Hey, thanks everyone who read last week’s post, the feedback has been great! It seems like people are actually interested in finding ways to help do this Thelema thing the O.T.O. is trying to do here in the States! That is such a relief. It turns out just about everyone in the Order wants to do something to help the Order, perhaps because we are grateful for what it’s done for us and we want to help it happen to others who are interested?
Heh, perhaps.
Within minutes of publishing the previous post in this series, I was contacted by the secretary of the Education Committee, and he was all (paraphrased), DUDE! ME FIRST ME FIRST! His initiative on the planning document isn’t at the top of the itemized list, but hey, this series of posts is entirely about connecting the actual active needs of the Order with actual active members looking to help, so if an initiative is looking for promotion, it wins my support. First come, first served!
So the Education Committee is the OTO’s initiative aimed at providing introductory, mid-level, and advanced training materials to local bodies and camps in formation. The materials can be developed by just about anyone, but they are then reviewed by experienced and degreed folks in the Order, and finally approved for distribution by the executives of the Order.
The intent behind the Education Committee is summed up in their mission statement:
The Education Committee is intended to serve the purpose of researching, discussing and making recommendations on local body instructional materials and classes on various topical fields pertinent to develop instructional standards and guidance materials in order to provide a more uniform, high-quality level of local body class work.
In real life, they put together some actual packages of information to teach at your local body that has been reviewed and approved, so you can rest assured it’s not Frater Mansplainer’s Personal Approach to Everything Thelema Would Be If He Were Only Crowley, Which He Might Think He Was In A Past Life (That’s Fr. MPAETWBIHWOCWHMTHWIAPL, whose gematria he swears adds up to 418, 156, and 93, for those keeping track). The Order’s been pretty good at weeding those folks out lately, but having an approved syllabus helps keeps things consistent between the lodges.
The Educational Committee also keeps a list of members who are willing to travel to your local body to present more advanced teachings on things like Thelemic Sex Magick, the Gnostic Mass, and even the Mysteries of Tiki Bar Beverages with Paper Umbrellas and Assorted Fruits.
Ok that last one is by request only, and the Education Committee may not know it’s available, but it totally is.
For more detailed information, visit the Education Committee’s web site here:
The US Grand Lodge O.T.O. Education Committee Home Page
And if you have ideas about things you wish you’d been trained on when you started, or if you have some course ideas you think others would benefit from, or if you just want to help this initiative out, contact dat boi at:
And for even MORE information, check out the cool conversation Frater IAO131 and I had last night about it. He’s the not-so-secret Secretary of the USGL O.T.O. Educational Committee, and he is totally looking for people to help out.
