Testing and Proving
Verifying teachings through personal experience.
The Hermetist does not accept teachings on faith alone but tests them through practice. What works is kept; what doesn't is discarded. Personal experience is the ultimate arbiter of truth in practice.
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Hermetic tradition values verified experience over blind belief.
Various
Written about in
- What Hermeticism says about teachers and lineage
The student is told to test what they are taught, keeping what works and dropping what does not. Setting up personal experience as the arbiter cuts against deference to the teacher, and the tradition holds both at once.
- What Hermeticism says about failure
The Hermetist tests teachings through practice, keeps what works and discards what does not. Under that rule a failed attempt is a completed experiment, and the only wasted failure is the one you draw no conclusion from.