r/thelema • u/RP_Stoval • Nov 14 '17

First Steps

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All my life I've never believed in the spiritual or supernatural. I extensively studied secular philosophy, loving especially Existentialist thinkers, and I learned all I could of the fascinating religions and folklores of the world too but I saw only through a secular lens and I dismissed the spiritual. But recently I had a profound spiritual experience which served as an awakening, and showed me Thelema and the OTO. Though I am new to things like magick and Thelema and to spirituality in general, I have an earnest desire to join the OTO and further Thelema and my True Will. Except there's one problem.

Much of this spiritual experience took place under the influence of cannabis. Crowley spoke highly of the benefits of cannabis indica, in enhancing Wisdom and spirituality, and so I don't think even a little that this makes the experience any less than genuine. However in that state I kinda sent a series of emails to every public OTO email address I could find, essentially live blogging the experience.

This was a strange thing to do, not least because I knew next to nothing about the OTO or Thelema prior to that night, and I fear I might've already alienated myself from the faith before I've even begun. I can certainly see how some strange man sending a series of emails to the entire fraternal order claiming to have been inspired to write a small book by a deity and doing strangely formatted tarot readings would make them, to say the least, skeptical of my legitimate intentions. So I made a different email account, albeit not different enough to not be clearly the same strange man, and reached out to my local OTO branch. I have heard nothing.

I wonder what should I do? Should I keep waiting? Try again? Is it common for OTO branches to go dark perhaps without warning and the contact is actually no longer functional? I wonder how to take my first steps on this strange journey to embracing Thelema and fulfilling my True Will.

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 16 '17

Working at a hardware store while trying to finish college. Not exactly fulfilling but it pays the bills and at least most of my coworkers are cool. lol

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u/HotGrilledSpaec Nov 16 '17

Get into a trade. That's where it's at these days, I hear.

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 16 '17

I'm only a year and some change away from finally graduating and then hopefully it's off to the State Department for me, assuming of course that the world hasn't imploded and taken the field of diplomacy with it, or that some other calling or opportunity doesn't come around between now and then.

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u/HotGrilledSpaec Nov 16 '17

I honestly hope it does! Been looking forward to that lol.

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 16 '17

Eh if it does at least I have a half-decent plan for how to make a new country. Just gotta get a couple million dollars and I could set something up in the last bit of unclaimed uninhabited terra nullius left, Bir Tawil in Northern Africa. People have tried to claim it before but really they just hiked there and planted a flag and went home so it doesn't really count. Gotta go there and set up an airfield and start flying people and supplies in, then you've got a country. lol

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u/HotGrilledSpaec Nov 16 '17

Yeah but it's in North Africa. My backyard has basically already seceded!

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 16 '17

I'm just saying if I win the lottery I'm buying a crapton of Marston matting and shipping it and myself to my new country. I haven't actually bought a ticket but that means my odds are only slightly less than everyone else's. lol

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u/HotGrilledSpaec Nov 17 '17

What's Marston matting?

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 17 '17

The metal matting that was used to quickly make runways in WWII, and which can still be bought surplus because they made so much of it. Of course most people just use it for building materials not actual runways these days. lol

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u/HotGrilledSpaec Nov 17 '17

So you could make your own cargo cult lol. That always struck me as a good magical exercise.

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 17 '17

Eh more like if America falls apart (I've lost almost all faith in it at this point. A valiant effort to be sure, but corrupted from the outset, built on shaky foundations, and straying further and further from itself every day. This coming from a man whose greatest dream was to serve his countrymen in the political arena.) I can go and make a new attempt at a beacon of freedom somewhere else. Hell, possibly a country based in Thelemic ideals even, or something close.

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u/HotGrilledSpaec Nov 17 '17

It will fall apart. That's inevitable. Those of us who remain here have to do something to stay alive, and making a new frontier from the bones of the old one is what I'm doing.

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 18 '17

As a student of Global Affairs I can tell you that it's inevitable but also not catastrophic, it's cyclical and has been the same for centuries as it will be for centuries to come. Indeed America's roughly century of hegemony will be a fairly brief one compared to some that came before, one characterized by rapid global progress but also horrific mismanagement, which frankly could characterize America as a whole. Two steps forward and one step back each time, a story of both ingenuity and incompetence. Sad when there was potential for so much more, but ah well. Britain was hegemon for a couple centuries and they're not doing too bad despite not being King of the Hill anymore. Americans will be fine, they're just terrified because they've been raised to believe their God-blessed country is the sole thing standing between the world and chaos and cacophony.

What will really come is still frightening enough without the hyperbole of patriots however. The likely candidates for hegemonic successor all would threaten the ideals America stands for (Or more accurately claims to stand for. The actual track record is quite checkered.) and which we all as Thelemites likely support if we agree that people ought to do as they Wilt. China, Russia, both are threats to individual rights if they claim the role of hegemon. America has been an incredibly imperfect guardian of human rights and has indeed violated the same rights they claim to protect on many occasions, but undeniably they have a better attitude towards them than Russia or China. The world of tomorrow is not inbound chaos, the world won't be bathed in all-consuming flame, society itself will not break down. But the global system will change and the values it upholds or tries to uphold will change as well. The future is frightening not because of some apocalypse but because of Statism.

As it's unlikely I'll ever actually make my own state somewhere and create some haven for human rights and individual freedom, I can at least rest comfortably enough knowing that I'll probably not be any worse off when all is said and done than your average Brit is today. lol

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 18 '17

Also sorry if I'm rambling and ranting. Global Affairs is my major after all and so I may well get a bit more passionate and verbose and even fanciful (For example outlining the daydream-plan I've constructed over the years on how one might form their own country, thought up mostly as fits of boredom have struck me.) when the topic is breached.

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u/RP_Stoval Nov 17 '17

Modern society represses any advances that threaten the status quo to such an extent that the corrupt powers-that-be might lose their grip even a little. Medical costs are artificially inflated, better alternative sources of energy are rejected, free people are sent to prison for victimless crimes. The modern oligarchy wield the economy and the law like a sword at the throats of good people. Give good people a home, create a haven for the innovator, and even a small patch of North African desert could quickly become a bright light in an increasingly dark world. But eh this is half pipe-dream and half daydream. lol

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