“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” — Joseph Campbell

Eight years ago, I recorded a series of podcasts with my dear friend and brother, Jason Tournesol. The life of the Chasing Hermes Podcast was brief, but I considered every episode a treasure and a small contribution to the occult and esoteric community. The spirit of each podcast grew out of a passion nurtured over the decade spent as a member of a prominent Golden Dawn order. I always loved to teach. In those years, I expressed my true self the most when sharing with others what modest hermetic and esoteric knowledge I had learned. For years in this occult school, I taught in the open, and Chasing Hermes endeavored to bring the seeds of those esoteric lessons into an even more public forum.

Jason and I had plans for many more episodes, but our Higher Genii moved us in unexpected directions. Though I didn’t know it at the time, the end of Chasing Hermes would parallel a long pause in my outward participation in the Golden Dawn and the continuation of my journey into the Greater Mysteries through initiation into another Hermetic Group.

A desire for Illumination being my prime motivation, it was necessary for me to enter the cave, away from public participation, and throw myself completely into Hermetic initiation. Where up to that point my understanding through the Golden Dawn was principally intellectual and moderately the product of compelling experience, I soon grew to have little interest in anything that couldn’t be repeatably demonstrated with concrete and accurate results. I continue to hold high regard for the Golden Dawn–a veritable portico unto the Greater Mysteries–and I have recently begun to revisit the tradition with fresh eyes. But in those days, so much of what I personally taught contradicted an authentic understanding of reality. So much of what I taught was how to apply occult solutions to common-guy problems. So much of what I taught was anathema to the productive behavior of a genuine adept seeking Illumination and the accomplishment of the Great Work.

For the past seven years, I’d been quietly guiding students with a unique aptitude for Hermetic understanding in an inner system of initiation, alchemy, and magic taught to me by an advanced adept and alchemist. The system employed was potent. Extremely so. It was life-altering. Extremely so. And although my time within that particular path has come to an end, consequently, my life and my Great Work has been forever altered by the initiation, training, and experience.

It is for this reason that I’ve been moved by my Higher Genius to come out of my cave, as it were, and share with the broader public what I can of whatever perspective I have acquired over my esoteric endeavors. I do not pretend to have answers for any particular seeker. Moreover, many of the answers I do have would be of little value for the wants of most occultists. Nevertheless, it is my hope that, even if in some small way, I might assist in the preparation of the sincere aspirant and provide a glimpse into the perspective of this Hermetically initiated.

I hope you gain some value from the posts and essays to come. Please feel free to join in any discussion or send me your questions, comments, or points of contention.

Fraternal Regards.