I’ve been thinking lately about multiplication in the way Hermes writes of. I don’t know how useful this will be for anyone, but I thought it to be interesting.

He talks about forms and kinds that are generated in the world. You could write all of it up in a mathematical sense and maybe it would make more sense to you.

Say 3 x 3 = 9. What is the first three we are speaking of? Is it something at all? 3 times 3 cows is 9 cows. 3 times? So we measured the cows and we categorized them. That’s what we do under the influence of time. We found them to be different from each other and divided them. What were 9 cows are now: 3 cows this, 3 cows that and 3 cows yonder. We diluted their essence by multiplying their number. No longer are cows yonder part of cows here.

You could invert it. 9 / 3 = 3. Three what? Times. Measurements derived from the whole, which are only possible if you are living under time.

The same goes for the sciences we’ve built. Hermes warns people will divide (or multiply, it’s the same thing, since both divide the whole) science; knowledge of the universe into parts. He was right, we no longer have a holistic scientific field anymore and that’s also the reason why we are drifting from reality more and more.

There’s just one cow and just one science. Those are the kinds. The forms are multitude, but they are in their essence the same.

Does this make sense for anyone? In order to do the best we can in life, we must simplify it for one another, I think.

This text can be read for free here: The Hermetic Logos: reading the" Corpus Hermeticum" as a reflection of Graeco-Egyptian mentality

From the text:

The Cosmos is the first creation of God. God enlightened this chaotic, dark and humid

primordial element. The result of this process is the separation and grouping of transformed elements according to each one‘s nature... It is worth comparing the motives associated with the creation of cosmos: darkness and humidity in close relation with chaos also re-occur in the Egyptian creation of the world. The Egyptian creative myth describes God existing alone before creation in the primordial Ocean (Nun). God‘s self-manifestation or creation as Atum-Re, emerged out from Nun - eg. by hatching out of his egg – and gave a principle to all gods and creation. So there is a similarity between the Hermetic God and the Egyptian Atum as both beings were considered the fathers of all...

Note that the process of creation is advanced by the power of speech/logos. As the

manifestation of will, speech places sounds into the air which represent ideas. These are carried with the power by will, and the result of this action was creation. However, creation through speech was possible only due to the use of God‘s speech. God‘s logos guided Cosmos‘ Nous (the craftsman‘s mind) during his participation in the creation...

God‘s Nous represents an attempt to identify an origin for His will, love, intelligence

and maybe an essence. Nous is a field or a sphere from where life originally came. God‘s Logos is also a description of the ability to bring something that existed in God‘s mind/will/heart/Nous into manifested existence. The combination of God‘s Nous and God‘s Logos produced Life... The role of God's first son, Cosmos, was to offer material support for Life to develop. Then, by sharing God‘s Logos and Nous, Cosmos shaped and ordered seven celestial material spheres, aiming to coordinate the interactions between Nature and living creatures. These seven spheres restrain physical life/existence/reality, and rule over mortals through the mandate of gods/potencies (manifested as stars, and constellations) under the law called Fate. Beyond these seven spheres or material reality, there are three transcendental and spiritual ones: Logos, Nous and God. These three spheres are not in the jurisdiction of Cosmos...

The Cosmos acts like a Demiurge in Hermetic literature. However, Cosmos is not

permitted to create more than speechless creatures (i.e. his creation consists in giving form/shape/order to nature elements – which are God‘s creation – then together with them forming the complex physical bodies each God‘s soul must inhabit), and to manipulate inanimate matter. He is inferior to the first God, who is still co-responsible for the creation of life. Nonetheless, Cosmos is an auxiliary participant (as man would also be when created) in the creation process. It is interesting to compare the use of this intermediary between God and his creation with the role-played by Ptah, described by the "Memphite Theology" or "The Shabaka Stone" – a text from the 25th Dynasty. Ptah was associated with the Creator‘s (Atum) intellect. His condition of craftsman which gave him the ability to give form to raw materials and made him responsible for Atum‘s primordial matter, have assumed form in a manifestation of existence.

According to Memphite Theology, Ptah himself is not the creative god, but the

intermediary between the act of creative thought and speech. He was worshipped as the creator of the physical world. The creation of life itself was a consequence of the divine Word. As written in the "Shabaka Stone": "Evolution into the image of Atum occurred through the heart and occurred through the tongue". The text implies the theory of creation by command. All gods that took part in the creative process were organs or parts of Atum. They represented faculties commanded by Atum in a similar form, which is described by the Hermetic texts. In the Shabaka Stone, as the heart of Atum and the tongue of the Sun-god, Thoth commanded thoughts into being and then the creative power of Thoth was created by utterance into the physical world. Therefore, the Second god or hermetic Demiurge would be more compatible with this Egyptian demiurge than the Stoic or Platonic ones...

The old Egyptian creation myth was re-created by the Hermetic narrative. This

update aims to establish a correspondence between Greek philosophy (and its maxims, such as "know yourself") and the Hermetic (and Gnostic) re-formulated use of Greek philosophy. Since Gnostics and Hermetists were engaged in a similar hermeneutical procedure, this can be used explain the motivation which led Gnostics to develop interest in the Hermetica, and included some of them in the so-called Nag Hammadi Library...

As previously discussed, hermetical creation is a process, which articulates God, His

Nous: an emanation from His essence – if He has any - which produces will (the passive form of command) + His Logos, which in turn grants God the command of His Nous. Therefore, Logos acts as the mediator between that which is inside God (the will of God comes from Nous) and this material world. This Hermetic perspective is particularly close to the Egyptian world-view...

According to the Egyptian Heliopolitan

tradition, the world was created by the combined action of thought (sjꜢ) – sjꜢ is the perception of what needs to be done - and Utterance (ḑw) – as the power to make what needs to be done happening through speech... Such command was supported by Maat (connected to the sense of establishing order where it was not before) and magic power (ḑkꜢ – in the sense of assuring the effectiveness of the speech, so that the desired result may be achieved). In Egypt, ḐkꜢ was also the goddess personifying extraordinary, supernatural powers or magic... Although magic could be expressed in many different ways and different kinds of magicians existed, Egyptian magic was closely related to the expression of an idea (sjꜢ) through creative speech (ḥw). In this process of creation through the Great Word, Heka does not represent the power of conception (taking place in the mind-heart), nor its utterance (taking place on the tongue). Rather, it represented the capacity to break any possible resistance to the expressed (ḥw) will (sjꜢ)...

According to Broze and van Liefferinge, Hermetism assimilated the Egyptian

metaphor that regarded the heart as the symbol of the creative intelligence/will of the demiurge as the logos reports to the demiurge‘s creative word. The hermetical creation determined that God‘s sphere is not apart from the others. All the others are actually different emanations from Him. That is why He is always present, and how Nous works as His channel. There are, by no means, pluralities of Nous but that of God, according to the Hermetica... The Hermetic association of Nous and Logos is similar to the Egyptian creation by sjꜢ (Thought/will of the heart) and ḑw (Utterance) and ḑkꜢ (magic, or the efficacy of the creative power).

As Above so Below Sator Square

For the more astrologically-inclined among y'all or those who want an edge on or a step up with timing their rituals, I have some great news!

The Adocentyn Temple Almanac (TATA) has released its second version, with a whole bunch of new features, customizations, and improvements! I mentioned the first version being released in February this year, but I've been working on getting a improved one put out to be released just in time for people to start planning their 2025, which is officially released as of today.

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I hope this helps some of us here with ritual planning, since learning how to observe the stars and time our actions and works to them is very much a part of ancient Hermetic practice as noted throughout a number of Hermetic texts, to say nothing of how much astrologically-influenced ritual there is throughout all of subsequent esoteric and occult traditions that Hermeticism influenced or touched at one point or another!

this may be unrelated well most likely is but i want to ask, if you had a son and you wanted a right a book for him or to him, What are some of the things you would add? What are some of the things you would like to speak upon. This goes in any perspective eg you have a son, before you even have one, just doing it for the sake of it. I'm interested to know if you would speak upon any lessons youve learnt or any perspectives youve gained, or whether you would want to also help him see his reality from another perspective, would you inspire him if so how. feel free to remove this if it doesn't match the sub and of course do as you wish.

I read the Copenhaver interpretation for the first time and these (out of many more minor ones) are the question that have remained for me.

1. It seems that the author has a different, more benign definition of 'demons'. So am I correct in thinking that 'demon' is a layer of evolution that comes after being human? So it would go like this: finned > legged > winged > human > demon > minor god ?

2. Human are here to bring order (this is what the highest God wants). Am I to assume that 'order' in a practical sense means; arranging everything material (ensouled or soulless) in a way that brings out the best (healthiest) in them? So I would make a garden. In that garden I care for the soil and make it healthy. The healthy soil would feed healthy plants that I maintain and make sure they don't grow into eachother too much. I plant a diversity of plants that stimulate eachother in a healthy way (non competitive since CH states plants need help from us). Then, the garden will attract animals which are allowed to compete with eachother because they are alike. But they are not allowed to make the plants unhealthy, so we must maintain that too in reasonable fashion, cull the excess of animals so the others can thrive. And this allows humans to thrive as well, in their most basic of needs.

I think you see where i'm going with this. Am I right in thinking this is what meant with 'order' for humans on earth?

3. How much of this text do you think is wrongly translated? Not necessarily by Copenhaver, but troughout the ages? Because I feel sometimes it would make more sense if X were Y and Y were Z. Especially in the wording and judgment cast on matter. I feel 'evil' is too harsh a term, because it acts out of necessity (the falling in love with light) and not out of desire for harm.

4. What's next for me to read into? I have been eying Collectanea Hermetica by Westcott. Do any of you have experience with his translation? His background might cast an interesting light on the works since it resonates with me. Or would you rather advice me to read other texts?

My closing words for now are these;

I eagerly began reading Copenhavers' CH (after I finished the more lighthearted one by Freke and Gandy). It began very resonating and positive for me, but near two thirds I began feeling friction towards the texts. Because I didn't understand why the material would be seen as 'evil'. I struggled with this and eventually needed a break from the book. I am glad I picked it up and finished it in the past weeks. Because the book illuminates the 'why'. It explains that the material holds us down in our greatest wishes and creativity. And the only way to grow out of matter is to command it to it's rightful place and no further. Still, like I said in question 3; the word 'evil' does not seems appropriate.

I see that now. I hope I will remain seeing it. I will.

What if god is universal consciousness that we all share like sun and rays and that rays is case of our individual consciousness? I think of it because there is a sentence in CH that god is not aware of himself because then he would be aware of himself by himself or something like that, then maybe he gives us consciousness to know himself, what do you think? I mean human consciousness on some point can be aware of thought feeling etc but cant know thyself idk how can i describe it. Like eye cant see eye himself but see other things

I recently keep seeing talk of the Hagia Sofia in Turkey. It is apparently a significant spiritual, communal, and cultural building from early ages. Do you think this could be related to, inspired by, or somehow in the realm of Nag Hammadi, codices or city, as I presume those two are related.

I am just starting my journey of hermeticism, and am wondering if I can be both or if it is not allowed

As I’ve been diving further into hermetic texts, I’ve really resonated with the idea of detachment and renouncing unneeded material belongings.

This leads me to vanity. I’ve realized just how intertwined my thoughts, feelings, actions and choices are with my appearance.

I have thick curly hair, and recently I’ve been seriously considering shaving it. Im tired of being constantly insecure about how it looks and maintaining it. I shaved it about 5 years ago and remember how nice it was to not worry about it, and more importantly how spiritually grounded I felt.

The only problem is I think my hair is one of my only “attractive” features, and my girlfriend LOVES my long hair. I want to bloom spiritually but I’m scared to disappoint her.

Im struggling and have a lot of contrasting thoughts.

Edit: typos

It seems like with magick, you can have psychedelic experiences without having taken anything. Also, the Greek word for witchcraft (pharmakeia) is linked to drug use. In my church days, I remember hearing the preacher saying that pharmakeia really referred to drug use (not acknowledging real magick.) It made me think that back then they used substances to enhance their rituals.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Do you think that even matter does live and/or have mind/soul or they are just imagination of God? I belive in hermetica its said that everything we experience exist only in our mind.

Are they any primary symbol of Hermeticism? I mean like pentagram, cross etc

Do you belive that matter is illusion from consciousness that is god? Also i would like to know which philosophy was first is Hermeticism influenced gnosticism or the other way? Do you belive that Hermeticism is much more ancient than Corpus Hermeticum?

How is everybody doing? Hopefully, this subreddit makes you enthusiastic to start exploring authentic Hermeticism and you are eager to take your first steps on the Way of Life, as Hermes calls it.

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I can't find most of the symbols as unicode ciphers anywhere, does anyone know if they exist or not or where to find them?

Hello All,

I hope you're well. I have a technical question regarding the timing of processes.

Say if grinding my rosemary to a fine powder is set to take me about 4 hours for a tincture, should I start grinding it at sunrise on Sunday morning and then end up pouring my alcohol on it for maceration at around noon? Or should I grind it a week before and put it away in a jar until the next Sunday at sunrise and pour the alcohol on it then to be sure the "impregnation" takes place on the hour of the sun?

Same for a calcination, if burning the plant residue to a white ash takes me a few hours, is it ok to put the salts back in the tincture later in the day? Or should it be put away and added a week later at sunrise again? Or do planetary hours don't matter that much for something basic like a tincture?

Thank you! Vincent

Do you also see similitaries in hinduism and Hermeticism absolut is reason of everything and is within everything and by knowing it we can become unity with god/source/Brahman etc. Something like sun and rays yea?

Would hemeticism be considered a philosophical or a spiritual path? Or both?

Do you feel like there is one source for all, which the God's, humans, animals etc fall under? Is there a name for that source? Is there a pantheon of gods associated with that source?

Thank you for your replies!

(I scanned the faq and didn’t find anything significant)

I recently decided it is time for me to engage in more magic while practicing hermeticism and was wondering what books/resources were best for beginners?

In Corpus Hermeticum there isbsentence that god is not mind but the reason why that mind exist, how should that be interpreted?

Alright so I’m almost done reading the corpus hermeticum and I was wondering what exactly we are supposed to pursue in our lives? I understand why the body’s desires are evil and we shouldn’t pursue them, but I keep going back to them because I can’t really find something else. The closest thing I can find in the corpus of what I’ve read so far is gaining gnosis. But what do we do after we gain gnosis? I guess it’d be to spread gnosis. But hypothetically if everyone had gnosis then what would we do? I’m thinking that the alternative to the body’s desires is something akin to becoming your actualized self through contributing to society but I’m having trouble figuring out what all these contributions that everyone makes should be aiming towards. Like what are we allowed to enjoy and not enjoy? I guess art may be the answer to what we enjoy because art is subjective. If something isn’t subjective then it runs the risk of becoming a competitive status game kind of like how dating has become. Anyway sorry for the rambling.

I've been exploring a number of rabbit holes of knowledge and wisdom, and have been a life long seeker of the deeper truths of reality. Some of this rabbit hole has included the connections of occultism, hermeticism etc to the organized religions of the world, to the schools of thought, nasa, operation paperclip and the nazi scientists and soooo many more subjects, and have also been reading "the book that shall not be named". As such, I'm seeking deeper knowledge, philosophically, spiritually and of the nature of what is. Any direction from here as pertains to the caption, books, podcasts, videos etc are greatly appreciated. Genuinely a student of wisdom, and not seeking the absurdity/misunderstanding that I've seen in some of the probing posts I've seen here so far.

I am new to Hermeticism and the occult world and have read the CH and half of Initiation into Hermetics. Franz Bardon claims in the book that initiates can develop abilities such as levitation, resurrection, healing, communicating with the dead, and influencing matter (e.g., turning water into wine). Is this true? As far as I understand, occult magick is primarily allegorical and metaphorical, focusing on spiritual growth and the unconscious rather than being taken literally. Is it true that adept magicians can develop these abilities within the natural laws?

This might sound crazy but my wife asked me that question today and I have some general idea I didn't have the formulated answer so I decided to ask here for the more experienced. Are there any articles, videos os posts that are relevant?

This is not an ad for a new podcast (though if I ever start one, this is probably what I’ll name it), but I’m seriously interested in those of you who are practicing and have shrines, altars or other home temple structures as well as furry predators in your house.

How do you prevent kitty from knocking everything down? Lock the room? Store the items and only take them out during liturgy? (So tedious!) Or accept the chaos?

Personally I prefer having a shrine permanently set up but since we have a kitten (the most adorable, silliest boy in the world, as an aside. Completely black of course, totally invisible in anything other than bright lights) I fear leaving everything out for fear of him hurting himself and/or knocking down and breaking (par exemple) my ankh.

Or are cats so agile they’ll gracefully waltz in between the candles (beeswax, of course) and other accoutrements?

For context I identify with hermeticism and follow hermetic teaching and texts

As an American on the their own spiritual journey (as many of us are in this sub) I’ve grown more and more unsatisfied with my life in the US. I feel the more growth i experience, the less I can relate to the people around me. I began to think about why this is.

I don’t think it’s a secret that The US is essentially spiritually dead. What many Christians consider “Christianity” is in fact not at all Christian. The teachings of not only the Bible, but specifically Jesus’ teachings, have been warped and diluted to fit dangerous ideologies and political agendas.

Somewhere along the line, I deleted all social media for my phone. Including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, discord and a few others I rarely used. I kept my accounts and only log in my computer if I need to contact someone that I don’t have the phone number of. The result of this social media purge has been amazing. Not only am I happier in general, I use my time more efficiently and I can truly appreciate and focus on my spiritual growth.

It made me wonder how much the internet and socials impede on spirituality on a mass scale. Do you think it’s the cause of America being spirituality dead? How do you think it impacts your own spirituality? Is there an ethical and responsible way to navigate having an online presence and seek enlightenment? I just wanna know what other people think.