Hi there,

I am a PhD student working in the domains of philosophy and esotericism; I am also a musician-singer, and I have undertaken the endeavor to transform philosophy and esotericism into music. As the Thrice-Great Hermes Trismegistus is reputed to be the progenitor of alchemy in Egypt, and is cited by alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis, I share with you my musical exposition of this early alchemist, Zosimos of Panopolis.

Zosimos of Panopolis (fl. 300 ce) can be cited as the most significant Greco Egyptian alchemist. In his text “Of Virtue, Lessons 1-3,” Zosimos recounts a series of psychedelic and disturbing dreams that he interprets as alchemical allegories. I have endeavored to present a thorough yet concise musical summary of its contents herein. You will encounter the alchemical lexicon here expressed in raw, primal form. This text is actually mind-blowing, and my exposition endeavors to be both fun and didactic. Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTjZ4uVgS94

Recently finished doing research at the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents Department at the University of Amsterdam using 4E Cognition and Conceptual Metaphor approaches to explore practices of Ritual Magic. The main focus is the embodiment and extension of metaphor through imaginal and somatic techniques as a means of altering consciousness to reconceptualize the relationship of self and world. The hope is to point toward the rich potential of combining the emerging fields of study in 4E Cognition and Esotericism. It may show that there is a lot more going on cognitively in so-called "magical thinking" than many would expect there to be...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382061052_Experiencing_the_Elements_Self-Building_Through_the_Embodied_Extension_of_Conceptual_Metaphors_in_Contemporary_Ritual_Magic

For those wondering what some of these ideas mentioned above are:

4E is a movement in cognitive science that doesn't look at the mind as only existing in the brain, but rather mind is Embodied in an organism, Embedded in a socio-environmental context, Enacted through engagement with the world, and Extended into the world (4E's). It ends up arriving at a lot of ideas about mind and consciousness that are strikingly similar to hermetic, magical, and other esoteric ideas about the same topic.

Esotericism is basically rejected knowledge (such as Hermeticism, Magic, Kabbalah, Alchemy, etc.) and often involves a hidden or inner knowledge/way of interpretation which is communicated by symbols.

Conceptual Metaphor Theory is an idea in cognitive linguistics that says the basic mechanism through which we conceptualize things is metaphor. Its essentially says metaphor is the process by which we combine knowledge from one area of experience to another. This can be seen in how widespread metaphor is in language. It popped up twice in the last sentence (seen, widespread). Popped up is also a metaphor, its everywhere! It does a really good job of not saying things are "just a metaphor" and diminishing them, but rather elevates them to a level of supreme importance.

Basically the ideas come from very different areas of study (science, spirituality, philosophy) but fit together in a really fascinating and quite unexpected way. I give MUCH more detailed explanations in the text, so check it out if this sounds interesting to you!!!

I feel like my life is so little, in comparison to so many minuscule things that wrap around my mind, being alive every day. The occult has always been a safe place for me to freely express myself but has been the most denses sense of Restriction for me since (maybe even) before I started my journey. I’m here to ask you guys, how did you guys mature?/ how do you guys define motion?