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Hermeticism is the philosophy of Hermes (in Greek), Mercury (in Roman) and Thoth (in Egyptian). Mainstream historians do not know if Hermes was a god, a man, a magician, a group of men, nor do they know even approximately when he or they lived. Theosophy, however, tells us that “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.” The name Hermes is also given to a school of initiates.

“The Sons of Fire were a special group of Adepts who were produced consciously through kriy€ akti by the Sons of Wisdom during the Third Root Race of humanity. The Mahatma Letters refer to them as the inhabitants of Shamballa who triumphed over the wicked magicians of Poseidon, the last island of Atlantis. They were not a race, and are also called ‘Sons of Will and Yoga.’”

Medieval Drawing of Hermes

Traditional historians do suspect that the origins of the Hermetic school of thought goes back to pre-sand era of Egypt. There is much speculation about the Egyptian civilization. Official history books date Egypt to around 3000 BC, as a fully developed society complete with extraordinary knowledge. This is very unlikely. Some evolution of this advanced society would be necessary to reach the stage it reached by 3000 BC but nothing is recorded. Theosophists suggest that pre-sand Egypt was populated by the survivors of Atlantis who crossed the then lush Sahara and settled in the Nile Valley bringing with them the advanced knowledge of the lost continent thousands of years before Egypt enters history in 3000 BC. The pyramids, temples and the Sphinx were built by Atlantean ancestors far before they are believed to have been built.

Hermeticism has endured for eons and has influenced some of the greatest thinkers of the ancient and modern world, even at times when it seemed the world had forgotten Hermeticism it was an unseen but primary motivating factor at the core. Though not specifically Christian, Hermes has been adopted by many Christian writers as sage who foresaw Christianity’s arrival. Hermeticism does profess a lineage from a “prisca theologia,” a doctrine that upholds the existence of a single, true theology existing in all theologies that was given to man by God in the very distant past.

Hermes, or followers of Hermes, are credited with writing forty-two books according to Clement of Alexander, others credit him with twice this number but only about fifteen have come down to us, as least so far. Among his works are Corpus Hermeticum, Pymander, Asclepius and the famous Emerald Tablets. These works can be divided into two subjects – one being philosophical in nature and the other being alchemical. The philosophical works were written as dialogues, the way Plato wrote. The Emerald Tablets, however, were written in a manner that seems to obscure the meaning to all but those trained in alchemy. Of course, all alchemical works seem to be written in a purposely enigmatic manner for that very reason.

Hermes Trimagistis, as Hermes is sometimes known, means “thrice great.” He has been credited with an astonishing number of inventions including no less than civilization itself, in addition to music, chemistry, law, art, astrology, magic, mathematics, philosophy and the list goes on and on.

Creation According To Hermes

Understanding the creation story as recounted in Hermes’ Book I of Corpus Hermeticum, called Poimandres, will help to see where the beliefs of Hermeticism came from.

Nous is what God is called. In the beginning Nous (God) created a second Nous, who becomes a craftsman and creates the world. Nous II creates seven powers in seven spheres around what will become earth; the spheres have control over what will be the earth. They control what we know as destiny. The seven spheres are the Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Here is the beginning of astrology. But there is an eighth and a ninth sphere beyond these seven and it will be man’s goal to transcend the power of the seven and finally arrive at the eighth and then the ninth where he is to be reunited with the creator. Nous II sets the spheres in motion and life begins on earth.

Nous I likes what Nous II has created and he wants to share his pleasure in this creation. So Nous I creates Man. Poimandres says, “Man is the same as self,” that is same as Nous. The idea of being a child of god is obvious here. Seeing all the wonderful, beautiful things that had been created Man wants this power too and Nous I so loved Man that he handed creation over to him. Man (still in heaven) became interested in what was going on down on earth so he pierces the seven spheres and looks down on what Nous II has created. Nature looks up at Man and falls in love with him. Man sees his own reflection in the waters of earth and falls in love with Nature and wants to be with her. Immediately Man is transported into the world of form. He and Nature fall into each other’s arms, make love and have been doing so ever since.

In the creation myth we are introduced to astrology and the influence of the planets upon man and from which man is expected to rise above. We have dualism – a god of the heavens and one who created earth. We see the idea of Man as the son or part of god. We have man being given the power of creation. “You create your own reality.” The idea that man has a dual nature – one in heaven (non-material, the soul or spirit) and one physical in the world of matter (the body). And “the Fall”, leaving heaven to be with Nature.

Concepts of Hermeticism

The Hermetic teachings are laid out in the Corpus Hermeticum, Emerald Tablet, and other works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice-Greatest Hermes). The teachings comprise the arts of alchemy and theurgy, and the mystery teachings of Thoth.

Fundamental to understanding Hermeticism is a knowledge or gnosis that cannot be taught. Gnosis reveals in an experiential way the total unity of everything in the universe. Absolutely everything in the world is interconnected, there is no separation. Hermeticism is not a religion of faith or belief, it is about knowing that requires no trust in something unseen or unproven. Frances Yates says, Hermeticism is a religion “without temples or liturgy, followed in the mind alone.” The ways to open to gnosis can be taught to an aspirant but the experience itself is a direct, intuitive, very personal grasp of divine reality and the unity of everything. Achieving this gnosis or cosmic consciousness is necessary to the hermetic man because this is how he becomes fully human; without this he is little more than an animal.

This sudden revelation experience has been compared to what RM Bucke called “cosmic consciousness,” which is the very sudden, unprovoked sense of total oneness with everything. It is a very rare occurrence. Bucke, in his 1901 book Cosmic Consciousness, explores the instances of this gnosis experienced by Jesus, the Buddha, Proust, Ouspensky, Dante, Whitman and Blake to name a few. As rare and as moving as these moments are Bucke believes our consciousness is moving toward a state where instances of cosmic consciousness will be commonplace. Interestingly, Abraham Maslow investigating what he calls “peak experiences” found that when his students discussed with each other their personal peak experiences they tended to become more frequent. Perhaps knowledge of and discussion of gnosis will make it a less rare event.

One aspect of Hermeticism that greatly disturbs fundamentalist Christians is the belief that Man is the equal of God. “If you do not make yourself the equal of God you cannot understand him. Like is understood by Like.” Advice from Nous to Hermes in Book XI of Corpus Hermeticum. “Command your soul to go anywhere, and it will be there quicker than your command. Bid it to go to the ocean and it will need no wings…Grow to immeasurable size. Suppose nothing to be impossible to you. Conceive yourself to be in all places at the same time; in earth, in the sea, in heaven; that you are not born yet, that you are within the womb, that you are young, old, dead. Conceive all things at once; times, places, actions, qualities and quantities; then you can understand God.” Arrogance? Hermes says that Man is a “divine being….and the true man is above the gods, or at least fully their equal in power.” Some schools of thought believe “God only knows what you know,” suggesting that man’s journey on earth is a learning experience for the creator, as well as the individual. Those who believe their god is omniscient take offense with this premise of Hermeticism.

The Magician in Tarot

Hermeticism emphasized the doctrine of “as above, so below,” or the Law of Correspondences. The Smaragdine Tablet or Emerald tablet of Hermes, opens with the words:

What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is similar to that which is below.

Actions on one level of reality – physical, emotional or mental – happens on all levels. This doctrine echoes through most occult disciplines. In the Tarot, the first card of the major arcana is the Magician depicted with one arm pointing up and the other pointing down signifying “as above, so below.” On the table before him are the representations of the four basic elements – earth (pentacles), wind (swords), fire (wands) and water (cups) – all controlled by the same doctrine.

According to Hermeticism there are three parts of wisdom in the entire universe they are Alchemy, Astrology, and Theurgy. Alchemy is the operation of the sun or the striving for perfection. Astrology, the operation of the stars, and the influences upon the human being and his work to rise above the influence of the heavens. Theurgy is the operation of the gods or magic. In Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Apology he writes that there are two different types of magic, Black Magic or Goëtia (Greek), which relies upon an alliance with evil spirits (i.e., demons) and there is White (or divine) magic called Theurgy, which relies on an alliance with divine spirits (i.e., angels, archangels, gods).

Reincarnation is a feature of Hermeticism. "O son, how many bodies we have to pass through, how many bands of demons, through how many series of repetitions and cycles of the stars, before we hasten to the One Alone?”

Foundational writings

Corpus Hermeticum

The Corpus Hermeticum became available as a manuscript in the fifteenth century, although the work was much older. Thought to have been written anywhere from 100 BCE to 1462 CE, the writings were lost or underground until 1452, when the document was rediscovered in Macedonia. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) began translating the Corpus from Greek into Latin. He completed translation of the first fourteen treatises, and Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500) translated the remaining three.

The treatises within the Corpus include:

1. Discourse of Poimandres to Hermes Trismegistus
2. Hermes to Asclepius
3. A sacred discourse of Hermes
4. A discourse of Hermes to Tat: The mixing bowl or the monad
5. A discourse of Hermes to Tat, his son: That god is invisible and entirely visible
6. Hermes to Asclepius: That the good is in god alone and nowhere else
7. That the greatest evil in mankind is ignorance concerning god
8. Hermes to Tat: That none of the things that are is destroyed, and they are mistaken who say that changes are deaths and destructions
9. Hermes to Asclepius: On understanding and sensation: [That the beautiful and good are in god alone and nowhere else]
10. Hermes to Tat: The key
11. Mind (Nous) to Hermes
12. Hermes to Tat: On the mind shared in common
13. Hermes to Tat, a secret dialogue on the mountain: On being born again, and on the promise to be silent
14. Hermes to Asclepius: health of mind
15. Asclepius to King Ammon: Definitions on god, matter, vice, fate, the sun, intellectual essence, divine essence, mankind, the arrangement of the plenitude, the seven stars, and mankind according to the image
16. Asclepius to King Ammon
17. Tat to a king: On the soul hindered by the body's affections

Hermeticism compared to Gnosticism

Hermeticism and Gnosticism are often considered to be closely associated since they both seek gnosis but while they share many characteristics, their fundamental attitudes toward life is completely opposite. Gnosticism sees the world as a dark, evil place filled with demons to be overcome and a constant struggle to attain higher and higher levels of spiritual reality. Their goal is to escape from it, seeking salvation through gnosis. The hermeticist's view of the world is as evidence of beauty and divine harmony. Instead of escaping the world he wants more knowledge of the world in order to expand himself, to realize his full potential in the world. He works to free himself from the influence of the planetary spheres (astrological domination). He would read his horoscope in the morning paper not to see what his day has in store but to know how to master his fate. He sees beauty in the world and continues to be in love with Nature.

Influence of Hermeticism

In Renaissance thought

Marsilio Ficino, Cosimo De Medici’s scribe who translated the newly unearthed Hermetic documents in 1463, was profoundly affected by the information he acquired from the writings. Ficino became a Roman Catholic priest and a high ranking official at the Cathedral of Florence. He hoped to merge Hermetic concepts into the Catholic religion but the Inquisition was still operational so he had to be extremely careful. Ficino managed to survive the Inquisition, but his student, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, did not fare as well.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was a Renaissance philosopher famous for his Oration on the Dignity of Man. Pico studied the mystical writings ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster and Moses, Orpheus and Pythagoras, Christian theology, Islamic philosophy, and the Hebrew Qabalah. Along with Ficino, he followed the doctrine of Prisca Theologia, holding that one true theology – the real basis for all religions – was given to mankind in antiquity.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was also deeply influenced by hermeticism, along with astrology and Rosicrucianism. He developed a cosmology in which he viewed the universe as infinite and eternal; with a heliocentric model of the solar system; and the divinity, unity, and interdependence of all things.

In modern thought

The Caduceus

The Hermetic Arts

Study of hermeticism led humanity toward modern science and medicine.

Alchemy is the study of how to purify and transmute human beings to realize their divine potential. The early alchemists combined chemical notations with ancient mythologies into a symbolic language to convey their spiritual experiences when words were inadequate. The idea that man should control his destiny rather than be a victim to the influence of the stars led to the concept of influencing or controlling nature. This was of great interest to the developing discipline of science. Sir Isaac Newton, for example, studyied the Corpus Hermeticum – in secret, due to the powerful Church’s disapproval of alchemy.

The secrecy surrounding alchemy led to many misunderstandings concerning what alchemy intended to accomplish. Interest in the exoteric view of alchemy converting base metal to gold, led people in the direction of developing the modern science of chemistry. The efforts of Paracelsus, also misunderstanding the true nature of alchemy, led to the beginning of pharmacology.

The caduceus that has become the symbol used for modern medicine comes directly from hermeticism. The serpent was a symbol of wisdom associated with Hermes-Thoth in ancient times. One story of how the caduceus was created tells that when Hermes came upon two snakes locked in mortal combat, he separated them with his staff and acting as mediator brought peace between them by suggesting an alchemical reconciliation. Snakes shed their skins and appear to be reborn, and are connected symbolically to both magic and medicine.

Additional resources

Books

• Hancock, Graham, and Robert Bauval. Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith. London: Michael Joseph, 2004. Print.

• Hermes and G R. S. Mead. Thrice-greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis, Being a Translation of the Extant Sermons and Fragments of the Trismegistic Literature, with Prolegomena, Commentaries, and Notes. London: J.M. Watkins, 1964. Print.

• Lachman, Gary. The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus: From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World. , 2011. Print.

• Salaman, Clement, and Hermes. The Way of Hermes: Translations of the Corpus Hermeticum and the Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2000. Print.

• Wilson, Colin. From Atlantis to the Sphinx. New York: Fromm International Pub, 1997. Print

• Yates, Frances A. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964. Print.

Video

• Hermeticism and Gnosticism by Stephan Hoeller
  • Volume 1: Part 1 and Part 2
  • Volume 2: Part 1 and Part 2
  • Volume 3: Part 1 and Part 2
  • Volume 4: Part 1 and Part 2