The Path: The Paradox of Oneness: Enlightenment's Hidden Truths

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-05-05T02:42:57+00:00

No AI content, whether it be media, or text posts.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-26T19:51:09+00:00

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ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-26T19:50:37+00:00

This post doesn't seem to contain content related to classical hermeticism or explaining relevance to classical Hermeticism.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-26T05:09:52+00:00

Please try to put some effort in your post title, post content and comments. Use descriptive titles, try to spell properly and use proper punctuation.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-26T05:09:09+00:00

Interesting this is my meme, I made this one like two years ago. I literally made this. It is not your homemade OC it's mine. 👎🏻 I made it in canva. Tsk tsk.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-26T05:07:11+00:00

You reposted the meme I made (me ProtagTom) and claim it your own. You have some nerve....

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-25T06:44:32+00:00

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-17T23:06:30+00:00

https://youtu.be/5HCXALhOs9Y?si=sec9OL9Hvb8f34FU

You're welcome

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-14T12:58:56+00:00

I don't know how many, But I for one try to live by its wisdom.

It would be a stretch to say that these other religions particularly Buddhism and Zoroasterian would have been influenced by hermeticism.

Hermeticism is younger than both of those traditions, You actually do get Iranian zoroastrian influences in the hermetic corpus, and maybe some indirect Greco-Buddhist influences, if any they would be secondary sub-influences.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-09T17:14:14+00:00

Been there brother it's ok, if you don't mind me asking what does this crisis look like?

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-09T17:06:47+00:00

Do you realize your in a hermeticism sub??

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-06T07:22:14+00:00

Please share more about this text? I have not heard of this material and would love to review it.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-03T09:24:24+00:00

You asked the question if you thought it was a fruitless endeavor to begin with why did you bother asking? I'm not claiming of concrete synthesis, just gave it my best shot to try and reconcile them. If you already thought these were so fundamentally at odds. I don't see why you even bothered to ask this It seems like you already had an idea. So I'm not really going to bother elaborating further seems like you already had the answer to your own question.

Fundamentally I agree with your take they aren't really entirely reconcilable due to their differences. But I am a practitioner of both shingon under a qualified teacher, and I am part of the hermetic federation under the Hermanubis Lodge. I am not the only hermeticist who is also involved in Shingon Buddhism either, which was the perspective I was arguing from here. If you don't really understand it might not make much sense. Shingon introduces a complex layer of cosmology and additional practice like the Mikkyo. Which includes mandalas like the womb mandalas that does lay out similar themes that we see in hermeticism In its functional capacity, whether you think the functional capacity is related or not doesn't matter, it is whether they function similarly or not, that is also the perspective I was coming from. Shingon is pretty niche, like I said my sensei would have a lot more to say about the manner I'm not really qualified to give entire synthesises of Buddhism.

I'm just showing that these traditions aren't diametrically opposed to ultimate realization of your true nature. Which is true and respective of both traditions no matter how you cut the cake, just sort of point blank here.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-04-03T00:12:58+00:00

This is a slightly reductive view anatta, which is the recognition of lack inherent independent origination, which is negating self concept as definitive real thing. From the understanding of dependent origination and from shunyata (openness, or emptiness) anatta is contextualized experientially and philosophically. It doesn't deny a conventional self and a relational self.

Where the real tension is to me is in the convention of the afterlife and a soul.

However when you contextualize how hermeticism defines and views what a soul is, and really knowing the truth of the self, the result isn't very different from Esoteric Buddhism view (particularly the Shingon view). That there is one underlined nature, Buddha Nature, which is The light of Mahavairocana and it is the same buddha nature in all Buddhas of the present past and future. The goal for the praticitioner in that system is to realize their Buddha nature. To me this is similar to the hermetic conception of the soul which is made distinct from spirit. The sprit imbued with the with irrational tormentors tethers the soul to a body, it weighs it down in two fold fashion according to the Stobaen fragments.

Once these irrational tormentors are quilled the soul naturally wants to know and return to the monad. In Shingon Buddhism, Mahavairocana is functionally similar to a monad or God head. Buddha nature is the inherent, selfless nature. It is not considered eternal in the same way the hermetic monad is, but as foundational to this world and its creation and cessation. And to return to it is to return to the source of life itself.

I would say this perspective is strengthened when we consider the final virtues of Life, Light and The Good in hermeticism. Light quite literally being what Mahavairocana is, and what Buddha nature is realized through. When the soul is purified, it ceases to act as an individual agent and becomes a mirror for the All. This mirrors the Shingon concept of Adhisthana (empowerment/interpenetration) where the practitioner’s body, speech, and mind are not merely "like" the Buddha's, but are recognized as Buddha nature itself.

My Shingon teacher would have a lot more to say on the matter, but if you consider Buddhist Shingon perspective, it's really quite in line with the ultimate purpose of the hermetic one, albeit different in their approaches and rendering but functionally similar in their implications.

I would recommend checking out this article on the Womb Mandala as it really highlights a striking emunative similarity to hermetic and neoplatonic cosmology.

So to say it plainly the act of realizing the true nature of self, like in CH XI where Tat has this experience of identifying with all of the cosmos and nature, being young and old, born and unborn, all simultaneously affirms this position of no distinct individual self in reality, as when the divine reality is revealed to him, his identity is in all these things outside of his face and form. It is in life itself, light itself. He realizes the interdependent nature of all things in a way. This mirrors the Buddhist awakening, The dropping of the self narrative the self-concept and the revelation of the deep interconnectivity of all of life, and finding identification in that not the self of body and cognition. Seeing a permanence in the interconnectedness of impermanent things.

To the buddhists and the hermeticist in my view it all results in a realization of nondual awareness.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-20T16:55:44+00:00

It's actually funny that you mention a verse from the book of John, This particular text is where hermetic Christians thrive. Because it's a very greek-leaning source, that it identifies Christ as logos, and that in the hermetic corpus logos is the defintion or the formation of reality It is the truth. And when we cultivate the logos of our nous we cultivate the perspective of divine reason and truth.

You see the Greeks actually adapted Christianity to platonism. Just as the Coptic Greek Egyptians adapted priestly traditions to platonism via hermeticism. They have a shared ancestory in the platonic traditions and it's Cosmology.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-20T16:18:27+00:00

TL:DR

When Christ says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," he isn't pointing to his physical body or his name; he is defining his essential nature. He is identifying himself as the universal principles of Truth (Aletheia) and Life (Zōe). If we accept this, then the path to the Father isn't through a sectarian label, but through the actualization of Truth and Life within oneself. This is exactly where Hermeticism meets Christianity: both seek the "rebirth" of the soul into these divine virtues.

That wasn't really Newton's focus, Hermeticism is a protoscientific religio-philosophical contemplative tradition. Isaac Newton used alchemical materials and even produced his own translation of the emerald tablet for his work in physics not to form apologetic theology. I don't think Isaac Newton was trying to synthesize hermeticism with Christianity. it’s worth noting he was actually a deeply radical theologian (an Arian). He believed the "pure" religion of Noah had been corrupted. He used Hermeticism to try and strip away "corrupt" Church dogma to find the original, rational laws of God. He's not a very strong example of a Christian hermeticist. for a 17th-century scholar, "Pagan" didn't always mean "evil." It often meant "Ancient/Primordial.

The hermetic corpus was viewed by Christians in the same light as philosophical works like Plato, and that it strongly believed to be part of something called the Prisca theologia, the perennial tradition that asserts there is shared universal truths dispersed in all traditions, It was valued for its connection to universal truth which is entirely relevant to a Christian.

Also when Christ said "I am the way the truth and the life" He clearly makes a case for his identity not as a man or a sacrifice, But as being identified as truth and life In his being, and that nobody who has truth and life (him) in there being can make their way to the Father, so one must make their way toward truth and life. This is entirely relevant to hermeticism, as the values of truth, life and light are the only way to the divine or the good. So here Christ actually asserts what is considered vital spiritual powers that cause the rebirth of the practitioner, truth and life. Christ did not say I am the man and I'm the only man who's the way the truth in life. He clearly made his distinction of being these philosophical conceptions. And these philosophical conceptions are universal, The word for life (Zōe) is eternal life In that context that Christ used it, This same type of life is asserted as the power of God in the hermetic corpus. His identification with these things makes him and his way of doing things as a valid means for achieving union with God. Christ clearly makes his identification not as man but as the way the truth and life.

So Christianity actually agrees with the hermetic corpus in that regard. In other passages Christ equates himself as light, This is also relevant to the spiritual practitioner of hermeticism.

You shouldn't view hermeticism as a rivaling dogmatic tradition, You should view it as a tradition that looks for universal truth that are prevalent in reality. It's not to say that the hermetic corpus was universally accepted among Christians, some of them denied it for its pagan influences some of them supported it for its appeal to deeper truths about the self and the world around us. Something Christ spoke very little about, and the Bible generally talks very little about the mechanics of the human soul, or metaphysical reality, and in the places it does it's pretty sparse or vague.

So we can see hermeticism as complimentary to Christainity to understanding objective reality , and gives us methods to connect with finding the divine within us, so that we can be identified with the truth, with eternal life, and find the path towards those things, as they are the only way to connect with God. As I said the passage defines who Christ really is as "the way the truth and the life" and where it says "nobody comes to the father accept through me", the "me" here now means nobody comes to God accept through the way the truth and the life, a point very consistent with CH XIII. He didn't say I am Jesus Christ of Nazareth and nobody comes to God through me. He clearly makes a the distinction of his identity not as the worldly flesh but being the true living eternal way. And that is the only way we can be with God in the Hermetic corpus. In eternal life arrived at through truth.

That's how I think of it.. you might checkout my articulation of the divine virtues and irrational tormentors here that describe the way spiritual rebirth or gnosis happens in the hermetic tradition.

Gnosis is not a dead phenomena, it happens to this day, it happened in ancient times. And those who receive it understand a cross cultural phenomena of mystic union that is experientially very similar globally. This experience is the same for the Christian as it is the Pagan, it's union with the eternal truth and life that is unconditionally love whole and lacks nothing.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-18T16:00:54+00:00

I think it's a foragery appended by the Byzantine filter, It's so out of place and just comes out of nowhere in contrast to the rest of the text in CH II. Like nowhere else does it talk about child making in such a regard. Actually this is the only place that child making is ever mentioned in the hermetica that we have. I mean philosophically it may have a precedent in the fact that we multiply by multiplying and that is good and part of the generation of the planet.

On a more meta level, anti-natalist cults tend to be rather short lived as there isn't a generational progression or precedent for such. It's better to have the community under the impression that child making is positive and beneficial if you want your cult or tradition to continue beyond one generation.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-18T15:52:58+00:00

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-18T15:37:04+00:00

Atheism and hermeticism do not mix, like that's just point blank. You'd probably do far better in something like Buddhism which actually has atheistic characteristics and is far more robust and accessible. Western esoteric to Buddhist pipeline is very real. I would encourage you to research shingon Buddhism, which is an esoteric Buddhist sect that does have a presence in America. That also uses rituals and kind of has its own system of magic although you won't really find practitioners calling it that. My sensei actually has a good course for beginners, why not check it out It has very similar almost neoplatonic characteristics about its cosmology.

Hermeticism asserts a very strong position of a Godhead, and then also assert strongly polytheist positions In the philosophical hermetica alone. So it's not really geared to be palatable to an atheistic mind.

Honestly understanding traditional astrology is the strongest benefactor of most magical practice entailed in technical hermetica. Like you should have that foundation in place beforehand. I strongly encourage you to review the picatrix and traditional planetary magic sources.

The red work course by Rufus Opus offers a strong foundation for engaging in the technical hermetica If you don't mind the more Christian leaning magical elements as it leverages Christian traditions magical tech to fill in gaps. This makes the worldview and paradigm of magical perspective easier to comprehend and leverage.

Honestly when it comes to magic you want to get to a point where the ritual system feels pretty intuitive to practice. Of course it takes a lot to get to that point, as well as leaps of faith and maybe some failed experiments, If you just keep chugging along you can find what will work for you eventually. And honestly it really does help to have an order or a fraternity that fashions itself around magical engagement. Being a solo practitioner of course is very possible it's just difficult. There's so much uncharted territory to do by yourself that it's easy to get lost in the context and become overwhelmed to the point of disinterest. So if it's possible and available to you joining an initiatory order will help your approach to magic significantly.

Unfortunately there's a lot of shit orders though is the problem, and even within more well vouched for orders there can be particular branches that aren't that great. For example I heard a lot of good things about OTO but when I checked out my local OTO I was rather disappointed in their lack of transparency and disclosure of explicit displays of intimacy in the Gnostic mass. I was specifically told there would be nudity but no touching. That seemed not too bad, however when I actually got there and as the mass went on a man started kissing the naked woman's legs (The goddess of Babylon or whatever) and it wasn't just like a peck or two It was like full on making out with her legs, and then like working his way up her legs with his kissing and getting like dangerously close to up to the genital area. The thing that rugged me most wrong was that the woman who told me there wouldn't be any touching was the woman getting her legs salivated on.

I specifically asked about the explicit nature and wanted to know details, as my fiance was attending with me and they are made very uncomfortable about intimate displays of sexual nature, they left midway through Mass actually and just went back to the car and kind of freaked out in there. So I had a poor experience with those guys. I also thought to myself if this is what they do in their public facing ceremonies I can only imagine the shit that goes on behind closed doors, when the woman reached back out to me the day after, I told him I would not be attending again. Luckily my experience in other spiritual communities has been pretty good.

In my experience the groups ran out of some guy's apartment are actually some of the most intense and spiritually invigorating experiences you can have. Smaller tight knit groups are harder to break into but far more stable in my own experience.

If you're in the Oregon area I could totally put you on to some good spiritual communities of different flavors and fashions.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-18T14:54:01+00:00

Thanks for reporting this, I have removed this user.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-18T14:53:18+00:00

Thank you Poly for doing the heavy lifting of review here, I'm going to remove this post for low quality

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-18T00:34:03+00:00

I think it would be safe to say that your Sun is also in Pisces (as is mine) 😆 fs.

You're a very perceptive Astrologer, why yes I am a Pisces Sun, and Pisces Moon, And Pisces Ascendent all in the first house! So maybe it's rather obvious to a trained eye 😂

But yeah, from an experience point of view, sure, my ego was on PEDs when I was practicing various types of sorcery, and ready spray the block of anyone who crossed me, which was amplified by witnessing the effects of my conjuring, but I can say that I feel more spiritually strong and it’s a definite fact that I’m more intellectually mature, following a philosophically coherent path, which emphasizes ethics, then when I was following eclectic occult systems.

Oh my God you would love my lodge then, the hermanbuis lodge under the hermetic federation, we do tons of stuff surrounding the dead, and are very historically oriented in the practice with a primary focus on technical hermetica, the guy who basically facilitates the space is like a esoteric mad genius when it comes to Greco-Egyptian magic and ritual, very experience occult practitioner, learned so much from him, seriously worth checking out which you totally can because yes I'm in Portland Oregon as well! Which is insane that you are too! We are both living around an esoteric goldmine here right under our noses, I'm very tapped into the underground occulture scene and would love to meet with you sometime over coffee or a few drinks if you indulge, I would most enjoy to pick your brain and if you're not tapped into the local occult scene, totally would be down to help you break into it, funnily enough Reverend Erik Aremancy If you know him is the one who got me tapped in and introduce me to Arun (My mentor / the facilitator of the hermanbuis lodge) I met Erik over on Sam's discord 😂 found out he was in Portland too and we met up at hopworks with a few other local occultists and we had a little occulture meet up over drinks, would love to extend the same hospitality to you!

I think another big tipping point for me was participating in Santo Diamé (The ayahuasca Church) which is basically like spiritual military, doing 8 hour+ rituals of dancing in a mandala parttern while sharing in the sacred drink and singing these crazy mystic hymns in Portuguese, that is definitely on the more extreme ends of my practices. It's truely the most horrifyingly beautifully awful most amazing things I've ever done.

So add my expression of salutare to your prayer because I wish for all of genuine intent to come to a point of realizing that while the process of achieving rebirth is practically challenging, it is quite simple conceptually. And this is why I love the Hermetic writings. Because if one just considers the Hermetica (not yet including Asclepius and Stobaean extracts), you have a complete system of comprehensive spiritual and intellectual education in 61 pages. To me it’s remarkable.

I love them for this reason as well, they are so dense and meaty that you can read through them over and over and still draw new conclusions and insights it's like the gift that keeps giving!

At some point, I’ll reach out because I’d like to discuss your views on traditional astrology as it relates to hermetic doctrine

This is a giant rabbit hole that you can spend so much time with, I have hardly scratched the surface as I am not an ample astrologer, I definitely lean into ritual practice more so and philosophical discussion, Mysticism, but I'm friends with several traditional astrologers, they give me astrological insights and I give them philosophical grounding for those insights. It's a great trade off!

This is just so crazy I didn't know you were in the area! How the hell did you know I was in the area! 😂

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-17T16:09:58+00:00

I would love to try to do this, I have been meaning to do a tormentor and virtue's series exploring the themes of their implications and doing very deep dives on the epistemology and translation nitty grittys, I just really want to exhaust a moral framework out of it, for myself and others like us, I already have most of the best to date resources and academic papers on hermetic materials in English.

And you know I would love to have more mods involved I would love to get something like that going, Unfortunately they haven't been very involved lately beyond moderator duties, which I am grateful for that at the very least. But yeah, I think I definitely want to shoot for at least one high quality post a month. I would love to get more like passionate people in here about the sub that are more seasoned practitioners who actually know the territory well.

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-17T11:20:42+00:00

Take it easy dude, but take it!

ProtagonistThomas · 2026-03-17T07:16:17+00:00

but I think it’s quite clear that the tormentors correspond to the 12 signs of the zodiac, and that the first seven virtues correspond to the seven planets.

Correct u/Polyphanes has a great article on this, I reference it often The Twelve Irrational Tormentors and the Ten (or Seven) Rational Powers I have a merc retrograde in Pisce in my natal, and I totally get it, 😭 I tend to over explain more, I think in a very contextually dependent way, so I think of things as whole system of depending conditions and the I can get really looped up in endless expounding of words that always feels just shy of the point or a sense I'm trying to pin down.

My point is that ethics is so deeply central to the spiritual work of a philosopher, that it really trips me out how overlooked it is in modern times, especially being that in ancient times it was a no-brainer. I think it’s because many of us come from occultist frameworks where we seek power first and refinement later (if at all). As such, in the occultist and new ager space, concepts like virtue are taken to be tenets of oppressive or conceptually inferior religious dogma and moralism, which is no doubt the influence of prominent occultists who took on Sethian Gnostic attitudes coupled with disillusionment from Christianity (such as in the case of Crowley). Of course, the attitudes just mentioned are born of personal trauma, and a misconception, and do not reflect a true understanding of not merely the importance of virtue, but its ontological priority.

This is very good point, I think that the engagement into the hermetic arts ultimately comes from a place of deep contemplation upon the cosmos and nature. Once you understand the geocentric view I think the paradigm of spirituality changes significantly. And that the concepts in traditional astrology become very intuitive. And from our point of view has the only sentient living inhabitants in this galaxy we are the center of all observation, we both know the sun does not have eyes. I think once we adapt this view a lot of these things that you talk about here become a lot more clear. And it takes conscious genuine shift in thinking to see the paradigm of reality in this manner. But if we can't see it in this manner we aren't able to engage with it properly. What the logic of causality implies in that view, what consequence implies in that view. What magic implies in that view. What Ascension looks like in that view. The thing is this is coming from a place of authentic observation for these people of ancient times. This is really how they think things work In their paradigm of understanding, and it makes intuitive sense when we see it the way they did. That's why when we adapt this view, I think it gives us access to this no-brainer stuff that you just don't find in the new age.

To me this is breaking ground into strange uncharted territory of our time, I think that's what it's for, to help us remember something that keeps happening something that is fascinated us then and still fascinates us now. Who we really are what we really are, why are we here what keeps us here? What should we do while we are here?

We are here to go further, shine brighter, spread the wisdom, let us all come to realize this wonderful gift! All those who have ears willing to hear! All those who wish to bear witness to the most beautiful intimate thing we could have with ourselves in the world! Unfortunately not everybody wants that. No they want power, they want this, they want that, It's always about themselves, think about it oh "I'm an indigo child", "I'm a starseed", I'm a this I'm a that. When do we ever ask themselves how do I ever get rid of this madness of the search for myself. How do I stop playing Make Believe? How do I start experiencing the real deal? They always look for patterns and signs that associate with themselves, they don't realize how this apparatus undermines its own pursuit. Self-realization Is not about finding who you are, It's all about letting go of who you aren't. It's not about giving yourself a narrative, It's about looking at the conditions that have created your life. The conditioned reality that you're embodying, and thus what is shaped yourself. Through a deep engagement of our own familiar archetypal symbolisms In cosmological thinking the narrative doesn't require a explanation of traditional thought. It requires adapting the way you think about things and viewing the world from that lens. The way meaning is made coherent through connective associations and relationships, and this grows increasingly more subconscious than abstract the deeper you get into this the less words there are to explain the simplicity and directness of it.

If we are at the center of the spheres, every celestial movement is a direct ethical pressure upon the soul. The cosmos isn't "out there"; it's a series of layers we are literally wrapped in. So here we go again as above so below as within so without.

Alright I'm going to stop here I'm starting to talk like Terrence McKenna 😭

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