College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

@a seeker said

"As with many topics in this forum I am sure books can be, and have been, written about Hermetic magic and Natural/Ceremonial/Ritual magic. If someone could enlighten me as to a basic difference between these two broad categories that would be great."

Very broadly speaking, paganism is Nephesh driven and is Isis Aeon magick. Very broadly speaking, what you are terming Hermetic magick is Ruach driven and shows evolutions arising in the Osiris Aeon.

Of course, both categories use both aspects of mind; and there are exceptions in particular cases; and there is the separate issue of pagan-seeming magick that is really 'Hermetic' magic applied in a pagan-like context; and there is the separate political question where some people would rather identify themselves with the pagan because, to them, it means anti-Christian; and so forth and so on. But, broadly, and based on the roots of each, what I've stated above is the basic disctinction.

IIRC there is a wonderful fictionalized debate on this subject in Gerald Gardner's splendid novel, High Magic's Aid.

"Further, my understanding is that both of these fall within the Magical Triangle of the Kabbalah tree but that there is some dispute as to which falls within Netzach."

That's using the framework of one (the Hermetic) to frame them both, you understand, yes?

@Jim Eshelman said

"

"How does Freemasonry & the O.T.O. fit into all of this? Did Freemasonry, like Rosicrucianism, develop out of the Templars?"

Rosicrucianism may or may not have developed from the Templar tradition. Most hold that it did not, but there are some arguments that it did in some fashion.

(snip)

Picking up where conventional history allows, though...

The visible Rosicrucian movement and Freemasonry (and Odd Fellows and a number of other things) developed concurrently around 1600 E.V. "

Sorry to disagree, but my own researches point in a different direction.

Oddfellowship is a splinter from masonry that was still within masonry c1750. At this time it was necessary to be a Master Mason in charge of a lodge to get 3rd degree ("passing the chair" was developed later) and a few (an "odd" number, meaning no fixed number) of fellowcraft masons met twice a year on the feasts of St John the B and E. Their initiation is directly stolen from masonry, or was in 1790.

The Rosicrucians were alchemists, developing a Protestant mysticism to match that of Catholicism, including the Catholicism of the Templars. It is highly unlikely that any mix of Templar and Rosicrucian traditions happened until the 18th century, through (perhaps) The Gold and Rosy Cross. The first definite group to adopt both were the Masons, but only in symbolic dgree rites in such things as Royal Arch. The extent to which eMasonic rites of this sort were anything but formalities is questionable. Ultimately, it's back to the Golden Dawn for a real synthesis.

As to the idea that there was a secret tradition within Templarism, jury still out but it would have been gnostic if anything.

93,

BOTA cards are good but often you have to get white ones that you color in. If you can get a colored set or are willing to color in things according to tradition, BOTA is good. Either way its also good to understand the difference between BOTA & Rider-Waite and how BOTA 'reveals' certain things more obviously like the rainbow in Temperance etc

IAO131