The “Know Thyself” Maxim

[Dona]

There’s a phrase that is constantly repeated in the magical world: Know thyself Is it a metaphor? What books can genuinely help with this kind of self-knowledge?

 

[hollowglasd]

according to google its an ancient greek saying. that was inscribed on the temple of apollo . and came down to us by way of socrates and plato
meaning to know ones limit. mortality
i didnt know the above history but knew it was in plato.
to me its the flip side of to thine own self be true.

 

[Jsinclair]

Interpreted Biblically : Go f**k yourself.

Couldn't resist.

But to answer the incredibly subjective second part of your question : The Autobiography of a Yogi ; Introductory and practical Gnostic studies, such as those written by Tau Malachi ; assuming that the historicity of Freemasonry is as it purports itself to be (the modern culmination of the ancient Mystery Schools, per hollowglasd's factually correct answer) - download the Five Points of Freemasonry collection in the book shares sub-forum ; or one could be very brave and delve into the Dianetics and Scientology materials (but avoid the actual Church like the plague) - absolutely everything in their canon is available for free online. Link provided upon request.

 

[Firetree]

There’s a phrase that is constantly repeated in the magical world: Know thyself Is it a metaphor? What books can genuinely help with this kind of self-knowledge?

I see it as a prime magical reality / first step and the absolute essence and distillation of hermeticism - the 'prime directive '.

You are lost otherwise in your own delusions .

I suggest starting at a basic broad foundation something similar to ;

Anthropology is the scientific and humanistic study of humanity , It explores human biology, evolutionary history, society, language, and culture across past and present times. The word comes from the Greek words anthropos (human) and logos (study)

and particularly ( my 'specialty' ) ;

Cultural Anthropology: Studies living human societies, traditions, beliefs, and behaviors.

Then focus on your own 'cultural dressing ' . Then get more personal ; 'Introduction to Psychology '

Then focus on your own psychology , upbringing , influences ... in short , what built your personna ( personna is the operative 'you' it is' whatever you birthed with + all later external and environmental influences .

After that you can move to the magical ; things like , natal astrology , your reincarnation streams and 'themes' etc

There is some advice in Magick about this '

Liber Thisharb ;

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MWT 37 ;

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)

MTP ; aka LIber Abba Part 3, Ch 7 'Of Clairvoyance and the Body of Light ' ;

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[Rynnshng]

There’s a phrase that is constantly repeated in the magical world: Know thyself Is it a metaphor? What books can genuinely help with this kind of self-knowledge?

The Corpus Themeticum of the Temple of THEM. But be careful, the occult don't actually mean it when they say 'Know Thyself'. Just as the ONA don't really mean it when they say 'presence chaos'. Or the IOT when they claim 'everything is permitted'.

 

[Morell]

There’s a phrase that is constantly repeated in the magical world: Know thyself Is it a metaphor? What books can genuinely help with this kind of self-knowledge?

It is both metaphor and literal thing. The funny thing about my statement is that literal meaning is still based on your understanding of words, so change understanding and literal meaning changes too.

I think that this quote is both the goal and the guide, advising you to look within yourself and find out who you are within. This is hard and long term task, yet very much worth it. In the occult it belongs among fundamentals, I believe. When you do magic, you work with your mind. Not knowing your mind in that matter is a problem. Not knowing your limits is a problem. Not knowing if you trully beleive something is a problem. Not knowing how and if you truly dedicate to something is a problem...

In short knowing yourself allows you to effectively work with yourself and to change yourself, transform and evolve, safely.

My recommendation:
Books on introspection
Books on meditation

 

[Eldros]

Hermann Hesse - Demian or Siddhartha -- Contrary to only accepting the identity formed by family, society, and inherited moral beliefs, Demian analyzes the difficult way of being entirely oneself.
It's about letting go of standards placed on us and understanding who we are under them.
And I believe Plato also writes about this; I think it was in one of his thirty - plus dialogues. Not sure which one of them, though.

 

[HoldAll]

Franz Bardon's soul mirror exercise in his Initiation into Hermetics (in Step 1) is a good start where you basically group your all your character traits according to the four classical elements. However, it's best to go about introspection in a dispassionate way, without beating yourself up about your bad habits or feeling inordinately proud of your virtues, and to take a good look at yourself while remaining calm and impartial, like a clinical psychologist. Any unnecessary drama generated by your discoveries can leave you fixated and blinkered, mesmerised by any Big Issues and unable to see the bigger picture.

Another approach would be shadow work where you scrutinise yourself for any 'dark', repressed, or unacknowledged aspects of your identity and try to re-integrate them.

One very intriguing system is the Buddhist Abhidhamma with its

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. You could use these lists as an aid when you you're unable to think of anything more while filling out Bardon's soul mirror. I think it's fascinating because it features both psychological root causes and their results, faculties as well as emotions in an intricate interplay. Most people don't even realise to which extent they're the product of their likes & dislikes. Just imagine how dramatically your identity would change if you loved something that isn't even on your list of likes and dislikes, or hated some other completely different things.

I think many self-help books unwittingly promote snowflakey self-pitying narcissism by making their readers feel special because of their own Big Issues, thus making it even harder for them to let go. It's better to take a more comprehensive approach and see any Big Issue as part of the whole, also investigating how you routinely react to it, over-/underestimate it, live and cope with it in various ways, how it impacts on other aspects of your personality, etc. And if, as a result of your soul mirror or shadow work, you find yourself feeling ashamed, guilty, or conceited, you can analyse these emotions as well, find out where they're coming from, on which occasions they arise, etc.

Knowing yourself will help you to understand yourself better and dispel any illusions about yourself you might harbour. If anything, it can give you a more complete and detailed idea of your strengths and weaknesses, or of your emotional buttons others will inadvertently push when communicating with you.

 

[Dona]

Franz Bardon's soul mirror exercise in his Initiation into Hermetics (in Step 1) is a good start where you basically group your all your character traits according to the four classical elements. However, it's best to go about introspection in a dispassionate way, without beating yourself up about your bad habits or feeling inordinately proud of your virtues, and to take a good look at yourself while remaining calm and impartial, like a clinical psychologist. Any unnecessary drama generated by your discoveries can leave you fixated and blinkered, mesmerised by any Big Issues and unable to see the bigger picture.

Another approach would be shadow work where you scrutinise yourself for any 'dark', repressed, or unacknowledged aspects of your identity and try to re-integrate them.

One very intriguing system is the Buddhist Abhidhamma with its

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

. You could use these lists as an aid when you you're unable to think of anything more while filling out Bardon's soul mirror. I think it's fascinating because it features both psychological root causes and their results, faculties as well as emotions in an intricate interplay. Most people don't even realise to which extent they're the product of their likes & dislikes. Just imagine how dramatically your identity would change if you loved something that isn't even on your list of likes and dislikes, or hated some other completely different things.

I think many self-help books unwittingly promote snowflakey self-pitying narcissism by making their readers feel special because of their own Big Issues, thus making it even harder for them to let go. It's better to take a more comprehensive approach and see any Big Issue as part of the whole, also investigating how you routinely react to it, over-/underestimate it, live and cope with it in various ways, how it impacts on other aspects of your personality, etc. And if, as a result of your soul mirror or shadow work, you find yourself feeling ashamed, guilty, or conceited, you can analyse these emotions as well, find out where they're coming from, on which occasions they arise, etc.

Knowing yourself will help you to understand yourself better and dispel any illusions about yourself you might harbour. If anything, it can give you a more complete and detailed idea of your strengths and weaknesses, or of your emotional buttons others will inadvertently push when communicating with you.

I understand self-knowledge psychologically to some extent: knowing my personality, values, emotional patterns, unconscious motives, conditioning, cognitive biases, limitations, desires, and my place within society and culture.
But I suspect that in some magical and initiatory traditions, Know Thyself means something deeper than psychological self-awareness. Does it refer to discovering one's “true nature,” spiritual nature, relationship to the divine, or one's proper place in the cosmos?
I'm asking because I'm genuinely struggling with this question myself.
I'm strongly attracted to theurgy, mystery traditions, purification, self-mastery, and the idea of becoming a more balanced and integrated person. At the same time, I'm also fascinated by practical/“low” magic and its emphasis on actually influencing circumstances, protection, divination, binding, etc.
I don't feel that I have a fixed or clearly defined self, and I don't know whether this ambivalence indicates that I haven't understood myself yet—or whether I'm unnecessarily trying to force myself into a single magical identity.
At a deeper level, what I seem to value most is knowledge, autonomy, human dignity, liberation from coercion and ignorance, and helping people develop their own agency and potential. I'm strongly opposed to people using religious, economic, social, physical, or institutional power to dominate or exploit others.
So my question is:
When magical traditions tell us to “know thyself,” what exactly are we supposed to discover? Is it psychological self-knowledge, our values and character, our unconscious/shadow, a metaphysical or spiritual nature, our relationship to the divine—or something else entirely?
And perhaps more importantly:
How does one actually investigate this rather than simply adopting an occult identity or convincing oneself that one has discovered a “true self”?
I'm particularly interested in serious historical, philosophical, or traditional perspectives rather than purely New Age interpretations.

 

[HoldAll]

I understand self-knowledge psychologically to some extent: knowing my personality, values, emotional patterns, unconscious motives, conditioning, cognitive biases, limitations, desires, and my place within society and culture.
But I suspect that in some magical and initiatory traditions, Know Thyself means something deeper than psychological self-awareness. Does it refer to discovering one's “true nature,” spiritual nature, relationship to the divine, or one's proper place in the cosmos?
I'm asking because I'm genuinely struggling with this question myself.
I'm strongly attracted to theurgy, mystery traditions, purification, self-mastery, and the idea of becoming a more balanced and integrated person. At the same time, I'm also fascinated by practical/“low” magic and its emphasis on actually influencing circumstances, protection, divination, binding, etc.
I don't feel that I have a fixed or clearly defined self, and I don't know whether this ambivalence indicates that I haven't understood myself yet—or whether I'm unnecessarily trying to force myself into a single magical identity.
At a deeper level, what I seem to value most is knowledge, autonomy, human dignity, liberation from coercion and ignorance, and helping people develop their own agency and potential. I'm strongly opposed to people using religious, economic, social, physical, or institutional power to dominate or exploit others.
So my question is:
When magical traditions tell us to “know thyself,” what exactly are we supposed to discover? Is it psychological self-knowledge, our values and character, our unconscious/shadow, a metaphysical or spiritual nature, our relationship to the divine—or something else entirely?
And perhaps more importantly:
How does one actually investigate this rather than simply adopting an occult identity or convincing oneself that one has discovered a “true self”?
I'm particularly interested in serious historical, philosophical, or traditional perspectives rather than purely New Age interpretations.

I'm currently very intrigued by the Buddhist concept of

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- what if nobody was at home behind the superficialities of personality, no fixed identity to speak of? Looking for your true self opens the narcissism trap even wider, in my opinion, but if there was no fixed, permanent self anyway... no point in searching for something that isn't there anyway, right? I have to dig deeper here, I don't claim to have understood that idea yet.

 

[pointwithinacircle]

I have found that my magical practice has noticeably enlarged my understanding of myself. Some of what I have discovered about myself has come in the form of skills and abilities that I did not know I had, and some has come in the form of an awareness of the roadblocks that I need to overcome in order to progress. Both are useful information. so to me, at this stage of my development, to ‘know thyself’ means to figure out where I am, where I want to be, and to apply that knowledge toward creating real change in my self.

This is my first post so I hope it conforms to the guidelines.

 

[Lord Talve]

Also everthing is permitted word started by me

 

[FraterFraxinus]

Honsetly, fuck books, you just have to get rid of perception filters and look within while trying to avoid all programmed preconceptions.
There kind of are definitive answers to that but those are kind of subordinate to the glasses of the believesystem youre wearing at the time of asking that question.
You can go full meta though.
At the end you really have to figure it out for yourself, books might help but they can also just increase confusion.
Take care and good luck!

 

[Robert Ramsay]

From what I've read on this forum, in occult terms, this "know thyself" is connected with shadow work, where you try to bring out and come to terms with aspects of yourself that you normally avoid.

Or in more normal terms, being brutally honest with yourself about yourself. As the saying goes "The hardest task we face is not fooling ourselves."