The Problem with Platitudes

“Spiritual” books, teachers, and groups – particularly the execrable “New Age” movement – typically present seekers with no end of platitudes: pithy expressions of so-called wisdom that are often accepted uncritically by these seekers, who usually have never been taught to properly evaluate claims (or, indeed, why they should even bother evaluating claims).

A new series of posts (“The Problem with Platitudes”) will examine some of these phrases.

Make no mistake: uncritically accepting these fortune-cookie sayings is absolute poison to any real attainment. This series of posts aims to explore exactly what’s wrong with these platitudes and exactly how they impede progress.

First up: the classic canard, “Everyone’s opinion (or belief) is equally correct.”

This phrase – far from being “wisdom” – is a lie that, if accepted, will make it almost impossible for the individual to gain a clear picture of reality (and thus impossible for an individual to attain in the Thelemic system).

Read on for more.

Gems from the Forums V: The Astral Plane

Not too long ago, an inane discussion about astral projection on lashtal.com inspired me to consult Crowley’s classic "Notes for an Astral Atlas" from Magick in Theory and Practice, a text I haven’t read in many a year. Upon revisiting it, I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of practical wisdom about discovering the True Will that was concealed in the language of “astral research.”

I wrote the following post in order to illustrate how Crowley’s writings on the astral reveal a method of practicing Thelema hidden beneath the “symbolic technicalities” of ritual magick, as Crowley plainly states in the introduction.

Read on for more.