Praecipue Scientia
(Knowledge Above All Else)
Neophyte
Sun in Capricorn, Moon in Aquarius, IV xviii
January 7, 2011
Curriculum For This Grade
Magic Pantacle in Green Silk
Divination: Tarot, I Ching, Astrology, Geomancy"Liber E", "Liber O", "Liber A"
"Liber Os Abysmi""Liber HHH", Section One"Energized Enthusiasm""Liber Liberi vel Lapis Lazuli" (Class A Document)
Secret Word of the Neophyte MUAUM (Mem, Vau, Aleph, Vau, Mem - but not Mem
final) = 93 - Get it, Mum's the word! (Har-har! Uncle Al is so funny.)
Besides the astraling instructions at the end of "Liber O" - "The Treasure-House of images" also says to astral to constellation of my Ascendant (Sagittarius).Read Golden Dawn Instructional Papers
Return to Thelemapedia - read beginning at "Chaos" (of course)
January 7 - 3:06 p.m. - There is a lot less to read for this Grade, but a lot more practices to do. I'm really looking forward to it.
To say it should be interesting is an understatement. This Grade will be just an incredible journey.
Let's go!
"Liber Os Abysmi" ("The Book of the Mouth of the Abyss")
The Origin of the World - at the command of the gods, eight extraterrestrial race came together and interbred to create the human race.
The Origin of Evil - people are crap.
Infinity - Nuit.
Absolute - Nuit.
Ego - the individual sense of self.
Non-Ego - to approach the Unity.
Free Will - junior partner to the True Will.
Destiny - nearly all of us make our own; those few others of us are doing the work of the gods.
I read "Liber A" on the Pantacle.
"Energized Enthusiasm" - this begins to set the aspirant up for the work of the Rosy Cross.
"Liber HHH" - Section One: MMM - I think this needs to be rad slowly and with meaning about once a week while in this Grade.
January 10 - Sat in the god asana and achieved dharana on the water tattwa.
Held god forms and vibrated Ptah, Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Djehuty & Inpu
Meditated on Muludhara and Svadhisthana Chakras and raising the Kundalini.
7:04 a.m. - I wonder if a sudden burst of hope or optimism hasn't got me too excited about re-joining an Order I had long kicked the dust from off of my sandals.
There are too many disenfranchised former members. And no one is reaching out to them. In fact, it seems as though the number of former members is constantly growing. And they are constantly attacked by insiders still within this Order.
People of quality have been driven out, or are abused for not fitting in and following the corporate lines.
[to be continued some other time]
January 11 - 12:43 a.m. - On keeping with this Grade's emphasis on divination, I am returning to The Book of Thoth. I am currently on p14.
Later (4:38 a.m.) I still feel I am rushing into things. I read quite a bit and dozed a little.
January 14 - I have tried to keep everything formal in this dairy. There are things that just do not matter. Only the work matters. Personal aspects of my life are meaningless.
Do you need to know if I'm a single parent or not? Do you need to know if I have a significant other? Or what her name is? Do you need to know that I went through the painful prerequisite to becoming the ... ? I would rather that my first-born son were still alive than to have this thrust upon my shoulders. I nearly collapsed from the pain this put me through.
But here I am. And the path is before me. Sometimes the weight of what I must do is more than I can bare. How in the world am I to do this? How am I to accomplish all this?
I have no problem with doing the work; in fact I look forward to it. I am enthused about doing the work.
I want to attain. I want to claw my way up the Tree of Life as far as I can get. I will let nothing stop me.
Right now I am reading The Book of Thoth, after that I will read DuQuette's book on the Thoth deck.
Concurrently I am preparing myself for more adventurous astral work than I've ever done before.
Again, I don't feel too much personal data is helpful. But at this point I am facing a drastic change to my situation.
After being betrayed by my best friend and teacher in a private matter that I would prefer not to discuss further, my wife and I resigned from the O.T.O. (Not that it matters, but she is now my second ex-wife.)
There is a local Thelemic group in my home town. There are a few O.T.O. members in the group.
First, my second ex-wife suggested celebrating the Gnostic Mass; then she brought up the topic of rejoining the Order. This floored me; she usually holds a grudge forever.
So I am going through the steps to get reinstated into the O.T.O., with thoughts of creating a Lodge here in town.
But I must not get destracted from my calling, from my solo work.
Onward!
I am currently on p68 of The Book of Thoth.
January 15, 2011 - 10:05 p.m. - Earlier tonight I performed my Egyptian versions of the LBRP / GRP / LBRH / GRH; plus "Liber Resh vel helios". It felt good.
Read through Chapter 5 of "Liber O" in preparation for astral work.
I re-read "Liber HHH", Section MMM.
I sat in the god asana achieving dharana on the water tattwa.
Held the god forms and vibrated the usual Egyptian gods I've assigned to this Grade.
Worked on the first two Chakras.
I am piecing together a full-size print of the Stele of Revealing.
January 17 - I did the Egyptian LBRP and Resh last night. I am still reading through The Book of Thoth. I was doing some searches online for "Church of Thelema" and outside of it being owned by Martin P. Starr, I couldn't find anything.
January 20 - LBRP / Resh: Sunrise
January 22 - Happy Robert E. Howard's Birthday. It is ironic because I was reading today a poem I wrote to him.
I haven't recorded every banishing or Resh I've done. it's been almost daily.
I've set up a Gnostic Mass practice room. i nearly have the entire thing memorized ... again. It's a little shaky, but I will repeat it every day until I have it down pat.
On to (or "back to") the Neophyte Grade. I thought there were five major forms of divination used by adepts. I can only find traces of four: Tarot, I Ching, Astrology and Geomancy.
I will study them in that order. Now back to The Book of Thoth.
January 24 - Returning to The Book of Thoth, I was able to read pretty far through it last night.
What will the next six weeks bring for me?
XVIII Moon - Illusion, Deception, Bewilderment
Prince of Swords - Ideas, Thoughts, Designs
Ace of Cups - Fertility, Productiveness
XV Devil - Blind Impulse, Strong, Unscrupulous
Prince of Wands - Swift, Strong, Hasty, Violent
VII Chariot - Triumph, Victory, Hope, Memory
9 of Wands - Strength, Power, Health, Success
January 25 - I did a Tarot throw of a personal nature. It was a "Tell-Me-a-Story" spread of seven cards. There was a little adversity, more good cards than bad, and the final card was the six of Swords (science, labor, work, success, beauty, dominance) - my reply to all this was "So, okay then?"
January 28 - No matter how vain of full of hubris it may sound, I've been spending a lot of time putting my magical writings on line.
I tried some astral practice earlier today. It seemed to work out okay.
3:56 a.m. - Sat in god asana and achieved dharana on water tattwa.
Held god forms and vibrated god names of the usual gods.
Meditated on the Muludhara and the Svadhisthana Chakras: cleansing them, making them bright and glowing.
I have to admit the dharana is not as perfect as I want it to be but I will keep trying.
While transferring these notes to my website, I've noticed that I've hardly commented on what I've read the way I was doing a few months ago, therefore back to analysis.
January 28-30 - Aleister Crowley's The Book of Thoth and Lon DuQuette's Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot:
To elaborate of a previous remark: I realized I haven't commented as much on the books I've been reading as I used to. It just doesn't seem to be that much to say. I absorb them as much as I can: kind of nod my head at them; go "uh-huh" but I haven't felt like commenting.
These two books for instance: a wealth of information, and I'm glad I read them - but I don't have that much to say.
"All divination resembles an attempt by a man born blind to obtain sight by getting blind drunk." -- Aleister Crowley
I have finished both books and will attempt a Tarot spread using the Crowley system. Using the position of my sun sign, my significator would be the Queen of Wands.
This method is used for much more intricate questions than I usually ask.
It is interesting that the Crowley spreads do incorporate the "Tell-Me-a-Story" method.
Onto the I Ching: The Complete I Ching, by Taoist Master Alfred Huang.
January 31 - I've been investigating Crowley's Tarot spread, apparently it's based on the Gold Dawn "Opening of the Key" Tarot spread. Who would have guessed it?
It is very extreme, and I hope I'm never involved in a reading that goes to the fourth operation.
February 2011