Thelemic Waves Currents : General Topics

Quit Date May 14

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:33:00 GMT

Today’s the day. No more tobacco after this day. Tomorrow is my quit date. This is guaranteed. There is no argument, there is no doubt. I’m tobacco free. How is this so? Because I said it is so.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

There is no hedging, no weening, no imagination – just doing.

Tomorrow is the day and no other day. It is done. I set it, I meant it.

For those of you who wish to quit smoking, let me inform you that there are tricks and there is discipline. A little of both won’t hurt.

Tricks:

Replace the habit
Drink caffeinated beverages
Drink lots of water
Tell everyone!

Discipline:

Endure the struggle
Resist oral gratification
Exercise
Use your tricks
Admit that it will always be an addiction
Tell everyone!

Replace the habit. The first three days of quitting are the only true withdrawal days. There’s a confusion about something called the “nicotine fit.” Most people who believe they are suffering a nicotine withdrawal are actually suffering from failure to repeat a habit. Nicotine withdrawal actually takes longer than twelve hours of not smoking to actually occur. Most people who believe they are suffering a “nic fit” are actually doing so after only four to six hours of not smoking. Nicotine withdrawal causes sweats, a rise in blood pressure, tunnel vision, and a feeling of light headedness accompanied with lack of energy. Contrary to popular belief, nicotine is not a relaxing substance (the relaxation comes from fulfilling the habit, lack of which is THE stressor). Nicotine is a stimulant. When you would normally smoke (on break, with a beverage, in the car) replace the habit with something healthy and helpful. I recommend resisting oral treats like sticking the pencil in your mouth, hard candy, or chewing your fingernails as this will only encourage the oral fixation urge and that – if you do – will still be a problem. Try something else like singing to the radio, going for a walk, drinking stronger than usual coffee, blowing raspberries. The urge will only last around seven to ten minutes, so anything to fill the time will do. Addiction is going to take you three days to overcome (it will get easier after that) but the habits will take three weeks to restructure. Keep that in mind.

Because your withdrawal of the physical substance during the first three days is going to be a withdrawal from a powerful stimulant, I recommend coffee be on hand at all times. This may sound counter-intuitive since your habit is possibly linked to your drinking habit (how many of you insist on having that cigarette along with your coffee?), so this is where we also rely on Discipline. It helps if a few weeks before you quit you actually decide on a quit date and during the period until then you practice certain habit changing things – such as refusing to smoke when you drink coffee, or waiting a few hours after waking up before you smoke, not smoking immediately after meals, not smoking in your car (a very common smoking habit trigger is turning the ignition to your car), and any other trigger you are aware of. The drinking coffee is going to be important because about ten hours after you wake up and haven’t had your cigarette that day you’re going to experience your first real and actual nicotine withdrawal. You may experience cold sweats, a feeling of blackness, and a desire to pass out – BRING ON THE COFFEE! This is a medical emergency! Drink it hard and fast, and probably twice as much as usual. You need to deliver a stimulant to your heart STAT or you may fall down. After drinking the coffee you may experience tunnel vision and hyperactivity. Use this time to go for a walk or jog or dance. Anything for the next seven to ten minutes to get your mind off what your body is experiencing. (You may have to do this several times a day, but after the three days are over, this urgency will cease.)

Drink lots of water. Constantly. They say you should drink about two liters of water a day for a healthy body, you are going to do that and more. This will lesson the danger of the withdrawal and make it more comfortable. Water is not only a necessary part of our diet, and not only is it refreshing, but it also helps purge your body of poisons. As I mentioned, you are going to experience cold sweats (first, after 8 to 10 hours of not smoking, then more frequently until you are purged). Keep drinking water all day and the coffee when you withdrawal, the combination of the two elements (a diuretic and a hydrant) will help speed up your purge of nicotine. Yes, removing nicotine (hence, why I discourage using nicotine aids like patches and gums or what have you) is what is causing your body to fly into fits of poison induced symptoms. Although it is true that nicotine is a water based poison, it still takes three days to leave your system and you aren’t withdrawing so much from lack of nicotine as experiencing the effects of your body having to resolve its need for nicotine by producing it from the fluid in your body. During the three days you are still getting high from nicotine (that’s what you are really feeling – think about it, ever go without a smoke for too long and then go, “woooo wooo wowowowow wooo” right after lighting up?Yeah, that’s what’s happening to your body now but from the nicotine in your body’s fluid). Caffeinating yourself during a fit will give your body a break from having to process/generate the nicotine from your body’s fluid and drinking TONS of water during the day will dilute the available nicotine as well as clean it from your body more quickly.

Exercise. Especially (if you can) during times you’d normally smoke or when you experience the withdrawals. This will help you replace the habit as well as pump fluids through your body more quickly. Not only that, exercise is great for the body! Why not?

Endure the struggle. Say so now, commit, “This is my decision, and I will win.” Another trick I didn’t list above is to speak only positively. By that, I don’t mean just say nice things about yourself, I mean speak in positive expressions. You aren’t quitting a habit, you are conquering the habit. You are not a non-smoker, you are tobacco free. Avoid the “no” lie. Don’t tell yourself “I don’t want to smoke, I don’t want to smoke, I don’t want to smoke” because that is an outright lie and your unconscious efforts will thwart you if you lie. Instead say “I want to smoke and I am choosing to be tobacco free.” And tell everyone you know about this. Tell them about the odd behaviors they are watching you endure. Tell them when you are craving and how you are avoiding the monster called tobacco. Tell them when you are having a medical emergency of withdrawal. Tell them you are proud you are sweating buckets and it is fucking hilarious that everything is in tunnel vision. Tell them “I want a cigarette and I am choosing to be tobacco free.” Ask them to walk the block with you for seven minutes (at usually an accelerated pace) while you blabber about how you are so glad you are tobacco free and cleaning yourself and drink drink drinking water and blabbering like a sick billy goat.

Remember – nicotine may be an addiction, but smoking is a choice.

*If you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease or any other serious medical condition, consult your doctor before quitting smoking and don’t take all of my advice. Nicotine addiction is an actual medical condition and withdrawal can lead to medical emergencies – all the more reason you will tell everyone that you are quitting and when you are experiencing symptoms of withdrawal. I cannot be held responsible for any outcome to your choice of quitting and following my advice. Success and failure is all yours.

Love is the law, love under will.

ps. Nicotine is harder than heroine they say, this is because it will always be an addiction for you. One cigarette, one cigar, one hit on a tobacco pipe is all it will take to get you back in full swing again. Do not fool yourself by believing someday you will be able to “smoke socially” and put it down. If you have a pack a day habit right now, the instant you light up you will have a pack a day habit again. The addiction is eternal, your resistance to habit will also be eternal (although it does get easier over time, there will always be triggers that make you desire). You do not have to surrender to the desire. You may go a few days, maybe even a week or longer between urges, but there will always be the urge to want to light up for this excuse or that excuse. You have to decide forever now that you will overcome those urges. “I want a cigarette but I am choosing to be tobacco free.”

Keen's Upgrade

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:03:00 GMT

Have you noticed that Keen has a new way to take control of how Keen Adviser Listenings look for you? Instead of the drop down menu to select if the listings should sort by "Availability" or "Highest Rated" or "Lowest Price" or whatever it used to say, now you have several customizable option configurations you can pick and choose from.

Look at the listings page, on the upper right of the listing column is this dim (barely noticeable) "Refine My Options" menu. Click it and now you can personalize the choices of sort methods you'll be using to view adviser listings!

Yes, I said CHOICES!

Isn't that awesome?

Mindfulness

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:00:00 GMT

     Have you ever had an appointment to keep but then suddenly discovered you had no idea where your car keys where? If you are a smoker, have you ever lit a cigarette, placed it in the ashtray, only to discover you already had a cigarette lit and burning? Or how about when counting out objects, have you stopped and forgotten where you where in your count? Or worse yet; read an entire page of a book only to realize you don't remember what you read? These are all signs that you are not practicing a mindful life.

     What is mindfulness? Mindfulness involves paying attention to your current experience (e.g., thoughts, feeling, actions) and observing it in a non-judgmental manner. Mindfulness is attempting to be fully aware of your state of being and the actions you are committing. Believe it or not, this is not a natural state, and most people are very much unaware of how they are and exactly what you are doing. When you put your keys down, to be mindful, you should be saying, "I am placing my keys in my fruit basket." To do this you will need to be actually seeing what you are doing, and defining it specifically to yourself.

     Raja yoga, as taught in Book 4 and in Eight Lectures on Yoga, is a very positive way to learn mindfulness techniques. You learn to clear yourself of distractions, which is the greatest cause in our modern world of lacking mindfulness. Filled with mindless entertainments and distractions, cell phones and text messages calling our attention at the same instant we are setting something down or turning the page, our presence in the NOW gets taken away from us and we forget where we are and don't always take the time to ask how we are. So before each new action, stop yourself, check yourself, and be mindful of what is going on with you.

     You can begin practicing mindfulness with simple exercises. Start by being aware of your breathing. Just notice it from time to time; are you breathing nice and easy, or a little rushed? Control your breathing from time to time to get to a relaxed and easy state. From time to time, make yourself aware of your body parts. Start with the hands, put something in each hand and mindfully be aware of the various sensations: weight, temperature, texture. When eating, chew slowly - feel the food, sense the food, smell and taste your food: roll small amounts of food and drink over the five portions of your tongue where your taste buds are and savor the experience. Test your peripheral vision limits. Do this by putting your arms out to your side in the shape of a cross. Wiggle your fingers. Slowly draw your arms/hands in toward the front of you until without moving your head or eyes, which should be staring straight ahead, your wiggling fingers come into your peripheral view. Stop moving your hands at that point and hold this vision for as long as is comfortable. (This exercise is a less effective method than what practicing the Lesser Banishing Ritual can do for you if you are practicing it correctly). Stop and observe things going on around you. Do not form opinions or emotions about these things; just take a few moments now and then to stop and notice. Practice these things regularly, and also practice the various yogas (including the so-called "western yoga" of modern ceremonial magick if you will) with regulated frequency and as the occasion warrants and you will increasingly become more mindful of yourself and your surroundings Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}

Magical Hygiene

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:00:00 GMT

As you well know, magick is not about flaming fingertips or balls of lightning flying out of sticks. Magick won't turn your ex-boyfriend into a toad (not actually anyway, but there's a lot of power in persuading a reputation). Magick won't make money or material things materialize out of thin air, but magick can be used to accomplish miracles in ways that even the most faithful practitioners find astonishing.

I know a man who once spoke aloud, "I'll get a black cat," and he proceeded to describe this cat: Newly weened, not yet tampered by anyone's habits, female, not a spot of any other color but black, and probably close to feral in all other respects. The next day he went to visit a friend that he was in the habit of visiting weekly on Saturdays. He entered his friend's apartment, engaged in the ritual greetings, was given a beer and sat down on the couch. Suddenly he noticed something uncomfortable moving around underneath his butt. He stood up and in his seat he saw the tiniest black kitten he'd ever seen. He exclaimed with astonishment, "That's my cat!" His friend said, "Yes it is."

I stood there amazed! He had just said with the greatest amount of certainty I could ever imagine, "That's your cat. Take it home." He proceeded to tell me the story of the cat, how its mother a few days earlier had been run over in the street after having been living under the apartment building. Nobody claimed ownership of the cat or her kittens, so my friend, his girlfriend, and the neighbor that had all together discovered the kittens divided most of them to other homes and the one that was left was the one "no one else seemed to want." I went home that Saturday night with a new kitten, litter box and scoop, bag of litter, food dish and bag of food: a complete kit! And when I originally declared my intent for a pet cat, I was alone. I'd not spoken of this to anyone. In fact, I never thought about it again until I saw that cat.

My life is filled with such amazing stories. Good things and bad things happen to people all the time, but the trick is to witness to the end results - not the stages along the way. I've often "lost everything I own" (or nearly enough) only to get them all replaced with little to no extra effort. One such item was a gas grill for cooking outdoors. One day I decided I wanted to replace the one I had to let go of when life didn't let me afford to lug it around. I did my usual magical routine (pretty much basic exercises I will describe later) and stated my intent. A few days later I was walking to get groceries when a block away from my house I found a yard sale. Behold, there was a gas grill - but for the condition it was in I said they wanted too much and ceased any negotiation efforts. But before I left, I touched it and something inside me decided I needed to believe it was mine. I whispered, "you're mine," and walked away. I never thought about it again until two days later there was a knock on my door. There was the man who had the yard sale and he asked me, "Do you still want that grill?" I said yes, but with the need to repair the hinge on the hood, and replace the actual burner itself as it was rusted through and through, I could't imagine paying $20 for it. He said it was mine just for hauling it off because no one bought it and he needed to dispose of it.

In some cases when I'm using magical means to satisfy a need, I perform planned out elaborate rituals. In other cases it seems like little more than imagining the rituals and twitching my nose. In all honesty, I probably concentrate on the elaborate rites more when I'm feeling too much pressure and panic by the greatness or urgency of the need, and it's only a matter of simple intent without threat looming when I do something as inconspicuous as saying, "Make it so," standing and pulling "the Picard maneuver" (the shirt tug, not the battle tactic) and knocking three times on my desk.

I don't mean to brag but I'm quite confident in my magical efficacy, and the secret to success is what another author I know calls "magical hygiene." Magical hygiene is just like it sounds, the daily upkeep of one's magical health and well being. There may come a day or two in any given week when I do not have cash in my wallet (and I'm confident this happens for everyone) but this does not mean that there's a day in any given week when I'm not at work and magically creating my world.

Daily rituals involve the four adorations given to the Sun (Liber Resh), a twice daily practice of casting a banishing circle (The LBRP ), a weekly ritual of The Rose Cross, and numerous times a day a practice of the Middle Pillar Ritual (including the circulation of light). I put as much time and effort into these practices as would anyone who wants to maintain their physical health with push-ups and jogging and swimming exercises. You have to take it that seriously! The point of all these exercises is to build up the Body of Light of the aspirant and to develop the tools of magick, sharpen the sword so to speak, for any emergency need that might arise, and to continually align one's self with the rest of the Universe (there are other rituals that specifically do this, but the above are the required few first).

Magick is not for showy games and doesn't always behave like it looks in the movies, but a well trained practitioner will have very little difficulty manifesting their will on earth as it is in Heaven. No, a rain of money won't suddenly appear out of the sky, I can't transport my physical body to the city by the bay in an instant, but it has happened that a hundred dollar bill blew up to my feet and a knock on my door said, "I'm going on a road trip and I can use some company." Little did anyone else know, those exactly filled my needs.

11 Words is All of the Law

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:31:00 GMT

How many words does it take to enslave a civilization? How many sentences need be handed down through the ages to annihilate the liberty of a nation? The answer: As many letters of intent as the tyrannical can lay down. "The word of Sin is restriction." How many words does it take to liberate the individual absolutely? Exactly eleven words: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."

Government grows by multiplication with every new piece of legislation it enacts. Countless statutes overflow the law books flooding our courts and so-called "corrections" facilities with victimless "criminals" and economically disenfranchised fathers. There are so many laws, edicts, statutes, and ordinances that I prophecy it will eventually be illegal to eat the fruit of your very own trees.

Within Thelema there is only one law,a single principle by which all of one's choices can be weighed out and from which only natural consequences become necessary to meet out justice. "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."

It comes down to what I will call "the question of the Saints," the philosophical debate regarding the inherent goodness or not of human nature. Is it our nature that we be self-less, helpful, and concerned for our neighbor or are we born of the opposite; selfish, greedy, and all things costly to our neighbor? To the legislator who knows he needs to pen you in and keep you from causing harm to yourself and others, the answer to the question is more than obvious. For believers in the other answer we turn to the naive and child-like. In the works of Thelema, it appears to me that we are meant to recognize both natures, to reconcile the opposites within ourselves, and live through a unity of Self.

The Law of Thelema is a natural law. It is not an edict or decree made by man, but an understanding of the Force of Nature that governs Cause and Effect in the Dominion of Human and Spiritual activity. It is a natural law, enforced by itself in that when not acted in accordance with, what follows will be of the nature of failure and fear of failure. When we go against our "True Will," when any one person acts against their true nature (in relation to whichever specific situation is brought into question) the results will prove disastrous to the long term well-being of that individual. A deceiver will not gain true friends, a thief will not have or keep genuine treasures, the murderer will have proven to have destroyed himself. Anyone who forces upon another any action, though may have made some petty gain in the short term, in the long term will never be free themselves, rid of the demonic influences of loathing and self-disgust eternally beating themselves deeper into pits of ugly despair.

This unfortunately can bring about an unlimited spiral in the wrong direction. Without proper correction, the momentum "away from" one's True Will can cause the compass to go haywire, winds to be perceived as tempests, and eventually destroy the rudder until there may then seem forever no way to find the way home. Without correction, the truly criminal may even believe their rightness all the way to the ends of the Earth. So without a doubt, there should be times when the community surrounding the individual, of which he should wish to be a part, will have to enact measures toward "punishment." But again I remind, these will be wholly natural consequences: Shunning from the community those who behave destructively; repayment for lost, stolen, damaged properties; general distrust due to the mere awareness that the person is criminal - and no more need to concern for victimless crimes or so-called crimes against the State.

The basic logic of the Thelemic principle rests on the idea that it is no one's True Will to be caged in, and on the supreme argument that the Individual's Will may only be True Will if also it is the will of the entire Universe. In writings of Aleister Crowley's we find an example of two brothers who wish to posses and consume the same orange. Since it is actually impossible that both could eat entirely the same fruit and neither is willing to share and eat only half a fruit, one or both of the brothers must be confusing mere want with Will. If a contest for the edible should ensue, only one will be the victor. The one who is best positioned in alliance with all the laws of the Universe will be the victor, and the victor will need not violate his nature in order to win.

Many man made laws actually tell us to violate our nature! Do you know that in some jurisdictions it is actually illegal to feed the homeless in public? When your child brings home a wounded critter and provides weeks of amateur "veterinarian care," you may be participating in a crime. Not all jurisdictions allow you to defend your life if it happens that there exists at least one possible route of escape. To this I say nay! "Thou hast no right but to do thy will."

Will Work For Food

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:11:00 GMT

What has gone wrong in this world is not the lack of morality portrayed on television sets, not the violence of rapistry on the radio or the sexual anarchy of the cinema, but the division between one's labor and one's product that is the result of the previous century's revolution of industrialization. We no longer build with our hands. We no longer create out of ourselves, but instead follow the blueprint of some ancient device, pushing buttons and pulling levers of indifference all the while stamping out individuality for the sake of economy. For every FORD the world has gained, a value has been lost.

Robert Bly, in his 1980's movement to "reclaim the rites of men" hit the nail on the the head when he pointed out that factory work had removed the glue that bonded son to father in a state of mentor/apprentice relationship since ancient times and the season of the Great Hunt. He was correct to point to the death of spirit that gravely amounted as a result of increasingly soulless toil at the hands of the assembly line masters. Where he missed the mark was in aiming to protect our rites of passage when the real threat had fallen on our rights of passing, our right to create our own legacy and leave it behind for mankind to enjoy.

Currently the battle for the soul is taking place in the copyright courts and patent offices. Monsanto has sewn the seeds of pure breed invention so completely that the future replanting of Eden will bear its corporate trademark, and the Tree of Knowledge will spread the branches of that Trademark and we will no longer plant nor reap without a Monsanto license. Apple corp. seems to be telling the patent offices that it has already invented every telephonic innovation that has or ever will occur. If Microsoft's software War Engine (patent pending) works as hoped, the future of software innovation will be confiscated the minute the competition finishes funding Research & Development. If you should happen to wake from a dream with the strings of a new pop song running through your head, you'd better play it for your lawyers before publishing it 'less Warner Bros Music's choir of litigation attorneys knock on your bank vault door claiming unconscious copyright infringement. King Solomon once said, "There's nothing new under the sun." If possible, I imagine the King James Estate would try to sue him for trademark infringement.

Corporate greed is the disease and our continued loss of rights, rites, and connectivity to ourselves is the pathology of symptoms tearing us apart. We no longer create our original crafts and even when we believe we do, we find we had contracted our souls to the company store whose resources we used and paychecks we cashed. The time has come to emancipate ourselves from corporate dependence, as all forms of dependence result in slavery. The time has come to invent our own economies with each other, ceasing our reliance on alien concepts of value and trade that have created environmentally unhealthy and unsustainable markets of speculation over imagined lines of worth.

The New Age of Man, the New Aeon of True Will, needs a new model of value and self worth. The promise that industry would be the servant of Man has failed us, Man has become enslaved by the Few who call themselves Captains of Industry instead. It is time for every man, woman, and child to own his or her own industry. Not only to own the fruits of that labor, but to own the labor itself.

I am not advocating Communism (Gods forbid!), but Individualism at its Acme. The individual owns the rights and should determine the value of his labor and its fruits. I am not suggesting there will be no force of labor available for those willing and able to hire, but that each will determine his price for himself, free from the constraints of Union demands and governed minimums. How he acquires the means of production is up to him. Who he collaborates with and for what price should be his to bargain with as he chooses. The consequences of his efforts are solely his. He must believe he owns everything and as owner he is not a person of privilege but of obligation for maintenance. As owner of everything, he does not use resources unwisely, but only when and where his True Will and that of the Great Work profits.

I am not making predictions about the way things are heading, not acting the futurist describing the way ahead, but informing of the requirements that must be met if we are to win the current revolution toward a liberating economy and truly free society

"It's All About the Babe"

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:17:00 GMT

Through the mind of the Babe created are these things witnessed in our wonderment of technology and social revolution. Take for instance the unburdening glory of the role of women in our modern western society: she dances harlot-like in the living room or boudoir of teenage American girls and is accepted as is; powerful & playful, companion & conqueror, undressed or fully clothed.

Women of the future are your daughters of today, your suckling infants of only yesterday, the young girls who see the likes of Madonna (the pop star, not the idol of the Mother of God of old) as a mother figure, a relic of an older era and want to emulate her as a child copies her real mother. The new dances are performed by Nicki Minaj and Britney Spears and Beyonce and Rihanna and others far more revealing of the nature of individuality than has ever been witnessed or promoted before, and like trainings from an older sister, these gyrations are passed on and given a new twist with every return to the living-room rehearsal dance mat. The revolutions of social change take shape in the soulful swings of modern popular culture where Elvis Presley has come to replace The Hierophant and somehow, sometime, in some miraculous way, the phenomenon known as The Beatles will return again.

As we harmoniously move passed the cusp of the final doomsday prophecy cycle, God willing, we enter the next human transition phase in our quest for when science fiction has become science fact - including all the social and political implications these changes are meant to forge with them. You cannot improve the simplicity of global communication and availability of broadband information sharing among the youth without eventually rending the veils of prejudice and ignorance that once existed as "fear of the unknown." We won't reduce carbon emissions as long as we promote the unsustainable economic model of the need for speed and greed. The Mind of the Babe is one of wonderment and sharing, exploring the further of time and space in a journey for the benefit of the collective bargain that is the product of the child's mind: Absolute Freedom to Explore and Grow. The Mind of the Babe is not one of limits and fear but of expectation and amazement.

Women, along with men, in the future will not battle with each other for equality of status, instead we arm together toward a future of shared victory. Today your children are breaking the gender rules; girls are brandishing the sword and boys are challenging their own restrictive costumes. The Mind of the Babe is breaking form and forcing change openly on the stage and across the world. Children are witnessing projections of magic-like technologies on television screens and as a result, the Babe's mind is not forming traditional limitations; expectations are bound to be broken. Through the newborn imagination borrowed from eternal Time's continual growth we will bring amazing social and technological revolution.

To Cheat or Not to Cheat?

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:55:00 GMT

The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell. - Liber AL I:41

It is a statistical fact that the odds of dying on the way to buying a lottery ticket are greater than the odds of actually winning the lottery. It is also a statistical fact that more accidents happen inside the home than anywhere else. The odds that that certain someone will say yes if you ask them out? 50/50. People go to purchase lottery tickets all the time. People do things in their homes even when they know that it's risky, like standing on that wobbly chair to change the light bulb. Unfortunately, some people even drive while drunk; Even when there are already the risks of someone else causing an accident, people take this unnecessary risk. But drive up the gumption to ask that special someone for a first date, or show your boss all the reasons you know you deserve the next raise or promotion? For some reason, that takes genuine guts.

Just about everything involves risk. How many times as a child did you knock on a door or ring a doorbell on Halloween night, all bedecked in your finest imagination, only to realize that no one was home? I'd risk saying at least once. But you carried on and went to the next door. Of course, the risks where very low. It's a national tradition - what are the odds? Making a new major purchase is risky. What if the product isn't what you expected or were led to believe? What if you change your mind? And there's nearly always that dreaded buyer's remorse moment later when all the questions, including the ones you thought you had had answered for you, come back to haunt you. But more often than not you get past the buyer's remorse and realize you are happy with your new purchase.

There are two kinds of risky behaviors; those that we can label Positive Risk and those that we can label Negative Risk. Negative risks are those behaviors that win or lose, no one wants to believe you'd do - like driving while intoxicated or gambling your rent money for that one big chance. Positive risks are those behaviors that even if you lose, more than likely it really wasn't that great of a loss. But even some positive risks, like adrenaline seeking just to be able to remind yourself you have courage, do come with danger - so the above definitions aren't quite clear enough. I've come to like the wording of "Intelligent Risk." Knowing the odds of the risk, the value of what is risked versus what could be gained, and the long term benefit of simply having taken the risk in the first place (toward one's self-esteem, sense of trust, and the intuitive gains), whether it is win or a lose, all add up to determine that a risk is an intelligent risk.

Success is rarely gained without some risks. You can work all day to minimize the risks but without taking the eventual leap of faith of The Fool, you'll never actually get to work toward that success. You can do yourself a world of good by practicing risky behaviors, you can start small and work your way up. Call in that radio show contest give-a-way, what have you to lose? Ask a seller if you can get the price lowered, the worst that will happen is they will say no. Order a meal you've never eaten before or try that dish that as a child you swore you'd never let yourself taste again. Sign up for a speed dating session in your area just to give it a whirl. Feel like a tourist and buy a helicopter ride around the city. Sit next to someone at the cafe counter and introduce yourself. Have fun and build confidence at the same time.

"The degree to which you insulate yourself from risk is the degree to which you insulate yourself from success." - Theodore Roosevelt

Where's the After Party?

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:21:00 GMT

I can't prove to you what I believe in regarding what happens after death, no one can prove to you what is believable and what is not when it comes to the question of life after death. But it is the answer to this question, what happens to us when we die, that becomes the foundation of every thing you will do with your life while you have it in hand.

Is death the absolute end, the total annihilation of You? Is there a hall of Judges to decide if you go on to the next round, or will you be sent to some desolate pit? Will all of existence become one long vacation spot where the deer and antelope play? Or do you believe in reincarnation applied by certain universal and impersonal laws deciding for you where your next efforts will be?

There are probably as many answers to those questions as there are people who will ask them, and though there are countless stories each supporting one idea or the other, there is no way to bring any actual evidence back to show anyone, "Look, here it is! This is what is there!" It is the greatest of mysteries, the final adventure of our lives, to solve this riddle - but in that, we will only solve it for ourselves. In the mean time we have what is called faith, and since there are so many beliefs of the believers, we end up with many Faiths. It is with faith we ourselves are taught to counsel our lives.

All the religions of the world put forth the answer to the question. They base everything on their knowledge of the answer. What happens after death drives the model you should strive for while in life! These beliefs will view life as a place of education and/or the Final Exam. Surely, the fact that we are alive proves we are supposed to be learning and behaving, we do it almost automatically.

I have learned that life is best kept a celebration. We should seek out happiness and empowerment for ourselves, which must include those same things for those around us. Some of the deeds we do, for the betterment of ourselves, our lives, and for the benefit of others, might be viewed as work by some, but couldn't we also come to enjoy these actions and responsibilities as if they were our pleasure to do?

Trick or Treat?

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:46:00 GMT

The oft quoted concept that "Perception is reality" is a greatly misunderstood concept that many people want to use to mean that if all they do is change how they look at things, things will change for the better. That isn't entirely inaccurate, but the truth is far more difficult to enact than it might sound. What it doesn't mean is that if I believe that life will be full of roses then roses will bloom everywhere, nor does it mean that if I perceive the wall as non-existent, I will walk through walls. Roses grow according to the law of roses and walls stand in accordance with the laws of physics.

As a Thelemite I hear a lot of discontent in certain circles concerning "New Age" lingo and ideas. In fact, just the mere mention of those two words, "New Age," can send most magicians of the Thelemic persuasion running for the nearest pharmacy for some over-the-counter pain medication (or behind the counter old fashioned "medicine" as grandma would call it). I'm not such a Thelemite, but I must confess a certain tendency to want to join them. And the "if I just believe it hard enough, it will become a hard reality" mindset is just the sort of headache they are running from.

There is a large market place for the wholesale commodity known as "Intention." The product usually retails for $19.99 but can lead to hundreds of dollars in investment in reality. Unfortunately, Intention is only one of the necessary ingredients in effective magick. With your intention you must incorporate certain corresponding associations be they specific objects such as candles, scents, colors, gestures, or words. These are the ingredients of what are commonly referred to as spells. So the truth of the matter is, the New Age marketplace is not far from truth; the only real flaw in it is that it is trying to convince you that the product is just as good in a microwave oven as it would be if you spent the afternoon actually baking it.

Perception is reality because what you believe reality is is actually more a trick of your mind than any amount of enchantment could do without your perception of your reality being involved. Around you every day is flesh and bone, brick and mortar, wind and rain, soil and sod - these things in themselves carry no magick; but infused with your own imagination ignited by your love (or fear, as the case may be, which is actually what the opposite of love is), empowered by your beliefs and expectations, Life is magically embedded with meaning and with meaning will come predictable results. Your behavior in response to Life's results, your actions fueled by your beliefs, confirmed by your perceptions (which in turn are created by your beliefs which in turn are validated by the results) will in turn lead to the next level of Life's results! It's all like a magick mirror and an endless circle of begetting!

So the next time someone tries to sell you a bottle of Intention Oil, ask yourself if you really know what the ingredients are and if you really intend to do the Work. Have you first banished any potential of cross-intentions coming into your sphere of influence (from you or from someone you've brought into your circle)? Have you placed all of the implements of your will in the proper place, to be ready for use at the proper time? Have you incorporated the words of your intention so thoroughly that they resonate within you and do not simply appear as "things" and "thoughts" on a piece of paper before you? Have you practiced your movement toward grasping your desires so effectively that your hands reach to grab your dreams without even a moment's involvement from your "second-guessing" mind? If all this is so, then that newfangled Intention Oil is one heck of a treat as just the right fuel for your magick - but if not, it's just mineral oil made to smell pleasant. Read the the next article that follows up this one Make Belief

Make Belief!

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:46:00 GMT

What in the World?

Last week I touched briefly on the concept of perception and how our perceptions (of things, events, people, etc) influence or determine what is real to us. As I pointed out, solid truth is still solid truth no matter how you look at it, so let's focus on the not-so-solid matters, the fantastic plastic universe of belief. I would like to introduce you to a little Sanskrit notion called "samsara" and a thing I call "playing make-belief."

Imagine if you will a thousand dollar bill and a serendipitous meeting. There at your feet you look down and see there it is. Naturally because it instantly looks like money, you do not hesitate to pick it up and put it in your pocket, but once you get to your home or to some position of commerce that leads to you pulling the bill out, you discover it is quite an oddity. It's green like old money, it has the face of a president on it, all the official markings and seals on the face of it, but the backside... Parker Brothers money looks a little more imaginative than that! Hard to believe you let yourself get excited and stuff that bill in your pocket. You might have even imagined you saw it as a one hundred dollar bill before you stuffed it in the folds of your denim. You put it in a drawer and hope to find out more about it later. Later comes in the person of a friend of yours who happens to be a coin collector and you tell him about this odd find of yours. Turns out, he tells you, the government did use to issue thousand dollar bills; they were used only by banks though to represent large transfers of money from branch to branch - but in the advent of the electronic transfer, they were phased out in 1969 but not all of them got destroyed. They are worth significantly more than the one thousand dollars marked on them.

The above story is a minor examination of value. It wasn't really a good description of the concept of samsara but I wanted to bring it up because it will be related. The idea that we all place value on things and ideas and events is one thing, that we consider some things more useful or meaningful than other things is not hardly unexpected for the most part - but when we let our choices, or even our entire lives, be controlled by these things, then we've entered the realm of sorrow (as Buddha would mean it).

The literal translation of the word "samsara" is "journeys" or "wanderings." It is used in holy scripture to denote the idea that our lives, our personas,our sense of self is moved or moves through from place to place and that the danger of samsara is that we lose touch with our wholeness and instead get lost in our wanderings, like Mister Scrooge being so miserly in his effort to amass wealth that he completely forgets why he sought his fortune in the first place - to make his and the lives of others happier lives. In the novel "Siddhartha," Hermann Hesse describes samsara like a potter's wheel, always spinning. Crowley describes it with the Wheel of Fortune, the goal of which is the mystic's desire to get off it and become the axle, never spinning with it. The idea is that we sometimes get caught up in a false sense of importance of things, that we live our lives chasing things the meanings of which we've overblown, truly forgotten, and have become enslaved by.

In Tarot the esoteric meaning of The Magician is given to our conscious mind because it is our mind that has the power to ensorcel us. Our beliefs about the meanings and value of "things" ensnares us, leads us down the primrose path of disappointment and sorrow, attachment and dependency. It is here then that the true power of the Magician should be worked, to consciously choose one's meanings, to define for one's self what the world is actually made of and about, to remember that our only goal is to be happy and see our fellow travelers become happy. The Magician reminds us that we have the power of "make belief" in our hands.

Make Belief is not the same as playing "make believe." One is just a story we tell ourselves for entertainment purposes, the other is the actual foundation of our reality. We make belief every day whether we admit to it or not, whether we know it or not. Even before Mr. Coffee has finished brewing your pot for you, you've already begun to make belief in the goodness or badness of the day ahead of you. You already exist in a world of Made Beliefs; some of which are original to you and some of which you've adopted. Make Belief is as natural as waking up in the morning.

Don't Touch That Dial!

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to - The Outer Limits."

Whether you know it or not, you are in a trance every day. Almost everyone is. I'm not talking about the television hypnosis of mass marketing that current generations are becoming "too hip" to fall for. I'm not just talking about the hip swaying and gaga eyed ogling that takes place when pop stars work their seductive charms. I'm not referring to the immediate life threatening kind of hypnosis that occurs when staring at broken yellow lines for fifty miles at a steady rate of 60mph...line.. line.. line.. line.. line.. line.. line.. line.. line.. line... I'm talking about the steady stream of socially conditioned and peer accepted mother loaded father taught church approved commercially available private stock photography induced trance of this versus that and so-and-so said.

We are entranced. All of us in one way or another have been entranced into a mass of consensus agreement regarding something that isn't even real. Each of us is entranced into our own small world, convinced beyond doubt of our value or lack thereof within the greater scheme of things. Everyone has been hoodwinked for centuries into imagining that this is the way it has always been and it should always be. We are a self-deceiving species, convincing ourselves and everyone we know that reality is "good" or "bad," "ugly" or "beautiful," "fulfilling" or "boring;" but not one of these qualities is anything more than just another trance.

I'm not talking about conspiracy theories here, although those have proven to make excellent examples of how we can ensnare ourselves into believing just about anything. I'm talking about the conspiracy of one that we create when we believe that God exists to condemn us or that the perfect moment with that perfect someone just happened. Nothing "just happens," or rather, everything "just is as it is" and so happens in accordance with our current imaginations.

I'm not saying that we need to live a life without meaning. Quite the opposite, I'm recommending we live our lives in fulfillment of the meanings we desire. Instead, the majority of the world has consigned itself to having meaning decided for them, placed upon them, and endorsed by the labels we adopt and chase after. But in order to fully know the meanings we desire, we have to somehow find a way to deprogram ourselves from the meanings me seem stuck with. Me need to shop for a new meaning wardrobe, redecorate our meaning living spaces. This is why I recommend you actually play Make Belief as much as possible.

To take a paragraph from "Tantra Without Tears" (Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D. & S. Jason Black - New Falcon Publications), "But the point should be very clear: Learn how to take on different dogmas, different philosophies, believe in them fully and act them out - within the limits of the law, of course - and help yourself break your own label and your own dogma."

The idea here is one similar to what I've discussed before. The idea is to play Make Belief but make it as real as you possibly can. Pretend for a day, a week, or even an entire month if you dare to live your life with an entirely different mindset. Choose a religion you don't practice - study it as much as you can - and live life as if it were exactly and completely what you believed. Or take a political stance unlike any you ever have, or choose a new fashion statement, a new subculture to belong to. Totally immerse yourself. See the changes that occur not only to "the inner mind" but also observe the changes that occur in the "Outer Limits." Watch your world change before your very eyes simply by changing the "belief prescription lenses" you're using.

Opinions and Tarot

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 01:43:00 GMT

I have no place for puting judgment on people for the choices they make and the directions they choose, but the Tarot does. The Tarot knows right from wrong and sometimes I've sat here and listened to the Tarot verbally slap someone across the face. I have to try my best to deliver the message in a way that is most easily received (I certainly don't want to offend my clients) but at times I've had to just come out realizing there is no other way to say a thing that needs to be said. I guess it's called "tough love."

I certainly have sympathy for others who find themselves in a bind and can't clearly see the way out. By sympathy of course I mean I have been there too! Callers ask me sometimes about romantic involvements ranging from "what was he trying to say to me?" to "where will I ever find a lover whom I deserve?" We've all been there, lost in love or lost from love. And sometimes the ways and means are not just about that other person, sometimes it's about our own weaknesses and shortcomings and these will need to be addressed. I want to work with my callers to help them find these answers and address these issues to the best of our ability.

I have a great deal of compassion in these circumstances. By compassion I mean I am having feelings that work in concert with how my caller feels. This does not mean I have the same feelings they have (that would not be beneficial) but have feelings for their benefit, for their search and hopes. The Tarot, though, is purely objective. It only wants what you want when you tell it what you are searching for, and then it wants to tell you the optimal way to accomplish what you want. Sometimes that means some seriously hard corrections to what you've been doing (see some of my other writings that touch on this subject such as "Honesty's Policy" and "What You See is What You Get").

Empathy is feeling the other person's feelings about a situation or condition, and it means having an emotional connection to how someone would feel if something were to happen in their lives. Empathy is what makes us not want to hurt our neighbors because we know how they would feel (even if we know we wouldn't exactly feel the same way). This is not to be confused with the "New Age" label of "empath" such as characterize on Star Trek the Next Generation with the character of Diana Troy - real or fantasy, that's not what empathy actually means (the portrayal on that show is more like "psychic sympathy" and has lead to some confusion of meaning of the word empathy). It's through empathy that I receive the answers to questions that involve how other people are feeling, it is also the tool I use to keep my mouth shut or tempered sometimes when the message might be one that causes pain. Empathy is what wells up inside of me those few times I have to deliver the bad news.

Right or wrong according to your neighbor, your lover, your family and friends, your path is just that; your path. What's right for your path is not always what everyone else expects. Many people think it is right not to tell a lie (I'm one of those people) but one time I gave a reading to a client who desperately wanted a change in her circumstances and to my surprise, the objective opinion of the Tarot was that she should tell the lie she was considering. That was interesting in my study of the Tarot because I didn't even actually know until I told her that she was considering telling a lie. And then she told me what lie she had in mind and sure enough, it fit perfectly to the scheme the Tarot had suggested. I told her my opinion about telling lies and my esoteric notions of karma about this subject, but also we determined that if there would be any backlash to lying inside her Universe, the risk was minimal as ultimately this lie bore no harm to anyone. In fact, if it hadn't come up in the reading I wouldn't have even imagined a need to tell a lie in order to get what she wanted - but it is what the cards came up with, it is what the client chose to do even with wisdom of the potential of living a lie (not really, it was a lie that only impacted one decission in one day) and it ultimately led to her getting what was best for her life. Besides, she worked it into only half a lie (the other half of the lie is that her desire was the only option).

I have no opinion of right or wrong or any judgment of lifestyle or choices you wish to make, but I do have opinions about how Tarot works and how reality works and Tarot, among many other things, is in my opinion always right about these matters so long as we honestly ask what is on our minds and agree to follow through with what we've learned. I am here to advise you in accordance to what I translate from the Tarot, what I see and feel in our readings about your concerns. I can't help you if you don't want to work out your problems and instead just wish them away.

Thelema & The New Age

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:08:00 GMT

The following is not just my opinion but also a strong basis for my entire belief system when it comes to these sort of matters. The religion of Thelema founded through and by Aleister Crowley in 1909 (1904-1909 Crowley attempted to ignore the matter altogether) is the true seed of all that is now known as "the New Age movement." Granted, Madame Hellena Blavatsky, with her Theosophical movement in 1875, trumpeted like Raphael or John the Baptist did in the age before this the coming of the New Age - but that seed did not germinate until Aiwass spake the words and the veils of secrecy surrounding the old orders were rent asunder.

I come to this opinion not just because of the timing of events with Blavatsky heralding the "New Age of Man" in 1875 through her Theosophical Society (the same year Crowley was born) and that several members, who were also Freemasons, left her organization and formed the famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (which Crowley received his first initiations in and met his fellow travelers), and not just because it is now widely accepted that the so-called "Witches Book of Shadows," of Gerald Gardner fame, was actually material culled from Crowley's Golden Dawn notebooks, and not just because every new age practice from "Eastern Meditation" to "Automatic Writing" to "Channeling the Ascended Masters" and everything in between is what Crowley described as his method of authoring the new religion of Thelema - but because it just feels right, and all the little clues point to Crowley's name always being behind the scenes (be it the Beatles or Jimmy Page, or Gene Rodenberry and Jack Parsons or even L. Ron Hubbard). Crowley travelled the word from London to Paris to New York City, New Orleans, China, California, Japan, and everywhere he went he surely taught some nice lady a fancy trick or two like how to skry in a black mirror or bowl of ink, crystal gazing, psychometry, tarot reading, meditation - and it always caught on. He put forth a great body of work on ceremonial magick practices, volumes of theory and mystical results, channeled the "Secret Chiefs" or "Ascended Masters," and did everything he could to put magick and the religion of the Goddess into the hands of the many.

What you find now in bookstores, diluted by naiveté and no doubt at least a little huckstering, we can rightly say we owe to the Master Therion a great deal. In ways more than just through human commerce he opened the gates of a new dawn for mankind that is more seriously than ever before beginning to manifest out in the open. This is clearly the Aeon of Horus, the New Age of Man, the beginning of the dawn of forever.*

*not to be confused with the "dawning of the Age of Aquarius" which though in many ways is similar in description, is nowhere near the same thing.

SPEAKING FOR MYSELF

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:25:00 GMT

Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will.
- Aleister Crowley, Liber OZ - The Rights of Man

The right to freely express ourselves, whether with popular speech or unpopular opinions, is not a right granted by the government or a piece of paper, but a right we are born with. This is also a right, by its own inherent nature, that appears at times to also want to destroy itself (hopefully without actuall awareness of that intent). I find this nature of speech and thought and expression depicted quite clearly in our magical weapon, the sword or dagger.

The blade of speech cuts both ways. It can rarely be invoked without a right or wrong being expressed. You say, "I love fast food," this implies that there are those who do not love fast food, or that it is at least possible to unlove fast food. You say, "equal rights" and someone will call them "special rights." Someone will speak their mind and others will tell him to keep quiet. Someone will support her favorite cause and others will tell her she is imposing. Some will praise the Lord and others will accuse them of injustice. Where speech is truly free, these are unavoidable consequences.

Protecting our unalienable, "God given," rights is very much just like that. We must bear the double-edged sword of Will and be vigilant to secure these rights for the benefit of all - not just the few and not just for ouselves. We must confess our agreement to potentially hear and see things we might believe are offensive, we must concede that everyone's opinion is as valuable to them as ours is to us, we must adhere steadfastly to the claim that expression is a natural born ability and that no one has the right to attempt to prevent it from occuring (this does not mean we can't feed crying babies, but that by finding a solution - we can lessen the amount of crying in the wilderness there actually is). This does not mean we have to agree with hateful speech, nor must we enact agreements with ideas we find great fault in, but if we do any action (any action at all beyond just ignoring or adding to the information exchange), we will become the pupets of speech and not the masters of our own. We must guard even our enemy's rights if we are to guarantee they are rights at all.

The Equinox of the Gods

Thelemic Waves Tarot — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:03:00 GMT

The Vernal Equinox has significance to many different people for several different reasons. For the astronomer, meteorologist, and for other people who depend greatly on time scales and seasonal approaches, today marks the day when the length of the day and length of the night are roughly equal. I say "roughly" because it is not exact, but it is the midpoint of the sun's journey after Winter towards the northernmost apex at Solstice, and now our days will begin to grow longer and warmer. For the astrologer, today marks the day that Sol enters the Zodiacal sign of Aries, the first of the twelve signs of the astrological year - it is New Year! This is also so for Thelemites and today kicks off a very long holy season for us, climaxing perhaps for most with the High Holy days of The Three Days for the Writing of the Book of the Law in April. For the ceremonialists and other participants of the Western Mystery Traditions, the solar vibrational levels are at their most potent for working magick and delving into the world of the practical applications of all of our inner workings. You might think of it as having a kinship to Samhain when the witches say that the veil between the worlds of living and dead is at its thinnest; whereas for the solar worshiping Thelemite or ceremonial magician, this is the day when the veil between the worlds of mundane and divine are at its thinnest (or "more penetrable," I prefer to say).

In Lodges and private temples and groves the world over (at least in the northern hemisphere, I don't know if those in the southern hemisphere time it along with us), changes have taken place. The seat of the East has been vacated by the officer who held it for the past year and the various wardens of the watch (each worthy lodge and temple will name them variously) has moved into the next position - presenting the world with a "new" candidate for the offices: Beginning with his newly established post in the southwestern position of the procession, he in years will also eventually hold the seat of the East. Ceremonially, the yearly birth and death of Sol is played out. A new current is initiated for the planet. The day is celebrated as this day when force and fire overcame death and dying.