Post by septemmaximus777 on May 5, 2015 18:35:08 GMT -5
What is Hermeticism?
The Shorter Answer
Hermeticism is an ancient spiritual, philosophical, and magical tradition. It is a path of spiritual growth. Hermeticism takes its name from the God Hermês Trismegistos (Greek, "Thrice-Greatest Hermes"), a Græco-Egyptian form of the great Egyptian God of Wisdom and Magic, Thôth. What the Hermetic Fellowship defines as Hermeticism has also been called the Western Esoteric Tradition, and embraces the Perennial Philosophy or the Ageless Wisdom. Generally, the following can be said to be characteristic of the positive form of Hermeticism advocated by the Hermetic Fellowship.
Hermeticism:
• Considers humanity to be on a spiritual journey to return to a state of unity with the Divine; this is the Great Work of humankind.
• Holds that if we would attain to the Divine, we must aspire to the Divine; spiritual growth cannot be achieved without human effort
• Is eclectic and draws material from sources spanning the entire Western Esoteric Tradition
• Is polytheistic, yet ultimately monotheisitic (i.e., posits a multiplicity of Manifestations of the Divine Which emanate from an ultimate Divine Unity)
• Holds that the Divine is both immanent and transcendent
• Holds that the Universe is Divine and basically good
• Teaches that when we seek the Divine, we may best begin with the Mysteries of Nature
• Encourages spiritual curiosity
• Understands that human beings can access the Subtle Realms through technique and aspiration; to this end, it embraces theurgy, meditation, ritual, and other spiritual and magical practices
• Urges those who seek the Divine to also seek balance in embracing all things
• Is a poetic rather than an ascetic worldview
'Make yourself grow to immeasurable immensity, outleap all body, outstrip all time, become eternity, and you will understand God. Having conceived that nothing is impossible to you, consider yourself immortal and able to understand everything, all art, all learning, the temper of every living thing. Go higher than every height and lower than every depth. Collect in yourself the sensations of all that has been made, of fire and water, dry and wet; be everything at once, on land, in the sea, in heaven; be not yet born, be in the womb, be young, old, dead, beyond death. And when you have understood all these things at once — times, places, things, qualities, quantities — then you can understand God.'
The Shorter Answer
Hermeticism is an ancient spiritual, philosophical, and magical tradition. It is a path of spiritual growth. Hermeticism takes its name from the God Hermês Trismegistos (Greek, "Thrice-Greatest Hermes"), a Græco-Egyptian form of the great Egyptian God of Wisdom and Magic, Thôth. What the Hermetic Fellowship defines as Hermeticism has also been called the Western Esoteric Tradition, and embraces the Perennial Philosophy or the Ageless Wisdom. Generally, the following can be said to be characteristic of the positive form of Hermeticism advocated by the Hermetic Fellowship.
Hermeticism:
• Considers humanity to be on a spiritual journey to return to a state of unity with the Divine; this is the Great Work of humankind.
• Holds that if we would attain to the Divine, we must aspire to the Divine; spiritual growth cannot be achieved without human effort
• Is eclectic and draws material from sources spanning the entire Western Esoteric Tradition
• Is polytheistic, yet ultimately monotheisitic (i.e., posits a multiplicity of Manifestations of the Divine Which emanate from an ultimate Divine Unity)
• Holds that the Divine is both immanent and transcendent
• Holds that the Universe is Divine and basically good
• Teaches that when we seek the Divine, we may best begin with the Mysteries of Nature
• Encourages spiritual curiosity
• Understands that human beings can access the Subtle Realms through technique and aspiration; to this end, it embraces theurgy, meditation, ritual, and other spiritual and magical practices
• Urges those who seek the Divine to also seek balance in embracing all things
• Is a poetic rather than an ascetic worldview
'Make yourself grow to immeasurable immensity, outleap all body, outstrip all time, become eternity, and you will understand God. Having conceived that nothing is impossible to you, consider yourself immortal and able to understand everything, all art, all learning, the temper of every living thing. Go higher than every height and lower than every depth. Collect in yourself the sensations of all that has been made, of fire and water, dry and wet; be everything at once, on land, in the sea, in heaven; be not yet born, be in the womb, be young, old, dead, beyond death. And when you have understood all these things at once — times, places, things, qualities, quantities — then you can understand God.'