Notes and Thoughts on Hermeticism

Above: A display on alchemy I saw at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum 

I went to a seminar on Hermeticism a few months ago and I took these notes while I was there. Haven’t shared them anywhere yet, so I might as well not hoard the knowledge, that might as well be a sin in Hermeticism. I can get on board with at least some of Hermeticism, and I especially like the Seven Principles. The main deity in Hermeticism is Hermes Trismegistus “the Thrice-Great”, who is a synchronization of Djehuti/Thoth, Imhotep and Hermes. With interpretatio graeca, Hermes and Djehuti are seen as the same God through different cultural lenses. This goes back to the Ptolemaic era when Greece colonized Egypt. I’ve never been a fan of interpretatio graeca, just seems like colonial thinking to me, like saying “Aha, maybe you aren’t so primitive and uncivilized after all, because you’ve actually been unknowingly worshiping OUR Gods all along!” They do this to the Armenian pantheon all the time too, where Vahagn is Heracles, and Anahit is Artemis, as if the ancient Armenians weren’t smart enough to have their own distinct Gods. 

In Hermeticism, Hermes is said to have been a real person that both Djehuti and Hermes were based on. (Perhaps they mean Imhotep?) He is said to be the father of occult wisdom, astronomy and alchemy, and lived to be 300 before ascending to Godhood. He is also said to have been a contemporary of Abraham in some versions (even more annoying than interpretatio graeca in my opinion is when people try to tie Abrahamic religion into a polytheistic pagan religion, as if that lends it more legitimacy; but these are my only real problems with Hermeticism, along with the fact that I just never really felt a connection with the Greek pantheon personally, and I think Djehuti is plenty great on His own without needing help from the Greeks; why isn’t it “Thoth Trismegistus the Thrice-Great”?).

Hermeticism was an oral tradition passed from teacher to student until 1912, when three students published a book about it called The Kybalion. This is old enough to be public domain, and freely available online. 

Alchemy in Hermeticism doesn’t strictly refer to the attempt to turn metals into gold. Alchemy is transmutation of anything, even mental vibrations and moods. Ego death can be a type of alchemy. You are shedding the lead to find the gold. 

Thoth’s Emerald Tablet: Do Not Steal

𓋹֍֎𓋹

Seven Principles - He or she who knows and understands these principles, for them all the doors of the temple will open. 

1. Mentalism - The universe, The All, is all mental. It’s a mental creation. Reality, the material universe. Everything we perceive. Gods are spiritually advanced beings. It exists for all time, nothing can exist outside of it. The All creates our universe, like the author of a story. A writer’s mind is finite, the All is infinite. Atum or Ptah could represent the All. 
2. Correspondence  - As above, so below, so below as above. Physical plane, mental plane and spiritual plane. There are seven subdivisions each. Everything is similar. There are higher and lower planes. The scale of atoms to human beings to the solar system, is one way of thinking about the different planes. Ant colonies compared to human society compared to galaxies. The ant may think they are an individual rather than a cog in the system. The ants are connected in mind, all working toward one goal. Humans are similar. 
3. Vibration - Everything vibrates. Body mind and spirit all range from different vibrations. Ice, water and steam are the same substance at different vibrations. Think string theory and quantum physics. 
4. Polarity - Everything has its opposites. Good and evil, love and hate, chaos and order, light and dark, optimism and pessimism. The Earth has two magnetic poles. Magnets have two poles. Batteries have + and - side. Courage and fear, you transmute fear into courage, you can transmute hate into love. You don’t deny your fear you overcome it. You can polarize your moods. Not everything is a perfect binary, but polarity does exist. 
5. Rhythm - Everything has rhythm. It manifests between the two poles established by polarity. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Like the tide, like the Earth spinning, like a heartbeat. Waves of light, energy. Like a swing. When something reaches its height it begins to decline. It allows one to overcome forced responses. Retalitation against an attack for instance, is a rhythmic response. You must reach the higher conscious mind. Law of Neutralization. You can stop a pendulum from swinging. Will is superior to consciousness.
6. Cause and effect -Chance and luck only exist as concepts because people do not understand the complex causes and effects behind things that seem like chance, like a dice roll or a coin flip. Your ancestors caused your current life situation. The present is a culmination of the past. You can become a cause.
7. Gender - Masculine is positive pole, feminine is negative pole. Masculine is the conscious mind, feminine is the subconscious mind. There is an I and a Me. Me is the Ba. I is the Ka. The I observes. The Me is the personality. Gender occurs across the planes. Solar energy is masculine and lunar energy is feminine. Masculine energy confronts, feminine energy plans things out. The masculine principle allows the feminine principle to create. Everyone has both. As humans rises in consciousness, he can separate the I and the Me. These feelings can be changed by force of will. The conscious gives ideas to the subconscious which creates. Willing energy from the I to the Me. Creation takes will. The reason the oracles of Delphi were women was because women are deeply in touch with the subconscious. Men can get in touch with it too but they are more of the conscious mind. The womb is a place of creation, but it needs masculine energy added to it to create. Some men have more feminine energy and vice versa. 

Axioms

Nothing stands still, everything is being born, growing dying. Nothing is permanent but change. 

Mind, metal and elements can be changed. Transmutation is a mental art. Spoken and written words are transmuted thoughts.

The possession of knowledge is like hoarding. You must share it. 

To change your mood is to change your mental vibrations.

Rhythm can be neutralized by polarity. 

Transmutation is a mental art. The universe is mental. The mind is the highest power.

If you oppose something you make it stronger. You are giving it your mental energy.

Robo-Djehuti at the museum.

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

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