~ April 24th - 30th 2009 ~
Thursday April 30th 2009 – 7:40pm Jay writes - "93 Jerry, Nice to hear from Frater P., always keen on the practical points. Though it leads me to wonder about the Yoni Mudra; Fuller: "With a strong inspiration fix the mind on the Adhar Lotus; then engage in contracting the yoni (the space between the lingam and anus [or pireneum-- Fr. VA]). After which contemplate that the God of Love resides in the Brahma-Yoni, and imagine that an union takes place between Shiva and Shakti." It seems like in the bigger picture he's getting at forming the hexagram, but the mudra itself: is this working the energy between the Muladhara and the Svadisthana, the path of Resh? Love, Jay 93 93/93." ........ Reply: I'm not sure I understand the question; perhaps Frater P might handle this one?
6:30pm Ricky writes - "Jerry 93, Mr. Hance and Frater Orpheus really set the bar high here, but I would like to venture a few thoughts of my own. Looking at these chapters together as a sort of unfolding theme I see what I think to be a clue. From 'Dewdrops' we learned that it spoke of the Ida and Pingala and how energy flows through them. The title of 'The Gun Barrel' immediately brings to mind Sushumna. So taking the 'Pyramid' as a symbol of Sushumna 'whose summit is lost in Heaven' we may venture to say that the 'corpse of my desires' speaks of the Lower ego being burnt. It is a corpse or already dead because of the filling of the Cup of Babalon. If we consider this approach then it would seem fitting that the 'bullet' passing through the 'barrel' would be the Kundalini Serpent and thus the Phallus symbolism of the second paragraph and once this 'seed' becomes 'lost within the Body of Our Lady of the Stars' or the Svadistana chakra and a sort of Samahdi is made on the Sushumna Nadi seen in the next paragraph speaking of the Hollow tube. This also brings back to mind the Yods of the Moon card with an emphasis on the 'fiery' quality of the Yod in general. That's all I have for now. Did I fall off the Mountain? 93 93/93 Ricky." ............... Reply: Not bad ... you haven't fallen yet. 10:30am Ben Hance writes - "93 Here are some thoughts of mine regarding "The Gun Barrel." In the "Hatha Yoga Pradipika" there is an interesting yogic posture called siddhasana related to the stimulation of the Svadistana and Anahata chakras. Wherein the heels of the feet are placed on either side of the genitals while the chin is brought to the chest. Depending upon the "focus" of the thoughts different effects may be occur. Not the least of which is the stimulation of the Manipura Chakra (also Netzach, or the path of Peh between Hod and Netzach). It is clear that the danger inherent within the VII degree O.T.O. is the "earthing" out of the energy descending (via the path of Shin) into Malkuth, rather than raising this energy, funnelled from Tiphareth, into Netzach, where it can continue to manifest. The posture referenced above, seems to imply the subjugation of the basic sex response, stimulating both the Svadistana and Anahata chakras, while at the same time inhibiting the descent of the Lunar fluids from being destroyed by the Solar fluids. In order to fully describe the above I have moved slightly affield of my point. I agree that "there is the dove and the serpent" and I believe it is most puissant here. The eye in question is located in Tipareth, but its linking to Hod allows both insight and/or illusion. The Qabalah describes the path of Ayin as "the Renewing Intelligence" and to me this seems quite apt here. As the magician is lost in the ecstacy of his focus his word, or "logos," can become the voice of his Angel, or his own rantings of his own illusions. The danger here seems to be blinding of the Magician by his own illusions, the benefit seems to be the ability to rechannel those forces descending into the Ruach and above. Anyway, just a thought, more coming. 93/93 Ben." ...... Reply: Great thoughts ... and yes, keep them coming! You guys are all on a roll; it's good to see you've picked up the gaunlet from Jerri (see the 29ths entry at 3:50pm) and run with it!10:25am Under the subject "Satan! :: chuga chuga chug chuga chug ::" ... one of my favorte Scorpios, Jay, writes -"93 Jerry, Once more, pure gold from Frater Orpheus... It's very interesting to me how The Devil seems to be the fulcrum between Will and Want. His energy is very powerful and in itself doesn's necessarily cause us to earth out and yet the temptation is there (only fools know what it means). You've pointed out that The Devil is in the Ruach; it seems to be in the lower Ruach and yet as it represents the descent of energy from Tipareth it seems that it could be guided by either the higher self or lower self in Tipareth-- once again the Will and Want, or the higher aspirations of the Higher Ruach vs. the ego aspirations of the Lower Ruach. I also remember that in Kundalini yoga they tend to place the will in the Manipura chakra. And while they may not mean the same thing we mean by Will, it suggests to me the persistence of will power required to successfully move that energy from Hod to Netzach. Thus the emphasis: "Mighty and erect is this Will of mine," the snake that droops not as well as the burnt corpse of desire or want. This sort of discussion always lead me to wonder exactly how this all plays out in women. I suppose they are just as tempted to earth out, just not via the phallus. Or is it as difficult for women to work the path of The Devil as it is for men to successfully work the Tower...? Love, Jay 93 93/93." ............ Reply: Most men know the basic theories easy enough but rarely do they know how they function on a practical nature in themselves; stay focused ... don't worry about women. Besides, here is a Secret about the Formula of ON : Male adepts easily work N and Female Adepts easily work O. Both often fail where they most commonly walk.7:35am A thought; more to come later: So far, these chapters from The Book of Lies have been a great success and hopefully for years to come the epistles surrounding all of these chapters will continually offer our readers insights. I have always tried to say to my students that there is no real right or wrong when discussing magickal theory, only one's inability to express what is in the depths of their mind clearly. Too often magicians forget that the goal of the A.'.A.'. is not about themselves but in assisting humanity forward in the New Aeon and if you are incapable of articulating the Mysteries to the lowest of turtles then you have failed. This exercise in interpreting The Book of Lies is revealing each individual's 'New Clothes', just as it did with the Emperor. ... Remember, the man of earth is the chela or the student whose main task is to learn about the Law of Thelema first, himself second and magick third. Crowley then informs us in Liber 418 that "The lover giveth his life unto the work among men." But if you cannot bring down the fire of knowledge to Earth outside of white-light idiocy or psych-babble then what kind of students will you create? Yes, the A.'.A.'. is harsh, we are not a horizontal school which tolerates students stamping their feet, whining and throwing ego-fits; we are creating New Aeonic thinkers; each, as Grady McMurtry would often say, is a single building block and it is far better to create twelve good apostles who know the Mysteries than hundreds who drool out of desire.6:50am Oddly, our discussion on The Book of Lies seems to have hit a stumbling block this week. Besides a few really good gems I thought the The Gun Barrel has fired blanks but then I received this email from Frater Orpheus:"Jerry, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the LawIf the Gun-Barrel is the XV path on the Tree of Life where is the Gun Pointed? Who pulls the trigger and what are his bullets???…It has already been established well enough that this Chapter is related to that path of the Devil(O) like the path of the Moon they represent, in part, either the Solar or Lunar currents manifested. Crowley wrote, “This card represents creative energy in its most material form." (Book of Thoth pg.105)The Paths on the Tree of Life are mirrored in your Psychic body and whereby the Kundalini energies move from one Chakra to another… in other words the Tree is your road map or the “Ships Code Book”, as Grady would say. That being the case it is easy enough to see that the Devil path works between the Anahata and Svadisthana Chakras. In the OTO system this path is the III° in which the initiate is instructed on Death and its proper course. The Devil is the lord of all illusion and therefore key in understanding the Maya we create. But this Devil is also HAD, Set and Satan. In Liber AL Hadit identifies himself with the Kundalini energies, “I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight” and states that He is also “the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star…I am Life and the giver of Life; yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death… Had is never known as he is motion.To understand how this path works we must grasp how the left hand Pillar of 418 works to draw down currents through Tiphereth via the path of the Devil and into Hod. Consider this… the HGA manifests just as the Word is made flesh or the True Spirit enters the body…they all follow the same course which you symbolically traverse as an OTO initiate? In the Minerval the candidates Psyche is drawn into the Ajna or Chockmah which is the Seed of man and the Word of the Magus. In the I° the candidate is placed within the Womb of his Mother Binah or the Vishuddha; then in the II° the Spirit descends into Life via “The pathway of Perfection” into the Anahata Chakra. From there the “Solar energies” are drawn down into the Svadisthana (Hod) via our path of the DEVIL. ( III°)However this Devil is the Lord of illusion and while he may serve as a conduit for That which is divine, He exists within the Ruach, bathed in the Duality of the Ego. In other words, we may easily use this path to manifest our Wants over our true Wills. “there is the dove and there is the serpent, choose ye well” We ourselves are simply conduits for That which is divine.Man is continually struggling to keep himself from Earth-ing out the energies. He must constantly fight the natural inertia downward of the left hand Pillar. J.C. says this perfectly when he states “If the Illusions of the Devil are not taken under control and moved correctly into the Manipura, it draws our Dewdrops downward into the Muladhara wherein dwells the Sun which exudes the poison [remember the Dewdrops lessons] which will kill the Dewdrops and at the point of orgasm we become one with the Earth; no higher. “When the Kundalini energies are in the Svadisthana there are only two places it can go… it can raise up into the Manipura Chakra or it can fall back down into the Muladhara and the Serpent droop down his head and shoot forth Venom where he and the Earth are one…but should the Kundalini energies continue to rise and the Serpent lift up his head then the energies will move into the Manipura Chakra which is Venus. So your Seed is either Earth bound or Like the Dove in the OTO lamen headed for the Cup of Venus…“there is the dove and there is the serpent, choose ye well”In regards to certain OTO mysteries and most certainly in the case of the Knowledge and Conversation of our HGA the object would clearly be to NOT earth out the Solar essence, or Magically charged “semen”, our word into anything Malkuthian…or we will have squandered our own purpose.So how do you keep your Gun from shooting off?Consider this; Crowley calls Tiphereth the conscious mind and the Father; while Mercury is the Phallus and the Son. Our DEVIL card lies right between these two and is simply that which is transpiring between the mind and Phallus. With this in mind do you see why Crowley calls mind the disease of semen and that consciousness is its symptom.So where are the Bullets….Sperm right??Well consider this… Crowley says in Book of THOTH that the Hermit is the Spermatozoon and the Unconscious Will, or Word. That Yod is the foundation of all other letters. He is the Father, the Logos and the highest form of Mercury being both ruled and exalted in Virgo. The Fire of his lamp is the “Secret Flame” ….”For he is not only creative, but is the fluidic essence of Light, which is the life of the Universe.” (Book of Thoth PG 89) The Hermit card is between Chesed and Tiphereth and Chesed is connected above to Chockmah. These 4 “Phallic’ spheres (Seed-Jupiter-Sun-Mercury) are joined by three ‘Phallic’ Paths. (Devil-Hermit-Heirophant) These can be seen to represent The male creative energy…the Lion and the Serpent that destroy the destroyer…(IAO: I = Yod - A = Vav - O = Ayin) In our particular study that’s Father/Tiphereth - DEVIL - Son/Hod or ABRA-HAD-ABRA. Love is the law, love under will. Frater Orpheus
Reply: Very good, there are a few things I'd like to elaborate on but I'll do it a little later today. 6:45am For the history buffs: Alice Babette Toklas was born on this date in San Francisco, California in 1877. She later moved to France and became Gertrude Stein’s lifelong Paris companion. She has been described as a chain smoker with a slight mustache. She once wrote, “The French like to say that their food stems from their culture and that is has developed over centuries.” Then adding, “We foreigner living in France respect and appreciate this point of view but deplore their too strict observance of a tradition which will not admit the slightest deviation in a seasoning or the suppression of a single ingredient.” She released The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook (1954) when she was 77. It contained 300 recipes of such dishes Artichokes Stravinsky, Gigot de la Clinique and Breen Peas à la Goodwife. The book became famous because of one simple recipe which Brion Gysin had given to her which was listed as Toklas’s Haschich Fudge, or hashish brownies. In her cookbook she wrote, “this is the food of Paradise – of Baudelaire’s Artificial Paradise: it might provide an entertaining refreshment for a Ladies’ Bridge Club or a chapter meeting of the DAR ... Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one’ personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected. Almost anything St. Teresa did, you can do better ...” Needless to say, Toklas’ recipe was the first ever banned from a cookbook. The first American edition would not be released until it was removed. However, as controversial as her cookbook was, many people never heard of Toklas and her fame only spread after the release of the 1967 movie I Love You Alice B. Toklas. She died on March 7, 1967. ...….…. And on this date in 1923, having been expelled from Sicily and ordered to leave, Aleister Crowley transferred the Abbey of Thelema over to Norman Mudd. …...…. And it was on April 30, 1954 that the movie The Creature From The Black Lagoon opened in theaters. It is about a scientific expedition traveling up the Amazon River which encounters a dangerous humanoid amphibious-like monster. …....... and on April 30, 1966 or Walpurgis Nacht, shorn of locks of hair, Anton LaVey proclaimed ‘Year One’ and created the First Church of Satan on this date. …...… and finally, Alex Sanders, the Self-proclaimed “King of the Witches” who rose to fame in the 1960’s, founding a major tradition: the Alexandrian tradition, died on this date in 1988 after a long battle with lung cancer. His funeral became a mass media event, with Witches and Pagans from all over the country attending to pay their last respects. During the course of the funeral a pre-recorded tape was played in which Alex Sanders declared that his son “Victor” should succeed him as “King of the Witches.”Wednesday April 29th 2009 – 4:45pm NEWS, the headlines reads CALIFORNIA WOMAN: MY FATHER WAS THE ZODIAC KILLER ... The article reads: "A California woman has come forward to claim that her late father was the elusive Zodiac Killer and that she accompanied him on many of his shooting sprees in the late 1960s when she was only 7-years-old, KTVU.com reported. Kevin Mclean, a California-based attorney, has led a 2-year long investigation into claims made by Deborah Perez that her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was the Zodiac Killer and urged her to come forward when he heard that another investigator was planning on presenting another theory to police. “He was a Jekyll and Hyde,” McLean said of Hendrickson. “He was nuts. He set out to kill people. Some of these killings were not random.” Perez has also claimed that she helped to write, address and stamp many of the cryptic letters sent to the San Francisco Chronicle following the murder of Paul Stine in 1969 and to have embroidered the mask worn by the killer during many of the murders, KTVU.com reported. “There were strange events with my father,” she said. “I would hear shots and my father would say it was firecrackers. I would see a woman running and then hear shots and he would tell me someone threw firecrackers at her.” Hendrickson lived in Orange County, California until 1993 when he died of cancer."
9:52am Mary writes, "So Dewdrops is what the Qabalists call the unmanifest 'I Am' Knowledge from Kether; wow. It seems so easy. If you receive it below the Abyss you have Gnosis, right? And the Gun Barrel is then the Promethian tube that carries this fire, knowledge or dewdrops down to mankind, right?" ....... Reply: I like this interpretation. Thoughtful and direct.8:40am Ed Wormuth writes - "93 Jerry, This new direction in which you are now taking your blog is wonderful and frightening. It is a delight to see such obscure passages brought up for discussion and to read the knowledgeable and insightful comments from followers of this blog. At the same time it is scary to have the gauntlet thrown in my direction pushing me to comment and expose my ignorance of much of the technical magickal theory some of your students obviously possess. Also my time to attend to this is so small at present, but the pull to come into the conversation no less strong. That being said, while rereading the "Gun Barrel" and your comments about the "Devil" card and couldn't help but think of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve; the snake in the garden of Eden was perhaps also a reference top a hollow tube through which the will to action brought down "fire from heaven" and the "innocent creation" is awakened to the freedom and horror of "knowledge ". forgive me if I babel. 93 93/93, Ed." ........... Reply: Babble no, another piece of the puzzle, perhaps. The Gnostics believe that the Serpent was good and like Prometheus, the Serpent came down to Earth via the Tree to give humanity Knowledge; a gift from beyond the Abyss. Remember; in Chapter 0 (ΚΕΦΑΛΗ Η ΟΥΚ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΕΦΑΛΗ) of The Book of Lies it lists the The First Triad which is GOD as: I AM, I utter The Word and I hear The Word. Last years, on Sunday March 2nd 2008, I broke down Aleister Crowley's full interpretation to this Chapter in relationship to The Tree of Life in this blog. The First Triad refers to Kether (knowledge), Chockmah (the knower) and Binah (the known) or aspects of the Child Daath (Knowledge) unmanifested. Knowledge is but the essence of the Dewdrop as it descends and transforms below the Abyss into Gnosis.7:40am Hey folks, Mercury Retrogrades in the sign of Gemini next Wednesday on May 6th; you should be feeling its pulls days in advance and it won’t go direct until May 30th in the sign of Taurus; moving from an air sign to an earth sign. More important; Gemini is a Mutable sign; it allows us to adjust and mutate to differing circumstances while Taurus is a Fixed Sign; or the sign which is most resistant to change. In a way, Taurus is the perfectors and finishers rather than originators. Here is my take on this Mercury Retrograde and there are not many ways you can go with it; either you can used the intellectual side of Gemini to do serious self reflections upon past actions in order to revise one’s conclusions which allows Taurus to strengthen a solid foundation toward positive conclusions or you can simply use Gemini's Mercury influence through your intellect and speech to babble an endless defense of your past actions which allows the inevitable pull of a stubborn Taurus-like Bull to dig its feet in. In either case, we tend to think that all our natal planet’s energies are always directed toward outward expression but rarely do we examine what it implies when the planet is retrograde which means that part of the energy is now directed inward, away from the world and into your 'thinking' process. Such qualities often give us a deeper sensitivity in regards to the planet and the house in which it falls. Use it!6:30am For the history buffs: Florence Farr, died of cancer on this date in 1917, all alone in a Colombo hospital in Ceylon. Years earlier she had severed all her ties to what was left of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and, by 1912, she had moved to Ceylon. As was the Hindu custom, she was cremated and her ashes scattered in a sacred river. …...…. Also, Adolf Hitler & Eva Braun died in their bunker in Berlin on this date in 1945. Aleister Crowley briefly acknowledged this in his diaries on May 2nd writing, “Hitler officially dead. Hitler & Goebbels felo de se.” …...….. and it was on April 29, 1969 that the plane carrying the old Agape Lodge initiate, Grady Louis McMurtry, landed in San Francisco. Another Agape Lodge member, Phyllis Seckler, diligently waited for him at the terminal. She had driven her van all the way from Dublin with her left arm in a cast. And the rest they say is history as together, these two individuals would revive Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis. …..…. And finally, Alfred Hitchcock died on this date in 1980 from liver failure and heart problems in Bel Air, California at age 80. He was cremated. He has been acknowledged as being the master of the thriller genre, which he virtually invented. Although he directed many movies who could ever forget Psycho (1960) or The Birds (1963). Tuesday April 28th 2009 – 3:50pm I just got back from time spent with my son and also with having coffee with Ben Hance at the Mediterranean Café and I found this gem waiting for me from Jerri in Sacramento. She writes - "Hi Jerry, 93 To get the ball rolling here, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on The Gun Barrel from a more general and philosophical level before bringing in more specific, practical magickal concepts into the discussion.
In many ways, this piece in particular, makes me think about the concept of the want and the Will. The want is a necessary extension of the Will (after another manner). “This Pyramid of fire, whose summit is lost in Heaven”— suggests that it is through our wants, the Will spills forth (our wants are a mirror of our Will… a corpse…a shadow of the Will, ultimately because everything is an extension of Her…) The Pyramid, a representative of our initiation, can be the way toward embodying our Will...if only our “eye” could see. It is ours to choose, the Serpent or the Dove.“Upon it I have burnt the corpse of my desires.” To read it closely, it states that it is the corpse of my desire that is burnt and not our desire itself. This suggests that it is the want which is transformed by fire, offered up almost as a sacrifice, as it is a corpse, or shadow of our True Will, which the want reflects (but is not). Hadit is not Nuit, but he (or, we as individuals) is ever of Her.“I am not I; I am but an hollow tube to bring down Fire from Heaven” I am a vehicle of the body of Nuit and my body is a vessel within which I receive her dewdrops. “Mighty and marvelous is this Weakness, this Heaven which draweth me into Her Womb, this Dome which hideth, which absorbeth, Me.” Hadit, myself, is the dome which hideth Her, and her Womb (Nuit), is the All which absorbeth me." I am always of Her…but, also am Hadit, mighty in all of my glorious sunny splendor, weak, because I die in Love. This is "The Night wherein I am lost, the Love through which I am no longer I.” and implies the experience of ecstasy which accompanies this act of union. “I” am lost in the body of Her darkness…93 93/93 Jerri."Reply: Damn, Jerri, you're good. Now these are the types of ideas that I like to see from our students; precise, articulate and insightful. Well all you guys out there, da girl has thrown down the gauntlet to get the ball rolling, are you up to the challenge of adding to her views? 12:05pm A tiny little earthquake just occurred here in Berkeley; just a 1.6 magnitude. I yawn harder!10:50am Jay writes - " ... it seems that discussion on The Gun Barrel has been rather quiet. I've got some more thoughts on it, but have been waiting to see if anyone else might offer something." ....... Reply: I wonder if everyone has reached their comfy zone? If you don’t drop your tidbits to me in emails how is this discussion ever going to get off the ground? Dewdrops offered you all a lot of food for thought; the Gun-Barrel can be elusive. The obvious parody, like the name Gun-Barrel, over and over again takes the uninitiated mind to seek in Malkuth for answers while obscure names like Dewdrops often forces them to think more. My best advice is always to study the attributes and terms mentioned in each chapter before trying to make profound statements; then, as you come up with each new epiphany, send it along. One Truth will build onto another and so forth. If you send in forty brief emails in a single day ... who am I to complain?8:30am Our student Andy from Japan is temporarily moving but he writes - "I have to say that I love the Book of Lies discussion. I'm hoping that once I get more settled I can really play catch up in it, taking the time to really absorb what has been discussed and start throwing in my two cents (or hopefully a few bucks) towards the forthcoming postings. I need to contemplate it more but my first musings about the Gun Barrel would be that it's talking about either the kundalini or the Middle Pillar. 93 93/93 Andy.” .........Reply: Very good; Carl Jung has long ago established that what is called the Kundalini in the east the Greeks refer to as the daimon; Christianity then took the daimon, made it evil and started calling it a demon, or The Devil. Although on the one level this card might appear to be 'phallic', on another it refers to our ability to tap into a specific type of energy found mutually in the man and the woman who, after all, both have this quality on their internal Tree of Life. Those dirty little school child who reads the word 'phallus' in Crowley's books and who immediately thinks sex magick and their own mundane equipment miss this point entirely. 7:15am Sorry Mike, regarding last night's postings, I will not go into 'exactly' what Miguel Walters did that offended us. Each student is different, each is judged on a case by case basis. I don't know how they do things in your A.'.A.'. branch but in ours we ask only for simply respect. Mr Walters thinks that because of his age, his experiences in college and the mundane world etc and his lengthy friendship with me prior to joining, that it all gives him the right to dictate how a student should relate to his teacher. He has obviously never read Crowley on the subject of a chela; especially about student-teacher relationships and he's been picking and choosing what he likes since day one; ignoring the obvious while whining if we dare to offer serious criticism. We've reached the end of our rope with him. He's a Scorpio, nearing forty and one who is reaching his third or 'death phase' where the Scorpion feels cornered and is stinging themselves to death rather than simply walking out of the circle that they have drawn around themselves throughout their life. ... Anyway, he's a really nice guy, has always been a good friend and I hope always will be. We have no animosity toward him but we just feel that a vertical school is not his place. ... As you and I have talked in the past; a student should be assisting the teacher in moving forward as he or she does likewise. It's a symbiotic relationship but in Miguel's case, he's a lead weight, probably always will be, he's caught up in the pit of Because. 6:30am For the history buffs: Mr. Joques de Livron Joachim la Tour de la Case Martines Depasqually, the founder of the Martinists, was born on this date in 1727 ............. and Rev. D. William Alexander Ayton was born on this date in 1816. At the age of seventy-two the Revd. William Alexander Ayton decided to join the British occult fraternity known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He was the 20th member listed on the ‘Roll’ of membership. He took the motto of Frater Virtute Orta Raris. He died about twenty years later on January 1, 1909 in Saffron Walden, Hertfordshire. The Revd. Ayton once wrote to his friend W. B. Yeats that he had actually manufactured the elixir of life - “A French alchemist said that it had the right smell and the right color ... but the first effect of the elixir is that your finger nails fall out and your hair falls off. I was afraid that I might have made a mistake and that nothing else might happen, so I put it away on a shelf. I meant to drink it when I was an old man, but when I took it down the other day and it had all dried up.” ............. Joseph Dunninger, the mental wizard, was born on this date in 1896. He was a stage magician, excelling in mental magic and Escapologist. He wrote the classic book The Art of Thought Reading (1956). He died on March 9, 1975 at the age of 82. Monday April 27th 2009 – 8:40pm This is one of those posting that I hate to have to do and it is a first; but officially, as of tonight, Miguel Walters has been thrown out of Grady McMutrtry's A.'.A.'. lineage. He was sent the following email:
Miguel Walters 93
First of all; I have absolutely nothing against you; drop the paranoia but you continually forget your place; you’re just a man of Earth; no higher. You’ve been in our A.’.A.’ less that two years. I will not go into most of your email but I will comment on your remark - “Given my own experience with having been through and taught at colleges, mundane or no, it seems an important part of studenthood that I should point out to the teacher that if they are wanting me to get something useful from their teaching that perhaps it not just the way I learn that is causing the problem.” ... Who the Hell do you think you are? In a vertical school the chela or student does not dictate ANYTHING to the teacher nor do they have the right to question a teacher’s methods. You are a classic example of why we avoid taking anyone who is way past their first Saturn Return. Such individuals are often impossible to teach, they’re set in their beliefs with the importance of Self and the defense of Ego in a Pit of Because. Obviously, by you own admission; it is ‘WE’ who are failing to teach you; not you who are incapable of understanding the methods of the A.’.A.’. ... So, if we are such failures, why do you want to be part of us? ... I will help you with your decision; this email will be posted on our blog to give notice to you and all others worldwide that Miguel Walters is officially being suspended from Grady Louis McMurtry’s A.’.A.’. lineage for insubordination, arrogance and stupidity. All incoming emails from you will hence forth be unopened and deleted. 93 93/93 Frater Achad Osher 583It is highly suggested to all our A.'.A.'. members both locally and in Sacramento to avoid getting into any and all discussion with this gentlemen about his membership. I do not want to see good students dragged down by this person's insatiable need to convince others that he is right and everyone else is wrong. Let him stay alone in his pit of Because.5:25pm To answer a brief question in a lengthy email on an unrelated topic but which indirectly relates to The Gun Barrel. I wrote how 'mirth' is the function of our consciousness attributed to The Devil card and in the previous Aeon amusement, laughter or hilarity of any kind was generally frowned upon as being one of the Devil’s gift which bestows weakness; especially in women. But remember, Crowley has stated - “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.” 9:15am Ok, Ok, I just got an idiot email not worth posting! Let me tell my readers who are trying to interpret the latest posting of Crowley's The Gun Barrel to stop thinking about your penis and phallic magick; The Book of Lies is not all about your equipment as much as the Divine Lies about 'male and female essence' found in all of us; both men and women. Let me give you all a few good reference books to keep at hand during these discussions :1. The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley2. Liber Aleph by Aleister Crowley3. The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley4. 777 by Aleister Crowley5. Magick Without Tears by Aleister Crowley6. The Tarot by Paul Foster Case7. Yoga by J. F. C. Fuller8. The Middle Pillar by Israel Regardie9. The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune7:30am The NEWS say that we here in Berkeley had a slight earthquake this morning at 3:15am; it was just a 2.4 magnitude. No biggie, Mother Nature was just rolling over in her sleep; it's when she passes gas that we all start running! 7:15am Frank sent in an email; part of which he writes – “You seemed hard on your student who sent in yesterday’s 4:00pm posting about the Gun-Barrel. I thought he did a good job.” ......... Reply: I am a harsh task master; all my student’s know this. If they repeatedly make the same mistake I give them no quarter. In my view, I do not want to see mostly quotes from my students without explanation or ‘name dropping’ of examples of what they are too lazy to put into their own words. Such behavior should not be the main part of one's email as much as supporting data. It is not my job to decipher what a student is thinking. Furthermore, this discussion regarding The Book of Lies is meant to drag the thoughts of our Ruach, which are bathed in archetypal and symbolic imagery, into the Light of Day. Therefore, if a student writes like the Ruach, let them stay in the Ruach and don't bother me with their babblings. Yes, I am harsh but these are extremely important lessons to learn. I am trying to make magicians; new Aeonic thinkers and the A.’.A.’. is a College not a High School. ... Frank, as for your comment - "Didn't you once tell me that you carefully review what your student's write to detemine where they are coming from on the Tree?" ..... Reply: Damn it, I hate it when you guys quote my own stuff back at me! Yes, you are correct and in a 'one on one' private correspondence this is a very helpful tool so I let students babble at their own discretion. But on the blog I must be harsher as not to let other students think such a behavior is acceptable in a public forum. Furthermore, from a psychological point-of-view, if you write an email bathed in archetypal and symbolic imagery without much serious explanation it DOES reveal more about yourself than you realizes. Sometimes too much. 6:15am And Jay replied to yesterday's comments - "93 Jerry, Okay okay so the path of the Devil is energy coming downward from Tipareth to Hod, but from where? The path of Gimel's where-- ah! those Lunar dewdrops! I've always thought of Capricorn, being cardinal earth, as especially manifesting on this plane. If the Devil is the erect phallus receiving the word it's easy to see how it implies the earthly manifestation through the path of shin-- or! it can be united to Netzach by the path of Pe where it can die along the path of Death to be reborn in the Sun instead of dying or birthing a material child in Malkuth. It seems that Crowley is talking about the process of uniting the Word with Binah (lost within the Body of Our Lady of the Stars) so it may birth below the Abyss (but a hallow tube to bring down fire from heaven) by the formula of ON. The phallus is the perfect metaphor. In both Dewdrops and The Gun Barrel we get the impression that this process has nothing to do with the ego, as the dewdrops come from above the Abyss, not even the higher Ruach; thus the lack of self in both chapters. How this all plays out in practical terms I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect it has to do with the Muladhara chakra (back to the Moon). Love, Jay 93 93/93." .............. Reply: Very good. First, remember that The Devil card is in our Ruach. Second, it works through two chakras, the Anahata or Heart Chakra and the Svadhisthana; study these well and remember that a path is useless that leads nowhere; it is merely the channel from point A to Point B but often in one's mundane journey throughout life, due to the path that you travel, you change. But how did you change? In our internal Self the nature of The Devil card depicts how the energy will move; changing either in a positive or negative manner. Keep in mind that the path of The Devil rules Ayin, or the letter 'O' of the Formula of ON. The 'O' is the masculine or positive current found in both the man and women on their Left Hand or Descending Pillar. If the Illusions of the Devil are not taken under control and moved correctly into the Manipura, it draws our Dewdrops downward into the Muladhara wherein dwells the Sun which exudes the poison [remember the Dewdrops lessons] which will kill the Dewdrops and at the point of orgasm we become one with the Earth; no higher. 6:00am For the history buffs: The writer Frank Belknap Long was born on this date in New York in 1903. He push the boundaries of writing weird fiction, fantasy, and science fiction in such classics as The Dark Beasts: And Eight Other Stories from the Hound of Tindalos (1964) And John Carstairs: Space Detective (1949), to name but a few of his numerous of his work. He died on January 3, 1994 in New York. …...…. Also, on this date in 1923 Virginia Tighe was born in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1952 during a session of hypnotic regression under the guidance of Morey Bernstein she gave a detailed account of her past life as an Irish woman named Bridey Murphy (1798-1864). Bernstein recorded the sessions and later published them in a book titled The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956). It became a bestseller and many people took the tale as undisputed proof of reincarnation because Tighe, who had never been to Ireland, provided an abundance of commonplace details of life in 19th century Ireland. Researchers who scrutinized her life then discovered that Tighe had lived across the street from an Irish woman named Bridey Murphy Corkell when she was a child. This made many people wonder if Tighe was merely remembering child-hood stories under hypnosis, others were far more cynical and simply dismissed Bernstein and Tighe as frauds. However, regardless of the facts, many people continue to believe the Bridey Murphy case who study the paranormal. She later married and became known as Virginia Mae Morrow, she died at the the age of 70 on July 12, 1995 near Denver, Colorado. …....…. And finally, on April 27, 1957 one of the founders of Agape Lodge O.T.O. in Southern California, Wilfred T. Smith, died from cancer of the Prostate. Sunday April 26th 2009 – 8:00pm Regarding The Gun Barrel: Jay writes under the subject title of "Capricorn on the Cob" - "93 Jerry, Well today I've especially been thinking about Saturn since we're dealing with The Devil ruled by Capricorn as well as Our Lady of Stars Babalon in Binah, Saturn. Both Saturn and Capricorn have always been very mysterious to me; A.A. Bailey: "The symbol of this sign is indecipherable and intentionally so. It is sometimes called the 'signature of God'. I must not attempt to interpret it for you, partly because it has never yet been correctly drawn and partly because its correct delineation and the ability of the initiate to depict it produces an inflow of force which would not be desirable except after due preperation and understanding." This inflow of energy, this "hollow tube to bring fire from heaven" seems to be precisely what Crowley is talking about. I'm also very interested in the idea of the Devil as an illusion, an illusion of evil that itself leads us to god, finding god through deception perhaps. (It leads me to believe that we should be especially hesitant in making hasty interpretations of this chapter.) I think that this deception is the logos or word below the Abyss. Our symbol systems are illusions we create, tapestries we weave out of smoke and reflections and yet it is only by means of symbolic thought that we accomplish anything as magicians. Inevitably the ladder has to be thrown away once we've climbed it. Above the Abyss is the Word as received by Babalon (and back to Saturn who eats his children). Perhaps Saturn, above the Abyss, consumes those illusive structures which hold the ego together; "This is The Night wherein I am lost, the Love through which I am no longer I." .... A couple of other disconnected thoughts: Crowley says somewhere that the pyramid of the magician needs to have the broadest base to remain stable with the highest peaks. Perhaps the warning againt unloosing the inflow of energy implied in the path of The Devil. ... Also, a line I've been wondering about: "Mighty and marvellous is this Weakness". Does anyone have an idea as to his use of Weakness in this line? ...as usual I perceive many pieces of puzzle but am unsure as to the image I'm supposed to be building... Love, Jay. 93 93/93." ........... Reply: Not bad, at least you've taken the time to write our clear and concise thoughts rather just dropping ‘tidbits’ of numerous random ideas and expecting the reader to know what you're talking about. Let us review the obvious regarding The Devil card which has a deep symbolic undertone in The Gun Barrel. This tarot card represents ‘bondage’ in a sense like Maya; which is often interpreted as Illusion but this can be misleading. It truth, bondage is merely the loss of our faculty of discrimination whereby we focus outward into superficial matters where we can become deluded by the importance of this world on a moment to moment basis. Of the five senses the one which most aids us in focusing outward is ‘sight’ and The Devil card is ruled by the Hebrew letter ayin (ע) which means the ‘eye.’ ... The ‘eye’ is also a reference for the tiny portal of pure Gold; the opening of a man’s penis, which is also why Crowley states that “The title of the chapter refers to the Phallus.” Crowley is clearly aware that at the moment our ‘gun’ discharges one’s Will can become deluded due to improper focus. Crowley also acknowledges a secret by informing us that The Gun Barrel is “a reference to the nature of Samadhi" and then adding "As man loses his personality in physical love, so does the magician annihilate his divine personality in that which is beyond. The formula of Samadhi is the same, from the lowest to the highest.” In a generalization, Paul Foster Case reiterates this when he states that the “ancients declared that the devil is God inverted” and in a way; he’s correct. The card refers to our ‘Wants’ over our ‘Will’; or matter over spirit and when we get caught up in the throws of bondage one often loses sight to the fact that they are both one and the same thing. We incarnated in order to gain a specific experience which we call our True Will but every aspect of our experience as dictated by our ‘Wants’ is also part our ‘True Will.’ Thus, in orgasm, from the loftiest to the lowest, is Samadhi. But fear not at the loss of Self because the Intelligence of this card is called ‘renewal’ ... and from a phallic perspective; I need not point out the obvious.
6:35pm Here is a clue from Aleister Crowley's Liber Aleph:136
DE ECSTASIA SAMADHI, QUO ILLIS DIFFERIT
'On the Ecstasy of Samadhi and how it differs from Others'
Confuse thou not this beatific vision with the Trances called Samadhi; yet is Samadhi the Pylon of the Temple hereof. For Samadhi is the orgasm of the coition of the Unlike, and is commonly violent, even as the lightning cometh of the discharge between two vehicles of extreme difference of potentials. But as I shewed formerly concerning love, how each such discharge bringeth either component more nigh to equilibrium, so is it in this other matter, and by experience thou comest constantly to integration of love (or what not) within thyself, just as all effort becometh harmonious and easy by virtue of practice. Rememberest thou the first time thou wast thrown into water, thy fear and thy struggles, and he vehemence of thy joy when first thou didst swim without support? Then, little by little all violence dieth away, because thou art adjusted to that condition. Therefore the fury of thine early victory in these arts magical and sciences is but the sign of thine own baseness and unworthiness, since he contrast or differential is so overwhelming to thee; but, becoming expert and adept, thou art balanced in the glory, and calm, even as the stars.
4:00pm We got our first interpretation of The Gun Barrel - "93, Br. Cornelius, Here is my present take on the Book of Lies chapter 15. ... “A gun barrel is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion or rapid expansion of gases is released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at great speed.” – From WikipediaMighty and erect is this Will of mine, this Pyramid of fire whose summit is lost in Heaven. Upon ithave I burned the corpse of my desires.Mighty and erect is this Φαλλος of my Will. The seed thereof is That which I have borne within mefrom Eternity; and it is lost within the Body of Our Lady of the Stars.Crowley is noted as having said that “the Phallus is the physiological basis of the over soul.” While traditionally the Phallus has been directly associated with the male sex gland, or penis, its symbolic associations suggest something more universal. The female sex glands have always been associated with mystery and concealment, while the penis being most ready visible, especially in its excited state, has been directly related to the act of creation. The Phallus as penis was therefore more easily and directly associated by the ancients with the universal creative process. However, as a more universal symbol the Phallus is emblematic of the creative energy or libido present in all living things. That being said of course this particular piece seems to be directly associating the Phallus with the penis as evidence in the title, use of the word erect, and the reference to the hollow tube. The Phallus is also simultaneously identified with the Will thereby making it a magical Wand. The wand is the elemental weapon of fire which element is mentioned.The “summit” being “lost in heaven” suggests identification of one’s mate with the “Queen of heaven” Nuit. Given my own studies of the O.T.O. degree papers as published by King it doesn’t matter if the partner is physical.The Pyramid is composed of a square and four triangles suggesting the circle squared symbolism of the A.·.A.·. degrees as well as the rose cross which is confirmed in later lines. It is to noted that Pyramids are hollow and mountainous suggesting relationship with the mountain of initiation (Abeignus) and the hollow tube which will be discussed as this interpretation proceeds.The seed is that which we have already discussed by way of Dewdrops. The last line of the second verse however seems to suggest an association of Nuit with Chokmah as Masloth, “the starry firmament”. I feel I should note that the numerical value of 831 derived from the Greek words for Pyramid and Phallus when reduce 8+3+1= 12 further reduction to 3 suggest the unity of the supernal triad as the source from which all we are discussing issues forth.This line “The seed thereof is That which I have borne within me from Eternity; and it is lost within the Body of Our Lady of the Stars.” Refers me back to many of the ideas presented in connection with Dewdrops. More specifically “eternity” can be said to be embodied in Binah who gives context to the content of Chokmah, once again Masloth, “the body of stars” wherein lies the potential of all things.I would like to make special reference to the number 15 and its association to the Devil card in Tarot. By reduction 1+5=6 the sun of Tiphareth to which the Atu is linked and 6 the Vau of the Hierophat Atu V the revealer of the mysteries of Chokmah as contained in the sun/son. Much more can be said here relative to 18 being a Moon of illusion and the Devil being the “lord of illusion,” but I think I will defer to chapter H at this time; certainly it will be discussed when we get to chapter ΛΒ.I am not I; I am but an hollow tube to bring down Fire from Heaven.I will not recount the myth of Promethius the Titan champion of men here. Cirlot’s dictionary of symbols give a great account of it alchemical implications as might be suggested in connection with this verse. I would like to add the interpretation though that with bring fire down from Olympus we get a similar story to that told of the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Some primordial figure grants humanity with knowledge reserved for the Gods and both are punished for the transgression with death. However, both stories also “end” with humanity being redeemed by uniting with a divine figure in a process that mimics death.
Mighty and marvellous is this Weakness, this Heaven which draweth me into Her Womb, this Domewhich hideth, which absorbeth, Me.This is The Night wherein I am lost, the Love through which I am no longer I.Woe, woe, woe, the corpses of my desire. “For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.” AL:I:29“This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.” AL: I:30“Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all.” AL:I:32[…]Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me. AL:I:51. “The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings.” AL:II:74The king is dead long live the king!93;93/93Gnothi Seauton, moE----------------------------------------------------Reply: Reply: Slightly amusing but might I remind you that despite 'studying' OTO Grade papers in Francis King's book, unless you are initiated into that degree your interpretation can often be seem as babblings from Malkuth. You made a couple of really good comments but I'd like to warn my readers to ignore most of what you wrote and the best advice I can give to you and other individuals who want to write their interpretation of this chapter is to stay 'focused' and stop trying to write a perfect analogy of the entire Mysteries; we're not looking for instant definitive Truths. Pick one point and let us all slowly unravel it during the course of the week ...... and then you end with utter Thelemic folly by simply quoting The Book of the Law as if everyone who reads your quotes will automatically be on the same page. Aughhh! ... All in all, your email is what we would like to see toward the end of the week as a 'summation'; after we’ve had a chance to discuss some of the chapters finer points; all of which you seemingly missed. ...... So, to all my readers, please start by picking one of the most obvious avenues of disclosure like, what does The Devil card mean since it has a connection to 'The Gun Barrel' ? 6:30am Well dear readers, after last weeks little torturous mind experiment on ‘Dewdrops’ it is now time to move on. In the original typed manuscript of Liber De Natura Deorum, Sub Figvra CCXXVIII (228) – Of the Nature of the Gods, it gives eight specific chapters from Liber 333, The Book of Lies which are mandatory to study. One is a Ritual; seven are theory. Since I was a full Seventh Degree OTO Initiate I had the opportunity to question Grady McMurtry about these chapters and he made it very clear that “Failure to understand these Chapters means failure as a IXth.” The Chapters are KE, A, H, IA, IE, IF, IH, ΛB. ... So far on this blog we’ve started with discussing Cap. IH or Dewdrops which is by far one of the most intricate for a Seventh Degree to understand and so today I am posting IE or The Gun-Barrel, the 15th Chapter. It is simpler, more direct and hopefully it will not confuse you all too bad. A major clue to keep in mind is that it builds off what we already discussed in the previous discussion. You must focus on both; do not assume that simply because I’ve posted a ‘new’ Chapter that the old can now be ignored or placed behind you. Be that as it may; Aleister Crowley's brief COMMENTARY (ΙE) on The Gun Barrel is as follows - "The card 15 in the Tarot is 'The Devil', the mediaeval blind for Pan. The title of the chapter refers to the Phallus, which is here identified with the will. The Greek word Πυραμις has the same number as Φαλλος. This chapter is quite clear, but one may remark in the last paragraph a reference to the nature of Samadhi. As man loses his personality in physical love, so does the magician annihilate his divine personality in that which is beyond. The formula of Samadhi is the same, from the lowest to the highest. The Rosy-Cross is the Universal Key. But, as one proceeds, the Cross becomes greater, until it is the Ace, the Rose, until it is the Word." .... The two Greek words that Crowley mentions refer to a Pyramid (Πυραμις) and the Phallus (Φαλλος), both of which add numerically to 831 but oddly; both words are not even mentioned in Crowley's own Greek Qabalistic dictionary Liber MCCLXIV. I am perplexed. ... finally, if any of you have an ‘epiphany’ regarding Dewdrops while focusing on the new chapter, which could well happen, be sure to send it on. ... So, my little cowboys and cowgirls, put on your thinking sombreros, throw a saddle on the Stag-beetle, slap its ass, scream "Yippie yi yo kayah" and ride the little bugger off into the mid-night hours but be sure and tell me what you think about your journey!6:15am For the history buffs: William Desmond Taylor was born on this date in Carlow, Ireland in 1872. He was a former actor turned director in early Hollywood and was one of the more colorful personalities in early Hollywood. He would have all but been forgotten in history had it not been for his death. On the night of February 1, 1922, someone shot him in the back, between neck and shoulder, leaving him dead on the floor of his duplex at the Alvarado Court Apartments. There appeared to be no sign of a break-in or burglary, and cash was found in the house and on the body. It is still an unsolved crime which has continued to intrigue and tantalize people. Over the years, conspiracy theorists have drawn up a long list of potential suspects of both individuals and groups who may have had a hand in the killing William Desmond Taylor. Most seem fairly outrageous, like the rumors of drug dealing and sex perversions and dark whisperings that tied both his girlfriend and him into the occult practices of the “Ordo Templis Orientis” which was a “cult of drug-fiend satanist Aleister Crowley.” In fact, Taylor had been seen in opium dens where men smoked the pipe and had sex with each other. Some said there were “obvious clues, in the death-room, to a homosexual revenge killing.” …...…. And Jess Stern was born on this date in Syracuse, New York in 1914. He was a journalist rather than an astrologer, none-the-less he played a role in widening public interest in astrology during the 1970s, especially with his book A Time For Astrology. His best-selling book, Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet, spurred major interest in spirituality. Another of his books widely read was Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation. In all, he wrote around 30 books on the occult. He died of congestive heart failure at the age of 87 on March 27, 2002, at his home in Malibu, California. Several obituaries quoted a speech that he had given to Cayce’s A.R.E. (society) in 1990: “Death is just a comma in the book of life.” …...…. And finally, it was on April 26, 1956 that the movie Godzilla, King of the Monsters opened on this date. It was originally called ‘Gojira’ in Japan. Its plot was simple; it had an American newspaper reporter, a lovely Japanese lady scientist, her brother and the entire Japanese army trying to stop a 40-story high, fire-breathing monster that was created by radiation exposure which was destined to destroy Tokyo!Saturday April 25th 2009 – 7:30pm At our Friday night Open House Mick Roche brought ‘disks’ filled with pictures from the Book of the Law feast; they are fantastic; hundreds. After our talk on Dewdrops, when half the people had left, the rest of us watched the lot of them as a slide show on my computer. Many of the photos were beautiful, breathtaking, many very funny and a few could easily be used as blackmail. Earlier today I sent Mick an email – “LOVVVVVE the pictures. We showed them as a slide show last night on my computer and they were a crowd pleaser ... next Friday we're thinking about advertising the same - "SLIDE SHOW OF THE FEAST OF THE BOOK OF THE LAW AS CAPTURED BY THE CAMERA OF MICK ROCHE!" It aught to be fun! I cannot thank you enough.” ... And Mick just replied – “Jerry 93 Glad to hear it! Hey did you give it a musical background score while you were at it? That would be fun - pulling a play list from your collection! Looking forward to seeing it, Great idea! I may have a few more to add. I want to pull some good portraits out of the group shots and play around with effects on some too. My favorite one of all is the picture of backdrop with no figure. ...Why...is that the ghost of Aleister Crowely I see making a brief phantasmal appearance in one of those photos??? Also, Thanks Jerry. You have an uncanny way of communicating points of view that challenge my complacency. I got a lot out of last evening's presentation. Mick 93 93/93." ..... Reply: Great, glad you enjoyed the talk. And yes, bring more pictures, the more pictures the merrier! I'm also adding a bunch from Ben and Charles ... and great minds think alike; the topic during the slide show last night was coming up with a 'soundtrack'. Yes, I working on it! Yes, I am working on it! Next Friday night aught to be fun! We need lots of popcorn!
11:32am This is to inform any of my 'new' readers, who might be checking in and seeing a rather intense magickal discussion taking place on this blog that I have created a new webpage called THE BOOK OF LIES which is listed as such on our CONTENTS PAGE with a note – “This being a discussion of eight specific chapters.” If you have been part of these discussions or have simply been following this blog, or you are confused, you should check out this page because this blog (like most blogs) always include the most recent entries to the top which makes reviewing the 'flow' of a lengthy discussion difficult from beginning to end. To alleviate this problem I have also created [on-going] pieces titled ‘Epistles’ which automatically includes just the postings from this blog regarding our discussions on The Book of Lies to the bottom rather than the top. ... Thus, any 'new' reader can see the comments in the order that they came in during the course of these rather important magickal discussion. This will be an important reference page for all future discussions. 11:25am Luna writes - "Jerry 93! Thank you, and the crew, for "AN OPEN EPISTLE ON DEWDROPS". I love that you have it all in one place. I can read it...go research an idea, and then go back to the epistle and read more. I look forward to more discussions, in the future, being formatted this way...it helps me stay on track and in the momentum of the topic....very powerful actually. Thank you again. 93s )O(." ............. Reply: Glad to be of help! :)8:50am Regarding Dewdrops, Andy West of Sacramento writes - "Jerry 93! It's been interesting seeing all the interpretations of this chapter on the blog. The ins and outs of each line seem to have been covered pretty well but I noticed something interesting in the piece overall. It seems like semen is a metaphor for the True Will or purpose one picked up on the other side of the River of Forgetfulness with the Ancestors. The chapter seems to give a kind of Zen advice on not getting in the way of ones purpose rather than actively trying to force it. It also made me think of the similarity of the flow of the Tao, semen trough the penis on ejaculating, and the flow of En-Sof through the Tree of Life. In that there are some similarities between En-Sof, the Tao and Nuit too it seems like the chapter could be referring to the swapping of polarities as energies cross the Abyss. The feminine energy of Nuit above the Abyss transforming into the masculine energy of semen below? ("Had! The manifestation of Nuit" AL I:1) Once the Nuit, Tao energy has manifested as a seminal dewdrop fallen below the Abyss it goes through the cycle of birth and death ("therefore is the knowledge of me the knowlede of death" AL II:6. Interesting too that knowledge, daath, is the word used here as that is the point where energies cross the Abyss) and stays buried in the ground (man returneth not, the stream floweth not uphill) but truly everything is Nuit so the birth and death were both an illusion anyway. It was all Nuit all along. ... Sorry if I'm repeating anything. I've been tweaking this message off and on between schoolwork all week and haven't edited things out as much as clarified them. That Frater Orpheus wrote one hell of a interpreatation. That guy should write more. It was good seeing you at the Feast. Awesome news on your health. 93 93/93 - Andy." .............. Reply: Very good interpretation. As for the line - "The feminine energy of Nuit above the Abyss transforming into the masculine energy of semen below" : consider the fact that Men are Hadit, Women are Nuit. Men are of the Earth, Women are of the Heavens. Men are the Sun, Women are the Moon. And The Book of Lies also informs us – “The brothers of A.’.A.’. are Women: the Aspirants to A.’.A.’. are Men.” ... This quote is from the chapter titled The Oyster which, according to Crowley, gives “an initiated feminine point of view” This single chapter has confused more people but it is actually quite easy to understand. The initiated feminine point of view is not from Malkuth; nor is it something solely for women. ... In Qabalah once an initiate, either a man or a woman, crosses the Abyss into the true A.’.A.’. their formula of attainment becomes ‘feminine’.... below the Abyss, the formula is always ‘masculine’ for both man and women. This is a good judge of true initiatory fraternities; if they allow 'gender' to be switched in the wording of their sacred rituals to appease women, without telling them the Truth, I'm be suspect if they really knew it. The bottom line; above the Abyss our attainment is rooted in the Stars; below the Abyss it is rooted in the ‘one’ Star of our Universe, i.e. our Sun; and according to Crowley, “in the Microcosm, which is Man, the viceregent of the Sun, sole giver of Life, is the Phallus.” We learn the Laws of the Above because they teach us the secrets within!8:45am I'm finally up, everyone left last night's Open House lecture on Dewdrops around eleven-thirty last night and I still stayed up way past midnight watching TV. I feel tired but remarkably I'm feeling ok; anyway, for the history buffs I have only one thing to report: In a letter to Lady Gregory on this date in 1900, W. B. Yeats writes, “... Crowley, a quite unspeakable person. He is I believe seeking revenge for our refusal to initiate him. We did not admit him because we did not think a mystical society was intended to be a reformatory.”Friday April 24th 2009 – 4:30pm Anyone who knows me, knows that I use to love hanging around my favorite watering hole known as Raleigh's bar here on Telegraph Avenue, just a few blocks from my apartment. Sadly, it had its Liquor License Suspension in early December. Today, this article appeared in the local newspaper, The Daily Californian. I am posting the article because so many of us would sit in the window seats, order pitcher after picture and talk about magick, religion and her meta-physical Laws as she walked by.
April 24th 2009
Telegraph Pub Re-Opens
With New Ownership After Violation
Three weeks into its most recent alcohol license suspension in December, a popular restaurant and bar on Telegraph Avenue switched its ownership and name. Raleigh's American Pub & Grill's alcohol license was suspended for 25 days beginning on Dec. 18 after the restaurant was caught selling alcohol to a minor in May, according to John Carr, public information officer for the Alcoholic Beverage Control department. During the suspension, the restaurant closed its bar and was only allowed to sell food. On Jan. 9, three days before the suspension was set to expire, owner Gregory Ent sold Raleigh's to its manager, Manny Lopez, who changed its name to Manny's Tap Room. Ent and Lopez could not be reached for comment. According to Carr, Manny's Tap Room will not incur any of the previous establishment's alcohol violations on its record. "The new owners start with a new slate," he said. "They have nothing to do with previous owners." The department has the authority to revoke the alcohol license of businesses caught making three sales to minors within a three-year period, Carr said. Raleigh's most recent violation is the second one within a three-year period. The first offense, which occurred in 2006, resulted in a 20-day license suspension, he said. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
3:10pm My dear friend Tony Spulock saw the 'new' picture of me with my long beard shaved off. Yes, I cut if off on the 12th! You can see beardless photos of me HERE [example: top picture left]. Anyway, Tony writes - "Get that beard back. Signed: the Bearded Mage Police" ... Reply: I heard you oh BMP; my beard is growing back! My face already got a serious growth.1:53pm Jay writes, under the torturous Subject title - "Someone Call a Somnambulance!" ... "As usual I have a swirl of thoughts in my head and am unsure exactly how to put it together. Your description of your Moon card suggests to me the necessity of controlling the sexual energy on this plane (the circle squared over the phallic mountain) in order to direct that energy towards the astral which itself is very erotic in nature. Also I'm thinking of Liber Aleph, On the Key of Dreams: "And as an in Meditation thou dost destroy every Thought by mating it with its Opposite, so must thou cleanse thyself by a full and perfect Satisfaction of that bodily Will in the Way of Chastity and Holiness which hath been revealed unto thee in thine Initiation. "This inner Silence of the Body being attained, it may be that the True Will may speak in True Dreams; for it is written that He giveth unto His Beloved in Sleep." The Hermit in your Moon card suggests Silence. I feel I understand this all on the surface, but am still missing a deeper meaning... Love, Jay 93 93/93." ............ Reply: Didn't you go to the Throbbing Gristle concert last night in San Francisco? Anyway, somnambulance has been called ... hang in their buddy, it should arrive soon. 1:45pm Evelyn writes - "93 Dear Jerry, The last few interpretations of the poem by your students have been rather beautiful and poetic. I'm glad they shared their views with readers." ........... Reply: So am I; I personally learn alot from my students.11:00am For those locals who like to hang around my apartment; here is today's headlines from the newspaper about what occured yesterday about a half block away on Telegraph and Durant. First, and most important; it wasn't me .....Robbery at Bank of America on Telegraph Avenue
The Bank of America on 2347 Telegraph Avenue was robbed earlier this afternoon. At 1:24 p.m., the Berkeley Police Department received a call reporting that a suspect fled the bank with an unconfirmed amount of cash. As of 1:45 p.m., Berkeley police were still searching for the suspect, described as a 5 foot 9 to 5 foot 10, medium-build male with an unshaven scruffy face and wearing a black shirt. Police on the scene declined to comment. Following the robbery, the bank shut its doors and posted a sign stating, "Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are temporarily closed. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your continued patronage."
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7:15am I added more pictures and info to my MOON page; see yesterday's posting at 11:20am. Hopefully, with all the great info that was disclosed yesterday on this blog, the new pictures might inspire thoughts about Dewdrops. 6:35am For the history buffs: Shirley MacLane Beaty, would later drop her last name, slightly change her middle name and become known as Shirley MacLaine. She is the new-age author and actor, born on this date in Richmond, Virginia in 1934. In Hollywood she acted in such movies as Two Mules for Sister Sarah (1970), Coogan’s Bluff (1968), The Beguiled (1971), Dirty Harry (1972), and Escape From Alcatraz (1979). She became heavily involved in the New Age movement and produced prime time TV specials in 1986-87 discussing her views. This lead her to be called the New Age Movement’s “Chief Evangelist,” while others, primarily the skeptics and comedians, sarcastically mocked her beliefs, but she took them all in stride. Although she has written many books, Out on a Limb (1986) is the one which showed her interest in Great Pyramid, reincarnation, trance mediums, astral projection, UFOs and telepathic space aliens. As far a reincarnation: she claims in her past lives to have been everything from an Indian princess, to a peg-legged pirate, to a man from Atlantis. …....…. And, approximately one month after Grady Louis McMurtry had taken Probationer 0=0 and joined the AA, he decided to officially seek the grade of Magister Templi 8=3. To do this he swore the Oath of the Abyss on this date in 1970 and underwent one of the most dangerous magickal ordeals in all of Aleister Crowley’s teachings.CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECTLY
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