Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes on the back of Typhon, by J. Augustus Knapp

Hermes Trismegistus (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "thrice-greatest Hermes") is the purported author of the Hermetic Corpus, a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism. He is frequently seen as a combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The texts attributed to him deal with magic, astrology, alchemy and philosophy. They are essentially religious neo-platonic texts dating no earlier than the second or third century CE.

In her Theosophical Glossary, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky described Hermes Trismegistus in this way:

Hermes Trismegistus (Gr.). The “ thrice great Hermes” , the Egyptian. The mythical personage after whom the Hermetic philosophy was named. In Egypt the God Thoth or Thot. A generic name of many ancient Greek writers on philosophy and Alchemy. Hermes Trismegistus is the name of Hermes or Thoth in his human aspect, as a god he is far more than this. As Hermes-Thoth-Aah, he is Thoth, the moon, i.e., his symbol is the bright side of the moon, supposed to contain the essence of creative Wisdom, “ the elixir of Hermes ” . As such he is associated with the Cynocephalus, the dog-headed monkey, for the same reason as was Anubis, one of the aspects of Thoth. (See “ Hermanubis” .) The same idea underlies the form of the Hindu God of Wisdom, the elephant-headed Ganesa, or Ganpat, the son of Parvati and Siva. (See “ Ganesa ” .) When he has the head of an ibis, he is the sacred scribe of the gods ; but even then he wears the crown atef and the lunar disk. He is the most mysterious of gods. As a serpent, Hermes Thoth is the divine creative Wisdom. The Church Fathers speak at length of Thoth-Hermes.

Another Theosophist offers this information:

Thoth-Hermes was one of the King-Instructors, the "Sons of the Fire," who began in Lemuria in the Third Race to instruct infant humanity in the arts and sciences. The Egyptians always regarded Thoth-Hermes as a symbol of the Third Race. But in whichever of his characters Hermes appears, he is always credited as the first to teach the science of magic to the Egyptians.

Online resources

Articles

• Hermes Trismegistus at Katinkahesselink.net.

Websites

• Resources on Hermes at Universal Theosophy

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