A real artist is an alchemist. He has to transform the misery he feels into beauty, as the alchemist turns lead into gold.

There is duality in the manifested world. But oneness preceeds duality.

Some people believe in guardian angels. That they only appear when we call them and don 't interfere in human affairs, just show their protective presence. The guardian angel inside each if us is a more real "me " than what we identify ourselves with. The one who must command. The difficulty lies in obbeyance.

We descend when we are born to ascend again. The movement, as time, is an illusion from a higher point of view, so there is no fall or ascension. What are we ?

There is the upward triangle and the one pointing downward. In a way it's easier to ascend than to descend with the deeper knowledge obtained. To put the knowledge from what lies hidden into action is like the labors of Hercules. It takes time and patience.

Astrology is very important in the hermetic work, to know the cycles and right times for certain operations.
"As Above so Below" - it's easy to understand how the position of the planets can be used as analogy to the circumstances that surrounds one's life. The path can be chosen or not and the same opportunities (usually they appear on "bad times") for growth will appear next time, in 7 or 14 years (or other multiple of 7).

Gustav Meyrink's "The White Dominican" is a book that goes way beyond mere literature. It is a book about Tradition and Initiation, with quite more than hints at initiatic (in the broader sense of the word) teachings, like "It is the longing for gods and the fear of being left alone with himself, to create a world of his own, which hinders man from unfolding the magic powers which slumber within him".