/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17936725]

I'm interested in the history of Hermeticism and Kabbalah, what it is technically and how it went on to influence later religions, philosophies, and mysticism. I have only a sophomoric grasp on the philosophy of religion. What are the best books to start on it with? Are there any primary sources left? For someone interested in the philosophy of religion, is it worth studying?

[Anonymous No.17936752]

You will never find the truth in a book.

[Anonymous No.17936753]

For beginners, I'd recommend Crowley. Liber 777 is a good correspondence.

[Anonymous No.17936761]

>>17936752
that's debatable

[Anonymous No.17936770]

>>17936725
I don't know about the philosophy of religion, they were schools of mysticism as offshoots of their respective religions, but they are interesting. Grimoires: A history of magic books by Owen Davies goes into some detail about theirs and other forms of occult's history. But that's all I remember having read that had talked of their history through the texts attributed to them.

[Anonymous No.17936776]

>>17936753
It's also a cop out for would be dabblers too lazy to read thousands of pages

[Anonymous No.17936777]

>>17936752
I'm not looking for a mystical experience. Just a technical overview.

[Anonymous No.17936780]

>>17936777
Checked

[Anonymous No.17936796]

>>17936761
Fuck off bible fag.

[Anonymous No.17936803]

>>17936777
You will never find secrets in the public domain.

[Anonymous No.17936804]

So is Evola just a meme or does he say anything worthwhile? I've read The Metaphysics of War and I wasnt particularly impressed. Are his other books better?

[Anonymous No.17936813]

>>17936803
Are all the secrets copyrighted?

[Anonymous No.17936823]

>>17936813
The secrets are incompatible with our way of life.

[Anonymous No.17936827]

>>17936804
The book in OP is good. But that's all I have read from him. I cannot speak on his other works

[Anonymous No.17936854]

>>17936796
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Anonymous No.17936937]

[Anonymous No.17936955]

[Anonymous No.17937041]

>>17936955
>>17936753
So what is the deal with Crowley. Was he just making shit up? What makes him different from older or other forms of kabbalah? Whats his significance

[Anonymous No.17937112]

>>17937041
the deal with him? that would take a lot of writing,
was he making shit up? no, I dont think so. It would appear, in his central book, the book of the law (liber al vel legis), that there is esoteric evidence that it was written using automatic writing. This happened over the course of three days, in a hotel in cairo. His woman with him these days. the book of the law was written on hotel stationary. during this time, his chick was having a "vision" you could say. she named several properties of the god that she was challenging. soon after, the couple find the stele of reveling. it was at the museum and the it was in space 666. theres a lot of information that brings the whole thing together.

[Anonymous No.17937135]

sorry *channeling*.

this is the stele:

[Anonymous No.17937149]

Rose Edith Kelly is the name of his wife

[Anonymous No.17937180]

>>17937112
What exactly was revealed to him that was unbeknownst to all kabbalists and hermeticsists prior? What does he add to the tradition?

[Anonymous No.17937188]

>>17937180
lol,

tzaddi is not the star

[Anonymous No.17937205]

Why are you equating hermeticism and Kabbalah. Kabbalah only developed as a tradition in the 13th century. Hermeticism is a more nebulous term used for either a tradition “based on” Hermes Trismegistus (its origins are pseudo mythical) or sometimes used in a more broader category sense. They’re not the same thing

[Anonymous No.17937215]

>>17937188
So he changed the astrology? Is that it?

[Anonymous No.17937223]

liber al chapter 3 verse 17

[Anonymous No.17937224]

>>17937205
Thanks for clarifying. I always see them mentioned in the same threads and same areas so I figured there was some kind of implicit connection.

[Anonymous No.17937238]

>>17937205
im actually not equating them. Crowley does feature both of those things in his tradition.

[Anonymous No.17937266]

>>17936725
Pic related is pretty good, would recommend.

[Anonymous No.17937303]

>>17937224
They’re comparable in that they’re both mystical, but with very different origins.

When I say that hermeticism’s origins are pseudo mythical, it’s because the corpus is attributed to an ancient Egyptian Hermes Trismegestus, but there’s really no definitive record or proof of his existence. For example one of the major works, Kybalion, claims to be based on his writings, but it was likely written by a couple guys in the 19th or 20th century. Part of the authorship issue is that because it claims to be a secret or inherited tradition, people can handwave and say that the evidence isn’t visible because it’s not visible or accessible to the common public.

Anyways as for Kabbalah it probably has roots in early Jewish history, as far back as the exile period, but it was really codified and set down in the medieval era. It’s generally based on really close readings and analysis of the Hebrew bible.

If you’re interested in the history of mystical traditions, it’s also worth looking into Neoplatonism, which was very influential. Asides from its obvious impact on Christian theology, you can also see parallels between Plotinus’ hypostases and the sephirot, in that they both posit a single inneffable source of reality from which descending tiers of being/essence form reality down to the visible and human level

[Anonymous No.17937326]

>>17937238
If you’re OP, you were referring to them in the singular as one thing, asking what it’s influence and etc. That seems to be a conflation of them together. Also Crowley is a hack, don’t waste your time with that garbage, or just go to /x/

[Anonymous No.17937384]

>>17937303
Thanks anon that sounds very interesting. It really is a shame that secret society autism has muddied the waters so much. I quit looking into occultism a while back because so much of what I was finding just seemed to be contrived or made up and slapped with an occult label as if it were ancient and authentic.
As I mentioned earlier I have a sophmoric grasp on the philosophy of religion so I've read about how Neoplatonism inspired Augustine. I was under the impression that Kabbalah was some kind of neoplatonic ontology interpreted through Jewish mythology. I'm really interested to hear that Kabbalah predates the syncretism between Judaism and Hellenism. Would it just happen that platonic natural theology just happened to coincide with what the Jews were practicing or did the merging with neoplatonism totally alter Kabbalah?

[Anonymous No.17938929]

>>17937303
>Anyways as for Kabbalah it probably has roots in early Jewish history
We have zero evidence for this. Read Scholem. Kabbalah texts being attributed to rabbis hundreds of years prior to the actual date of composition is the jewish equivalent of greeks trying to make their philosophy look more legit and prestigious by attributing it to the egyptians.

The most likely origin story is that the kabbalah is a reaction to the maimonidesian rationalistic autism that dominated jewish intellectual life in the middle ages.

[Anonymous No.17938996]

The Hermetic Tradition is a good start.
I also recommend "A suggestive inquiry into the hermetic mystery : with a dissertation on the more celebrated of the alchemical philosophers : being an attempt towards the recovery of the ancient experiment of nature", quite a title but a comprehensive overview.

[Anonymous No.17939038]

>>17937041
He was a big personality with a lurid life, that's basically it. His system of Thelema was along the same lines as the Golden Dawn system, and Eliphas Levi, and others in the 19th century occult revival.

[Anonymous No.17939055]

try reading Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Wouter Hanegraaff

[Anonymous No.17939081]

>>17936725
Frances Yates wrote a fine book titled Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition.

[Anonymous No.17940604]

>>17938996
https://archive.org/details/suggestiveinquir1918atwo/page/n1/mode/2up

[Anonymous No.17940618]

>>17936752
fpbp

This 1000 times over. Well informed practice is the most important part.

[Anonymous No.17940842]

>>17936725
>>/lit/thread/S17719570#p17720608

[Anonymous No.17941091]

>>17940842
That Frater guy is cool. Did he stop posting recently? Be a real loss if he did

[Anonymous No.17941181]

>>17939038
>>17937215
how do people take crowley seriously when he was getting fucked in the ass all the time? serious question, i dont get it.

[Anonymous No.17942461]

>>17941181
>when he was getting fucked in the ass all the time
That's the least. The real question is how do you take seriously someone who writes "At 12 years old [or whatever] I knew I was the Beast". Topkek, this dude was a living joke.

[Anonymous No.17942898]

>>17941181
how do people take the greeks seriously when they were getting fucked in the ass all the time?