The Hermetic Axiom and Fractals
The Hermetic Axiom and Fractals
"Lucifer7" for December had a link to an article about "Fractals" at:
http://www.squidoo.com/what-are-fractals
I don't know much about fractals other than a couple of public television documentaries on them that I've seen, but basically they involve the discovery that many objects and processes in nature can be described by a simple equation that endlessly repeats itself. For instance, an example I remember is that of a forest of trees. It may seem endlessly complex to form a mathematical formula to reproduce a visual representation of trees, but it is found that a tree develops on a simple forumula that is reproduced over and over again, the branching of the smallest twig is analogous and in the same pattern as the form of the whole tree - "As above, So below," so to speak - which is the "hermetic axiom", which is a basic principle in genuine occultism and Theosophy.
The hermetic axiom is said to have been found on an emerald tablet and ascribed to Hermes or the Egyptian Thoth. From "The Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary":
"Smaragdine Tablet - The emerald tablet, alleged mystically to be of the Egyptian Hermes or Thoth, on which was inscribed, according to the Hermeticists, "the whole of magic in a single page." In a letter to the Sophists, Paracelsus says: "The ancient Emerald Table shows more art and experience in Philosophy, Alchemy, Magic, and the like than ever could be taught by you or your crowd of followers." Masons and Christian Qabbalists alleged it to have been found on the dead body of Hermes by Sarai, Abraham's wife; this allegory may mean that Sarasvati (wife of Brahma and a legendary prototype of Sarai) found much of the ancient wisdom latent in the dead body of humanity and revivified it. It is also said that the Emerald Tablet was found at Hebron, the city of the kabeiroi or cabiri (the gibborim, the Four Mighty Ones), by an Essenian initiate (TG 302, SD 2:556). It exists only in a late Latin form referred to the 7th century.
"Hermes was the Greek god of mystical thinking and interpretations, corresponding to the Egyptian Thoth, both divinities being overseers or hierophants of works of initiation concealing the archaic secrets of the god-wisdom. Thus the ascription to Hermes of profoundly mystical allegories is properly assigned, whoever their actual writers may have been.
"A fundamental law of interpretation -- analogy -- is expressed in the Emerald Tablet in the famous aphorism, "That which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below, is as that which is above, for performing the marvels of the Kosmos. As all things are from the One, by the mediation of the One so all things arose out of this One Thing by evolving . . ."
--------------
"Lucifer7" for December had a link to an article about "Fractals" at:
http://www.squidoo.com/what-are-fractals
I don't know much about fractals other than a couple of public television documentaries on them that I've seen, but basically they involve the discovery that many objects and processes in nature can be described by a simple equation that endlessly repeats itself. For instance, an example I remember is that of a forest of trees. It may seem endlessly complex to form a mathematical formula to reproduce a visual representation of trees, but it is found that a tree develops on a simple forumula that is reproduced over and over again, the branching of the smallest twig is analogous and in the same pattern as the form of the whole tree - "As above, So below," so to speak - which is the "hermetic axiom", which is a basic principle in genuine occultism and Theosophy.
The hermetic axiom is said to have been found on an emerald tablet and ascribed to Hermes or the Egyptian Thoth. From "The Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary":
"Smaragdine Tablet - The emerald tablet, alleged mystically to be of the Egyptian Hermes or Thoth, on which was inscribed, according to the Hermeticists, "the whole of magic in a single page." In a letter to the Sophists, Paracelsus says: "The ancient Emerald Table shows more art and experience in Philosophy, Alchemy, Magic, and the like than ever could be taught by you or your crowd of followers." Masons and Christian Qabbalists alleged it to have been found on the dead body of Hermes by Sarai, Abraham's wife; this allegory may mean that Sarasvati (wife of Brahma and a legendary prototype of Sarai) found much of the ancient wisdom latent in the dead body of humanity and revivified it. It is also said that the Emerald Tablet was found at Hebron, the city of the kabeiroi or cabiri (the gibborim, the Four Mighty Ones), by an Essenian initiate (TG 302, SD 2:556). It exists only in a late Latin form referred to the 7th century.
"Hermes was the Greek god of mystical thinking and interpretations, corresponding to the Egyptian Thoth, both divinities being overseers or hierophants of works of initiation concealing the archaic secrets of the god-wisdom. Thus the ascription to Hermes of profoundly mystical allegories is properly assigned, whoever their actual writers may have been.
"A fundamental law of interpretation -- analogy -- is expressed in the Emerald Tablet in the famous aphorism, "That which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below, is as that which is above, for performing the marvels of the Kosmos. As all things are from the One, by the mediation of the One so all things arose out of this One Thing by evolving . . ."
--------------
© 2024 Created by Theosophy Network.
Powered by
