Okay. Let's see if this computer will hold for a minute or two while I gather my thoughts
JohnHermes: When I commented on your post it was not a personal attack on your thoughts, opinions, or beliefs. As I stated. I do however, as far as I know, have a right to an opinion on the 'subject' matter of a thread on this forum. That is what I offered. An opinion.
The Hermetic principles have nothing to do with Transcending or playing God. There is no indication in the Kybalion or the Corpus Hermeticum that talks about "transcending" God, where did get your information from? Who is "they all failed" I would like to here your input since you seem to have high authoritative knowledge on this subject
And the kybalion wasn't written by a secret society, but by one person.
First... I never said anything about secret societies. I said "societies". As in specific groups of people. So lets set that straight. I am not a conspiracy buff... I'm a researcher.
Okay.
It is not clear who actually authored The Kybalion as the author or author's published anonymously only using the "Three Initiates" as claiming authorship. Anything more than that is speculation. The Kybalion originally claimed to be "an elucidation of an ancient, unpublished Hermetic text of the same name". Not to be outdone, another "esoteric organization by the name of Summum which, considering The Kybalion to be antiquated and incomplete, rewrote the text to incorporate a "grand principle", their Principle of Creation." This is basic information that can be found on Wikipedia in about a 5 seconds. Both of these text came about in what is called "The New Age of Hermetic Revival" or some such. I don't have the time nor the desire to do any further research on this particular text.
In answer to your other questions
"where did get your information from?" In this particular instance
I got that from here:
https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/herm/h-intro.htm -- which was a link you posted in your comment.
"Yet doth it not endure a sluggish soul, but leaveth such a soul tied to the body and bound tight down by it. Such soul, my son, doth not have Mind; and therefore such an one should not be called a man. For that man is a thing-of-life <or animal> divine; man is not measured with the rest of lives of things upon the earth, but with the lives above in heaven, who are called gods.
Nay more, if we must boldly speak the truth, the true "man" is e'en higher than the gods, or at the [very] least the gods and men are very whit in power each with the other equal.
25. For no one of the gods in heaven shall come down to the earth, o'er-stepping heaven's limit; whereas man doth mount up to heaven and measure it; he knows what things of it are high, what things are low, and learns precisely all things else besides. And greater thing than all; without e'en quitting earth, he doth ascend above. So vast a sweep doth he possess of ecstasy.
For this cause can a man dare say that man on earth is god subject to death, while god in heaven is man from death immune."
*It should also be noted that In this particular text we are looking at another interpretation... and there are many... of ancient manuscripts.
I also got this from here:
https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/herm/h-intro.htm
"The translation of the Corpus Hermeticum and Perfect Sermon given here is that of G.R.S. Mead (1863-1933), originally published as Vol. 2 of his Thrice Greatest Hermes (London, 1906).
There is admittedly one problem with Mead's translation: the aesthetics of the English text. Mead hoped, as he mentioned at the beginning of Thrice Greatest Hermes, to "render...these beautiful theosophic treatises into an English that might, perhaps, be thought in some small way worthy of the Greek originals." Unfortunately for this ambition, he was writing at a time when the last remnants of the florid and pompous Victorian style were fighting it out with the more straightforward colloquial prose that became the style of the new century. Caught in this tangle like so many writers of the time, Mead wanted to write in the grand style but apparently didn't know how. The result is a sometimes bizarre mishmash in which turn-of-the-century slang stands cheek by jowl with overblown phrases in King James Bible diction, and in which mishandled archaicisms, inverted word order, and poetic contractions render the text less than graceful - and occasionally less than readable."
So.. As to the rest of your questions...
I based my opinion on research.
These manuscripts so freely interpreted even into modern culture were ancient long before they came into the Egyptian culture over 5 thousand years ago. In fact, it is not sure how far into the distant past they originated. Through time various interpretations have found their way into many cultures and ideologies. But I'll start here
Hermes Trismegistus
"The Hermetica is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures. The dialogue called the Asclepius (after the Greek god of healing) describes the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in statues with the help of herbs, gems, and odors, so that the statue could speak and engage in prophecy. In other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf."
And here
"The Hermetic literature among the Egyptians, which was concerned with conjuring spirits and animating statues, inform the oldest Hellenistic writings on Greco-Babylonian astrology and on the newly developed practice of alchemy.[10]
In a parallel tradition, Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and offered the adept a means of personal ascension from the constraints of physical being. This latter tradition has led to the confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously.[11]"
Take special note of this statement from above
"This latter tradition has led to the confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously.[11]"
So... The 'they' include's myriad cultures which developed societies of followers of their particular interpretation for their particular agenda -- the latest being Theosophical Society in modern times. Although it is said The Mason's have dabbled through history.
The common thread woven throughout all of these Spiritualism's practiced by these societies embraced throughout time is -- the search for Wisdom of TRANSCENDENCE and other Occult Wisdom's in order to become God's -- Immortal -- Over and in control of other living Beings -- Re-Creation of Reality -- and so on. God-Kings, which eventually led to Priest-Kings because they failed and that was the next best thing.
Let's face it. Despite 5,000 years of involvement in arcane and often horrific occult measures -- those Egyptians are still dead. Failed.
You can put a new cover on a book... but the text will remain the same. Hence my opinion.
What I have offered here is a basic 101 on this stuff. Research is hard, monotonous, frustrating, and never-ending-always evolving. I do not claim to be an authority on anything. But I continue to advance my knowledge as best I can.
For this post I simply accessed Wikipedia -- listed below are texts that I have accessed at one time or another, some of which can be accessed through Wikipedia and some through online libraries and some that will take accessing actually libraries. You can find the reference's for all these text and more on any Wikipedia page dealing with this subject.
"Thoth or the Hermes of Egypt": A Study of Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt, p.166–168, Patrick Boylan, Oxford University Press, 1922.
"Stages of Ascension in Hermetic Rebirth". Esoteric.msu.edu. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
Fowden, G., "The Egyptian Hermes", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987, p 216
Copenhaver, B. P., "Hermetica", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992, p xiv.
Heiser, James D. (2011)." Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century (1st ed.)". Malone, Tex.: Repristination Press. ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4.
Jafar, Imad (2015). "Enoch in the Islamic Tradition". Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity. XXXVI.
Yates, F., "Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition", Routledge, London, 1964, pp 14–18 and pp 433–434
Hanegraaff, W. J., "New Age Religion and Western Culture", SUNY, 1998, p 360
Yates, F., "Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition", Routledge, London, 1964, p 27 and p 293
Yates, F., "Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition", Routledge, London, 1964, p52
Copenhaver, B.P., "Hermetica", Cambridge University Press, 1992, p xlviii
(Scully p. 322)
Copenhaver, "Hermetica", p. xli
Haanegraaff, W. J., "New Age Religion and Western Culture", Brill, Leiden, New York, 1996, p 390
(Yates Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition pp. 2–3)
Kevin Van Bladel, "The Arabic Hermes. From pagan sage to prophet of science", Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 168 Abu Mas'har’s biography of Hermes, written approximately between 840 and 860, would establish it as common knowledge."
(Faivre 1995 pp. 19–20)
"Hermes Trismegistus and Apollonius of Tyana in the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh". Bahai-library.com. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
Clive,, Prince,. The forbidden universe. ISBN 9781472124784. OCLC 952966194.
I"The kybalion : a study of the hermetic philosophy of ancient Egypt and Greece." Yogi Publication Society, Masonic Temple. ISBN 9780911662252. OCLC 48179182.
