Welcome to the first issue of Pandora's Box.

In this issue you will find information on the general setup and ideas for BOA and the newsletter. If you have any questions and/or comments, please post in the community center. The link can be found on the right, under "Relevcant Links".

I hope this newsletter will become informative and "member created". I encourage you all to send in information to be included, your stories and/or ideas to help make this successful.

Pandora's Box will be sent each month towards the end of the month. If you know someone that would like to receive this newsletter, i encourage you to sign-up. For those who aren't members, there is a sign-up form on my personal website at VioletRainn. To find the subscribe box, enter the site and then click on "Ancients" in the menu.

Commandments

The question that i seem to answer over and over is the definition of BOA's Commandments. So this is our topic for this month.

Possess the understanding of virtue. Open your mind to experience the need to relive the sins of the flesh of man.

In order to understand this, you must first understand what virtue is. Virtue is 1 : conformity to a standard of right : MORALITY - 2: a particular moral excellence.

Now that we know what virtue is, how do we understand it? We must understand that no matter who you are or what you believe, humans, by nature, seek out what they believe to be "the right thing to do". This means that we insist on finding the truth in all things.

Part of being human is the simple idea that even though we feel the need to "obey" society's rules, we also rebel. Our rebelliousness is what causes the "chaos" that most of feel "sinful" for.

In order to truly understand yourself of anyone else, you must understand this need. In order to become "in-tune" with yourself, your environment and those around you, you must accept and submit to this.

if you constantly deny your "sinful self", you will never acept yourself for what and who you are. This doesn't mean that you need to constantly indulge yourself or should seek to indulge every "whim" you feel. It simply means that you must accept it. We teach our members to keep an open mind and remain non-judgmental of those around us. Remember, we each have our shortcomings and are judgmental enough of ourselves without outside help.

Release the behaviour of the Demonic Self and conquer the need to exhume righteousness. Celebrate the Blood of Sanctity.

The Demonic self is also known as the Id, defined by Sigmund Freud. It's that part of you that can best be described as "a two year old that wants it now!!". Sometimes in this life, we need to throw temper tantrums, throw things and kick something. We teach our students to get in touch with this part of ourselves and indulge our "child" or demonic self every now and again. This keeps us from binging on indulgence and is much more mentally/emotionally healthy than not indulging and then binging. If you are a "binger" i have no doubt that when you do break loose, you do things that you later are embarassed by or feel guilty of doing. Fact is, many of us are bingers and don't realize. Binging creates a self-destructive cycle that is vicious and repeatative.

Conquering the need to become "righteous" again is the "guiltiness" or "sinfulness" that we feel as we attempt to get ourselves back "under control". It is not necessary for us to feel guilt over something that we need to fulfill. It is part of us and therefore will happen no matter how much we attempt to "control" it.

Instead of controlling and repressing who we are, we need to learn to celebrate our very life and existence. Life is a wonderful event. We begin as nothing more than a cell that grows and evolves into a complicated organism that can think, continue to grow, laugh, cry and much more. Even the scientists don't know all of life's secrets, nor shall we ever. This is the mystery and passion of life. Celebrate it.

Intertwine the passion of man and his love of righteousness. Consecrate his vision of Heaven and Hell.

Man, as a species, is very passionate in his/her life. Everything we do is based on our passions. Righteousness, in BOA, is defined by the idea of becoming whole and equally balanced. This idea is similar to the idea of reaching nirvana. Because of man's need to be "whole", we teach to intertwine this need with our passions.

Consecrating anything is not the easiest of tasks nor is defininf our ideals of heaven and hell. I'm not talking about the "religious" versions of this, but your individual ideas of what is most pleasureable and what is most hellish to you. Consecration can be defined as "to devote to a purpose with or as if with deep solemnity or dedication". Using this meaning, we teach you to devote your life to your ideas of both heaven and hell in your life. You need both to realize both.

Embellish the power of sexual complexity and design your lovers so.

Embellish refers to decorating or adorning, so by this statement, we ask that you celebrate and "decorate" yourself with sexual complexity. Try new things, if you have a fetish or interest in something, try it.

Denying your fetishes cause shame, guilt and misery. If you are miserable, how can you celebrate who you are, who you shall become? If you can't celebrate it, how can you accept and love yourself?

Many people are "surprised" or "shocked" by this commandment. Fact is, sex and sexuality is a big part of who and what we are. If we can not accept or celebrate it, there is no way that you can become whole.

Designing your lovers is easier than you think. It means that if you have a lover, include them in your experiementation and search. Don't leave them out. Talk to them about your fantasies and curiosities. If you can't talk with them about it, then you have no business being with them. Speaking to those you love about your inner most fantasies is a matter of trust. If youcan't trust them with your inner self, then you will never fully trust them in your heart.

Be true to self in all you conquer. Dishonesty shall bring only pain and torture of self.

I don't care what it is you wish to accomplish, fact is if you are dishonest with yourself, you shall never truly succeed. We all know that if you lie or are dishonest, you "beat" yourself because you were. Dishonesty brreds fear, shame, guilt and worse of all -- more dishonesty. Another vicious cycle. Avoid it at all costs.

Envision your future. You are the destiny of your world.

If you can't see yourself doing what you wish to do, you will not accomplish it. This is the oldest idea in existence in the path of being a visionary. Visionaries are the reason that things like TV, Radio, Banking, BOA and more are here today. Without the vision of it happening, it will not happen. Plan and simple.

You make the decisions in your life. No matter what the situation, you always have a choice. You may not recognize it, but it is there. It's like the idea of being "held up" during a mugging or violent act. You don't have the option of it happening, but you do have the option of screaming, defending yourself or letting them remain in control. You may not always like the options, but you always have options.

Forget not all that you have learned in the past. Remembrance is the key to all advance.

One of the fundementals of learning is to build upon something else. If you remove the base, you have to start all over again. If you "forget" or "deny" all that you have learned, you will have to re-learn all that you have became aware of -- reliving all the good and bad. This is the worst thing you could ever do. You are the result of all that you have learned. Everything that you like and dislike about yourself is the result of every single event, thought, action, emotion, etc. in your life. To deny this, would back you like an infant, new to the world. You can only advance and change if you have expeienced.

Quest for peace of mind and fulfillment of soul. For without it, none shall find happiness.

Peace of mind. This is what we all strive for, whether we are aware of it or not. Become aware of your quest. Knowledge is the base and power of all. Awareness brings knowledge and success. Fulfillment of soul, only comes with peace of mind. Once you havefound peace, you will feel "whole". You will have fulfilled all that you have fought for and shall move on to a life of true happiness.

Expand your beliefs to embrace new passion and ideas.

This commandment is inline with number seven (7). Add your new beliefs to your old belief structure to evolve it into what you need and crave. This is the key to growth.

Be cautious of your beliefs. Follow your own acceptance and never be a sheep.

This is probably the hardest and most imporatant of all commandments. Be careful with what you believe. Never ever take anything at face value. Question everything. Think about your decisions, ask why, what, how, who and where. Only after aswering those questions, shall you be able to live peacefully with your decisions and ideas.

I truly hope this will help you learn and understand the ideas behind BOA. These are the commandments I live by and i will tell you that before these, my life was a mess.

Each one of us has a different life, ideas and perspectives. Use these to attain your goals, needs and desires. If you have any questions, please post in BOA's Community Center for discussion.

In next month's issue we will discuss the following topics:

• Guidelines
• Dreams

If you wish to submit an article or have an idea to be included, mail it to High Priestess Rainn at the following adress by May 15, 2004:

BOA
Attn: High Priestess Rainn
c/o Michelle Thomas
1600 Brittain Road Apt #315
Akron, Ohio 43310
USA

See you next month!!

News:
I'm back online for Newsletter writing and site updating!!
no email access however, so if you need to contact me, please head to the High Priestess pages of the member section for my postal address.

Updates:
I've added a news section to host updates information.
Menus have been updated to include links to the front pages of each section (accessible from mentor, clergy and high clergy menus only)