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. I worked as its Managing Director until oct. 26, 2005.

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.

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 started the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) at the California Institute of Integral Studies (http://www.ciis.edu), located in San Francisco. It has been an amazing (and frustrating and tiring and scary) experience moving to this fantastic city.

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, Austin, and now San Francisco
• 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
• I am a Macintosh freak

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).