Ars Hermetici Durus

The Order of Hermes

The Code of Hermes
I swear everlasting loyalty to the order and its members. The Order’s friends and enemies are my friends and enemies, and I shall not spurn a friend nor succor and enemy.

I shall not through action or inaction endanger the Order, nor consort with devils or undead, nor anger the fae.

I shall not deprive any Order mage of magickal power, nor through action or inaction attempt to bring harm to an Order mage, except in justly declared and open certamen.

I shall not spy by any means or manner upon another Order mage’s private works, nor read an Order mage’s mind, nor invade or observe an Order mage’s Sanctum, save to guard against a clear, direct, forceful and imminent threat to the safety of the Order.

If called before a Tribunal, I shall abide by its verdicts. If called to sit upon a Tribunal, I shall vote wisely, respect the votes of others, and support the Tribunal’s verdicts.

Upon reaching Fifth Degree or higher, I shall train apprentices and instruct them in this Code. I bear the entire responsibility for my apprentice, and shall duly admonish, restrain, discipline or arrest an apprentice who endangers the Order, and shall yield same apprentice to the Order’s lawfully appointed agent or Tribunal.

I solemnly swear to uphold this sacred Code of Hermes, and venture any risk or sacrifice to protect it. Should I breach it, may all the mages of the Order rise as one united and hunt me down and destroy me forevermore.

Paradigm

The Four Elements of Magick; The Form, the Mind, the Spirit, The Flesh and then above them all the Fifth Element; Quintessence itself. All things considered this Paradigm is a mystic one - although the forms it might take does include the deception or form of technology if required. A computer developed on the basis of Enochian as its programming language is just as acceptable as a skull of a long-dead servant carrying the memories of a thousand records indexed by its former personality; one it more desirable and one is acceptable.

The Weaving of Magick

Correspondence: Purple

Entropy: Indigo

Forces: Orange

Life: Red

Matter: Brown

Mind: Blue

Prime: White

Spirit: Gold

Time: Green

The Celestial Spheres

Sun - Gold

Moon - Silver

Mercury - Quicksilver/Mercury

Venus - Copper

Mars - Iron

Jupiter - Tin

Saturn - Lead

Ars Mentis

"From the weakness of our sense we are not able to judge the truth. What appears is a vision of the unseen." --Anaxagoras

The Watcher. The Mens is the Word which of the Idea, or Eidos which is the Form, that encompasses the Mind as we know it; it is the reflection of the First Thousand as broken down into Ourselves and represent a mirror of the Mystery of the Avatar. Because of the universality of The Good and the First Thought by knowing the Mens one knows others. She who has the mastery of the Mens has mastery over others and oneself achieving what can be called Noesis. Before, and after this, the Magus seeks the light of the Mind.

Instruments of The Magician
"Solomon was far wiser then any of your fell lore, demon." As the Magos spoke before the Demon of the East she affirmed that My Will Be Done! the Commandment of the Order holds sway over All. The Magus therefore enforces her Will upon the Mens, the Form of the mind, in order exact a result of her making and desire both Above and Below. Inside the Fabled Sword lays the True Name of the Magus carved in Enochian Rune of Silver and Brass interlaced between the Fourteen Keys. Through Goetia the Magus wields the Fabled Sword in order to achieve the charms of magick. Often a Pentagram shall act as the Key to the Work or the Sephirot shall be used in lieu of the pentagram to draw upon the meaning and mysteries within the Tree of Life.

Forms

Because, as Anaxagoras said, the Magus cannot on her own perceive the truth of reality without virtue she evokes the Sephirot of Netzach, or Victory, as she exerts her Will.

Placing the Blade at the Center of a pentegram adorned with Enochian runes and the greater and lesser keys the Magus Commands.

Thrust the Blade towards the target and call out the Key corresponding to "sleep" or any Word.

Intricacies of Reason

The Digital Web/Astral Projection

All minds come from the first thought. The Digital Web is just a place where they come closer together, unbound by the material world. Those who might consider it a alternative or superior reality misunderstand the essential value of it. To enter this place the Magus just passes through the right doors. She's going to unlatch her mind from her body and no longer bound by the flesh and so simply enter the door that's in plain sight... if you know how to look for it.

Dreamscapes of the Mind

Every living thing Dreams. Some dreams are greater or less then others; it has been asked if we are merely part of the Dreams of the Umbrood. Through the Dream one has access to the mind while weak and open to influence by those with the correct magickal understanding or the charms of the Umbrood.

The Parapet of the Mind

By Mastering and controlling the Dreamscape of the Mind the Magus that wishes to influence the Mind of a hostile or unwilling target must ensure that the defences and resistance of the target are bypassed, weakened, or simply overcome lead the attempt results in failure. Using their Dreamscapes the Magus can condition them to obey for certain reasons or upon certain actions or command. Memory manipulation is often employed in this subtle attack - while one can simply overpower the target's resistance if they are aware of the assault the difficulty of such a effort is increased while if one is "programed" through the medium of a Dreamscape the difficulty is much less and the methods available much greater. The Magus simply creates a Dreamscape to use as the basis of her control; either by bringing the target into a new one or modifying the existing one.

Ars Animae

This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.

Zechariah 13:9 (New International Version)

The Magician strives to reach Noesis. The place of Pure Thought above Reason. As one brings the impure and stains within the spirit to light one siezes them and in the flames of The Refining Fire burns away the straw and hay to leave only the gold and silver. The flesh is no more a barrier to the Magus then Mastery over the Mens.

Instruments of The Magician
Through Theurgia the Magus brings a Godform, or rather the Eidos or Archtype, or a Spirit, god, or Angel into Union and Sympathy with herself by either, or together, the Invocation of the Archon directly or by algining herself in aspects to it to complete her Work. There is no trade and no pacts; the Magus shall Command and her victory will by the victory over the Archon as is the test of the Magus. One that cannot overcome the Archon, a Ruler, shall not complete the Work. After the Work is done and the Magus is Complete she realizes that the Archons are within as they reflect the Avatar just as the Avatar reflects the Art. The Magus shall use the Pentagram of Enoch to Channel the Refining Fire to purfiy the flesh within herself. She shall command Azrael, the Angel of Death, and with its Word command the one before her to death. She shall draw upon the numbers of Three and Eleven and the Boundless Sea (the Water of Life).

Ars Essentiae

The Gateway. The Holy Mystery of Ars Hermetici the pursuit of which has been the driving spirit for so many. It is said that she who understands Ars Essentiae might gauge their position in the path to Ascension.

Instruments of The Magician
A Glided Iron Key as the tool from which the Four Elements of the Physical world might be manipulated and commanded. The Number Eight or the Eight Keys hold significance and thus the Magus shall use them in conjunction with the Commanding of the Living Light of Sol. The Archangel Gabriel, the Primordial Archtype of Fire, might yet be invoked for the Magus to Work her Will.

Godforms

Hermes. Hermes, Thrice-Great, the magic-giver and the thief. Let his laughter fill your Soul and reflect upon thy flesh as you walk between darkness and light.

Ars Vis

Called the South from wence the Waters of Life and Magick spring. Therefore the Spiritual South is the source, masked and hidden, of all things in Life and Magick. The Pyramids of the Great Pharaoh, the Pure Nile, the Boundless Sea of Life and Magick. By knowing how the Waters flow one can direct and channel all-things.

Instruments of The Magician
The Pyramid of Hermes Thrice-Great; a Tree of Life or the Waters of Life. Pure liquids, specially prepared, are used by the Magus to bath objects and works in the very Waters of Magick that make up everything. Certain geometric designs focus and harness the Vis into Works.

Rotes

Ars Essentiae

Apotropaic Charms

Arresting the Flight of Projectiles (Forces 2)

The Magus calls upon Odin, as it is recorded in the Havamal that the god proclaimed "If I see hurled arrows hard at my horde; though rapid their flight I arrest them in air.", in the crafting of a Ward to slow the march of projectiles aimed at the Magus or those under the protection of the ward.

Successes scored on the Rote subtracts from enemy successes to hit the Magus.

Altering the Flight of Projectiles (Forces 2)

The Magus crafts a Ward that redirects the motion of a Projectile back towards its origin to strike the sender. As there is no distance between objects direction does not matter.

Reflects projectiles back to sender.

Ars Mentis

Break Upon My Will (Mind 3)

Taking the Sword Form of Truth and bringing the blade past the flesh and bone of the target directly to its mind, and soul, Cara forces it to accept her will and diverge its hoard of knowledge.

Telepathic attack to gain access to the memories and knowledge of the target.

The Subtle Magus (Mind 2)

Ars Mentis. Cara fits in; she's not only supposed to be here but has been here for a longtime.

Can't Hit Me (Mind 2)

Cara uses Ars Mentis and Ars Essentiae to make it harder for enemies to target her. Mentis to make them not mentally register her correctly, and Essentiae to support that by fiddling with light.

Mental compulsion for hostiles to target somebody else rather then Cara.

Cutting to the Truth (Mind 1, Life 1)

Drawing a pentagram on a flat surface with chalk, one also must inscribe carefully planned arrangement of Enochian runes to focus the Refining Fire in conjunction with Ars Mentis, through the focus of Noethung, to search for the Mentis imprints of the feral hunger of the massassa and any unnatural life patterns; or rather the lack of a normal pattern associated with a mind. One then uses Nothung, by inserting it in the center of the pentagram with a vigorous thrust, to "cut" through false receptions and ego to the truth.

Mind 1 to sense mind, Life 1 to identify the life pattern attached to the mind. Minds without a Life pattern are massassa or something else.

Ars Animae

Azrael's Dictation (Life 3)

The Magi commands the obedience of Azrael, the Angel of Death, and stretches out a finger towards her opponents and with the Word upon her lips causes them to die.

Bone Plate (Life 3)

Bone mesh-plate grows from the flesh. Have to get get naked first. Armor soak.

"I'm Too Old For This Shit"

Mind/Life. They feel/have a ominous pain in the chest, tear something while running, and get scared. Perhaps saying "I'm too old for this shit", while certainly thinking it due to mind 2.

Melodramatic Death Scene

Life 3 Attack. Mind 2 to send the impression of extreme pain to act in combination of the actual pattern ripping.

Glossarium Hermeticum

Ars. "Art".

Apotropaic. "To Ward Off."

Dweomer. Divered from a Old Norse term for secret knowledge of magic.

Gematria. A system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase. Words and phrases with identical numerical values have relations with each other which can be manipulated.

Odic force. The "vital" life force allied to electrictiy, magnetism, and heat. Discovered by von Reichenbach.

Heka. Magick. Used by House Shae.

Homunculus. A scale model of the human form.

Hendecagram. A eleven vertice star.

Hexagram. A Six-Pointed Star. The Star of Saturn. Represents the four Elements (water, fire, air, and earth).

Massassa. Vampire. Probably a Tremere vampire.

Pentagram. A Five-Pointed Star.

Maxims

Beware the Protection of Wolves.
Start "Simple". When simple doesn't work, try complex.
Read surfaces thoughts for a angle of control.
Plan, plan, plan, and consider the outcome of ones actions.
Don't be afraid to throw the plan out if it doesn't work.