~ JUNE 16th-30th, 2007 ~

(the latest entries are always added to the top)

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. - AL I:40

Saturday June 30th 2007 – 6:50am Yesterday ZLA282 commented on my neighbor’s apartment problems stemming from the Enochian Ouija rituals we had done there a few years back. He wrote, “Well, not much you can do.  I don't suppose you can't banish from a distance, which is the only alternative, or talk to Camile and just tell her you know of a way to cleanse the apartment 'spiritually' after telling her the two ladies before her complained of the same thing.  Enochian, yikes.”

Thursday June 28, 2007 - 2:40pm On May 7th I posted stories on my blog about our Ouija board rituals in the apartment next to mine, or in 2-5. Those neighbors moved out and two young girls named Amanda & Megan moved in and as my blog noted; they came to believe the apartment was haunted. I wonder why? To clarify, and offer more details, on December 26th 2006 I added this blurb into my private diary: "Ran into Amanda from next door [2-5], it seems they’ve moved out! She joked that they are leaving the ‘haunted apartment.’ She also joked how they kinda got use to the thumps, bumps and banging on the walls, ceiling etc but they won’t miss the ghost hiding things. Ah, another neighbor gone. I never got to tell them about the ritual we did in there." ... Today the saga continues. A little after noon I heard a knock on my apartment door, upon opening it I was confronted by my landlord. He asked if I heard any noises coming from the tenants ‘above,’ or rather, not so much above my apartment itself as much as from above my neighbor in 2-5.  I told him no.  He said that Camile, the new tenant, is complaining how “she can’t sleep” and “she’s going to have to move out.” It seems the constant “banging” is so bad that she can no longer live in the apartment. Anyway, the landlord naturally talked with the tenants above her and they reassured him that they are very quiet. The landlord thinks the girl in 2-5 is simply trying to break the lease. Personally, I think the ‘ghost’ is getting to her! But I didn’t tell him that ... because I am between a rock and a hard place, am I liable for damages if I tell him about the Ouija ritual?

7:45am My student replied back with a good lengthy response but the question which got me laughing and almost peeing my pants was this one: “If I enter the Lover grade and learn my True Will, couldn’t it be to use my cell phone in public to annoy others?” ... Answer: Ah, spoken like a true narcissist in quest of loop-holes! I wonder if anyone will guess that you’re a woman or would that be sexists of me to mention. Anyway, I think you missed the point in my previous email. Being within the Lover grade doesn’t ‘transcend’ the man of Earth any more than entering Middle School means that you can forget what you’ve learned in Elementary School; neither lessons ever leave you and both are simply foundations for things to come. In other words, learning how live Thelemically and move upward to embrace your Star doesn’t mean that when you achieve your True Will it might be the realization that you can throw out previously learned Thelemic behavior to wallow on Malkuth narcissistically. This is simply called trying to justify why you bounced head over heel back down the mountain! I think you are substituting each ‘ouch, ouch, ouch’ with ‘because, because, because.’ ... Still, if you want to talk loudly on your cell-phone not caring that others might want a piece of solitude in public then do what thou wilt. Just learn to identify ‘horizontal’ behavior and realize that the more horizontally you act the harder it becomes to move toward or stay vertically on the mountain. 

5:25am I received a bunch of good questions but I'd like to share this one in particular with my readers – “Do you think being an admitted narcissist will enable me to be a better Thelemite or is such behavior dooming me to be a Satanist?” ... Answer: As you know, Narcisus was a handsome youth according to Greek mythology who was condemned to eternally falling in love with himself. Although ‘narcissism’ is an essential part of all of us, in today society of me-ism this behavior is often left unchecked which makes it extremely hard to train magicians to get off this plane. More often than not the narcissist bathes in his or her right to ‘Do whatever they want and whenever they want’ over their ‘True Will.’ Remember, the first rule of Thelema is to let everyone else do their Will first, without interfering; hardly a rule from a narcissist’s handbook. I don’t remember looking in the dictionary under ‘narcissism and finding the definition using words like: consideration, thoughtfulness, selflessness or respect. The narcissist often finds it impossible to shed the importance of ‘I’ over others as they try justifying their wants, their needs and why everyone else should accept their behavior; ah the pits of Because. Ah, the owners of cell phones!

In truth, as a narcissist you could struggle within the man of Earth grade forever while attempting to learn how to live as a Thelemite because it is our belief that simply being within this grade doesn't make you a Thelemite, it simply presents you with the possibilities wherein 'the Law is for All.' ... so STUDY this Law!!! ... If you learn the Law and live it, you then enter the grade of the Lover and it is here that you 'become' a Thelemite; attempting to embraced your Star [i.e. Tiphereth]. This doesn't mean that you cannot fumble and fall back down the mountain. In truth, most fail here. They often forget that a true magician knows that the higher up the sacred mountain you climb; you must always be on your guard. It is a minute by minute struggle as Narcisus constantly whispers over your shoulder to turn around, look at yourself to embrace the 'I' !  ... Let me quote an old letter to another student: "That which attempts to hold the man of Earth down is a demon called the Kundry, to the Lover it is Narcisus. In other words, in the man of Earth your doom comes at you externally; horizontally. In the Lover grade the fall comes from Self; vertically."  Makes sense?

Now, unless you can transcend this stage you will NEVER successfully assay the Abyss. Remember, the first quintessential is a substance known as Akasha, or the ‘Universal Soul’ and sooner or later you must emotionally embrace the concept that even though this is not to be confused with your personal Soul, both are in fact ‘One & the Same.’ - 'Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether.' - One is the Absolute and the other a quality of the Absolute which incarnates into the phenomenal world; the ‘pain of division’ being that which keeps us apart. In the Lover grade you learn to be drawn toward and embrace the energy from your Star. In the Hermit grade you seek to be one with the source of that energy which you now know simply flows through your Star.

The bottom line is that right from the start you must learn to place all your ambitions beyond Self or the 'here now.' As long as one drop of Blood is given to things which will fade away on this plane, BABALON will be a fleeting concept and unattainable. One of the major goals in the Hermetic grade according to Crowley and others is that inevitably, to achieve above the Abyss, 100% of Self must be given toward moving Humanity forward. So, to answer your question, let me ask you one, "Do you think a narcissist can achieve this?" 

Wednesday June 27, 2007 - 5:25am Fraters ZLA282 of The Double Wanded One Clerk House wrote an email to one of his students wherein he offers brilliant insight into basic magickal foundational thought. I thank him for letting me share these inspirational images and tidbits with my readers which I hope will inspire the more curious. He writes:

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

I am going to free associate here for you on what I think about the topic of polarity, energy flow, and the oft discussed sex magick, of which I know quite little. You have asked several questions over several emails, including questions pertaining to the Magical Essence Series and I am hoping that by sharing what I know, you will have ideas and images to meditate upon.  I am also copying this letter to Jerry, in case you have any more specific questions that I can’t answer.

I agree with you that you are at a slight disadvantage never having been in the OTO. On the other hand, count your blessings!

In my own thinking, I begin with the idea of polarity, because to me that is the context within which sex magick occurs. I begin with: “Every man and every woman is a star.” Crowley writes somewhere that the male star is built from the center outwards (Hadit) and that the female star is built from the circumference inwards (Nuit). Both the center and the circumference points are necessary to delineate a mathematical circle or Star, combined with the Mystery of Pi, or That which can never be fully Known.

Therefore, the overall magickal formula of the male is the first chapter of Liber AL (Nuit, or Love, or Eros) while the magickal formula of the female is the second chapter of Liber AL (Hadit, the seed, the point, the Hidden God).

     The Point, Hadit, the Hidden God seeks to unite with All Experience, the Goddess Nuit, and so come to Knowledge of Himself. This is the male.

The Scarlet Woman shall achieve Hadit: as the Vision and the Voice states about Babalon:  Because she has yielded herself to each, therefore has she become the mistress of all.  The more points or radii on the circumference reach towards the center of the circle, the more defined the point, Hadit. She shall achieve Hadit. This is the female.

In a way, to my thinking, these are complementary and necessary movements.

The male, being the point or seed, must find a matrix or womb within which to implant the seed, for either a physical child or a spiritual child.

The female, being the matrix, must bring the point, bindu, seed from without, either physically for a child or spiritually as a heavenly bridegroom. It is this particular idea that female feminists get all worked up about, because it implies, as did Freud, that the female is lacking something the male has, which in essence is correct. Freud just got all concrete about it and declared that women had penis envy.

In either case, there is a commingling of opposite essences, so as far as I am concerned neither side has the advantage. Except, the male can find other matrixes other than the female, while the female needs to find the seed from without. For women, spiritually, I think this quite doable. A little more difficult if she has a man in her life because….

Between men and women, there is a natural energy flow and complement. Men focus on mastering the material, and behind every man there is logically a woman, because all Power comes through the Whore of Babalon. This is the plug into electrical socket metaphor, if you know what I mean, and all quite natural and elegant and unconscious, or Nature.

Hence sex magick, or using the sexual energy in a focused way to achieve a desired result, which is the short definition of magick. The problem I see with men in particular is that they get all titillated about the sex and forget the magick part. For me personally, I have focused on the magick first, and then used sex at times to augment and push forward the Intention. Or you can use sex to create, focus, and cast into the astral the Intention.  Experiment.

Crowley incorporated sex magick into the OTO degrees, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th.

Here is how I conceive of these.  7th is the setting up of the Phallus as object of Devotion. 8th is masturbation. 9th is sexual congress vagina to penis, 11th is sexual congress anus to penis, both between a man and woman. There are grade papers and the like that at this point are pretty much available if you talk to the right person. As I have noted to you, Crowley put it all out there, believing those who could See, would do so. I must admit that early on in my career I got a bit bored by all this, since I have never touched a vagina in my life.

The formula of ON, will be presented more in the Magical Essence Series (we are only up to chapter 3). O is Ayin, the path of the Devil and N is Nun, the path of Death, both Tarot Trumps. We can talk more about this as we continue in the Magical Essence Series. Crowley also wrote in code much about ON in Liber Aleph, which is why many chapters begin On…

O, Ayin, Devil is the male formula and N, Nun, Death is the female formula, these formulas being in the particulars of male/female union, or ON.

You asked about the Tree of Life and the body, how confused the various writings are on the subject.

Imagine backing into the Tree, or simply reverse the side pillars.

The left hand side of the Tree is the right side of the body, and the right hand side of the Tree is the left hand side of the body. Therefore, Geburah is on our right shoulder and Chesed is on our left shoulder. The Middle Pillar is, well, the Middle Pillar. On the Tree energy moves down the left hand pillar (Binah, Geburah, Hod, Malkuth) and  moves up the right and pillar (Malkuth, Netzach, Chesed, Chockmah). On the body, it is the reverse: energy moves up the left side, down the right side.  That is why the Middle Pillar exercises by Regardie are helpful, to learn to move energy in and around the body (aura).

You can see why I gave you such a hard time the first year we began to correspond. If you do not know the Tree as Image, all 32 paths, you can forget understanding Crowley.

I hope this gives you some beginning Images. I can refer to these ideas better as we continue The Magical Essence Series. Just know that I don’t know some things as well as I would like, and we may need to defer to Jerry for clarification.

It would help if you had a Tree diagram at the ready as we continue these ideas. 

Trust me on this one.  I studied the Tree for years, and one evening while I was meditating on it, the whole of my Soul seemed poured into Meaning through the visuals of the Tree. It was quite remarkable. I haven’t balked at referring to the Tree or studying the Tree since.

Well, let me stop here so I can get some feedback from you.

Love is the law, love under will.

ZLA282

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Monday June 25, 2007 – 4:10pm You asked, "A friend sent me a xerox from an old copy of the Thelema Lodge Calendar dated February 2001 which has Crowley's The Sufi Doctrines. I never heard of this. Has it ever been published before?" ... Answer: The Sufi Doctrines is found in the Introduction by Aleister Crowley who wrote the piece using the alias of Major Lutiy in the Bagh-i-Muattar.

7:45am - Michael writes, "Wow, great meditations" and "... makes sense when you think about it" ... "Thanks for sharing this."

6:10am. John wrote, "Love the meditations. Did you look at the next verse in Liber AL, it represents the Fool card, no?" ... I replied, "Regarding your thoughts, consider this note from my diaries [December 1979] in regards to Liber AL I:11: “These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.” – I wrote: “After traversing the Spheres if we want to come down through the 'paths' then this verse would reflect The Fool, Aleph the first path on the Tree of Life between Kether and Chockmah. The next twenty-one verses could be seen as reflections of the 22 Major Trump of the Thoth Deck.” ... John, nice to see that we seem to be on the same page. Let me know what else you see.

5:30am I received this question over the weekend from an old friend from Broken Mountain Lodge OTO. He knew me back in the late 1970s. He asks, “I remember a ten-fold Qabalistic Tree meditation that we use to do with the First Chapter of Liber AL vel Legis. Do you still have a copy? I remember it having a lasting effect on me?” ... Boy, its been about thirty years since I thought about these meditations but I do have a clear memory of doing them for ten consecutive Saturdays up in the Temple. The piece you mention, I had written and it dealt with my attempt at taping into the 93 Current via Liber AL I: 1-10 and drawing it down into Malkuth, or into myself. After talking about my ‘meditations’ at one of Brocken’s Saturday’s event a few members decided that they wanted to do them weekly, in yogic posture and yes, I too remember them having a deep and lasting influence on many of us. After we robed and entered the Temple, got into posture and centered ourselves, the verse in question was recited by one person. Everyone then meditated upon the verse in relationship to the Qabalistic sphere for about thirty minutes or so. We spent the entire next week thinking on the verse and sphere. Quite a few people submitted papers on what they learned about the verse; very impressive; especially from those who were versed heavily in Qabalah. The over-all affect was beginning or starting with Kether in the first week and inevitably drawing the energy down to Malkuth in the tenth; the correlation with the first ten verses in Liber AL vel Legis is what is striking and dictated the 'type' of energy. Let me re-publish the meditation; maybe others might enjoy it too:

ON BEING A THELEMITE

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. – AL I:40

1. Had! The manifestation of Nuit.

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Kether, the first sphere on the Tree of Life.

Had is both ‘one and ten.’

2. The unveiling of the company of heaven.

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Chockmah, the second sphere on the Tree

of Life which solidifies and ‘unveils Stars around specific Laws in preparation

for birth.

3. Every man and every woman is a star.

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Binah, the third sphere on the Tree of

Life as the STAR is prepared for birth; male or female.

4. Every number is infinite; there is no difference.

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Chesed, the fourth sphere on the

       Tree of Life. Such is Mercy. Mankind moves below the Abyss. Each

And everyone one of us is a different STAR, infinite in variety.

5. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Geburah, the fifth sphere on the

Tree of Life known as Mars; reflect upon the ‘warrior lord of Thebes.’.

6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Tiphereh, the six sphere on the

Tree of Life, the center of our universe.

7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat.

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Netzach, the seventh sphere on

the Tree of Life. There is a dove ...

8. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs.

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Hod, the eighth sphere on the

Tree of Life.

9. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Yesed, the ninth sphere on the

Tree of Life. The Moon receives the Light of the Sun when Full.

10. Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.

Meditate upon this verse in regards to Malkuth, the tenth sphere on

the Tree of Life. It is Earth wherein the servants reside.

Love is the law, love under will – AL I:57

5:18am My dear friend Benjamin Hance wanted me to post this quote from Aleister Crowley's unpublished diaries: "The real inferiority of women to men is shown by their hate of pederasty, which they regard as unfair competition. Men on the other hand rather approve of Sapphism, as saving them trouble and expense." [March 9th 1929] ... Ladies, I am innocent this time of posting another Crowley-like chauvinistic blurb so please direct all comments to Benjamin. I'll see he gets them.

Sunday June 24th 2007 – 2:00pm Earlier I had written another friend in New York, “Glad you are enjoying the blog ... some of the ladies from southern California are not happy with it; I seem to rub a few of them wrong.  [big smile].” ... He replied, “Aw, the hell with 'em! :D People are just too damn sensitive these days. Just waiting around to be offended when someone who speaks their mind doesn't cow-tow to their sense of political correctness or whatever.  I say keep up the Great Work!”

8:45am To Robert here in Caliornia I just replied, “Glad to hear the blog is ‘teasing you’ ... I like to think of the blog as a carrot being dangled in front of people’s noses. In other words, the Qabalistic and magickal tidbits should make you work, if not, you go hungry. Besides; hasn’t magick clearly taught you that to give pearls away on this plane is simply a waste of time? A true magicians needs to look at all allegorical thought and go within with the ideas to think in realms where archetypal symbols take over and plant seeds. Ah: birth, life and death; the lessons which tell us that everything is born, it lives in Light and instead of simply dissipating into a slow death on this plane, take it within in order for the Phoenix to arise from the ashes into a new life.”

Thursday June 21st 2007. – 5:00am I want to let everyone know that today is a sacred holiday officially known as ‘PEE ON EARTH DAY.’ Yes, you heard me correctly! The jest of this day is to “reduce toilet-flushing water and divert nitrogen from the waste stream” and this event “calls on the world to take their urine outside to apply to healthy aerated soil or composters.” This event began in Stigomta, Sweden and has spead worldwide; supposedly 'saving thousands of gallons of toilet-flushing water' in every city. Now this sounds like a noble holiday that I can get behind! Let us all partake of this holiday in order to help save Mother Earth!

Tuesday June 19, 2007 – 11:00am I have just release issue No.10 of CORNELIA. This issue contains the infamous, if not controversial, TUNIS COMMENT discourses published circa 1999-2000 which are: THE COMMENT, AN OPEN EPISTLE ON THE TUNIS COMMENT, THE LATESTEST DANCE CRAZE: THE TUNIS COMMENT SUFFLE, AN OPEN EPISTLE ON MOTTA’S DEGREE, OTO INITIATIONS OR THE TUNIS COMMENT?, THE STUDY OF THIS BOOK IS FORBIDDEN and finally the amusing thought provoking study by Fraters Achad which we title BUT IS THERE A COMMENT? ... This issue is not for the faint at heart or for the slaves who follow the babblings of others who argue that the Tunis Comment says "Don't study Liber AL vel Legis!" This issue is a carefully study of every single place where Aleister Crowley wrote about the Short Comment, his reasoning and his often egocentric rationalization. It goes in-depth into Grady McMurtry’s theories, as well as Israel Regardie and others. Hopefully this issue will give everyone enough fuel to decide for themselves what the ‘real’ truth is in regards to The Tunis Comment!  Finally, at the very end of this issue is more info on W.C.C.P.S. and how you too can join this movement to become a Center of Pestilence!

5:15am Sheila wrote me another email saying that my posting about her yesterday morning is "out of context." She asked me to post her entire email since it was brief. - OK - She actually wrote: “I read your on-line diary every day. I live in St. Louis and I think your humor occasionally falls short. You come across as a sexist pig. Stop degrading woman. It does you no justice.” ... Sheila, must I remind you that all I did was post something that Aleister Crowley wrote. Never once did you ask, "Do you believe it?" [meaning yesterday's post of 7:15am] Had you bothered to inquire I could have replied with the kindly wisdom of a sage that I thought it was simply something that Crowley stated which was kinda funny; knowing the man. However, in regards to some of you furry little bubble-headed creatures I often fear that there is no lifeguard stationed around your gene pool and that your ‘laughter’ gene has drowned! I personally live by what Crowley wrote - “The Common defect of all mystical systems previous to that of the Aeon whose Law is Thelema is that there was no place for Laughter.”  [Little Essays Toward Truth p.27] Still, if I have offended you or other women, I apologize.

5:00am I recently replied to an interesting email from one of my strudents, writing  that I am “really pleased to hear that you enjoyed The Soul’s Code. Psychology, especially James Hillman, is slowly approaching the threshold of magick without realizing it. What we as magicians have known for ages, science is beginning to prove. Hillman’s work, especially The Soul’s Code, clearly discusses the foundation stones of the Abramelin system and it is remarkable because it almost validates what we are into but, typical of most psychology, he falls short in actually embracing ‘objective’ entities. Everything is still an internal process to him. None-the-less; if you enjoyed that book I might suggest hunting down Hillman’s Healing Fiction. The name is kinda funky but it contains lots of fascinating thoughts on the daimon in relationship to our Soul. I agree with what you wrote: “a lot of Crowley's writings on the HGA put it on a pedestal which is probably fine, but after reading the Hillman book I began to see a bit of the influence of my own Daimon and those of the people around me, and of celebrities, too.”  Very good. The other point to remember is that Crowley often confuses the objective and subjective HGA as being little more than his Higher Self. It is no secret that his Ego was immense and often he put his ‘genius’ [i.e. which he referred to as his HGA] on a pedestal in order to prove his own greatness. No where in Crowley’s writing does he ever approach the subject of the daimon correctly; he almost always discusses this topic from a Theosophical & Golden Dawn perspective." ... You also asked, “Am I right in thinking that the Angel's wings are always wrapped around us, that the Great Work consists of nurturing and bringing out the Daimon's influence to the notice of the conscious mind?” If you were closer I’d whack you while bellowing, “Dah!” ... The answer to this is clearly written out in the issues of CORNELIA and The Soul’s Code.  It is YES. 

Monday June 18, 2007 – 8:25am I do not wish to publish the entire email but thank you Sheila Antero of St. Louis, I never knew I was “pig.” ... I do seem to rub the ladies wrong. Is it my boyish charm?

7:15am Today's inspirational quote from our beloved prophet Aleister Edward Crowley: “Never run after a woman. You may possibly catch her.” (unpublished diaries of February 11th 1938)

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