The Book of The Law Study Group 3.31

Grigori

Aeon418 said:
Hmmm.... the sacred metal of Mars is Iron. Steel is an alloy of Iron that has been strengthened by mixing it with Carbon. (An Iron sword would probably snap as soon as you hit something. )

Meh, close enough for me. Plus I'm thinking of the steel sword of Geburah, and I like the analogy

Here's an experiment you can try. The next time you "release the Mars force", try doing a bit of ritual or skrying work immediately after. Pay attention to how "flat" the ritual feels, or how difficult it is obtain any kind of vision. But fan the flames for a while and it all comes back. As if by magick the power to "fly or to smite" returns.

You assign much better homework than I was given at school today LOL

Craxiette

Grigori said:
:I think I was trying to say something similar with less clarity than you Craxiette.

Great minds think alike

Grigori said:
:I guess I may as well skip ahead now as it makes sense to do so. In the next verse are are told to forge steel from this gold. Steel is the metal of Mars and Geburah. Gold is the metal of Tipareth and the Sun. These two spheres are joined by the path of Adjustment (Libra). Perhaps Libra's job it to help us balance between the two, and transmute both the fool's gold and the real gold into steel, a weapon for us to fight (Mars) with. Or maybe she is just holding that sword between her legs in order to stop herself from peeing on us....

Ah, but you are REALLY skipping ahead then, as the Adjustment of Maat is not supposed to come until the next aeon -unless the Horus-Maat lodge suceeds in their mission of an early kick off of the aeon of the double wanded one... :surprise:

Aeon418

Craxiette said:
Ah, but you are REALLY skipping ahead then, as the Adjustment of Maat is not supposed to come until the next aeon -unless the Horus-Maat lodge suceeds in their mission of an early kick off of the aeon of the double wanded one...

My take on this is that Horus prepares the way for Maat. When the dual aspect of Heru-Ra-Ha is balanced then Maat takes the throne as the new ruling principle.

But there are two ways to understand this. One is the collective evolution of human consciousness as a whole. The end result of this phase is the emergence of a new base line consciousness, which Crowley called K&C.

Then there is the personal development angle. Anyone who has achieved what the A.'.A.'. system calls Adept status has essentially fulfilled the formula of Horus. The next goal is the crossing of the Abyss.

M.A.A.T., that is being interpreted the Master of the Temple of A.'. A.'., whose name is Truth.

Craxiette

I share your view, Aeon. As with any classification, reality is seamless and transitory, not fixed around discreet levels. I think the concept of "baseline conciousness" is a good one. To me it suggests that a individual is free to climb the evolutionary spiral, but will do this as a salmon going upstreams from the river of the collective (un)conciousness. In other words, achieving the level of conciousness of the Buddha/Christ/insert favorite historial or mytical person, was truly heroic and unique in their times, when the collective maturity was much lower.

What I find appealing with the message of Thelema is that to me it saying that the baseline has shifted so much that today, it is possible for ALL to achieve that direct, personal contact with our inner divinity. We don't need an elite of masters to tell us what to believe. But it still takes hard and determined work, regardless of what "system" we use. In reality, this is still virtually impossible for most people on this planet, who are still struggling to fill their basic needs of survival, or who are imprisoned by fundamentalist oppression. In a way we who do have the possibility should perhaps also see that as a responsibility, not to waste it on "false gold".

Crowley dedicated his life to the cause of assisting the transition of the collective conciousness into a higher level. To me, this says something about the level beyond the K&C. It "hints" that beyond the fully developed ego-conciousness, there is the realization that the personal Will is like an instrument in an orchestra (for lack of a better metaphore). -We can practice and fine tune it to perfection, but if the rest of the orchestra is playing awfully off-key, the gain is still, from this expanded point of view, very limited.

Aeon418

Craxiette said:
I share your view, Aeon. As with any classification, reality is seamless and transitory, not fixed around discreet levels. I think the concept of "baseline conciousness" is a good one. To me it suggests that a individual is free to climb the evolutionary spiral, but will do this as a salmon going upstreams from the river of the collective (un)conciousness.

Was it Grant who suggested that all the aeons run concurrently? I think the only way you can understand that is if you keep the idea of an objective/collective aeon separate from subjective/individual attainment. Although there is a direct link between the two because the intiatory path of the individual is reflected on a different scale at the collective level.

At the present moment in time I personally think the vast majority of humanity is still, to one degree or another, emotionally invested in the Osirian formula. The collective initiatory shift towards Horus is still in it's infancy and it won't be until much later that it actually becomes the new base line level of consciousness. But, as is always the case, there are unique and exceptional individuals (Masters) who race ahead of of the rest an tap into something much further down the line.

Going back to the point about the collective versus the individual, I think this dual perspective is one of the things that makes the Book of the Law so fascinating. On one level it reads like an Apocalypse, a prophetic message of changes and events at the collective level of humanity. On another level it is a manual of personal initiation, a Tantra. The two levels are intimately linked, but I prefer to focus on the initiatory angle because we can draw on the works of pioneers who went before us. Viewing the Book of the Law as an apocalypse requires a bit more circumspection in my opinion. While we can use parallels from the initiatory interpretation, and speculate based on current trends, the future is still undiscovered country.

Craxiette

Aeon418 said:
Was it Grant who suggested that all the aeons run concurrently? I think the only way you can understand that is if you keep the idea of an objective/collective aeon separate from subjective/individual attainment. Although there is a direct link between the two because the intiatory path of the individual is reflected on a different scale at the collective level.

Sure...who is Grant?

I just assumed it to be this way, I suppose I drew the parallell from Integral Theory and Spiral Dynamics -another field in which I know next to nothing (Yes, I'm a hopelessly confused dabbler :laugh:

).

According to that theory, there are different (universal) levels of conciousness, from red (egocentric) to turquoise (cosmocentric) that transcend and include eachother like layers of an onion. In that line of thinking, the full spectrum of levels are available at all times when they are reached, the level that most prevailantly represents our mode of thinking/being is considered the level at which one is at. So for instance a person at "green" can have glimpses of "turquoise" in meditation, but might regress to "amber" or even "red" when for instance drunk -or just really upset. The dynamics between the individual and the collective is mapped out in four "quadrants", the interior- and exterior- individual and collective.

In the Bahai-religion, there is also the idea of aeons, but of course, according to it, Bahaullah is the prophet of this aeon and the previous ones where those of Muhammed, Christ, Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Abraham...I don't remember them all, but they conveniently are nine in total (sacred number in Bahai) and more or less along the Abrahamic line. The old aeons are considered valid and true messages from the same God, but each new prophet brings the latest "upgrades and patches" to better adjust it to the current collective mind-set. So according to this belief, the aeons are occuring simultaneously, but changing your religion to the newest one automatically upgrades your conciousness. If there is an essay or book out there comparing these different views of aeonics, please let me know!

Aeon418 said:
At the present moment in time I personally think the vast majority of humanity is still, to one degree or another, emotionally invested in the Osirian formula. The collective initiatory shift towards Horus is still in it's infancy and it won't be until much later that it actually becomes the new base line level of consciousness. But, as is always the case, there are unique and exceptional individuals (Masters) who race ahead of of the rest an tap into something much further down the line.

I think it's even worse! I think most people in the world are not even aware of more than the selected contents of their own "Osirian" religion that they are being force-fed with from their authorities. Scary and tragic.

Aeon418 said:
Going back to the point about the collective versus the individual, I think this dual perspective is one of the things that makes the Book of the Law so fascinating. On one level it reads like an Apocalypse, a prophetic message of changes and events at the collective level of humanity. On another level it is a manual of personal initiation, a Tantra. The two levels are intimately linked, but I prefer to focus on the initiatory angle because we can draw on the works of pioneers who went before us. Viewing the Book of the Law as an apocalypse requires a bit more circumspection in my opinion. While we can use parallels from the initiatory interpretation, and speculate based on current trends, the future is still undiscovered country.

Well absolutely, but as you say there is a direct link between them; Nobody grows in a vacuum. Our Will derives from the collective Will, and vice versa. Just think about what Crowleys life would have been if he was born in the middle ages? Or today? Or as a beggar on the streets of Calcutta? Brittney Spears? Even if one believes in a fixed soul that has certain charachteristics before birth, the contents of that life would have been vastly different enough to count as "interesting"

.

Aeon418

Craxiette said:
Sure...who is Grant?

Kenneth Grant was an ex-stundent of Crowley's. After Crowley's death he put his own spin on Thelema and blended it with the fictional Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. His books are an "interesting" (ahem!

) mix of fact, fiction, seriously dodgy gematria, and bizarre made up words. I've read five of them, and each one of them was an "experience". :laugh:

He's a page of mini-reviews of each of Grant's books.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/cienciareal03.htm

Craxiette said:
So according to this belief, the aeons are occuring simultaneously, but changing your religion to the newest one automatically upgrades your conciousness.

Crikey! I didn't realise it was that easy. Here I am, busting my ass trying to expand my conscious. And all the time I only had to change my religion. D'oh! :laugh:

Craxiette said:
If there is an essay or book out there comparing these different views of aeonics, please let me know!

Sorry. My pot is empty.

Craxiette said:
I think it's even worse! I think most people in the world are not even aware of more than the selected contents of their own "Osirian" religion that they are being force-fed with from their authorities. Scary and tragic.

I didn't mean it in that sense. I meant the Osirian themes that still occur in popular culture that many people, even if they are not religious, still connect with emotionally. Think of how our movies and books are still full of images that glorify suffering and the nobility of heroic self sacrifice. These are still powerful themes to lots of people.

Then again look at the increasing popularity of apocalyptic themes and movies featuring mutant humans. Is that the New Aeon breaking into popular culture?

Craxiette said:
Well absolutely, but as you say there is a direct link between them;

What I was trying to say is that events on the individual intiatory path are matched by corresponding events of collective intiation. But even though we might know the general characteristics via the individuals path, it is impossible to say how they might manifest at the collective level.

For example the aspirant at some point in their initiation usually passes through a Dark Night of the Soul. But how would this translate at the collective level? I can think of lots of different things, but it would be useless to try and predict any specific events in the future. This is why I try to steer away from this kind of thing in my interpretation of The Book of the Law.

Craxiette

Aeon418 said:
Kenneth Grant was an ex-stundent of Crowley's. After Crowley's death he put his own spin on Thelema and blended it with the fictional Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. His books are an "interesting" (ahem! ) mix of fact, fiction, seriously dodgy gematria, and bizarre made up words. I've read five of them, and each one of them was an "experience".

Yikes!

Oh wait, Cthulhu mythos...Lovecraft...nooo! Not those nerds who say "Fnord" all the time...whatchamacallit...Discordians? Are they for real?

Aeon418 said:
Crikey! I didn't realise it was that easy. Here I am, busting my ass trying to expand my conscious. And all the time I only had to change my religion. D'oh!

Weeell, I might have just been a tad sarcastic. Obviously they would never say something like that straight out if they thought anyone was listening... :angel:

I think it's just implicit if you read between the lines. Another interesting Bahai-Thelema similarity is the principle of Independent Investigation of the Truth. Baha'u'llah (the prophet) emphasizes the fundamental obligation of human beings to acquire knowledge with their "own eyes and not through the eyes of others." -In other words "Do what thou willt"...except with the addendum that ...and what you willt is Bahai :laugh:

Sarcasms aside, I still think Bahai is the most appealing of the Abrahamic religions. In my opinion it didn't make it "all the way", but it is still an incredibly refreshing update of islam.

Aeon418 said:
I didn't mean it in that sense. I meant the Osirian themes that still occur in popular culture that many people, even if they are not religious, still connect with emotionally. Think of how our movies and books are still full of images that glorify suffering and the nobility of heroic self sacrifice. These are still powerful themes to lots of people.
Then again look at the increasing popularity of apocalyptic themes and movies featuring mutant humans. Is that the New Aeon breaking into popular culture?
What I was trying to say is that events on the individual intiatory path are matched by corresponding events of collective intiation. But even though we might know the general characteristics via the individuals path, it is impossible to say how they might manifest at the collective level.
For example the aspirant at some point in their initiation usually passes through a Dark Night of the Soul. But how would this translate at the collective level? I can think of lots of different things, but it would be useless to try and predict any specific events in the future. This is why I try to steer away from this kind of thing in my interpretation of The Book of the Law.

Aha! Ok, I see what you mean now...yes, I agree completely. Not even having studied the Book of the Law (I did read it once, but didn't understand much), I would out of principle consider it the wrong method to try to predict the future based on one single text. But we do have some food for thought that there IS such a thing as the "Dark night of the soul" and that -in one way or another-, humanity might go through that stage as a collective, even if we don't know how or when. Having gone through it on a personal level might help us when it comes...or not!

Aeon418

Craxiette said:
Yikes! Oh wait, Cthulhu mythos...Lovecraft...nooo! Not those nerds who say "Fnord" all the time...whatchamacallit...Discordians? Are they for real?

Fnord!

No, that's the wrong folks. Followers of Grant's ideas are called, Typhonians.

But any Lovecraft fan worth their salt should be able to say:

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

I bet it would make a great mantra. :laugh:

Craxiette

Aeon418 said:
Fnord! No, that's the wrong folks. Followers of Grant's ideas are called, Typhonians.

Potatoes, potahtoes...

Current of Set/Sirius, current of Maat...I feel like I'm about to get caught in a big swirl of scattered gobbledygook!

With the risk of sounding like a conservative old fart, what's the use of all this? Is another set of "revelations" really what we need, or is this just the workings of bloated egos who want the glory of being the prophet?? :grunts and mumble:

No seriously, I do support pluralism...but it makes it so much harder for us beginners to slash our way through the jungle with the BS-manchete. :S