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To: alt.satanism,alt.magick,alt.magick.moderated,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick.order,talk.religion.misc,alt.consciousness.mysticism,alt.pagan.magick
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nigris (333))
Subject: Thelemic Greetings (was silly 93ing (was Rabelais, etc.))
Date: 17 Nov 1996 01:14:06 -0800

49961108 AA1  Hail Satan!

E6

nigris (333):
#>I oppose the silly '93'ing for this very reason: the intent behind the
#>Thelemic Greetings (cf MWT Letter [18!]) has been lost and is now just a
#>means of socialized identification of conformity and involvement.

since I sourced the material incorrectly, I spew forth excerpts from the
citation in length for your perusal and discussion:

	_18_
	_The Importance of our Conventional Greetings_

	Dear Soror,

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

	...

	...in "Greetings" I include "saying Will" before set meals, the
	four daily adorations of the Sun (_Liber CC vel Resh_) and the
	salutation of Our Lady the Moon....

	The practice of _Liber III vel Jugorum_ is the complement of
	these grouped customs.  By sharp physical self-chastisement
	when you think, say, or do whatever it is that you have set
	yourself to avoid doing, you set a sentry at the gate of your
	mind ready to challenge all comers, and so you acquire the
	habit of being on the alert.  Keep this in mind, and you will
	have no difficulty in following the argument of this letter....

	...it is the *normal* habit of the mind to organize [counter-
	attacks to the practice of meditation] that makes their task
	so easy.  What you need is a mind that will help rather than
	hinder your Work by its *normal* function.

	This is where these Greetings, and Will-sayings, and Adorations
	come in....

	The point is that one trains oneself to react properly at any
	moment of surprise.  It must become "second nature" for
	"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" to spring
	to the forefront of the mind when one is introduced to a
	stranger, or comes down to breakfast, or hears the telephone
	bell, or observes the hour of adoration, (these are to be
	the superficial reactions, like instinctively rising when a
	lady enters the room) or, at the other end, in moments of
	immediate peril, or of sudden apprehension, or when in one's
	meditation, one approaches the deepest strata.

	One need not be dogmatic about these special words.  One might
	choose a formula to represent one's own particular True Will.
	It is a little like Cato (or Scipio, was it?) who concluded
	every speech, whether about the Regulations of the Roman Bath
	or the proposal to reclaim a marsh of the Maremma, with the
	words: "And moreover, in my opinion, Cathage ought to be
	destroyed."

	Got it?

	You teach the mind to push your thought automatically to the
	very thing from which it was trying to wander.  "...do you
	always do all this yourself?  Don't you sometimes feel 
	embarrassed, or fear that you may destroy the effect of your
	letter, or 'create a scene' in the public street when you
	suddenly stop and perform these incomprehensible antics,
	or simply forget about the whole thing?"

	Yes, I do.

	Well now, have I any shadow of an excuse?  Yes, I have,
	after a fashion; I don't think it good manners to force
	my idiosyncrasies down people's throats, and I don't want
	to appear more of an eccentric than I need.  It might
	detract from my personal influence, and so actually harm
	the Work that I am trying to perform.

	*Love is the law, love under will*.
	
	Yours fraternally,

	666
	------------------------------------------------------------

	_Magick Without Tears_, by Aleister Crowley, ed. Regardie,
		Falcon Press, 1989; pp. 149-51.
	__________________________________________________________

PStuart@AOL.COM
#...what is your interpretation of the "intent" behind thelemic greeting? 

as personal discipline.  to me it is also a social inspiration in the 
promulgation on the Law of Thelema, but it need not be so here according 
to the Master.

	
#Frankly, I get much more mileage out of 93s... People, more often
#than not, ask what it means, which gives me an opportunity to explain. 

this is something I've found valuable but moreso when the Greetings
were much more explicit than some number or incomprehensible gibberish
(my own usage within this elist of 'E6' and 'E6/6/6' is more protest
or satire than Thelemic Greeting, though it does in some measure
present a similar practice, inclusive of quasi-gibberish).


#it does allow us some internal identification, but there is nothing wrong
#with that, 

that depends on what you take to be 'wrong' here.  the objective, according
to Crowley, is to remain *alert*, and using somnambulistic repetition is
the surest way to both lose the significance of the alerting-mechanism and
put ourselves to sleep.


#...I've NEVER been called a conformist... that would be a new experience 
#for me. 

all of us need conform in order to dwell within society of any organized
sort.  by 'conformist' I presume you mean that your primary nature was
not that of conformity and the activity of conforming.  this is not so
much my warning but that the usage of "93" dissolves the instruction of
the Master on the matter as I have quoted above and makes is useless.

compare Muslim Greetings such as 'assalam alaykum'.  when used by Muslims
within their own group it is an effective social-cement and somnambulant.
when expressed to those *outside* the Muslim community (especially if the
hearer speaks Arabic -- or English 'peace be upon you'), then this can
become a rough equivalent of the Thelemic Greetings the Master describes.



#Use whatever greeting you will... if it works for you, do it, my friend.

'works for you' is the operative phrase here.  how they work, to what they
lead, and what their manner of usage inspires appear to bear very directly
on this 'working'.  my intent isn't to control others, only to express my
objection to the mimicry, facade, and abandonment of the instructions of 
he who devised the method, for the benefit of acculturization.


E6/6/6

nigris (333)
tyagi@housofkaos.abyss.com
-- 
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