College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Thanks.

It's amazing how mundane tasks are useful in ways we don't easily see.

I got a good one about following through behaviors that advocates recycling 😆

@Jim Eshelman said

"I have a different view.

The type of skeptic you are describing isn't a neutral party but, rather, someone with a deep commitment to magick not working.

They manifest reality around them the same way that you do. Yes, their successful magical act of holding reality in place is as much a magick act as your own.

There's a simple enough test, though - which is to do your work in isolation, maintain silence about it, and give them nothing they need to resist. If your magick is real and effective, you'll get a different result."

I had to deal a lot with such people... Some of them made me believe, after years dealing with them, they got actually very "good" at this.

The first year i undertook initiation, i kept silent. But even so, they felt i was going towards a path they hate. And it made them unconsciously agressive.

The second year, i talked. This time they became openly agressive. I felt my magick was weaker after talking to them, or being around them. Consistently.

So towards the end of second year, i avoided them, for a couple of months to see what happens... My magick went powerful again. But i was not satisfied at all. Because after such training, i considered it should work (almost)the same, even with such obstacles.

So, beggining my third year of practice, i talked again, and for a year now i still speak the truth. That way, i use it as a test. 😆 Now it finally works. I'm powerful enough to resist such attacks. But it still requires more focus than when in silence... Especially when such people are beautiful women... 😆

Great test in my opinion but may be dangerous also according to context and environement. I guess it a similar danger when dealing with black bros, except black bros are more powerful beacause of initiation?

Also it reminds me those "atheist" who actually have a HUGE and blind FAITH in the "fact"(lol) there is no god... Sick shit...

@Shadow Self said

"
I picked the board name Shadow Self because of this idea of a shadow personality, and integrating ones shadow."

Dear Shadow Self,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

Getting to know our shadow we can get on with growth. Nurturing the feeling of acceptance helps a lot. The realization that nothing is "wrong" with oneself, rather that there might be parts of oneself that are immature, thus resulting in an imbalanced personality, can help create a mind-set of self-acceptance and love for oneself. In that restful equanimity accompanied by a complete absence of fear we can witness and thus integrate whatever parts of our personality we have suppressed. We become more whole as individuals.

Love is the Law, Love under Will

@Shadow Self said

"I have been thinking more and more about this recently with my own life. I feel things like the Temple of Thelema, and yes, even the O.T.O are for people who are too religiously sophisticated and have far more understanding of religion and spirituality than the average person on the street. Now, I don't think that is necessarily a problem, and since I'm not part of either order, I have no right to tell other people how to run it."

You raise a few good points here. While I think that Thelemic organizations could do much more in the way of impacting the community, at the same time I don't feel as though Thelemic ideals/practices/etc. should be "dumbed down" for the general populace. There is definitely a great deal of work to be done; however, Thelema will never be a "mass movement" per se. (Perhaps it will be, later in the Aeon, but at present, no.) While it may seem "elitist" or "anti-democratic" to some, the Thelemic organizations that do exist are not geared towards a fast-food format.

"I am aware how Thelema has made some inroads with Wicca and the New Age, however I think we need something even simpler that an even more spiritually unaware person could understand."

Rather than dumb-down Thelema for the "man on the street," why not raise the "man on the street" to a spiritual level corresponding to that of Thelema? 😉

The O.T.O., as it stands, provides a very accessible environment for those who are looking for a more social atmosphere. I really can't envision anything more "churchlike" than the Gnostic Mass as it stands.

However, there can definitely be more of a "community outreach" attitude in Thelemic society--not in the manner of telemarketers or girl scouts selling cookings, but, say, musical/celebratory events and study groups/discussions, and so forth.

"Having said that, though, I think you are absolutely right: outreach into less "aware" communities is essential, if the goal is to extend the light. For those with a more modest appetite, there are a few different flavors of Thelemic experience that one can link into. (See, e.g. www.aspirantstolight.org.) The world certainly could use more. "

Aspirants is also a very accessible no-pressure organization. Like David says, I think the main point now is outreach and applied growth within existing formats.

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

I joined up with the Eales branch of the Motta lineage this past August on account of them being out of Indiana, right by Michigan where I am(I even lucked out and got a teacher that lives 30 or so minutes away!). Before joining, I had done much experimenting on my own using syncretic methods from all over the place and attained the visions of the Sephiroth on my own, one by one, though very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that I was in disbelief it had actually happened! That's why I joined. I had to get a window into the inner workings of the Order to be sure that I actually had the same experiences and not just, I don't know, glimpses. Or something. I experienced what can be described as "Knowledge and Conversation", reflective of how others have described it, only I accomplished it with my own means.

Now that a bit of time has passed as a Probationer, I'm really just beginning to feel like I'm wasting time and distracting myself from my own creative momentum. I love my teacher and gain much from our interactions being that there aren't many Thelemites in my life, but I look at him more as a peer than a teacher; more as a friend. I find that everything he tells me turns out to be what I already knew. I wish there was more to it than that, but it really seems that it all comes down to your own initiative; our Angels are our only teachers, and you can start talking to her/him/it whenever the fuck you'd like! Do a sigil, a prayer, a ritual, whatever, and get the ball rolling! He'll tell you where to start, just be prepared to hear him!

Yeah.

Love is the Law, love under will.

@Jim Eshelman said

"And, per St. Paul, it isn't Jesus that liberated... but the NAME Jesus (ShM YHShVH = 666) that "shall set you free.""

Very interesting! I didn't know that 😄

I will quote, not just Crowley, but Anhk ef na Khonsu, his admitted previous incarnation, and the name by which he is addressed by our Lady Nuit, in his recollections of this ancient life he lived in Egypt, "Across The Gulf", on the concept of Hell, and different levels of it:

"Then they gave me to drink of the Cup of the torment; and this is its virtue, that if one should speak
falsely, invoking the name of the goddess, he shall burn in hell visibly before all men for a thousand
years; and that flame shall never be put out. There is such an one in her temple in Memphis, for I
saw it with these eyes. There he burns and writhes and shrieks on the cold marble floor; and there
he shall burn till his time expire, and he sink to that more dreadful hell below the West. But I drank
thereof, and the celestial dew stood shining on my skin, and a coolness ineffable thrilled through
me; whereat they all rejoiced, and obeyed the voice of the Goddess that I had declared unto them."

Whoever said that Thelemites do not believe in "Hell" is seriously mistaken. "Hell" must be mentally apprehended, not feared and thus not talked about. We speak these things because we know we are picking up on the right track with Truth, divinity, and our higher selves, as ones who understand Thelema.

Leave no stone unturned, preferably while you leave no turn unstoned. Attention, focus, and meditating all the while letting go of your short term memory, (the "training wheels" of memory,) allows you to focus on the higher, permanent "deja-vu" concepts of long-term memory, (True Will and learned Intuition,) where access to the Akashic records of the Earth and Universe is relatively easy.

Picking up on everything around you, under you, (that flaming mass where souls have lost momentum and sunken to their obvious hells,) is all where it's at. Not about denying any part of reality. If one would wish to say that all is illusion, then it is in one's best interests to form all their words around that concept in an organized manner. One would wish not to cast doubt on something in particular that one would not wish to see or think about, more than one would cast doubt on any other thing that makes them more comfortable.

Finished. Teacher, may I go home now?

For myself, i relate the Fool to hexagram 56. The Wanderer, not to the 4th Young Fool, as its usually done.

Wilhelm-Baynes translation of “The I Ching or Book of Changes“:

I-Ching Hexagram 56 – Lu – The Wanderer

the trigram above – LI – the Clinging, Fire
the trigram below – KEN – Keeping Still, Mountain

The mountain, ken, stands still; above it fire, Li, flames up and does not tarry. Therefore the two trigrams do not stay together. Strange lands and separation are the wanderer’s lot.

THE JUDGMENT

THE WANDERER. Success through smallness.
Perseverance brings good fortune
To the wanderer.

When a man is a wanderer and stranger, he should not be gruff nor overbearing. he has no large circle of acquaintances, therefore he should not give himself airs. He must be cautious and reserved; in this way he protects himself from evil. If he is obliging toward others, he wins success.

A wanderer has no fixed abode; his home is the road. Therefore he must take care to remain upright and steadfast, so that he sojourns only in the proper places, associating only with good people. Then he has good fortune and can go his way unmolested.

THE IMAGE

Fire on the mountain:
The image of THE WANDERER.
Thus the superior man
Is clear-minded and cautious
In imposing penalties,
And protracts no lawsuits.

When grass on a mountain takes fire, there is bright light. However, the fire does not linger in one place but travels on to new fuel. It is a phenomenon of short duration. This is what penalties and lawsuits should be like. they should be a quickly passing matter, and must not be dragged out indefinitely. Prisons ought to be places where people are lodged only temporarily, as guests are. They must not become dwelling places.

Liber 216 The I Ching

56 THE LU HEXAGRAM

Sun of Earth

LU: Stranger, Firm right conduct may unravel
most of the tangles incident to travel.

Mean men by menial toil increase their woe;
Well lodged, served, monied men more easy go.
His house on fire, his servants fled, 'ware danger.
Though rich, armed, rested, still set caution ranger!
Good manners, self effacement with the throw;
while arrogance and violence hurt the stranger.