Book of Law Study Group 1.2

[Aeon418]

And what is the difference between acknowledging and sensing the help or presence of HGA and Knowledge and Conversation?

Lets put it this way, knowing you are under guidance and intuiting the presence of the Angel in your life is not "Knowledge and Conversation". To the modern mind that phrase seems to mean nothing more than information and a chat. But you have to remember that the term "Knowledge and Converstation" comes from a 14th/15th century grimoire. Back then, K&C, would have meant what it is implied in the Biblical sense of "to know". It is intimate union with the angel. Many writings on union with God (the angel) are couched in sexual symbolism for that very reason. It is an intimate union with the divine.

Does that help?

or that pretty eyed musician across town is your soul mate

I always chuckle when I see people mention soul mates. The search for our ideal soul mate is basically the search for the angel within, but in the wrong direction. What nearly all of us do though is project our search outwards and try to look for another person who embodies the qualities of our angel. You don't have to know this on a conscious level either. It's the reason why we fall in love with the people we do. We "project" our angel outwards and see it in other people. The big problem is that no mortal human can match the angel. If you think otherwise you are setting yourself up for heartbreak.

What usually happens in this case is that, sooner or later, the object of affection fails to live up to the ideal of your angel. You feel hurt, betrayed and angry at the other person. But it's not the other persons fault.

 

[Aeon418]

Again (referring back to my earlier comments) there's a trendency for folks to think of the otherworld in literal, concrete terms... as if Heaven/Hell was a geographic region atr such-and-such a distance, as if angels/demons/ghosts/djinn were a rarified species of discrete organism. As if by using the word star, he meant that every human was in fact a ball of gas with a tremendous graviitational field.

Tell me about it.

Over the years I've tried explain to various people why the human mind is so ill-equiped to directly understand other levels of reality and states of being. Why we need things like gods, angels, and demons, to help us get to grips with levels of awareness that are beyond our normal understanding. Why attempts to use the rational mind to understand the trans-rational is doomed to failure amid a mass of self-contradiction.

It's only because of the way our brains have evolved that we need all this elaborate symbolism. Human beings, with rare exceptions, just aren't very good at dealing with abstract thought. We are symbol making creatures. But it's a mistake to confuse our symbols with the reality they are meant to symbolise.

The Holy Guardian Angel may not be an independent being in reality. But my mind is simply not equiped to deal with it on it's own level. That's why conceptualizing it as a guardian angel is so useful.

It's also helpful to remember a couple of the reasons why Crowley opted to use the term Holy Guardian Angel in his system.

1) It's so simple that even a child can understand it.
2) It's so stupid only a moron would take it at face value.

 

[Myrrha]

Actually I think this is a sign that you are understanding it. *does his best pouting expression and says in a whining voice* "How come you dissolve your ego and cross the abyss on your first attempt and the rest of us are still dangling away in Malkuth?!"

No, my ego is still in full effect. But I can feel my ego not-liking some of what it is hearing right now.

Scion and Aeon418, thanks for answering. I think I understand the part about the three realms interpenetrating, I will think about it some more. I do understand the part about the HGA and the rest of the daemonic realm not being literal. This is part of what interests me about Thelema because I am a modern person and it is difficult for me to believe in Gods and Goddesses or even intermediary daemons as real entities like my aunt Kathy. OTOH I don't see them as merely particles of my own consciousness either.

 

[Always Wondering]

Lets put it this way, knowing you are under guidance and intuiting the presence of the Angel in your life is not "Knowledge and Conversation". To the modern mind that phrase seems to mean nothing more than information and a chat. But you have to remember that the term "Knowledge and Converstation" comes from a 14th/15th century grimoire. Back then, K&C, would have meant what it is implied in the Biblical sense of "to know". It is intimate union with the angel. Many writings on union with God (the angel) are couched in sexual symbolism for that very reason. It is an intimate union with the divine.

Does that help?

Yes. That explains this advice for achieving union with the HGA.

You do it by falling head over heals in love. You do it by using your inner imagination to create the diety in the image of your most ideal lover, and then surrendering yourself completly and unconditionally.

I have this crazy wild imagination. I try to be careful with it.

I guess I was seeing HGA as something as far away as Knowledge and Conversation.

AW

 

[Aeon418]

I guess I was seeing HGA as something as far away as Knowledge and Conversation.

The HGA is always there. Surrendering to it is the hard part.

 

[Abrac]

The BoL makes the most sense (to me anyway) if Crowley's HGA is understood as a symbol for a component of his own thought processes and personality. Aiwass can say and decree all of the things Crowley would like to, but with a level of authority that might otherwise be dismissed. In the BoL we get a glimpse into Crowley's own state of mind (just my opinion).

 

[Beira]

The company of heaven is Nuit unveiled. She is unknowable in herself; what we are able to perceive with our faulty senses is the company of heaben, that I personally understand as the host of spirits that in so many traditions act as intermediary between the gods and mankind (ans I have no reason to believe they don't do the same for other animals and living creatures).
From the aumha.org commentary I gather that the understanding of the existence of the company of heaven is the dirext consequence of Nuit manifesting. It is how she does it.
It makes sense: we can't comprehend her, ao her manifestation consists to us in the unveiling of the company of heaven.
I have read heee in the thrwad about the idea that this company of spirit's task in the Aeon of Horus is teaching humanity how to achieve Briahtic consciousness. This would be great.. and most needed!
This agrees with what AC says about the microcosmic level: the teachings of the company of heaven are reflected in the development of the Higher self at soul level.
The company of heaven includes also all other man and woman (as we understand with the next line), so we have to reckon their divine origin same as our own, and maybe start thinking of them in less "separate" terms than we are used to.
If we all are but emanations of one of the infinite potemtialities of Nuit brought to full manifestation so that she could get to experience herself, then our nature and purpose is far more similar than what we usually consider: there actually no need of arguments and disagreements cause any experience is as good as the other to bring experience to Nuit... Uhm.. I dont know if I like this..
It cannot be: then also completing the Great Work or not would have no importance.. uhm.. anyone help pls?
Maybe it has to do with the role of Hadit, that we haven't considered in this light so far..

 

[Zephyros]

I'm not sure what the site you linked to has to do with it, it says it's a "Windows Support Center."

 

[Beira]

I have just checked and actually is the same address of the site linked in this thread as Eshelmann commentaries. I arrived at it from another road, but I can just call it Eshelman commentary if this avoids confusion.
I dont know how you got the help page.. also if you follow the link in the thread, where also all the links to the lines are listed, in the address is written ahuma.org. I think is a Los Angeles lodge's name, im no sure..

 

[Aeon418]

Is this the one you mean?

aumha.org/arcane/ccxx.htm