There is nothing specifically Masonic about Hermeticism.
This is correct but it does not work both ways. There is much specifically Hermetic to be found in the degrees and lessons of Masonry. It's there for the looking and up to the individual Mason whether to do that looking.
Notice the same combination works for the Old Testament. There is nothing specifically Masonic about the Old Testament. There is much specifically Old Testament to be found in the degrees and lessons of Masonry. It's there for the looking and up to the individual Mason whether to do that looking.
It's optional to reference the chapters of Kings I and Kings II used in our degrees and it is also optional to search out the many other less direct Masonic tie ins to the Old Testament. Just as it's possible to not study the Hermetic content that is present in the degrees.
There are Hermetic Masons, but one need not embrace or study Hermeticism to have a full Masonic experience any more than one need be Christian to have a full Masonic experience.
Exactly.
The asymmetry of how these topics work is one of my favorite aspects of Masonic philosophy - Content having to do with (insert any one of a ton of different topics here) is there for the looking but there is no requirement to look. We lead ourselves to many waters but we don't make any of us drink of any of them.
It's a compound/amalgam of many lessons. Individual responsibility - We chose whether and what to learn. Love of learning - We offer a richer menu of topics than any one man can learn in a lifetime. Tolerance for difference - Our degrees include what some may think incompatible material and our membership includes brothers who would never have met without the asylum of our tiled spaces. Universality of learning - Our degrees contain such a wide variety of topics assembled from so many sources. Compatibility of science and religion - Second degree long form lecture.
For computer geeks there's the story of how "perl" got its name. Larry Wall was writing computer scripts as usual for his job. He wondered if he could make the process simpler by adding the many tools together into a single unified tool. He developed a hybrid language that's more of an amalgam than an alloy. Yet when the parts were swirled together without melting them into an alloy it became beautiful. So he named it after a gem with a swirl of color - Perl is named after pearls.
Masonry is a pearl like that computer story.