The Hermetic Physician

Auteur

Marco Daffi, a pseudonym for Baron Ricciardo Ricciardelli (1900-1969), was an Italian esotericist and the author of several books in Italian on hermeticism and alchemy.

Texte du rabat

An exploration of Giulianö Kremmerz’s life, his teachings, his work as a hermetic physician, and the metaphysical and hermetic principles that guided his activities.

Résumé
• Explores Kremmerz’s life, his teachings, his work as a hermetic physician, and the metaphysical and hermetic principles that guided his activities

• Offers a detailed account of the distance healing practices, diagnostic methods, and rituals of the Fraternity of Myriam

• Includes texts written by Kremmerz on the inner workings and magical operations of the fraternity, intended for its practicing members

Giuliano Kremmerz (1861-1930), born Ciro Formisano, was one of the most influential Italian occultists, alchemists, and Hermetic masters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though he remains almost unknown to English readers. In 1896, Kremmerz began writing about natural and divine magic, healing, and alchemy through the journal Il Mondo Secreto (The Secret World). At the same time, he founded a school known as the Schola Philosophica Hermetica Classica Italica as well as a magical group, the Therapeutic and Magical Fraternity of Myriam. Within the Myriam, he sought to use Hermetic, magical, and Pythagorean principles to harness the power of the psyche and convey collective energies for therapeutic purposes and distance healing. His initiatic order would become the principal esoteric society in Italy--comparable to its British counterpart, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn--but forced to be a carefully guarded secret as Mussolini’s government rose to power.

In this unique compilation of essays, David Pantano presents an in-depth study of Kremmerz’s life and work by his student and initiate, Italian esotericist Marco Daffi. Without holding back criticism, Daffi provides a detailed account of the history and practices of the Myriam as well as the metaphysical and Hermetic principles that guided their activities. Revealing Kremmerz’s rediscovery of the occult healing of ancient mystery schools, Daffi also shows how Kremmerz laid the foundation for passing this initiatory tradition on to the new millennium. He explores the means by which Kremmerz said miracles can be performed and the way Hermetic forces affect both bodily health and mystical eroticism.

Throughout this collection, David Pantano provides extensive annotations, offering the English reader essential historical and mystical context for Daffi’s work. Connecting to untranslated Italian texts and elucidating Daffi’s poetic style, Pantano’s commentary reveals the particular tradition of Italian esoterism. Pantano also includes rare and unpublished texts written by Kremmerz and intended for the Myriam’s practicing members. Combined, these papers offer a picture of the inner workings and magical operations of this fraternity, available for the first time in English.

Échantillon de lecture
**From Chapter 4

Critical Notes on Hermetic Therapeutics 1

JUNE 27-AUGUST 24, 1968

Between 1894 and 1930, Dr. Ciro Formisano, who wrote under the pseudonym of Giuliano Kremmerz, promoted in Italy a fundamental idea that he developed in a journal (no longer to be found) with the name of Il Mondo Secreto (The Secret World). This journal--perhaps due to the author’s second thoughts--was never reprinted, but the ideas and concepts contained in it were reproduced in other publications, and in large part were collected under the title Avviamento alla Scienza dei Magi. Elementi di Magia Naturale e Divina (Introduction to the Science of the Magi: Elements of Natural and Divine Magic) and reprinted several times.

The fundamental ideas are summarized as follows:

(a) to develop therapeutic powers of the psyche by harnessing through the Pythagorean principle of the multiple of Twelve the virtues of collective energy;

(b) to convey the said healing powers of psychic energy or what I call the magical chain of praying souls for the benefit of the sick or individuals in a state of imbalance;

(c) to augment to these energies, in revival of the ancient and slandered magic, by means of magical rituals in the form of prayers or charms (carmens) and by ideograms or symbols representing the occult idea of the particular therapy;

(d) to supplement these means by the evocation of entities hidden to the uninitiated, that as a theurgist, with the power to bind these entities to the (magical) chain that he has founded and named the “Fraternity of Myriam” or ““Brotherhood of Myriam.”

The words, Brotherhood and Myriam, refer to two aspects, the human and the divine of the initiative: Brotherhood, that is, the mass of adherents who were reputed to release (and in many cases effectively released) latent therapeutic energies; and Myriam, symbol of the world or the planes from which--in addition to the psychic energies of the chain--are drawn healing forces.

It is understood that the principles, initially given an exhaustive form, should not--as unfortunately happened--lead to fideism, but rather promote a perceptive and experimental mode by the members. In fact, Kremmerz invited the constructive criticism of all that he exposed and encouraged people to develop conclusions drawn from their own personal experiences. . . .

The basis for Hermetic medical studies, unlike common medicine, is harmony with the cosmos, while supported by a philosophy that also considers the karmic effects of actions, so that an illness could also be seen as a scapegoat (recipient of faults).

It could also refer to a collective imbalance within cosmic cycles affecting groups of people, as Buddhism has always maintained. Cancer is what leprosy was like in the Middle Ages, and could also be linked to a collective imbalance in the present stage of humanity.

Hermetically, a connection can be established between the fluidic emanation of suffering among the masses of people--with the negative collectivity of psychic forces--like epidemics and infections. Kremmerz, in his Dialogues (one of his best and most lucid works), wrote that the mass of unprecedented suffering of combatants during the First World War could constitute a fluidic quid whose repercussions would affect distant lands.

These lines were written back in 1928; what would he have said about the aftereffects of the Second World War, atomic bombs included? Hermetic medicine as an application of spiritual forces to the rebalancing of the body is intimately linked to an initiatic philosophy and therefore to the spiritual world. A distinction could also be made, as Kremmerz did, between rebalancing actions, which don’t penetrate below the surface and face external manifestations, and actions centered in deeper stratas that change the structure of being by reshaping it and giving it more of a stable equilibrium. These two aspects of Hermetic medicine correspond to the two types of magic referred to by Kremmerz: natural magic and divine magic.

Kremmerz describes religious miracles as forms of madness with their claims of violating natural laws. According to him, everything takes place within the framework of the laws of nature, including portentous and immediate healings, even with anatomical physical effects. But if we understand the laws of nature according to the common possibilities of contemporary man, then for those extraordinary events, the very few that can be truly ascertained. Certainly, if not a violation of natural laws, then a violation of those laws that demonstrate the intervention of forces from higher planes. What does…