Aeon418
The OTO is an organisation, not a religion. You're either a member or you're not. It's as simple as that.Greg Stanton said:Of course. And if you're not a member of the Catholic Church, you're not a real Christian.
You're not confusing OTO with Thelema are you? OTO is merely an order that accepted Thelema. It is not the source of Thelema itself.
So your argument is that just because they didn't work for you they won't work for anyone else either?Greg Stanton said:Crowley's and the GD's methods do not work when applied to CM. Period.
The Golden Dawn style ceremonial and the methods expounded in the old grimoires are merely techniques. There is nothing essential about any of them. There are a million and one ways to construct a ceremony. There is no right or wrong way to go about it. But the key ingredient is this: Do you have faith in the efficacy of the techniques you are using? Do they help you to suspend your sense of disbelief? If not they won't work.
If you personally feel that it is efficacious to carry out the laborious and tedious requirements of the grimoires, then that's what works for you. If it personally helps you to suspend your sense of disbelief by going on a scavenger hunt an 4am in the morning to search to mandrakes, bats blood, and virgin parchment, great. But it's a huge mistake to believe that it is the one and only true way to go about these things.
These rituals need not be slavishly imitated; on the contrary the student should do nothing the object of which he does not understand; also, if he have any capacity whatever, he will find his own crude rituals more effective than the highly polished ones of other people.
Liber O - Aleister Crowley