The Esoteric Path and the Hermetic Traditions

This beautiful passage is from the book 'The Esoteric Path: An Introduction to the Hermetic Tradition' by Luc Benoist.

The truly wise man is not attached to any one formulation of belief. Ibn al-’Arabi

In our search for truth each one of us will start from a different point. Nobody’s belief in God is identical with that of anyone else, simply because our understanding depends so much on our individual history. Nobody, even though he uses the same words as others, professes the same faith. Our image of our God varies according to the direction taken by our path in life. It is this sort of metamorphosis of ideas that should be brought about by the realization of metaphysics.

Our most orthodox beliefs remain implicit to such an extent that we are unable to explain them to anyone else, even to our closest friend. In the same way the ineffable Principle remains esoteric, supreme in the beyond, beyond all possible beyonds, the hidden face of the unknowable.

But to achieve this transformation we must adhere of one of the great historical traditions and walk one of the world’s spiritual paths. Differing circumstances have meant that each one of these traditions has laid special emphasis on a different element or special virtue. India lays supreme emphasis on sacrifice, Buddhism exalts charity, and Christianity love. Judaism and Islam exalt the Principial Unity. Taoism and Zen stress our need for sincerity and simplicity. But it is not our choice of one or another of these characteristics that makes us adopt one or another of these traditions.

By birth, residence, or chance we are members of a particular nation and adherents to a particular religion, which it seems natural for us to accept, as nothing can easily replace the path of our forebears in leading us back to the way of the Gods. When we have been prematurely attracted by some exotic form, our subconscious will protest and will urge us to stay in the old familiar path by thwarting our most carefully thought out intentions. Adopting a new path is a convenient excuse for avoiding a true conversion, which consists in an inner change of direction (metanoia) from the human to the divine.

For practical reasons our inherited path is best, as we are bound to it by psychic, intellectual, and emotional ties, and our spirituality consists in the synthesis and elevation of these ties. All spiritual symbolism possesses an ‘aura’ stemming from its origins and tinged with the color of place, time, and language. Adaptation to a new and alien way is no easier than conscious acceptance of and clear-minded penetration into the deeper meaning of the old. It is better to accept our own national tradition, which we are free to penetrate more deeply if we can. For whatever we may do, from the deepest recesses of our own hearts to the darkness of the Sublime, the path, as Plotinus has said, leads always from the alone to the Alone.

This rule, which is most applicable in stable and well-balanced epochs, admits of many exceptions in times such as ours when men and ideas are in such confusion. When a traditional rite, without being deprived of the efficacy of its rituals, nevertheless no longer seems to provide acceptable means for self-realization, then it is legitimate for those who feel it their destiny to follow a different path. For from the point of view of the Hermetic tradition there is no question of conversion but only the acknowledgement of the one eternal truth in a more immediately accessible guise.

For the ‘gift of tongues’ is the supreme gift of the intellect. If it is accompanied by a sense of proportion and a discerning spirit, it enables us to lay hold on the truth in whatever form it is manifest. If this intelligence is absent, we run into a mass of verbal quarrels which in reality do no more than reveal our differing capacities to think abstractly.

No master has ever revealed to anyone that secret spoken of in the Zohar and on which the world is based. But disciples with sufficient discernment can catch a glimpse of it through the transparent veil of secrecy that is the final alibi for our ignorance and the last disguise of Truth.