The Mystical and Magical System of the A .'. A .'. - The Spiritual System of Aleister Crowley & George Cecil Jones Step-by-Step - Hardcover

James A. Eshelman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0970449607 ISBN 13: 9780970449603

Publisher: College of Thelema, 2008

Synopsis

Previously, so comprehensive a guide book has not been readily available. <P>Initiation is a reality. Humanity has a potential to grow far beyond its native state of consciousness and capability. This growth is a spiritual growth. Its fruits inform and empower every facet of human, mortal expression, while disclosing to each of us our own inherently immortal natures. <P>On this spiritual growth, more than any other thing, the future welfare and progress of humanity depends. <P>For thousands of years, Adepts have known how to unlock or awaken this growth how to mature it and unleash genius at will. Beginning in 1906, two such Adepts, Aleister Crowley and George Cecil Jones, organized and made public the mystical and magical disciplines by which any motivated person can achieve this spiritual maturity and have direct experience of realization, liberation, union with God, or cosmic consciousness. <P>They called their system A .'. A .'. Its methods are those of empirical science; its aims, those of devoted religion. <P>This book explores, step-by-step, the mystical and magical system of the A .'. A .'. For many in the West, it is a strange thought that spirituality can be drilled in the same way that a muscle is strengthened. Yet, an ear trained to listen to music detects wondrous subtleties that the untrained ear misses. The same is true of the palate trained to distinguish fine food and wine, or the eye trained to discriminate nuance in any of a thousand areas. <P>The same is true of spiritual experience. The stages of its unfolding are distinct: the discovery of one s True Will (or who one is in the Universe), and the practical means of expressing this in the world; the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel (or conscious union with the Divine); and the continued advance toward and through that vast gulf, or Abyss, which lies between humanity and Divinity. <P>The author, in more than 20 years of experience of the mystical and magical system of the A .'. A .'., has derived enormous value from it. This book is the clearest, most complete presentation of the system ever written. <P> Never before have the inner pathways of this Journey been so finely mapped, nor the Way so clearly marked. To you, dear children of the Light, do we deliver freely what has been given to us. May the Way be opened for all who would walk it, proudly, joyously, serenely with strength, wisdom, love, and the LIGHT which informs them with Beauty. from Chapter 11 of the Mystical and Magical System of the A .'. A .'.

About this title

About the Author

JAMES A. ESHELMAN has been a writer and teacher of occult and metaphysical subjects for over 35 years, originally in the field of astrology and then in magick, mysticism, Qabalah, tarot, occult psychology, and related Hermetic subjects as well. He was admitted to the A.'.A.'. as a Probationer in 1979, and to full initiation as a Neophyte in 1981. During thirteen years of membership in Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), he served in numerous capacities, including Deputy Grand Master General. He resigned from O.T.O. in 1992 to devote his full energies to other responsibilities. He accepted ordination in the Gnostic Catholic Church (Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica) in 1979, publicly celebrated the Mass for eleven years, and was consecrated a bishop in the Vilatte succession in 1985. Mr. Eshelman is presently Deputy Executive Director and a faculty member of the College of Thelema, from which he earned a Master of Arts degree in Skeptical Theurgy in 1992. He is also Editor of, and a regular contributor to, the college s biannual journal, Black Pearl. <P>He serves as a Grand Chief of the Temple of Thelema, which he co- founded in 1987 with Anna-Kria King and Phyllis Seckler. He is a former Grand Chief of Fraternitas L.V.X. Occulta (Fraternity of the Hidden Light). He lives in Los Angeles, California, with his cat, Ares.

From the Inside Flap

By the name A .'. A .'. we designate that One and Eternal Order that Paul Foster Case and Kenneth Mackenzie called the True and Invisible Order, and Karl von Eckartshausen titled the Interior Church or community of light.

Existing throughout history, silently guiding humanity s cultural and spiritual evolution, it is the Holy of Holies wherein that Sacred Ark rests inviolate. Every legitimate magical order, mystery school, fraternity, or religion disseminating some portion of Wisdom has been an Outer Vehicle of this Inner Fellowship of Light.

There is THAT within each of us, immortal and infinitely creative, which truly gives us birth. Something in us knows, instinctively, that we must (each in our own ripe time) seek this, embrace this, and surrender to this as we would to the most overpowering and fulfilling love. And then we must give it expression in our lives and our work, pouring forth the very essence of ourselves into that which we love most. It is this inner Truth-of-Self this True Will, or central, guiding spiritual principle of our lives that the mystical and magical system of the A .'. A .'. unveils and awakens from within each of us.

Aleister Crowley summarized the nature and purposes of the A.'. A.'. as follows:
In all systems of religion is to be found a system of Initiation, which may be defined as the process by which a [person] comes to learn that unknown Crown. Though none can communicate either the knowledge or the power to achieve this, which we may call the Great Work, it is yet possible for initiates to guide others.

This book describes the methods of the A .'. A .'., step-by-step, in each of its grades from Probationer (0=0) through Exempt Adept (7=4). Often called, by its readers, a user s guide to THE EQUINOX, it provides comprehensive description of a course of study that allows you to employ effectively the methods of Scientific Illuminism. Never before have the pathways of the Inner Journey been so finely mapped, nor the Way so clearly marked!

Edition details

• Publisher: College of Thelema
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0970449607
• ISBN 13: 9780970449603
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 302