Is the Corpus Hermetica actually worth reading or is it just schizo nonsense akin to the ramblings of the homeless junkies who live in front of Flinders street?
it's gold if you're chatting up a bpd witchy crystal whore.
>>23819401Yeah it is worth reading
>>23819407Tread carefully
>>23819401It's just bootleg Plato. If you want to read it but haven't read Plato you're just outing yourself as only interest in occult larp aesthetics.
It’s both depending on how good the author is. Just like all philosophy
>>23819401>Is the Corpus Hermetica actually worth reading or is it just schizo nonsense akin to the ramblings of the homeless junkies who live in front of Flinders street?It's pretty much Platonic philosophy with an Egyptian veneer. Or, it's Egyptian philosophy, with a Platonic veneer. I've read the CH and it consists of claims that any Platonist, narrowly or broadly construed, would agree with. However, there's no proof appended to the claims, so while it is, mostly, correct, it is hard to claim Hermeticism as an actual "philosophy."So, to answer your question: read it if you want to converse with new age people. Or tempt actual demonic influence. Which I did, and very much regret, as it was very unpleasant.So. No, don't read it.
>>23819648>>23821267ChatGPT/wiki slopCH is a practical guide
>>23821342Oh, I can assure, I am very much not a chat bot.
>>23821267demonic influence?
>>23821912Yes. I can elaborate more on what that looked like.I discussed this before with another anon here on the dangers of theurgy. How, this stuff is real, and not fun.
>>23822668Bumping for story or archive link if you don’t feel like typing it all over again. Thanks.
>>23822668Demons aren't real
>>23823905Oh, they very much are. Unfortunately.
>>23822901I'll type out my experience when I'm back at home. Hang tight
>>23822901second
>>23822901Pic attached to show I'm not larping.Before taking Christianity seriously, I was a big proponent of the "perennial philosophy" type of thinking. All traditions teach the same God etc. Like many anons, I started with the Greeks, adored Plato and Aristotle, started to read more of the neoplatonists, and came upon their theurgic traditions.I thought it was interesting that these logically rigorous men off-handedly mentioned the reality of invocable entities, magic etc. So that would mean either:>they actually weren't logically sound, because they believed in magic>magical belief was just a random blindspot for these otherwise comprehensive philosophers>they had magical belief BECAUSE they were logically rigorousI dismissed one out of hand, because I could read what they wrote, and they were sane, rational men. Two was out, as it would be grossly unlikely for them to miss something THAT obviously wrong. As well, it's not like they couldn't just come out and say "You really believe in that stuff? Come on." The Epicureans did just that and they were wildly popular. So it's not like they had to hide what they really thought.Which leaves us with option three. So I had to confront the reality that magic, and all the other "woo woo" stuff, was probably real.Iamblichus sealed the deal in demonstrating, at minimum, that theurgic rites COULD actually do what their practitioners say they do. Proclus proved that the gods HAVE to exist and what Ares, Aphrodite etc would actually be, what they do, and what communion wjth them would look like. From there, it was a short step toward understanding what theurgy is and what the old Platonists did.Orphic hymns, Chaldean oracles, esoteric readings of Plato, numeromancy, spirit readings, Jungian shadow work, all that nonsense. All in the journey to know. Very Faustian.After a bit of all this, I noticed a definite turning in myself. A madness. Erratic behavior, despair, strange thoughts and dreams. Very strange thoughts and dreams. It was bad enough that I seriously considered suicide as relief from it all. When I say seriously, I mean serious enough that I discovered how trivially easy it is to hang yourself with a belt.I'm not sure how I got out of all that, beyond divine intervention and my pleas for mercy, but the madness did recede. I stopped fooling around with all that nonsense and came upon Augustine and his note that the "gods" of the pagans can be nothing more than demons. From experience, he's right. The demonic is not often like it is in the movies, thought that can happen. Disembodied intelligences, to use that Thomistic phrase, are far more subtle than that. They work on a person's imagination and sensitive faculties, through attraction/repulsion like Aristotle's Unmoved Mover, to poke and prod a person to have these thoughts, perform these actions, of their own will. The demonic cannot force you to do anything. They can, however, make it pretty convincing.
>>23825444it might be time to see a psychiatrist
>>23825444Nice trips and glad you made it out. I was going to ask if you got into Iamblichus and Proclus or not. With your hindsight, what do you think the One of the neoplatonists is? Did you ever try to reach it or did you mostly just try to work with more personified gods like the ones you mentioned? Asking from a place of ignorance, I have always had too many Christian writers in my stack to have gotten into them. Early Christians will talk about “true religion” but it seems like it could get real slippery.
All western esotericism is just an attempt to smuggle Eastern philosophy into Christianity
>>23825444Meds
>>23825520Psychiatrists are just pastors for secular materialists. But to your point, yes, I did talk to my pastor about all this. He helped me tremendously. >what do you think the One of the neoplatonists is?God. The Triune God. More strictly, the unbegotten Father. Plotinus was very much against theurgy. Augustine adored Plotinus and there's a reason for that. >Did you ever try to reach it or did you mostly just try to work with more personified gods like the ones you mentioned?The One comes upon you when you least expect it. Toward the end of my theurgical journey I was meditating on Plato's Parmenides. I felt, or saw, a great field or expanse, light and warmth. I was amazed at the realization that the One is all that is good, that everything comes from it. It was nice, to put it mildly. Then it was gone. Plotinus wrote about his experiences with the One. How hard it is to explain beyond "it's good, really good."
>>23819401Uh huh. And what would this schizo rambler look like. Inquiring minds and all that.
>>23819401It’s no more schizo than Christianity or any other religion if that’s what you’re asking.
>>23825572If you got something positive out of theurgical contemplation and experienced the One, why did you abandon it altogether?
>>23825572Confession is underrated. Your point that Plotinus was against theurgy is interesting, especially if one views the body as the true Third Temple. Your experience makes sense, as does your narrowing it down to the Father. The different Persons really are qualitatively different. Nice serendipity, someone was nice enough to start a thread on St Teresa. She goes a fair bit into discernment in the second half of Interior Castle but essentially encounters with “the good guys” leave behind a sense of peace even if the experience itself isn’t necessarily peaceful. One of my college buddies back in the day hanged himself with a belt, just wanted to say again that I’m really glad you were set aside for other things.
>>23819407Realistically how many times are you actually going to meet a bitch like that? You guys spend so much time on the internet you think they're everywhere
>>23825733>If you got something positive out of theurgical contemplation and experienced the One, why did you abandon it altogether?Because I only experienced the One, to some degree, when I stopped active theuegy. My practice became, and still is, wholly contemplative.
>>23825444From your prior stance in the more perennial type of thinking, how were you able to adopt the dogmas of Christianity ? I feel I have been, or am still in, the place you described; though the faith in Christ still prevails, I can not see the dogmas that are pushed as being true.I am very curious since what you described seems to mirror myself, and probably many other Faust types.
>>23825800Thank you for your kind comment, anon.God bless.
>>23825962>From your prior stance in the more perennial type of thinking, how were you able to adopt the dogmas of Christianity?A study of the the epistemology of testimony. What a true miracle confirms about the miracle worker. A very, VERY hard look at the historical evidence of Christ. The studies of NT Wright and Richard Bauckham were tremendously valuable, as was Augustine on testimony.
>>23819401Guess we’ll find out when we die. But it’s pretty fun and interesting to read while we’re alive.
>>23822668Skill issue>>23823905LMAO
>>23819407No it's not. Hermeticism is antithetical to most tiktok witchery, which is essentially chaos magic.
>>23825444I remain unconvinced by your testimony.Generally speaking, the most logical path after yours is ataraxia in the Pyrrhonist sense.
>>23821267>However, there's no proof appended to the claims, so while it is, mostly, correct, it is hard to claim Hermeticism as an actual "philosophy."Retarded statement. Philosophy never has any proofs. Philosophy is not math.
>>23825444Thanks for sharing. But isn't this is to be expected? From Bulwer-Lytton's Zanoni, your experience sounds like Glyndon and the dweller on the threshold. Could you explain in more detail what you did in terms of theurgy? or some of the negative experiences, like the dreams or thoughts, specifically? According to Tradition, you're supposed to already be initiated before attempting it, or at the very least undergo serious purification. I don't practice theurgy because I am aware of dangers if unprepared, but I had a dream not very long ago (with a certain seductress that I found in a room), and near the end of it all I remember is darkness, and I heard a similar sound to what the Balrog makes in LOTR when it is unleashed, like an absolutely gigantic stone grinding on concrete, and then a voice which was same, like it was inhabiting my being, and I "escaped" it by leaving the dream, and as I was waking up, I could hear my voice beginning to say some of the words it was saying (something to the effect of "now i have you"), at least partially, since I was consciously rejecting it. There are other "demonic" dreams, but that was the most extreme/personal/internal. So anybody getting in to this stuff needs to be wary of spiritual dangers. And it isn't unique to theurgy, but I would imagine that theurgy makes them more intense. Also, when you are giving in to vulgar desires, increasingly extreme and depraved, you are basically opening yourself up to them. So Christianity is a sound path to avoid spiritual dangers. But if you're delving into esoteric practices it's not like it's shield which can automatically block every harmful influence without any effort on your part.
>>23825856They're all at The Castle in Ybor listening to Bauhaus tracks.>>23826632Bro you just got to talk some spooky semi intelligent sounding nonsense to win them over.. you think these hoes have any kind of logically consistent framework for witch LARPing? They just watched Hocus Pocus, Labyrinth and The Nightmare Before Christmas as kids and made up their whole personality around them.
>>23821267Plato ripped off Hermes not the other way around
>>23826760>you think these hosUnderestimating other people's level of awareness based on stereotypes is extremely dumb and makes you a target. Underestimating women's level of awareness when they're into esotericism because you're misogynist and also want to fuck them, is extremely dangerous and a good way to wind up in a very bad predicament
>>23826814What are they going to do to cast a spell on me that they learned from tiktok? Shut the fuck up, tranny.
>>23826820No; they'll outsmart you and use the information about yourself that you freely reveal to do so. Duh
>>23826830lol what kind of shameful shit are you doing that you'd be endangered by some whore you railed and bailed talking shit about you
>>23826650>Generally speaking, the most logical path after yours is ataraxia in the Pyrrhonist senseElaborate on that. I had a Pyrrhonian phase very early in my philosophical "journey">Retarded statement. Philosophy never has any proofs. Philosophy is not math.I use "proofs" in the same sense as "demonstrations." >>23826809If by Hermes you mean "was influenced by Egyptian philosophy," then yes
>>23826658>>23827341
>>23825444Magic most certainly is real. The most rational men, i.e. theoretical physicists, already figured this out. Just look at heckin quantum mechanics. However, christcuckery is the wrong path. All of the platonic and gnostic wisdom is already working out perfectly without the Jesus cult. Forcing Abrahamic mythology into this is a major downgrade. The historical Jesus may or may not have been capable of magic. But the cult surrounding his person was mainly influenced by cringe midwits.
>>23825444>After a bit of all this, I noticed a definite turning in myself. A madness. Erratic behavior, despair, strange thoughts and dreams. Very strange thoughts and dreams. It was bad enough that I seriously considered suicide as relief from it all. When I say seriously, I mean serious enough that I discovered how trivially easy it is to hang yourself with a belt.I already do these things and I have never trifled with the occult. If I'm naturally a brooder, how much worse could it get? Maybe you need to be already a dark person to go down that road. But then again, I am a Cancer Sun/Scorpio Moon, so that's a given.
i also saw the new religion for breakfast video
