Hermetic Meritorious & Demeritorious Exercise to Prepare for Rebirth.
This is a practice Iโve been doing for a little over a month now, which is a more Chinese-Daoist/Buddhist practice of listing out ones demerits and merits that one has committed throughout the day, or week or month. Itโs not really occult or esoteric โ sorry :p
It builds off the idea of a Folk-Daoist concept of Ganying ๆๆ or correlative resonance. Basically cause and effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganying
Ganying - Wikipedia
Typically I follow the lists of Merits and Demerits from the ๆๆๅธๅ้ฐ้จญๆ/Wenchang's Treatise on Secret Merit & ๅคชไธๆๆ็ฏ Taishang Ganying Pian, respectively, to go off of what is โmeritoriousโ and โdemeritorious.โ
I highly recommended you all check out @edwardW2 (on Twitter) compilation of three different translations of each text
https://edwardwhite123.blogspot.com/2022/03/wenchangs-treatise-on-secret-merit.html
https://edwardwhite123.blogspot.com/2022/05/taishang-ganying-pian-three-translations.html
While there is no such practice in the realm of Greco-Egyptian Hermeticism, at least that I am aware of, this practice of ๆๆ can easily be applied to a Hermetic praxis/setting.
Particularly in Corpus Hermeticum XIII.7-9. Here we are presented with the 12 Irrational Tormentors and the 10 Divine Liberators of said Tormentors.
So with a sheet of paper, you can list all the times throughout your day, week or month, you were:
1. Ignorant
2. Stricken with Grief
3. Incontinent (lost control of your emotions)
4. Lustful
5. Unjust
6. Greedy
7. Deceitful
8. Envious
9. Treacherous
10. Angry
11. Reckless
12. Malicious
Likewise, we can record our merits or โLiberatorsโ in a Hermetic setting by:
1. Acknowledging when Knowledge has dispelled our Ignorance
2. Recognize when we were Joyous to dispel our Grief
3. Acknowledged when we had Continence over our emotions.
4. When we Persevered through Lustful temptations.
5. When Justice prevailed our once unjust attitude and actions.
6. When we displayed Liberality over our Greed.
7. Record when we were earnestly Truthful, to dispel Deceitful Behavior.
In CH XIII.9, once Truth has arrived to us throughout the day, week or month, together with the Good, life and light (the remainder of the Three Divine Liberators), Hermetic Rebirth is achieved!
What you do with the piece of paper is up to you. You could keep them for tracking your moral progression, or you could burn the paper like I do. (๐ฅUSE FIRE SAFETY. PLEASE.๐ฅ) I burn the paper because it is a symbolic releasing of these good and bad deeds, as I do not wish to harbor good deeds and become pretentious. Likewise, harboring bad deeds will only bring us more grief. As you burn the list of merits and demerits safely, reflect deeply on your successes and failures. Ponder the consequences of meritorious deeds. Likewise, reflect how your faulty actions produced strife and conflict in yours or anotherโs life. But just as the paper in front of you burns away, so too does your merit. So too does your demerits burn away. Harbor nothing but the wisdom of your ancestors the gods and God; returning to a state of nothingness โ ashes. And from these ashes, pray for more meritorious actions to arise from within and without.
The cause: Recording our daily, weekly or monthly Tormentors and Liberators.
The effect: A preparation for Hermetic Rebirth.
While this Hermetic Rebirth is a central theme in CH XIII. Who says we cannot undergo a sort of spiritual rebirth everyday, or every week or, every month? (Psstโฆwe most certainly can, and I personally think that is the point of โHermetic Rebirth.โ) Spiritual Rebirth is not just a one and done thing. Itโs a life long process that I, a Hermeticist, must and will continue to undergo.
I think using Corpus Hermeticum XIII is a great way to daily, weekly, or monthly record our merits and demerits. Itโs a practice that builds integrity and moral fortitude. And ultimately leads to a Spiritual Rebirth. Iโm not suggesting at all that Hermetic literature and PGM practices, and other technical Hemerticas can cause or not cause moral integrity and fortitude, just that there is a lack of structure and praxis for dispelling the Tormentors, which is not always a bad thing โ the lack of structure I mean.
As a Hermeticist I use the structure of practices that come from various traditions โ see my post on the Christian Meditative practice called Lectio Divina. My noetic theurgy, called the Silent Prayer, closely resembles Dhikr, which is a Muslim meditative practice that involves reciting the 99 names of Allah. This is just the reality for us Hermeticist โ lack of structural praxis! Again this is not a bad thing. Just through the course of time and suppression of beliefs, we do not have alot of surviving structural practices for a โHermetic Praxis.โ It is what is. But the lack of structure gives us, the practitioners, the power and opportunity to build a valid and authentic spiritual praxis thatโs very customizable, and substitutable for our contemporary lives! Which is a very beautiful process to undergo, personally.
If you all need more help in structuring a Hermetic Praxis โ please check out @polyphanes Kofi shop and buy his Preces Templi e-book.
I hope this exercise serves everyone well whether you use the traditional Chinese list of Merits and Demerits, or if you wish to use CH XIII.7-9. Gods bless you all.
