College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

I was reading Crowley the other day (I forget where or what exactly) but he was castigating a commentator for his use of 'Thelemist' instead of 'Thelemite', or Thelemitan. It made me wonder whether I've been using the term 'Thelemic' when I should have been referring to all things 'Thelemitan'... and felt rather uncomfortable about it for a moment or two... 😄

@Jason R said

"Great! Like it very much, thanks for sharing. I especially liked the line, "My thoughts turned inward to the deepest me""

Thanks 😄

If it isn't obvious, I was thinking of Nuit in the first quatrain, Hadit for the second, and Heru-ra-ha for the third, with an attempt to summarize them all in the final couplet (though the last line is admittedly more Ra-hoor-khuit than Hoor-paar-kraat).

@Jim Eshelman said

"
@ar said
"
@Jim Eshelman said
"Yes, but I've been carefully not answering because it's about a one-hour lecture to explain it. (I gave that lecture at a few astrology conferences back in the late '70s.) Certain concepts have to be set up etc., and I really don't have the time to develop it here."

Any chance we might get to read a digest of this lecture on solunars.net?

Dan"

Sure, if I can find 30-year-old casset tapes buried in goodness knows what closet and they're still workable and somebody wants to transcribe them. How 'bout, say, early in the 22nd Century? 👿"

I'll have to leave my future incarnations a note to check that out. 😆

Dan

I've just read in the Modern Text Book of Astrology that Mutual Reception 'brings them into relationship as if they were in conjunction.'

As far as I know the Ari-Gra version changes the planetary / double letter associations, and from thereafter I am not aware of any tradition of either returning to the classical or using the newer Gra correspondences. This trend of ignoring the classical attributions has continued up to the present. Why this is so, I do not know.

@Aum418 said

"quote]Not perfectly, though - because prakriti specifically doesn't include Purusha, whereas Hadit is specifically a part of Nuit. "

Or is Nuit made up of Hadit? 😛 "

Yes. Is space made up of points, or do points make up space?

"What do you say to people who insist HGA is an external entity? Simply that it may be convenient for some to think of it this way?"

It depends on who the people are and what they need at th moment. Saying the HGA is an external entity is exactly as accurate and exactly as inaccurate as to say that it isn't.

The main point here, though, IMHO is that most people wrestling with that question aren't in any place to know the actuality one way or another. An Adeptus Minor (WIthin) who has settled into the grade either has his or her answer or at least has changed the question.

So, try this angle: The question remains theoretical to one who hasn't awakened Briatic consciousness (the natural fruit of fulfilling the Task of the A.'.A.'. Dominus Liminis grade, the T.'.O.'.T.'. Child of N.O.X. degree, or other equivalent). In Briah, though there are still distinct and seemingly separate things, distinct things are characterized by their union, not by their separation. Separation is a characteristic of Yetzirah. I think it is reasonable to defer the question until one is at the stage where one can experience the actuality and, by the time one reaches that stage, the question is moot.

Yes.

@Jim Eshelman said

"I asked if he'd mind if I increased it to $418.00"
Technically, I think that's still haggling on your part 😄

@Jackdaw said

"I meant the hexagrams formed in the LRH"

Do the Hexagram Ritual more or less as if the Pentagram Ritual hadn't been performed, i.e., don't try to fit them together. They're operating in different octaves anyway.

Like the pentagrams, the hexagrams are drawn at an infinite distance.

@Jackdaw said

"Why is deosil proper for a banishing ritual?"

Complicated answer. LONG complicated answer.

But the two main points:

First, widdershins isn't banishing per se. There are certain contexts within which it is banishing, and some in which it is specifically invoking. But, under certain conditions, it is banishing.

Second, the LBR is much more complex than simply a banishing. It is a very rich and layered ritual. Among other things, it has a specifically invocatory quality.

@Jackdaw said

"Is there a ritual which prescribes the application of the Holy Oil to the magician or is it just for objects and cakes of light?"

Many. That's the kind of thing where you can make up your own. It's commonplace prior to many serious magical undertakings.

There are also rituals of initiation that amount to anointings and where oil may be used by an initiator to seal certain specific work.

@Jackdaw said

"
@Jim Eshelman said
"one of the Middle Pillar rituals would be perfect. So would general invocations such as "Thou who art I," etc. from The Ship. "

What is a good source for these?"

I can't tell you a single specific source.

In an appendix to 776 1/2 I provided the following list of examples, prefixing it with the statement: "Many of the ways of fulfilling this step are actually small rituals themselves. Others are briefer invocations. Some examples include..."

[:mu9nnib8]"The Bornless Ritual" (rewritten as Liber Samekh, often mentioned by Crowley as "The Preliminary Invocation" of The Goetia); see the appendices of MTP[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]"Opening by Watchtower" (an elaboration of the Open of the Portal Ceremony); see Regardie, Ceremonial Magic[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]"The Opening of the Pyramid" (a personal variation of the opening of the A.'.A.'. Ritual DCLXXI, based on the Neophyte formula)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]The Middle Pillar Ritual[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]The Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram (of the Five Elements)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]The Ritual of the Star Sapphire (A.'.A.'. Liber XXXVI)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]Liber Pleiades (for those who are fortunate enough to have it)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]The General Exordium or The Particular Exordium from R.R. et A.C. Book Z-2; see Regardie, The Golden Dawn[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]Crowley's "Hymn to Pan" (from Equinox III:1, or MTP)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]The "Rosicrucian Prayer" from the old Adeptus Minor Initiation and other sources (also the variation thereof, "From Thee," &c., which is known to every initiate of T.'.O.'.T.'.)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]The Anthem from the Gnostic Catholic Mass (A.'.A.'. Liber XV)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
[:mu9nnib8]The First and/or Second Enochian Calls (these are invocations of Spirit; their uses are distinct, and they require a specific understanding of their operation)[/Ⓜmu9nnib8]
These, of course, are only a few examples of the many that could be employed.

@Jackdaw said

"It just seems odd to assign the Kerubic signs to Tamas."

In the sense they are fixed, they are just like Salt and just like Tamas (which signifies inertia).

IAO131

To 'Tav?' Of course, they have symbolic relations. Tav = Saturn = black, for one... And?

IAO131

93

Of course we're dealing with a role switch just not IAO anymore but YHVH!

@jackdaw said

"
I keep seeing Trees of Life in which the traditional paths of Qoph and Shin are removed and there are paths instead connecting Chokmah to Geburah and Binah to Chesed; passing where Da'ath usually is
"

It has always been my understanding, that when those two paths connect the 'higher' spheres it is the tree of returning.

When they connect the 'lower' spheres to Malkuth, it is the tree of emanation.

@Jackdaw said

""while you breathe it out through the nostrils with the air which has been till then retained in the lungs." (Liber O, III)

Do you use your vocal cords?"

There are different techniques. The answer for this is "usually yes, but there are techniques that do not."

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

I personally have found it beneficent upon rising, and doing the first Adoration of Ra, that immediately after I will use the stanza 'Unity uttermost showed, I adore the might of thy breath, etc."

For the noon adoration, and the evening adoration I don't use the Stanza, but at the Midnight adoration, or upon retiring, I will use the Stanza again.

(I include the signs of the grades in each quarter as well, and visualize the god-form appropriate with each.)

In addition I also do Lunar adorations.
(Liber Qoph vel HECATE)
Sub Figura C

These include a general one for the Lunar adoration, as well as one for the Waxing Moon, one for the full moon, one for the waning moon, and one for the dark, or new moon.

There is however the traditional: 'Aum! tat savitur verenyam, Bhargo devasya dimahi, Dhio yo na pratyodayat.

(Much shorter and to the point.)

Just a personal preference on how I encompass Resh into my daily practices.

93 93/93

Kohen ha-Gadhol