To: alt.magick
From: tyagi@shell.portal.com (tyagi mordred nagasiva)
Subject: Re: What is "93?"
Date: 49940701
Quoting:|tim@toad.com (Tim Maroney) 
        |>tyagi

|>Today it may be fruitfully argued that those who use these numbers as
|>conventional greetings are only helping to further the reverse of the
|>Law of Thelema by putting us all to sleep and grinding out the current
|>by silly gematric equivalents which have almost no meaning to the
|>average individual.

|...What is the O.T.O. supposed to be?  Is it the Abbey of Theleme from 
|Rabelais -- a taste of utopia, an attempt to erect a society in which 
|that "inner spur to virtue" is the "sole rule and guide of life"?  

These are the questions which true Thelemites ask, as I see it.


|...[The OTO] offers initiation, instruction, encouragement in spiritual 
|practice, while also presenting a thoroughly corrupt society in which 
|one had better keep on the good side of the leaders, mouth the proper 
|slogans, and otherwise function as an =actor= in order to prevent friction.

|...the Order model does have its merits.  The skills you learn there are 
|the skills you need to remain a Thelemite and continue to work in society.  
|You will have to be outwardly an actor while keeping your inner integrity;
|people will simply reject you if you constantly speak to them from the
|heart.  The defenses with which they hold back their own wills are
|certain to flare out against you if you insist on showing them yours.

|...the Order and Thelema-as-a-cult are meant as instructional games.  
|Many -- I would even say most -- people in the Order invest far too much 
|seriousness and self-image in these conventions and conformities.  

|...The Order provides them with tools with which they might eventually 
|transcend this perspective, but it cannot compel them to become Thelemites.

These are the banners of the Revolutionaries within the Order.


|People like you, who refuse to sell out their integrity by playing the
|game, provide a generally useful reminder, 

Not only this, we set the tone through action rather than attempting to
instruct through text or condition through old ceremonialism.

...