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Hermeticism and Magick

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Walter D. Roy

Walter D. Roy

Rising Star
I am just curious what you fellow Nexians beliefs/know on this topic. My interest of late has been Terence Mckenna, even though I am not very fond of his TimeWave Zero stuff regarding 2012. But I do enjoy his concepts of Complexity and think that he has a lot of good stuff to say. Okay so Terence is what lead me to Heremeticism. I was researching lectures given by him and I stumbled across a few 4 hour+ ones by Mckenna. I didn't really have the time to go in depth with the lectures, given they are 4 hours long. I did some research and got the general gist of what the Hermeticism entails. I understand that there are really no firms beliefs, and that it is more of a practice that varies generally from group to group of disciples. This leads me to my question. Hermeticism seemed to contain beliefs regarding Alchemy and Magick in correspondence with the cosmos, this seemed to be based of the idea that everything is effecting everything. And that harnessing the power of the cosmos you can "magnify" the effect an object will have on the appropriate target. So do you think the idea of Magick is workable? That it can in reality be real. the effect of one to another with the use of catalysts? Or is it more of a primitive belief? I am not sure I am wholly convinced that Magick and Alchemy have the capacity to work, but I do believe in a more metaphysical cause and effect.

Any feedback would be appreciated regarding your views on the subject.
 
Walter D. Roy said:
I am just curious what you fellow Nexians beliefs/know on this topic. My interest of late has been Terence Mckenna, even though I am not very fond of his TimeWave Zero stuff regarding 2012.
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What is he's right?:)
 
Thank you Jamie but I have listened to the link and seen the thread. So maybe you can help me. What are your thoughts on hermeticism?
 
tele said:
Walter D. Roy said:
I am just curious what you fellow Nexians beliefs/know on this topic. My interest of late has been Terence Mckenna, even though I am not very fond of his TimeWave Zero stuff regarding 2012.
Click to expand...

What is he's right?:)
Click to expand...

Well the chances of him being right are just the same as for him being wrong. Of course I think his method is very ingenious, I just don't find the whole 2012 thing very interesting in general.
 
Theres a lot of room for us to develop what would be thought of as magic but is really just a matter of understanding consiousness, the multiverse, and science more and applying it in new ways.

I really think that we are just living a dream with decided upon themes like gravity. We are all undergoing a common dream or hypnosis. I think that when people on a worldwide scale understand that our beliefs are tied into our reality, our reality will become much more malleable. I really believe we are in the process of realizing this on a world wide scale its more a question of how long will it take.
 
I think magick (not sure about alchemmy or hermeticism for that matter) is about the power of your own intentions, and is an ancient way of describing what quantum physics tells us today- That your thoughts and intentions manifested via actions and spoken words have an effect on your environment, and when you truly commit to what you declare, obstacles are removed for you by the greater order.

Nature rewards courage.
 
I've read quite a bit of the old and contemporary literature on magick, even tried my hand at some chaos stuff. Some strange stuff happened but I think the jury's still out on wether or not it actually works.

The thing is, you have to change your view of the world to see the changes. You have to shift your focal point from a universe where everything is dictated by chance and is devoid of meaning to a universe where absolutely nothing is meaningless and a sort of ephemeral dynamic is at work. Skeptics will say that by doing this you facilitate the delusion but if you really reflect on it the same can be said for the materialist standpoint. The belief of hardcore materialists exists in the idea that if something cannot be measured or controllably reproduced it therefore cannot exist. Wich is fine by me, it's a system of thought that has done tremendously well in certain areas. But the idea that a lack of material evidence is evidence of immaterial things only works if you subscribe to the aforementioned ground rule.

That being said remaining reasonably skeptical is probably a good thing, if only for your mental health. The literature speaks in many places about a "dark night of the soul" every initiate goes through in his studies, some go batshit insane and stay that way. I've met one and it's not pretty.

When one reads these kind of texts one needs to realize that these are not texts to be read as a normal textbook but meditated on. Meaning is shrouded in allegories, riddles and fancy pantsy vocabulary. An egregore for example in the days of old was described as a collectively magically created being that could do its creators bidding and influence large groups of people. It was created through lavish ceremonies described in elaborate prose. But political or economical ideologies, religions and gods all fit this bill.

There is something to the idea that these ideas are independent from and more powerful than men. They certainly outlive them.

Chaos magick and its closely related "funny but not so funny" Discordian metaphysics claim that belief systems are tools to the practitioner. The META philosophy that is encompassed by the couplet "Nothing is true, Everything is permitted" implies that for something to work the practitioner must adopt the belief system that will enable him to achieve succes and subsequently reject it again. Total freedom of thought through non-adoption of paradigms.

And lastly, if you want a good read on hermeticism search for the "Corpus Hermeticum". They also sell annotated versions of this classic but to me that's like going to Mickey Dee's when you can buy minced meat, fresh peppers, tomatoes and lettuce and buns and whip up some gourmet burgers. Although I prefer most meat without bun.

Sincerely,


PotB

P.S. sorry for the long ramble, I'm not good at soundbytes
 
This is just my advise but I personally believe that when one is attempting to learn these types of esoteric arts that one has to exercise extreme cation.

This is mainly because there have been a lot of "traps" set for those who are too eager to put things into practice to soon... especially when dealing with the GD or Crowley type magick.

I personally have had bad experiences with Egyptian type magic so I tend to steer clear of that aspect of Hermeticism . Not saying all Egyptian Magic is bad, I just believe to be so complicated and tricky to understand and yet powerful that it is too advanced for me to dabble in until I have a greater understanding of the big picture.

I mainly focus on the Kabbalistic aspects of hermetic magic for now as I feel like it is a lot more user friendly so to speak..
 
Eliyahu said:
This is just my advise but I personally believe that when one is attempting to learn these types of esoteric arts that one has to exercise extreme cation.
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Yes the world is populated by stubborn empty minded crazy robots that will put you into treatment facility to get you treated(psychic ward with meds[zyprexa has been documented to shrink brain size and it is used as a med in the field of psychiatry] "to help you" if you want to change yourself from the normal if you are too liberated for them to bear[jealousy and fear?]. True story.

"Why do you do that? Are you ON something?"

If you practice these do not tell anyone, that is why there is the hermetic seal on the jar with wax to not let stuff like air get in.

There are loads of people out to get you since you want to be different than they and as far as I know I have no idea why is that. I simply do not get it yet. Christians burning witches that kind of thing, wtf is up with these people anyway wanting to do these kind of things anyway?
 
I've spent many years being into this sort of thing, hermeticism, kabbalah, magick....

kind of a broad, disorganised subject, filled to the breaking point with confusion, misinterpretation, useful techniques, dangerous techniques and many confusing paths to wisdom and madness. An utter quagmire.

The terms hermeticism and magick are both just too bloated, too heavily loaded, they cover too much ground-- it makes this thread difficult to respond to.

Ask me about kabbalah. Or tarot. Or banishing, enchanting, divination, evokation, invokation. Or maybe ask me about occultism, the mystic side of things, tree of life, sacred geometry, general magickal philosophies, cosmologies and worldviews....many books on these diverse topics grace my bookshelves. A few of them disgrace my shelves as well. But I seem to be a lot less into it these days.

The utter reality of entheogenic experience is maybe replacing complex myth/symbol systems (for me) perhaps?

There's always the theory that ritual magick was only ever developed because the people lost the mushroom. Now that we've found the mushroom again do we still need these over-laden systems? That's entirely rhetorical.


Chaos magick was an awesome thing, a cleaning of house, a stripping away of useless clutter and a reduction of magick down to it's useful components....but the whole sigil magick thing, man, do we need more sorcerers? I mean, hermeticism is great if your into that (and I still am, a little bit) but it carries a lot of old baggage, a lot of concepts that seem decidedly Old Aeon to me...chaos magick did aweay with that and supplanted it with meta-belief, and meanwhile went and expanded A O Spares sigil work. That was cool, but in light of powerful entheogens, the chaos path just seems too carry such a sorcerous tendency.
 
Yeah, I agree with that you really should be experimenting and finding what works for you.

A lot of those old stuff remained sort as a tradition, I think mostly used by "secret" orders because they work in temples and so, i don't know maybe to make it more interesting and captivating!?!?
 
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