Why Is Hermeticism So Confusing?

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Lipp, author of several books, including Tarot Interactions, Magical Power for Beginners, and the new Bending the Binary.

It’s impossible to be in the occult for any length of time without hearing about Hermetics, but understanding it is a whole different cauldron of fish. There are good reasons for this, including pseudo-history, loose use of the term by popular authors, and downright fraud. Let’s see if we can straighten out a bit of the mess.

To quote noted Hermeticist Sam Block: “Hermeticism…is a blend of Egyptian religion and spirituality with Greek philosophy.”¹ The core text is the Hermetica, a vast set of writings attributed to Hermes Trismigestus, a semi-mythological figure. Hermeticism emerged around the first century CE—about the same time as Gnosticism, which causes more confusion (they’re not the same).

The Hermetica contains a lot of philosophy, including most famously “The Emerald Tablet,” from which we derive the maxim, “As above, so below” (the actual quote is “That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above.”). It also contains the “three parts of wisdom:” astrology, alchemy, and magic. The documents known as the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) contain Hermetic rituals and magic.

But the term “Hermetic” has been misused. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, for example, is not particularly Hermetic. Kabbalah and grimoire magic are a big part of the Golden Dawn, and they’re not Hermetic. Franz Bardon’s influential book Introduction to Hermetics is Ceremonial Magic, as practiced by the Golden Dawn and other groups, and not Hermetic magic.

But I did say fraud, so let’s get to the juicy part.

It’s impossible to search the internet for Hermetics without coming across the Kybalion and the “Seven Hermetic Principles.” Published anonymously in 1908, the book The Kybalion tells us that it is an explanatory text of “the Kybalion,” itself part of the Hermetica. Throughout, it offers quotes from the original followed by an explanation.

Here’s the fun part: There’s no “original;” none of it is from the Hermetica. It was all written by a New Thought author named William Walker Atkinson². But this purported Hermeticism is so widespread that it can be hard to find information on real Hermetics. Every attempt to research Hermetics will bring you to the “Seven Hermetic Principles” written by Atkinson!

While Atkinson and others have created over a century of confusion, there is such a thing as real Hermetics, and real Hermetic magic.

¹Block, Sam, Hermeticism FAQ: Part I, Overview and History, The Digital Ambler, https://digitalambler.com/2021/06/17/hermeticism-faq-part-i-overview-and-history/, accessed December 28, 2022.
² Greer, Mary K., The Secret: Tarot & the New Thought Movement, Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog, https://marykgreer.com/2007/10/16/articles/, accessed December 28, 2022.

Our thanks to Deborah for her guest post! For more from Deborah Lipp, read her article, “Four Nonbinary Ways to Work with Polarity Energy.”