History Main / HermeticMagic

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

%%* This is the specific type of magic used in ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth''.%%ZCE
* ''ComicBook/{{Promethea}}'' is in essence what would happen if Franchise/WonderWoman decided to devote her comic book to an explanation of Western magical traditions, including Hermetic Magic and Kabbalah. It's written by Creator/AlanMoore, a real-life practitioner, so it's to be expected

%%* ''Literature/RatsAndGargoyles'':

* In WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}, human magic requires intensive study, even if the actual incantation is only a simple phrase. However, once the requisite spell and gestures are memorized you're usually good to go unless you need ingredients. Magic of the [[TheFairFolk Third Race]], however, averts this entirely. They just speak a little rhyme and they're good.

* ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName'' features the titular character, Hanna, who casts spells by writing runes with a [[IncrediblyLamePun magic marker]].

These days, Hermetic magic is perhaps used more in anime than in Western works, typically either to provide a comparatively exotic European flair to contrast with local mysticism... or just because [[FauxSymbolism it looks cool]], while in the West magic is often simplified to just a basic spell and effect with maybe one line of chanting and a circle of candles. This may be because talking about magic in too much detail might incite the MoralGuardians to launch a WitchHunt accusing you of Satanism, or just because Western media is more likely to be live action. It being a pain in the butt to depict those fancy geometric designs when you can't just [[StockFootage recycle animation]] and not end up with a SpecialEffectFailure. That said, Hermeticism has been around long enough to influence almost every aspect of Western magic, or at least share it with others such as use of [[MagicalStarSymbols pentagrams]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alchemcircle.jpg]]]]

Hermeticism is a real-world [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetism philosophical, religious, and magical tradition]] ascribed to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus]], claimed to be the [[GodInHumanForm human incarnation]] of both the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes, a Coptic Egyptian Gnostic who founded the theological and philosophical base of western alchemy. One of the oldest, most continuous, and pervasive of Western magical traditions, it also [[{{Irony}} widely influenced early scientific thought]] as late as such greats as devoted alchemist [[UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton Sir Isaac Newton]]. Alchemy in particular can be almost synonymous with Hermetic traditions and depictions of European, Armenian, and Islamic alchemy will usually represent these as being the same as a comparatively easy way to have ShownTheirWork.

* The ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' games have Heraldry/Symbology/Runology, which involves etching symbols, on nearby surfaces or on the caster themselves, which can then be used to create spells. It is revealed in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' that [[spoiler: the symbols are in fact parts of programming code for the virtual universe the characters live in, and allow them to warp reality]]. ItMakesSenseInContext. One should also note that [[spoiler: it still works when the main character uses his (and his love interest's and cousin's) literal gamebreaking code to open a portal to the 4th dimension, that is, the real world, where they are part of a video game]].

A sub-trope of RitualMagic. See also InstantRunes, MagicIsMental, and FantasticScience.

* Spellcasting in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' is somewhere between Hermetic and Vancian models. The basic combat spellcasting is based on Vancian-type spells, but many mages use longer Hermetic rituals with magic circles and stuff (most often these are used for summoning demons and enchanting items). Furthered when a zoom-out reveals the entire city of Seyruun is built in the shape of a gigantic magic circle--made so in order to weaken any black magic used within the city's walls.

* Chikage's sorcery and Tarot-reading in ''LightNovel/SisterPrincess''.

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' uses the gloves as well, but sharing a fairly high number of visual cues with Hellsing mentioned above.

%%* Alchemy in ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' is Hermetic, though usually in a ''much'' different way than how ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' uses it.
* Addie and Honami from ''LightNovel/RentalMagica'' both use this kind of magic, with Addie utilizing Goetia and Honami using some Celtic magic that evokes the descriptions given by Pliny the Elder.

** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has Eltabbar, a city in Thay "some say named after a demon". It was planned as a huge magical diagram (much like Seyruun in ''Anime/{{Slayers}}'') sealing Eltab. This was rather precarious, in that if someone draws a really good map of the city, it leaks the seal's power and when it gets destroyed, the seal holding the fiend is weakened a little more. So the Red Wizards had to outlaw mapping of the city under the pretext of security -- and did the same with the rest of their land when they're at it.

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''LightNovel/FateZero'', the two Caster-class Servants: ''LightNovel/FateZero''[='=]s Caster has a magic book that allows him to summon small monsters without the ritual usually necessary (bigger monsters, like ''Chtulhu'' - yes, he summoned it too - still need a ritual), while ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''[='=]s Caster is so good as a mage that she can spam spells that would require long rituals, like her trademark [[EnergyWeapon Rain of Light]] (a normal mage would need a magic circle, a ten-count aria and a full minute, or thirty seconds if the mage's very good, to cast a single beam of light. She needs a single word to fire thousands of them). She can do this by speaking [[LanguageOfMagic Divine Words]], which modern humans are physically incapable of pronouncing.

* Katherine Kurtz's ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' series features elaborate ritual magic workings for everything from scrying to bestowing magical powers.
* Creator/JohnBellairs's novels often featured Gnostic magic, with direct references to the Keys of Solomon in ''Literature/TheLetterTheWitchAndTheRing''.
* This is one type of magic in the ''Literature/EvieScelan'' novels.
* Magic in ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'' can do almost anything, from teleportation to creating castles out of thin air, but most of the complex things require hours upon hours of meticulous planning. Veres sums it up once:

* Thaumathurgy (ritual magic) from the ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' follows most rules of HermeticMagic: It requires a magic circle and some rituals and ingredients to work, and must usually be set up with a little planning. Thaumathurgy is described as the 'scalpel' of magic in comparison to the 'hammer' of Evocation, which is just calling up an element to produce a quick, crude (but instant) effect on the fly.
* Demon-summoning in Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy is ''extremely'' complicated, primarily involving magical circles and knowing the name of the demon, but also knowing dozens of other languages, candles, incenses, not leaving the circle until you are sure the demon won't hurt you, and knowing how to play various music instruments well, among other things. And that's just the basics, as demon summoning just becomes more complex from there.

* Creator/MaryGentle's ''Literature/RatsAndGargoyles''.
* Parodied in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', where magic doesn't work like this, but wizards often act as though it does because it looks impressive. The Rite of Ashk-Ente is the classic example: It can be cast by a single powerful wizard with three bits of wood and a fresh egg, but if you don't have eight archmages chanting at the corners of an octagram filled with occult paraphenalia, you aren't doing it ''properly''.
* Some elements of ''Literature/HarryPotter'''s magic are hermetic. The most notable instance is probably the resurrection of Voldemort in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]''. There's also an "Ancient Runes" class taught at Hogwarts which presumably relates to this form of magic, but the subject matter is never actually depicted in either the novels or their film adaptations.
* Miles Cameron's The Red Knight
* In many Creator/HPLovecraft works, spells and summonings involve exhaustive research, intricate methods, rare materials (Some of alien origin), specifics dates of preparation and some innate abilities that few people have. The complexity and obscurity of these procedures gives them an occultist and alchemist feel, as well as explaining why the Great Old Ones are so unknown to the public (In universe, of course). In fact, in this universe, magic is not presented as a separate issue from science, but more as an special form of it. Mixing sci-fi with occultism is one of the most characteristic elements of Lovecraftian literature and the Weird Science genre in general.

* ''Literature/TheKingkillerChronicle'' Kvothe snobbily cracks a joke about HermeticMagic while performing SympatheticMagic, shouting "As above, so below!" as he calls a lightning bolt down. The only other character who even might understand the joke within a hundred miles of him is his target.
** Of the four kinds of magic that Arcanists learn - Sympathy, Sygaldry, Alchemy, and Naming - two are largely Hermetic; the runic Sygaldry of permanently enchanting objects and Alchemy.

* In ''Literature/Mouse2017'', June teaches Mouse to do magic that involves drawing out complicated sigils on pieces of paper and using his mind and energy to activate them.

[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alchemcircle.jpg]]]]

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

* In ''Literature/{{Mouse}}'', June teaches Mouse to do magic that involves drawing out complicated sigils on pieces of paper and using his mind and energy to activate them.

These days, Hermetic magic is perhaps used more in anime than in Western works, typically either to provide a comparatively exotic European flair to contrast with local mysticism... or just because [[FauxSymbolism it looks cool]], while in the West magic is often simplified to just a basic spell and effect with maybe one line of chanting and a circle of candles. This may be because talking about magic in too much detail might incite the MoralGuardians to launch a WitchHunt accusing you of Satanism, or just because Western media is more likely to be live action. It being a pain in the butt to depict those fancy geometric designs when you can't just [[StockFootage recycle animation]] and not end up with a SpecialEffectFailure. That said, Hermeticism has been around long enough to influence almost every aspect of Western magic, or at least share it with others such as use of pentagrams.

* ''Literature/TheKingkillerChronicles'' Kvothe snobbily cracks a joke about HermeticMagic while performing SympatheticMagic, shouting "As above, so below!" as he calls a lightning bolt down. The only other character who even might understand the joke within a hundred miles of him is his target.