Book of Thoth Study Group: Part 1 - Section 1

ravenest said:

The proof of 0=2?
We must remember it is two opposite pairs that make zero, so the proof in formulae, -1 + 1 = 0.

Gematric values can ge adjusted to mean anything ( GOD = DOG) .
R.A.Wilson has written good stuff on this where he proves God is unity and devision and the devil and ... the main thing is the change in conciousness that occurs when one continually uses this type of interrelated thinking. The brain (after a time of automatically making its own correspondances to stimula) begins working in a mode of active meditation. I dont believe the real value is in the exercise it is in the results, a change in conciousness.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughtful replies.

I like your formula. If you use positive and negative values, you get 0. If you use absolute values, you get 2. So 0 = 2! Cool!

And I like your take on gematria. So it's more about having a mind of process and possibilities than making up hard and fast equalities. Also cool!

rachelcat said:

I like your formula. If you use positive and negative values, you get 0. If you use absolute values, you get 2. So 0 = 2! Cool!

Click to expand...

That is what Crowley has been saying all along. If you want to phrase it another way: (-1) Feminine + (+1) Masculine = 0. The complementary opposites cancel each other out.
But because the number of of magical expansion is 11 (-1, +1) they can also produce a third thing that is the product of both, but totally different from both at the same time. That indicates why Crowley wanted Lust as 11 and Adjustment as 8. Adjustment is static balance, Lust implies motion and progress through the union of opposites.

rachelcat said:

And I like your take on gematria. So it's more about having a mind of process and possibilities than making up hard and fast equalities. Also cool!

Click to expand...

Be careful!

I gave up all for One; this One hath given up its Unity for all?
I wrenched DOG backwards to find GOD; now GOD barks.

Click to expand...

The above may be true for a Master of the Temple, i.e. one who's being resides above the Abyss. But below the Abyss reason is King. God = God. Dog = Dog. Otherwise you fall into the same trap that prompted Crowley to comment thus on Frater Achad:

But this rule must be applied with skill and discretion, if error is to be avoided. It is a lamentable fact that worthy Zelator of A.'.A.'., one Frater Achad, having been taught (patiently enough) by the Seer to use this formula, was lured by his vanity to suppose that he had discovered it himself, and proceeded to apply it indiscriminately. He tried to stand the Serpent of Wisdom on its head, and argued that as he was a (1 = 10 ) of the Order, he must also be a (10 = 1)! As The Book of Lies says, "I wrenched DOG backwards to find GOD; now GOD barks!" He would have been better advised to reverse his adored ONE and taken a dose of ENO!"

Click to expand...

ENO was a popular laxative in Crowley's time. LOL

So I think that what Crowley is saying is that you can't just concentrate on any one thing - it has to include context and ancillaries? It makes alot of sense.

Sorry to all for not posting before now. This is an amazing thread and I have been doing my reading on an electronic source. I am off this morning to purchase both The Book of Thoth and the Book of Lies if I can find them. I have learned enough to know that both deserve shelf space!

I have another question associated with earlier posts regarding secrecy. If these people took vows of silence/oaths of secrecy, why did they publish books and then put wrong information in them? It seems that it would have been easier to just not publish anything.

valeria

I am duly warned.

Now God barks!

Instead of being close to One, you should get close to some Eno!

Priceless!

valeria said:

I have another question associated with earlier posts regarding secrecy. If these people took vows of silence/oaths of secrecy, why did they publish books and then put wrong information in them? It seems that it would have been easier to just not publish anything.

Click to expand...

Lets put it this way. How do you tell everyone the exact same thing and yet communicate the truth to only a few?

The classic example is the 12th chapter of Crowley's, "Magick in Theory and Practice." The entire chapter reads like an instruction in child sacrifice and it is meant to do so as well. Idiot's, i.e. knee jerk reactionaries see only the surface meaning. (Much to Crowley's amusment no doubt ) Dig a little deeper and you see that Crowley is actually talking about sex magick. He couldn't talk openly about sex in his day and age, but talking about child sacrifice was perfectly ok back then.

this is perhaps, slightly off topic, so if someone wants to reply in a new thread i'll understand Can A.C's religious worldview (or lack thereof) be summarized? I'm not dense enough to belief that he wasn't well educated on many different religous views (agnosticism, mysticism, christianity, pagan values, etc), but i'm having real trouble understanding what he did believe in, it seems thats he takes little tidbits from everywhere. its quite confusing

Ven

fools_fool said:

ravenest, by saying "entirely," I never meant it in the sense that that is exclusively the only thing the OTO is dedicated to, but that they are dedicated to it fully, and in every way.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, I see now. dedicated fully to S.M. not the whole order dedicated just to S.M.?

fools_fool said:

Not that I hold Lon Milo Duquette as the final word by any means, but since many participating in this study seem to regard him as a distinguished authority, let us see what he says about the matter:

"Magically, however, the Order exists primarily to protect and perpetuate a particular magical secret of great potential efficacy."

"This supreme secret is a particular technique of sexual magick."

Lon Milo DuQuette; Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot; Weiser Books, 2003; Pages 76, 77. (Italics Mine)

-fof

Click to expand...

But lets also look what the OTO says itself (ie. the group not a member) in just about all of its introductory material, phamphlets, web sites, intro pages in books etc.

The letters O.T.O. stand for Ordo Templi Orientis, the Order of Oriental Templars, or Order of the Temple of the East. O.T.O. is dedicated to the high purpose of securing the Liberty of the Individual and his or her advancement in Light, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Power through Beauty, Courage, and Wit, on the Foundation of Universal Brotherhood.

rachelcat said:

I am duly warned.

Now God barks!

Instead of being close to One, you should get close to some Eno!

Priceless!

Click to expand...

God does equal Dog if one is into ancient Egyptian magic (Sirius - Canis Major)

gemmatria? Eno is One, one is unity, unity is God, God is Eno.

Yes, be carefull! One can doubt any connections and slowley box up the conciousness, then again one can make them everywhere, the streetsign, the car numberplate. I had a raver on at me yesterday in the street, connections everywhere ... absolutly mad!

Ventrue said:

this is perhaps, slightly off topic, so if someone wants to reply in a new thread i'll understand Can A.C's religious worldview (or lack thereof) be summarized?
Ven

Click to expand...

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. &
Love is the law, love under will.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. &
Love is the law, love under will.

I was kinda looking for just a tad bit less compressed maybe

Ven