an Introduction to Open Source Religion

Love is the Law, Love under Will... -no, this is not about the kybalion- hello lain, i want to talk with you about a certain belief system, or maybe a continious system of spiritual synthesis, that is, Hermeticism. many many centuries ago, one person wrote two important texts, one is called the the Corpus Hermeticm, the other is the Emerald Tablet. that person is known as Hermes Trisemagistus, it is said that through him the school of Pythogras came to exist, alongside it the branches of Plato and Aristotle. that person was known as a third embodiment of two prior people. his whole texts, can show their importance by the following statement: "As Above so Below, As Below so Above" his works contain a translation of ones meditation of that which is material, to that which is higher. with the texts of Hermes, came several factors that led to the synthesis to the modern form of the system: -the gnostic synthesis -the mesopotamian synthesis -the greek sythesis -the zoroastranian synthesis -the platonic synthesis -the egyptian synthesis -the kabbalistic synthesis there is no sacred text you follow in this system, yes you read the three important facrions: Corpus Hermeticum, Emerald Tablet, Greek Magical Pypari however, in them, for example, in the corpus hermeticum, you will see in certain paragraphs showing the physical reality as absolute evil, and in other times, as manifestation of divine nature, and, it is intentional, as you are the one who is to meditate and interpret the nature of reality, and form YOUR synthesis, after digging into the theoritical and practical sciences, interpreting the texts of schools i mentioned, from the gnostic to the kabbalistic, and then you will reach an portant point: you differntiate between Knowing and Understading think of a blind person who is taught about every single detail regarding colours, their wavelengths etc, however, that person only understands the concept of red or blue. to know, he needs to see the colour, with his eyes. this was a symbolic mean to help you get the idea, the practice of these knowledges is to know them, whether a chemical experiment, or a meditating hour with several chants, an anatomic procedure or an elegant divine dance to connect with the universe. then, you shall be a master, to complete your teachings, you need to teach. however, a real master does not call himself one, nor are there "schools" or certain "teachings" what you have to do at this stage, is to initiate to other their own journey. i love you.

>>89784 i'm sure this question is stupid but how do i find god and peace? the god i once thought loved me has done nothing but forsake and terrorize me for my entire life. I don't know anything about religion, religions, becoming religious, or the act of being religious. How do i find some amount of peace in a higher being?

>>89785 peace comes through one's personal journey...not what is decided by others for him

>>89786 but how do i find peace? >the body was too short.

Love you too OP. You got me curious for hermeticism. I might have skipped such fundamentals. >>89785 It's not stupid for a human to be unnerved by his existence. I find peace in other people's lives, whenever i see them succeed where i failed. That is not a higher being.

You clearly only have an extremely surface base understanding of what hermeticism is and what it implies ritualistically and philosophically. Does it really matter you have your special open source religion if it doesn't significantly change anything about your life? You probably jerk off to hentai using the same hand you used to type this Jesus Loves You garbage. Also, hermeticism is a metaphysical non-dogmatic teosophical doctrine, the term religion is not appliable in any way. >>89788 Read Hegel and The Hermetic Tradition >inb4 haha hegel huh You can't understand him either.

>>89863 calm down, no need to be personal. it did change my life but i dont want this thread to be about myself. and i never stated that it is a religion, if you read my post well you would have noticed that, i clearly said it is a continious system of spiritual synthesis. if you wanna add something to my thread then add it respectfully, and it would be appreciated

I was intending to read the Greek Magical Papyri anyway and Hegel is on my plate for the coming semester anyway, so I will give these two others a look. Will update Unrelated: I meditated on ketamine last night and saw billions of entities composed of darkness watching me bathed in a red light. They harbored no animosity or malintent despite their ghoulish appearance. I realized my narcissism an immense hindrance, that refusing to dominate is as important as refusal to be dominated (and you cannot find fulfillment if neither), that infinite love and compassion is the wellspring and safety of humanity.

>>89787 nta, you become serene and then you can make peace with other serene people. peace is never "found", it's never passive, that's bullshit. >how reading some thich nhat hanh be upon you.

If you want an open source religion, just become a radical Protestant. Luther open sourced Christianity a long time ago. >>89785 Secularism has killed any possibility of us communicating with God in any way. The line has been severed.

I've tried reading te Corpus Hermeticum and it's quite hard to follow; I guess it was written in a very different time from ours. I also read some of the gnostic gospels, both traditions seem to be quite close to each other. Now, that whole "love is the law, love under will", despite Crowley being an interesting figure and all, I can't stand the fact that he was a victorian figure, and as such, he represents most of what I dislike in this world. Not only is he a victorian character, his cosmogony, as well as that of his cohorts at the Golden Dawn, is rooted in the monotheistic system of the kabbalah. Hermeticism before the GD was transmitted mostly through alchemical formulae, which was willfully obscured everywhere. Here, it is also difficult to make sense of any of the stuff it says. But you've awakened my interest in the whole topic again, thank you OP, as if I didn't have a soykafload of books open and half-read already.

>>89784 Great bread. Read Georg von Welling.

>>89784 >>90695 Hermetism isnt a religion its a philosophy.

>>90676 I'm interested in the modern break between crowley and hermeticism. I'm of the understanding that some hermetics dislike Crowley for what he did with those beliefs, however I come from a tradition that seems to oppose Crowley and Thelema from another direction: Chaos Magick. The chain of practices from hermeticism to crowley to CM interest me greatly. >>89903 the thread is titled Open Source Religion, and its about hermeticism. is that not calling it a religion? >>90669 >luther open sourced Christianity a long time ago youth pastor moment

>>89785 You should research the large world religions first. You can also read about other religions, if you want. I suggest that you also read about the religion of your ancestors. Be sure to also read the texts that are actually used in the religion and not just someone else's opinion on these religions. Suggested reading: - https://sacred-texts.com/world.htm - https://www.accesstoinsight.org - Bhagavad-gītā As It Is: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/ - The Bible (especially the Pentateuch and Gospels. I suggest using NRSVue translation of The Bible but note that no translation is perfect) - Early Christian texts: https://www.earlychristianwritings.com - The Quran (be sure to also read about Sufism!) - TheTalmud - The Dead Sea Scrolls, some of them can be read at https://dssenglishbible.com - The texts of various Gnostic sects (especially The Nag Hammadi Library!), http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html - Hermetic texts, The Emerald Tablet and Corpus Hermeticum (I suggest the translation "Hermetica" by Brian Copenhaver) - Mythology by Edith Hamilton Bonuses... - https://www.renaissanceastrology.com - https://www.esotericarchives.com - The Secret Teachings Of All Ages by Manly P. Hall: https://sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/index.htm - works published by Golden Dawn members - works of Aleister Crowley but note that he sometimes lies in his books. Also read this text on geomancy. - three books of occult philosophy by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (Eric Purdue's translation is the best) - Modern Magick by Donald Kraig Finally, note that magic is always black magic if you try to influence other people without their consent.

Shìlling for Crowley and homosexual orgies already?

>>90769 Soon they will be simping for orgies on Naval base with Michael Aquino and the Tor dev Dingledine BET fr

>>90769 idk bout orgies but I like anal sex

>>90774 fuk dat nigga i aint goin bak to the greenbaum and aquino compound in the grand canyon!

>>89785 Walk up to the window and talk to the Most High One. Right now. Tell Him what you think. No need for flattery, he's going to know you're lying. Tell him all you hate about Him and His world and tell him what you would want instead. Even if you think it doesn't reach The Creator, such a conversation may provide some food for thought. Personally, I think I should be grateful for my fate, things could be a lot, a lot worse, yet I am spared, at least for now. Don't know about you.

what kind of practices from these do we need to do to "understand" instead of know? from the aforementioned books and also, is Nordic stuff connected? and how could you reverse what was done to Dorian Grey, is it possible? Calling out to all long term scholarly esoterics of practice.

>>91012 Actual alchemist from an eastern school and not a thelemagigaglitterboy who follows a joke religion created in a comedy book in the 1500's, the only way of doing that is having a teacher for techniques, it can take a decade or more to learn the A to Zed. I can't recommend any teachers, I just hope you are not a massive glitterboy like >>90741 who falls for conman and plastic shamans. >>91008 God is not real, and I have seen him a lot.

>>91050 >God is not real, and I have seen him a lot. Sounds very cryptic and paradoxical, could you elaborate on this intriguing syllogism?

>>91050 did I say anywhere in my post I was a thelemite? lesson learned not to ask about history I guess as a man who can't answer my question will narcissistically bitch about how he can't answer it and then make some vague allusions about REVL alchemical tradition whose mistranslation into english doesn't matter because he lacks the reading comprension for it anyway actually, it's funny you mention the mentor thing as the OTO seems to use that tradition too. I don't see how this isn't just a chain of nepotistic smoke and mirrors back to the 19th or 20th century when all of muh ancient Orient Shamans were invented from whole cloth. >joke religion at least they know how to take themselves seriously >>91052 it's not that deep, they're talking about drugs. "see god" is a thing american druggies say when they get very high and feel like they've had a mystical experience.

>>91050 How do you differentiate between the two? So far your response reads more as dominant than informative And what about my question regarding Dorian Grey? Any help for him howsoever

>>91012 I'm more curious about the Dorian Grey question.

>>91052 >>91054 I am not talking about drugs, I have not done any drugs in life except two cups of alcohol that didn't get me drunk. God is nothing but a word and it can be used to signify many different things, including things which are contradictory between themselves, like the possibility of all things non-manifested and at the same time, the center of all of manifestation, and even more, an intellectual medium for prophecy. I have seen God, the center of existence, he does not exist, and you can't ask him for soykaf or talk to him. You are a thelemite, wanting or not, all the rituals from Chaos Magick, Pansophy, Ordo Saturnis and whatever else are all breaks and splinters from OTO or Astrum Argentum or Rosacrucianism, whose initiatic chain is at this point completely laced to the OTO the point of lacking any real difference in what is being transmitted. Anyone can see that, anyone can read about that, you can't fool anyone. The OTO uses a western form of the master-disciple system which exists in every culture around the world, it is mostly inspired by catholic monastic tradition because Crowley liked to counter-point evangelical christianity, that's where having the initiatic title of Frater comes from. >>91055 >>91057 I haven't read Dorian Grey, unfortunately. I will give it a quick read asap so I can give you an answer, it's the least that I can do.

>>91092 Sure, you can watch the movie here: https://solarmovie2.com/movie/dorian-gray-8962.html You seem to know a lot, here are some of the following questions: do you think those people popping up here and there and constantly posting about "astral parasites" on Lainchan attacking them but not knowing how to fend against them can be helped? It seems as though this forum is some sort of a safe haven for those people - maybe we could address this issue in this thread. what do you think of old-formation Golden Dawn members redundantly denying Crowleyism being a thing? do you think there is a secondary motif for why they're all so unnecessarily gassing him down when not even asked?

>>91092 Respond to >>91095

>>91093 >what do you think of old-formation Golden Dawn members redundantly denying Crowleyism being a thing? I don't think any of these people are alive anymore, most of those who were from the Golden Dawn before Crowley and didn't accept Thelema ended up joining rosacrucianism or the theosophical society. Golden Dawn as a direct branch from the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor no longer exists, it was fully taken over by Crowley, this is just historical fact, I am not discussing endless internal schisms so adored by westerners. I don't even think any of these people are alive anymore, most of those who were from the Golden Dawn before Crowley and didn't accept Thelema ended up joining rosacrucianism or the theosophical society. Golden Dawn as a direct branch from the mythical Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor no longer exists anywhere, it was fully taken over by Crowley, this is just historical fact, I am not discussing endless internal schisms so adored by westerners.>>91093

>>91092 by the same logic, thelema is a form of hermeticism. but you reject it. why is this? is the master discipline system as you stated a necessary component of thelema, and if so does it have a precise structure. does e.g. web-of-trust models follow master discipline? does the scientific community?

>>91092 >God is nothing but a word and it can be used to signify many different things, including things which are contradictory between themselves, like the possibility of all things non-manifested and at the same time, the center of all of manifestation, and even more, an intellectual medium for prophecy. I have seen God, the center of existence, he does not exist, and you can't ask him for soykaf or talk to him. I think me and you conceive of very, very different gods. Your god sounds like some very abstract philosophical concept. Mine is just that whose Will facilitates all existence. I stopped overintellectualizing long ago. Such unknowable entities will always be a blind spot for the inntellect, a "not-thing" for your conscious mind.

>>91107 Thelema is not a form of hermeticism, these are completely different concepts belonging to two completely different historical ages. There were already no lineages going back to the pagan hermeticists in the time of Crowley which were old enough to remount to times of hermeticism, even at the time of Eliphas Levi the furthest you could get in a lineage were to the period of transition between enlightment and low middle ages, right at the peak of catholic humanism when christian kaballah was the most popular and traditions like symbolical masonry started to blossom. >>91118 I am not over-complivating anything, quite the opposite, the God which I see isn't an ontological demiurge-adjacent aberration but one and the same with all things that can be or not be measured. God doesn't whisper or shouts, he has no will, he is.

>>91128 My and your concepts of god really remind me of the demiurge and pleroma dichotomy. Call me a negative IQ illiterate idiot demiurge worshipper, but my god also "is" and is "is"ing your god into existence in perpetuity for as long as your god "is" becase my god is the "is"sest "is"ser who invented "is"ing and was doing it before it was cool. Also your god seems to be just an impersonal collection of knowns and unknowns from how you described him. Seems like you define god like the creation, the world (not necessarily material, ideas as well), devoid of personhood or agency, just like the natural laws. Correct me if I'm mistaken.

>>91128 so what was the golden dawn before it was taken over by crowley? reconstructionist?

>>91140 I am not a spinozian because I believe the principle isn't the same as being, I am beyond the madhyamaka perception of a vacuity of all things, since the absolute is even beyond vacuity and nothingness. You are trying too hard to use human concepts like “invented” and “created” when these concepts only exist inside the human metric of time, ontologically there is no difference from the primordial nothingess to this very second we are in at. God never created anything because everything was already created inside of him, so he never actually acted as a person giving out prophecies or doing things through intellection, the existence and non-existence complement each other, and there are many things that go beyond even existence and non-existence which I can not speak of for it is a secret. >>91145 Golden Dawn was a branch of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, their main influences were freemasonry and the french magicians (which came from the english tradition, England was one of the most paganized nations in Europe until around the times of Henry XVI with ancient pagan cerimonies and magic being highly appreciated by noblemen). In truth, it's a mix of re-interpretations of kaballah and rituals of a already extremely modified and profaned freemasonry of the Adohiranmite Rite and Pasqually Rite (Martinism).

>>91146 okay, thank you kindly for the historical placement of golden dawn

Any sygils or runes that worked when nothing else did anyone? Something that actually helped get out of a tough situation

The more I look around the more i feel like the only people who end up being happy in relationships long term seem to stand with Jesus Christ, and the rest is just liberal sh1t.

>>89784 Some stuff relevant to this thread: most of western occult tradition originated with the pythagoreans, who were structurally divided into the outer circle and the inner circle. the innter circle were mathematicians and the outer circle were listeners, people who didn't quite qualify to discuss the highest truths (mystics, artists, mythos-oriented people and so forth). the outer circle, after the death of pythagoras, then fractured and they spread out into the world, sharing their own interpretations of the things they heard under pythagoras' tutelage (one among many such interpretations being the idea of the world as monad, dyad, triad and tetrad). from this emerged the gnostic and hermetic traditions, which later influenced plato and heraclitus, the gnostic one being mostly a pythagorean-platonic (or, what we commonly know to be called the "mystic schools") intellectual weapon against the then-emerging malignant tumor of abrahamism, which the occult-oriented intellectuals were afraid of due to its irrational and anti-realist nature and advocacy for spiritual slavery. anyway, most of the occult teachings are just mathematical notion shaped into mythos and emotive concepts, and later corrupted by the magian influence of christianity. later, when asian cultures were discovered in the west, these influences were mixed with faulty interpretations of hinduism, taoism and buddhism. the theosophic tradition is the most egregious example of this, with its moral intepretation of (cosmic) karma. speaking of the splinter groups of pythagoras, the one, core group of the inner circle managed to hold itself together, and they've been the red line which has moved the occult tradition in the west forward all this time. from a few ancient greek cults to the council of nicea where a few "schools" tried to usurp the christian movement, but were excluded (those espousing a doctrine of reincarnation instead of resurrection, for one), to the cathar movement to the grail myths to the templar knights and rosicrucians to the freemasons to the bavarian political groups of the enlightenment to the occultists trying to architect the third reich. it's just one little group moving from one experiment to another as they've tried to root out the abrahamic religion. neat, huh?

>>91523 I'm the alchemist guy of the thread, good to see another well read and reasonable person here. Got a discord o algo?

>>91529 nah, not really into discord convos. posting on lainchan is more of a way to blow off steam and decompressing. plus, i see no use in conversing about the occult with others who are into the occult. too many people are drowning in the mythos and subjectivity and thereby end up frying their brains, which makes communication impossible with said people. for me, now it's just about doing the great work and having the courage to embrace the endgame anyway, with which no amount of intellectual masturbation will help, sadly. it's more like talking about doing the hard stuff instead of actually doing it, which is just another form of procrastinating, distracting and putting off the hard stuff to do, and i don't need any more of that into my life at the moment :/

>>91538 I enjoy intellectual sex more than intellectual masturbation, it is all about creating and connecting concepts and ideas. General occult discussion is extremely shallow because people don't truly understand metaphysics - being condescending, only geniuses can grasp it intellectually, and only a true initiates can grasp it consciously - and just run to the elysian fields to speculate about religion and magic instead of something universally applicable. "How can you know death if you do not know life?" - Kong Zi

>>91547 >I enjoy intellectual sex more than intellectual masturbation, it is all about creating and connecting concepts and ideas. in retrospect a very bad choice of words on my part, but yes, you're right. what i rather meant was that there are people who've already made the best connections, concepts and ideas possible, so all the intellectual work we do after these spiritual giants amounts to little more than self-satisfaction, when you're better off just studying them. >because people don't truly understand metaphysics i think you're very much on point on this. it's impossible to make sense of occult teachings if you don't know what's rationally and realistically possible. the worst possible outcomes for this sort of people ignorant of philosophy is either turning into the "love, laugh and good vibes" people, who refuse to acknowledge the uncomfortable, harsh truths and just dally in the sunlight for all their life, or into the other sort who end up taking everything literally. utterly irredeemable.

>>90741 >>89863 you come across deeply disrespectful and arrogant, your type runs rampant on forums about such topics. a total sophist, who feigns to be the informed one. /x/ misses you. the term chaos magick didnt come about until dungeons and dragons. why should anyone engage with someone so hostile and hypocritical in the same breath, and not only that but overly concerned with the semantics of others without even being correct. the OP never said hermeticism was a religion, the thread topic is open source religion and though it starts with sharing where they started obtaining the fundamentals for their own person religion they did not say those things were religious in an of themselves. foolish fool. 939393. liar liar pants on fire!

>>93105 you are trying to argue with two different people, under the assumption that they are the same person, while they are also arguing with each other

>>93111 i am not attempting to argue with anyone. i do not have any assumptions that they are the same person nor that they are seperate. it makes little difference, for all intents and purposes they are the same person and my post addresses them individually, together, or not at all.

>>89785 >i'm sure this question is stupid but how do i find god and peace? the god i once thought loved me has done nothing but forsake and terrorize me for my entire life. I don't know anything about religion, religions, becoming religious, or the act of being religious. How do i find some amount of peace in a higher being? Everything good comes from above. Read the Gospel (where God comes down and hangs out with us and is our friend and tells us the reality), the Beatitudes, and read about the lives of the saints like Moses the Black, St. Ephraim, and St. Paisios, and St. Porphyrios. In the lives of the saints you will see that even the saints struggle for peace and that you are also called to be a saint. In struggle we are refined. Peace is a temporary blessing in this life and everlasting peace is something we must prepare ourselves for.