imustnotfearfearisthemindkiller:
“According to the universal laws, the magician will form his own point of view about the universe which henceforth will be his true religion.”
— Franz Bardon, “Initiation into Hermetics”
(Via ΙΑΩ)
Origins
Wilderness arising from a sprig, losing itself over these many years. Easy relating to as I’m nature’s irascible son. Feeling as if I’ve been here for too long, wandering woods out my back door. Connecting with the ambiguity & strangeness of hid & slithering things. A damp world in which things are born with urgency.
From very early on I consider how little I connect to anything else, but it isn’t until I eat a part of her heart that I’m driven to know her better. Blackened mushroom in the palm of my hand throbbing indiscernible. I can feel it, though, tampering with my fear. Afraid to awaken the dead, those I left behind when I came to this place …
The earth – my home? A lie. Perfectly timed in light of borrowed titles; kingdom erecting doubt, shrouding nakedness with scorn. The leaden ceremony goes on, without the lightness of an erected bough transmitting into space. Everything is weighed down by the Word. Cloven repeal: eradicating life or meaning. I go in search of the Word myself. Undercovering witnesses to the vanquishing scheme long before my time.
Alchemists & poets surviving in the pre-dawn. Dark age conquering body, but not always spirit. Tortured screams in streets everywhere they turn, plague spreads driving the most resourceful away. Only in a surrounding wood, black & gnarled, will they discover anything resembling life. Even as nightfall cascades down from the highest tower, they build a fire at the mouth of a cave.
***
It’s only those words we’re not meant to read that the first hint of freedom is revealed. Suicidal ramblings of discontented psychopomps; becoming like beasts in their own way, to better understand its fleeting message. Writ in blood in the Hour of the Phoenix, created through the destruction of a hymn.
Beautiful words that flow like diamonds, toppling down a majestic cliffside in the mode of a waterfall. Modulations bust, soundlessly drifting over a constantly permuting landscape. Faces leering from stars; another transitory constellation, breezing over emerald valleys. Those who can see it lie in tall grass absorbing changes taking place …
The dust is more alive than dead; living in the pages for all time, until final war gives her back what she wants. Instantly, all our visions will be crushed! Kin. Ones I wrote about before. I lived with them in a house of souls, bordering tenants of astral hallucinations. Days & nights melded like orderly verse – broken moments when we’re too drunk to talk. A land filled with heavy noise & smoke. Desert stretching between us: of haunted portals & djinn – Wake up! The night is young! Consuming more drugs just to stay alert. Pushing through the topsoil while in agony.
***
Where did we go as night bartered for our attention? Had nature been alert to it she’d of invited us long before. All those years I went looking, crawling through barbed vines into the darkest tunnels I could find. Anger mounting as I could not reach states I longed for: irreal distinction, with a greater understanding of celestial orders, poetic augury …
She’d given me all the things I desired before. It was with the love only a mother can provide that she took me in. Drenching her innards with my seed: fount of inspiration driving my pen forward. So many creatures born from our union; blind, slipping around in the mud, wrested from the chaos of spleen.
A sword forged out of reason. The only way to stay alive. Hacking away for years trying to get away – violence leads to escaping. When the world crawls all over you like a swarm of fire ants while the edges boil in cool darkness. I become the worm that rolls right over them with stark, yet casual, epiphanies. One, a purple decoy, standing alone at the foot of the stairs, ascending without purpose …
What is beyond the eternal shadow? Standing withered in a gutted expanse of trees, there is this figure standing in the wind. Staring up at the vortex above, shoulders hunched. Salivating blood down to their feet, soil sucks up the gesture with not a modicum of gratitude. Sloughing the skin of a thousand dead summers, times you filled my head with decrees of runaway spirits. I chased them through green canyons & over blackened hills. A wilderness like no other, radiating my skull with dire impressions: elemental progeny, silhouetted in the grass on my way.
***
I give birth to those who gave birth to me. That’s what I do. Anything else would be legendary. Can’t you see the blood spatter on my arms & face? Was there ever any stopping me?
The reality, sadly, is yes. Seed is mutating again. Questions answered long ago have adorned new faces. Nature’s effigy is not fully known. A name I’ll take to my grave, yet can’t live without. I touch its beating heart in my thoughts when I feel the urge to kill. No relief, though, in a world like this …
Putting down my pen, the thing that connects me back to the beginning …
I feel like I’m going to be sick. Fading lines, walls climb. Vines behind me eyes turn to soot & are blown away by terminal winds. Dragged through mud for hours until I am calm enough to turn around. Following the damage to a place where sands sink & wilderness is flat & barren. Back to nights when all is seen in the purple auras of a silent tribe. Still, one sits near. Gazing across. A ghost from another life?
A chill creeping through my bones. Ears buzzing from headphone assault as my eyes water up. Looking over the final verses, turning my back on a spirit I know is there …
I can hear it breathing! With no distinction between itself or any other outlying being. It is how she taught me to feel: transmogrifying states, enough to situate itself in a multitude of spaces, vast, orbiting domains.
So how, then, has this one come back after so many years?
Followed me out of the wilderness it did. The stars. Purple radiance of fungal travelers. It is there on the day I am born & now it’s back. Now, a swirling hole in the center of my room. Imploded Magnetar. Born out of madness. Tearing wildly down the streets. Destroying, with apathy, all that came before it. Alive beyond measure. Dead without a doubt. Once a writhing, crimson fury that ravaged through lands & dimensions, reduced to yet another collapsing star.
“ Ignorance of ignorance, then, is that self-satisfied state of unawareness in which man, knowing nothing outside the limited area of his physical senses, bumptiously declares there is nothing more to know! He who knows no life save the physical is merely ignorant; but he who declares physical life to be all-important and elevates it to the position of supreme reality—such a one is ignorant of his own ignorance. “
– Manly Palmer Hall
You and I are not two. In the identity of form, in the origin and in the end, we are one. I am responsible for your evil and your good , for your truth and your falsehood. I can do nothing to change you now, but I can improve you by improving myself.
– R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz
Hermeticism: the nexus between science, philosophy and spirit
Last week, I summarized the history of alchemy in Europe, the Middle East, India and China. Alchemy is tradition spanning millennia that influenced the development of modern chemistry, medicine, philosophy and psychology. Western alchemy blends Greek, Egyptian, Islamic and Jewish traditions, and is a branch of Hermetic philosophy, which is based on the works of Hermes Trismegistus, meaning “Thrice-Great” Hermes.
It is debated why Hermes Trismegistus was called “Thrice-Great” but it is thought that it is because he knows three parts of the wisdom of the universe: alchemy (the operation of the sun), astrology (the operation of the stars) and theurgy (the operation of the gods). Hermes credited the creation of astrology to Zoroaster, founder of the Zoroastrian religion and Middle-Eastern philosopher living sometime in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC.
Hermes Trismegistus is considered the founder of science, religion, mathematics, geometry, alchemy, philosophy, medicine and magic. He is a combination of theEgyptian God Thoth of wisdom, learning and communications and the Greek God Hermes, messenger of the gods.
He is also credited to have written somewhere between 20,000 (Seleucus) to 36,525 (Manetho) works, of which 42 were kept the great Library of Alexandria, which was destroyed multiple times. Unfortunately, but against all odds, a small handful of Hermes’ texts remain today, most of which are compiled into the Corpus Hermeticum.
It is said that Hermes Trismegistus received his divine wisdom in meditative trances. He covered topics such as medicine, chemistry, law, art, music, magic, philosophy, geography, mathematics and anatomy. His knowledge was so vast and all-encompassing that the ancient Egyptians called him the messenger or communicator of the gods.
Who was Hermes Trismegistus?
Hermes Trismegistus may have been an actual living king, philosopher and priest, as well as a sage, scientist and sorcerer. He was known by many names and he was considered to be an amalgamation of several people and mythological figures of ancient history. The main function of the various “incarnations” of Hermes is to transcribe the word of God, and his main symbol is the caduceus or serpent staff.
Historical and mythological figures associated with Hermes Trismegistus:
- Thoth (Egyptian Paganism): Egyptian god of wisdom, learning and communications. He is the scribe of the gods and was believed to have invented language, the alphabet and writing (i.e. hieroglyphs). The Egyptians credit him as the author of all works of science, philosophy, religion, wisdom and magic. It is believed that Thoth would have actually been an Egyptian priest-king and philosopher who would have lived somewhere around 2000-1200 BC.
- Hermes (Greek Paganism): The Greeks identified Thoth with Hermes, the son of Zeus and the god of science, commerce, language and writing, as well as the messenger of the gods and the first teacher of alchemy. Hermes was also believed to be the inventor of astronomy, astrology, mathematics, geometry, medicine, botany, theology and all branches of knowledge.
- Mercury (Roman Paganism): The Roman adaptation of Hermes is the god Mercury, who is the patron of commerce
- Enoch/Metatron (Biblical figure in Judaism and Christianity): Enoch is the great grandfather of Noah who ascends to heaven and becomes the archangel Metatron, celestial scribe.
- Idris (Prophet in Islam): Synonymous with Enoch.
- Moses (Judeism, Islam & Christianity): Moses was an Egyptian prince of Hebrew heritage, who lived in Egypt somewhere between 2000-1200 BC. He established a monotheistic religion in pagan Egypt but was forced to exile. He is credited with the writing of the Torah and the Ten Commandments, which were given by God through Moses.
- Akhenaten (Egyptian Pharaoh; reigned from 1353–1336 BC): He attempted to make pagan Egypt monotheistic under one sun god. His mother, Tuy, was likely of Hebrew origin and he was driven out of Egypt like Moses. The city with the most Statues of Akhenaten is the the city of Hermopolis, which is dedicated to Hermes Trismegistus
- Nabu (Babylonian): God of writing and wisdom, scribe of Marduk and keeper of the Tablets of Destiny.
In modern day, the term “Hermetically sealed” is commonly used to mean airtight and impervious to gases. The word “Hermetic” today typically means secret or sealed. Hermeticism was generally veiled in secrecy and only those who were truly ready could receive the Hermetic teachings. Hermes is also said to have had magical powers that could seal a box or chest is such a way that it could never be opened.
Hermes’ symbol, the caduceus, is also the modern symbol of commerce and medicine.
Hermetic Philosophy
Hermetic philosophy or Hermeticism is one of the oldest religious and philosophical traditions, a synthesis of religion, philosophy, which flourished in Ptolomaic Egypt. Hermeticism was not embodied in a single religious group, but instead was a philosophical system that is at the root of many traditions, some of which are still alive today!.
Hermeticism is a blend of ancient Egyptian religion, philosophy, science and magic with elements of Greek Paganism, Alexandrian Judaism, ancient Sumerian religion andChaldaean astrology/astronomy, and Zoroastrianism. It is associated with the philosophical schools of Platonism, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism and Pythagorianism.
Hermeticism is said to hold “prisca theologia”, a doctrine that claims a true theology at the root of all religions that was given to man in antiquity. The Hermeticists believe in one transcendent God and that “All is One” in the universe, though they also believe in the existence of other beings such as aeons, angels and elementals. Hermeticism influenced Judaism, Islam and Christianity, especially the early Christian Gnostics who were considered heretics.
The destruction of Hermetic wisdom
Much of the Hermetic and alchemical literature was destroyed and the remainder shifted to the Islamic world in 400-600 AD, and eventually emerged in medieval Europe into the Renaissance. The Christians, starting with Emperor Constantine and his successors, erased almost every trace of Hermeticism from 312 AD until well into the 6thcentury, putting to death thousands of pagans, many of whom were Hermetic, and destroying temples and sacred texts.
Being opposed by the Church, the Hermetic tradition was forced to the occult underground and permeates Western esoteric traditions. This includes secret societies such as the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Thelema, as well as modern Paganism, New Age, and Wicca. The Theosophical Society, the philosophy behind the Waldorf/Rudolf Steiner schools, is also influenced by Hermetic philosophy.
Hermeticism’s influence on the Scientific Revolution
The Greek philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, Pythagoras (570 – 495 BC), was said to be an initiate to the Hermetic arts, which he studied in Egypt. Plato (424/423 – 348/347 BC) was deeply influenced by Pythagoras and was also inspired by the Hermetic teachings; some claim he also studied with the Egyptian masters. Both Pythagoras and Plato were influential for early modern scholars of the Scientific Revolution.
The Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle studied at Plato’s Academy in Athens from 328 – 347 BC. He taught Alexander the Great starting in 343 BC, who conquered Egypt in 331 BC and founded Alexandria, a hub for alchemy and Hermeticism.
Contrary to popular belief, Hermeticism, Neoplatonic mysticism and natural magic had a remarkable influence on the Scientific Revolution, which began in the Renaissance period. The Scientific Revolution embraced empiricism, reason and open inquiry over faith, mysticism, or dogma. Ironically, the Renaissance saw a resurgence of Hermetic ideas, as well as in mythical, metaphorical and magical ways of thinking.
Indeed, the fathers of the modern science and the scientific method were deeply religious and many were alchemists and esotericists, traditions rooted in Hermeticism. Hermetic principles can be seen in the works of luminaries such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, as well as medieval philosophers, notably Roger Bacon, but also Islamic philosophers like Al-Kindi and Avicenna.
Copernicus, who presented the first predictive mathematic model for a heliocentric system, describes the sun:
“in the middle of all sits the Sun enthroned. In this most beautiful temple could we place this luminary in any better position from which he can illuminate the whole at once? He is rightly called the Lamp, the Mind, the Ruler of the Universe; Hermes Trismegistus names him the Visible God, Sophocles’ Electra calls him the All-seeing. So the Sun sits as upon a royal throne ruling his children the planets which circle around him.”
Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, spent most of his time rediscovering the occult wisdom of the ancients, including the Corpus Hermeticum and the Emerald Tablet. He was a devout scholar and practitioner of alchemy, which greatly influenced his scientific work, including the laws of motion, the theory of gravity, his work on optics and the invention of calculus.
Although there is a link between celestial and terrestrial realms in Hermeticism (“As above, so below”), there is the central idea of progress of knowledge and advancement of learning. In the Hermetic tradition, nature is investigated through observation, experiment and illumination. The purpose is to discover and detect that which is invisible and find the hidden linkages between things. The magical tradition within Hermeticism endeavors to discover the influence of one thing over another, to understand phenomena and learn how to manipulate them.
Paracelsus was a Renaissance physician, surgeon, botanist, astrologer, alchemist, and is considered the founder of toxicology. He wrote the famous phrase “The dose makes the poison”. Paracelcus had an affinity for Hermetic, Neo-Platonic and Pythagorean philosophy. He advocated that the final arbiter for a theory should be experience, and that humility and diligent labor is necessary.
“he can be surprised by an anomaly- like a white raven- which confounds all the books; and all his experience, everything he has learned at the sickbed, is suddenly gone. Therefore study each day without respite, investigate and observe diligently; despise nothing, and do not lightly put too much trust in yourself. Do not be arrogant.” – Paracelsus
The separation of spirit and science
While Hermeticism was influential in the rise of modern experimental science, part of the Hermetic tradition had to be repudiated in order for science to emerge. This includes a separation of science from religion and the spiritual world, as well as removing illumination as a way of obtaining knowledge.
Until the mid-17th century, natural philosophy generally described nature as an organic, dynamic, living, interconnected organism. There was no clear distinction between astronomy and astrology; alchemy and chemistry; science and magic. The Scientific Revolution separated these disciplines and brought a mechanistic view of nature, a focus on rational and logical thought, and a separation of religion and spirituality from the pursuit of knowledge.
In science, a phenomenon that is being observed is separated from the soul and the internal value system of the observer. When science observes a phenomenon, it assumes that’s its nature; the perceptual is the actual. However, in the modern fields of relativistic and quantum physics, observation affects the process being observed, with a different outcome than if the process were unobserved.
In Hermeticism, that which is being studied is a reflection of the observer and the two are instrinsically linked. This is central to Hermetic philosophy as seen in the famous phrase “As above, so below’: the universe is a symbolic reflection of what is happening inside of ourselves. The quest for knowledge becomes a spiritual journey to return to a state of unity with the divine, known as the “Great Work” of humankind.
All are one. As above, so below.
Components of Sigillum Dei Aemeth.
The Sigillum Dei Aemeth, or Seal of the Truth of God, is most widely known through the writings and artifacts of John Dee. Dee’s system of angelic magic, known as Enochian, is heavily rooted in the number seven, a number which is also strongly connected with the seven traditional planets of astrology. As such, the Sigillum Dei Aemeth is primarily constructed of heptagrams (seven-pointed stars) and heptagons (seven-sided polygons).
The Outer Ring
The Outer ring contains the names of seven angels, each associated with a planet. To find a name, start with a capitalized letter on the ring. If there is a number over it, count that many letters clockwise. If there is a number under it, count that many letters counterclockwise. Continuing the procedure will spell out the names:
Thaaoth – Mars
Galaas – Saturn
Gethog – Jupiter
Horlwn – Sun
Innon – Venus
Aaoth – Mercury
Galethog – Luna
These are the Angels of Brightness, who comprehend the seven “inward powers of God, known to none but himself.”“Galethog”
Inside the outer ring are seven symbols based on the letters forming “Galethog,” with “th” being represented by a single sigil. The name can be read counter-clockwise. These seven sigils are the “Seats of the One and everlasting GOD. His 7 secret Angels proceeding from every letter and cross so formed: referring in substance to the FATHER: in form, to the SON: and inwardly to the HOLY GHOST.”The Outer Heptagon
The names of the “Seven Angels who stand before the presence of God,” each also associated with a planet, were written vertically into a 7-by-7 grid. By reading the grid horizontally, you get the seven names listed in the outer heptagon. The seven original names were:
Zaphkiel – Saturn
Zadkiel – Jupiter
Cumael – Mars
Raphael – Sun
Haniel – Venus
Michael – Mercury
Gabriel – MoonThe Central Structures (D. E. F. G. and H.)
The next five levels are all based off of another 7-by-7 grid of letters. Each is read in a different direction. The letters are names of more planetary spirits, originally written in a zigzag pattern, starting in the upper left corner (the “el” of each name was removed in the creation of the grid):
Sabathiel – Saturn
Zedekieiel – Jupiter
Madimiel – Mars
Semeliel – Sun
Nogahel – Venus
Corabiel – Mercury
Levanael – Moon
The names between the outer heptagon and heptagram are constructed by reading the grid horizontally. They are the “Names of God, not known to the Angels; neither can be spoken nor read of man.”
The names within the points of the heptagram are the Daughters of Light. The names within lines of the heptagram are the Sons of Light. The names within the two central heptagons are the Daughters of the Daughters and the Sons of the Sons.The Pentagram
The planetary spirits are repeated around the pentagram. The letters spelling out Sabathiel (with the final “el” again removed) are scattered around the outside. The next five spirits are spelled out closer to the center, with the first letter of each name within a point of the pentagram. Levanael is at the very center, surrounding a cross, a common symbol of earth.
Occult Aspects 