Order of Hermes

*I do not "manifest" change -- I become change.*

Just as Solomon bound spirits to his bidding, as Merlin raised a stable boy to kingship, as John Dee named Elizabeth’s realm an Empire and then anchored it in time and space at Greenwich, so too do the Houses of Hermes turn the hidden wheels of the world. Their Arts are the most refined, their knowledge the most exhaustive, their Wills the most dedicated to excellence. In many minds (most especially their own), the Order of Hermes defines the word mage.

As the largest and most organized Tradition, the Order of Hermes has influenced – they would say “defined” – the Western experience of magick. Hermetics command a huge range of secrets and wards. Their wealth is vast, their Wonders potent, their libraries breathtaking. The Order boasts the greatest number of Chantries, Masters, and Archmages. Its achievements include the first codification of magickal study, the formulation of the Spheres, and, indeed, the formation of the Traditions themselves.

Still, the Order has faced setbacks and catastrophes: the loss of both its greatest Chantry, Doissetep, and its leading Master, Porthos Fitz-Empress; the extermination (some say “selfdestruction”) of its most powerful luminaries; the devastation of priceless archives. Yet the reaction from other Traditions appears to be a collective sigh of relief. Why?

Because Hermetic wizards are, to a one (and to a fault), meticulous, pedantic, majestic, and haughty. The Preface to the venerable Hornbook – a thick volume presented to each new apprentice – captures this attitude in one paragraph: “What mage in any rival Tradition, of whatever skill, can boast the comprehensive knowledge of our least Adept? What other mage can offer any shred of theory to support his magick? The aboriginal shaman with his drums and rattle gives over his body to a spirit he knows not. The cleric with his song begs like a child for the favor of deities. The Ecstatic with his vice burns like a meteor and vanishes, and the witch with her blood-rites aspires only to procreate. Even the Akashic with his meditation and exercise seeks passive contentment in false belief. Meanwhile, the Hermetic with firm Will commands, ‘Do!’ And it is done.”

This bombast reveals the Order’s obnoxious confidence; the average Hermetic can back it up, too. Among the Traditions, only the Verbena and Dreamspeakers have as violent a history with the hated Technocracy. It’s no accident that the Craftmasons (themselves formed from a renegade Hermetic sect) chose to initiate hostilities by blowing up one Hermetic citadel and to stage the Convention of the White Tower in another. Nor is it an accident that Master Baldric LaSalle chose to host the Mistridge Tribunal – the first step toward the Grand Convocation – in the ruins of that first attack. An Ecstatic might have provided the inspiration, and the Verbena might have secured new allies, but the Order of Hermes forged the foundation upon which the Traditions have been built.

Even rival Traditions accept the Order’s vast and spectacular history. In ancient Egypt, two auspicious precursors invented the alphabet. Archmagus Solomon bound many spirits that still serve the Order today. Pythagoras founded the cult of Hermes in Greece. The Corpus Hermeticum, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (“Thrice-Great Hermes”), forms the basis of the modern Tradition. Even Sleepers recall a few Hermetics from those storied times: Merlin. Paracelsus. SaintGermain. Cagliostro. From Gandalf to Crowley to Potter, the popular acceptance of magick has arisen from Hermetic archetypes. In the new millennium, the group enjoys more popular acceptance than ever before. The Masses might not pursue the Hermetic Arts, but in a subconscious sort of belief, they accept the Order’s ways as the face of Western wizardry.

And so, though their various setbacks have cost the Order dearly, Hermetic mages greet this age with renewed vitality. The loss of the Archmages, the destruction of Doissetep, the war against vampires, the purge of corrupt House Janissary… they’re all like the collapsing Tarot Tower: the shattering of bondage that compels transformation. This age’s Hermetics are rolling up their sleeves and remaking the Order from its foundations while keeping those foundations – confidence, knowledge, excellence, and Will – intact. Guided by a vision of the City of Pymander – the ideal of global Ascension under Mystic Will – Hermetics remain committed to perfection. Given their high purpose, they can accept no less.

## Organization

The Order is rigidly hierarchical, disciplinarian, and regulated. The Code of Hermes and its Peripheral Corrigenda dictate behavior, protocol, rules for certámen challenges, and the proper inscriptions for Chantry doorways. Thirteen Houses still exist as factions in the Order’s endless, brutal infighting. Some Houses predate the Norman Conquest (Bonisagus, Flambeau, Quaesitor, Tytalus, Verditius, and the catch-all Ex Miscellanea); others are newer, even quite recent (Fortunae, Hong Lei, Ngoma, Shaea, Skopos, Solificati, and Xaos).

## Initiation

Recruited from academia, esoteric religious orders, science, or the military, a student must survive a punishing apprenticeship under an unforgiving mentor (a mater or pater). The Order recognizes nine Degrees of mystic advancement: Neophyte, Zelator, Practicus, Initiate, Initiate Exemptus, Adept, Adept Major, Magister Scholae, and Magister Mundi. The training aims to provoke, by the conclusion of the Third Degree, a gradual Awakening more akin to a process than to a single jolting moment

## Affinity Sphere

Forces provides the core of Hermetic training. Certain Houses favor Life, Matter, Mind, and Spirit as secondary pursuits, but Forces is always essential.

## Focus

A Hermetic mage commands nothing less than the keys to the universe. And so, these consummate scholars master ancient and arcane rituals through constant study and intense practice. Tapping elemental currents through incantations, signs, seals, paraphernalia, and secret languages, the Hermetics are – by necessity – secretive and suspicious. They command tremendous power, after all, and their rivals lurk everywhere.

Alchemy, dominion, and High Ritual form core practices within the Order’s ranks. No Hermetic mage lacks such training. Certain Hermetics add chaos magick, the Art of Desire, hypertech, craftwork, weird science, yoga, and occasional malficia to that core, pursuing such paradigms as A Mechanistic Cosmos, Divine Order and Earthly Chaos, Might is Right, Tech Holds All Answers and, naturally, Bring Back the Golden Age.

## Glossary

Title and trivia define the Hermetic Order. Evenso, the leaner, meaner Tradition has cut back a lot of folderol. Older mages still use ancient formalities with one another, but even they have bowed to the necessity of quick communications and simplified structure.

### Common Terms

* Adam Kadmon: The Primordial Man, reflecting the Divine within humanity. Seen as a guide to godly perfection captured within the imperfect human form.
* Art (or Ars): Magic; a Sphere or the magic performed with one.
* Arx Hermeticum: Symbolically, the structure of the Order and the strength of its resolve. Literally "Fortress of Hermes," it was often equated to Doissetep; unlike Doissetep, this Fortress has not been demolished, simply reorganized.
* Bani: "Of the House of"; an honorific used extensively in titles but on its way out in all but the most formal conversations. Also used to address members of other Traditions (Aria, bani Ecstasy) in diplomatic situations. (Note: Few Hermetics ever use the extended versions of other Tradition names in formal address; instead, bani covers "Brotherhood," "Cult of," "Children of," "Sons of," and so forth - i.e., "Kannagara, bani Akashica" rather than "Kannagara, bani Akashic Brotherhood.")
* Enochian: The language of the spirits, supposedly handed down from Umbrood lords. More likely, a secret language cobbled together by Renaissance Masters, then "tested" by various sages and dupes until the kinks were worked out of it.
* Instruments: Magical tools, i.e., foci (a term no Hermetic mage would ever use!).
* Massasa: Vampire. Old term repopularized by the recent difficulties with the Tremere.
* Mi'as: "Quicksand"; apt term for Hermetic politics.
* Pymanderphile: Disparaging term for a Hermetic idealist.
* Sancta: Private quarters and magical space.
* Sephierah: "Spheres"; the 10 Kabbalistic crowns, or aspects of Divinity within Creation. Also used as a term for the Nine Spheres, with Kether being the "lost" 10th Sphere.
* Twilight: Quiet.
* Wing: The Internet, named for the wings of Hermes and used as both a noun ("I've been riding the wing this morning") and a verb ("Were you winging when I called earlier?").

### Outmoded Terms

There are rarely, if ever, used by modern Hermetics.

* Circlus Abstrusus: The now-fallen inner circle of Hermetic Archmasters, cracked by Doissetep's ruin and wrecked during the Concordia War.
* City of Pymander: The shining city of Hermetic idealism; magical Utopia guided by hidden Archmasters. Considered a naive, if not utterly absurd, goal these days, the Pymander concept still has its adherents.
* Covenant: Old form for Chantry; still used by some new-generation romantics.
* Domus Magnus: The "home base" of an individual Hermetic House.
* Heka: Magic.
* Mater: "Mother"; traditional address for a female mentor.
* Parma Magica: "Magic shield"-countermagic. Once used as a symbol of Hermetic solidarity, but undermined by recent treacheries.
* Pater: "Father"; a male mentor.
* Sa: Favors or obligation; from magical fluids in Egyptian lore. (Vulgarly referred to as "Janissary juice" by those who bitterly recall Caron Mustai.)