What On Earth Do You Mean When You Say... "Hermetic"?

When I started exploring alternative spirituality, I did not do it with the intent to practice magic. In fact, my own background is that of a skeptic. I was brought up with a strong sense of what logical thinking means and the need to provide proof for claims made. I think one of my clearest childhood memories was of my father talking about the concept of Logic to my much older cousins.

I'm a little surprised that few people have actually asked me what I mean when I say I am a "hermetic" magician. They mostly just nod and say "oh". I figure some people just assume what that means is some variety of Wiccan belief... or associate it with something they probably saw in "Charmed". It's only recently that I have had people who have asked me what that meant. I guess its about time now that I make some attempt to define what it is that I do... I mean after all the bellyaching that I do on this blog about magic.

When I started along this path, I did not really assign a terminology to what I did. I was drawn to the Western esoteric tradition and to ceremonial magick in terms of the circles, seals and other symbols that were used. However, at that time, I felt I did not know enough to really say that I am a practitioner of ceremonial magick. So like all people who are trying to find out about stuff, I did my reading and research to try to understand the traditions I felt drawn to.

At the core of all of this searching... I realised eventually that I wasn't truly drawn to the iconography of the Western esoteric tradition per se... I was drawn to the person of Hermes Trismegistus (in actuality the Egyptian Thoth) and what he represented.

I found out through my own meditative exploration... (and this is my own personal belief)... that Hermes / Thoth isn't a god, and not even an ascended master (as so many people claim he is today)... but a man. A man who is likely a scholar and a magician, but who like all of us has reincarnated and continues to reincarnate in the world today. I felt alone in my beliefs until I met the only reader that ever convinced me she had real psychic abilities. Strangely enough, this reader held the same belief. She also claimed she knew the truth about Hermes because she was once his disciple...

Now I don't know about her other claims, but when I heard her say, "I know he didn't ascend... he is still reincarnating today..." I felt a great sense of affirmation and I actually hugged her.

Till today, I have not heard a single reader or channeller say the same thing to me. In fact, I have met and talked to channellers of the ascended master "Lord Hermes"... now, I have to admit, there is a side to me that is just a bit naughty... when I do meet someone who claims to channel Hermes, I'll ask the channeller a question that is related to something esoteric or about magic... presumably...IF the being really IS Hermes, he would have no problem answering the question, since... allegedly... the Western esoteric tradition is based on learning that originated from ancient Egypt and Thoth/Hermes is a god of magic.

To date, I have not met anyone who has convinced me that they are channelling the real deal, in fact in one colourful moment, one of the beings (the channeller here was speaking on the being's behalf) that was channelled asked me what my opinion was on a particular magical question which I posed to it as a test... :P I mean, can you imagine Hermes asking an apprentice what his view is about some topic in magic? I suppose the real deal would only do that if he were trying to see if I knew my stuff... but being a mighty ascended being, wouldn't he already know what I was thinking? I honestly expected either a tongue lashing for my audacity at daring to question the being's authority.

I guess the channeller knew I was testing... yes, I was THAT obvious. Instead of an admonishment... (no they would rather not admonish you publically because they are all supposedly filled with "love and light")... I was given a rather general answer that wasn't really explained well. :(

I suppose some channellers overseas are more widely read than the channellers in this country... Because just through pure observation alone, I do NOT think that the channellers here are well read in the subject that they are supposedly experts in... :P Of course, the claim is that the knowledge channelled is from some higher being... but I beg to defer since most of the beings channelled seem to only have the same level of knowledge as the channeller... and surely... as multi-millennial entities, SOME ought to AT LEAST have a standard of verbal expression that surpasses the normal Singaporean... :P

Okay... yes... I am being horribly nasty :P And in part, that stems from the fact that I'm at times, terribly arrogant... and in part from my frustration that the name of a person I honour and respect is being brandied about just like... that. I think what galls me is the fact that some of these people are entirely genuine in their belief... so the better part of me can't bring myself to shatter their cherished notions... haiz.

Anyways... back to the topic... over time I decided to call myself a "hermetic magician / wizard" in part, so as to differentiate myself from the Wiccans.

So what do I mean by the terminology I use then?

Well, when I realised that I was drawn to the person of Hermes, I decided to read up as much as I could about him and if possible, find stuff that he wrote ... if any ... or taught. Naturally, like a lot of new age people, I stumbled upon works like "The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean" (some people believe Thoth was the last priest/magician of Atlantis)... however, I also tried to find out WHERE the work came from... my own research into the matter led me to a rather shady figure called Dr Doreal... who allegedly was the one who compiled the work from "ancient sources"... but likely (and again, this is my belief, based on my own research and observation)... WROTE the dang thing.

Being unable to find any credible works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus among the more common new age publications, I turned to stuff written by the founding members of modern ceremonial magick... (ie. Golden Dawn... etc) At first, what they wrote sounded impressive... however... when I did my reading into how the ideas evolved, I was highly disappointed to find out that the source of their ideas weren't quite as ancient as they claimed, and in fact, some of these turn of the century practitioners went so far as to forge documentation to substantiate their beliefs... or claim that they were in contact with some otherworldly entities... (some modern occult writers have expressed doubt as to the authenticity of these supernatural contacts)

So there, my search for Hermes again runs up dry...

I'm now at the stage where I am looking at some old hermetic texts... and to be honest... what I am turning up isn't promising either. In the latest book I read about hermeticism, it turns out that a lot of ancient texts were likely written by other ancient authors ... not Hermes... but often attributed to an important historical or divine personage (like Hermes or Thoth) so as to er... give the book a sense of authority... or in some other cases dedicate the writing of the book to a certain patron or god.

I'm not quite done in that area, so who knows I might find something interesting...

I used to call myself a "ceremonial magician" when I was trying to figure out stuff from the early twentieth century mystics... but it really doesn't feel right since I think that most of the "magick" written in those texts are really just attempts by some writers to complicate ideas... make them SOUND impressive. I mean, I have asked myself this... just because I accidentally leave out a symbol or two when drawing out an uber-complicated summoning circle .. will that cause my magic to fail? And how do we know that such and such a symbol is necessary anyway? Is it because somebody from the impressive sounding hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn says it is necessary?

This reminds me of an incident where some young people who were practicing magic commented to me that the Enochian language was "powerful" stuff because it can be used to call upon and talk to angels... I said, "What... you think archangel Michael cannot understand English?"

Well, I think I'll stop calling myself a "ceremonial magician" since i don't really subscribe to the teachings of the mystics who came up with modern "magick". By the way, I am still a little bit fascinated by different practices of the magical orders... 'cos some of their rituals are cool-looking examples of a kind of modern mystery play and really great theatre. :)

So why... why "hermetic"...you might ask, since I do not subscribe to the teachings of any of the "hermetic" magical orders?

Well, there are some beliefs which I hold to that are a part of hermetic tradition... such as the use of the 4 elements of earth, water, air and fire, the concept of "as above so below" and the idea of reincarnation... and the belief in a supreme being that made all.

Link: What is Hermeticism?

However, I don't really subscribe to ALL of the typical hermetic or gnostic beliefs... in part because I'm still reading and evaluating them... and because here too some of the ideas that are embraced as part of modern hermeticism (and therefore attributed directly or indirectly to Hermes) sound as if the originators of the ideas are trying to make simple concepts sound grand and impressive...:P

At the end of the day, I find that my best source of information about Hermes / Thoth and what the ancients believed about him and practiced is from historical or archeological sources. I feel that it is my search for the real Hermes, my belief in him and his knowledge that puts the "hermetic" in my definition of what I am doing.

By the way, you likely won't get the same views from someone else if you googled "hermetic magician"... in fact most of my similarly-termed contemporaries might either think I am insane, misguided or a total fraud.

"So I Guess You Must Hate Hermes... Right?"

"So I guess you must hate Hermes... right?... Why?"

Amazingly, I was asked this question by a friend who runs a place that attracts and hosts New Age events. When the comment came out, well, my mouth rounded into an "O" and I said, "On the contrary I DON'T hate Hermes..."

This very strange conversation came about because apparently, my big mouth has given me a reputation as a skeptic and a hater of channellers.

It's not true, I don't hate real channellers. I don't even hate the fake ones, or the ones that THINK they are channelling something from the spirit world. In fact, I am always on the lookout for psychics, witches, shamans and magicians who really have the powers they are supposed to have. And yes, I DO compliment and encourage the ones whom I feel have real talent. It is simply that I find myself unable to swallow or agree with something that I feel is a blatent lie or a huge self-deception.

I think that I am a pretty judgemental person... but that judgemental nature has also allowed me to see past a great deal of deception. In the past, I would not hesitate to challenge a blatent charlatan. I think I have toned down a lot these days. BUT, I still have a big mouth, what can I say, the ol' leopard can't really change those spots.

I don't really have a problem with the traditional spirit mediums that are a part of culture in Singapore, sure, not all of them get possessed by the gods all the time, and certainly, when the gods do fail to "show" there is some trickery on their part. (When I was much younger, I had the opportunity to hear the testamony of a "tang ki" who admitted that on occasion when the appropriate god failed to make an appearance, he was forced to resort to acting. ) However, the mediums in question do actually get possessed by the spirits often enough so that their credibility is intact. Also, they perform traditional feats of strength or endurance (slashing oneself does come to mind, as well as sitting on a chair of nails, all done without injury to the "tang ki" in question) to show a kind of rough proof that they have really been "ridden upon" by the gods.

I do question however the modern phenomena of "channelling". I mean, WHAT IS IT? Does the channeller actually get possessed by the spirit in question? Is the channeller actually conscious when possession happens? Or is the channel merely a clairvoyant and/or clairaudient middleman in the world of spirits and does not get possessed at all? I think that some places in the West at least, there is a distinction made between channelling and trance-mediumship. The former usually doesn't entail possession but the latter certainly does.

The problem with Singapore is that there isn't that kind of distinction and as a result, there is a great deal of variety in how "channelling" is conducted. The range of what a channeller does locally runs the gamut from what appears to be a very mild case of a "full possession" (I use very because I have never witnessed any of the non-traditional channellers do even a small percentage of the feats that the traditional "tang ki" does) to someone who is obviously completely conscious, and speaks and sounds exactly like himself/herself in terms of speech and tone even when he or she is "channelling" some highly evolved being.

This has led me to question the modern New Age channeller.

1. Without the traditional shows of "proof" of the gods' presence, how DO we know that the the channeller is really channelling some entity?

2. Noticeably, even the "tang ki"s admit that the spirits don't always show up when requested through prayer and ritual. How is it that most channellers can seemingly "command" the presence of the being in question whenever they are asked?

I mean, consider this seriously. Do you honestly think that the Archangel Michael has the time to come over and answer questions whenever he is called? For that matter, does he even deal with pretty human concerns. I'd think with the level of power he is at, he won't see or communicate with humans very often.

3. What is the standard proceedure behind "channelling"?

Considering what is required of the channeller... one would think that some kind of psychic ability is involved. Even if the channeller isn't functioning as a trance medium, based on what people expect from channelling, a channeller ought to have some kind of clairvoyance and/or clairaudience so that they can most importantly HEAR what the being in question is trying to convey to them.

With regards to Question 3, I once asked a channeller (and yes, by coincidence it was someone chanelling Lord Hermes) what is it that he sees or hears when Hermes communicates with him. Well, the answer was a real shocker.

Apparently, the channel has never physically seen or heard from "Lord Hermes". So then I asked, JUST HOW does he know Hermes is communicating with him? How does the "Lord Hermes" he is channelling actually answer questions posed to him? It took a bit of questioning, but I found out that the channel actually sees flashes of images in his mind when focusing on my questions.

AH HA! I was onto something. I went around to a few more channels and asked them about their communication with their patron being. Apparently, quite a lot of them have never actually seen or heard with their physical vision and hearing, the being they are channelling. So how were they getting their messages? Well, through what is known as the "Mind's Eye Vision".

Here I have to digress a little and talk a bit about what I feel the definition of "psychic ability" is. I am of the opinion that INTUITION is something that everyone has. Some people have a lot of it, some don't. And some people aren't even aware it exists. However, with some training, most people can make use of their intuition at a level that helps them in their daily life. Most often intuition comes as a sort of gut feeling or a sense of something, with some training in visualisation and meditation, I do think a normal human being will at some point be able to see images through the "Mind's Eye Vision". That is, images flash around in their mind when their intuition is put to work.

However, I feel that INTUITION is very different from ACTUAL PSYCHIC ABILITY. And I notice that not everyone has psychic abilities. Just like not everyone is a gifted pianist or ballerina. So what are these psychic abilities? From what I notice in my daily experience, the most readily identified psychic abilities are: Clairvoyance, Clairsentience, Clairaudience, Psychometry and Mediumship. I also notice that these gifts tend to run in families or blood relation. For instance, most "tang ki"s also have family members who are doing the same thing or something similar.

The "Mind's Eye Vision" is NOT a psychic ability. As the person only sees ... whatever he or she sees... in the mind. For those of you who might be feeling disappointed by what you are reading, don't underestimate the power of the "Mind's Eye Vision" and normal human intuition. Think about this... do you know that a study was conducted by some airlines that showed that before a plane crashes there is a significantly higher number of passenger cancellations and transfers from that same plane compared to normal flights? How do these people know when NOT to take the flight?

Back to channellers...

Soooooo, if most channellers I am likely to meet in Singapore are only receiving the messages through the "Mind's Eye Vision"... How does anyone know where those messages come from eh?

Unfortunately, after meeting that channeller, I met other channellers who also channelled "Lord Hermes"... sheesh... for one guy, he sure does get around. What if 2 people channel him at the same time at different locations? Who does he go to? I guess I made some unflattering comments to my friend about the whole idea of channelling Hermes and somehow I got the image of being a Hermes-hater.

Anyways, I really really doubt that the historical Hermes Trismegistus that I know is actually being channelled by anyone, and I certainly don't think he is any kind of ascended master, no matter what kind of sage people today say he was in the distant past. That's right... our perceptions of him today are based on modern interpretations. The actual ancient Egyptian view of Hermes Trismegistus is that he is a god... Hermes is really a latter Greek syncretism of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth and Mercury/Hermes. And NO, there is no historical evidence that Thoth was ever an ancient Atlantian sage or priest. Now, Plato is the recognised historical source of the Atlantis legend and he never mentioned Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus in his writing. The philosopher DOES hint at ancient records that were kept in secret in Egypt for 9000 years, but that factoid does not make a link to Thoth in any way. And NO, I did not see the word Hermes or Thoth anywhere in those damnable books when I had to read them in the university.

However, it is interesting to note that historically and in certain traditional belief systems there seems to be a link between Thoth/Hermes Trismegistus and the very human Enoch (in the Bible and Torah) or Idris (in the Islamic texts). Something which I am currently exploring. Therefore I am inclined to believe that the original Thoth might really be human. In the same way I think that Osirius, Isis and Set were based on actual historical people. And I might add in the case of Osirius and Isis, some scholars make a really good case for their being based off actual historical people and events.

Before you go off saying ... "Like how can people become gods..." well think about Kwan Gong, Chinese god of warfare, he was a real historical person whom people deitified after his death. And in a more recent example a friend of mine travelling around visited a Chinese temple in Malaysia. Among the standard images of Chinese gods, he saw the statue of a man in a suit with a cane in hand. Amused by this, he asked a local who the deity was. Well, as it turned out, the man in the suit was a well-known and loved local philantropist who had passed on. But in the world of ancestor worship and traditional Chinese belief, he was turned into some kind of god.

And if you are boiling mad after reading this, please do note, I do not hate channellers and I do think that there are some out there who truly possess psychic gifts. I was fortunate enough in this lifetime to meet someone who does communicate with spirits and who convinced me that she was actually listening to answers given to her by unseen entities. However, she is currently the ONLY professional psychic I have met thus far who has convinced me of her gifts.

As for Hermes Trismegistus/Thoth... I can only say that I deeply respect what the man stands for. That is why I am determined to uncover the truth about him and his knowledge. I am not content to accept the "Lord Hermes" that is sometimes channelled as the actual historical person that has ascended. If Hermes Trismegistus / Thoth is indeed a master of science, physics, magic and mathematics, as Egyptian tradition claims, I would expect nothing less from him than the highest levels of academic excellence and enlightened wisdom. Sadly, I have never heard THAT LEVEL of knowledge and wisdom from the mouth of any mortal person alive today.

Singaporean... Born and Bred

"So are you really Singaporean?"

I have been asked that question quite a lot of times. I sometimes wonder why it even pops up. I dress like most adult Singaporeans - non-descript office wear. I take the bus and MRT and even swear in a blend of Hokkien-Singlish.

So I get really confused whenever that question pops up and I offer to show my pink IC as proof.

And no... I have never been overseas for an extended period for the purposes of getting a piece of paper that says I am now eligible for some types of white-collar jobs. Like about 70% of my fellow-countrymen, I have spent at least 10 years in that school system that critics say kill off any semblence of independence and creative thought.

The only possible difference I can identify between myself and the ubiquitous shirted guy who walks down Shenton Way wondering if he will get his bonus or not, is that I practice magic and actively pursue the knowledge of Hermes Trismegistus. However, I don't see how it's possible for anyone to figure THAT out since I don't walk around wearing a large, visible medallion with a caduceus engraved on it.

And that's the whole problem with being in Singapore. If there are any practitioners or believers of magic in this country, they are harder to find than a needle in the... well you know what I mean. From what I understand, most people who engage in some kind of occult practice are not willing to admit that they are doing it. (I can understand why the element of "shyness" exists) So, I decided to start this blog hoping that I'll be able to meet like minded individuals. But if that doesn't happen, at least it can function as a space for me to air my views. I mean, being a magus in this country is a pretty lonely thing... sigh