( I have a somwhat disjointed writting style and ideas fly around, some of them when started die soon afterwards, bare with me (;
Following Crowley IS a waste of time, the reason being that following ANYONE is a waste of time. I love his books and I read some of them, but to put too much focus on the man and his ego and whatever about his character can, in my opinion, make a person mis out BIG TIME on other things. Here is a shamless example from Adam Jones who plays guitar for the band Tool. He said in an interview that some other interviewers were criticizing him for being a "shoe gazer" on the stage. He said they completely missed out on all the lights and projections (and basically the message) because he wasnt rocking out swishing his hair and being a rock star. This kind of thing goes for authors and artists all the rest. If you focus too much on the person, then the art goes (FART NOISE) gone.
There is so much esoteric stuff with Crowleys work and many others that I just pick and choose what I want. Yes I try to get the whole picture, but to claim that " I got it" is just hoo haa. I enjoy the work of Lovecraft and have met people who havent just read his work but completely understand, on a magickal level, the power of the visions and stories. I've bumped into a Lovecraft elemental and it was one of the more real encounters I've ever had. He got most all of his stories from dreams and I feel that there is an archetypal dream world that he literally mapped out. In the Esoteric Order of Dagon there is a fella that keeps trying to put a Thelema spin into the Order. For some reason to keep hearing about true will this and true will that drove me batty. I like Crowleys stuff but I dont completely adhere to it. I use his Thoth Deck but I'm not a Thelemite. There are some things that I just dont read because I dont feel gravitated toward it. I agree with this one comedian I heard who was hillarious when he said he would read ANYTHING, even stuff Hitler wrote.....BUT he will not touch Dianetics lol. He said the reason being because he doesnt know what page it happens when you just lose it. I even have a friend who says he "gets" it. (shivers) lol. Its funny, we joke about it but still. I did a little research into scientology and wooooo boy there is somthing wrong.
Zejith Thmis, wouldnt you feel that its all about what you gravitate toward? Who is to say whats "best" for every single person like how can somone say studying Crowley is evil and what not. I mean, it's obviously evil for them and thats basically where the buck stops. Another thing, I really like how Ian Xel Lungold defines morals and ethics. He says that Bush in fact is a very moral person along with the rest of them. What they are doing is all very moral. The point being:
Morals are a set of ascribed rules that are laid onto you and your conciousness. Morals are a blanket solution to spontanious problems.
Ethics shine from within yourself out into the world. Ethics is spontanious solutions to spontanious situations.
So, it seems folks that are trying to be as moral as possible, whether they realize it or not, are just trying to put a set of ascribed rules over everyone. This seems to be phasing out of existence and is being replaced by ethics.
Awsome thread. I'm learning alot with this excellent forum. To keep in touch with the title of this thread in particular, I havent read too much into John Dee though I have read disinformations Book of Lies about John Dee and the apocolypse and all that. Its a really good book, but after hearing what other people have to say about enochian magick I just dunno.
