There is a need for a genuine school of Hermetics with a teacher whose prime goal is to help their students to progress. The Seshen School of Hermetic Meditation was formed to fulfil this need and is dedicated to aiding its members to progress through the curriculum outlined by Franz Bardon’s Initiation into Hermetics. This manual is the most comprehensive available and has been the unbroken focus of my daily practice for over twenty years.
Hermetics is the Ancient Egyptian art of mastering the hidden forces of human consciousness. It’s seminal text, known as the Corpus Hermeticum, starts with the description of a student of these arts in Ancient Egypt who has an enlightenment experience through meditation practice.
The text goes on to describe how the art of meditation and wisdom received through this skill are passed down. Something that has continued through various schools, secret alchemical documents and direct transmission to the present day.
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Our Goals
We aim to raise the consciousness and evolve the higher self through a pure focus on the curriculum outlined by Franz Bardon in his works. We draw on other teachings which are in harmony and of benefit to us, whilst being sure to never stray from the ‘next step’ in our progress. Sometimes this includes research into paths that specialise in the exercise we are working on, or from traditions with harmonious goals to our own.
The main goal is to use Hermetics as a means to master all aspects of life and to take the skills and higher levels of functioning we have achieved in our exercises into daily life, making a permanent improvement to how we interact with the world.
About the Name : Seshen School of Hermetic Meditation
The word ‘seshen’ means lotus flower in Ancient Egyptian. The lotus flower has deep rooted symbolism in every major spiritual tradition of the ancient world. We find the lotus revered in Ancient Egypt, India, Japan and China. The lotus ornament is also found in Assyrian, Syrian, and Carthaginian temple friezes and capitals. Indeed it seems that wherever this plant grows humans notice something special about it and hold it as a symbol of spiritual evolution. Although some aspects of the symbolism are constant in all these traditions, the significance of the meaning of the flower does vary slightly from one tradition to another.
The basic symbolism of the lotus is based on the fact that the lotus flower grows up from the mud into an object of great beauty. The Lotus starts its life as a bulb down at the bottom of a pond in the muck and dirt. It slowly, but continually, moves towards the light as it grows up towards the water’s surface. Once it reaches the surface of the water the lotus blossoms into a beautiful flower. Indeed, in a way, as all living things come from the earth, the lotus flower could represent life in general. In spiritual paths where the aim is to grow and change into something more beautiful, this symbol represents the struggle for self-transformation perfectly.
The lotus seed already has within it perfectly formed embryos containing everything it needs to grow, flourish and transform. In fact, it is said that if opened, the seed even contains leaves and what appears to be whole miniature plants and flowers. This lily symbolises the fact that the key to our own enlightenment lies hidden inside ourselves and that nothing external is needed. On a cosmic scale, this also points to the creation of the universe and the eternal, great, solar cycle that maintains the whole of life on earth. It also points to the ideal, or spiritual world, hidden within the material, and the ability to access the former through the latter. Moreover, because it has buds, blossoms, and seed pods simultaneously on the same plant, it also symbolises the past, present, and future together as one.
However, the most important and powerful meaning behind the lotus stems from the plant’s mysterious ability to remain pure and unsullied. The petals reject any mud or water splashed on them and remain bright and pure. This quality of being able to remain pure when surrounded by a swamp is just what the great spiritual masters of old felt was needed in an individual. If we could cultivate the ability to be unaffected by the negative things around us then, like the lotus with its lovely scent and beautiful appearance, we could have a positive effect on the world around us.
On the first Tarot card, Franz Bardon uses the lotus flower containing the philosopher’s stone to symbolise the whole Hermetic goal.
Above the magician’s head, with an invisible ribbon for a crown, there is a gold-edged silvery white lotus flower as a sign of the divinity. In the inside, there is the ruby red philosophers’ stone symbolizing the quintessence of the whole hermetic science. On the right side in the background, there is the sun, yellow like gold and on the left side we see the moon, silvery-white, expressing plus and minus in the macro- and microcosm, the electrical and magnetic fluids.
The symbolism of our emblem draws from this first tarot card and is as follows:
The circle represents the electric and magnetic forces, gold and silver respectively. The two Lotus flowers represent the duality of two equal forces in harmony; the ascending, gold lotus representing the masculine aspect and the descending, silver lotus the feminine aspect. Each flower contains all of the five elements, each one represented by one of the five petals. The active elements are visible on the golden lotus and the passive elements on the silver lotus. The colours are described as follows from left to right; blue (air), purple (Akasha) and red (fire) on the golden lotus, and black (earth), Akasha (purple) and green (water) on the silver lotus in accordance to Bardon’s first tarot card.
