Know Thyself Biblically
In the A.’.A.’., we transform our “I” into the Bride and avatar of our Angelic Self. We strengthen the astral egg, harmonize the chakras, and develop the moral qualities of true freedom–all in a mood of devotion, interior and exquisite.
Along the way, we have to progressively soften the “I”‘s armor, the ego. Carefully, gently, we have to dissolve the separateness between our lower self and our divine Self. The hymen of separation is to be pierced in ethereal abandonment–enraptured Love under Will.
As pointed out in yesterday’s blog post, the aim of Thelemic religion is to Receive the sacrament of that most Dynamic, Angelic part of ourselves. In other words, it is to “grasp the immediate causes of our being” (“Berashith: An Essay on Ontology”). “Biblical” Gnosis.
And, as also stated yesterday, Aleister Crowley bewails those misguided souls who are “blinded by the thirst for life and individual existence, the most formidable obstacle of all, in fact a negation of the very object of all religion”.
Devotion: The Litmus Test of Adepthood
Until you can receive the influence of something higher than yourself, you won’t be an Adept.
The point of taking membership in the A.’.A.’. is to receive a higher influence through a teacher. Needless to say, you may not need one in order to receive the Light of your Angel. But if something in you balks, examine it carefully.
If that in you which balks is nothing but your ego refusing to acknowledge Wisdom, be warned: you’ll sink under that weight. If it is wise discernment that balks, it may be that you haven’t found the right outer vehicle yet. Or it may be that you have.
The Student-Teacher Relationship
Why Bother Being a Student?
Everyone who extols the cause of Freedom needs to dissolve the separation between “I” and Other at some point. However, not everyone needs to do it at the same pace.
Luckily, we live in an era of the internet. Every instruction you could ever want is online. You can read all the theory, do your own practices, keep a journal. On the level of information, you not need anyone else.
Some people still feel drawn to the A.’.A.’. Some claim it’s because they want instruction, but I rather think it’s the positive potential of the student-teacher relationship. Ultimately, the only reason to enter the A.’.A.’. is to avail yourself of the chance to project the face of your Angel onto your mentor–and perhaps to receive such a projection from a student of your own one day.
Some A.’.A.’. members, like mules, are sterile, unable or unwilling to teach. But if they have mastered the art of being a student, it matters not. Everyone has his or her place in the cosmos.
The Art of Being a Student
The Magickal Mirror
To practice the art of being a student, Understand your teacher as a manifestation of your Angel–and act accordingly.
Actually, your entire Universe manifests your relationship with your Angel moment by moment. Transform yourself, transform your Universe. It is no exaggeration to say that magick is the Art of Love under Will–the supreme art of the relationship.
The first stage is to adopt the attitude that your teacher is the face of your Universe. You should do this as a magickal act. Simply decide that it is so and see, as an Artist, what comes to you. Of course, do not adopt this attitude as if it were a literal fact. It is not outside of you. Nothing is outside of you.
As you go on to study and master Qabalah, you transform your lower mind into a magickal mirror. Organizing every phenomenon on that one map, you transform the sensory world into a carrier wave of the Silent Voice Within. You should likewise transform the phenomenon of your teacher or superior into a carrier wave of your Inner God.
Chess with Teacher
According to my late teacher, J. Edward Cornelius, Aleister Crowley liked to play chess with his student, the “Warrior-Troubadour” Grady Louis McMurtry.
According to Grady, it was while both were playing chess one morning that Crowley simply looked up from the board and said, “You are obviously IXth Degree material,” and indirectly, that is how Grady received his official papers, becoming a IXth Degree member of the Ordo Templi Orientis, over a game of chess. Crowley had “divined” Grady’s character through his moves, which is something he did with everyone with whom he played.
–J. Edward Cornelius, Grady Louis McMurtry: The Man, the Myth and the Legend
Jerry used to say to me, “Grady always said, ‘You have to play chess'”–including, he insisted, when answering emails from your students. He meant, when you are trying to bring something to a student’s attention, you don’t give them any “outs”, any ways of escaping your point.
Alas, nine times out of ten, a student in the Lover or Hermit degrees experiences outrage at someone deigning to express concern about something they are doing. Never mind that in the Ruach they are supposed to have made their ego malleable to Will. Only a teenager screams loudly when someone suggests a change of behavior. If you are such a master, maybe when the teacher simply does his or her job you can behave with dignity?
Chess is a metaphor for taking magickal ownership over your life. It means, making moves that only allow your highest intent to manifest. If you teacher says something that displeases you, do not waste your precious magickal fuel in an egoic tantrum. Instead, find a way to pour that blood into the Cup of BABALON. Understand.
In chess, the King remains in the background. He is not a melee warrior. He fights by way of his army, the other pieces.
How to Listen and Receive
Listen deeply to what your teacher or superior tells you. Invite the dawn of spiritual realization as you sit with whatever he or she said.
Defensiveness is natural, but, remember: it’s only your ego fighting wakefulness.
Even if you do not immediately agree with your superior’s message, assume there is a deeper reason for this conflict. Find that part of it that emanates from you. Bring it into alignment with the Angel. Take your time.
“Beware lest any force another, King against King!”
— The Book of the Law, II:24
It may be that disharmony lives within you. Or it may be that you need to own something as yours that you are currently repressing in an attempt to create an artificial harmony.
Respond to your superior with a genuine openness and willingness to Hear. Hearing is the magickal power associated with The Hierophant.
For Heaven’s sake, do not treat your Hierophant as if He were a son-of-a-bitch. Respect the office and, ideally, the person who is willing to sit in that seat for you.
Do you ultimately have to agree with what your teacher said? Of course not. But do not short-circuit the process for your ego’s comfort.
What about your superior’s human foibles? They exist. Once you’ve taken the beam out of your own eye, then decide what to say, do, etc. regarding any of that. That’s not your top priority. You worry about your magick. They’ll worry about theirs.
If you discover that your superior is attempting to manipulate or coerce you, then leave. Of course, figure out what in you drew a manipulative teacher to you. Unless you fix what’s inside of you, you’ll never overcome that pitfall.
On Crowley's Ideal of Holy Obedience
Crowley said that if your teacher tells you to jump off a cliff, you should do it. In that, he admired Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Jesuits.
“But in the purity and perfection of obedience, with genuine resignation of our wills and abnegation of our judgment, I am very desirous, dear brothers, that those who serve God in this Society should distinguish themselves, and that its true sons may be recognized by this—never looking to the person whom they obey, but in that person, to Christ our Lord, for whose sake they obey.”
It is not wise to take Crowley’s advice literally. If you’ve attracted a tyrant or sociopath it’s probably better to correct whatever’s wrong inside yourself and move on.
Yet you would be foolish not to entertain Crowley’s advice very seriously. Physical death is not to be feared. Most of what you esteem about yourself is trivial.
The point is this: be utterly stubborn in accomplishing your Will, which is the Universal Will, not yours. Invoke deeply. Invoke often. Use your teacher as a holy icon. Your Angel can handle most of the rest.