The Hermetic Tradition: Symbols and Teachings of the Royal Art

Rating:
Summary: A text on Hermeticism which is itself a Hermetic Work!
Review: Baron Evola, always controversial and provocative, is no less so here. Discussing many facets of the Magnum Opus ( 'Corrosive waters', and 'Path of Venus' for instance) which are overlooked, misunderstood, or just plain ignored by other writers on the subject, this work should be consisered a necessary part of any Hermetic Library. Evola draws extensively from Greek, Latin, Arabic, and English language expositions of the Hermetico-Alchemic Art. The notes are impressive in their relevance and ability to increase the depth of qualitative comprehension. One could wish there had been a more comprehensive index. Be prepared to have cherished assumptions challenged and intellectual horizons broadened. Read with Evola's "Eros and the Mysteries of Love," and "The Mystery of the Grail."

Good Luck!

Rating:
Summary: If you're serious about this subject...
Review: The impressions of Hermeticism that have formed over many years of Jungian interpretations, Theosophical speculations and well-intentioned 20th century academic investigations will have to be looked at anew - and to tell the truth, pretty much discarded by anyone who encounters this book. It's really not an overstatement to say that Evola's work simply trumps other interpretations. His is not so much an 'interpretation' as much as it is a genuine teaching. The product of a pure, direct, and very deep experience of the material, The Hermetic Tradition offers the most lucid overall treatment that this often dizzyingly difficult subject has ever seen. Evola managed to do this somehow without "dumbing it down" for a broad public readership, and in doing so he has rendered us a tremendous and unparalleld service. As SPECIALIZED material, applicable to a SPECIFIC mode of percieving the world and one's place in it, with a SPECIFIC core spiritual discipline at it's heart, the Tradition of Hermeticism has been done justice by this book. Because of that, for some it will not be easy reading - even more difficult will be putting it's teachings to practice. But for those of us who, for all of our familiarity with the 'occult' Hermetic symbols and the 'psychological' operations of alchemy, are still left mainly un-transformed by such understandings, this book is for you. It cannot be recommended highly enough.