(no subject)
Since I am not using my journals as much as I used to, I decided that I would crosspost a few things and see how it goes. This is more related to my magickal journal ( metaphorge23 ), so I will put it under a cut for those who don't really care about this kind of thing.
I've been doing a bit of reading about magick and picked up a new book "Portable Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader" which compiled his writing into basic categories and followed that up with articles that directly relate to one another. For example, it contains an article about the Book of the Law that explains how the voices should be read [i.e. When Aiwass or Crowley or one of the Godforms he contacted is speaking and to whom the speaker is addressing (Mankind or just Crowley] ) which really helped me to understand what the Book is all about. There are several things that he mentions which started to lead me down some experimental pathways that I consider to be two of the goals of my practice: Open-handed Technique and The development of Free Will through magick.
One of the statements that Crowley makes in regard to the Tree of Life is that language and sentence construction is a kabbalah. Its the interaction of one's self with the Tree that gives it some sort of significance. Combining that with an article I read in the "Disinfo Book of Lies" which talks about viewing life as "Code" (The intelligent Willed shaping of reality through thought, words and the creation of objects) and it made me realize that it could be possible to create one's own Tree of Life based on one's own understanding of "reality" and work with it in such a way that one can achieve magickal states of consciousness (which I believe is the goal of the kabbalah, per Crowley). If anyone wants me to detail what my kabbalah is and how I have been working with it, then I will, otherwise I will just state that it has helped me out tremendously in my practice and look forward to the results that I will achieve through using it.
Through studying Determinism and Free Will, and through the Book of the Law and the general layout of Crowley's practice, I came to a realization about the purpose and nature of Ceremonial Practice. Crowley describes how he one time recited a poem with passion and this served as an incantation that produced a result. In the "Book of the Law", it states: " '44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered form the lust of result, is every way perfect.' " What I realized was that Free (Pure) will is achieved through the absence of lust for result and that one way to practice this removal of lust is to perform Ceremonial Magick.
The goal of Ceremonial Magick therefore is not the actual result of the Working in and of itself but the learning a of a skill to carry with you throughout your life. Wanting the result of a stimulus (cause) is what makes us perform certain actions (effect). By taking on a role as the prime cause of one's own action without wanting a result from these actions (effect), the chain of Determinism is broken and Free Will is achieved. The goal of a Magickian therefore becomes Free Will or what could be termed Knowledge and Conversation with the HGA. That means that the HGA is Free Will. So, I am going to change how I approach Workings from now in order to reflect this ultimate goal: Free Will.
That's about it for now...
I've been doing a bit of reading about magick and picked up a new book "Portable Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader" which compiled his writing into basic categories and followed that up with articles that directly relate to one another. For example, it contains an article about the Book of the Law that explains how the voices should be read [i.e. When Aiwass or Crowley or one of the Godforms he contacted is speaking and to whom the speaker is addressing (Mankind or just Crowley] ) which really helped me to understand what the Book is all about. There are several things that he mentions which started to lead me down some experimental pathways that I consider to be two of the goals of my practice: Open-handed Technique and The development of Free Will through magick.
One of the statements that Crowley makes in regard to the Tree of Life is that language and sentence construction is a kabbalah. Its the interaction of one's self with the Tree that gives it some sort of significance. Combining that with an article I read in the "Disinfo Book of Lies" which talks about viewing life as "Code" (The intelligent Willed shaping of reality through thought, words and the creation of objects) and it made me realize that it could be possible to create one's own Tree of Life based on one's own understanding of "reality" and work with it in such a way that one can achieve magickal states of consciousness (which I believe is the goal of the kabbalah, per Crowley). If anyone wants me to detail what my kabbalah is and how I have been working with it, then I will, otherwise I will just state that it has helped me out tremendously in my practice and look forward to the results that I will achieve through using it.
Through studying Determinism and Free Will, and through the Book of the Law and the general layout of Crowley's practice, I came to a realization about the purpose and nature of Ceremonial Practice. Crowley describes how he one time recited a poem with passion and this served as an incantation that produced a result. In the "Book of the Law", it states: " '44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered form the lust of result, is every way perfect.' " What I realized was that Free (Pure) will is achieved through the absence of lust for result and that one way to practice this removal of lust is to perform Ceremonial Magick.
The goal of Ceremonial Magick therefore is not the actual result of the Working in and of itself but the learning a of a skill to carry with you throughout your life. Wanting the result of a stimulus (cause) is what makes us perform certain actions (effect). By taking on a role as the prime cause of one's own action without wanting a result from these actions (effect), the chain of Determinism is broken and Free Will is achieved. The goal of a Magickian therefore becomes Free Will or what could be termed Knowledge and Conversation with the HGA. That means that the HGA is Free Will. So, I am going to change how I approach Workings from now in order to reflect this ultimate goal: Free Will.
That's about it for now...