I'm Menw (meh-noo). E.K. is a title. I don't know what it stands for. I make it up everytime.
This is a tumblr blog. I haven't done one of these in a while. Forgive me for not doing some of the more tumblr-y things right. I'm just trying to write things.
And that's what this blog is for: writing things. I'll be doing a lot of that. Writing for me is a fundamental part of the process of learning. If there is something there that needs to be challenged, please challenge it. Be respectful, but I want you to. No good idea stands untested.
I am a Goês, Christian Hermeticist, and Magician. Which are big fancy words for someone who reads a lot and prays every day. These things are important to me, they might not be to you. At least not yet. But I hope I can show you a little of why.
Thank you for stopping to read my pinned post. For anything else, my asks are open.
~Menw
Additional links, relevant post, and blog standards:
Blocking policy
Wanted to set a clear boundary regarding why and when I block people. This will be added to my pinned post.
Philosophy on blocking: The int
What does it mean to be a Hermeticist for you personally? I’m curious about the core beliefs and practices you follow, I don’t know much about hermeticism
Feel free to ignore this if you don’t feel like answering :)
Hey! This is a great question!
It's harder to answer than it probably should be lol, but I will do my absolute best.
Ultimately Hermeticism is a lot of things to a lot of different people. That can come down to how hard or soft you are on its use and definition. I'm *somewhere* in the middle between a couple extremes.
For me, Hermeticism means that
-I believe in a single divine entity I call God. Although their being a single divinity does not preclude them from having aspects or segments which are derived from them (the Nous or the word being one example).
-I believe that the natural world is a reflection of that divinity, and that divinity is not created by the natural world
-I believe that closeness to that divinity, and the freedom there, is found through knowledge, through noesis.
-I believe that the natural world, even if it is derived from demiurgic forces (I frame this in my own way, but the Poimandres cites a fiery demiurge) is wholly good, and that the act of love and the will to propagate is wholly good.
-I believe that there is value in autonomy and that autonomy is claimed through knowledge.
-I believe the universe is describable, and that scientific and mathematic achievement do not distract from the divine but describe it directly.
Most of those things are pulled from the most firmly Hermetic documents we have access to, the Corpus Hermeticum. I'll include a link to the Salaman Clement translation of the Corpus below.
I also draw from the Emerald Tablets, another foundational and notably Hermetic document.
There's a Hermetic interpretation that discredits the holiness with which I treat the material world. It's a pretty valid interpretation and the ideas were certainly present (at the time of main body hermetic texts creation) that the material world is dirty and flawed, and the holy act is to transcend to achieve closeness with the divine.
I don't like that take quite as much, and there is textual evidence contradicting it. But you can find a summary of that mainline interpretation here:
Introduction One of the esoteric religious belief systems to come out of Hellenistic Greece was the Hermetic tradition that rose in
My Hermeticism is not the *only* Hermeticism, of course. The Hermetica saw a reawakening in the Renaissance along with the advent of a Christianized form of Hermetic thought. I do describe myself as a Christian Hermeticist, primarily because I am culturally Christian, and because my primary magical work comes from Christian sources (like the majority of the Grimoires). But my Hermetica differs a little from how the Renaissance thinkers incorporated it.
We saw another reawakening of the Hermetica with Newton and his translation, which I love (well, I love that it's a thing we know exists. There's less available about Newton's occultism than I would like). I'm obsessed with Newton and I think his use of the Hermetica is one the best in modern times. I mean, it gave us Calculus guys. Like, come on. (Special shoutout to Gottfried Leibniz who also invented Calculus you deserve the credit too dude but you didn't do a translation of the Hermetica so bummer for you no wizard points.) And Newton's Hermetica and mine might look a little more similar.
My Hermetica has nothing at all to do with modern texts like the Kybalion, which I strongly dislike (it's a baby of the New Thought movement and is essentially pulling the title of Hermetic for clout, which doesn't necessarily discredit it as a text but hard to approach in good faith). And especially nothing to do with texts spouting that Thoth the Atlantean stuff. I really hope people aren't reading that shit with any seriousness it's so... fanfiction-y.
"What if Thoth was an Atlantean God King and he wrote the Emerald Tablets and..." fuck off dude.
Ultimately I call myself a Hermeticist to place me in a tradition stemming from the man turned syncretic "god", Hermes Trismegistus. We are called to follow, like the initiatory structure of the Poimandres, to seek knowledge and to find the Divine there.
I place myself in the tradition of people like Newton, Boyle, Yates, Ficino, Paracelsus...
And no I'm not an egoist why do you ask?
I mean I inform what I do by the things these people wrote and thought and created. And I strive to be a little better, a little closer to divinity, every single day.
That's my Hermetica I suppose.
That was a really really long answer and I apologize for inflicting it upon you lol. I truly appreciate being able to talk about this sort of thing long form. I hope some of this was helpful, or at least passing interesting.
One area of growth for me, something that I am actively working on, is the separation of things that are actively harmful from things that are simply not my flavor.
Or honestly, sometimes letting things live despite knowing they are explicitly wrong, if they are not doing any harm.
At the end of the day, inevitably, there will be people using terms I don't use, in ways I don't use them, based on history I know is false.
Sometimes they are people I immeasurably respect.
And it's not my role, not anyone's role, to be the hammer of truth.
I will correct things I know to be harmful, I will piteously lament the things I think are cringe. I'm working on not sticking my big head into places it doesn't need to go.
There was a guest on a friend's podcast recently (luxoccult podcast, check it out please, I'm on it sometimes) Mme. Vendredi. Now, the Mademoiselle is an incredibly accomplished magician deserving of immense respect. Buy her services! Take her classes! It's so worth it.
And Mademoiselle Vendredi mentioned framing something with the Law of Attraction.
Now, I don't like that term. I don't use it. It's a New Thought brainchild and is an intellectual descendant of ideas I actively try to discredit in my writing.
Does that mean that the Mademoiselle's work is useless? That we should throw the whole thing out?
No!
Of course not! Go support her work!
(She's on hiatus currently but in the future you can find her at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mademoisellev)
The thing is, her using this term I hate from an intellectual tradition I despise doesn't make her any less of a magician. It doesn't represent the totality of her being. And it is NOT my responsibility to contact her and attempt to steer her away from that.
The point here being that I say wrong shit all the time. You, dear reader, you do too! It doesn't remove our value, it doesn't discredit our ability. It *could* represent an opportunity to learn if we so choose, but it by no means has to.
We owe each other as operant people in the world to extend the basic respect of hearing each other out, and giving each other space to let the *really good* ideas out.
Anyway, I'll soon be putting out a post of the terms I personally do and do not use, and an explanation of why. I want this post to represent a sort of foreword to that.
I have *really good* reasons for most of the language I use when discussing occultism. I'm very intentional about it. That doesn't mean I'm some god-emperor of esoteric dictation (long may I reign). It does mean I hope you would consider my reasoning, and know it's coming from a place of sincerity.
I will joke about things like the use of "grimoire" to refer to a personal spellbook or magical journal (Hi, it's me, the other half of Menw's brain in the parentheses. Please stop doing that. It's really extraordinarily dumb.) But seriously, don't let me stop you. (Stop it.) Ultimately language is as useful as its ability to convey our internal worlds into the mind of another. If that's accomplished, you're doing okay. (No seriously stop doing the grimoire thing I'm gonna lose my mind. Grimoires are specific books! SPECIFIC BOOKS. IN A SPECIFIC TRADITION!!!! FUCKAIUHFASIUH).
Alright the bicameral parentheses joke got a little out of hand. But you get me, internet stranger. Right?
This blog hasn't gained a *ton* of ground yet so I feel fairly safe putting this up with few qualifiers.
I'm offering divination services!
At this time, due to the small size of this blog, I am pretty comfortable offering divination up totally free.
If you would like to offer something, I am always down to trade or exchange skills/services/art. But there is no obligation to do so.
You get: the skills and abilities of a magician with almost a decade of experience in divination and grimoire magic.
I get: a chance to keep my skills sharp and an opportunity to be of service to a stranger.
As I am offering services free of charge, I do reserve the right to refuse a divination for any reason. I will do so politely, but I have my boundaries as any reasoning person should.
Types of divination I offer:
Geomancy
Geomancy is an art that emerged out of the Arabic speaking world and was picked up and popularized in medieval europe. It uses the generation of binary sets to create sixteen discreet forms from which the answers are divined.
Geomancy can be done using any method of generating a binary set. I prefer to grab handfuls of loose objects such as small stones, but dice or other methods may be used on request.
For no charge, I will be providing a shield chart and explanation. There are more advanced charts and rundowns (astrologers may be familiar with the Placidus chart). But to keep things simple it'll be a shield.
Lenormand
Lenormand is a cartomancy style named for the famed diviner Marie Anne Lenormand (although it very likely has little to do with the cartomancy style she used). The form we use today is called the *petit lenormand* and comes to us from a german playing card company.
For Lenormand, I will be doing a three or five card spread depending on the the complexity of the question. Lenormand can be read in sets of three, five, nine, or an entire deck (in a spread called the grande tableau). Lenormand is a very approachable cartomancy style, and the explanations tend to be quite clear and readable.
Other forms of divination
I am certainly most proficient in the above styles, but there's plenty of other divination styles I have at least passing familiarity with.
I am of course *okay* at tarot. I am pretty proficient at water bowl scrying, and I have an idiosyncratic method of candle gazing that works alright for me.
If you're curious if I know how to do something, just ask!
Unless you want the fingernail scrying thing from the Hygromenteia. That one's on you.
If this blog ends up growing I may switch to paid divinations in the future just to stem the flow, but with a follower count this low atm I'm not too crazy concerned.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to reading you! Doing reads for you. Dammit.
This was my submission for the first Green Mushroom Zine: Fuck Around and Find Out (offerings of magical sovereignty) titled Initiotation [sic]
I'm reposting it here to present a taste of the sort of thing I make and the sort of people I make it with!
The Green Mushroom Folks are a bunch of people I do cool spooky stuff with. Check us out! Maybe we're your flavor.
Here's the link to the Fuck Around and Find Out Zine if you would rather read it in its original formatting, or to check out the rest of the cool cats I get the incredible opportunity to do magic with!
Gratitude to everyone who contributed, and to Joy for making the publication possible! Printed versions to come!
Initiotation is a call and response to the Poimandres so-to-speak. Careful readers will note some direct quotations from the original document.
This is not intended to be a sequel or revision of the Poimandres. Instead, it is my personal relationship with that text manifested in an initiatory dialogue.
Initiotation [sic]
Without further ado, here is Initiotation in its entirety:
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.
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By E.K. Menw
The core teaching of Hermes is that the individual is ultimately no different from the supreme. This realization is gnosis.
The following is an initiation. It does not have to be read as such, the reader can do as they will. The following essay is also written in the second person. If you do not want to read it this way, it is perfectly acceptable to be someone else for a time.
Once, when your mind had become intent on things which are, and your understanding was raised to a great height, and your body was withdrawn as in sleep, as when people are weighed down by too much food or by the fatigue of the body, you saw the end of the world.
It was not an especially spectacular end.
You had so far had a great many birthdays, and seen much of the space in-between. Endings were no longer such a surprise to you, there had already been a number of them. It was who was waiting at the end which surprised you
“Who are you?” you asked.
He said, “I am Hermes Trismegistus. I once sat and beheld great wisdom. I am here to share the same for you now, if I’m able.”
“Why here?”
“At the end of the world? It’s the only place anything can be held to account. Everything else changes.”
You looked around you. His words made sense, echoing off the blackness of infinity. There was certainly nothing here to challenge them. You yourselves were alone. The thrice greatest Hermes was a speck of light, all else was blackness, and the cold dead rock under your feet. The sun was extinguished, the light was turned off. God had hung his keys on the hook and shut the door behind him.
“I am here because nothing matters,” you said. “The end of the world has come and all my earthly endeavors have striven to resemble it.”
“Incorrect,” says Hermes. “You are here because of a potential possessed by all beings, one you have not claimed. If you ask, I will show you.”
“Show me, Thrice Greatest. Show me that I might see what is mine to claim, and in so doing become myself.”
With those words, the absence around you exploded into brilliant light. The light swirled into a circle, which revolved around you. It was perpetual in its revolution, and so long it circled that you feared it might never stop. Then, suddenly, a single drop of water formed in the space in front of you. The water fell, and just for a moment, you could see the image of yourself reflected on its surface. Onto the circle it dropped, breaking the loop. With the fall of the droplet the circle splintered into fractal patterns that extended outwards into the black infinity, emanating from the contact of that single point.
“Do you understand what you have seen,” the watchful Hermes asked as the light faded from view.
“I shall come to know.”
“The light which has revolved around you is the light of life. It is infinite and unflappable in its motion. It will remain as it is if undeterred.”
“But the cycle was halted by a single drop of water!”
“Yes,” said Hermes, smiling. “So you see. The light of life is one of perpetual motion, it has no beginning and no end, origins may only beget other origins. But behold! That single drop is gnosis. The capacity with which men may break their bondage and seek freedom lies in that drop.”
“How can this be so?” you asked of Hermes.
“Look unto my face and you will know.”
Long you look into the eyes of Hermes Trismegistus. There in those eyes you see the beak of an ibis, and the twining serpents of the caduceus, and they are as distinct as they are the same.
“Life as it was seemed unending,” you said at last. “Origins begat origins. All that moved required a mover. It was the drop of gnosis which begat change.”
“Yes!” said Hermes.
“If all things are predicated on something else, then change must be predicated on knowledge. Only with knowledge, then, do I have choice.”
“This you have seen and this you now know. What then is knowledge predicated on?”
You thought for a minute on this wisdom, or perhaps it was a century, they felt the same.
“If all objects require a mover, and it is knowledge that begats choice, then choice can only be predicated on that which is bodiless.”
“If all these things which you have said are true, then that which is bodiless must be divinity.”
“But what is divinity,” you asked of Hermes.
“Did you not see? In the reflection of the drop of water!”
“I did see!” you said. “And it was myself.”
You stopped then, as you felt a cool drop of water land lightly on your forehead. Then there was another. And soon, here at the end of the world, it was raining.
“I see,” you said calmly, feeling the rivulets of water wash down your face, baptized in the freedom of gnosis. “I see that I am the likeness of the divine. That in me there is the freedom to break the cycle of life and death, because I am myself. Because I am in command of my own actions and desires. I am a seeker of knowledge and victim to nothing.”
Hermes smiled. A warm smile that looked the same as all the many stars painted across the sky. It had their light, and their endless patience.
“What will you do then, when you wake?”
“I will go forth and spread my knowledge so that others might break their chains. I will tell them that hopelessness is a fraud perpetrated by the body, and that the only victory of suffering is the acceptance of it. But Hermes, I fear they will say ‘my suffering is all I am’.”
Hermes Trismegistus shook his head. “They may refuse your knowledge, they are free to do so. It is always easier to take an identity provided for us, rather than to build our own. We did not choose our suffering, but it can feel comforting to wear it like a cloak so our divinity might never find us. And when the cloak has grown so comfortable, it is easy work to sew one for another. But you have nothing to fear. You know your divinity. You know there is always light.”
At those words, the fractal shards of light reappeared. They spread from and connected to every single raindrop at the end of the world. But the largest and brightest shards came from you. They spread, pulling the end of the world apart as if it were shattered glass you were punching through.
Wanted to set a clear boundary regarding why and when I block people. This will be added to my pinned post.
Philosophy on blocking: The internet is a curated space. It is not a direct reflection of the real world and should not operate as such. Blocking will occur if and when you make the internet less fun for myself and the people who follow me.
Ultimately, the internet should be a valuable tool, a source of enjoyment, and a place to foster connection. I deserve to have an enjoyable experience on the internet. You do too.
Things I will block people for:
-Being intentionally mean or engaging with me in bad faith.
-Being intentionally disrespectful of people, their cultures, or traditions.
-Having a bad or obnoxious take.
-Citing your education, or other similar personal achievement instead of actually engaging with an argument.
-Any overt doomerism, whinging, or fear mongering.
-Overt joy or pleasure resulting from someone's death. No it doesn't matter who.
-Bandwagon targeted mockery of any person.
-Any suppositions about my personhood, my identity, my family or my loved ones.
-And any so-far unspecified act under the broad umbrella of "being an asshole"
Building a space for yourself on the internet that is additive and enjoyable isn't easy. Doing so without creating an echo box feeding your own ideas back to you is even harder.
I love when people disagree with me. I love when people bring new and different ideas to the table. I love diversity and collaboration.
I will not tolerate bullshit that improves nothing.
Final note: On the above list I have specified no particular type of person, no group organization or background. I exclude no one on these grounds.
Earth is actually composed of two distinct planets: one that is approximately 6,000 years old and another that is approximately 4.5 billion years old. These two Earths exist in different energy states, with one being in a high-energy state and the other in a low-energy state. In ancient scriptures, they are referred to as the spirit Earth and the temporal Earth.
At some point, which could be today or in the near future, these two Earths will physically separate. The high vibrational Earth will detach from the lower vibrational Earth, similar to how the human spirit separates from the physical body. This separation is not a literal split down the middle but rather a gradual phase apart. The result will be two separate planets moving in different directions in space: one with a high vibrational frequency and the other with a lower vibrational frequency.
As this separation occurs, each individual will have the choice to align themselves with either the high vibrational Earth or the lower vibrational Earth based on their own vibrational alignment. Those who choose to align themselves with the high vibrational Earth, also known as the spiritual Earth, and do the inner work required, will become less aware of the darker and more temporal, harmful energies. On the other hand, those who are unable or unwilling to accept the higher vibrational frequency will remain in their chosen Earth.
In essence, this represents a significant shift for humanity, as we are faced with the choice of which Earth we will align ourselves with based on our vibrational frequency. It suggests that those who consciously choose the path of personal growth, spiritual development, and alignment with higher frequencies will transition to the high vibrational Earth, while those who are resistant or unable to embrace the higher vibrations will remain in the lower vibrational Earth.
You New Agers were saying this was supposed to happen back around 2022-2023. Your prediction has already failed.
Hey!
Those images you posted labeled 18th century book of shadows? Do you know the sourcing on that?
Texts like that are a bitch and a half to cross reference or reverse image search and I'm curious.
I'd be surprised if reverse image search turned anything up, because I took those photos myself. The manuscript is Osborn c472 at the Beinecke Library: https://search.library.yale.edu/archives/7040942 I'm pretty sure a friend requested that it be digitized, but there's currently no official digital facsimile on the site. Maybe they'll upload it soon!
I'll just twiddle my thumbs till the text is digitized I suppose. Patience. Patience.
Here's the post I was asking about:
Give it a look it's genuinely very cool.
I personally get especially excited seeing pgm stuff in more recent documents. It's miraculous how those rituals survived and were propagated. It seems, well... Magical.
Eighteenth-century Book of Shadows. Includes ceremonial evocations, love spells straight out of the PGM, correspondence tables, folk spells,
Thank you @nyxshadowhawk for getting images of this up! Get's a layman like myself excited about what's out there and what I don't even have access to yet!
Here's a lovely bit of American folk magic from my neck of the woods, or really my family's.
My family lives in the Northwest now, as do I. But my mother's side of the family, the German side, has deep roots in Pennsylvania.
Out of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the INCREDIBLE religious melting pot that was occuring in Pennsylvania comes the tradition of Powwow, or Braucherei.
A distinctly Protestant magical tradition, Braucherei was always practiced with a Bible in hand. But a few other notable grimoires informed the tradition.
The Romanus-Buchlein, the Secrets of Albertus Magnus, and the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses were all used.
But my favorite is the truly American and extraordinarily recent Long Lost Friend!
Give this a look, honestly. This is good down-home magic straight from the hearth. I love it and you might find it fascinating, even if you don't share the bias of family ties.
Digital Edition (totally free)
Pow-Wows, or Long Lost Friend, by John George Hoffman, [1820], full text etext at sacred-texts.com
And if you want to buy (please buy it this version is really good).
The Long-Lost Friend: A 19th Century American Grimoire by Harms, Daniel and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles availab
Read it, check it out. Do some spells if you're amenable. Let me know what you think!
Okay okay I get too excited about this stuff. I just love how much nonsense is free and accessible on the internet. Occultism and occult history are for everyone, if they want it.
I mentioned it above but here is the Romanus-Buchlein free and available! Bless esoteric archives I hope they last forever.
A little more dense and a little less clear than Long Lost Friend, but check the scans of those illustrations out even if you aren't going to work the spells. So gorgeous!
Here's a lovely bit of American folk magic from my neck of the woods, or really my family's.
My family lives in the Northwest now, as do I. But my mother's side of the family, the German side, has deep roots in Pennsylvania.
Out of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the INCREDIBLE religious melting pot that was occuring in Pennsylvania comes the tradition of Powwow, or Braucherei.
A distinctly Protestant magical tradition, Braucherei was always practiced with a Bible in hand. But a few other notable grimoires informed the tradition.
The Romanus-Buchlein, the Secrets of Albertus Magnus, and the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses were all used.
But my favorite is the truly American and extraordinarily recent Long Lost Friend!
Give this a look, honestly. This is good down-home magic straight from the hearth. I love it and you might find it fascinating, even if you don't share the bias of family ties.
Digital Edition (totally free)
Pow-Wows, or Long Lost Friend, by John George Hoffman, [1820], full text etext at sacred-texts.com
And if you want to buy (please buy it this version is really good).
The Long-Lost Friend: A 19th Century American Grimoire by Harms, Daniel and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles availab
Read it, check it out. Do some spells if you're amenable. Let me know what you think!
Hermeticism is a really broad nonspecific term for me to care so deeply about the things that are not it
But I do
Yes I fully understand that's dumb
"Hey Menw what's this Hermeticism thing you're always on about?"
"Well it's really tough to define. But broadly it's the body of writing and philosophic/theological thought *called* Hermetic, or published under the pseudonym of Hermes Trismegistus as a method of manufacturing credence."
The thing with images like this is that despite the fact the diagrams are entrancing and aesthetically beautiful, the attraction to the text can often end there.
Folks will go "oh that's stunning, I wouldn't know the first thing about how to apply any of that myself".
But you totally can! I'm not gonna say the Ars Notoria is the least intimidating text, it's not easy. But you can do this magic! You can access it!
I recommend Skinner's translation (like I do for most grimoires, he's sort of the goat when it comes to accessibility to these texts).
I also recommend this episode of Glitch Bottle as a fantastic inroad to the work.
Just a reminder that this stuff is available and accessible! It's not just pretty pictures. You are capable of more than you know.
A Proposal for a Sevenfold Lot Oracle (with a bonus twelvefold one!)
We all like the number seven, don’t we? Of course we do! It’s one of those mystical and magical numbers that keeps cropping up in system after system and tradition after tradition, and for any number of reasons besides: the seven days of the week, the seven planets, the seven seas and the seven continents, the seven colors of the rainbow, the seven arms of the Menorah in the Temple; the seven…
I love Polyphanes brand of tinkering and this really tickles something for me.
Polyphanes remains my favorite writer on Geomancy active right now, and his thoughts on divination in general are fun.
The proposal is a divinatory system inspired by belomancy and jiaobei. I highly recommend giving this a read seeing if there's anything you might incorporate into your own divinatory practice. I know I'll be giving it a try.
