Eight years after the last Chasing Hermes episode, Sean and Jason get together to talk about what the podcast meant to them and some of their favorite moments. Sean and Jason conclude with plans for their next collaboration, and the name of the new podcast is announced exclusively for Chasing Hermes fans.
In his day, John Dee was famous for his contributions to science and for his role as adviser to Queen Elizabeth. Dee assembled the largest library England had ever seen and his mansion at Mortlake outside London was a popular place to visit for foreign emissaries and prominent thinkers. But Dee harbored a longing for more knowledge than science could offer. He wanted to know about the world and what lies beyond it. Dissatisfied with the limitations of contemporary wisdom, he turned to the spirit...
It is hard to imagine that almost a thousand years went by during which virtually nobody in the West knew anything about the majority of Greek philosophy. In retrospect, this period has rightly been dubbed the Dark Ages. But all that was about to change when the East and the West met in Florence, Italy in an attempt to heal the rift between the Orthodox and the Catholic churches. Florence at the dawn of the Renaissance was, much like Alexandria a thousand years earlier, a melting pot of cultures...
As pagan traditions started to dwindle in the face of the rising popularity of Christianity in the third and fourth century C.E., a new interpretation of ancient philosophy was born. Drawing from the cosmology of the Thimaeus, this tradition attempted to revive the writings of Plato for a new time. This was a world view which gave place not only to the gods of the classic Greek mythology but also to an interpretation of the transcendent monotheistic deity. This school of philosophy later became ...
What is more righteous - to accept your fate, or to choose your own destiny? The clash between sorcery and mainstream religion can be followed through the ages back to Ancient Greece. An upright member of Greek society should not meddle with magical forces, or else they might dishonor the gods and bring misfortune upon all of society. Furthermore, sorcerers were unruly, unpredictable and unstable. In this episode of Chasing Hermes we talk about what status the magical arts had in Ancient Egypt a...
The life of a magician in Ancient Egypt was tough. He had to get up early in the morning, wash, shave every hair from his body, pick up his magician's toolbox and go to work. Both the poor and the wealthy required his services: staving off evil warlocks, prescribing remedies to common illnesses, carving amulets and talismans, and providing enough mojo to the dearly departed to last them an eternity in the afterlife. More than pyramids and mummies, Ancient Egypt was an intricately structured soci...
Sometimes our quest for light takes us to some pretty dark and austere places. The Guardian on the Threshold, sometimes called the dweller, the watcher, or the lurker on the threshold, is the personification of your fears that appears as a gestalt, often during times of spiritual trials. It was Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton who first put the dweller on the threshold into the literary world. Later authors such as Rudolf Steiner and C.G. Jung borrowed from Lytton's imagery to illustrate the concept of...
What is sleep paralysis and how does it work? Can you create your own characters and interact with them in your dreams? Close your eyes and prepare to slide deeper into the world of lucid dreaming and astral projection! In this episode we answer some of the listener feedback that we received on episode 06 and our take on the astral projection phenomenon. Thank you everyone who wrote in with your comments and questions - keep 'em coming.
How can God allow evil to exist in the world? This question has riddled the minds of the philosophers for millennia. Leibniz coined this dilemma the theodicy problem: if God is omnipotent and benevolent, why does he not eradicate evil and suffering? In this episode, we take a look at the Hermetic writings for clues to their understanding of the nature of evil and the sources of human suffering. Welcome back to a new season of Chasing Hermes. Hermetism was a dualist movement, one which believed n...
Our sojourn into the world of practical alchemy continues with a plunge into the last four of the seven alchemical principles - Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation and Coagulation. These four stages represent the coagula process which must follow after the completion of the first three solve stages that we discussed in episode nine. Conjunction is the recombination of the parts that were taken apart in the separation process. Fermentation is the controlled decay of the substance in order to ...
Alchemy is concerned with extracting and refining the purest essence of a physical substance. Modern alchemists view the physical changes that the substance undergoes as powerful analogies to spiritual and psychological changes within the human psyche. For example, breaking down the solid structure of an herb, as in the process of calcination, exemplifies to the alchemist the tearing down of old beliefs, thoughts and emotions in the alchemist. The mind of the alchemist affects his alchemy, and v...
From Mount Olympus to the Pyramids, people of all ages have felt the urge to return to the center of the world, the Axis Mundi. Traditions in virtually all cultures speak of a nave, a central axis, a mystical place where the four directions in space meet in a unified point. Here, heaven and earth meet, enabling the mystic to travel into the heavenly spheres. In this sacred space, the Divine resides with mankind and we are permitted to return to innocence, into a paradisical state.
"Truly, without deceit, certain and most veritable." For over 2.000 years, the Emerald Tablet has been the back bone of hermeticism and has inspired countless of derivative works. It captured the imagination of such brilliant minds as Roger Bacon, Isaac Newton, and Carl Gustav Jung, the father of analytical psychology . Today, the Tablet's influence can clearly be seen in popular books such as The Secret and The Law of Attraction. In this episode, we go beyond "as above, so below" to discuss wha...
Whether entranced saints or dreaming sages, mystic literature is riddled with references to lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences and nightly apparitions. Rising through the planes of existence, the skilled mystic leaves the material plane and aspires towards the source of all things to seek council from the universal mind. In this episode of Chasing Hermes, we take a look at some noted dream mystics throughout history and give some tips on how to learn to astral project yourself.
Springing from the Alexandrian mix of Greek, Roman, Jewish, Christian and Gnostic traditions, the Corpus Hermeticum tells us about the great philosophical frameworks in which the early Hermetic philosophers were operating. After having been lost for almost a millennium, the Corpus Hermeticum caused a great stir when it was rediscovered in 1460 and became widespread with the introduction of Gutenberg's printing press. Once believed to be older than the writings of both Plato and Socrates, the Cor...
Can bad events in your life be attributed to someone elses ill-willed thoughts about you? Some people seem convinced this happens to them all the time. On what grounds may we accept or reject such a world view? In this episode, you will find out how you might be able to tell whether you are under psychic or magical attack - and what you can do about it.
The four classical elements - earth, air, water and fire - dates back to the sixth century B.C.E. It was believed that all of nature consisted of these four basic building blocks, each of which displaying the properties hot or cold, dry or wet. Today, we know much more about the inner workings of matter, but these four elements continue to play an important role as they have forever influenced classical philosophy, psychology, astrology, alchemy and magic.
Did you ever consider this fact: Everything you have ever experienced about the world has been signals sent to your brain from your senses. The ancient Greeks thought of the human experience as one of being on the inside, looking out. Man is his own little kingdom inside a larger kingdom; a microcosm inside the macrocosm. The Emerald Tablet of Hermes states that the things that are within are a reflection of the things that are without. Can the outside world influence the world within - and vice...
In this very first episode of the podcast, we introduce ourselves and our intentions with the show. We also touch on the significance of the show's title and introduce some of the concepts we are going to discuss in later episodes.
