What is Hermeticism? by Sebastian Niklaus

CONTENTS:I. The living stream of Hermetic traditionII.  The Arcana as mediator to the Hermetic streamIII. The experience of conscious lifePostscript: The Rose-Cross Method What are the steps of the path, in concrete terms? The general principle of development is described at the end of the IV. Arca-num “The Emperor”. In order to become “a human being in the true sense” and an image and likeness of God, the lower in man’s nature needs to be restrained, so that his true being can blossom forth: “But if they (i.e. human beings) are to become, again, what they are in their essential nature they must undergo the work-ing of sublimation. This process is crucifixion for what in them is lower, and is at the same time a blossoming forth of what is their true being. Cross and Rose, the Rose-Cross is the symbol for this process of the realization of the true human being.”(VT: Meditations on the TARO, Letter on IV. Arcanum) The general principle of development is, therefore, the principle of the R