The Main Focus Of Our Work At The Scola Hermetica

‘Mercury’

Engraving by Jacob Matham

after design drawing by Hendrick Goltzius.

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Written by: Nicolas Lecerf

is very rare to find a person who manifests his/her own ideas. Such a person must cope with so much adversity and pressure that explains why so many have given up and are merely voicing opinions induced by the hegemonic culture that surrounds them. We are born out of an incredible diversity and yet it is very rare to see ‘individuals’ (someone who can not be divided) that are standing out of the grey crowd of uniformity and complacency.

The society we live in is about control; from the very few to the many. The aim is greed and the whole setting of our societies is about keeping it out that way. Our ‘cultures’ within mischievously hide a repressive arsenal that aims to keep us people from questioning all the malfunctioning anomalies that from time to time arise and escape the gloss and the glitter of the ‘promised land’. We all experiment from childhood self-censorship out of the fear to be outcasted, which is the fate of all those brave enough to ask for the truth instead of the stage decorum presented as ‘reality’. This has severe consequences on our being and all the diseases, physical, emotional and mental are the fruits of this imposed ‘hell on earth’ masquerading as a paradise.

We are transmitting from generations to generations, this poisonous fear that envelops our world with a huge shadow that covers and taints everything. It takes pain and much suffering to awake from this now (self-) imposed ‘apathy of being’ and not everybody succeeds in not being dragged back again into the ‘oblivion of the self’, so much the fail safes of society are efficient and jealous of their power. Let’s just say this, that the repressive system is present in all aspect of life, monitoring our very moves and thoughts, ready to strike in very subtle way, sometimes less, to what appears to them as an infringement to the ‘lawful life and duties of a perfect citizen’.

For each of us, the ‘waking call’ comes at different times or stages of our lives, when ‘accidents’ in the normal flow of our lives disrupt the quiet and invisible debilitating settings. The fear of disease, of death-its natural consequence, of being alone and not being loved. All are ‘eye openers’ for those who learn (it must be learned, as it comes not with an operating booklet) to question their life and for the most lucky, who do not fall back again in the dull sleep of the ‘paradise of the masses’ and are able to move on to make this awakening, sustainable. Awakening is not the aim, as it is so often mistaken, it is part of a larger process: Initiation.

Initiation comes from the latin ‘Initiare’, which means to begin. A door opens, showing us a world of possibilities at the opposite of the world we live in-that like in Poe’s poem ‘The Raven’ says ‘nevermore!’, here says ‘impossible!’. We are brought to this point by our aim to change, but for this REAL work is needed that only allow us to overcome the resistances of our raging egos, as they fear for their control over us.

This upsetting is temporary and need to be nourished by a constant work of awareness and self-observation. We discover that we are mostly parts without a common aim, each striving for domination at all levels of our 3 bodies, the egos. Discipline and regular exercises feed a pool inside of us that waters our elemental humors, their impatience, instability and inability of focus. It is a journey of ‘self-discovery’ at the opposite of what we are taught in all areas of life, that imposes on us the external and rootless views of the hegemonic majority.

The journey is within and personal, as we are born dissimilar and unique. Initiation is like a peripatetic mirroring dialogue with others, where we exchange personal experience, bringing us to understand what we really know from what we are discovering of life-behind its appearances. Creating meaning for one-self and with others is the very essence of the hermetic way. Each of us, then starts to discover his/her wholeness, our picture within the greater picture, our individual divine blue print. It is a natural journey from personal development to community development. But we are still far from that, as the main work still needs to be done, the finding of our own sustainable balance.

This is an exact science, as would Mr. Gurdjieff say and it follows an exact methodology using an exact language. We are step by step brought to deep places inside of ourselves where we see our bruised pieces that need to be loved and healed and we are shown their original purpose. Then, each of these parts now serve this new awareness, within a thriving and exciting dynamic, aim and vision.

The work consists in acknowledging our defects and thoroughly studying their impact on us, weakening our immune system-point zero to the unnatural development of all known disease. We learn to be aware of them and not identify with them and not allow them to poison us through the invasion of our 3 bodies: Mainly starting from the mind where they originate and then stalking the etheric and emotional body where they finally do their disruptive business on the poor physical body. Of course, our ‘educational’ system tells us a very different story, deliberately turning effects into causes, leaving the real causes in the shadow for us not to be aware of.

Initiation changes everything, as the deeper our understanding of our functioning grows, the better we get to grasp the real relationship between causes and effects and not the fake and fabricated lies that pretend arrogantly that all diseases are due to genetic, biologic and chemical unbalances, which is a gross and criminal cropping of the real picture ! Initiation is the science of LIFE, an universal medicine, of which we learn practically to restore our health by understanding and living with our bodies correctly.

The defects are then matched with their opposite qualities and it is a real dance of our very core duality, set into a creative motion! This is symbolized by the two snakes dancing around the mercurial wand. This is the very heart of the classical hermetic path.

That is generally what is missed by so many un-careful seekers who do not recognize it, ungratefully losing themselves in the quest of external goods. This sad state of affairs curses them to continuously stay outside the very core essence of things and forces them to grow an unnatural inflated ego-escape, forever unbalanced, forever unsatisfied in the craving world of having. Sadly, they are the real energy vampires parasitizing our beautiful Earth to serve those jealous and angry masters, that we know all too much about for having described them in length, ab-nauseam.

This is here then the natural spring-board for the shift from personal towards community development, this is the ‘narrow door’ that all organized religions scripture describe without going deeper than the literal meaning. This very dance of life’s opposites generates an emulative balance, a creative and tonic field that restores our health and even improves it dramatically! This is the ‘awakening of our own personal virtue’ that is the climax, acme and fruit of the exact blending of our defects & qualities into our awakened, polished and restored inner picture, our very divine blueprint.

We then can shine this unique and personal virtue back to the Universe in gratitude, for the service of our communities, gladly working with other sustainable and benevolent individuals to expand our being-consciousness on Earth and beyond in a multi-layered and splendored feast of love and wisdom.

Initiation takes us

as wounded and mortal creatures

and restores us fully into our once lost HUMANITY.

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