ravenest said:
Very interesting question. Where IS it in BoL, directly and clearly for us non-adepts? - I believe that is why Crowley developed the OTO. In the rites of that Order (and the public documents) there appears to be advice on some very relevant aspects of social actions of a Thelemite.
Didn't we cover this in the first chapter study threads? We pointed out how A.'.A.'. material is devoid of this kind of guidance, but the O.T.O. papers are packed with it. Crowley knew that, "Do what thou wilt", simply wasn't enough for most people. They still needed a guiding framework at the beginning to stop them from getting it badly wrong.
ravenest said:
Perhaps it does G. I believe it ceratinly ISNT all gematria, qabbalah and relating to HGA. The BoL, if one accepts its claim, must buy definition, be relevant to a muilti-level understanding and outlook and hold a wealth of varied info that is still being revealed after a life time of studing (even if its a simple book),
Given what's just been said above, who is most likely to make a "great miss" when it comes to mundane, literal interpretations?
So it's not all words of the HGA? That's probabaly true until you've passed the second ordeal.
ravenest said:
If anyone doubts this they should read the introductory chapters to the 'Little red book' version (?) of the BoL.
Crowley had a lot of good things to say in that intro, but some of his other writings in the same vein are just plain dumb and reveal a lot about his attitude towards chapter III. To Crowley's mind, if there were one chapter in Liber AL that contained "prophecy", it was the 3rd chapter. He was always looking for literal manifestations of this chapters message as a kind of proof of the revelation.
Is III:43 a description of the fate of Crowley's first wife, Rose? Er...sort of.
Is III:12-15 a prophecy concerning the death of Crowley's kids? Er...maybe.
Was Gerald Yorke the "rich man from the West"? Possibly. But if he was it didn't stop Crowley looking for another one. Hmmmm....
Liber CCC Khabs Am Pekht contains an absolute gem. In it Crowley gives an interpretation of the Island in III:4. Yes, it's England.
And the enginery of war is tanks and land mines. Yeah.....
This is the kind of stuff that people constantly do with the Quatraines of Nostradamus. 1999 came and went, and we're still here.
I am the warrior lord of the Forties......... Nuclear bombs? How obvious...
*sigh*