#A.'.A.'.

[sediti0nvi]

There are no age or gender or species requirements for consideration and acceptance into the new academy/college/university of magics witchcraft arts and sciences of the A•°•A•°•. If you have a desire to learn I have a desire to welcome you, Acolyte.

Please send a brief resumé describing yourself, your talents, interests and prior education.

I will respond to all inquiries.

stellar_heat@proton.me

evansjazzzybelly@gmail.com

e.a.gnagey667@gmail.com

[hadit93]

Some Thoughts on the Future of Thelemic Magick

It is my opinion that the Thelemic movement has been largely stagnant in terms of growth and development since the death of Aleister Crowley in 1947. This is not to say there have been no developments or innovative thinkers at all, simply that the majority do not question the documents Crowley penned and believe or ignore any other developments in occultism, magick, and academia.

One thing which needs to be adapted in the new aeon is the training of the order of AA. The guidelines were written over 100 years ago and were largely based on the Golden Dawn system and some rudimentary understanding of raja yoga. The fact is we know much more about both of these systems and understand much more about magical systems in general. People focus too much on the specific practices rather than the experiences these practices are meant to bring about. Not everyone will be able to use the original AA instructions and make them work, there are other methods and what matters is the experience gained rather than the work needed to get there.

Another thing I believe needs to go is the hierarchical system of magical orders. Every man and every woman is a star, the law is for all. There are no magical secrets anymore, and quite frankly those who are ill prepared to use certain techniques will not get very far to begin with. There is no need for pompous titles and secret handshakes. Kill it with fire.

I also believe utilising the tree of life as a structure for initiation is problematic. It just doesn't work in my opinion and is an idea developed by the Golden Dawn that needn't continue on into the modern day. People need to track their development, yes. But do people really need to be stuck in the relator grade because they can't hold an asana without moving for an hour? It makes for a pointless exercise. I believe everyone should try to master an asana, but why assign this to one grade? Especially when the elemental initiations were scrapped by Crowley?

I believe Jerry Cornelius was the first to propose a three grade system based on Liber Legis: The Man of Earth, The Lover, and the Hermit. He mapped these roughly to Neophyte, Adept, and Magister Templi. That is the first work is to prepare the temple for the Angel, to analyse the Self and master the Self. This is the work of the man of Earth- to become a stable foundation. The work of the lover is to attain knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel which in the Thelemic system (as opposed to the Abramelin system from where the term comes) means achieving samadhi and a connection to the interface with the God head. The work of the hermit is to cross the abyss which I will not speak on because I have no real experience of this.

Crowley recognised that people needed to find their own ways to these goals very early on. In fact a lot of the time people did not go through the AA grades officially. They had an experience and Crowley recognised this as appropriate for a specific grade. Not everyone is going to forge a link to the angel with ritual, for some it will be devotional work and yoga, for others they want to invoke beings and have all the visuals, and others will find prayer to be a valuable tool. The AA has instructions in all of these, but to assume you need to master all of them is a false assumption and just makes life hard.

Something else that needs to be addressed is the people who have blinders on when it comes to developments in magick after Crowley. For example, his instructions on Astral projection are not great, they require further instruction and we have so many more tools at our disposal now that makes the whole process easier. Not to mention lucid dreaming research which can make entry into the astral during sleep easier and allow for the same during waking hours. There are countless books published by mystics and psychologists alike. Why not use them?

In terms of evocation we know Crowley's Goetia is the worst edition, and it wasn't even Crowleys (but that's another story)! We now know the roots of such practices and we hopefully have grown past the idea that chthonic spirits are evil and dirty. We have hopefully gone past the notion that all things must be, or even can be, banished before a magical working takes place. 

We must be past the idea that Crowley had mastered the Golden Dawn system, he had not. Crowley was also not really a practicing magician for the majority of his magical career. As soon as he found sex magick, that was his focus. Therefore whilst he was certainly knowledgeable, he was not the authority on the Golden Dawn system and modern adepts of that system should certainly be listened to as they have the benefit of receiving decades worth of teachings and information from people who actually practiced the system consistently for most of their lives.

Finally, and most importantly, we surely do not believe Crowley is the only prophet of the new age? The only magician who receives communications? The only one worth listening to? We must get past this, the point of magic is to establish communication with spiritual forces, why would the words of Crowley be placed on a pedestal above all others? I am not showing disrespect for Liber Legis or any of the other so-called 'holy books' but I also do not treat them like sacred scripture. I think it is ridiculous alongside any religious aspect applied to Thelema. Crowleyanity is an abomination.

I do not believe the time for instruction is over, I do believe magical orders are on the decline and this is because of their own stagnation. I believe the student-teacher relationship to be necessary not only to the student but also to the teacher. They keep each other aware of their own bullshit. They also question each other, challenge each other, and ultimately help each other to grow. This being said, I believe such relationships should come about naturally as opposed to being manufactured by the pairing up of individuals at random via an email list.

In short, I believe Thelema needs to change and in particular the orders of Thelema need to change quickly because they will cease to exist. Once they cease to exist Thelema will also decline and will be gone by the end of the current century. This would be a shame as many of the modern magical movements are drenched in Thelema, but Thelema at its core is a beautiful mystical philosophy that can inform an individual of their own sovereignty and their own course amongst the stars.

[koyotetheblind]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiXyMEbJLRQ)

A brief background on what a Clerk House is in the system of the A.’.A.’., an initiatory order founded by Aleister Crowley (and also the name given to the sempiternal inner circle working towards the evolution of humanity). This small talk was given by Koyote the Blind during the celebration of the 7 year anniversary of the founding of the Ox and None Clerk House. Koyote has been teaching magick and mysticism in the Western esoteric tradition for decades, and founded his clerk house of the A.'.A.'. in 2010

[maddiviner]

Magister Templi Tumbling

I have this friend who wrote a masterful (for our current knowledge) essay on ritual, and he said, only half-joking, that if he “makes it that far,” it will probably turn into his Magister Templi thesis within the A.’.A.’. I thought about it, and a funny thought occurred to me: what if I make it that far? And what if, just what if, one of my Tumblr posts turns into my thesis? And it isn’t good? And people snicker because it started on a blog? Truly a nightmarish prospect.

[edieeros]

TERROR’S TRINITY

The dweller of the threshold appears to you when you are ascending and fills you with that dread and fear.

You feel like: Oh everything’s gonna come down! What if I die?! Oh it must be the devil!

Death The Devil The Tower The three most misunderstood cards.

They are legendary for the superstitions they create in people. The negativity that’s applied to them... it's as if all the human stories and lore are trying to keep people away from it.

In the collective unconscious of humanity there have been all these things that create fear; so that you don’t go up so that you remain down here.

Even the fear of the serpent, the idea that the serpent is evil, is designed to keep that sexual force, the force of liberty, of love, of life, of light trapped. Trapped from the path of return.

The initiated knows the true meaning…

So that you’re no longer afraid of them, you're able to actually build the tower in such a way that when the lightening strikes it’s not a destructive force, it is what infuses you with life. If that tower is built right the lighting bolt is what awakens you and provides the path to the heavens.

(Poetically curated notes from a lecture by Koyote the Blind)

[hadit93]

A new blog post more suited for a non-tumblr website. Analysis of the 'holy book' Liber B vel Magi.

[greatworkofmagic]

A Partial Model of Magick and Yoga, pt. 2

So I've had a bit of time to think about what the hell I was trying to get at with the magickal link connection in that previous post, and I think I've mostly sorted it out. The idea is that anytime a magical link is used, it is in some sense at least two links. The first is between the object and the thing it is supposedly linked to. The second is between the practitioner and the object which is supposedly linked to the thing being operated on. The nature of the second link, if it exists at all, remains mysterious. In order to express what I'm getting at a little more clearly, I'm going to propose a series of experiments and then add a couple more thoughts and leave it there.

0. Devise some relatively neutral ritual, which has a roughly equal chance of working on any given person (good luck with that, but we're talking in abstractions here). At every turn, meaningful variables should be cut down as much as possible. We want a "standardised" procedure. The ritual includes an SOI which names a specific person as the target of the ritual, and it works on an object, which is treated as the link to the person.

1. Perform a series of rituals as devised in (0), in which all practitioners are told they are given a hair of the "target", but some instead are given a different person's hair. Rituals are performed. The question is: is the link or the intent more effective when both are in the practitioner's consciousness during a ritual?

2. Perform a series of rituals, as in (1), but the hairs are hidden from the practitioner's perception. So, say, the hairs are put inside of completely opaque boxes. The question is: does it make a difference if the object is outside of the direct perception of the practitioner?

3. Perform a series of rituals, as in (2), but some boxes do not contain hairs at all. The question is: what is the effect of the idea of the link, and how does it compare to an "actual" link?

4. Devise two rituals, one of which uses a digital photo as the magical link, the other of which uses a hair. Compare results.

5. Perform the rituals from (4), but using digital photos of decreasing resolution. The final iteration of this process should be performed using a single pixel from the original photo. The question is: to what extent does the formation of an analogue or model in the practitioner's mind affect the outcome, and how does the fidelity of that analogue affect the outcome?

6. Devise a ritual which works on an object which will be placed in the pocket of the target. Compare results to previous experiments.

7. Devise a ritual which works on a place where the target is known to go. The ritual should set up mock "success" and operate by "looking through the eyes of the target", mimicking the moment of success - creating an analogue of the target's field of perception at the moment of success. Compare results to previous experiments.

8. Just to be cheeky - what happens if (7) is performed, say, by colour insensitive or colour blind people, operating on people with more or less normal colour perception? Is there a slight statistical difference made by the slightly less accurate analogue?

9. Devise a ritual, similar to (7), but in which the practitioner has someone shout an unusual word or mantra while the practitioner is "looking through the eyes of the target". This person is then, unknown to the target, put in the location again while the target walks by, and shouts the word again, within earshot of the target - creating a link to a specific moment of perception. Compare to previous results.

10. Obviously, perform the same ritual, but without the follow-through of the person shouting the word for the target. The question is again: to what extent does the link between the two perceptual fields matter?

11. Further questions might be investigated along similar lines. For example: what if these rituals are all performed using an established servitor or other entity? What happens to the entity's "targeting" as a result of these experiments?

12. Further questions about perception might be investigated. For example: what if the practitioner isn't able to touch the hair being used as a link? What if the practitioner sees the hair only in coloured or very dark lighting? How low can the lighting go? If it reaches pitch black, it becomes very similar to the hair-in-opaque box experiments.

The point here is to try to tease out effects related to the unspoken link - that between the practitioner's consciousness and the object of working. Another series of experiments could be devised for advanced practitioners using pratyahara. For example:

Let's say the link is a recorded sound. What if the ritual is performed internally during a deep state of pratyahara, in which the sound is played but not accessed by consciousness? What if the person is actually physically present (surely the best magickal link, in theory), but the practitioner is in a deep sleep at the time of contact? How does that affect the ability to "link to the link"? How does that compare to contact during a lighter sleep? Half-sleep? Yoga nidra? Sleep deprivation?

And now this should lead naturally into inquiries that actually relate to the model described in the previous post: if the "gnosis" component of a ritual involves a meaningful change in the relationship between the two yogas/unions described previously (and it seems to me that it must), then it follows that this gnosis affects the effective magickal link, which is not merely one link between object and target, but also the link between the practitioner and the link.

[thatophite]

Grade Brag

The highest grade I've attained to: Ineptus exemptus.

[maddiviner]

And yes, I did sign the papers.

I signed on with a new lineage. Now, I just have to get my stuff in order, hopefully keep my diary straight, get down to serious practicing, etc. The question is: how do I do this given my heavy work schedule? Any tips from fellow Thellies?

[dj-ghostatl]

For future review. I haven't met the man yet, though I'm close with several people in his lineage (and a few people that've met him from other lineages.) He seems to be a polarizing figure in Thelema. Some are calling him a new world teacher and prophet. Some call him a force for fundamentalism and a real danger within the New Aeon. Whatever the truth of the matter, he's becoming an ever increasing influence in Thelema.

[fratermehrim]

Soror Meral's selected Writings Vol 1 and 2.

must read for any Thelemite.

[hadit93]

Hello.

I have been doing some research on Enochian angels, and noticed that people mention how working with them can result in some negative consequences, such as beginners being discouraged from working with them or that they can result in a “breakdown” of a person’s life. This is pretty intriguing to me, especially as I haven’t really found any specific examples, nor the reasons why working with them would cause such a thing. You seem pretty knowledgeable in this area - I was wondering if you had any further input about this.

I have not experienced a breakdown of my life as a result of working with the Enochian system, however, I can understand how that might happen in some cases. I am not even going to say these cases are the minority because I do genuinely believe the system can be volatile.

I began working the system at a time when nothing else seemed to be working for me, when I was not getting the results I wanted. It is a powerful system, very volatile. The energies involved are intense- it was something I had never felt up until that point. I got results and the results were impressive.

Regardie wrote somewhere that the Enochian system would give great results even to the beginner magician. I can't recall whether or not he said they should avoid the system, I believe he did, but he is correct. A magician with little skill, although some is needed, could use the system and obtain magnificent visions and also produce real world effects with a little know-how.

The Enochian angels are not like typical Angels which you find in Hermetic traditions. The term angel here in my opinion applies only because that is what Dee believed them to be through his Christian lens which the angels adopted and also challenged during their workings with Dee and Kelly. They are angels only in the sense they relate to Angelos and the role of messengers in my opinion. Some authors will tell you they cannot be trusted, some believe they have an ulterior motive for the human race. I agree that they cannot be trusted, and they may have a motive- I don't know what it is, I personally believe they just want to be worked with and fed energy/revered and will tell the magician a pack of lies to continue workings if the magician decides they want to stop. You only need to look at Dee and Kelly for evidence of this, I have had a similar experience myself.

It isn't that they are dangerous, it is that they are less safe. They are more unpredictable and I would argue their nature is largely unknown at this point. Few people have really dived deep into the Enochian system. It is also one of the few areas where I believe tools are absolutely necessary. DuQuette has people making paper ones, and whilst I believe having just the language and symbols present can make a powerful effect, having the tools properly constructed would heighten that effect. Some people, Crowley included, would just recite the calls and formulate a ritual on the go- I do not recommend this approach.

But do keep in mind that all magic can be dangerous. Any magic aimed at widening or expanding the spiritual consciousness of the practitioner can be dangerous to that person. The Enochian system, particularly the system of aethyrs, certainly seeks to initiate the magician. Initiation can appear to cause major life stresses. It (and by it I believe it is the Angel as a vessel of Will) can cause heartbreaks that you only realise were necessary to your own development years later.

When I became a probationer for the AA I didn't believe signing an oath could produce a magical effect. I was wrong, Crowley even wrote that signing the probationer oath was like kicking a hornets nest. My life turned to shit, it was probably one of the worst years of my life. Why? Because I was 18 years old and my surroundings and parts of myself were not in alignment with my True Will. Most people adjust naturally over time signing oaths and initiatory experiences speed the process up dramatically.

I then went through the Neophyte initiation and my life again fell apart, pretty much to the bare bones at that point. But it allowed me to really discover who I was, learn who I was, and it literally changed me as a person, matured me, and strengthened me. It was an awful experience, but I certainly would not change it for the world now. I began Enochian workings after all this, so perhaps this is why they did not effect me as much- the damage had already been done!

This is why people who approach the rite of Abramelin often say their lives turn to shit- it has to. Now those who have worked a system such as the AA in preparation of taking a rite to obtain the HGA have weeded out some of the impurities already. They have made their vessel a temple suitable for the HGA to inhabit and so may face less disruption due to their early work.

So I suppose my advice is: sometimes disruption and sorrow are necessary. But if you are currently in a position you do not want to disrupt, avoid any magic designed at having an iniatory purpose until you believe that there is no need to disrupt you- but you may also be wrong. As always, divination, divination, divination!

Apologies for the long response, I think I rambled a little!

[pirateplayground]

"A .'. A .'." by Courage Cloak! ADDS 1/6/15! More info here!

[setemheb]

The Other Magi of the Aeon of Horus

By the design of the A.'.A.'. a Recognition was supposed to coincide with the Recognition of another into the Degree you were vacating. Before you could become a Zelator you were supposed to find someone to take your place as a Neophyte. this design would ensure that a superior was capable of teaching something to an inferior in the Order as well as ensuring the continued expansion of the Order's membership.

When Crowley had Recognized himself as a Magus he knew he would need someone to replace him as Magister Templi. Charles Stansfeld Jones would be so recognized as a Magister Templi based upon his having taken the preliminary "Oath of the Abyss" in 1916. Jones's claim to being a Magister Templi had come not from doing the regular Work of the A.'.A.'. but from essentially leap frogging over the Grades via the Oath. 

Crowley took the Oath of the Ipsissimus in 1923 CE with no such co-Recognition as Magus below himself to take his place. In fact during Crowley's lifetime he never recognized another Magus within the Aeon of Horus. When he died in 1947 CE he had not made legal provisions for the survival of the A.'.A.'. beyond his life, though he had with the O.T.O.

This did not prevent others from making claims to being a Magus, or Uttering a Word via the A.'.A.'. C. S. Jones made claims of instituting an "Aeon of Justice and Truth" which superseded the Aeon of Horus but which was not quite the Aeon of Ma'at which Crowley had claimed would supersede that of Horus. Jones never proclaimed a Word for himself nor form his letters as republished in the introduction to Liber Aleph did he feel that he was the Magus of this Aeon. Others however have cast him into that role in the period since his death in 1950 CE.

In the period following Crowley's death the state of organized Thelema largely felt to nothing. In his excellent The Unknown God Martin P. Starr provides an account of Crowley's O.T.O. heir, Karl Germer's attempt to hold together the existing Thelemites with little effect. As a result of there being no centralized Thelemic authority quasi-Thelemic groups would form.

One of these quasi-O.T.O. groups was known as "The Solar Lodge."Created by Ray Burlingame, a one time O.T.O. IX°, and his student Georgina "Jean" Brayton, the group worked an idiosyncratic combination of the O.T.O. and A.'.A.'. systems beginning in 1965. Amongst their activities they operated a ranch compound which would become subject to law enforcement scrutiny and tremendous bad press.  An insider account of their activiites can be found in Inside Solar Lodge - Outside the Law written under the pseudonym "Frater Shiva."

The bad press around the Solar Lodge, and thus Aleister Crowley and Thelema, lead a one time IX° of the O.T.O., Grady Louis McMurtry (1918 CE – 1985 CE) to decided to do something about the lack of central authority in Thelema. A veteran of WW2 where he had helped in the execution of the Normandy Invasion and of the Korean War, McMurtry had spent time with Crowley while in England and would return to the United States a IX° O.T.O. Crowley would also provide him with authority to take charge of the O.T.O. operations in California, and potentially to succeed Germer if need be, pending Germer's confirmation. Crowley would pun upon California by calling those who would lead after him Caliphs.

Using this somewhat vague authority under the title of "Caliph" McMurtry would re-establish the O.T.O. in 1969 CE. McMurtry began seeking out those others who had been IX° to ask them to either help or get out of the way in his attempt to revive the O.T.O. and defend Crowley's legacy. This would lead to no small turbulence, particularly with other claimants to the title of being the one true head of O.T.O.

In 1977 CE, he wrote a Charter for Thelema Lodge of San Francisco as the Grand Lodge of the O.T.O. In signing this Charter he pronounced this under his authority as "Frater Hymeneaus Alpha 777, IX° O.T.O., 9=2, Caliph of the Ordo Templi Orientis." The charter can be seen here. What is of note is the claim of 9=2, the designation in the A.'.A.'. for the Degree of Magus. To the best of anyone's records McMurtry was not a member of the A.'.A.'. while Crowley was alive. Also McMurtry never publicly proclaimed himself as a Magus other than this one time nor did he ever state his Utterance publicly. He was never Recognized as a Magus 9=2 by any of the Students of Crowley in the A.'.A.'. at or after this point in time.

A witness to the signing of the Charter, Jerry Cornelius, has claimed that McMurtry has said "O-T-O" under his breath, making this his Utterance to empower the recreation of the O.T.O. Cornelius' account of this even can be found here. In private correspondences with a late student of McMurtry he too attested to the claim of Magus for his teacher.

Within the Aeon of Horus no Magus has been Recognized, though some have made the assertion. 

[mountkay]

[maddiviner]

I'm considering working with the A.'.A.'. system on an individual basis, looking critically at Crowley himself as well as any other potential "heroes" I may have. It may seem odd, but my own blog here on Tumblr is an exercise in deprogramming - of casting down sacred cows, in a way. I don't think Crowley or LaVey or Aquino or Gardner or anyone else is worthy of adulation. They may be able to point me towards practices from which I can grow, however. I admire your sincerity; it's what (Cont.)

will aid your genuine progress. Take care; I wish you progress and well-being.

This particular ask was multipart, but I’m just posting this bit of it because I think that it’s the heart of the whole thing. That, and I’m sure I’d mess something up if I copypasted the whole thing! I’m not good with the new interface.

The idea of working the A.’.A.’. system individually is highly controversial as I understand it. Many people would say that you absolutely need a superior in an established lineage traceable to Crowley, as it links you to the magical current of the organization. They might also say that your superior stands in for you HGA and will provide you with reality checks and stop you from losing sight of things or disappearing into yourself. This all may be true (I’m not sure), but at present I see no reason to trust a veritable stranger (which is who you’d likely get if you wrote to one of the lineages) to perform these roles for you. In fact, I think the potential for abuse is too great.

Working the system alone, though, has pitfalls, because yes, one could fall into despair or self-aggrandize, and lose sight of the true goals. 

You may have seen the post awhile back about the gentleman I encountered on Facebook who started an inane little anti-OTO group and began claiming the OTO was veritably stalking him. I tried to talk him out of it, but he blocked me. He claimed to be a Magister Templi, which aroused suspicion in me because he was quite young and such things take more than a few years to achieve. Furthermore, I saw no evidence of him even having a superior of any sort.

Some time after he disappeared from my Facebook, I saw a post on a group dedicated to exposing frauds in the occult that linked to a page describing how he had experienced a “schizophrenic break” and crashed his car. I certainly hope he’s okay, but this is evidence of what can happen when an already imbalanced person takes on heavy occult responsibilities without proper guidance. The folks on Facebook kept snickering at this poor fellow and his wife, arguing that his break had been a result of his massive ego. I think otherwise. While he had ego problems, psychosis usually isn’t related to such a flaw, but stems from other things.

On a side note, I experienced something similar several months into my probation. I got sick, but lol didn’t crash my car, at least. My then-superior, Vermillion (code-name), had the gall to suggest that I should just “use my reason” to escape my illness. Huh. Why didn’t I think of that myself? Of course. If I just think hard enough about this, it’ll go away! Except it doesn’t work, and anyone who knows even a little bit about mental illness can tell you that. He also said it was an ego issue, and it may well have been, but I’m inclined to believe my brain was just misfiring. Either way, it’s over.