/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10869414]

Redpill me on hermeticism /lit/. Is hermeticism philosophy legit or should or should i skip this topic. If its legit where should i start what book should i read? Im reading books on enlightenment like the bhagavat gita, tao te ching, tibetan book of the dead. Dont know if im going in the right direction, what other books should i look into?

[Anonymous No.10869442]

>>10869414
Skip hermeticism, taosim and hinduism and go straight to Buddhism. I recommend any talk by Ajahn Chah.

[Anonymous No.10869493]

>>10869442
Thanks for the input. Can you explain why i should go straight to buddhism and skip the other subjects? I thought those where pretty redpilled books also.

[Anonymous No.10869503]

>>10869414
This image has nothing to do with hermeticism

Start with the basics.

[Anonymous No.10869511]

>>10869493
Only one I've read is the dao de jing, which I enjoyed but a lot of the same messages are contained in Buddhism in a clearer way. I don't know much about Tibetan Buddhism compared to Theravada, but from what I understand, if you're inclined towards the occult, it's exactly what you're after.

[Anonymous No.10869519]

>>10869493
>>10869511
I just want to add, if you want to see the world differently, Buddhism is the way to go. Some may disagree, but I would say it lets you see things more clearly.

[Anonymous No.10870496]

>>10869414
If you are interested start with the Kybalion and The Secret Teachings of All Ages

[Anonymous No.10870526]

You can get just as much insight into the world reading Tumblr head canons. They're the same thing.

[Anonymous No.10870785]

Hermeticism is like a weird crazy form of western buddhism mixed with gnostic christianity and platonism. Its very intesting for anyone interested in western religious history/ the history of magic, but not as a legit philosophy unless you are thinking of becoming an occultist which I wouldnt recommend for your sanity's sake as it essentially involves forcing your brain to hallucinate.

[Anonymous No.10870790]

>>10870785
no, it's not

>>10869414
download hanegraaf's dictionary of gnosis and western esotericism and read the entries on hermes trismegistus, hermeticism, neoplatonism and gnosticism—should give you an idea of what all is out there

[Anonymous No.10870798]

>>10870790
Yes it is, im an academic and this is my specialisation you fruitloop.

[Anonymous No.10870836]

>>10870798
then we have a difference in terms. western buddhism is a mostly meaningless concept until madame blavatsky. hermeticism was alive at least as far back as ptolemaic egypt, some of the texts may be older. gnosticism, hermeticism and neoplatonism all have familial resemblances, and some, especially gnosticism, get very messy—but they can be, and typically are, characterized as more or less distinct until the renaissance, though they are all syncretisms of similar ideas from the same geographic region at the same time. whatever. i dont know why i wrote this post. it doesnt matter

[Anonymous No.10870837]

>>10869414
>star of david
Yeah, gonna call bullshit

[Anonymous No.10870864]

>>10870836
I assume you've been reading hokey 19th century bullshit from con artists, and people like Manly P hall who invented a tradition of hermeticism from pre-roman times, well it is very much a Early AD invention and anyone who says otherwise is a liar, there is very little evidence of such a thing. It is highly probable the emphasis on Esoteric mysterical experiences comes from increased contact with indian religions during the roman empire.

[Anonymous No.10870874]

Just starting reading the Kybalion. Where do I go after this? The Hermetica? Emerald Tablets? Something else?

[Anonymous No.10870877]

What the hell is hermeticism?

[Anonymous No.10870889]

>>10869442
fpbp

>>10869493
hermeticism and alchemy and that crap kind of struggle at transformation. their mysticism gets in their own way. taoism is just stupid. tao is tao. you cannot know the tao, only be tao. for trying to get closer to god, it's like trying to climb a sheer rock face. buddhism is pretty straightforward, limited amount of nonsense, and provides a clear path to what you should be doing.

>westerner
>wants to be "redpilled"
>flees to eastern mysticism
don't use this word in real life please. you shouldn't even be typing it, it's stupid. ideally you will go back to christianity if that is your native belief and find what you need there. christian mysticism exists, if you will look.

[Anonymous No.10870897]

>>10870877
https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=hermeticism&cat=web&pl=ext-ff&language=english
Die already grandpa.

[Anonymous No.10870907]

>>10869414
Am I wrong is saying that Hermiticism is basically a theory of the mind developed with the terms and propositions they had in Ancient times? Science must have improved/replaced the theory?

[Anonymous No.10870913]

>>10870907
you are correct.

[Anonymous No.10870924]

not only science, but philosophy and theology have advanced since the middle ages, and antiquity, and the bronze age before that.

nietzsche is a meme now but he made all that shit obsolete by himself. theology wrecked hermeticism, too, except the works of the philosophers have not been easier to find than today.

[Anonymous No.10870926]

>>10870864
no, i haven't. certain pieces within certain texts of the corpus hermeticum are likely older than early AD, but if it's all from early AD it doesn't matter really, my post still stands.

>It is highly probable the emphasis on Esoteric mysterical experiences comes from increased contact with indian religions during the roman empire.
this is a big IF, which like you say is possible, though understanding hermeticism as a form of western buddhism is retardedly lazy thinking and it's the kind of shit you find in writers you clearly have no respect for: larping esoteric perennialists.

[Anonymous No.10871002]

It's lacks creatio ex nihil. See Christianity for an account of that.

[Anonymous No.10871274]

>>10869442
Don't listen to this guy

Theravada Buddhism is cucked moralistic gook bs

[Anonymous No.10871314]

>>10870874
Evolas hermetic tradition
Atwoods hermetic mystery
Plotinus enneads
Proclus elements of theology and theology of plato
Iamblichus de mysteriis

Awakening to the tao is perhaps the best taoism book I've found

Also commentaries on the teaching of gurdjieff and ouspensky is essentially "hermetic", and its very good.

Then read some advaita Vedanta stuff, advaita bodha Deepika, Ashtavakra gita, shankaras commentaries on the Upanishads, Vivekacudamani, talks with Ramana maharshi, nisagardatta maharaj.. what they are saying is absolute truth but it's too simple for most people to just put into practice, even though it really I'd as simple as how they say.

https://youtu.be/6cyxbQQ5qAQ

[Anonymous No.10871374]

Yeah, but what are the original hermetic books
Give me 3
If it's anything from recent times it's not worth my time.
I want the originals translated to English

[Anonymous No.10871412]

>>10871374
well....according to my understanding the original is the lost book of Hermes or some secret book kept in the hands of secret societies.

[Anonymous No.10871419]

>>10871374
Basically just hermetica for you then

[Anonymous No.10871509]

>>10871374
it's a canon of books called the corpus hermiticum

[Anonymous No.10871908]

>>10869442
skip buddhism and go straight to Schopenhauer

[Anonymous No.10871933]

>>10870926
Not to mention, many hermetic techniques such as awakening statues has no parallel in the far eastern tradition and can be linked to older egyptian rites such as the opening of the mouth.

[Anonymous No.10871958]

>>10871933
Buddhism has long elaborate rituals to bless statues so the east has it too...

[Anonymous No.10871982]

No one in this group knows what the fuck they're talking about...

[Anonymous No.10872067]

>>10871982
Enlighten us

[Anonymous No.10872274]

>>10871982
Seriously, you motherfuckers just comment this shit and leave, please cut a blue lion some slag - i just wanna get red, is that too much to ask!

[Anonymous No.10872324]

>>10870785
>Hermeticism is like a weird crazy form of western buddhism mixed with gnostic christianity and platonism.

Are you retarded?

[Anonymous No.10872329]

>>10871958
More fool me. I haven't studied Buddhism much since my teens. My apologies. I was not the originator of the comment thread either. Regardless, nothing appears in a vacuum and thus claiming hermeticism has no older antecedents in the near east from whence it came seems foolish. That said, I do not find Buddhist or Hindu influence unlikely either.

[Anonymous No.10872348]

>>10872324
I also find myself doubting his academic credentials if he is willing to make a statement like that (although perhaps it is the allure of shitposting which causes such careless descriptions)...

[Anonymous No.10872372]

>>10870874
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226950077/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_bFxSAbQSTJP8F

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1847922929/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_uGxSAbGY726Q2

[Anonymous No.10872405]

>>10872372
I would have recommended Giordano Bruno's work directly but that shit is unreadable.

[Anonymous No.10872483]

>>10872405
Art of Memory receives alot of noise here- Yates' Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (second book of the trilogy of which Art is the beginnig) is an even better book. A great intro to medieval thought in general is (old historian) Henry Osborn Taylor's The Medieval Mind, cognoscible even to babby. Jump off from there.

[Anonymous No.10872569]

>>10872483
What if memory isn't the thing i'm going for?

[Anonymous No.10872578]

>>10872483
>Art of Memory receives alot of noise here

As far as mnemonic mechanics goes it's pretty archaic and outdated no one uses the LOCI system anymore. As a history of memotechnics and an introduction to mental alchemy it's excellent.

[Anonymous No.10872585]

>>10872569
Hermeticism and mental alchemy go hand in hand.

[Anonymous No.10872590]

>>10869442
>>10869511
Buddhism is a poor man's Taoism

[Anonymous No.10872603]

>>10872590
Taoism as we convince of it today was hugely influenced by Buddhist traditions. Pre-Buddhist influence Taoism was basically nigger tier ancestor worship and shamanism.

[Anonymous No.10872607]

>>10872603
>nigger tier ancestor worship and shamanism

What's wrong with shamanism and ancestor worship?

[Anonymous No.10872638]

>>10872603
The Tao Te Ching was written in China before they had learned of Buddhism. They're similar but grew out of vastly different manners of thinking

[Anonymous No.10872647]

>>10872638
Which is the basis of taoist thought

[Anonymous No.10872652]

>>10870798
>an academic
>trying to removedly, disinterestedly study a very field which rejects over intellectualization and academic dogmas and typical skeptical secularism, saying one must go through the experiences spoken about themselves to fully understand the field and that not all the truth can be put in words
>trying to study in words a teaching which expressly and repeatedly say there are deeper truths in it than can be put in writing or even symbols and that much of it must be incomprehensible to those who have not or are not allowed to experience it

[Anonymous No.10872670]

>>10872607
Psychologically primitive and backwards.

[Anonymous No.10872748]

>>10872607
I'm not going to make the case against it, I just find saying 'Taoism is a poor man's Buddhism' strange considering an extremely large subset of Taoist traditions where heavily influenced by Buddhism.
>>10872638
More than that, there is a text called 'Nei-yeh' which predates the Tao Te Ching and was in fact quite influential in forming the TTC. I'm not saying there's absolutely no original religious tradition in China, but as soon as Buddhism got introduced into the mix there was a massive amount of syncretism, to the point where what people today believe to be Taoist concepts are almost entirely Buddhist.

[Anonymous No.10872755]

>>10872569
Well? That's the point- v.1 concerns old memory systems; v. 2 'the hermetic tradition'; v. 3 (Theatre of the World) the occult (but also effective) construction of Elizabethan theatres like the Swan and Globe. I just mentioned volume One because there is one, but they really don't need to be read as a unit unless of course (ultimately) old theatre construction is your chief interest.

[Anonymous No.10872772]

>>10872578
Agreed.

[Anonymous No.10872801]

>>10869414
Study the basics of alchemy. See related pic.

[Anonymous No.10872949]

>>10872801
where is this from?

[Anonymous No.10873178]

>>10872801
You are a fucking boy pussy for not telling what the source is...

[Anonymous No.10873263]

Bump

[Anonymous No.10873457]

>>10872607
Esoteric. In that the knowledge can not be shared, it relies on substances and personal revelation.

[Anonymous No.10873517]

>>10872801
>Saturn
Saturday is the holy day of the Jews, or the Sabbath. It used to be the last day of the week, Sun day being the beginning of the week. You could say that the mere existence of Christianity demoted Saturday from the perfection of 7 to the imperfection of 6. Christianity represents the 8th day, a new dawn, a new Genesis.

It is the sixth planet, sixth day, and it has a peculiar shape on its north pole. The cross is an unfolded cube; the spiritual freedom from, and subversion of Saturn / Satan.

[Anonymous No.10873711]

>>10872748
Hahaha ironically, the situation was opposite. Buddhism was actually made for the poor man, it was the exoteric form of Taoism. Taoism was for the rich men.

[Anonymous No.10874495]

>>10869511
>Tibetan Buddhism
I would recommend to check out Alexandra David Neel. I just finished The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects and it was great. Quite short but very interesting explanations on Buddhist metaphysics. She wrote more about Tibetan Buddhism and in general of her travels to Tibet.

Started reading Principles of Buddhist Tantra by Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoché. It all seems very complicated and full of obscure terms and one Tibetan monk I met emphasized the importance of finding a teacher since you can easily go astray.

[Anonymous No.10875363]

>>10872801
Clearly Jung, one of the (3) Alchemy books, which comprise the last 3 vols of the Bollingen series of his works. Focus on 'self' gives it away. Possible alternative is James Hillman.

[Anonymous No.10875404]

>>10873517
that is image is embarrassing

[Anonymous No.10876422]

>>10875404
/lit/ can be very retarded when it comes to religion, or politics, or books really. The only places worse are reddit and the /lit/ discord.

[Anonymous No.10876489]

>>10874495
>one Tibetan monk I met emphasized the importance of finding a teacher since you can easily go astray.
To explain it simple: No teacher, no vajrayana.

[Anonymous No.10876543]

>>10869414
this is a really fucking bad thread:

the corpus hermeticum would have to have been at least as old as Greco-Egyptian culture as it seems to make extensive reference late Egyptian and early Greek mystical ideas which found their way into Platonism and Gnosticism, and the Christfags exoteric schools. Please don’t read Evola, Hermeticism isn’t taught to warriors at all, they aren’t allowed on account of being murderous worldly fags. Buddhism and Hermeticism are not similar in even the most minute of respects. Just read the Hermetica, its the only text we have assurance of being from antiquity and representing the teachings of Alexandrian mystics.

The Kybalion is an admirable but incomplete interpretation of Hermeticism with Theosophy and mentalism added in from the renaissance and 19th century.

Manly Hall largely knew what he was talking about, he had a larger library of alchemical manuscripts, books on religion and the occult than most humans in history.

The Secret Teachings of All Ages is a nice albeit limited introduction to Hermetic thought. Bohme, Agrippa, Fludd all read the Hermetica and used it for their understandings. Pseudo-Dionysus wrote an aphophatic tractate on God that may have been an esoteric interpretation of the Hermetica, no one knows.

Buddhism is fascinating, esoteric buddhism does not strictly mean Vajrayana, as that’s not what esotericism means, it means uncommon knowledge, occult implies hidden, most Vajrayana buddhists who have been “initiated” don’t know anything.

Taoism is significantly older than Laozi and the Zhuangzi is just a distillation of the Daodejing in which case its not at all a Buddhist text, in fact i dare anyone to seriously find anything but Zen in the Zhuangzi, if you can post excerpt.

Finally, Christfaggots hate Hermeticism because they stole half their philosophical ideas from Plato and Hermes and neither of them was a blood thirsty sick minded slave moralist.

The Hermetica contains a series of interpretations, almost undoubtedly from different mystics at various times in ancient history, all of which are ordered in dialectic or didactic form. Tat is a stand-in for the initiate, or Asclepius or even Hermes himself when talking to the Mind of the All itself.

I want to stress that while the 19th century occultists were unreliable. There is strong circumstantial evidence suggesting that they understood Hermeticism well enough to write of its teachings, and that its antiquity probably dates back to the beginning of the first millenia BCE which would make it older than buddhism, laozi’s text and Platonism.

Theurgy, Meditation (Metaphysical contemplation), Asceticism and even Yoga are elements of Hermetic practice.

Only one Emerald Tablet from 5th century AD Arab; To Asclepius, Discourse On the 8th and 9th and the books of the Corpus Hermeticum proper (sermons) are the total Hermetica. Nothing else is from that period. Though Gnostic texts have strong resemblance

[Anonymous No.10876690]

>>10876543
What about Jung?

[Anonymous No.10876718]

>>10869414
this thread is bad
>Redpill me on hermeticism /lit/.
fuck off neo, we had enough of you pill taking habits

>Is hermeticism philosophy legit
as any love is, faggot

>or should or should i skip this topic.
why you stuttering?
what you got coming next after you skip this one?

>where should i start what book should i read?
with your minute time spanning concentration you better just /r/mememetheoccult
else take some quality time with Three Books of Occult Philosophy

[Anonymous No.10876721]

>>10876690
he’s excellent not a strict hermeticist, he anthropormophizes Plato’s forms and makes use of psychoanalysis too often to be a real mystic. Still superb, also a strong proponent of spiritual alchemy. The wotanism is kind of alien to Hermeticism but its not as if Gnosis is limited to the Mediterranean. i think his understanding of symbolism would he essential for interpreting art and mythology. If taken with some caution, he wasn’t initiated into any mysteries and others have made admirable efforts to analyze art and mythology without using his ideas. Hermetic artists like Shakespeare, Boticelli, Michaelangelo put ciphers, diagrams and instructions into their works, i think Jung would help a person open up to this kind of information.

Nicholas of Cusa, Agrippa and Bruno are essential though. Thankfully most of their works are available for free online.

Sacred-Texts.Com and Gnosis Library have almost everything you need if you can’t find it on Libgen, GRS Mead’s Thrice Greatest Hermes (3 volume edition) with commentaries, background and sermons is perfect.

And I think Evola/Guenon/Blavatsky, though regrettably biased and LARPy, all 3 added nonsense and interpolations, are probably helpful.

[Anonymous No.10876746]

>>10876721
If one at some point want to get initiated, how does one go about doing so?

[Anonymous No.10876772]

>>10876746
RCIA (Roman Catholic Initiation for Adults)

[Anonymous No.10876820]

>>10876772
Hermetic initiation*

[Anonymous No.10876849]

>>10876543
what about Yeats

[Anonymous No.10876905]

>>10876849
Dude. A Vision.

[Anonymous No.10877141]

>>10876905
dat shit legit?

[Anonymous No.10877269]

>>10872329
>I haven't studied Buddhism much since my teens

Christ help us all this was the worst sentence i've ever read

[Anonymous No.10877301]

>>10869414
I can help you on Buddhism OP, I worked in a buddhist temple for 2 years. While the temple was of chan tradition, the master there studied in India the Gelug tradition and received his Gelug ordination from Dalai Lama.

Read, study and practice the three volumes of Je Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo (The Stages To the Path of Enlightenment). Accompany this with Liberation at the palm of your hand of Pabongka Rinpoche.
Practice bodhicitta. read Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life.
After the Lamrim you should have a very decent idea of tantra, find yourself a tibetan master of any of the 4 main schools of tibetan buddhism (Gelug, Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya) and get an initiation and just follow your master.

[Anonymous No.10877328]

>>10877301
What about sutras?

[Anonymous No.10877382]

>>10877328
Of course you should read the sutras specially the Prajnaparamita sutra but if you focus on this you might as well just run in circles. Why go yourself that way when other past masters have compiled works for you to guide you? Even Lama Tsongkhapa based his Lamrim on Atisha's Lamp for the path to enlightenment. Follow the masters. In Tibetan buddhism your master is like your personal Buddha, one of the first chapters of the Lamrim goes about the importance of relying on your teacher.

If you don't find a teacher, listen to the Dalai Lama in the meantime. He is an emanation of Avalokitesvara and is the highest lama of the Gelug tradition. Anything that comes from him you can count as good source.

[Anonymous No.10877988]

>>10877141
It's both interesting and entertaining, and totally legit with respect to much of his later poetry. Embrace your quirks and bad ideas, anon.