I’ve completed the First Flame and haven’t really started on the 2nd yet - I want to do some work with angelic energies (in fact the energies are already working ON me, so it’s not optional) - from your experience, will that conflict with working through this?
I know I could read the book but what I make of the text, maybe with lenses of my own over the top, won’t compare with your lived experiences. 
Lady Eva - Nice! I don’t see any reason why working with angelic energies would conflict with working through the system. Since it is also made for people without prior practical experience with magick, the system is progressive, building blocks one step at a time for more complex work later on. However, it one is already familiar with more advanced work, one should be free to combine it with other work between lessons.
I would say that, although very concise, the OAA book does describe what is supposed to happen at each stage accurately.
The Lessons of the 15th Flame seem to lead one to what is commonly called “enlightenment”, “awakening” or “self-realization” in Eastern tradition and match EA Koetting’s progression as described in his book Ipsissimus. The 16th, 17th and 18th Flames deal with the downward path of self-deification. To understand it fully best seems to use Evoking eternity and Ipsissimus as companion books.
The lessons of the 12th Flame seems tricky as one is asked to patchwork through the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth. I am already collecting material on the Qliphoth (Crowley’s Liber CCXXXI, Typhonian OTO, Dragon Rouge, etc.) The sigils of the archangels can be found in Konstantinos’s “Summoning spirits”.
That’s fantastic, and very helpful to know that bit as well, thanks!! 
Depressingly, I gotta get my own OAA. But after today- I have no doubt i will get some form to work with. Hell willing !
Greetings All;
The last post to this thread I see was in April. I appreciate AlexWs insights, and thoughts as he has progressed. Wondering how everyone else is doing?
I’ve been busy with work and family life, so progress has been rather slow, but steady. I’m working through the 5th flame lessons. for me its just the matter of finding alone time in the house.
If anyone has insights on prepping or buying material to have for further flames, so as to not slow progress, that would be appreciated. For me the biggest pain in the ass was at the start in finding all the colours of the candles, in order to charge them properly (I didn’t want to jump ahead, but it took over a month just to find all the colours). Everything else has been straight forward.
Interested to see how people are getting on also.
Way back now in January this year and with what seems like a long time ago to say the least, I received my copy of the Ordo Ascensum Aetyrnalis. Upon receiving this I couldn’t resist spending a nice quiet night on the couch reading this fabulous book. I was literally buzzing for 20 hours after this, which I took as a very healthy sign as I thought this was probably, something I came here for deep down.
Two days later (28th January) as I was drifting off to sleep, I had a brilliant vision of E.A Koetting…he came to me and said “You will receive the 18 flames”. I jumped up out of bed as I thought this was amazing and very encouraging to get started on this quest.
His head was a-light with blue flames as he spoke before quickly disappearing again. I remember messaging ‘Eva’ about this as I was interested in knowing if anybody else had dreamed or envisioned EA and it turned out that there were quite a few! I wanted her opinions on the blue flames as I have had these before and they always seemed to represent initiation or spirituality in some way?
Well, another two days passed and there I was late into the evening doing the rite of darkness but I hate to admit this, it felt unsettling and gave me quite a hollow feeling of uncertainty? I just didn’t ‘get it’ at all and I wasn’t amused as I was expecting more positive results. Adding to this further, I developed diarrhoea, which was surprising and a somewhat negative omen so I never continued the O.A.A after that first night, It just didn’t seem like the right time. I was very pissed off afterwards as you could imagine especially considering my initial feelings towards it and not to mention, the EA vision that was very realistic indeed??
Yesterday morning however (7th July) I awoke to a strong urge pushing me to start this again, some 5 months after that horrible night of ritual failure and a bad dose of diarrhoea thrown in for good measure!
I started the rite of darkness again last night. This time the whole experience was more relaxing than before, which told me that now was the right time to commence my climb through the eternal. There was definitely a shift in my awareness when I saw through my present reality within the room and realised that there was something else there. This was a powerful amalgamation, which started the black mist forming. The whole exercise was pleasing and provoking, I felt like I was starting to awaken and there was something there in the room.
Better late than never I thought and a very unexpected entry into what is, a fabulous path working experience in magical ascension.
i was halfassing my O.A.A. practice due to mixing of various approaches, and i even thought that i’ll never be good enough to pass the First Flame.
but one thing i did every day for two years was darkness meditation.
i did it again and again. sometimes for a few minutes just to get in the mood for my other workings, sometimes for very long periods of time…
i also did frequent candle meditations, but i never knew what to write as notes.
regarding pendulum exercise, i was mainly struggling to get my concentration in check.
all that time, i was gaining frequent and phenomenal intellectual understandings about how all this works. and developed my own energetic exercises and meditations.
then, in february this year, after 8 months of daily silent prayers to LUCIFER, i decided to DEDICATE MY SOUL TO SATAN, as described on Joy of Satan website. (i got hooked on that site for a period prior to that, because, at my BIG suprise, i discovered that some of power meditations were exactly the same as i thought i made up myself)
that day, when i decided to dedicate my soul, i did a 4 hour ritual of calling christian god and his son, only to most blasphemously spit on them and channeled all of my hate and power to let all the Existance know how much i don’t need them. (i just wanted to make it very official and final once and for all)
after that, i ended the ritual, took a shower and returned to my temple room.
for some hours, I called the Gods of Hell and being maximally firm and convicted about this, dedicated my sould to Satan.
and after that, i took 5g of very potent psylocibin mushrooms for the first time in my life.
i’ve gone completely mad, and in that divine state i got ENLIGHTENED.
i was hoping to see something. anything. but i didn’t. nothing happened. instead, i got completely enlightened. i understood all. and i struggled only to leave notes to myself on what to remember.
that night i became aware of THE DRAGON.
now, to get on topic:
after the day of My Enlightenment, my magic exploded! all my work in the temple was working. every meditation i did gave me new knowledge.
and so i returned to practice the lessons of the First Flame, and realized that i can pass the First Flame easily!! but i was just started to really enjoy the practice. so i decided to do the exercises of the First Flame until my colored candles get melted to 1/3.
my occult diary is now a beautiful thing to look at and learn magick as i re-read it, because now it looks magical - and has real magical knowledge.
this weekend i commited to passing the first initiation, so i called on Lucifer using the ritual Lord of Air, described in the book Rites of Lucifer, by Temple of Ascending Flame, to make this more official and serious.
so, in doing the exercises for the Initiation, i was pretty successful, and prior to doing the golden sphere exercise, i took the shrooms again.
the last exercise, where initiate is to draw white light from above and form sphere around him, i did it for at least 40 minutes, increasing in intensity, really wanting to attract the flames… and when thought that’s probably enough, i slowed down, thinking to stop and thank the flames… i felt HIM entering me and talking YOU WANT THIS?! FUCK YOU THEN!! YOU FUCKING DO IT!!!
it was my strongest case of posesion so far… my intensity exploded and i was dripping sweat loosing myself in this extacy…
so i recieved it…
and then i sat down… and i had a most horrible and beautiful vision of the BLACK FLAME in my heart, with the colossal morphing black monstruosity rising from the depths of my black heart devouring ALL. i was looking at it in a weirdest unexperienced emotion which i cannot really describe. i was petrified of fear and crushed with sad love in the same time.
i never even considered the Black Flame until that day.
then i took the text of the lessons which i had put on the walls of my temple room a year and a half ago, and i burned them on the big flame i made specially for this occasion, and i witnessed most interesting burning phenomena which i also never observed before.
it took a long time to do, but now i can happily say
i’m a lvl1 Sorcerer, Emmisary of the First Flame!
Hail EA!
Following on from the last post at the start of this pathworking, I commenced the pendulum exercise in lesson 2 after another rite of darkness. I do need to work on the pendulum as my mind is starting to listen to internal dialogue, which needs to be totally ignored in favour of pure focus on the pendulum. I was led after a few moments into a white circular design swinging on a black background. The pendulum had a black line just off the edge and a small black line forming a circle in the middle. These two circles were connected by four black lines giving the impression of a magical circle with the four elemental quarters.
After four attempts I succeeded, which was mainly due to silencing the internal voice and paying total attention to the pendulum. I think that last attempt was also helped along more because it was late into the night, the darkness helps so much in more ways than one for me as I’m not a lover of ritual through the day, I’m a nocturnal person where magic is concerned.
It says that this exercise is to increase powers of visualisation but I would use it instead for concentration as it takes a fair degree of focus to pay attention without letting the mind drift either into the past or future; What a brilliant exercise though for concentration.
The next day I started using the candles for the conjuration of emotions through colour. This was so easy for me as I have done many things like this before. I wrote down all the main attributes I wanted to emotionalise. I used an order which allowed me to build up a strong effect and go from one to the next in a congruent way that flowed nice. For example, as I lit the red candle I began to think and feel about desire and this blended into passion and then lust. At the height of this sexual feeling it started to turn into physical strength followed by aggression and destruction. I then went back to desire again and completed another set of the same emotions.
This allowed me to experience those fiery attributes in a syntax of emotions that could be used over and over again to conjure the essence of MARS/RED. Once I was satisfied with the level of intensity, I captured the overall effect and directed it into the candle to imbue the wax with these traits. A very easy but practical way of associating criteria and emotion with colour to train (or refresh) the mind for more advanced astral work later.
(I would like to add here that energy work ‘for me anyway’ needs to be prepared for by not eating for hours in advance so the energy can flow better, giving me a more intense experience. Any raw energy left over must be discharged into anything organic. So if you’re still hyper after ritual then pass it on to a plant maybe, hug the dog or have a long soak in the bath . This is necessary before you eat again, which will earth you more and slow you down. Hope this makes sense because whenever I try ritual or any energy work ‘especially with carbohydrates’ still digesting then the flow is severely restricted, or I just get frustrated and try again later with an empty stomach)
The ‘Divine Light’ lesson gave me quite a strong feeling through my body before I released it out of my mouth. I have had a bright light above me a few times before this exercise took place once the black mist had established through the rite of darkness. I would look up and see the mist parting and a bright yellowy white light shining. I assumed that this was the divine light I experienced in this 4th lesson of the 1st flame.
The rite of darkness now towards the end produces slight noises at times (not always though), these usually start off with hissing and what feels like sprites of light rushing past me. I have heard my name called out a few times and strangely, I get ‘are you ready’ in a non sounding communication, which just gives me the impression that this is what it is > Not so much an internal sound but an intelligence that steers my thinking that way? This is close to what NariusV posted earlier in this thread so it will be interesting to hear what other members have experienced within this rite.
The effects of vibrating ‘El Shaddai’ came out as a slow drawn out vocal, which I repeated twice more to make up the multiple of three as requested. Vibrating ‘Yod He Vav He’ thrice over was more dense and louder, which made me choke and cough a little. The last vibration had a more subtle kind of energy attached making my hands tingle in the process. The exhalation however was very similar to El Shaddai.
My first attempt at the sphere of light was very good indeed in a slightly darkened room. There was a mild feeling and awareness of ‘light’ throughout my body and a dimly lit impression of the sphere around me before letting it disperse. I performed the exercise one more time and because I was more relaxed with it this time, the experience produced a more solid translucent sphere.
The last exercise went so well I decided to prepare that same night for the initiation of the first flame. I did exactly what was instructed through all the procedure and as I was a few minutes into the sphere of light, I started to think…‘what if nothing happens, blah blah’. I use to get these insecurities years ago whenever I tried something new, which was appealing to me (no doubt, because I desperately wanted it to work). This anxiety however was quickly dispelled as I got the impression of some sort of silhouette approaching. next came a blue flame out of this dark shape as it presented itself to me. I said “I accept the first flame” and then it engulfed me, which brought on a kind of euphoric high making me so happy…I actually shouted out loud with laughter as it was a lovely feeling.
What an experience this was, I almost lost it at the end which has never happened for years but this is all new to me and I am trying to give a sincere view of the proceedings. The effect however of these exercises and the end initiation has been very strong indeed. The blue flame AGAIN has come into the picture?
This instruction seems to take you on a journey that has some sort of definite structure and outcome behind it all. I can honestly say that there is a powerful magic embedded within this system that goes well beyond my present understanding and experience…It just tells me that the more we think we know, then the less we truly understand as there’s vastly more out there, and whenever we think we are lost then we could indeed be quite close, which is what tends to happen often in quantum physics?
Maybe the scientist and the occultist are closer than we think or would like to admit, we just tend to run on parallel paths that’s all…safe journeys
[img]https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/11745321_10206009767755934_5463224672258887422_n.jpg?oh=4e86ecb56a771c136323a1f6c5aa7a37&oe=5619546D[/img]
Great post! very informative
yeah, i dig you. but this is in all actuallity whitepeople’s fear.
mushrooms are holy plants, intended to do the same thing you are trying to achieve in methods of ascent.
and i have used those shrooms as a kind of celebration after a long period of training and doing initiation.
it’s all good. warnings are not aplicable for those who know.
I actually have been following a pathworking similar to this one but with 6 Divine Flames each with 18 Gnostic Flames leading up to them based on the Enochian Calls followed by their own versions of the Tree of Life and the Aethyrs. I have yet to get my hands on the Ordo Ascensum Aeternalis unfortunately, which I will as soon as possible. This is part of a greater spiritual journey that will undoubtebly last for many incarnations to come, and this part is called the Ascendent Path of Initiation (the first of 12 Ascendent Paths).
I will eventually like to perform the pathworkings of the OAA, and see how they apply to the other Aspects of the Divine (which each have their own Divine Flames like the Black Flame worked with in the OAA).
Either way, many thanks for having this discussion available and of course many thanks to E.A. Koetting for making the Gnosis bestowed upon him available to us.
Well, this is my first time posting after being a member for a year so I might as well start here.
After being an “armchair magician” for 4 years, sorting through a lot of stuff to finding what I really desired, I finally shelled out $650 for a copy of the OAA (ebay Prices of that ONE guy, what can ya do?) and working through it has been. . . weird.
The first lesson of the first flame - I lit two black candles and dimmed the lights in my room as much as possible as instructed and began the exercises. After the first part I felt very relaxed and opening my eyes did produce some higher “clairty” but then trying to see through objects (or at least attempting) turned into me staring for what seemed like 10 minutes at an object. After this my eyes began to fade shut and I let the mental image sit in my mind, preparing for this evil feeling the first lesson told of and the black mist.
While I did not feel this evil in my mind I first saw what looked like black clouds, almost black storm clouds. This then quickly turned into the afformentioned mist/fog and it proceeded to wrap around me like tentacles, eventually encasing me in a mumification of black and eminating off of me onto my surroundings (or at least in my head it did). After the next subsequent steps I listened closely for voices but did not hear any. . . instead I heard three large ominous hits of what sounded like an old piano. Very CLEAR hits, very discordant and cacophonous. Then, with my eyes closed, I saw what appeared to be a giant eye open up. This eye looked like those weird flashes of light you sometimes kinda see when you close your eyes, but it was in the shape of an eye and it opened up in different areas several time and then popped up in front of me, quite largely, and scared the shit out of me. I then heard in and not in my head (odd) this weird murmurred voices. They took the voices of what I sometimes use when im thinking to myself but they were altered and uttering what sounded like nonsense. This ranged from speaking to whispering and yelling and eventually I invisioned black tentacles wrapping themselves around my arms, legs and neck.
Soon after this I abruptly was jerked out of it and opened my eyes with a gasp. I looked around and expected to feel shock but I, instead, had this weird mix of calm and emptiness. Since then I have not had an experience like this (they have been kinda boring since) but that one was EXTREMELY vivid. I was even going into this with a LOT of doubt but wow. I am currently working on the 2nd lesson of the first flame but nothing has compared to that first experience.
Can I expect to have more of these intense experiences? Should I have them more often, or is it okay for these lessons to feel less and less amazing and more natural (and maybe banal) as I repeat them with practice in order to complete the flames?
Also, since then all of my dreams have been very vivid but not of what the others have described. They often involve people from my life and take place in where I am living now (my apartment) or where I go for work and study. They all have common themes of eventually all the doors in the room disappearing, leaving me essentially in a claustrophobic box, or me trying to escape something and being unable to lock doors. All of these are also accompanied by very angry people and. . . this horrifying black entity. I know this thing is about to show up and the fear that shoots through me signals it so I always wake myself up before it. I am not sure if this means anything but this has been occuring ever since beginning this and I am one to rarely ever remember my dreams and most of the time they are nonsense. What should I make of this, if anything?
You fear powerlessness and your subconscious is showing you that reality.
I find that often when I’m starting a new path my dreams will recur with nightmares of my worst fears. For example, when I started my Chakra work to build up my energy body a couple months ago for about a week I was getting nightmares every night of a monster type creature trying to find me and I would have to evade it. This is my fear of losing my humanity. I find nothing more terrifying than the idea that I’ve become less than human. And so, I was faced with that reality every night as my subconscious tried to work through it.
Don’t worry, it’ll go away eventually, give it a week or two.
Quite a few people on here have seen something similar to this.
Opinions will vary on what it is, so I’m not going to comment - it’s one to investigate yourself.
Can I expect to have more of these intense experiences?
Yes.
If you start to do weird stuff, weird stuff will happen.
Most people assume reality is a solid thing and that space and time are about clocks and measurements, while consciousness is what you have when you’re not asleep.
Start doing this stuff though and those certainties will dissolve, and you won’t get given anything as complacent or certain to replace them with.
Should I have them more often, or is it okay for these lessons to feel less and less amazing and more natural (and maybe banal) as I repeat them with practice in order to complete the flames?
Also yes, and unless you keep detailed notes and remind yourself often by reveiwing them, your mind’s likely to try to “restore normality” by downplaying the memories, letting them slide a bit, maybe even convincing yourself they were “just” dreams and so on.
All of these are also accompanied by very angry people and. . . this horrifying black entity. I know this thing is about to show up and the fear that shoots through me signals it so I always wake myself up before it. I am not sure if this means anything but this has been occuring ever since beginning this and I am one to rarely ever remember my dreams and most of the time they are nonsense. What should I make of this, if anything?
Does this seem similar - Nox?
Quite a few people on here have seen something similar to this.
Opinions will vary on what it is, so I’m not going to comment - it’s one to investigate yourself.
Can I expect to have more of these intense experiences?
Yes.
If you start to do weird stuff, weird stuff will happen.
Most people assume reality is a solid thing and that space and time are about clocks and measurements, while consciousness is what you have when you’re not asleep.
Start doing this stuff though and those certainties will dissolve, and you won’t get given anything as complacent or certain to replace them with.
Should I have them more often, or is it okay for these lessons to feel less and less amazing and more natural (and maybe banal) as I repeat them with practice in order to complete the flames?
Also yes, and unless you keep detailed notes and remind yourself often by reveiwing them, your mind’s likely to try to “restore normality” by downplaying the memories, letting them slide a bit, maybe even convincing yourself they were “just” dreams and so on.
All of these are also accompanied by very angry people and. . . this horrifying black entity. I know this thing is about to show up and the fear that shoots through me signals it so I always wake myself up before it. I am not sure if this means anything but this has been occuring ever since beginning this and I am one to rarely ever remember my dreams and most of the time they are nonsense. What should I make of this, if anything?
Does this seem similar - Nox?[/quote]
Thanks for the response.
Yes, I have been keeping notes on the experiences, my own personal feelings, duration etc.
I have yet to get, per say, any direct contact in a dream telling me to do so-and-so or something whisper my name, but I have only been working with the OAA for one week so it may come sooner rather than later. This is also coming when I am in a conflicting strife between some principles of Hermeticism and those in the book of Fosforos and the Catcheism of Lucifer. . . basically a plurality of love and hate. So whilst I am evoking eternity I am, in a sense, battling my subconscious. If anything else interesting arises I will let you know.
WELCOME - to the Left-Hand Path!
Yes, it’s fabulous here - NO grades.
NO pointy-nose mentors, tutors, givers-of-PERMISSION and credit and praise.
NO “Do this next, and those of us above you will approve!”
No certainty, either. 
WELCOME - to the Left-Hand Path!
Yes, it’s fabulous here - NO grades.
NO pointy-nose mentors, tutors, givers-of-PERMISSION and credit and praise.
NO “Do this next, and those of us above you will approve!”
No certainty, either. :D[/quote]
Okay this was great.
I didn’t see this thread at first so I made a similar comment elsewhere, but I got my copy of the OAA book about two weeks ago. I first read the entire book in about a day, saw some stuff in there that I haven’t done yet, saw some stuff I was doing years ago. Working through the lessons will be fun. At this point I’m doing lesson III of the first flame. We have a few occult shops here in town so I dropped by one of them and picked up the recommended cnes along with colors that were not mentioned. I didn’t see the harm in taking what was written for the lesson and adding more colors. I’ve been doing each color multiple times as I want to get the most I can out of each one. This one will take a little longer as my time is sort of all over the place with other things going on in life, but it allows me to slow down and really enjoy the ride. I’ve worked with other systems in the past but OAA cuts out all the crap that isn’t needed and I’m glad I found the book!
-182!
[quote=“bahamuthat, post:33, topic:4647”]yeah, i dig you. but this is in all actuallity whitepeople’s fear.
mushrooms are holy plants, intended to do the same thing you are trying to achieve in methods of ascent.
and i have used those shrooms as a kind of celebration after a long period of training and doing initiation.
it’s all good. warnings are not aplicable for those who know.[/quote]
While I wouldn’t say that taking shrooms is a bad thing, calling it a “whitepeople’s fear” is pretty goofy, considering that it’s been something that several non-white cultures abstained from it during their initiations for several reasons. Even more so, many cultures, if they do use them in their initiations, do away with them after it, and I can’t recall a single culture who actually thinks the plants are essential or even “holy” in themselves outside of those that were bastardized by… well, “whitepeople”.