The New Hermetics: 21st Century Magick for Illumination and Power

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended to the attention of students
Review: Hermetic Philosophy was an ancient Egyptian form of wisdom that taught the novel concept that it was the mind that shaped reality. This concept was expanded to include the Rosicrucian brotherhood's ten levels of fruition, combined with modern mind-expanding techniques such as visualization in The New Hermetics: 21st Century Magick For Illumination And Power by writer and artist Jason Newcomb. Highly recommended to the attention of students wanting to develop the power of their minds and undergo initiation into the mysteries of consciousness, The New Hermetics is a welcome and impressively presented contribution to Metaphysical Studies reference collections and self-directed reading lists.



Rating:
Summary: Embarrassing
Review: I bought this book based on the reviews here and the fact that it had an introduction by Lon Milo Duquette--I just finished reading his wonderful "My Life With the Spirits." But if this book's content reflects the new hermetics, then the new hermetics is a superficial mishmash.

First, the system is a rehash of Golden Dawn with NLP and Leary painfully grafted on. The first thing I wanted to know was why this combination is particularly worthwhile, but the argument for this combination seems to rest on the author's claims that NLP and Leary are "cutting edge." Well, they aren't cutting edge, but even if they were, why would what is cutting edge be especially helpful in hermetics, new or otherwise? Just because something is new does not make it good. This assumption, though, permeates the book.

There is not much depth. For instance, certain parts of the book contain large crude illustrations of well known GD rituals like the Middle Pillar, apparently to take up space. Whole tables that reiterate widely available GD information are reproduced.

But worse are the numerous sweeping statements that are completely incorrect, such as "Your brain does not differentiate between thoughts and things, because thoughts are things." Or how about "Eastern thought tends to be transcendental, ephemeral, and often insubstantial." One wonders if the author even knows what these words mean or just used them because they sounded important (which would fit with the superficiality here). Or the author's statements that alchemy is an exclusively Western practice or that Satanists can't exist without evangelical Christians, etc., etc. Every page offers a selection of truly ignorant remarks.

This book is a good example of the kind of superficial familiarity with belief systems, breezy arrogance, and just plain laziness that is frequently passed off as knowledge in the occult world, and that is why I titled this little review "Embarassing." The book is founded on the mistaken notion that there is in fact a free lunch.

This is one of the few books I've read that I would like to get my money back for. The only reason I did not give it one star is because they caught most of the typos and it has a nice cover.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction for the uninitiated
Review: I have recently become interested in The New Hermetics and I found this book to be incredibly insightful. I am looking forward to picking it up again to pick up on the nuance that I may have missed on first reading.

Rating:
Summary: Growth of the Hermetic Tradition
Review: I must commend Jason Newcomb for a very cleaver book. He brings together a number of traditions into a unified whole without the complication that is prevalent in the Esoteric field.
This book is not intended for the dilettante occultist, but rather those who wish to take a direct approach to the Great Work. There are a number of useful exercises throughout the book that can be used effectively in daily life as well as your spiritual growth. He also has a complimentary workbook on his website www.newhermetics.com which is designed to be used with his book.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent so far as it goes.
Review: One might say that this book is a Chaos Magician's re-interpretation on classical Hermetics with none of the anarchist baggage that is often heaped upon similar works. "New" Hermetics indeed.

This book shines with wonderful technique. I haven't quite finished it at this point, but I have enjoyed every page and I'm half way through.

This makes a good introductory text for anyone who has the genuine passion needed to actively engage the work. Better than Modern Magic for the beginner and extremely useful for experienced practitioners who are looking to inject their practice with greater art.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended nationwide (check occultforums online)
Review: The guy below (Reviewer: Harold A. Roth) who wrote the review titled "Embarrassing" on November 13, 2004 appears to be an opinionated fool with a chip on his shoulder. His personality type is not at all uncommon in the occult community.

Let me just take a moment to diffuse his annoying criticisms of this book one-by-one:

** First wrongful criticism: "the New Hermetics is a superficial mish-mash."

ANSWER:
"Mish-mash?" Obviously, the book's description says it is revised and streamlined Hermetic material for today's magician, but the term "mish-mash" is misleading. The book is very organized and cohesive. It is no more a mish-mash than anything Aleister Crowley or Israel Regardie put out!

"Superficial?" How so, when, as you say it is a mish-mash of readily-available Golden Dawn material?! Streamlined, yes. Superficial? No!

The New Hermetics purposefully takes away aspects of classic Hermeticism which are stumbling blocks for today's mindset. Classic hermeticism is all about mental compartmentalizing and communicating with your subconscious mind. It gets a bit trickier than this simple explanation, but basically this is the reason people like Aleister Crowley and Lon Milo Duquette explain gods, angels and demons as being "all in your mind" (only lengthy reflection and study on this concept will bring insight). However, what the New Hermetics has intentionally done is to replace aspects of Golden Dawn material with sufficient nondenominational alternatives. By eliminating these aspects, more people are likely to actually BEGIN such things as the LBRP and the MPR, pathworking, etc.

** Second wrongful criticism: "First, the system is a rehash of Golden Dawn with NLP and Leary painfully grafted on. The first thing I wanted to know was why this combination is particularly worthwhile, but the argument for this combination seems to rest on the author's claims that NLP and Leary are "cutting edge."

ANSWER:
This is just obnoxious as well as uneducated. Leary is not "painfully grafted on." Leary has been grafted on quite PAINLESSLY for about 30 years now in several occult books. It is no more "painful" than Israel Regardie's psychological extrapolations in "The Middle Pillar" or "Tree of Life" and, afterall, Regardie is the man who leaked the Golden Dawn material to the public in the first place.
NLP happens to work much the same way ritual magic works. To suggest otherwise is ignorance.

** Third wrongful criticism: "There is not much depth. For instance, certain parts of the book contain large crude illustrations of well known GD rituals like the Middle Pillar, apparently to take up space. Whole tables that reiterate widely available GD information are reproduced."

ANSWER:
Incorrect again! The illustrations are not large (any smaller would be annoying) and no cruder than typical diagrams in occult books. In fact, in some cases, such as demonic illustrations, I was thankful for the crude nature of the illustrations! I don't need anything scarier than my mind can dream up on its own.

The book is wonderfully concise. Other than the material presented, nothing more is necessary. How contradictory for this critic to suggest there is not ENOUGH material, yet the revised GD rituals and tables should NOT have been included! What does this critic expect-- for people to buy the New Hermetics and then be directed to purchase additional, more complicated books as well JUST TO GET THE GD RITUALS AND TABLES?! This is simply opinionated, muddle-headed lack of reasoning.

Also, the rituals are different. Without including these revised "New Hermetic" versions, there would hardly be any instruction to follow. Precisely because these rituals are different is the WHOLE REASON FOR THE BOOK. The New Hermetics strips out godforms and words of power and replaces them with a psychological equivalent. Additionally, the rituals are performed in the Inner Temple, which is all that is necessary for a few reasons: #1 it is the Astral and #2 entities don't need to be evoked into the physical realm and rarely are, anyway! So, yeah, it IS important that the author included his revised versions of previously available GD material-- because they're DIFFERENT!

**Fourth wrongful criticism: "But worse are the numerous sweeping statements that are completely incorrect, such as "Your brain does not differentiate between thoughts and things, because thoughts are things." Or how about "Eastern thought tends to be transcendental, ephemeral, and often insubstantial."

ANSWER:
Oh really? Thoughts are not things? I find that amusing since Israel Regardie and countless others have written this very same phrase,"thoughts are things," in many occult volumes. Go ahead and google "thoughts are things."
Thoughts are not physical objects, no. But, thoughts are things that create instant physical reactions in our bodies. For example, if you close your eyes and envision a circle squeezing into an egg shape, you will feel your eyeballs trying to squeeze also. If you think to intently about being hurt in a disgusting manner, you're body will contort and shake yourself out of the daydream. Similar effects occur during nightmares.

As for the out-of-context excerpt,"eastern thought tends to be transcendental, ephemeral, and often insubstantial"--- Well, IT'S OUT OF CONTEXT! What the author has actually said is that it tends to be insubstantial ACCORDING TO A WESTERN MINDSET. However, beyond this, Eastern thought actually is, by definition, transcendental and ephemeral-- that is what differentiates "mysticism" from "magic" for Pete's sake!

** Fifth wrongful criticism: "...the author's statements that alchemy is an exclusively Western practice or that Satanists can't exist without evangelical Christians, etc., etc. Every page offers a selection of truly ignorant remarks."

ANSWER:
Not true, however the reviewer Harold A. Roth has offered quite a selection of truly ignorant remarks! He has picked up on passing remarks that stuck in his craw for some reason and have nothing to do with the actual material presented in the book! He is also wrong in his beliefs regarding these passing remarks.

First of all, this particular Alchemy the author refers to in the New Hermetics IS generally considered "Western" by the ENTIRE occult community, even if it started out in roughly the same part of the planet as Eastern Alchemy. Eastern Alchemy is far different and is called "Internal Alchemy" for this reason. Compare Eastern Alchemy to the Golden Dawn-styled New Hermetics and you will clearly see the author is correct.

Another passing remark, "Satanists can't exist without Evangelical Christians," is just a simple fact, not to mention entirely unimportant and irrelevant to the actual occult material presented in this book. Satan was invented by Christians, therefore the very definition of "Satan" relies on Christianity. Sure, some say "Satan" was based on "Set." Who cares? The actual Satan comes from the Bible, so a Satanist depends on the Bible, otherwise they would be Setians NOT Satanists. I'm sure most Satanists don't view it this way, but I certainly always have! Choosing Satanism is choosing the "bad guy" of a religion that doesn't mean spit to me. LaVeyan "Satanism" may not believe in an actual Satan per se, but they still have chosen a figure dependent upon an opposing ideology, which is really funny if you think about it.

Once again, these were just passing remarks that the author has used to make very simple points about how to view magic in general. This is a simplified book meant to ease the process of The Great Work without putting you through the unnecessary rigamarole of subscribing to a particular cosmology and memorizing pages and pages adorations and formulae by rote just to try and make some progress.

This book succeeds marvelously to that end and is a great introduction, if not the beginning of a complete system, to Western Magic in the tradition of the Golden Dawn. (The author promises a Part Two companion which leads the practitioner through the higher ranks of the GD in the future).