Hermetic Fundamentals Course: Work-Through & Review
I gave signed up for Perseus Arcane Academy’s free course in Hermetic Fundamentals. I will be tracking my experience with the course in this thread.
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Mannn, now I’m sitting over here trying to convince myself that I don’t already have top much on my plate. Haha
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Lesson 01: Concentration
“Here simple is best. Pick a spot on the wall, doorknob, etc where no one will disturb you or walk through your line of sight. Sit comfortably and do not move from this position until the exercise is over. No fidgeting, no scratching - stay absolutely still. Begin with 5 minutes. Add 1 minute per day up to a maximum of 10 minutes. Look at your chosen object. Do not stare or strain the eyes. Simply look at the object. You are not trying to empty your mind, all you are trying to do is focus upon your chosen object with all of your awareness and energy. If you do this then there will be no room for anything else.”
I put this video on and sat in lotus for without a timer and tried to gauge five minutes without a timer. It ended up being 6:08 when I checked. This exercise was not difficult, though I will use a timer next time. And probably pick something besides a video, without sound, to focus on.
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Each lesson is meant to be repeated daily for two weeks.
First I meditated for exactly 20 minutes, by coincidence (no timer) with the following video.
I turned off the video and focused on a sigil. I had significant neck, back, and shoulder pain today which made this more challenging, but I was able to sit still in lotus for five minutes. Though, I did take one deep breath in about half-way.
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Today I finally bound up a restless spirit that I have been meaning to bind for months. I was exhausted but to solidify my victory, I used the metal object I bound it in to focus.
Makeup slid into my eye and I clenched extra hard for a moment, but otherwise five minutes was not a challenge. Tomorrow I will do six.
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No practice yesterday; I had food poisoning. Today I completed the exercise for six minutes, focusing on a sigil.
Seven minutes, focusing on the same sigil. My back hurt but I resisted the urge to adjust. I am happy to say that these focus exercises have not posed difficulty.
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Eight minutes focusing on a talisman. I did not have good support and straightened my back ca. 4 minutes in, and wiggled a numbing toe shortly after. The talisman was too long and complex for me to be able to focus well on it as a whole, as opposed to bits and pieces. I will start focusing on trigrams instead.
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This is a relatively complex one.
I would, as you said, focus one one trigam at a time until it stops “speaking” to you.
You probably know this already, though. Just wanted to offer some inspiration! 
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Ten minute exercise focusing on the Li trigram. This was, by far, the least successful I have been at staying still. This is the second time I made the mistake of wearing a top without support and I ended up adjusting multiple times. I also used my phone to pull up the trigram, forgetting that the screen blacks out after a period of time. As a result, my mind was less focused. It was a decent meditation, but not great. I will avoid using a phone and wearing certain types of clothes from now on.
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A wonderful ten minute exercise focusing on Zhen. My mind wandered a bit, but I did reach a psychedelic state. Connecting to Zhen felt easy and natural, much like connecting to the (western) Earth element.
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So, I hate to keep creating space between your posts, but they’re often too intriguing for me to resist! Haha
When you say “focusing” on them, are you looking at them externally, or conjuring them internally/astrally?
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No worries; its a forum for discussion and learning from one another 
Yes
Not so much; I go into them a bit but try to focus on just the image itself, in keeping with the lesson. In other contexts, I jump right in. And I definitely recommend exploring trigrams that way. For example, in the sauna, I will focus internally on Li. When I get into cold water to cool off, I focus on Dui. Etc.
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I love this. I used to do it with the Elder Futhark runes and eventually designed a few of my own alphabets, and just use those instead, now.
Speaking of trigrams and hexagrams, I’ve always wanted to take Bagua Zhang to incorporate into ritual and ceremony, but never got around to it…
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Ten minute focus on Kan which resulted in a mild psychedelic state. My mind wandered a few times, but not far. I managed to stay still, as with Zhen (and in great contrast to Li).
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A lovely ten minute exercise with Dui resulting in a gentle psychedelic state. I had a bit of trouble regulating my breathing and did need to take one big breath in, which I found interesting since Dui is associated with asthma.
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Ten minutes with Gen. The mildest psychedelic state so far, but decidedly pleasant.
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Ten minute exercise with Qian. Very mild and gentle psychedelic state. Tomorrow I can begin lesson 02.
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Ten minutes with Kun. Very lulling and pulling; the least clear, psychedelic state so far. More hypnotic. I did not anticipate this, but it does make sense. I had my posture twice and my mind wandered.
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