User:Ash

Fr. Ash, OTO zealot & future psychologist

Greetings! My name is Frater Ash (A.K.A. John Bowie, but really, everyone except my mother calls me Ash, so I hope you do, too). I am the founder of Thelemapedia (http://www.thelemapedia.org/about_thelemapedia/index.html), which started in early 2004 and finally came online on September 18 of that year. Since that time I have continued to work as its Managing Director.

Thelemapedia is a project of Scarlet Woman Lodge (http://www.scarletwoman.org), a chartered local body of O.T.O., of which I have been a proud member since 1995. During my time in O.T.O., I have earned a charter to initiate members into the degrees 0 through III, and I've taken Orders of Ordination into the Priesthood of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the church arm of the Order. Currently, I'm also the editor of The Scarlet Letter (http://www.scarletwoman.org/scarletletter), the quarterly journal from our Lodge, although I will be stepping down after next issue.

Other stuff

Professionally, I was a graphic designer from 1989 (when I graduated from The Art Institute of Atlanta) until 2002. Within that time, I won several national awards for design excellence, and had some pretty big clients. However, with the combination of extreme burnout and a recession, I decided to give up designing for a living and return to college. So, at the age of 34 I enrolled back into the University of Texas at Austin (I had gone for 2 years in the early 90s), with only a vague notion of what I wanted to do. At first I considered anthropology. But I soon gave that up after taking some psychology courses...I had found my path.

However, I still had to earn a bachelors degree. I knew that I wanted to persue a clinical education, and the psychology department at UT was waaay too research-focused for me. So, I instead decided to enter the UT School of Social Work, which offered far more by the way of clinical knowledge. I am pleased to say that in May of 2005, I graduated with my Bachelors of Social Work. Whew!

Of course, the bachelors was only half the battle. I knew from the get go that I would need graduate work. So, after a grueling process of applications, studying and taking the GRE, writing long heart-felt essays, and flying to go to interviews, I was accepted into my school of first choice! In August of 2005 I will be entering the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) at the California Institute of Integral Studies (http://www.ciis.edu), located in San Francisco. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with this upcoming adventure.

Personal tidbits

• I am married to the lovely and talented Sr. Alethea (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=alethea93)
• I was in the Boy Scouts before it became evil, and made it to Life Scout (just one rank before Eagle)
• I grew up in Houston, TX, and also have lived in New Orleans (Slidell to be precise), Atlanta, and Austin
• I grew up Unitarian
• In high school I was a big time tennis player and was working my way towards going on tour until I broke my wrist during practice, and that was that
• I love to play AD&D, and wish I had time to indulge in it anymore

Contact

If you would like to contact me, feel free to send me an email (mailto:ash@ashami.com).

You can also check out my sporadic blog on LiveJournal, where I go by the username Ash93 (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=ash93).