Secret Societies in the Order of Hermes

The term secret society can be used to describe all groups whose membership or very existence is unknown to nonmembers or that keep certain of their practices or conceptions hidden from non members no matter how public or recognized they are as a group. Within these broad limits can be included criminal gangs and guilds. There may be a religious dimension to these organizations, perhaps in ritual behavior, legends about their origins or other counterparts to phenomena typical of religious groups.

The secret society is characterized first by its being a voluntary or selective group within a natural community. Although there may be times and places in which nearly everyone of a certain gender, age and status may be included, there is always the theoretical possibility that some otherwise eligible person will not be elected to join the group. The possibility of exclusion is a powerful factor in the social dynamics of a secret society.

Obviously, another primary characteristic of the secret society is secrecy. It is not a necessary characteristic that their membership be secret. Instead, it is knowledge of their activities, rituals, texts, doctrines, myths and offices that is restricted to the group. While some of these secrets may be of great importance or be potentially dangerous, thus the need to keep them secret, most are usually trivial and assume importance only because they are shared secrets. At the base of secrecy lies not so much a set of hidden facts as experiences.

A third major feature of the secret society is initiation. There is a logical necessity that entrance into the group be clearly marked so that the group can be sure exactly who is and who is not included. Many of the initiatory practices can be understood as means by which the simple fact of inclusion in the group is emphasized and reinforced. There are other dimensions to these often elaborate initiation practices. In their use of ordeals and trials, the symbolism of death and rebirth can become apparent: one does not merely join an organization but undergoes a transforming experience and achieves deeper contact with the meaning of life and the world.

Closely related to the phenomenon of initiation is the hierarchical structure of the secret society. Often the society seems to be an outgrowth and extension of puberty-initiation practices. A such, it is based on the notion that human life does not merely grow into maturity but that a distinctive, new ontology must be attained in the transformation from child to adult. Likewise, then, it is reasonable to recognize yet higher stages of life with yet other initiations. The secret society itself represents such a stage beyond the status of simple adulthood, and within the secret society there may be other stages or levels of advancement. Role differentiation within the society is from this perspective, not merely a differentiation in function but a manifestation of degrees of metaphysical weight or height.

Finally, a secret society usually has a central story concerning its origins that is central to its self-consciousness. Such a story is usually not historically accurate but should be read as indications of the concerns or mind-set of the group.

Greek Clubs

Club life was as highly developed among the Greeks as it is in modern American society. Voluntary associations had been recognized in law by Solon. The earliest societies for which epigraphical records survive (fifth century B.C.) Were group of orgeones ("sacrificing associates"). They were essentially religious in character, existing for the cult of some deity or hero, and at first limited to citizens (with membership often hereditary). Next in the records comes the kind of society named a thiasos (some of which can be traced back to the fourth century). They too were primarily religious but with a far more developed social side. The members (thiasotai) were largely foreigners, and thiasoi seem sometimes to be almost national clubs. The next stage in the development of Greek associations is represented by the societies of eranistai (from eranos, a dinner), which flourished from the mid-third century B.C. to imperial times. The religious element was not absent, but more and more the social and economic basis replaced the religious. The number of clubs grew tremendously after 300 B.C., and freedom of association was deeply ingrained in Hellenistic life.

Often the societies were composed of those with a common interest (as the athletic guilds) or common occupation. The latter are sometimes called trade guilds, but should not be thought of in terms of medieval guilds or modern labor unions. They were local groups, primarily or even exclusively religious and social, and did not set economic policies. Women sometimes formed clubs of their own; at other times they are found in the same club with men. Children too were sometimes admitted Slaves and freedman frequently formed their own associations.

Some societies limited the number of members; others had no restrictions. Few seem to have contained less than ten members or more than one hundred, the average membership being thirty to thirty-five. Admission to a club was gained by the vote of the members. The new member paid an entrance fee and swore to observe the society's regulations.

In contrast to the practice in Roman colleges, only one leading person was in the rule in Greek clubs. There is almost invariably a priest or priestess among the officials. Greek associations were characterized by the very large number of officials and the wide variety of titles employed for them, almost s if the intention was to give everyone a special position.

Roman Colleges

We may distinguish three periods in the history of Roman private association: (1) to the middle of the last century of the Republic the right to form private associations of all kinds was not limited by any special law; (2) until the end of the third century A.D. the right of association was regulated by strict laws, and the trade and professional collegia gradually assumed a certain official character; (3) under the despotism inaugurated by Diocletian the trade and professional associations became public institutions with enforced membership, while associations with a primarily religious character gradually disappeared.

The most common general term in Latin for associations was collegia. Foreigners in particular initially formed associations in Rome. The purposes of these associations with their characteristic terms were economic (stationes), religious (cultores) or social (tenuiorum). Religion was characteristic of all of them, because even the economic stationes were groups of foreign merchants who maintained their national identity in part by preserving their adherence to the native deity of their city or country. Funerary obligations were assumed by all associations except the purely commercial organizations.

Since private associations were often a source of political groupings and intrigue, the late Republic and early empire saw several laws aimed at outlawing or keeping a firm control of all nonofficial groups. An association had to be licensed, and an unlicenced one was properly illegal. An exception to this were the funerary associations, which were not strictly speaking collegia but were cooperative burial societies. These societies were tacitly permitted by the Julio-Claudian emperors without a license and were recognized by law as collegia no later than 133 and probably under the Flavians. Their full title was collegia tenuiorum religionis causa (associations of the poor with a religious basis). Membership provided a kind of poor man's burial insurance and a certain social life (a monthly meeting was permitted) in return for the payment of the dues. The college was under the patronage of a deity (often the emperor), whose name it took. The association either owned its own burial plot or contracted for the expenses of burial. It has bee conjectured that it was as such a collegium that the church at Rome came to own burial property in the catacombs from the end of the second century (most of the catacombs were private property). This fact cannot be established, but a private religious association did provide one category of sociological understanding by which the church could be interpreted to the pagan world, and Tertullian (Apology 39) accommodates his presentation of Christian assemblies to what was recognizable from the burial clubs.

The Roman associations followed the pattern of civil organization more closely than did the Greek. There was a statute (lex collegii), the titles of officials were those of magistrates, usually two men held the leading position, and there was an ordo (a kind of senate) of former chief officers alongside an assembly of the members who elected the officers.

The Order of Hermes as a Secret Society

The Order of Hermes can be seen clearly in light of the above criteria. The Order is selective in that its membership is limited to a small group of people with the Gift, the capability to master magic. In fact the Gift can be argued to be more than just a capability but a state of being. Metaphysics aside, it is clearly the limiting factor for membership and what sets apart the members of the Order from all outside it. A further exclusory factor is that only those with the Gift found and trained by a member are usually accepted, House Ex Miscellanea being the obvious exception.

The Order is steeped in secrecy, a member is admonished to keep its secrets and kill anyone who breaks the oath. The fact that this is followed as a normal course of action shows just how much the Order values its secrets.

Like any secret society, the Order has the tendency to be Labyrinthine in its levels and loyalties. Magi belong to Houses, which is a factor of their lineage. Furthermore, it is traditional - though not required - to belong to a covenant, which has its own loyalties and requirements.

Within the Houses there are a variety of sub-loyalties and lineages. Listed here is some of those that have appeared in published material:

Trianoma within House Bonisagus
Ex-Merinita within House Bjornaer
Perdo specialists within House Flambeau
Tytalus-like followers of Pralix within House Ex Miscellanea
Larta magi within House Jerbiton
Gifted Mercere
Traditionalists and Transitionalists within House Quaesitor
Tremere and Tytalus could be seen as side branches of the Guarna the Fetid lineage

Furthermore, in the published Ars Magica material we are given a variety of secret societies that exist in the Order. Below are just a few of them:

The Arch-Magi: Official recognition of a magi’s achievements. This title has come to mean a lot more. Bestowed only upon the defeat of a current Arch-Mage, after fulfilling requirements designed to prove one’s worth as a member of the Order. There are currently only thirty-eight Arch-Mages in the Order. Of these, a disproportionately high number are from Houses Tremere, Tytalus and Flambeau. There are currently no Arch-Mages from Houses Ex Miscellanea or Mercere. These thirty-eight powerful magi gather every few years at informal councils where they discuss what they, as mighty wizards, can do to further the Order. The only Quaesitoris present are those that happen also to be Arch-Mages, and they participate like any other magi, so the council has no legal power. They keep their decisions secret, and many lesser magi fear that these councils combine magical and political power, unbalancing the Order and making it possible for a handful of wizards to exert much control over the Order’s progress.
Seekers: Those magi who believe in the Old Ones and seek to learn from their power call themselves the Seekers. They believe that if they can find the Old Ones, they will ave access to great knowledge and untold might. Because they share a common purpose, they sometimes work together; but because they are all trying to reach the same goal, they also can be violently competitive. The competition, at times, has led to the destruction of laboratories, familiars and apprentices; sometimes even to Wizard War. If any of the Seekers have found anything concrete, they are not telling anyone, especially not other Seekers. [From Houses of Hermes, page 133]

Hopolites: A group of magi, many of them Arch-Mages from House Flambeau, upon whom the Quaesitoris can call in times of great need. These powerful wizards lay down the law in no uncertain terms when the orders of the Quaesitoris are not followed. Their name is taken from the warriors of Greek legend, and their arrival in an area is greeted with dread.

Followers of Pendule: Pendule was a non-hermetic magus who has become something of a legend in the Order. He meet in secret with many members of the Order teaching his unique brand of magic that is much more sensual and personal than hermetic magic. The Hermetic magi who learned his secrets have passed it down to their apprentices, and so forth, to this day. Perhaps only twenty magi actually use Pendule’s magic. Because so few magi use his magic, other magi know little about it – which spawns the usual rumors of diabolism. It is interesting to note that Pendule himself refused to join the Order.

Thiasoi (singular: thiasos. Members are called: thiasotai)

At the time of the fountain of the Order, there had long been Greek sorcerers practicing their art. Descended from the Cult of Mercury, Neoplatonists, the Chaldaeans and the other Mystery Cults, such groups were offered the option given to so many other sorcerers. Join or Die.

Luckily for all, the sorcerers of the Empire found the Arts of Bonisagus to be sympathetic to their own traditions, easy to master and in many ways a vast improvement. They joined en mass. There was, however, great opposition among the magi of the West to founding new Houses. Instead, these sorcerers joined whatever House appealed to them or that they could find a member who would adopt them. Thus, you have sorcerers of the same tradition joining several Houses. These individuals did not want to leave behind past loyalties, neither did they wish to abandon their new loyalties and the path of magic Bonisagus offered. Instead, they formed fraternities that crossed House boundaries, based on their old traditions.

These fraternities soon gained the name Thiasos, an ancient term for fellowships.. They serve as reminders to the great variety of ancient magic that has been preserved in the East. Many serve as forums for the discussion of ideas and research, others are little more than social clubs. The majority retain some vestige of their ancient ways, now incorporated into the teachings of Bonisagus. The use of theurgical motifs, an aspect of magic toned down by Bonisagus, is a rich thread throughout the thiasoi.

Below are a listing of some of these fraternal societies:

Asclepiads, "The Children of Asclepius": Descended from the priesthood of Ascelpios, these magi are found most often in the Houses of Bonisagus, Jerbiton and Criamon. They still seek the great healing magics and are greatly interested in incubation. Some of the leading (and most obsessive) work in the possibilities of breaking the limit of raising the dead comes from this group. These magi descend from a great variety of healing gods in Roman and Greek religion. However, Ascelpios was the principal deity associated with healing, and he is taken as the figurehead of this society.

Several healing gods were worshiped in the Hellenistic world. One of them was the hero Amphiaraus, who along with his chariot was swallowed up by the earth near Thebes. After becoming a god he reappeared on earth at Oropos where he was worshiped as a healing god. Most of the constructions at Amphiareion date from the fourth century B.C., but the sanctuary was still actively consulted for oracles and cures well into Roman times. The cult of Amphiaraus was local, but divine cures were attributed to universal gods as well, such as Sarapis and Isis in Hellenistic times however, the principal deity associated with healing was Ascelpios.

Scholars have held various theories of Ascelpios' origin: that he was a faded god, that he was a historical personage who as a hero was divinized (before the time of homer a legendary physician by the name of Ascelpios was known), or that he was the archetypal doctor, that is, the personification of the ideal physician and incarnation of the divine power of healing (in his case, unlike that of other heroes, there was no mention of the locality of his death and no ascent to heaven). Ascelpios was regarded as god at Epidaurus from the end of the sixth century. Legends about Ascelpios show many variations. According to the version at Epidaurus Ascelpios was the son of Apollo and the mortal Cornonis, who came to Epidaurus to give birth to her divine child. Healing had been one of Apollo's functions, but the influence of Delphi transferred this function to his son. The only details of Ascelpios' life included in the divine legend are that "he healed the sick and revived the dead." His worshipers saw in him one of the many human beings of half-divine origin who had risen to the dignity of a god because of his accomplishments. He chose to live on earth and never became one of the Olympians. He died as a mortal and then came to life again. As a divinity, he was in charge of one specific function. His wife and children , with whom he acted as a unity in his cures, personified abstract concepts related to medicine. His wife's name, Epione, is from the Greek word for "mild." Of his children Hygeia was the most important and was often associated with her father in art: she symbolized the preservation of health.

Ascelpios was the god of physicians, who were known as Asclepiads or "sons of Ascelpios". His staff, with which he was normally portrayed, was perhaps originally the walking stick of the traveling doctors, but later received the symbolic meanings of helpfulness or wisdom. The snake that twines around the staff in ancient sculptures had been one of the attributes of Apollo but became associated with Ascelpios. In the modern symbol of the medical profession the staff and snake have been adapted to the caduceus of Hermes. The medicine practiced by Ascelpios differed from human medicine only in that as a god he was better versed in his art. His treatment was distinguished from that of other healing deities in being more rational and empirical.

Ascelpios was presented as the most human-loving of the gods. His only restriction was that he would not heal those who were not virtuous. The entrance inscription at Epidaurus read: "Pure must be he who enter the fragrant temple; purity means to be wise in holy things." Faith was not required. Aret? ("glorious deed") was the term used to describe his cures. The Ascelpios cult flourished in the early centuries of the Roman empire, and Ascelpios held out against Christianity longer than did the Olympian gods. When the Parthenon in Athens was being used as a Christian church, the Asclepeion on the south slope of the Acropolis was still frequented. But Ascelpios was a savior from sickness and danger, not from sin and damnation.

The Heliades: This secret society is often confused with a lineage. They take their name from the sons of Helius by Rhode, daughter of Poseidon, who were astrologers, introduced new practices in seamanship and divided the day into hours. The most highly endowed of them was Tenages, who was slain by his brothers because of their envy of him. When their treacherous act became known, all who had had a hand in the murder took to flight and settled in different places.

This thaisos continues to practcie astrological arts, and its members, who now operate under some secret agenda, are often asociated with Seekers.

The Academies

An academy is an alternative form of the covenant. It consists of a renowned teacher or group of teachers who have attracted a group of followers, who are magi in their own right. An academy is a known and legitimate institution, enjoying the same status as a covenant under Hermetic law. Like a covenant, an academy generally has a physical location.

Unlike a covenant, there is usually only one leader; followers who disagree with the leader simple leave. Also, an academy has a purpose, usually to teach a certain set of tenets, although sometimes the purpose could be an ongoing project that is the realization of the leader's dream or vision: to map the heavens accurately, to attempt a specific Hermetic breakthrough, and so forth. An academy's fate is closely tied to that of its founder/leader, for better or worse.

Western magi rarely distinguish the difference between covenants and academies, instead lumping them together under the continent term covenant.