Always Wondering
ravenest said:
I have never thought of it like that before. It's actually kind of hard to wrap my head around. I've felt connections and have had intuitive happenings with a few people. Is it this sort of thing, or more?
AW
Book of Law Study Group 1.4
I have never thought of it like that before. It's actually kind of hard to wrap my head around. I've felt connections and have had intuitive happenings with a few people. Is it this sort of thing, or more?
AW
Umbrae
Reading AC’s Book of Thoth last night and came across this…
Beautifully put - ya gotta love Uncle Al…
Beautifully put - ya gotta love Uncle Al…
Professor X
Aeon418 said:Infinity -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, Infinity.
Looking at this number series, normal common sense tells us that the 0 is the centre point. The negative integers increase to infinity on the left. And the positive integers increase to infinity on the right. But if this is an infinite series, what makes us think 0 is so special? In actual fact you could pick any number you like and it instantly becomes the centre of an infinite series in both directions.
We all know that the number 3 is not the number 4. But each one is just as good as the other in an infinite series. Both of them could equally be considered the centre point with infinity on either side. The same applies to any other number. It doesn't matter which one you choose. They are all as good as the others.
Now apply the same process to a point in space. An infinite circle expands around any point you pick. Choose another point, separate in space from the first point. Suddenly infinity expands around it in all directions. But if both points are the centre of infinity, which is the true centre? They both are.
Take that and apply it to your own point of consciousness. An infinite circle of awareness expands out from you in all directions. You've suddenly become the centre of the universe. Don't you feel special.But the same is true of everyone else.
Bravo Aeon.
This is another good explanation that has opened up the Book of Law to me.
Your 100% correct. IF INFINITY DOES INDEED EXIST HOW COULD YOU BE ANYWHERE BUT IN THE CENTRE OF IT? If existence is expansive then you would be in the middle of it where ever you are.
This indeed would give any magician a different perspective on how to pratice magick. No wonder people all over are still studying the Book of Law.
This indeed gets into quantum physics and more advanced types of thinking.
These are keys points to understanding the Book Of Law and the concepts therein.
Beira
Reading this line and what has been said about it, particularly regarding "what we do to each other all the time", making comparisons not only of what we have and what we do, but also about what we ARE, has struck me as something I am very concerned about in this season of my life.
And, to confirm the impression, in these same days I happened to read a passage in Carlos Castaneda's "Separate reality" where Carlos felt sad and helpless when don Juan said that he considered all his interactions with fellow men as "controlled folly", and that he didn't actually care for nothing and nobody, cause being a man of knowledge, he "saw" that actually there is no difference between anything.
(Carlos was sad cause he tought don Juan actually cared about him).
I do get that there actually is no difference without things, and not even individuals, especially when we think of the Universe and God. Everything is a "play of Nuit" indeed.
I am very much convinced that the best we can do "for the major glory of god" is enjoying ourselves and I have made a rule of putting my time and energies towards the achievement of real enjoyment.
Since I have done so, I have become a better person, I am infinitely more happy, but people seldom understand me.
My family and connections in Italy (my country of origin) in particular, but I must admit also many of the people I know here in Scotland, don't understand this: there is this idea that suffering is good, that multitasking will save the day, and that one must be busy to be.. what is it that they want to be? Rich, famous, powerful, beautiful... fewer and fewer people care about being happy.
Uncle Al was right about the Black Brotherhood..
I struggle to make people around me understand that i am not going to put any effort into anything if I am not reasonably assured that I am going to enjoy it.
This is slowly bringing me to feel contempt for them, and I want to fight this feeling: first and foremost cause it is not an enjoyable one, so I feel the energy i put into it is wasted. And then I don't like the idea of judging people.. on the other hand, if you don't "judge" them and let them too close they'll pull you down their spiral.
That's a bit of a challenge for me right now.. but I think studying Crowley and using his deck for divination is helping to see clearer..
Thanks for being around in this wonderous journey looking for myself
And, to confirm the impression, in these same days I happened to read a passage in Carlos Castaneda's "Separate reality" where Carlos felt sad and helpless when don Juan said that he considered all his interactions with fellow men as "controlled folly", and that he didn't actually care for nothing and nobody, cause being a man of knowledge, he "saw" that actually there is no difference between anything.
(Carlos was sad cause he tought don Juan actually cared about him).
I do get that there actually is no difference without things, and not even individuals, especially when we think of the Universe and God. Everything is a "play of Nuit" indeed.
I am very much convinced that the best we can do "for the major glory of god" is enjoying ourselves and I have made a rule of putting my time and energies towards the achievement of real enjoyment.
Since I have done so, I have become a better person, I am infinitely more happy, but people seldom understand me.
My family and connections in Italy (my country of origin) in particular, but I must admit also many of the people I know here in Scotland, don't understand this: there is this idea that suffering is good, that multitasking will save the day, and that one must be busy to be.. what is it that they want to be? Rich, famous, powerful, beautiful... fewer and fewer people care about being happy.
Uncle Al was right about the Black Brotherhood..
I struggle to make people around me understand that i am not going to put any effort into anything if I am not reasonably assured that I am going to enjoy it.
This is slowly bringing me to feel contempt for them, and I want to fight this feeling: first and foremost cause it is not an enjoyable one, so I feel the energy i put into it is wasted. And then I don't like the idea of judging people.. on the other hand, if you don't "judge" them and let them too close they'll pull you down their spiral.
That's a bit of a challenge for me right now.. but I think studying Crowley and using his deck for divination is helping to see clearer..
Thanks for being around in this wonderous journey looking for myself
ravenest
Carlos and Don Juan are fiction ... watch it !
as , one can see no difference between any thing or person and
care for everything and every body.
I am a firm believer in 'we all do what we want' . Once a Hare Krishna guy was telling me how hard his life was as a Krishna . I laughed at him ; " Dont tell me you dont LOVE getting up pre dawn and chanting ... wearing the robes, shaving your head studying the vedas ... ?"
he thought for a moment .... " yes, I do .... I suppose that is why I do it. "
Fred Hollows, Mother Teresa , St Francis .... same , it seems like 'sacrifice' ... but it is what they want to do .... they wouldnt do it otherwise.
Or maybe I am just the most selfish person in the world ( or the most honest ... I will leave that up to others to decide ) .
as , one can see no difference between any thing or person and
care for everything and every body.
I am a firm believer in 'we all do what we want' . Once a Hare Krishna guy was telling me how hard his life was as a Krishna . I laughed at him ; " Dont tell me you dont LOVE getting up pre dawn and chanting ... wearing the robes, shaving your head studying the vedas ... ?"
he thought for a moment .... " yes, I do .... I suppose that is why I do it. "
Fred Hollows, Mother Teresa , St Francis .... same , it seems like 'sacrifice' ... but it is what they want to do .... they wouldnt do it otherwise.
Or maybe I am just the most selfish person in the world ( or the most honest ... I will leave that up to others to decide ) .
Aeon418
True. Although there is a distinction to be made between the adoption of this view as an intellectual position, versus the direct, living experience. The former may be somewhat mind expanding as any other 'idea' can be. While the latter would make one a Master of the Temple.
Aeon418
In addition to the the above I think it's wise not to "confuse the planes".
The Beatles song, I am the Walrus, goes: "I am he, as you are he, and you are me, and we are all together. This is essentially one of the core doctrines of the first chapter of The Book of the Law. This is the mystical view of reality. It is the underlying essence behind everything and the connecting fabric that binds it all together. But this is not how we experience life in the practical, everyday world of duality and manifestation.
In the second chapter of The Book of the Law, Hadit - the complement of Nuit, goes out of his way to 'make difference'. While we may all be identical in essence, in expression we are all different. The union of these two polarities is the squaring of the circle and the wedding of the Rose and the Cross.
The Beatles song, I am the Walrus, goes: "I am he, as you are he, and you are me, and we are all together. This is essentially one of the core doctrines of the first chapter of The Book of the Law. This is the mystical view of reality. It is the underlying essence behind everything and the connecting fabric that binds it all together. But this is not how we experience life in the practical, everyday world of duality and manifestation.
In the second chapter of The Book of the Law, Hadit - the complement of Nuit, goes out of his way to 'make difference'. While we may all be identical in essence, in expression we are all different. The union of these two polarities is the squaring of the circle and the wedding of the Rose and the Cross.
Beira
What I mean is that when I happen to live/witness something that would make me suffer, i "shift" my sight (meaning that I shift my way of thinking) from everyday mode to the mode where I see the identity of things (that I have been studying and practicing for a while now), the mystical mode, and this way I don't suffer over that, cause I know it fits in a bigger plan that, incomprehensible as it can be for me, is all there is, and there is no point in trying to change, or deny.
This makes my relatives mad, cause I don't partecipate in their lamenting, and cursing, and evil thinking, and general outpour of bilious humors. And they imply that I don't care. When I do care, but I reckon that my caring will not solve everything every time, and when it happens that, despite my efforts, something goes where I don't want it to go, I trust the Universe that that is the course of things, and truly stop bothering.
I have applied this also to my daughter's custody saga (more of this in my posts in the 21 ways thread).. I truly think that the Gods are doing the best for her, even if sometimes I would do differently. But I see that after a while everything that looked undesirable at the beginning, ends up turning into her good. So? I feel blessed despite everything.
And when I apply what I have learnt studying paganism and hermeticism, I actually truly see how in the end one thing or the other actually makes no difference for her (and everyone else)..
And my relatives can't stand this and call me anything (demoness, counter natured mother, whitch, and so on..) just because I don't throw myself into a tantrum every time she shows to love the family she lives with.. (her dad's sister and her hubby and sons)
Now, if I switch in mystical mode I don't care what my relatives think of me either, but I come and ask myself: could that be that I am really selfish and uncaring? If so, should I correct that? How? My tarot says I am not, and to keep travelling the road of equilibrium..
I hope I am not evil for real..
This makes my relatives mad, cause I don't partecipate in their lamenting, and cursing, and evil thinking, and general outpour of bilious humors. And they imply that I don't care. When I do care, but I reckon that my caring will not solve everything every time, and when it happens that, despite my efforts, something goes where I don't want it to go, I trust the Universe that that is the course of things, and truly stop bothering.
I have applied this also to my daughter's custody saga (more of this in my posts in the 21 ways thread).. I truly think that the Gods are doing the best for her, even if sometimes I would do differently. But I see that after a while everything that looked undesirable at the beginning, ends up turning into her good. So? I feel blessed despite everything.
And when I apply what I have learnt studying paganism and hermeticism, I actually truly see how in the end one thing or the other actually makes no difference for her (and everyone else)..
And my relatives can't stand this and call me anything (demoness, counter natured mother, whitch, and so on..) just because I don't throw myself into a tantrum every time she shows to love the family she lives with.. (her dad's sister and her hubby and sons)
Now, if I switch in mystical mode I don't care what my relatives think of me either, but I come and ask myself: could that be that I am really selfish and uncaring? If so, should I correct that? How? My tarot says I am not, and to keep travelling the road of equilibrium..
I hope I am not evil for real..
ravenest
Family troubles eh ?
The plague of the 'initiate' . Many a person / friend / student in our group ran into similar problems ( mine was from my individuation to .... well, onwards from there ) . Once I was introduced to a guy that was 'a Thelemite'. Afterwards, when he left, and the person that introduced me to him was talking about these family difficulties, I asked about the guys situation I had just met .
"Oh, his sister is a Thelemite too. "
Me; " That must make it easier for the family dynamic ?"
"Oh no .... they have variant interpretations about what the whole of the Book of the Law means and fight terribly about it all the time at home ."
.... sometimes you cant win .
Todays reading ; http://hermetic.com/crowley/magick-without-tears/mwt_52.html
The plague of the 'initiate' . Many a person / friend / student in our group ran into similar problems ( mine was from my individuation to .... well, onwards from there
) . Once I was introduced to a guy that was 'a Thelemite'. Afterwards, when he left, and the person that introduced me to him was talking about these family difficulties, I asked about the guys situation I had just met ."Oh, his sister is a Thelemite too. "
Me; " That must make it easier for the family dynamic ?"
"Oh no .... they have variant interpretations about what the whole of the Book of the Law means and fight terribly about it all the time at home ."
.... sometimes you cant win . Todays reading ; http://hermetic.com/crowley/magick-without-tears/mwt_52.html
Aeon418
You may find this 'little essay' useful.
hermetic.com/crowley/little-essays-towards-truth/indifference.html
If you are interested the rest of Crowley's, Little Essays Towards Truth, they can be found here:
hermetic.com/crowley/little-essays-towards-truth/
