this is a different type of video from the things I have done in the past I let you all pick what I am going to talk about today on this video I did not include all of the amazing questions I got there were just too many but I do appreciate everything you all send me I think this video is really cool because it gives me a chance to share a little bit about myself on here I would say that despite being on YouTube I'm more of a private person so this gives me the push to open up a little bit more with you all uh for those who don't know me my name is Lynn mavus Lynn I'm a writer artist educator practicing a cultist ceremonial magician all of those good things I give so much of my time and energy to the Pagan and occult community and this YouTube channel is really an extension of that I view this as a form of you know community service and I am grateful and privileged to be a part of that also I hit 4,000 YouTube subscribers wow I am so surprised and so grateful because I cover such a niche subject within a niche subject that I really did not expect anyone to care so super cool thank you um and one final note on this video before I jump right into the questions um I do touch on things that are controversial so I hope this goes without saying but my views are my own I'm only speaking on my behalf no organization or any other individual it's just me okay great uh let's get into it okay first question Oh and before I read that out just a quick side note I know some of you did give me permission to use your name in the questions but I just took the liberty to blank everyone's name out for your privacy because what happens one day in the future if you're like oh no I don't want to be associated with the Lemo I don't want my name on the Internet uh and then I have to go back and delete this video so I just blanked everyone's name out um so For Better or Worse that's why that is the the way it is so question one is initiation necessary in becoming a selite can you be one without being a member of the Otto yes absolutely um you can be a fomite without joining the Otto and initiation is not necessary in being a fomite so what is the Otto Otto or orot temply orientis is a fraternal organization it's a magical fraternity and it does offer things like initiation group ritual other experiences which can be really helpful for your personal development but quite frankly it's not for everyone and it's not necessary so unlike other Traditions that are you do have to be initiated into them themma is not one of them and um I really like well let me just back up so there's an ongoing debate as to what are the qualifications of being athelite and I really liked what Grandmaster sabazia said and I'm going to paraphrase off the top of of my head so he said that being a fomite is someone who accepts the book of the law and whatever that means to them and obviously that can mean different things depending on your interpretation of the book of the law which are all which are valid um and someone who seeks to know and do their will so those combination of things make you a theelite notice in that definition even coming from Grandmaster sabazius there's nothing about the Otto there's nothing about you know being initiated really that fraternal initiation stuff is just a value ad if you want it so good question all right question number two did you think strange Angel was cheesy at all there was a lot of cutting yes um so for those who don't know strange Angel was a TV show all about Jack parsons's unfortunately the show was not historically accurate or magically accurate to thma it was very dramaticized and I think my personal opinion of strange Angel was I really enjoyed the acting and the costumes I'm a big costume person it was really well done um but so much for the plot the accuracy not so much so cheesy sure um not the best representation of thma and the Ogo yeah and not the best representation of the history of science as well so I think strange Angel's fun but it's not something to take seriously for sure question number three what are your thoughts on AA and Otto do we need to be a part of them to be a theelite this question follows up with question number one pretty nicely because it is a continuation of this idea of what is a what does it mean to be a theelite and both of these organizations are theic organizations the AA is the magical teaching order that was established by alist Crowley so you get oneon-one teaching learning opportunities within the AA while the Otto is a more Masonic fraternal magical order so they are different organizations and for people they can be really helpful so for me personally um I think the system of the AA and I do like Otto as well and I believe the system of the AA is incredibly useful and I do believe in it now um I guess I'll get into my person AA experiences later on in this video very vaguely um but you know just because I had a bad experience doesn't mean I don't believe in the system and I don't believe in a lot of the individuals and the different AA lineages I think there are some fantastic choices out there for AA lineages and personal instruction um of course I recommend if you are interested in doing the AA make sure you go through a reputable website and approach the order that way don't go off of some random individual offering instruction go through the actual website um and you know just like the OT you don't have to be a part of the AA to be a theelite and you don't have to join the OT to be a theelite being a solo practitioner is absolutely valid and you know what else is also valid doing the AA work on your own alisar Crowley said himself that you can go forth and just do the AA work you don't have to join the AA itself so there's a lot of options out there and a lot of things to explore depending on your needs and wants and preferences and what you need to be successful in your study so there's help there if you want it if not that's fine too um question number four can you suggest some readings about writing a magical diary yes absolutely um thank you for this I think that the magical diary is such an important part of being a magical practitioner and theelite and cereon magician and which whatever you want to call the magical diary a book of shadows all of that stuff I think that you know we are we do employ the method of science to what we do and that record of how successful we are in the magic helps us see Trends helps us make predictions helps us understand better not only ourselves but our effect on those around us our effect on the world and the effect of our work so I can't stress the magical diary enough and yes in terms of suggested readings um I'm going to suggest exploring um Alistar Crowley's work there is a fantastic compilation and collection of his writings um I don't have it pulled up but I will put it down in the description it's like the writings of Alister Crowley in the magical diary and it was compiled by James waserman and Dan Gunther so that's just a great little compilation of all about Crowley and the Magical diary um and I also have some other books that aren't theic that I also really like including um Gabriella's book I think she has like a Tarot um magical diary that I recommend that I like and all of that is down the description for those books um yeah I hope it I hope it serves you well and I hope you feel inspired to do a magical diary whatever that looks like for you okay question number five I think this one's an interesting question and I'm glad this person asked this so number five quickest route for a new student to meet entities through ritual magic um so I was talking about this um with another person and it was interesting because my experience is different from other peoples but I would say the quickest route which it was for me for meeting just random entities was actually through astral work and dream work I feel like when um I just sort of I I was doing more astral work and exploring that realm it was just chocked full of entities um in quotes because I know my viewers are going to consider entities different things and that's okay I'm not here to tell you what to think um but yeah I had a lot of encounters very quickly with astral work as well as dream work so um I've heard that's not the case with everyone but that's what I have to say on that subject okay number six um in the instructions for liber R it says to assume the God form of whom thou adores how do yeah great question um and what a great opportunity for me to plug my video on Libra rush so if you are interested in labor rush I have a very thorough video where I demonstrate all Stations of the sun doing rush but I also explain it and I also explain the god forms at each of the solar stations so go check out that video um that's a plug for my work and I think it it describes it fairly well you'll be able to do Rush after watching that video for sure especially for people who are visual Learners I just want to say that not everyone learns the same way and there's no shame in that um it you know some people thrive off of more auditory learning or more visual learning and some people prefer the more written words so if you are a more auditor visual learner that's why these videos exist for you and again there's no shame in asking for help and Consulting auditory and visual sources for learning okay great question number seven when delving into Crowley's work which ones would you recommend reading first wonderful thank you for asking this question um so I get this question a lot and I get it so much that I actually made a giant blog post all about not only intro to th books in general but which crowly works I recommend specifically you try first and so the crowly ones I recommend is um his commentaries on the book of the law because the book of the law was really the fundamental and um yeah it's the starting point right it's the fundamental holy text that everything Springs forth so I recommend people start with his commentaries on it so you can make sense of the book of the law and start to unpack that yourself and that's a book called the laws for all I think think it's currently out of print but maybe when you are watching this video in the future it will be back in print um but yeah the laws for all is great magic without tears fantastic magic without tears is basically crley talking about um the theory behind magic and how it works and basic he's breaking it down for you um but yeah I won't go into every single book on the list but yeah the list will be down in the description below and that's what I think you should explore from cly's work perspective next question is there any bad side of being a student of occultism this is an interesting question because I don't know what it's like not be myself and not be a student of occultism so I have to play some mental gymnastics and really think outside of the box of what it would be like to not be me and what would it be like to not be a student of the cult and and walking this path so with such force and presence um I think that the occult path in general is a lonely and isolating one because depending on what culture you're from and what circumstances you're from and what family you're from that's going to mean something different and there are obviously families that are more occult orientated or more pagan orientated there's generations of witches now um and families of witches so there are situations where this doesn't apply but speaking to the vast majority of us you know we're we're the first one in the family to really delve into this path and explore it and that's incredibly isolating because and for example even within the occult Community I do feel at times quite isolated that I can't share my experiences how I view the world how I view my work how I view magic how I view simply the nature of the Divine and um part of that comes from personal nosis and our personal experiences how how do I communicate to others simply the act of living and what I have experienced and felt when there are no words to express what that is you can't um but even even we you know as magicians we develop these simple sets to help us communicate to one another and I can communicate unicate to other people within perhaps the Golden Dawn tradition I can say things that they'll know what I mean I can communicate to other fomites but there's often huge Gulfs between different Traditions uh and don't even get me started about trying to communicate to someone who's you know a Mainline Evangelical Christian completely out of question not even I mean unless they're really open-minded and well read it's just not going to happen that communication is going to break down and part of it has to do with The Language by which in the jargon we communicate to each other and what that means and so people from my own path um at least I have symbols to kind of communicate stuff um but you know I it is kind of isolating because again Ju Just take for example the number 666 that means something very specific to me and if I said that to a like another Golden Dawn person or like thomi they be like oh yeah it's six the number associated with the sun 666 that's a solar number that makes sense to me but like you communicate that to even other occultists like a 666 that's the sign of the devil and certainly Christians right and and people who've been exposed to occult horror movies um and that's just one example but like when your whole system of symbols and experiences is so vastly different and vulnerable to misinterpretation that's isolating and lonely and there's no other way to put that so then I was thinking about the condition of loneliness and what that means to be a human and quite frankly loneliness and isolation isn't just a symptom of the occult although perhaps they manifest within this path in a specific way I think ultimately it's a condition of Being Human and my mind wanders back to one of my favorite books by Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness and in it um I'm going to pull this quote off of the top of my head so it might not be absolutely perfect but there's a great quote all about the subject of loneliness which is no it is impossible to convey the life sensation of Any Given epic of one's existence that which makes its truth its meaning its subtle and penetrating Essence we live as we dream alone and um I I think that's it right we live as we dream alone so perhaps the occult path exacerbates that loneliness and isolation perhaps it doesn't who knows but those are my musings on that question we're on question nine now is low magic valid in theic practice unless of course its path to your true will um yeah absolutely uh you know I I do believe that the these terms High Magic versus low magic are useful to some people and they're useful at communicating things but these are fuzzy right um people often Define these terms that like the goal of you know low magic is for material gain like you might do a money magic spell or an abundance spell or whatever um but then you ask yourself why are you doing an abundance work to get more money or resources well to live you know we're we have you know in order to do the high magic we have to address other needs first so in some ways the low magic paves a path for us to be able to do high magic and you can use high magic for low Magic means again these categories are not distinctly different so yeah it's absolutely valid and Lawn Milo duet actually wrote a book on low magic so do go check that out uh I think it's literally called Low Magic by laon Milo duette and it was published by L wellin so awesome highly recommend that book he likes it too question number 10 is this type of magic a big part of themma or not really all right so I had to censor a word out here you could use your imagination about what this means um I'm scared of Getting demonetized By YouTube uh because then all my my tiny user base will become non-existent and then there's no point of making videos If literally no one sees them um no so this type of magic is actually not a big part of Thea believe it or not surprise um in my opinion I would say that breathing techniques meditation yoga are way more important than this type of magic this type of magic is a technique you could probably get away with never doing in fact it's just one of those tools in your toolbox um and I think the reason people get really excited about this and talk a lot about it is because it's alluring right it's a fun topic who doesn't love this well it's not everyone but you know what I mean it's almost universally loved as a topic and something to explore so yeah I think it gets bumped to the Forefront of conversations and coverage But ultimately at the end of the day it's not too important question 11 can you be an atheist and a thite at the same time yes absolutely you can be an atheist you can be an agnostic you can be a polytheist you can be any number of things this is really about your path and how you interpret it uh if you do take on this path as an atheist just know you will not be alone there seems to be a heavy influence in our Consciousness on social media and in polytheism which polytheism is absolutely valid as well um but it is not the end all be all so just know that how you're interpreting these texts is all about you and your personal Journey question 12 I plan to join my local Oto section what would you suggest to consider before making this step awesome that's exciting you are considering joining the Oto or checking it out or whatever you plan to do um of course first and foremost get in touch with that local local Oto body and find out what are their qualifications for attending things like the Gnostic Mass um what are any local policies or requirements so one I talk about in my what to expect at your first Gnostic Mass video is there are some local bodies that do require a dress code like they make you wear all black um but that's not everyone and just check you know if they have a dress code what are some things to bring like maybe there's a potluck afterwards and you can bring some food and participate in that like it just really depends and you want to find out ahead of time what your local expectations are and just in general um there's nothing expected of you if you're brand new so don't get stressed out about that you don't have to have read every single work by alist Crowley you know it's it is a casual fraternal organization people there are to help you and help you grow and a lot of us if not all of us view doing the initiations doing the Gnostic mass as a service to the community so um you're coming into a space where people are there to help you and um help you experience something that we all value uh in general one question I would ask yourself especially before you initiate is why do you want to join the oio what are you hoping to get out of this experience what are you hoping to learn about yourself um and if you have a you don't have to have a completely clear vision of what you want but if you have some idea of what you hope to get out of the OT like is it fraternity are you looking for a magical partner are you looking to learn more about yourself are you looking to learn about magic um whatever your reason you know that will help you get the most out of the Otto okay next question question number 13 my question is how necessary is it that I know WR or weight before learning th in depth so this is a good question because um the answer is you don't uh so they're referring to the writer weight system Tarot deck that that's the most common one you'll encounter and the second most common is the Tho deck there are sort of two separate systems but they are very similar and there is some crossover there but I would say that you don't have to learn rer weight before you learn Thoth um because everything you know need to know for the Thoth deck in terms of correspondences astrology whatever you can learn as you go along it's not a big deal and especially if you feel called to learn the th deck and explore that you know go for it and again you don't have to be a theelite to use this deck lots of witches and other pagans who don't identify as theom mites use the Tho deck um it's really awesome and uh maybe in the future I will teach a class on it so keep your eyes out for that question 14 could you make a comparative analysis of the system of oio versus the AA um they really are separate organizations that should not be compared so when I talk to people about the Otto you're I think the people who get it typically are Freemasons who are familiar with that sort of fraternal group that teaches lessons through initiation and they have really good expectations of what to get of the Otto another group of people who understand what the Otto is about and like how that system kind of works are people who were perhaps in a fraternity or sorority in college and they get the value you can get out of community and resources that are people and connections you make um that's a huge part of Otto is again you're going to get out of it what you put in in terms of the community and the human resources that are a part of it I guess I would say so yeah expect a magical fraternity that's what's going to happen in a masonic style initiation structure the AA however is sort of a fast-tracked um learning organization uh I mentioned this before so you'll have a one-on-one teacher you will not have just social things that you'll attend that's not a part of the AA whereas the oo is more social you can expect sometimes potlucks and coffee meetups or whatever or group rituals you know there's much of that more of that Community happening at Oto whereas AA is specifically for the learning of magic so if you want community and like fraternity Otto if you're more interested in the in the more hyper FOC focused faster paced learning of magic and theic Magic the AA is a great choice for you you can do both or either or neither and you can also study the AA stuff on your own which I already mentioned 15 this question this is going to be controversial and I want you to know ahead of time I'm not calling anyone out but I am speaking from the heart here do we have to pay for magic courses in order to be able to practice the Lemma absolutely not you do not have to pay money you do not have to join an organization you do not have to join someone's patreon you don't have to do any of this stuff to be a practicing thite or to make use of even theic magic in general um all the AA materials are out there you can just pick them up and do them crowy said you can do them on your own we already talked about that but same with all of the Fantastic books out there you know you can just buy some of lawn books some of Rodney orpheus's books Richard kachinsky books David Shoemaker like lawn Milo duette like there's so many amazing books out there that will help you even be a solo practitioner and if you want Community that's out there as well but first and foremost you don't have to pay money or do courses to be a thite everything you need is out there um and honestly everything you need is out there is probably free right in my big list of theic resources there's tons of websites sacred tex.com her medic.com all of these sites have huge repositories of the texts you need to study themma um and of course um you know there's books out there that can help you too those May cost a little extra money but you don't need to pay money to be a thite next question um how did you find themma wow what a great question this is one I get all the time too and I get it so common that I actually made a video all about it and it's called how I got into themma so it's I think it may be the first or the second video I ever made on this channel um and it's just in the style of me talking and explaining my backstory and to give you a spoiler before you choose or not choose to go watch that video but minor spoiler here um basically very conservative policies and book bans got me into themma so if you want kids to become demonic thelemites then start Banning books I'm just kidding but I'm also not so the yeah the Catalyst was basically I lusted for access to books I could not afford and have access to so I fell into uh reading a ton of philosophy like Camu sart haiger you know n especially Frederick n and uh then I became connected with other people who were into that online through blogging like live journal on MySpace and before you know it I got into Alis cruly and the rest is history but yeah more thorough explanation of that is in that video feel free to go check that out okay question 17 I'm new to thma and just started reading kachinsky bio of alisar Crowley apart from the book of the law how do I get into thma so this question was kind of cut off and I think that's what they were asking um again first of all uh Richard kachinsky wrote Perabo which is the definitive biography of Alistar Crowley it's a thick book but it is so well thoroughly researched I love it and I can't recommend it enough um if you're not a big thick book person which I hope you are but if you're not um he also o was one of the contributing writers to something called the wiser concise guide to alist Crowley so if you have the ability in the means to read a big book go with Perabo that's the definitive one it's fantastically well researched um if you don't have that much time but still want to get into it I recommend the wiser concise guide to alist Crowley also great and then of course um you might want to pick up a book once you have that under your belt that goes into the actual practice and helps you through that so um Rodney orus is the Grim War of Alistar Crowley living FMA by David Shoemaker um you know tons of books by Lon Milo duette like chicken cabala like all of those are great all of them are on my list and go check out um the list in the description so yeah I put together both books by alist Crowley and books by other authors that will really help give you the spring board to study study further um all right so I have one more question question that's what I have time to finish up and that'll be question 18 this person is curious about tots and AA do you have any experiences and thoughts on them and if so positive impacts all right so I once I put these questions together in order I think I put this one at the end because I think this is going to be the most controversial one that's going to make everyone angry I'm just kidding it's not going to be that bad but I put it at the end because like my viewership drops off by now and so the people got bored they don't get the juicy nugget of controversy but you all do uh so for the real the real Believers the real listeners you get this it's like um desert at the end okay so first of all tots um that stands for Temple of the Silver Star um I have I am not currently in tots I would I did the initiatory track of tots briefly and I just want to say it was one of the most positive experiences I have had from any organization um I cannot say enough how much I loved that experience I love the ritual I love the people I love the curriculum it was so well-run and I felt so included and accommodated and um yeah it's just my whole heart unfortunately for me in my life situation I was dealing with a lot of personal stuff that has nothing to do with tots um and I just couldn't mentally and emotionally make it work so um I had to take a break and leave tots but I am no longer affiliated with that organization at all but I have no problem recommending that Organization for people who are interested in that learning experience um that's not the get preparing you for the AA work is not the explicit purpose of tots but it will certainly help you do that as a springboard and um if you choose to do the initiatory track it's just an amazing experience to be able to participate in those rituals if that is of interest to you so the big one the the elephant in the room my AA experience so I don't want to get into this I'm not at a point in my life that I want to fully unpack what happened to me and all of that but I was briefly a student in the AA but not really um it was what I would say for me worst case scenario kind of stuff um it was just a reflection of one Rogue individual who actually technically was not associated with the AA in any capacity so that's an interesting thing um I thought I was doing the AA work but I actually wasn't I was accidentally this teacher just went off the rails doing their own thing and that was a really unhealthy and terrible situation for me very traumatic so um but that being said I still believe in the system of the AA and the work um and uh when I will say I love the saying that when something bad happens don't focus on the bad but focus on who comes to help and let me just say this when I needed help in my situation multiple different people from different AA lineages that had nothing to do with my supposed lineage I was in which I actually technically was not in um they came to help like I said people who owed me absolutely nothing they showed up to my Aid to help me out of that situation and much love much respect and I think that's says so much about the quality of people in not just one AA lineages I'm telling you multiple different ones came to my Aid came to help me above and beyond people who owe me nothing so um there's some amazing people in the AA and I do believe in the system I believe it's an incredibly transformative process that could be incredibly helpful for some people not maybe not everyone maybe this isn't your path but for those who stick it out and those who believe in it um go for it it's awesome Okay so that about wraps it up that's the last question I wanted to answer um you all have been amazing I hope you've enjoyed some of the uh personal aspect that I'm sharing with you all and I hope this allows you to explore what you want on your journey and leave you feeling inspired as always so let me leave you with this I am the center of expression for the Primal will to good and so are you thank you so much for watching until next time goodbye you all [Music]