The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

Historical Reception: The Fifty-Seven Notes of 1893

All fifty-seven numbered notes of the historical English edition follow in their original order. Their numbers are independent of the continuous Diotimos footnotes. References such as “See Note 19” refer to this historical series. These notes illustrate a later interpretive tradition; their conjectures, historical dates, chemical analogies, and claims about the characteristics of women and men are not silently adopted as definitions of the 1623 text.

The lines labelled “Diotimos concordance” are modern navigation aids, separate from the historical note text. Fifty-six links follow verified original note markers; note 18 is explicitly an editorial association because its number is not visibly marked beside the relevant verse in the 1893 copy.

Historical Note 1

Due reverence for Divine powers is an absolute necessity in the search for occult wisdom, and can alone lead any student in safety to success in the arts of High Magic.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 1.

Historical Note 2

Theosophic Eastern teaching (as well as Western Hermetic ritual) insists upon mental and moral as well as bodily purity in every candidate for esoteric instruction.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 2.

Historical Note 3

A warning that complete success can hardly be achieved, unless the student is able to devote himself entirely to the pursuit of the occult sciences. Non omnia possumus omnes.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 4.

Historical Note 4

A warning against spiritual pride ; the besetting sin of one who has gone up some steps of the mystic ladder, and who realizes for the first time that there is something he can teach, as well as so much that he has to learn.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 5.

Historical Note 5

“ Orare est laborare ” is the true motto of the Hermetist. Work inspired by enthusiasm and the will to progress, so as to fit oneself to raise others, is ideal prayer in action.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 5.

Historical Note 6

If you freely receive knowledge and power you must freely give: the epigram attributed to a fellow student was, “ I give, I give ; but the more I give, the more do I receive.”

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 5.

Historical Note 7

James i. 27, “ Keep himself unspotted from the world,” it is more easy to remain clean away from a dirty world ; yet if one can keep clean amid the turmoil of a city, such conduct is deserving of a higher reward than is due to a clean but ascetic life.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 5.

Historical Note 8

In tranquillity alone can meditation be fertile the flower can only bloom in the calm after the violence of the storm of contest with the passions.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 5.

Historical Note 9

In peaceful meditation is the opportunity of that aspiration to the Divine which may lead to union (even if momentary) with the Higher and Divine Genius—the Light that may light every man that cometh into the world.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 5.

Historical Note 10

A teacher and guide is almost an absolute necessity in the Higher Magic; not to drag on the pupil, but to point out the path that has been trodden with success, and to warn against tempting bye-paths with meretricious attractions, but “whose splendour is but seeming.” Among the Rosicrucians each Adept was authorized and encouraged to choose one or more pupils to follow in his steps and to take up the mantle and wand when his time came to lay them down.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 6.

Historical Note 11

Apart from the help of a Master, it is nearly always found that a fellow student is a great help to progress. A few there are who succeed most in solitary study; others are much helped by the presence of a responsive zeal and reflected desire. A trio of students has also a certain advantage. History has but few examples of two fellow students of the same sex achieving great results : but there are many instances of great progress and high results from the combined work of a truly high minded woman and man developing by mutual and reciprocal interaction ; the female providing knowledge by intuition, and the male formulating and developing the practical aspect of the matter. Even in the preliminary grades of mystic study the same result is obtained : unrestrained and unconventional social and intellectual communion may (in the absolute absence of passion) lead to rapid mental and spiritual progress. Compare the narratives of Moses and Miriam, Paul and Thecla, Theon and Hypatia, Flamel and Pernelle, Gichtel and Sophia, Anna Kingsford and her still living collaborateur. Analogy supports the proposition, through all the forms of the manifested universe ; wherever the Dyad is developed, the presence of the contrasted forces alone leads to a due result.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 6.

Historical Note 12

Beware of false guides : perhaps it is wisest to add, follow only one path at once ; even if it be granted that two parallel paths exist, and that they meet farther on—yet it is most easy to attempt one only ; still the attempt to traverse both at once is not absolutely forbidden, either by the chiefs of the Western or Eastern Schools.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 8.

Historical Note 13

Whenever a student happens upon a very definite assertion in a book certainly the work of a high adept, it is generally safe to seek further; for the ancient writers, when they did publish, never threw pearls of learning away, although willing to tender them to earnest students.