Day 1 is open to initiates of Minerval degree or higher ONLY. Day 2 is open to everybody who wishes to attend, whether you are an initiate of OTO or not.

Day 1: Saturday 2nd (Initiates Only)
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1:00pm – Minerval Class, discussion, and lunch. This class is designed to discuss and explain the symbolism of the Minerval initiation, and will be extremely useful for our five new initiates. It is also an opportunity to discuss experiences of the Minerval grade, and any question/thoughts raised by the study guide.

4:00pm – Astral Temple Working. This magickal working is designed to create a group astral temple for use in further group ritual and meditation – a shared space for all Tamionites that can be used both together and individually. Everybody will contribute features to this astral space and have their own place in it.

7:00pm – Dinner at Burj-al-Arab (Open to All) An evening of relaxing with the finest Arabic/Moroccan food Cardiff has to offer, in a beautiful restaurant local to the venue. Look to spend about £10- £15 for your meal here, though the restaurant provides complimentary soup, fruit and Moroccan mint tea with every main meal; also highly recommended are their juices – all freshly made, and served in large, hollowed out fruit! Dinner may be followed by drinks at Milgis (a wonderful vegetarian coffee shop/cafe/art gallery which has a yurt in its garden, and sells chilli hot chocolate!) and/or shisha in one of the many shisha gardens available.

Day 2: Sunday 3rd (Open to All)

11:00am – Book 4 and the Magick of Thelema. A study group/discussion of the magickal techniques and perspectives presented in Book 4, Part III: Magick in Theory and Practice. You can read the text of this online if you don’t have a hard copy: http://hermetic.com/crowley/book-4/aba3.html

1:00pm – Lunch. Om nom noms, and a *very* brief discussion of the practice of Will in the daily lives of Thelemites.

2:00pm – Paint Your Own Stele of Revealing. A lighthearted and creative end to our weekend, with an opportunity to paint your own version of the Stele of Revealing. For information about the Stele and its role in Thelema, plus the line drawing created by Cathryn Orchard that we shall be using, see here: http://tamion.abrahadabra.net/stele-of-revealing/ All equipment will be supplied.

Accommodation:

For those travelling outside of Cardiff who will need places to stay overnight, various Tamionites are willing to host and provide places to sleep. They won’t all be the most luxurious, but we promise to make our floors and couches as hospitable, warm, and comfy as possible. Please be aware that all current Tamionites who could host are cat owners, so if you have an allergy let us know and we will put you in a cat-free room in the house with the least fluffy cat (and provide piriton!)

If you wish to attend this weekend, or any particular part of it, please contact Soror Kim at kimhuggens[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk for details of the venue. For restaurant booking reasons, I also need to know if you will be joining us for dinner on the Saturday night, and for purposes of lunch and breakfasts, please let me know if you have any dietary requirements.

Talismans have been used for thousands of years to attract positive influences and as tools of High Magick. This workshop will briefly look at the history of talismans and the sigils used on them and then explain how to make and charge them. Everyone will then make and charge a talisman for their own personal use. All materials will be supplied on the day.

All are welcome to attend, whether you are initiated into OTO or not. Please bring something to add to the snack pile!

Date and time: Sunday 13th June, 1pm-4pm.

The day after our Man of Earth Initiations (see below) we will be holding the fifth Hermetic Magic study group session. The techniques of inovcation, channelling and theurgy are useful – if not essential – for the practicing Western Mystery Tradition magician; invocation in particular can be applied to a great number of religious and magickal paths, including Christianity, Hinduism, Sufism, Vodou, Wicca, and Thelema. It is the process of summoning or calling upon a divine force, e.g. a God or spirit, and identifying with it, petitioning it, or even becoming possessed by it or channelling its essence. Theurgy especially focuses on the identification process between magician and God, with the eventual goal being the complete identification with the divine force and thus the raising of the self to a higher state of awareness.

In this workshop we’ll look at the techniques and practice of theurgy, channelling and invocation. We’ll examine some examples of invocation from classical texts, Thelemic rituals, and Golden Dawn practices; we’ll also create our own invocations and finish the session with a theurgical ritual.

Date: Saturday 12th June, 0900-23:00 (this is when we have the venue booked; we will have several different initiations going on throughout the day, so you will only need to be present for your relevant Degree’s initiation. Exact times will be disclosed nearer the time.

This event is open to anybody who has already taken their Minerval initiation and has completed the relevant Initiation application forms and had them signed by two sponsors. Contact kimhuggens@yahoo.co.uk ASAP if you wish to undergo a Man of Earth Initiation (First, Second, Third, Fourth and Perfect Initiate) at this time and have not yet completed the forms or obtained sponsors.

Sunday May 9th @ 13:00-16:30

*Note – this study group is a joining of the second Tarot class (“Tarot for Improvers”) with the fourth Hermetic Magic Study group. *

This study group-workshop will be focusing on two aspects of Tarot: the first being its practical application for performing readings, specifically to answer questions about our spiritual and magickal lives, and how it reflects these issues; and the second being its relation to Qabbalah and the Tree of Life, and how it can be used to travel up the paths of the Tree of Life. By doing this, you learn about the various and manifold aspects of the Universe and the Self, and can begin to integrate your understanding into your everyday life.

For a more down to earth application, we will also look at how to use Tarot for results magic, and how to create affirmations for use in personal empowerment exercises, therapy, and ritual.

This event is open to all – you don’t have to be an initiate of OTO to attend. Some experience with Tarot is recommended, but basically if you’ve done a few readings and understand vaguely what a Tarot pack is then that’ll be enough.

Date: Sunday April 11th, 13:00pm-16:00pm.

This will be the third in a series of Hermetic Magic Study workshops, this time looking at Planetary Magic.

We’ll explore some theories about mankind’s magical associations with the solar system around us, the cosmological views that enable us to magickally link to the planets. We’ll examine what the ancients thought about the influence the planets had on the lives of humans, and look at some ancient hymns to the planets. We’ll also learn about modern magick’s associations for the planets, and their role in the systems of Kabbalah and Tarot.

For the practical side, we’ll learn how to create planetary sigils for results magic, create and perform planetary invocations, and scry a planetary plane for better understanding of the planet’s force in our lives. This will end with a scrying of one of these planes – probably Luna, as this is closest to our Earth.

As usual, please bring snacks to add to the snackage.

On the days of April 9th, 10th and 11th 1904, Aleister and Rose Crowley received the channeled Book of the Law, the foundation text of Thelema. Tamion OTO will celebrate the annual feast of its reception on the second day, with a reading of the text and much feasting!

There may also be a Breaking of Bread ritual to begin the feast.

Everybody is invited to bring food and drink to add to the feast. For those who wish to be Centres of Pestilence, there will be a discussion of the Book of the Law afterwards.

This is the second in a series of Yoga and Meditation Study Groups. This month’s session will explore the theory and practice of Pranayama, and will also expand upon some of the more basic breathing techniques that we learned last session. We will also learn methods of controllong our breathing for use in meditation, magick and ritual, and will be learning about the practice of Mantra.

Date and Time: Sunday March 14th, 13:30pm-16:30pm.

This fun and informal workshop is designed to introduce beginners to using Tarot for divination and spiritual development. Run by the author of Tarot 101: Mastering the Art of Reading the Cards (forthcoming from Llewellyn Publications, June 2010), Kim Huggens, this workshop will also help more advanced students with fresh approaches to the cards.

If you don’t have your own Tarot deck yet, don’t worry – there will dozens of decks available for you to borrow on the day. Students of all levels of experience are welcome – even those who have years of Tarot reading under their belt will benefit from a new and more dynamic way of using and viewing the cards.

Although this event is run by Tamion Oasis, all are welcome whether they are initiates in OTO or not; similarly, whilst we will be briefly examining the Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot, our main point of focus for this workshop will be the Rider Waite Smith derived decks that are widely regarded as easier and more approachable for beginners and for everyday use.

Attendance at this workshop is free of charge, but there will be a donation tin for those who wish to contribute something towards Tamion Oasis and things like tea, biscuits, and handouts.

This is the second in the series of workshops exploring Hermetic Magic techniques. Last session we looked at the Kabbalah and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram to form a solid basis for further work and understanding. This session is devoted to the classical four elements and their application in Hermetic Magic.

We’ll look at the historical development of the categories of the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, and their correspondance over the centuries to various aspects of our world, e.g. human characteristics, activities, and bodily functions. We’ll examine how they are invoked and worked with in a ritual setting, their purpose in magic, and their symbolism.

Most importantly, we’ll be introducing the four elements as symbols for our own psyches, and using the technique of scrying the Elemental Planes. We will end this workshop by scrying the Elemental Plane of Earth and discussing our results.

The Hermetic Magic Study Group is held the day directly after Tamion’s next round of Minerval Initiations. There are rugs and floors to sleep on for those who are attending the Minervals and travelling a distance – please email Soror Kim at kimhuggens@yahoo.co.uk to arrange this.

As usual, please bring some snacks to the workshop to share – snackage makes Hermetic Magic so much better!