Chade wrote:

I have no way of knowing what’s happening right now. My senses can only pass a limited representation of what has just happened onto mybrain. That’s what I mean by not being fully aligned.

The best I can do is try and interpret it while, to borrow Erwin’s phrase, ignoring the crap spinning round in my head.

Alright, let’s look at that, since you bring it up.

You certainly do have a way of knowing what’s happening right now – you can simply pay attention to it. Now, you’re probably thinking along the lines of “how do I know my senses aren’t playing tricks on me?” or “that table seems solid, but I think I know it isn’t,” or “how do I know aliens aren’t planting these thoughts into my brain?” Those sorts of questions don’t address “reality” if we use that term in any meaningful sense. They are addressing a spin on reality, or what Tom would describe as “narration.”

Put your hand on a table. In attempting to know reality, you’re thinking along the lines of “am I really touching this table?” “Is this table really there?” “Is my hand really there?” “Am I really here?” None of these things have anything to do with reality. What reality is, from your point of view, is that there is a sensation of a hand being on a table, and a perception of that sensation. That’s real. There’s your reality. It simply does not matter what the physical actuality behind that sensation or that perception is; both the sensation and the perception are real.

It when you start – to use Tom’s phrase again – narrating things that you move away from reality. When you start thinking, “Aha! This table feels solid, but I know it isn’t!” you’re moving away from reality and paying attention to voices in your head. You might think you are seeing through an illusion of reality, but the opposite is occurring. The reality, in this case, is that there is a thought that although a table feels solid, it isn’t, and there is a perception of that thought. Read the rest of this post »

As the Sun enters the cadent decan of Capricorn, the winter solstice is approximately twenty days behind us, and the days are slowly beginning to lengthen. Because of seasonal delay – the fact that the ground gives off more heat than it absorbs for a period after the shortest day – the coldest day of the year comes some time after the shortest day. The average date of the coldest day varies. In the continental United States, the coldest day can be as early as December 26^th in Seattle, or as late as January 30^th in Miami. On average, however, the coldest day appears to fall around January 11^th, so in most of the U.S. before the Sun moves on into Aquarius the days will have started to warm up, as well as to lengthen.

The Sun provides us with power in the form of both light and heat, and with the passing of both the shortest and coldest days we can say that the power of the Sun is truly starting to return. Whilst Spring is still some weeks away, with the passing of this decan the tide has truly turned, and the Sun is growing in strength and is preparing the way for the first signs of new life. Appropriately, this decan is ruled by the Sun.

Capricorn as a whole is ruled by Saturn, representing restriction and heaviness, and its cadent decan represents the fading of this restriction, the breaking of winter, although Aquarius, which follows it, is also ruled by Saturn. This illustrates the fact that restriction is required for power to be generated; the force of flowing water can only be transformed into power by restricting it to a narrow channel through a turbine or water wheel, and the energy generated by the combustion of gasoline can only be transformed into power by confining it to an airtight cylinder in an engine, which is itself connected firmly with the crankshaft and forced to move in time with the other pistons. The “fading” of restriction that this decan represents, therefore, is not the disappearance of it, but the result of it. The restriction of Saturn will therefore continue into the next sign of the Zodiac, but as a generative rather than an inhibitory quality. Read the rest of this post »

In keeping with the recent astronomical theme of this site, I’ve added an interactive Sun and Moon calendar to the resources section. This application shows the dates and times when the Sun enters each of the thirty six decans of the zodiac and when the Moon reaches each of its four main phases, for any selected six month period between 1970 and 2037 inclusive.

Be aware that this application calculates these dates in real time, and is currently quite processor intensive. Therefore it takes approximately 15 seconds for the page to appear.

To avoid this delay, I have also added some pages which show the same events for the entire year, for 2008 through 2012. These pages are static and are therefore not subject to the same type of delay.

To date, I’ve used this blog for posting essays, updates to the web site, noteworthy reposts from other forums and other thoughts on a more-or-less ad hoc and irregular basis.

In an attempt to introduce an element of regularity to the blog for its visitors, and to broaden its scope somewhat, I will be beginning what I am currently referring to as the Calendar series. This series will consist of a post made when the Sun enters each of the thirty six decans of the zodiac (includes the equinoxes and solstices which coincide with the Sun’s entrance into the first decans of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn), when the Moon is full, and on each of the four cross-quarter days. The series should therefore consist of approximately 53 posts per year, averaging one per week with no more than 10 or 11 days between posts.

The topic of each post will be related to the calendrical event to which it is attributed. Sometimes this relationship will be direct and obvious, and at other times it will be more indirect and tenuous. As far as possible I intend to avoid technical discussions within these posts, and to avoid direct references to Thelema and magick, rendering them suitable for all. The purpose is to give the posts as much relevance to “real life” as possible. Naturally though, a side-effect of following the series will be an enhanced understanding of – and a greater appreciation for – the significance of the solar and lunar calendars on everyday life, and the symbolism attached thereto.

Any discussions related to the posts can take place directly on the blog through the comment mechanism, or on the forums where I will be creating a dedicated forum for reposting the entries.

The first entry will be on January 10th, when the Sun enters the cadent decan of Capricorn.

I’ve published a new essay today examining the solar aspects of Thelema, its connections with sun-worship, and a discussion of natural religious practices conducive to success in its system, including an identification of the Khabs with the physical Sun.

The HTML version and the PDF are available from this web site, and a printed copy is available from Lulu.

As a by-product of the calculations behind the recent sun and moon additions to the resources section, I’ve added a Thelemic timeserver application. Note that this application is entirely independent from and unrelated to the Thelemic timeserver on LAShTAL.com which, unlike this one, has the advantage of being able to be incorporated onto your own web site, along with some additional functionality.

I’ve added a page on sun information in the resources section of the site.

This page includes:

• Current zodiacal degree of the Sun;
• Current zodiacal sign of the Sun;
• Current zodiacal decan on the Sun;
• Planetary ruler and associated Tarot card of current zodiacal decan of the Sun;
• Current season;
• Dates of previous and next equinox or solstice; and
• Dates and times of all equinoxes and solstices in the prior year, current year, and next year.

This information will be useful for general purposes, and for anybody conducting rituals, meditations or divinations based in part on the current position of the Sun.

I’ve added a moon phase application to the resources section of this site, to show the current phase of the Moon.

From private correspondence. The correspondent refers to my essay True Will, quotes AL I, 42-44, and asks “Why then, in so many circumstances, did so many people oppose Crowley or come into his way with an unfavourable outcome for him?”

I presume you are referring to “no other shall say nay,” here. My essay The Ethics of Thelema is more relevant to this part than True Will is.

There are two “classical” answers. The first is that, if Crowley was opposed and was “beaten,” then obviously he wasn’t doing his true will. The second is that maybe he was doing his true will, but was beaten by somebody else who was doing their true will, but was stronger than he was.

The “real” answer depends on exactly what we mean by “true will”. If we take “true will” in the sense defined by Liber II – i.e. “Thou must (1) Find out what is thy Will. (2) Do that Will with (a) one-pointedness, (b) detachment, (c) peace” – then the simple fact is that doing your true will is no guarantee that you will not be opposed, or even beaten. Using “true will” in this sense means that “no other shall say nay” is not literally true, if we understand that to mean that nobody will stop you. Not only is it possible to be stopped, but it’s possible to be stopped by someone who is not even doing their “true will.”

There is another answer, using a slightly different definition of “true will” that argues that if you were beaten, it was obviously your “true will” to be beaten. This is a definition of “true will” which is hard to argue with, but not practically very useful.

A third – and, to my mind, best – answer arises if we reconsider what we mean by “say nay.” We have so far been assuming that it means that nobody will stop you. Instead, we could suppose that it means that nobody has the right to say you should not be doing it. They may have the ability to stop you from doing it, but they do not have the ability to make your actions “wrong.” In this sense, that verse signifies that provided you are doing your “true will,” you don’t have to worry about anybody criticising you (or, at least, you don’t have to accept that criticism) because the fact that it is your will is the only justification you need. For example, if it is your will to be a homosexual, you don’t have to worry about feeling guilty for doing something “wrong,” because “no other shall say nay” means that nobody else has the ability to correctly judge whether or not your actions are wrong (although they may still have the ability to stop you) because your own will is the only valid judge of such things.

This is what I consider that verse to really mean, in simple terms, rather than suggesting that somebody cannot physically prevent you from carrying out your will. Notice that that verse comes two verses after “The word of Sin is Restriction,” which means that any moral code whatsoever is purely restriction, and contains no truth or utility. The following verse, “pure will … is every way perfect” means (amongst other things) that “willed” actions cannot be correctly criticised on moral grounds (or any other grounds, for that matter). The context supports this interpretation strongly, as does reality.

The random tarot divination tool in the resources section has been updated to include images of the selected cards.