A.'.A.'. and O.T.O. complementing one another

For the last few years, I have been actively immersed in the practices of the O.T.O. system. I perceive the whole system as rather elaborate, offering an inspired beginner a solid structure to advance life. In my case, I see the path entwined with the O.T.O. degrees as an excellent opportunity to complete a specific task from my current A.'.A.'. attainment.

Using my head and meekly bowing to no one, however, I see certain aspects of the said system as downright ridiculous and very much old-aeon-like (the general feeling of theocracy, taking the vows of obedience to the head of the Order or something or someone on the outside, waiting to be invited to higher degrees for long years and similar nonsense). Maybe (or obviously) these things work for some, but not for me.

And, all the drama around the "great and wonderful O.T.O. Order" higher initiates' ego trips is quite useless to me. Also, I need no community to fill the inner need for belonging and acceptance...

...so I aligned my time and efforts with a sister Krumm-Heller lineage, which welcomes individual creativity, supports freedom of choice, and does not inhibit the progress of an actively involved student in any way.

Reflecting on the whole O.T.O. system, I think the first three degrees' practices must be a real challenge to a newcomer to the Thelema. Nevertheless, the meditations and other exercises are intriguing and can indeed contribute so much, I have to say.

Again, in my case, being quite familiar with the Thelema practices, I breezed through the degrees (ignoring the old aeon notions from Freemasonry as they have got nothing whatsoever to do with the Thelema spiritual current, in my opinion), with one major crisis that lasted around nine months. 

Lesson learned: the O.T.O. meditations and other practices of the system are efficient enough. There is no need to combine them with anything else (the Mahamudra empowerments in my case).

The jackpot or the process that contributed to my current initiation level the most thus far, however, was the P.I. annihilation.

Part of the diary entry after the ritual:

“The immediate result is that I have no inclination whatsoever towards our Prophet anymore, either way, for example. I see now that everything I did up to this point (in the O.T.O. and A.'.A.'.) was only a mental projection, and what he did was just as unreal as anything else”.

Freedom, independence, less drama, more Understanding, Wisdom, Strenght, etc. - that is what the O.T.O. meditations and other practices have delivered. And the best is yet to come!

I find the A.'.A.'. system very useful, but demanding considering the tasks after the abyss. That's where the practical and down-to-earth approach of O.T.O. comes in handy and can contribute a lot.

The O.T.O. is an effective and brilliant system.

I see both Orders, the A.'.A.'. and the O.T.O., as two sides of the same coin, complementing each other both in practices and manifestations, sharing but one ground reality:

"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."
Liber AL, III-60

Fr. 418 .'.

More info and links on the O.T.O. >>

From beyond the Abyss VI.: O.T.O meditations: Born Anew

May all adepts attain the City of Pyramids

4th O.T.O. meditation (includes sub meditations)

I create protective sphere around the room I am in, deep purple energy sphere. I know it will be good enough to protect my body from any intrusive spirit.

With intention I leave with BoL (body of light) and find myself at the OTO gate, I enter with ease and fly straight towards the camp and before my tent.

There is a guard there, transparent; we both know he is not needed anymore. In a flash I realize that at the lower level, this guard is ego that is protecting material existence, at intermediate level he is HGA (way beyond ego) and at the deepest level (after abyss) he does not exist on his own.

I enter the tent and everything is the same as before. The feeling or atmosphere in this tent is very familiar, it is my tent.

I go to the couple of Keepers and we exchange the Words and they direct me to the OTO Lamen. There is a well and Lamen on the wall above it.

The Lamen is just a manifestation of the source, a presentation of the whole existence of the initiated OTO aspirant and the well represents consciousness in which the essence of the Lamen can be reflected. The surface of the water is in my heart, symbolically speaking.

So I relax and focus on the reflection of the water and I see there the whole OTO Lamen.
There is Light, Wisdom, Understanding, Remembering, Strength, Beauty… and Foundation, and I understand that lower symbols on the Lamen represent the transformation in the aspirant and I hear “There is no law beyond do what thou wilt”.

There is no difference; I am That, meaning that there is no difference between me standing there, and the Lamen. I am the Lamen, I am the Light, Wisdom, Understanding. There is no difference, each number is infinite, the khabs is in the khu not the khu in the khabs and there is no law beyond do what thou wilt.

(At this point meta-cognition kicks in and I see that unification with the 93 spiritual current, symbolically represented by Lamen, is happening.)

Everything else is fading away, meaning that everything else is equally important, the Spirit is not any better than the matter, everything is manifested without existing. There is the insubstantiality, anatta, everything is empty, no one exists and nothing exists.
This is above the law: nothing.  There is NO LAW beyond do what thou wilt. No law is beyond, nothing is beyond or above the Law.

Chalice, heart, cross, flames. Interesting thing happens now as I focus on the lower part of the Lamen: the middle and top symbols stop shining, they just subside in the background and only lower part shines. I understand that there is no difference; it is just the present moment that counts. The Truth is manifested, currently, as the lower symbols. And I am united with these. Complete satori, samadhi, sambhodi even.

<longer pause>

I focus now on the dove. And the dove starts to shine brightly and the other two are not shining. It is a process, it is the inflow of the wisdom, love, power etc. The process itself and the dove are empty. Meaning, immaculately pure from the beginning. primordial purity, beauty and light. I unite with this easily. I am that.
And again, there is no law beyond…. Nothing is beyond. Nothing is beyond, beyond is emptiness, Nuit, Hadit, united in Rahookhuit above Kether.

I focus now on the Eye of Ra and it starts to shine brightly. It is soooooooo bright. I don’t even perceive reflection anymore, it is like being inside of the OTO Lamen shining through the Eye of Ra. Shining 12 links of depending origination, 12 zodiac signs, basically everything in manifestation is just the Light from the Eye of Ra.

There is no difference between the Eye of Ra, Ra and I and 12 emanations, everything is completely pure, primordially, empty, there is nothing beyond these three forms. And there is no law beyond Do what thou wilt, it is a negation of the Law, there is NO LAW.

The law is Do what thou wilt and beyond that, there is no law. And the No law is RHK and he is empty, for he has crushed the Universe with his omnipresent empty awareness. And we are nondual, everyone is nondual with him, whether we want it or not. If one is aware of this, s/he is free.

<looooooong pause>

The tent is empty, there are no keepers here now, for they have been integrated into this awareness of RHK, into perfect balance.

I am life and the giver of life, therefore the knowledge of me is the knowledge of death. There is no death, just Light. Wisdom and Understanding are perfectly integrated into None.

Well, I don’t feel like it but since this is a birth, I manifest again, I born myself, I reappear as an aspirant that is meditating on Me and as soon as that thought arises, I see "myself" standing in front of the OTO Lamen in the BoL.

The Keepers have manifested as well, I turn to them, they stand up and their eyes are shining. We all know very well that this is just a game, a lila, a drama, a play. We are playing roles.
So, keeping up with the appearances, I say the words: Every man and every… They smile.
I take my leave, guard is outside and we both know it is just a game.

It becomes clear to me now that after the 1st degree and these meditations it will be easier for me to live in the world, knowing that all 3 bodies and everything else in the world is just a game, a play, a drama, full of insubstantiality, of anatta.

I exit the OTO sphere and I notice no difference between the inner energy and energy outside of the OTO sphere.
I return to the body, there are no spirits there now. Protective energy is large enough so no spirits came to listen this time.
I enter the body and open my eyes. I will balance now with Star Ruby.


5th meditation
I do all the same as in previous meditations and……. find myself in front of the tent in the OTO sphere.
There is a guard there and I enter the tent. As I enter the Keepers stand up greeting me, and curiously enough, now I hear them say, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law…” and I reply, “Love is the law, love under will…”

They invite me to sit down and I sit on the floor.

The woman starts speaking:

"In this visit you ought to be asking us about the meaning of both of us, the tent and the guard outside and the ** but since in previous meditations everything meaningful has already been said, if it is ok with you, we will now integrate into you and disappear from this tent."

I stand up, willing, look deep into their eyes and I say to the woman, Babalon and to the man, Chaos, knowing that this is just a pretense, an appearance – that is just as important as everything else:

"There is no difference between the Source of the river and the river itself."

So I recognize that Keepers really are there in front of me, and I perfectly know that from a deeper perspective they are Nuit and Hadit.
I invoke them to integrate into me, their child, RHK

Everything is disappearing, the tent, guard, camp, the OTO sphere, universe, everything is gone, de-manifesting.

<long long long pause>

I  stop recording here and just open my eyes and that is it. No drama needed.
I am born anew.

Fr. 418

New to Thelema?

Letting the heavy abstract topics of after Abyss be for a while, here we have a brief general introduction to Thelema and O.T.O.:

Energized Enthusiasm

The notion that purity defines closeness to salvation is generally accepted in most spiritual traditions on this planet. Most Paths deny sensual pleasure, desires, attachments, sex etc.

Theravada Buddhists are not allowed to even see a woman when in retreat, for example.

Tantra, however, takes the opposite approach and embraces, well, everything, including sexual energy and bodily fluids.

Higher degrees in the O.T.O. also examine and employ the same.

Master Therion has had a lot of experiences along these lines and he shares his thoughts beautifully in the text below.

It is an interesting read and worth studying. I share here only the first two paragraphs, you can find link to the whole text at the end.





Energized Enthusiasm
A Note on Theurgy

I.
I A O the supreme One of the Gnostics, the true God, is the Lord of this work. Let us therefore invoke Him by that name which the Companions of the royal Arch blaspheme to aid us in the essay to declare the means which He has bestowed upon us!


II.
"The divine consciousness which is reflected and refracted in the works of Genius feeds upon a certain secretion, as I believe. This secretion is analogous to semen, but not identical with it. There are but few men and fewer women, those women being invariably androgyne, who possess it at any time in any quantity.

So closely is this secretion connected with the sexual economy that it appears to me at times as if it might be a by-product of that process which generates semen. That some form of this doctrine has been generally accepted is shown in the prohibitions of all religions. Sanctity has been assumed to depend on chastity, and chastity has nearly always been interpreted as abstinence. But I doubt whether the relation is so simple as this would imply; for example, I find in myself that manifestations of mental creative force always concur with some abnormal condition of the physical powers of generation. But it is not the case that long periods of chastity, on the one hand, or excess of orgies, on the other, are favourable to its manifestation or even to its formation.

I know myself, and in me it is extremely strong; its results are astounding. For example, I wrote "Tannhauser," complete from conception to execution, in sixty-seven consecutive hours. I was unconscious of the fall of nights and days, even after stopping; nor was there any reaction of fatigue. This work was written when I was twenty-four years old, immediately on the completion of an orgie which would normally have tired me out.

Often and often have I noticed that sexual satisfaction so-called has left me dissatisfied and unfatigued, and let loose the floods of verse which have disgraced my career.

Yet, on the contrary, a period of chastity has sometimes fortified me for a great outburst. This is far from being invariably the case. At the conclusion of the K 2 expedition, after five months of chastity, I did no work whatever, barring very few odd lyrics, for months afterwards.

I may mention the year 1911. At this time I was living, in excellent good health, with the woman whom I loved. Her health was, however, variable, and we were both constantly worried. The weather was continuously fine and hot. For a period of about three months I hardly missed a morning; always on waking I burst out with a new idea which had to be written down. The total energy of my being was very high. My weight was 10 stone 8 lb., which had been my fighting weight when I was ten years younger. We walked some twenty miles daily through hilly forest. The actual amount of MSS. written at this time is astounding; their variety is even more so; of their excellence I will not speak.

Here is a rough list from memory; it is far from exhaustive:

(1) Some dozen books of A.'. A.'. instruction, including liber Astarte, and the Temple of Solomon the King for "Equinox VII."

(2) Short Stories: The Woodcutter.
His Secret Sin.

(3) Plays: His Majesty's Fiddler
Elder Eel
Adonis . written straight off, one
The Ghouls. after the other
Mortadello.

(4) Poems: The Sevenfold Sacrament
A Birthday.

(5) Fundamentals of the Greek Qabalah (involving the collection and analysis of several thousand words).

I think this phenomenon is unique in the history of literature. I may further refer to my second journey to Algeria, where my sexual life, though fairly full, had been unsatisfactory.

On quitting Biskra, I was so full of ideas that I had to get off the train at El-Kantara, where I wrote "The Scorpion." Five or six poems were written on the way to Paris; "The Ordeal of Ida Pendragon" during my twenty-four hours' stay in Paris, and "Snowstorm" and "The Electric Silence" immediately on my return to England.

To sum up, I can always trace a connection between my sexual condition and the condition of artistic creation, which is so close as to approach identity, and yet so loose that I cannot predicate a single important proposition.

It is these considerations which give me pain when I am reproached by the ignorant with wishing to produce genius mechanically. I may fail, but my failure is a thousand times greater than their utmost success.

I shall therefore base my remarks not so much on the observations which I have myself made, and the experiments which I have tried, as on the accepted classical methods of producing that energized enthusiasm which is the lever that moves God.

____________

Read the whole text here >>
(a new page opens up)

Differences Between the O.T.O. & the A.'.A.'.

"It was my original idea that the O.T.O. would be a sort of training ground for the A∴A∴. It was still in my mind that the A∴A∴ represented, so to speak, the only thing worth doing. But recent initiations have changed my views considerably. But the O.T.O. has a perfectly definite function in connection wirh the new Aeon.

At a time like the present, when individual liberty is threatened in a way to which history offers no parallel, a strong and vigorous order is required to guard humanity. The A∴A∴ does this, it is true, but in a manner so beyond even your present conception, that I think it only fair to give even the most commonplace of men a chance to co-operate actually."
- Letter from A.C. to Charles S. Jones, dated Oct. 4th 1919 e.v.

** ** **

"Observe O.T.O. = 540 + A.'.A.'. 2 = 542. 418+666/2 therefore the number harmonizes these two. But of course you understand that the A.'.A.'. is the serious Order for individual progress.
With O.T.O. you only become a magician, and a priest of the Holy One - a very fine and balanced 6=5, but no more."
- Crowley to Achad, ~July, 1916

** ** **

“The O.T.O. is, so to speak, the quintessence of Freemasonry, and is run on strictly Masonic lines. There is no question of spiritual advancement as in the A.'.A.'.. It teaches nothing but theoretical and practical philosophy of life and death. There is no question of the attaining of higher states of consciousness.

It is true that some of the practices involves what might, on analysis, turn out to be supernormal conditions, but it is not mystical in any ordinary sense of the word. Further, it works almost entirely in groups, and this is what makes the attitude towards money entirely different.”
- Crowley to Gerald Yorke, Oct. 27, 1928

** ** **

“The difference between the A.'.A.'. and the O.T.O. is very clear and simple. The A.'.A.'. is a sempiternal institution, and entirely secret. There is no communication between its members. Theoretically, a member knows only the superior who introduced him, and any person whom he himself has introduced. The Order is run on purely spiritual lines.

The object of membership is also entirely simple. The first objective is the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. The next objective, omitting for the present of the [6=5] and [7=4] Grades, is the crossing of the Abyss, and the attainment of mastership of the Temple. This is described very fully especially in Liber 418 (“The Vision & the Voice”). Much less is written about the [5=6] Grade, i.e. the Knowledge and Conversation, because it is too secret and individual. It is impossible to lay down conditions, or to describe the experiences involved in detail.

The O.T.O. has nothing to do with this, except that The Book of the Law and the Word of the Aeon are essential principles of membership. In all other respects, it stands by itself as a body similar to Freemasonry, but involving acceptance of a social and economic system which is intended to put the world on its feet. There is also, of course, the secret of the IX° which is to say, the weapon which they may use to further these purposes.

To show you the difference, Theodor Reuss was Supreme Head of the O.T.O., but was not even a probationer of the A.'.A.'..”
- Letter from Crowley to Karl Germer dated Sept. 16, 1946, as an official statement to American O.T.O. members

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