Today Nick Farrell announced: "The Magical Order of the Aurora Aurea is no longer offering its correspondence course. Those who are already in it will continue to be supervised. It has been running now for seven years; however in the last 18 months, we have been getting complaints that it is too difficult for modern people. I have no interest in dumbing it down -- it weeded people out, but more recent candidates have not continued past lesson three."
And I understand this---there is a reason why the EOEW/BIOGD/BIORC correspondence course has gotten so little attention---and it is pretty much the same reason.
For those who are interested in a Golden Dawn correspondence course, I have been recommending the book, Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition (Cicreo), and its (unofficial & unauthorized) support group Sanctuary of Mau.
Someday, I do plan on creating a print-on-demand course, but it is not high on my list of things to accomplish anytime soon.
Showing posts with label correspondence course. Show all posts
Showing posts with label correspondence course. Show all posts
Friday, September 25, 2015
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Two Extremes of Grade Requirements
There are two extremes when it comes to deciding what Grade one has in an esoteric Order. One is severe training where a person spends years in a Grade and is tested to an inch of their life. The other extreme is where the only thing that matters is if they paid the dues and fees for the Grade. Both extremes result in getting a piece of paper that says you are of a particular Grade.
The same thing happens with Charters and Warrants. Just because a group has a Charter or Warrant, it does not mean that the holder(s) of it actually got any training to go along with it. In fact, it is more likely that they just paid some money to get it.
Therefore, in my opinion, it is best to treat those who brag about having Grade certificates and Charters and Warrants with caution. Watch their overall actions, and weigh their teachings--don't take those pieces of paper at face value. While an Adept can't help but be human, they also can't help being an Adept. If you watch carefully, a person's true level of attainment eventually rears its ugly head.
The same thing happens with Charters and Warrants. Just because a group has a Charter or Warrant, it does not mean that the holder(s) of it actually got any training to go along with it. In fact, it is more likely that they just paid some money to get it.
Therefore, in my opinion, it is best to treat those who brag about having Grade certificates and Charters and Warrants with caution. Watch their overall actions, and weigh their teachings--don't take those pieces of paper at face value. While an Adept can't help but be human, they also can't help being an Adept. If you watch carefully, a person's true level of attainment eventually rears its ugly head.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Correspondence Course Delayed
Looking around I realized this morning that the long-promised Bast Temple (BIOGD/BIORC) correspondence course is going to suffer another delay. Not that this changes anything for the first set of people who are going to see the course (aka the beta-testers)---they are still going to see the most important parts of the course around the first of the year.
Reasons are all on my end: This semester is kicking my ass (the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to look like a train); I have been devoting time to my wife's business (and ignoring both the Order and my own business); I have not caught up with my foundational course work (ironically, this semester course work relates to it in a strange way).
There is also the fact that I do not like the current round of Golden Dawn politics going on. It doesn't take a cracked crystal ball to realize that the quickest way to be called an ignorant con-artist is to publish a Golden Dawn book or run a correspondence course. And if the upcoming books of mine don't get me called this, the course would sure would succeed in getting me this "esteemed" title. It is a sad field of study that only allows one honest expert to exist, with all the rest automatically being labeled frauds. Oh well, I knew what I was getting into when I decided that this work needed to be done.
And someplace, a horde of monkeys laugh.
Reasons are all on my end: This semester is kicking my ass (the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to look like a train); I have been devoting time to my wife's business (and ignoring both the Order and my own business); I have not caught up with my foundational course work (ironically, this semester course work relates to it in a strange way).
There is also the fact that I do not like the current round of Golden Dawn politics going on. It doesn't take a cracked crystal ball to realize that the quickest way to be called an ignorant con-artist is to publish a Golden Dawn book or run a correspondence course. And if the upcoming books of mine don't get me called this, the course would sure would succeed in getting me this "esteemed" title. It is a sad field of study that only allows one honest expert to exist, with all the rest automatically being labeled frauds. Oh well, I knew what I was getting into when I decided that this work needed to be done.
And someplace, a horde of monkeys laugh.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Memory problems part 1
Ok, I will admit it---I have a few memory problems. And no, I do not believe that it is early onset Alzheimer's disease either (that comment is directed at a friend who d*** well knows who he is). I first became aware of these problems a few years ago, though I view them less as a problem than other people do.
For instance, I remember very little of my life before certain dates. It is either brain damage from an head injury or simple suppression of unpleasant memories. I am betting on the suppression part, though I have taken more blows to the head than I like to think about.
Other people have memories of high school and the people they went to school with; I have few memories of that time period. Oh, if I really think about it, I could draw you a map of the school. But don't ask me to name my teachers, for I can only name two of them. And forgot me recognizing someone from high school without heavy prompting...the exception being a handful of people.
Why the difficulty here? Well, outside of classes, I really did not interact with more than a handful of people. Most of the time, I was too busy dealing with another drama. So it is not so much a memory problem as the simple fact that there are no memories to actually access in the first place.
Now, we have a myth that everything that we experience is stored in the brain. This is not true. There are several stages where memories can get lost between the experience and actual recall of the memory. For instance, if you don't get a good night sleep, you can lose a lot of potential memories as they are transferred to short term memory to long term memory.
Of course, my short-short term memory is like swiss cheese when it comes to certain things. I have a devil's of a time with phone numbers. It is not that I can't remember phone numbers; it is that I can't remember them in the manner most people do. For me, someone firing off a seven digit phone number leads to a blank look on my face. My very own phone number is not remembered as a seven digit number, rather it is remembered as three numbers. For instance, I remember the last four digits of it as 66 and 84; there is one more step there, but you get the idea.
A few years ago, a friend caught how I rememebered a phone number that I dialed every day. She noticed that I could not remember the number unless my hand moved as if I was actually dialing the number. The memory of the number was actually stored in my muscle memory, and not in the normal usual place.
And that is something I always wonder about magical workers in general. Where are we storing our memories in the first place? For instance, according to occult theory, everyone has an astral body, and everyone astral travels (ok, I do know a theory that argues different, but it is a testing theory). Yet few people remember astral traveling on a regular basis before they get trained to astral project. And that includes people who have been witnessed by other people.
If you cannot remember astral traveling, then as far as you are concerned, you have not astral traveled. Much of learning to astral project is not figuring out how to leave your body as much as it is learning to be able to recall that you did so in the first place.
Look sometime at the number of energetic bodies that occult theory says that we have. Each one of these bodies potentially has its own set of memories. What is in our head is more than the circuits of the meat suit that we are wearing, or at least it should be if we are a magician. Which means that the memory problems that I am aware of are merely the tip of the iceberg. And that makes alzheimer's look like a welcome change from my normal experiences.
For instance, I remember very little of my life before certain dates. It is either brain damage from an head injury or simple suppression of unpleasant memories. I am betting on the suppression part, though I have taken more blows to the head than I like to think about.
Other people have memories of high school and the people they went to school with; I have few memories of that time period. Oh, if I really think about it, I could draw you a map of the school. But don't ask me to name my teachers, for I can only name two of them. And forgot me recognizing someone from high school without heavy prompting...the exception being a handful of people.
Why the difficulty here? Well, outside of classes, I really did not interact with more than a handful of people. Most of the time, I was too busy dealing with another drama. So it is not so much a memory problem as the simple fact that there are no memories to actually access in the first place.
Now, we have a myth that everything that we experience is stored in the brain. This is not true. There are several stages where memories can get lost between the experience and actual recall of the memory. For instance, if you don't get a good night sleep, you can lose a lot of potential memories as they are transferred to short term memory to long term memory.
Of course, my short-short term memory is like swiss cheese when it comes to certain things. I have a devil's of a time with phone numbers. It is not that I can't remember phone numbers; it is that I can't remember them in the manner most people do. For me, someone firing off a seven digit phone number leads to a blank look on my face. My very own phone number is not remembered as a seven digit number, rather it is remembered as three numbers. For instance, I remember the last four digits of it as 66 and 84; there is one more step there, but you get the idea.
A few years ago, a friend caught how I rememebered a phone number that I dialed every day. She noticed that I could not remember the number unless my hand moved as if I was actually dialing the number. The memory of the number was actually stored in my muscle memory, and not in the normal usual place.
And that is something I always wonder about magical workers in general. Where are we storing our memories in the first place? For instance, according to occult theory, everyone has an astral body, and everyone astral travels (ok, I do know a theory that argues different, but it is a testing theory). Yet few people remember astral traveling on a regular basis before they get trained to astral project. And that includes people who have been witnessed by other people.
If you cannot remember astral traveling, then as far as you are concerned, you have not astral traveled. Much of learning to astral project is not figuring out how to leave your body as much as it is learning to be able to recall that you did so in the first place.
Look sometime at the number of energetic bodies that occult theory says that we have. Each one of these bodies potentially has its own set of memories. What is in our head is more than the circuits of the meat suit that we are wearing, or at least it should be if we are a magician. Which means that the memory problems that I am aware of are merely the tip of the iceberg. And that makes alzheimer's look like a welcome change from my normal experiences.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
If you are interested in Pat Zalewski correspondence course
If you are interested in Pat Zalewski's Adept Minor correspondence course, Pat is kicking around starting another intake. In his message announcing this, he mentioned that he does not want a large group of people, "but a small core group that will work their arse off."
How much work does the course require? Well, I know one person who is taking the course, who jokes that every week, Pat adds another month (at least) of work to the big pile already on his desk. Poke this person a little bit more, and you will get him to admit that he believes that Pat is running the members through a Golden Dawn officer program.
The big question is: What does the course cover? That question is generally met with silence, but some hints have been given. According to this source, the stuff Pat mentions publically is just the tip of the iceberg; plus the analysis of the Outer Order rituals is just a minor part of the correspondence course.
This source does stress that "you damn well better be an Adept Minor, otherwise you will never survive the correspondence course." He also stresses that you really need to be able to move past the idea that the famous Adepts of old were perfect and their work is without fault.
Attempts to squeeze more information out of this source have been met with absolute silence. Gee, I am not that big of a blabber-mouth, am I?
How much work does the course require? Well, I know one person who is taking the course, who jokes that every week, Pat adds another month (at least) of work to the big pile already on his desk. Poke this person a little bit more, and you will get him to admit that he believes that Pat is running the members through a Golden Dawn officer program.
The big question is: What does the course cover? That question is generally met with silence, but some hints have been given. According to this source, the stuff Pat mentions publically is just the tip of the iceberg; plus the analysis of the Outer Order rituals is just a minor part of the correspondence course.
This source does stress that "you damn well better be an Adept Minor, otherwise you will never survive the correspondence course." He also stresses that you really need to be able to move past the idea that the famous Adepts of old were perfect and their work is without fault.
Attempts to squeeze more information out of this source have been met with absolute silence. Gee, I am not that big of a blabber-mouth, am I?
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