Looks like I've found the castaways here on Gilligan's LAShTAL. At least a few of them.

Really sorry to hear that Paul closed the shop.

It's Easter time, time to reflect on the Osirian -Solar resurrection myth explified by the 1st Century Christians. And to remember the Artherian legends about the Holy Graal. Three books by the dubious, but entertaining writer Trevor Ravenscroft. Namely, The Spear of Destiny, The Cup of Destiny, and The Mark of the Beast. Crowley' contribution of course would be his discourse on Parzifal found in The Book of Thoth, and Magick In Theory and Practice.

This discussion website was created many years ago for discussions about Kenneth Grant's work. In view of LAShTAL's closure, I've added a catagory for Aleister Crowley, and also one for Austin Osman Spare. There are several boards within the two new catagories, and clearly more will be added – suggestions welcome.

The website is within the Pro-Boards template, something which I have struggled with at times, and thus it is currently neither as attractive as LAShTAL, nor as feature-rich.

https://theprimalgrimoire.proboards.com/

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I have recently alluded to this graphic novel here at Lashtal (r) and wanted to start a thread about it.

I'll hope this link works to read and enjoy it online:

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Aleister-Crowley-Wandering-the-Waste/TPB?id=181958

Richard K writes a nice intro.

What I liked most about this was how author and artist approached AC as a human being.

I think of AC's small poem where he wrote of 666 being the number of a MAN and how he'd deserve it if he CAN. In these pages, we get to experience something of this.

It's a compelling tale and I really enjoy how immersive it can be (similar to Alan Moore's FROM HELL with its wonderfully detailed artwork by Eddie Campbell).

In the end, we have an elderly and ill AC wanting his best and highest vision to be remembered by humanity. And then he collapses into those higher powers he sought (imperfectly) to serve.

I believe I first learned of this book from a Lashtal.com news item.

Lashtal has long been a place where a diversity of opinion around AC has come together and clashed. Religious devotees have banged heads with cynics, debunkers and haters. But even that latter group has some skin in the game, some reason to have gotten involved with Crowley.

I think Wandering the Waste is a wonderful account of a strange and unique human being who shot for the moon, dared danger and made massive misses-and yet STILL has gifts to give us if we know how to receive them.

In the end, how do we size up our own lives?

Are WE more daring or devoted? Are WE more enlightened than Mr. Crowley?

And if we ARE, how do we size up his efforts against all he struggled against?

Well! We've already had some allusion here on the Reddit Redux of our Lost Lashtal.com to the "Black Brotherhood."

My question is: can we come up with a working definition of this thing?

Many "White Magicians" have eschewed Crowley as belonging to this nefarious and misguided group-while Crowley (despite claiming to be a "bloody great" Black Magician) at times identified as a White Magician and a Bodhisattva, decrying the "Black Brothers."

Some have made this an issue of whether the "Abyss" was successfully "crossed" or if the intrepid Magician in question failed to "give the last drop unto Big B's Cup" and became "obsessed."

The accusation against certain Lashtalians as belonging to the Double B seems a bit misguided when we regard the forces behind real horror in the human world. When the CEO of Nestle declared that humans do not have the right to water, I saw in THOSE eyes the REAL "Black Brotherhood."

This topic can be approached via Crowley's writings and how HE interpreted this designation. But I don't think any of us need tow the line of "Thelemic Dogma." As certain individuals have been accused of the "crime," we should look for a definition of what that is, exactly. And then ask if the condemnation holds water.

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Happy Equinox to all!

With spring of course come "Spring Birds", but i suspect that, in our exiled state, we will have to observe them over at r/thelema, where they come every day of the year, not just in spring.

Next year back in our own forum, as they do not quite say at Passover.

For the last few years I made a small monthy donation to LAShTAL via Paypal, and left it in place whilst Paul was making his decision. This morning, my most recent payment was returned, with a note:

"Please note that LAShTAL is now closed. I have therefore refunded your latest donation and cancelled the monthly 'subscription' payment. Thank you for your support, which has been much appreciated."

So that's that.

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It's going to be a full month lashtal-less quite soon.

Has anyone been in touch with Paul (meaning getting any response from him- lots of us emailed him with only the group email as a response) to try to convince him to pass along the keys to the store instead of shutting it down? Does anyone have any plausible idea of how to accomplish this?

This place just isn't the same and never will be, not to mention all the people we lost who haven't found us here yet.

Of course, we could start from scratch with a new forum, but it would be so much better to be able to continue where we were before. Starting over should be a last resort, for when/if we are certain that Paul cannot be persuaded to see reason.

Anyway, i wanted to start the ball rolling with scheming and conspiring for how we can manage to return to our native land from our current exile here in Redditland.

93!

I am Soror Aliana, and I wasn't on Lashtal, but my boyfriend is Aleisterion. We really hope that the website returns.

We're planning to publish two books this year or next, and also plan to build a Thelemic site with podcasts.

93s!

Bliss!

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Bill Breeze's "efforts" notwithstanding, has there been any attempt to publish any part of the Crowley collections at both the Warburg as well as the Harry Ransom Center and (if I'm not mistaken) Syracuse University? Or is the entirety subject to cOTO copyright?

I think I recall hearing that there were papers scattered about at other universities outside of the above two, but I'm not certain which.

Can we say who was who on LAShTAL? If only for my own edification? Since we have new names?

I am Chris with the long S lastname. it was squashed together on there. I am sure you recall.

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I know ignant666 is well, ignant666.

I know gishtil31 is Paul T. , not Paul F.

I know the real simon iff is the same.

Who everybody else be?

Metheru?

Shelby?

:)

I hope we can get some nice discussion going, which is sometimes difficult in this kind of format.

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Was Carrie Johnson Just Exposed As Occult Satanist?!

https://www.techarp.com/facts/carrie-johnson-occult-satanist/?amp=1

I thought i would get the ball rolling with discussion here by posting to ask a question i would otherwise have asked on lashtal.

Of course, the former learned assemblage once assembled at lashtal has been disrupted, and we may not yet have achieve a critical mass of experts on obscure AC trivia here in our new (and hopefully temporary) dwelling place.

But still i will ask: Do we know AC's shoe size? Surely somewhere in the Warburg archives or elsewhere, there are receipts from shoe-makers that will answer this extremely important research question.

As you may recall, a certain cypher-solving "Prophet" from Texas wears size 13 cowboy boots. He has explained to us all at great length how he, as "The One Who Comes After", understands AL much more deeply and completely than AC, and i am willing to bet his feet are bigger than AC's were, too.

Hope we can get LAShTAL back up and running, even if we pitch in some funds.

Thanks to ignant for making this.

I was chris over there and I still am. Just made a reddit account for this cuz why not.

93s

Thanx for creating this space for us to mourn, and perhaps organize.

I thought of doing this right after the bomb dropped, but decided that reddit is so inferior to forums for intelligent discussion that it just wasn't worth it. And of course lashtal had much more than just the forums to offer, but all/almost all that non-forum stuff, and much of the forums, is available at archive.org.

I even went as far as consulting one of favorite resources, the Internet Anagram Server, aka "I, Rearrangement Servant", to find a potential sub-reddit name by generating anagrams of "Post-LAShTAL". The best one was "PATHOS STALL", second best being "THAT ASS POLL". I offer them for use in this sub-reddit if you like them.

Why anagrams? I once had a very malevolent colleague whose name was a very obvious anagram for "ANAL GUINEAS". Obvious to me anyway- when i pointed this fact about his name out, others were all "Oh, shit". I am good at crosswords too. Because so many others also hated him, "ANAL GUINEAS" or just "ANAL" became his code-name in the constant email/text discussion of how much he sucked. This led to many anagram-based nicknames.

Lashtal was home to (and perhaps destroyed by, per Paul's final email) many gematria enthusiasts. One possible virtue of anagrams is that they all have exactly the same gematria value, whether calculated by Sepher sephiroth, "TrI-Key" (hi, Timmy!) or any other method.

Anyway, perhaps we dozen or so regulars can gather here to commiserate. And plot, i hope.

Thank you for creating this sub. It's true, when Lashtal closed, I feel a little homeless. With the constant multiplication of platforms we lose a home that was house number for all thelemites.

The closure notice.