Sunday, January 11, 2009

Lecture Results

So I went up to Thelesis Lodge in PA yesterday and gave a course on The Modern Angelic Grimoire. It went AWESOME. To the people that were there: you were the best audience a person could hope for as a first-time lecturer.The people at Thelesis were warm, welcoming, and damn fine cooks.

Seriously, damn fine cooks. Raymond made this chicken stuff, it was Indian and so delicious. The hoagies were great (thanks Persephone), the cookies (homemade by Steve) were just right, crispy at the edges, soft in the center, and the pie was outstanding (pretty sure that was Amy). I didn't get to the salsa and pita-hummous, but I meant to. I was pretty stuffed. People paid me to talk. That was cool. After paying the babysitter (highway robbery it was) and tolls and gas (more highway robbery), I ended up losing $10 on the whole deal, but it was worth EVERY PENNY! And then some. Meeting magicians who understood the Christian aspects of my Work was fanulous.

The folks were cool. They raised their hands and asked questions, they put up with me rambling, they interacted well. We conjured Haniel (the time was right, even if the day was wrong) and he popped up, almost everyone felt his presence, and it was just awesome. The folks all got to see how easy conjuring a spirit could be, and the flexibility of the grimoires. I think it was worth their time and money. I hope a few of them will be using the techniques in their work soon.

I talked for like two hours almost. Maybe an hour and a half. My throat was a little sore, and I was standing the whole time. This fat magician isn't used to that. My wife was able to attend (thanks to the baby-sitter who miraculously appeared last-minute), and she mentioned that I slouched the whole time. Today my back is killing me, so she's probably right.

All in all, I had a blast. The questions were excellent and thoughtful. There were people from Baltimore that drove up (and got pulled over on the way because they were running late), and I finally got to mee Fr. Ararita from Blake Lodge in DC-Baltimore. After years of correspondence online, he was awesome to meet in person.

Yeah, I'm rambling now, but it was a great time. I didn't need to be worried as much as I was. When I couldn't think of a word, they usually knew what it was, between my wife, the linguist (Brian), Ararita, or someone there. It went well.

And Tokyo is in Japan. Not China. You knew that. I knew that. I kinda forgot during the lecture, but I was thinking of other things and that part of my brain wasn't working right. That's my explanation.

5 comments:

  1. What an excellent outcome! You should be very proud! Speaking of grimoires...I was going to do a little blog piece on the "portable grimoire" inspired by you. yea or nay?

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  2. Hi Frater RO!

    Your talk was excellent! It resonated with me on so many different levels. I really appreciated your insights, and especially how you made it clear that one can be flexible and use many different materials in the Work.

    You were great! I enjoyed meeting your wife as well. You guys are a great team!

    P

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  3. Grats, buddy!

    Isn't it great when your first lecture goes well? I think I have mine on DVD somewhere, because I let someone record it. You should do the same, and we can swap disks next time. hehe.

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