The Oath of the Abyss

[Telarus]

Very interesting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOyOcjA_T6k

[Captain Utopia]

The reason why I never started on a Thelemic path is because - the way it was explained to me at least - you couldn't understand anything of the higher truths without totally absorbing the lower truths through ritual and practice.  In other words, you had to fully enter that reality tunnel before you could start to evaluate anything of value.

So with that in mind, wouldn't someone taking The Oath of the Abyss already be steeped in certain ways of thinking which would influence their reaction, whether fully conscious or not?  Isn't that the total opposite of TFY,S?

[Richter]

Interesting as an idea / thought experiment.  Like other thelema (Or even other religions, FFS) though, it seems to get caught up in it's own trappings to put gravitas on a process or idea.

[Zyzyx]

I have interacted with Thelemites before, and it seems really amazing that the organization stays running despite the decadence and wackiness of the people there. It just seems like another cult to me, just smaller than Christianity. Ra-hoor-khuit instead of Jesus. Jonestown Kool-Aid, colored purple instead of red.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Reading Crowley seems far more interesting than talking with Thelemics...

[Zyzyx]

It's best to pick and choose with Thelema, imo. Crowley wrote a lot of things, especially the Gnostic Mass, as a way to piss off Christians and get his butthurt revenge on his fundie parents. He also had the emotional maturity of your average six year-old. And there are people who try to emulate this guy only to completely screw up their personal lives. Then they wonder why afterwards.

[Richter]

As opposed to "Bob", who parodied religions to make money.

[LMNO]

Yeah, sometimes it seems like Crowley parodied religions to get even.










....and laid, of course.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Yeah, sometimes it seems like Crowley parodied religions to get even.










....and laid, of course.

And just to fuck with the British Public in general...

"But it is your own fault if you ... only see of me what Moses saw of God!

It is disgusting to have to spend one's life jetting dirt in the face of the British public in the hope that in washing it they may wash off the acrid grease of their commercialism, the saline streaks of their hypocritical tears, the putrid perspiration of their morality,  the dribbling slobber of their sentimentality and their religion. And they don't wash it!"

[Nephew Twiddleton]

He would have made an interesting rock star

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

He would have made an interesting rock star

Many rock stars have claimed inspiration from Uncle Al. Ozzie, Jim Morrison, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page... umm..  the Beatles, Daryl Hall etc etc etc

[Nephew Twiddleton]

He would have made an interesting rock star

Many rock stars have claimed inspiration from Uncle Al. Ozzie, Jim Morrison, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page... umm..  the Beatles, Daryl Hall etc etc etc

Makes sense.

Even Jeff Martin, actually, rock star status debatable though it is.

Also post 777 

[Telarus]

What jumped out at me from the above video is the warning not to interpret these messages that Universe is sending to you, because that leads to paranoia. This has (to me) many similarities in the 'sitting' Zazen exercises, where you recognize thoughts in order to relax and let them go.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

"But it is your own fault if you ... only see of me what Moses saw of God!

Just in case some non-christians didn't get this... in the Bible Moses asks to see YHVH and YHVH says "If you saw me you'd die." So instead he has Moses hide in a hole in the ground, then passes by and tells Moses to look after he goes by... ala Moses just saw the Omniscient Arse.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Reading Crowley seems far more interesting than talking with Thelemics...

Thelemics are a fucking walking contradiction. If there was every anybody who advocated thinking for yourself it was Crowley. For all his faults and foibles he was pretty fucking clear on that one point. And what do the Thelemites do? They worship him and argue over what thoughts he intended for them to think for themselves. Just when you thought it couldn't get any more retarded than mainstream religion's Empty Box Scam, along comes the cult of the bald man