actually existed, would have lived several centuries prior to this time, so his being influenced by it is improbable."

I agree as Abraham is estimated around 2000-1900 BC. Moses 1500-1350. However the Torah/Pentateuch wasn't written until 1200 BC.

I agree Abraham didn't write the Torah but both him and Moses would have been in Egypt prior to it being written. IMO Abraham would have definitely had access to the mystery schools. He arrived in Egypt with many slaves, cattle, gold, etc.. and left with even more wealth. His wife was a concubine to the Pharaoh. Not saying this is what happened, it was just the story that had originally make me start thinking about how women were portrayed in the Torah. I do think it is a possibility.

IMO both Ancient Egypt and Zoroastrianism had a much better attitude towards women than Judaism (which is was main point). And look what came out of Judaism (Christianity and Islam)...

@Allogenes said

"
"how do you mean "not of us"? "

I believe luxinhominefactum means he was not Thelemite.

Liber AL vel Legis, II,19: "Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.""

i don't think Franz wallowed in sorrow far from it. WHY is he not "of us"?

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

whew

i hear "lesser ritual of the hexagram" and i get all Funny. it's amazing how many people that call themselves thelemites still do it the old way.

like jim said, there's a specific osirian formula in what's typically known as "the analysis of the keyword" potion of the old-school version of that ritual; it's a really condensed dramatization of the osiris myth in it's later form (not as osiris the libyan corn god, for instance.) it's quite astonishingly beautiful in its simplicity and effectiveness, but is no longer appropriate in the present aeon.

from one point of view, that ritual (the "lesser" one) invokes or banishes the elements into (or out of) your "aura." (that's not a term I typically use - i find "khu" to be more in harmony with my experience.) i'm sure there are other ideas on that.

one effect of this can be a balancing and harmonization between the individual magician and the elements in their macrocosmic aspect. this is especially true if it's combined with a "greater" hexagram ritual, using all of the planetary hexagrams.

interestingly (but not surprisingly), jim and i seem to approach the unicursal differently in terms of this specific ritual. in a "greater" hexagram ritual i use the old-school hexagram of the sun, which is all the other hexagrams drawn over each other, and then close with the unicursal as the "eighth" (my circle is based on one in eight) to seal the deal, as it were.

i can see the argument for using the unicursal as the solar hexagram; there are certainly other rituals where i use it as such. just not them ones 😀

Love is the law, love under will

It is in Book 1 not 4. Dunno about you, but I like reading in order i.e. Book 1, 2, 3, 4.

They contain none of the same material (except for, perhaps, Liber AL itself), which is essentially what you are asking.

IAO131

@luceo156 said

"
@aum418 said
"
@SetiDraconis said
"Aum418 and Teckpriest thank you for your responses and hello jim."

No problem. Hope that site helped.

As an aside: I once had an OTO member in conversation and he was telling me about the chakras being aligned with the degrees as if it was some super secret, also about how Minerval is symbolically being conceived, 1st degree is birth, 2nd is death, etc. yet it is all there in plain language for every to read! I call the attitude 'secret-mongering.' How many people do you know like this? (rhetorical)

IAO131"

I have been an OTO member for over 6 years and participated in local bodies in various parts of California and Texas and I have never met anyone who I thought seemed to take something public domain and act as if they were special for knowing it or divulging it. Doesn't mean this never happens, but I have never had that experience."

Perhaps it was my own experience but it actually happened more than once.

"On the other hand, I have had plenty of experience both inside and outside of the OTO of "know-it-alls" who will never progress another step in their develolpment as long as they're obsessed with comparing themselves to other people to alleviate their own inferiority impulse or gain the approval of others. Maybe that's what this person was doing, maybe not, I dunno.

But that's just one of those things about being human... gotta love it!"

Yeah. 'Laugh & move on' seems an apt formula.

IAO131

@KRVB MMShCh said

"The book is basically a run-down of the duties of each grade of A.'.A.'. from S.M. to 5=6...I'm not sure what you mean by "information about the sigil of BABALON" but there is a brief discussion of the equation:
77+(7+7/7)+77 that resides in the heart of the Star of Babalon...the equation is a mathematical means of expressing 156, the number of BABALON, using seven sevens...

616"

93
Does he go into there being more than one possible "heart" of the star? I have heard rumors that the inside can differ, and some of the "other" insides are more secret and reveal other truths. Does he go into more than the equation from above?
I am not saying he should have, or that the rumor was true. I am only asking because I can't spend the $800 right now to buy a copy to find out for myself.
93 93/93
Thanks Again

Thank you so much for the comprehensive answers Jim.
I'm flying solo on asana and pranayama so I'll buy that book immediately.

I understand your point on that.

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

I just wanted to add. Star Ruby "feels" different from LBPR. Well I tried a few times and chose SR. But I'm not doing it regulary so I may be wrong. Talking about zombies - I think I get this feeling too but I believe it's from pranayama. Yes, It could be freaky but chill It's just the vision of Yesod - the machinery of the World or something like that. Btw you should feel that girls (including christian) like you more but eh I guess that's too subjective. 😄

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

@SetiDraconis said

"Thank you Jim..I was woundering that.

So what type of sex magick does Thelema use....does it draw off the German order crowely belonged to for some time the "Fraternitas Saturni"?"

You can't link this to Thelema per se. That's too wide. For example, the O.T.O. (one specific organization) identifies itself especially in terms of these particular mysteries, and its roots and methods are distinctive. They shouldn't be generalized to any other organization or approach.

Temple of Thelema follows the A.'.A.'.'s approach of regarding "sex magick" (etc.) as just one set of techniques among many - taught for completeness, but inherently neither more nor less important than any other group of techniques. The methods T.'.O.'.T.'. teaches in the Second Order are a syncretic mix rooted in the Western Magical tradition, the mysteries of Shekinah, and the Grail formulations.

I see,I recently read some one who made some simlaritys to the Egyptian serpent Apep to Choronzon, Set is said to defeat this Chaotic serpent every night so Ra may arise in the morning...of course there are hidden Esoteric meaning behind this.

I never said it was morally wrong.

Just rather wrong in the sense that if you take a chainsaw to your arm, you will lose your arm. If your goal is to lose an arm, then by all means cut it off, but if you are not 100% sure that amputation is what you want, it may be wise to revoke the act before the consequences, which can not be revoked.

I am not altogether sure that the SET you speak of is the one I speak of, and my reference to HORUS, is only allegorical, that is whatever practice leads to the positive consequences of greater control over ones life I lump under the personification of Horus, those that detract from ones ability to take control over his life, I associate with SET.

As Gods are just symbols that represent nodes in our semantic web of constructed associations, not actual autonomous beings, There is no reason for be to assume your Set and my Horus are the same entity, as there is no entity.

Someone who is color blind has a different notion of gray than I do, and some of what he calls gray, over-laps with what I call blue.

Gray and Blue are matters of subjective category distinctions just as are Set and Horus. It seems to me that you take both Set and Horus to have light and dark aspects. Where as I take the light aspects of Set and Horus, and call them both HORUS. The Dark aspects of both I call SET.

(rather than light and dark, I prefer clarity/unity vs Confusion/dispersion.)

This is not unlike the notion in Discordianism that order can be creative or destructive, and so can disorder. Thus the Discordians prefer the Creative aspects of both order and disorder, where as most people seek order, even when it is destructive order they prefer it to constructive disorder.

But, ultimately we need to transcend these dualities, yet it is advantageous to create dualistic categories and linguistic labels for them in order to utilize them in the mind and the world (lower planes). However, it would be best if we see these as tools to get at truth rather than truth itself. I think we order the same dish on different menus, and argue about which menu calls it by its proper name.

Which tends to invoke a debate on Confucianism and whether or not names should be rectified, but that is for another thread.

@MQL said

"Of course 'Dark' does not have to be seen as Evil, or Negative etc. It is simply unknown, unseen, untraversed. Just a thought. 😄"

Indeed. We may find that the "darkness" of such deities can be a brilliant and illuminating darkness.

93

Thank you every one for the response..I got some of the information im looking for here along with other places:}

Cheers

Yes it is great to have these resources..it makes a big diffrance at times.