What is Hermetic Initiation?
Over the past week, I have been reading the book “The Stellar Man” By Barnes. This book goes into how the human race is in a state of somnambulism. The book talks about how the majority of the human race behaves like animals, and delves into the steps one can take to become the “stellar man”.
From my perspective, the hermetic initiation would be steps that one should take towards becoming the “stellar man”.
The Five Basic Disciplines
1. To stop lying.
If we lie to others, we lie to ourselves. This goes for basic lying, such as telling someone something that isn’t true to deceive them. There are also alternatives of lying, such as lying unknowingly. In this case, one would lie because they didn’t realize that what they were telling was a lie. This could be described as “false teaching. Last but not least, lying could take the form of the “white lie”. An abstract example of this was last weekend when I was showing my friend around my hometown. I was giving him a tour and I made up false stories about the town as a joke. It was obvious that I was lying, but it demonstrated the level of fantasy I live in my life, which brings us to the next discipline.
2. To stop dreaming.
When the author describes “dreaming” they are talking about dreaming in the form of living in illusion. If one mistakes reality for something that it is not, they are dreaming, Similar to a solipistic view, where one believes that they are the only thing that exists in the universe, and where one falsely believes there is no such thing as Truth, I could say that this discipline could be rephrased as “Stop Being Solipsistic”.
3. To learn how to think.
Creative thinking, thinking in a unprogrammed way. Throughout life, one often adheres to thought process which is inclined with what they have heard in the past. Throughout childhood, one is indoctrinated through cultural norms, religion, school, and through pop culture. Often these collective thought programs are erroneous, immoral, and are in fantasy. Creative thinking is outside of those paradigms, which can allow for a correct, moral, and a thought process that is true to reality.
4. To live in the present moment.
Often, it is easier to think about when times were better in life, or to think about the future when things could be better. The hermetic path seems to be quite arduous, and falling into these thought patterns may take some difficulty to come out of.
5. To activate the physical body.
The author talks about a few different ways to activate the physical body. These include eating the right food, doing a 10 minute breathing exercise, and exercise. Personally, I enjoy running, and running has been instrumental towards improving my health. I am currently researching different food lifestyles. As for the breathing exercises, I haven’t started to implement the breathing exercises just yet. I would imagine it would bring similar benefit to “Wim Hof” breathing.
Remember there are only two mistakes one can take on the path to wisdom. Not starting and not going all the way.
Best,
Aidan Hellrigel
