A RATIONAL INTRODUCTION TO HERMETICA...

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Note about my perspective: Ten years ago, a non-hermetic spiritual book referred me to the Tarot.  From that exploration, I became particularly interested in the possibility that there might exist a Western pagan (non-Christian) spiritual path that had been maintained orally and in secret through the ages. None of my reading turned up anything that was known to have survived, and I rather forgot about it; then I met Cougina.  What follows is my understanding of what he has told me, interspersed with Cougina's direct words (which are indicated by UPPER CASE).  You will notice that it starts out academically and spirals into rather heavy hermetics.  Oh, well.

Note about my purpose: This post intends to provide a rational framework for the reader who is unfamiliar with hermetics.  No attempt is made to provide factual information to "prove" that hermetics is "true," or to justify Cougina's authority.

Life on earth, and, earth itself, has come and gone six times since creation, surviving for several thousand years each time.  We are on the seventh go-round at this time.  Hermetics is the name for the theosophy (not religion) that has survived through all of these ages.  It has remained secret at all times, for the human need to destroy those who do not adhere to the mainstream has always existed, and religions have always been a means of control.  Given this, it is not surprising that hermetics do not reveal themselves (as a hermetic teacher, Cougina is an exception).  At this time, they are members of all religious faiths, even the most extreme.  (How can they help if they do not stay alive?)  In historic Europe, one of the more successful places that hermetics hid themselves was in the Roman Catholic church. 

What of Hermes Trismegistus?  In Renaissance Italy, the wealthy Cosimo de Medici commissioned Marsilio Ficino to translate the Corpus Hermetica into Latin even before the work of Plato.  Such was the stature of Hermes Trismegistus at that time; he was thought to be extant with Moses, or even earlier.  20th century scholarship places the hermetic corpus firmly in the Christian era, approximately 200 CE.  Cougina states that, obviously, the ideas presented there, regardless of the time they were put into writing, are very much older.  In other words, academic historians are restricted to the surviving written word, and are therefore limited in their ability to accurately track history.

Hermetics maintains that we are nothing more than what we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel (until we gain the 6th sense of auric vision and the 7th sense of telepathy).  It is a non-dogmatic approach which insists on the validation of its concepts through personal sensory experience.  Nevertheless, a rational presentation such as this is the only way that we who are new to hermetics are able to approach it.

Major elements of hermetics are Qabalah, Tarot, Magick, and SELF (higher self).  These elements appear doctrinal; however, hermetics maintains that these elements must be experienced to have personal meaning.

Qabalah did not originate with Judaism; rather, Judaism adapted Qabalah from hermetics. A major element of Qabalah is the Tree of Life, which describes both the creation of the world (as above) and the human being (so below).  The tree of life is or will be discussed in more detail elsewhere in the blog.  A basic description of the tree at the creation level is that the unmanifest divinity (Ain Soph) became aware of SELF, resulting in duality (Oh Shit!" as Cougina refers to the first words).  From this awareness descended ten Sephirot, or spheres of energy, beginning with Kether, containing the unmanifest male/female energies, then Chokmah, the masculine aspect of divinity, then Binah, the feminine aspect of divinity, and so on down to the 10th Sephira, Malkuth, the manifest physical creation.  (Although the masculine aspect appears first, hermetics is not patriarchal.  A discussion of this apparent contradiction is beyond the scope of this article.)

The application of the Tree to the human being is comparable to the Eastern conception of the seven chakras, with the caveat that the Qabalist splits the 3rd, 5th, and 6th chakras into two nodes, corresponding to the 7 horizontal layers and 10 Sephirot of the Tree.

The Tarot is a sacred text of hermetics.  Only to the uninitiated is it a tool of the fortune-teller.  Each of the 22 major arcana represent one of the basic concepts of reality, as as well as one of the 22 paths between the Sephirot, used in magickal workings.  The 56 minor arcana are more advanced concepts used by higher adepts.

MAGICK, UNFORTUNATELY, IS NOT THE ABILITY TO REMOVE A RABBIT FROM A HAT, OR TO CUT A WOMAN IN HALF.  MAGICK, FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE, IS THE ABILITY TO ACTUALLY ACHIEVE CONTACT WITH HIGHER SELF, I.E., HAPPINESS OR ECSTASY.  THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF THIS PRECEPT, WHETHER YOU WISH 20 BOYFRIENDS, 20 GIRLFRIENDS, A BIG HOUSE, A SMALL CAR, OR ANY OTHER THING, IS NOT HOW THE PROCESS WORKS, BECAUSE WE ARE TELLING YOU THAT YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DESIRE UNTIL YOU ACHIEVE THIS CONTACT.  HOWEVER, HERMETICS ASSURES YOU THAT ONCE YOU ACHIEVE THIS CONTACT, SELF IS VERY SATISFYING.

Hermetically, SELF is spelled Shin He Lamed Qoph.  Referring to the Tarot card by letter, SHIN is the arrow of movement, the Fool card, the leap of the little self from the cliff into the unknown.  HE is the breath of manifestation that creates Lamed. Lamed is the Hanged Man card, surrender (of self to SELF) and service.  The final step is Qoph, the Sun card, Tiphareth, the ecstasy of union with SELF, of balance between self and SELF.

Picture yourself surrounded by an egg, with the narrow end of the egg pointed down, in which is contained a tree of life.  Imagine the tree's two outer branches, Netzach-Chesed-Chokmah and Hod-Geburah-Binah, slowly rotating around the central axis, Malkuth-Yesod-Tiphareth-Kether.  You live your life in various points on the periphery of the tree.  The goal of hermetics is to take you to center and to keep you there, and you will achieve this if you follow COVINA HERMETICIA with intent... Hint: AS THE CIRCLE SPINS, THE HE BECOMES A YOD, AND, PERHAPS, THE YOD BECOMES SHIN.

DO YOU ENJOY LONGEVITY?  WE WILL NOT HELP YOU MAKE MONEY (ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO LIVE IN MODEST COMFORT IN COMPARISON TO THE TIME-SPATIAL ELEMENT IN WHICH YOU LIVE), BUT WE WILL ALLOW YOU RATHER EXCEPTIONAL HEALTH.  SURRENDER OF self RESULTS IN ACCEPTANCE OF SELF, AND ONCE THIS TAKES PLACE, YOU ARE ASSURED OF AN EXCEPTIONALLY HEALTHY VEHICLE, OCCASIONALLY FOR A RATHER EXCEPTIONAL LENGTH OF TIME.  HOWEVER, ONE MUST ALWAYS REMAIN WITHIN TIPHARETH IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THIS PROCESS. 

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS WITH THE TRUE HERMETIC PURSUIT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE ABSTRACT SEXUAL IMPLICATIONS.  (Note: "abstract," as used by Cougina, means an idea that is poorly understood. As I [Aggie] understand it, abstract ideas often provoke the emotion of fear.) WHILE WE ACCEPT THE EARLIER PATRIARCHAL ASPECTS OF SEXUAL SURRENDER, WE ARE CONSTANTLY TRYING TO MODIFY THIS INTO A MORE MATRIARCHAL ASPECT.   AT THE PRESENT TIME, SEXUAL SURRENDER IS NEVER REQUIRED, BUT IT CAN STILL BE EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE.  WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS TO THIS PROBLEM.

BLESSED BE
AGNES