The Book of the Law Study Group 2.10
Aeon418
The next few verses, including this one, are a bit of a slap in Crowley's face. At the time of the dictation Crowley's spiritual world view was essentially Buddhist. He accepted the Budhha's affimation that all was transitory and afflicted with sorrow. He also agreed with Buddhist dogma about the absence of a central self.
Here we have Aiwass, as Hadit, telling Crowley that he is wrong and needs to get over it.
Here we have Aiwass, as Hadit, telling Crowley that he is wrong and needs to get over it.
Grigori
I find it really interesting that at the time of the dictation of the BoL Crowley had virtually given up on the practice of ceremonial magick and was focused on Buddhism. I think the story is that the BoL was triggered by a ritual he did to show off for his new wife. If not for the BoL I wonder what his magical career would have become.
Aeon418
It's also interesting to note that one year before the dictation of Liber Legis he wrote the essay, "The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic", where he attempted to explain away goetic evocation as merely the stimulation of certain brain cells. He also tells us elsewhere that the period up to 1904 saw him devote himself to the cult of absolute reason. What better time could there be to pull the rug out from underneath his feet?similia said:
In a more general sense I see this verse as a rebuke against the ego. We all get the chance to run our selves out, bark up the wrong trees, and chase our own tails, until the "gotcha!" moment, and our house of cards comes tumbling down.
It probably wouldn't have gone very far. But I see it more as a process (and not one unique to him either). He had to go off in the wrong direction to make his own conversion as thorough as possible.similia said:
To put it simply, before you can realise that you've been a prat, you have to be a prat.
ravenest
Yeah ... it was like he was stuck at Binah ... which can happen as one can think all is understood, he needed to get widom as well ...Aeon418 said:
How does this 'pan' out with his M.T. intitiation do the dates line up at all?
Aeon418
No, not even close. But in another sense it's spot on. 8=3 didn't come until 1906, and even then Crowley felt that he didn't deserve it.ravenest said:
Plus the whole issue is complicated by the fact that Crowley and Jones were still working within the Golden Dawn model of initiation. So what they originally believed was 8=3 was in reality no more than 5=6 in the A.'.A.'. sense.
It wasn't until 1909, at the conclusion of the Vision and the Voice work, that Crowley felt fully 8=3. And that's about the time he went looking for a set of ski's in his attic...
