The verse in The Book of the Law where it’s mentioned that the Hebrew letter Tzaddi “is not the Star” led to Crowley doing some weird gymnastics with the Tarot trumps and their attributions. This was recently discussed on Reddit (in /r/thelema). Reddit user “Do_What_Thou_Wilt” has an excellent page with excruciating detail about Crowley’s solution … Read more
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Most Thelemites are very familiar with Cakes of Light, the eucharistic cakes prescribed in The Book of the Law for the (Thelemic) Gnostic Mass: For perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red wine: then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward … Read more
Alyavë tulilyë palanello / Fortunately you come from afar Etta uminquë rucë i randar / Thus we do not fear the long ages Alyavë melin ettelëanorë / Fortunately I love foreign lands Ar nan amanya pan melilyen / And I am blessed that you love me Lelyuvan Tolenna Eressëa / I will travel to Tol … Read more
Strictly speaking, this entry in our series isn’t about estates. It’s about things that are harder to quantify and to legislate. But it fits the general theme of “things you should know when, or preferably before, someone close to you dies.” This article is going to be the heaviest of the series, both in length … Read more
Okay. This is the section of the series that I probably need to say the least about, because every other thing you hear about preparing for death nowadays tells you to have a living will. But there’s a lot more you can do to prepare your loved ones to make some decisions which are not … Read more
You’ve added up all the numbers. Probably three times, because you were horrified the first two times. But no matter how you slice it, the estate’s assets just won’t pay all the debts. The estate is referred to as “insolvent”. What do you do? Priority of debts. Suppose the estate has $10,000 in assets and … Read more
All right. You’ve sold all the assets the estate is going to sell and you’re ready to close this chapter of your life, at least legally and financially. You have to settle the accounts. The optimistic ending. So in theory, at this point, you take all the money the estate has. You pay off all … Read more
In which we look at getting a lawyer and how the estate pays out its debts. The lawyer. So how much did it cost us to hire a lawyer for the whole process? Here’s the actual numbers: $600 up front given to the lawyer for the paperwork fees (see below; some of this may be … Read more
Okay, I hate this. I hate that so much of what one has to think about regarding a loved one’s death is how to pay bills. But welcome to a capitalist society. You have to pay the bills. The person has to be embalmed or cremated; that costs money. The grave has to be dug … Read more
When my mother died, my wife and I were out of the hospital maybe 10 minutes later. The first phone call we made was to the funeral home. Arranging for the remains. Funeral homes generally have a 24-hour answering service. You say “hi, my name is blah, X just died at hospital Z, please notify … Read more