Re: Bardonism and Mormonism

["Rand" <hp_rand436103@...>]

Hi-
I was raised Mormon. First, I'll say that, no- the practices of 
Mormonism and Hermetics are not in any way simmilar. There is no 
working on development of the mind, no working toward magical 
abilities at all in Mormonism, which is practiced as a charismatic 
Christian religion basically. What I did get from Mormonism, was the 
notion of soul evolution (exaultation in LDS doctrine), a different 
view of the universe than traditional Christianity holds, and the 
notion of spirituality, supernatural phenomenon and ability to 
manifest real changes in the mundane world through "priesthood power"-
which is basically magic. Without those things being instilled in me 
through the church, I would have likely never begun on the path that 
I am now on. It allowed me to "think outside the box". As for the 
ties to Mormonism and Hermeticism, Joseph Smith was a Mason in the 
1800's (when freemasonry was still a spiritual/magical brootherhood), 
and so alot of true knowledge was part of the LDS church's beginnings.
The LDS church has, however, followed the path toward more 
traditional Christianity since the beginning. The biggest move in 
that direction came with the usurping of power by Brigham Young. 
Also, the last 20 years have seen changes that nearly make the Mormon 
church just another protestant religion.I feel that this is to make 
it more mainstream, or palatable if you will.




--- In BardonPraxis@yahoogroups.com, "danerebor" <danerebor@y...> 
wrote:
> Greetings all,
> 
> Recently I read an article explaining the Hermetic influence on 
> Joseph Smith and Mormonism at http://gnosis.org/ahp.htm . I don't 
> have any personal experience with Mormonism, so I have a question 
for 
> anyone who does: how compatible is Bardonism and Mormonism? Do they 
> have similiar outlooks and practices?
> 
> Thanks,
> Dan