Nitimur in vetitum
Catching up, jotting down, pondering. What have I been doing?
Music things: The Ammala fund raiser had a good crowd and seemed to go well, I haven't heard yet how much we actually raised. General concensus seems to be it wasn't as organized as it could have been.
BLTB practices start in January in earnest, and we have a basic concept of what we're going to wear. Spiff. Looking forward to more musical experimentation and hearing what we can do when we're not worried about making it danceable.
Need to get J. hooked up with drum lessons.
Still need to figure out Multi mode on the S08, I might actually need it.K: I saw her in my dream.
S: What was she like?
K: She seemed very honest. Short hair in a style that comes down to a straight horizontal line, pale skin, bright eyes. All I really recall is her face, and that she stood a bit shorter than myself.
S: Did she say anything?
K: Yes. As best I recall: "Dedication and practice, repetition; this is the wall of earth. Communication, the network of people, spreading ideas; this is the wall of air."
S: What do you think it means?
K: The temple has four walls. These might be the walls I need to construct first, or the ones that need the most work, or the only ones I can grasp at this point in time. Asiah and Yetzirah. But Earth and Air tie into a lot of things for me, I've always considered them as the primary pair with Fire and Water secondary. 土 and 天.
S: Who is she?
K: I couldn't say.After spending the better part of a ceremony a few weeks ago with my intestines in revolt, I've tried to pin down the culinary culprit. My original thought was dairy, but dairy in general doesn't seem to be a problem, it's only certain aspects. Milk is bad; some creamy things seem to be bad; cooked cheese seems to be fine; uncooked cheese I'm not sure about yet. Still trying to figure out the details.Still slogging through Basic Writings of Nietzsche, about 600 pages into it. Parts of it are brilliant, parts of it are wrong in a quaint Victorian way, parts of it seem naïve in the light of current knowledge and theories.
I've decided that Nietzsche was a downer at parties.
It's all very interesting from a Thelemic point of view, though. Genealogy of Morals in particular seems like an important background to getting a grip on Liber AL.Speaking of which, it would appear that part of my working through this degree is questioning the structure in which it appears. The more I explore the works behind Thelema and the OTO - Nietzsche, gnostic texts, the original gnostic catholic church of Doinel, masonry, Golden Dawn, etc., basically the things that influenced Crowley - the more it seems like (a) Thelema is a modern but completely unoriginal reformation of a philosophical current that comes up every few hundred years and then dies out unsuccessful as its proponents generally fail to achieve lasting works in favor of personal power; (b) the essential teachings underlying the structure (Hermeticism, gnosticism, qabala, yoga, etc.) are alive and well; (c) Liber AL is a very abbreviated combination of (a) and (b) put through Crowley's extremely specific mental filter at that point in time, reflecting his education, upbringing, and personal practice, regardless of its possible origin; suggesting (d) Crowley's "LiberALizing" of the various teachings of (b) did more to garble the information than to correct it for everyone other than himself (this may be hinted at in the Comment), so other sources of (b) may be both more reliable and more valuable for personal work.
Or, to put it another way, every alchemist needs to create their own Stone.K: I want my life to be meaningful, to have an impact.
S: And if that's already done? What if I told you that, as far as the future is concerned, the most important thing in your life happened in the fourth grade, when you gave a book to a friend that changed their life ten years later, and that everything you've done and everything you will do since that point matters not a whit? What if your work of changing the future is done, and the rest of your time here is, in the future's opinion, of no regard? What would you do then?The office Christmas party is tomorrow. Unlike last year, there appears to be an option to escape before it devolves into a drunken stupor, so it should be enjoyable.The days are short, the nights are long, and my inner clock wants to set itself to "hibernate." Must keep active, there are too many things to do in the next couple of months.
Music things: The Ammala fund raiser had a good crowd and seemed to go well, I haven't heard yet how much we actually raised. General concensus seems to be it wasn't as organized as it could have been.
BLTB practices start in January in earnest, and we have a basic concept of what we're going to wear. Spiff. Looking forward to more musical experimentation and hearing what we can do when we're not worried about making it danceable.
Need to get J. hooked up with drum lessons.
Still need to figure out Multi mode on the S08, I might actually need it.K: I saw her in my dream.
S: What was she like?
K: She seemed very honest. Short hair in a style that comes down to a straight horizontal line, pale skin, bright eyes. All I really recall is her face, and that she stood a bit shorter than myself.
S: Did she say anything?
K: Yes. As best I recall: "Dedication and practice, repetition; this is the wall of earth. Communication, the network of people, spreading ideas; this is the wall of air."
S: What do you think it means?
K: The temple has four walls. These might be the walls I need to construct first, or the ones that need the most work, or the only ones I can grasp at this point in time. Asiah and Yetzirah. But Earth and Air tie into a lot of things for me, I've always considered them as the primary pair with Fire and Water secondary. 土 and 天.
S: Who is she?
K: I couldn't say.After spending the better part of a ceremony a few weeks ago with my intestines in revolt, I've tried to pin down the culinary culprit. My original thought was dairy, but dairy in general doesn't seem to be a problem, it's only certain aspects. Milk is bad; some creamy things seem to be bad; cooked cheese seems to be fine; uncooked cheese I'm not sure about yet. Still trying to figure out the details.Still slogging through Basic Writings of Nietzsche, about 600 pages into it. Parts of it are brilliant, parts of it are wrong in a quaint Victorian way, parts of it seem naïve in the light of current knowledge and theories.
I've decided that Nietzsche was a downer at parties.
It's all very interesting from a Thelemic point of view, though. Genealogy of Morals in particular seems like an important background to getting a grip on Liber AL.Speaking of which, it would appear that part of my working through this degree is questioning the structure in which it appears. The more I explore the works behind Thelema and the OTO - Nietzsche, gnostic texts, the original gnostic catholic church of Doinel, masonry, Golden Dawn, etc., basically the things that influenced Crowley - the more it seems like (a) Thelema is a modern but completely unoriginal reformation of a philosophical current that comes up every few hundred years and then dies out unsuccessful as its proponents generally fail to achieve lasting works in favor of personal power; (b) the essential teachings underlying the structure (Hermeticism, gnosticism, qabala, yoga, etc.) are alive and well; (c) Liber AL is a very abbreviated combination of (a) and (b) put through Crowley's extremely specific mental filter at that point in time, reflecting his education, upbringing, and personal practice, regardless of its possible origin; suggesting (d) Crowley's "LiberALizing" of the various teachings of (b) did more to garble the information than to correct it for everyone other than himself (this may be hinted at in the Comment), so other sources of (b) may be both more reliable and more valuable for personal work.
Or, to put it another way, every alchemist needs to create their own Stone.K: I want my life to be meaningful, to have an impact.
S: And if that's already done? What if I told you that, as far as the future is concerned, the most important thing in your life happened in the fourth grade, when you gave a book to a friend that changed their life ten years later, and that everything you've done and everything you will do since that point matters not a whit? What if your work of changing the future is done, and the rest of your time here is, in the future's opinion, of no regard? What would you do then?The office Christmas party is tomorrow. Unlike last year, there appears to be an option to escape before it devolves into a drunken stupor, so it should be enjoyable.The days are short, the nights are long, and my inner clock wants to set itself to "hibernate." Must keep active, there are too many things to do in the next couple of months.