Our Creed

We are based on Hebrew angelology and demonology and a syncretic cult of the magical arts of the whole world, founding ourselves first of all on the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, the Kybalion and the Hebrew Kabbalah, with influences from the Voodoo cult and the Macumba cult of the Afro/South American countries.

The term 'syncretic' is fundamental to understanding the Creed of Studio Esoterico Cornelio. It is not a single, closed and self-referential tradition: it is an integrated system that has absorbed and harmonised the knowledge of magical traditions developed independently in different cultures over millennia. European Hermeticism, Hebrew Kabbalah, African Voodoo, Macumba and Afro-Brazilian Quimbanda, Mesoamerican traditions, Indian tantrism — all these currents converge in a coherent operating system, governed by the seven Hermetic Principles of the Kybalion.

The great institutional religions have always presented Magic as a negative, dangerous or even satanic practice. This position is neither accidental nor motivated by genuine spiritual reasons: it is a strategy of control. When a human being discovers they have direct access to the spiritual forces of the universe — without religious intermediaries, without confessions, without ecclesiastical structures — they become spiritually autonomous. The great religions cannot afford this autonomy: their power rests on the exclusivity of the relationship between the individual and the divine, a monopoly that Magic completely dissolves.

If man were free to awaken — to increase his perceptions, to directly feel the energetic reality of the universe he lives in — he would enjoy a direct, personal, verifiable spiritual dimension. He would not need to believe blindly in narratives he cannot verify. Religions limit him for exactly this reason: by feeding him something to believe in without direct experience, they keep control over his spiritual life and consequently over his life as a whole.

The Magic we practise is perfectly compatible with any kind of personal cult or spiritual sensibility. It is, however, incompatible with a blind faith that considers wrong a priori whatever falls outside its own schemes. We do not ask any client to abandon their beliefs: we ask only for the willingness to consider that the spiritual universe is vaster and richer than any single tradition manages to contain.

True Magic. Our Magic, being true Magic, is compatible with any kind of cult, since Magic does not interfere with religion, but it is incompatible with those who choose a blind faith in a religion and/or who consider wrong what we do because they are clouded by the falsehood of religions.

«A true Esoteric Practitioner must have two aspects, White Magic and Red Magic on his right and Black Magic on his left. To understand true Black Magic is to understand Magic. And the opposites High Entities (deities) and Low Entities (the Prince, the demons and the Exus) are complementary to each other. Everything is dual; everything is polar: for everything there is its pair of opposites. As like and unlike are the same, opposites are identical in nature and differ only in degree. Thus extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths and every paradox can be reconciled.» — Master Cornelio, quoting the Kybalion, 4th Hermetic Principle.

«Simplici enim mente et anima divinitatem colere eiusque facta venerari, agere etiam dei voluntati gratias, quae est bonitatis sola plenissima, haec est nulla animi inportuna curiositate violata philosophia.» — «To worship the divinity with a simple mind and soul, to venerate its works, to give thanks to the will of God, which alone is full of goodness: this is the philosophy not contaminated by any importunate curiosity.» — Hermes Trismegistus (Asclepius, 14).

Who is God? God is the unknowable Creator of everything in its totality — not because He is absent or indifferent, but because the human mind is not equipped to contain the infinite in its entirety. Yet the Creator manifests through perceptible fragmentations: the Egyptian tradition called them Gods, Voodoo calls them Loa, Hebrew Kabbalah calls them Sephirot. These are neither idols nor inventions: they are the interfaces through which man can enter into relationship with real cosmic forces. In our syncretic tradition, these same forces are matched with the Archangelic and Archdemonic Lordships of the Hermetic tradition.

Who are angels and demons? In Master Cornelio's Hermetic vision, Angels and Demons are not moral figures of popular religious narrative — good against evil — but Lordships that correspond, by the 2nd Hermetic Principle ('as above, so below; as within, so without'), to the structures of our psyche. Angels correspond to the SuperEgo: they carry the Creator's code of values and guard its precepts. Demons — and in our system the Exus of the Quimbanda tradition — correspond to the Unconscious: they are the forces that act when values are violated, but also the forces that the expert practitioner can mobilise to overcome the strongest resistance.

A correctly evoked Archangel is an amplifying force of extraordinary power. A correctly evoked Demon or Exu is a coercive force capable of overcoming any human resistance. Both serve the Creator. Both require the competence, respect and control that only decades of ritual practice confer. A badly performed evocation — even of an Angel — can produce effects contrary to those desired. This is why Master Cornelio insists on the need to turn exclusively to practitioners with verifiable authentic training.

What are the seven Hermetic Principles? The seven Hermetic Principles of the Kybalion are the fundamental laws that govern reality according to the Hermetic tradition. The Principle of Mentalism ('The All is Mind') states the mental nature of the universe. The Principle of Correspondence ('As above, so below') links the microcosm to the macrocosm. The Principle of Vibration states that everything moves, everything vibrates. The Principle of Polarity states that everything has two poles: 'as like and unlike are the same, opposites are identical in nature and differ only in degree'. The Principle of Rhythm states the wave-like motion of all things. The Principle of Cause and Effect states that every cause has its effect. The Principle of Gender states that gender manifests in everything. These seven principles are the philosophical and operative compass of Master Cornelio's entire system.

Why is Black Magic not 'evil'? Because the Hermetic Principle of Polarity teaches that there are no entities that are completely positive or completely negative: every force has two poles, like the two poles of a magnet. An Angel has a positive and a negative aspect. A Demon has a negative and a positive aspect. The distinction between White Magic and Black Magic is not about good and evil — it is about the degree of coerciveness of the operation. Black Magic is coercive: it acts on will and resistance. This makes it powerful, but not wicked. Whoever uses it for distorted ends — to harm, to destroy without cause, to satisfy personal impulses — suffers the karmic consequences. Whoever uses it to help, to resolve situations of genuine suffering, exploits its power in service of the client's good.