The Hermetic Museum

Book: The Hermetic Museum by Arthur Edward Waite

First published in Latin in 1678, "The HERMETIC MUSEUM" is an anthology of alchemical writings, some so ancient as to be anonymous. Writers included have become part of historical legend: Helvetius, Delphinus, Michael Maier. Readers will find here an alchemical initiation, a sign to the seeker that there is a mystery and that you must begin here to unravel it. This hardback edition includes all the original engravings, and can be read not only as an esoteric text of extraordinary richness, but as a compendium of the early history of chemistry.

THE HERMETIC MUSEUM would also seem to represent a distinctive school in Alchemy, not altogether committed to certain modes and terminology which derived most of their prestige from the past, and sufficiently enigmatical as it was, still inclined to be less obscure and misleading than was the habit of the older masters. For it belonged to a period which had inherited a bitter experience of the failures, impostures, and misery surrounding the Magnum Opus and its mystical quest, which was weary of unequipped experiment, weary of wandering "multipliers," and pretentious "bellows-blowers," while it was just being awakened to the conviction that if Alchemy were true at all, it was not to be learned from books, or, at least, from any books which had hitherto been written on the subject. Running through all the tracts which are comprised in the following volumes, the reader will recognize traces of a central claim in alchemical initiation—that the secrets, whatever they were, must be understood as the property of a college of adepts, pretending to have subsisted from time almost immemorial, and revealing themselves to the select and the few, while the literature, large as it is, appears chiefly as an instrument of intercommunication between those who knew. At the same time, it may also be regarded as a sign and omen to the likely seeker, an advertisement that there was a mystery, and that he must go further who would unravel it.

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Downloadable books (free):

George Robert Stowe Mead - The Corpus Hermeticum
Arthur Edward Waite - The Hermetic Museum

Making A Wand

One neat way to make a wand that is very popular is to get a piece of copper tubing and a crystal that fits in the end of it or even one for both ends of it. Then you can decorate the tube in various ways. SOME people solder small chips of gemstones on it, while others wrap it in black leather (crazy glue keeps this on the pipe!) and then braid various colors of embroidery thread about this or attach feathers to it or whatever. You can fill the tubes with herbs sacred to your purpose/goal in life too.

Some folks have more than one of these wands for various purposes in their lives.

You can solder the crystal/s in the end/s or you can fashion prongs out of the end of the tubing and stick it in in much the same way a jeweler sets a diamond in a ring. Again, if you do this, you may find a touch of crazy glue keeps it in better.

Of course a wand doesn't have to be this complicated. Another nice wand is the ceremonial Magick - type "lotus wand" that some witches have adopted as their own. Take a branch from a tree that is fairly straight and the right length for a wand. Preferably this should be one you find, but it can also be taken from a living tree if you psychically "ask the tree's permission" - if you get a strong feeling this is wrong and that you shouldn't cut that tree, don't do it. THIS SHOULD BE DONE ON THE WAXING MOON. All ritual tools you make should be made and/or consecrated ONLY on the Waxing moon. The waxing moon is the time from one day after the new moon up to and including the night of the full - moon.

Either way, leave an offering of thanks afterwards. If you are into the Native American traditions, an ounce or so of tobacco (PURE - the kind used in the sacred pipe) or cornmeal is appropriate. If you are in Wicca / NeoPaganims, a libation of apple juice is most fitting - as is some home-baked cakes (unfrosted plain cupcakes, some corn muffins, oatmeals or cornmeal cookies or cornbread, a loaf of home-made or all-natural whole wheat bread, etc - NATURAL stuff, please NO TWINKIES AND JUNKFOOD) or even a few small charged crystals can be implanted in the ground for the trees growth. In Santeria it was traditional when taking anything from nature to leave a specific number of copper coins, perhaps with specific foods, depending upon the Deities/Orishas or other entities being invoked according to a very strict tradition of what Beings ruled what places. (for example, 5 is the number of a river or fresh water, 7 is the number for the ocean, 4 or 6 for a mountain, 2 for the forest, etc.)

Then you strip the bark, sand it down, mark it in 7 segments and paint them each in these colors of the rainbow from top to bottom. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Some celtic traditions put a steel rod through the middle of any wooden wand - a tricky business, but effective to make it a channel of the energy. To do this you MUST be sure your branch is of a certain thickness or it will split as you try to do this. This channels the energy in a simillar way to the copper tubing in the crystal wand. They also wrap a coil of thick steel wire around it's handle, like a snake, for 4-5 times which makes a grip and is also said to contribute to the energy flow.

Another way to paint a wooden wand is half black and half white or half gold and half silver, to express the balance of the polarities. If you are into Kabbalah, some folks also use Red and Blue as these are the colors usually associated with Chesed and Geburah in magick
which are the central spheres on the masculine and feminine pillars of the tree of life, respectively.

And some people leave the wooden rod plain, allowing the natural beauty of the wood to come through.

ALSO, some people make their wands out of a wooden dowel rod bought at a local lumber supply house.

I do, however, suggest that if at all possible, you still go into nature and make a small offering to mother earth for the materials used. Even a purchased dowel or a crystal bought from a rock shop or a copper tubes are all gifts from Mother Earth and Father Sky and it
is important to show our gratitude for what they have given us.

Ultimately, you should make the wand be what you FEEL. A simple stick wrapped with embroidery thread that has some feathers tied to the ends of the thread works well for one friend of mine in MASS.

Books in PDF format to read:

Anonymous - Reaching Out To Wiccans
Anonymous - Magic And Wyrd

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