2.1. The Way of Hermēs⁑
Throughout many occult or esoteric texts and traditions, the term “Hermeticism” is often encountered and used to refer to such topics, sometimes as a qualifier for particular organizations or groups or as a kind of genre of spirituality. Because of how this term has developed and become so widespread, different occultists and esotericists might all have some claim or another to using the term “Hermeticism” or “Hermetic” to describe their beliefs and practices, yet often end up doing completely different things with different worldviews and frameworks. For some, the word “Hermeticism” raises connections to alchemy and astrology as technical disciplines; for others, the notion of “ceremonial magic” or “high magic” in the sense of Solomonic grimoires with qabbalistic frameworks, especially that which is done in para-Masonic Rosicrucian lodges; for others, it is a way to refer to distinctly non-witchcraft or non-subversive forms of spiritual practices. In one sense or another, “Hermeticism” is often used by many as a synonym for “Western European esotericism” in general, although looking back to the origins of this term and what and who it refers to belies the vagueness of having such a big-tent approach to such topics.
To distinguish this specific classical approach to spirituality from broader and later uses of the term, some use the term “Hermetism” specifically instead of “Hermeticism” more generally, or alternatively the more poetic “Way of Hermēs”. However, for the purposes of the Hermetic Synaxis, “Hermeticism” is sufficient enough of a term, with all these being synonyms for each other.
To better offer the context and orientation for the Hermetic Synaxis as a way to “do Hermeticism”, a brief summary of Hermeticism and its is given below. Although a full treatment and exploration of Hermetic history and doctrine is both outside the scope of this text as well as unfairly binding on the work of the Hermetic Synaxis, at least a few words may still be said.
2.1.1. Core Ideas of Hermeticism⁑
At its core, Hermeticism is best thought of as a form of esoteric spirituality based on the teachings and writings attributed to Hermēs Trismegistos and his students from the Roman period of classical Egypt, emerging from the synthesis and syncretism between Egyptian religiosity and Hellenistic philosophy. In this light, Hermeticism is not simply a philosophy or an art but a mystic path of life and living, geared towards salvation from suffering through union with divinity, itself achieved through the realization and direct experience of truth, which is cultivated through the development of virtue, reverential awe, and understanding. Hermeticism, then, can be considered a gnostic form of mysticism that makes use of theurgic approaches to realize and reclaim our divine birthright as children of the Godhead.
2.1.1.1. The Origin Myth of Hermēs Trismegistos⁑
Regardless of what one means by “Hermeticism” as a genre or tradition or what one means by “Hermetic” as a label, what links all such things together is a mythic connection to Hermēs Trismegistos (also spelled “Hermes Trismegistus” in a Latinate form, or translated into Latin as Mercurius Ter Maximus), or “Thrice-Great Hermēs”. Historically, this is a syncretic form of the Egyptian deity Thōth with the Hellenic deity Hermēs, with both acting as cultural and linguistic “translations” of each other and sometimes being worshipped as a new form of either or both deities. In some contexts, Hermēs Trismegistos was seen not as a deity but as a mythical human, sometimes equated to Moses or an Egyptian teacher of Moses, but also sometimes equated to the biblical Enoch or quranic Idris. The epithet trismegistos comes from a Greek calque of an Egyptian way of praising the deity, which used a repetition of the word “great” to emphasize the greatness of the god, such that “great great great” or “great” and great and great” meant “greatest”. However, with time, the epithet trismegistos became more poetically and symbolically interpreted, with some using it to refer to Hermēs’ primacy in the three divine arts of astrology and alchemy and magic, Hermēs being the world’s foremost priest and philosopher or king, or the “Egyptian Hermēs” being the greatest of three mythic humans had the term “Hermēs” more as a title than a name. In time, further myths sprang up around Hermēs Trismegistos, both within and beyond a strictly Greco-Egyptian pagan context.
Within a Hermetic context, the origin myth of Hermēs Trismegistos is found in book I of the Corpus Hermeticum. At one point, while in a trance-like state of awareness, Hermēs received a visitation from a divine being referring to itself as Poimandrēs, the “Mind of Sovereignty”, approaching in ineffable glory, and asked Hermēs what he wants to hear, see, learn, and know. To this, Hermēs replies that he wants “to know about the things that are, to understand their nature, and to know God”. Poimandrēs then proceeds to give an entire visionary revelation to Hermēs, showing him the truth and reality of the Godhead as ultimate Creator of all Creation, the origin of the cosmos as a divine work, the divine beginnings of humanity made in the likeness of the Godhead, how humanity came to be in the cosmos as a daring act of love and will to co-create creation itself, the cause and manner of humanity’s suffering, and finally “the way up” to rejoining divinity as the solution to such suffering. At the end of such a revelatory discourse, Poimandrēs leaves Hermēs to rejoin with the divine powers, but not before giving Hermēs a charge to go forth and save humanity by teaching them as he himself was just taught. Hermēs then proceeds to do just that, proclaiming the revelation he received, calling people to free themselves from wandering in suffering and confusion, to learn the way of salvation, and to claim their divine birthright.
It is from this beginning that all the rest of the Hermetic texts can be thought of as flowing from, expanding and building upon this initial revelation to explain how to realize “the way up” through cultivating virtue and developing our divine awareness of reality, coupled sometimes with study and contemplation but at other times through ritual or initiatic processes to achieve the purification of the soul within the body and the elevation of the soul through the cosmos. Following the literary conventions of the time, these teachings are given mostly in the form dialogues and letters to his students, namely his son Tat as well as Asklēpios and Ammōn; like Hermēs Trismegistos himself, these are also syncretic forms of Greco-Egyptian deities presented as mythic divine humans in the texts. In the texts, Tat is shown sometimes to be the “ideal student” who is guided through teachings at multiple stages and levels, while Asklēpios is shown to be a more advanced student fit for receiving higher teachings, and Ammōn is presented sometimes as a king who brings such teachings to worldly manifestation and public use as taught by his spiritually-developed peers.
2.1.1.2. Hermetic Theology⁑
Throughout the Hermetic texts, mention is made not only of the Godhead which the texts focus on, but also the gods both as individual entities as well as a whole and as a part of the cosmos; although the texts are monist, they are still polytheistic, in that the existence of multiple gods is a given. However, despite this, the Hermetic texts also make the point that the Godhead is not itself a god; although the texts use the phrase ho theos “the god” consistently, it is perhaps better to consider it as “Godhead”, as in the font and source of godhood rather than being any particular god unto itself, in much the same way that the Godhead is not any one entity but Oneness itself.
It is important to bear in mind the distinction between monism and monotheism. Within a classical context, the Hermetic texts were written by polytheistic authors for a polytheistic audience, where belief in, worship to, and ceremonies for the gods were assumed as a matter of daily life. To that end, the Hermetic texts readily teach not only that multiple gods exist, but that worship to them is good and proper for us as humans to give. However, the insight that these same Hermetic texts teaches is that, although the gods are the ultimate entities that exist, there is yet a pre-existent reality beyond them, as much beyond the gods as the gods are beyond us; if the gods are the first-existing pillars of creation, then this pre-existent reality is the foundation upon which those pillars themselves rest. This reality is the Godhead, the source of not just separate divinities but divinity itself, and thus all creation. None of this was intended to diminish the godhood of the gods nor render their worship unnecessary; rather, their worship is rendered even more necessary, since we can build upon worship and devotion to the gods to lift ourselves up and reach beyond them to the Godhead itself. Although the religious methods of prayer and worship are given to the Godhead, the Hermetic texts make the case that Godhead is not itself a god, but because it is beyond the gods that are already the ultimate things to exist, treating the Godhead like a god is the mystic key to unlocking its realization.
Remembering that the gods have an important role to play in Hermeticism is perhaps nowhere else better exemplified than by remembering that Hermēs Trismegistos, Tat, Asklēpios, and Ammōn themselves are gods in their own original Greco-Egyptian context. Although the Hermetic texts present them as mythical humans in an unspecified time-before-time, there are also points in the texts where they claim divine descent or are explicitly identified with (or they identify themselves as) gods. Poimandrēs itself is a god, variously understood to be a syncretic form of the solar god Rē or a cultural development of the deified Sixth Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III; Hermēs himself says he worships the Sun in one of the Hermetic texts. Although it might seem strange to modern readers raised outside such a polytheistic context of gods worshipping gods, it was and is a common thing seen in myths and lore from all sorts of polytheistic traditions for gods to give reverence to other gods, even if not in the same cultic ways humans do.
From the planets and stars and decans to ancestral or cultural heroes, from timeless deities of eternity to our own personal tutelars, the Hermetic texts are full of gods and encourage us to revere and worship them as gods. However, what sets Hermeticism apart as a specific kind of Greco-Egyptian mysticism rather than just another syncretic form of Greco-Egyptian religion is that worshipping the gods is not enough to fully realize its mystic aims; it is necessary but alone insufficient without realizing a greater truth beyond the gods, which gives us both the means and the end of salvation by lifting us up to the level of the gods with their help to reach beyond them to their—and our—very source.
2.1.1.3. Gnōsis and the Problem of Suffering⁑
There is no one single text of Hermeticism, nor are all its teachings contained within any single of its texts, nor are its texts all in complete agreement regarding its teachings at all levels. However, despite this, when one looks at the Hermetic texts as a whole, many fundamental teachings stand out time and again in unanimous agreement. Even though there are differences and contradictions between the texts, these may be better thought of as moment-to-moment differences in opinion or details that support the fundamental teachings from different perspectives or backgrounds.
At a high level, Hermeticism teaches a worldview with some of the following high points:
All things have an origin in and return to a divine Source, called “God”, “the God”, or “the Godhead”
All things share in the same ultimate substance and underlying reality of the Godhead
The Godhead is transcendent beyond all things yet also immanent within them
The Godhead is not so much a one as it is Oneness
Humanity has an essential origin in the Godhead and a bodily origin in the cosmos
All things in the cosmos are kin to humanity as fellow creations, co-creations, creators, and co-creators in and of the cosmos
The texts make clear that the Godhead is not just some distant one-time creator of the cosmos, is constantly with and in us yet also beyond us, a tension in Hermeticism that the Way of Hermēs aims to resolve: if the Godhead is closer to us than our own jugulars, then why should we feel so distant and wayward from the Godhead, where we feel both lost as well as loss, where we feel alienated from providence and purpose as well as from the world around us? The answer to that is ultimately ignorance; just how gnōthi seautón “know thyself” is a common maxim from ancient Greece used in many esoteric and spiritual contexts, it too has a role to play in Hermetic mysticism. However, merely knowing who and what we are is not something that happens in isolation; to know ourselves is to also know our relationship to the world around us, and thus the origin of such a world as well as our own origin. In learning this, we thus come to know our divine origin in the Godhead, which thus has us come to know the Godhead. This knowledge is not merely something to be gleaned through books or thought about like an academic argument, but something to be directly experienced; this is what sets true knowledge of truth, or gnōsis “knowledge” to use a Greek term, apart from other forms of knowing like logos “reason”, epistēmē “learning”, or pistis “faith”, even though those other forms of knowing are still essential to such realization, both in the intellectual sense as well as the literal sense of “making real”.
It is through such gnōsis that counteracts our ignorance that we achieve relief from suffering, but why should ignorance lead to suffering at all? Unlike anything else that exists, humanity is unique in the cosmos as having a twofold nature: an immortal soul in a mortal body. A human is essentially a soul that has an origin beyond the cosmos in the Godhead itself, and comes to be incarnate in a body through the work of the cosmos. This is not some sort of primordial fall of man, but rather a willingness to go forth and learn and engage with the work of the Godhead as its divine children and inheritors, and so this should rather be seen not as something lamentable but something beautiful. However, in arriving into the cosmos and playing a role in it through our bodies, we take on the rules and restrictions of incarnate existence; even though our souls themselves are beyond the cosmos in origin and also in impact, our bodies are subject to the energies and powers of the cosmos, to birth and growth and decay and death, to pain and pleasure both. Even if the cosmos cannot compel the soul to feel these things, the soul is still impelled to do so due to its inhabiting of bodies.
It is through experiencing these sensations which overwhelm the senses of the body, and thus which weigh down the soul within it, that we humans can become forgetful not just of our divine origin but also of our own essential nature. In forgetting this, we neglect that we have a twofold nature, one visible and the other invisible, and end up only focusing on the visible, tangible, material, and corporeal; we end up confusing what we are with what is ours, thinking ourselves only as bodies rather than as souls that have bodies. When this happens, we think ourselves as being utterly and only subject to birth, growth, decay, and death, and that as these things happen to the body, we suffer them at some essential level, too. Nothing could be further from the truth in reality, but because we have become confused, forgetful, and ignorant of such truth, we suffer for it by not realizing that these are things that happen in the cosmos only to cosmic things and not to what we really are; it is akin to lamenting that our shirt might get a tear or a stain, and so thinking that we are thus indelibly maimed and scarred by it, rather than simply accepting that this is what sometimes happens to clothes but does not affect the person who wears it, and that we can simply repair or clean the shirt or put on a new one and move on with ourselves. This realization and clarification of what we are against what we have is crucial to understanding not only our own station in the cosmos but our own origin in the Godhead, and thus opens us up not only to the truth of the Godhead but also opens the way back to the Godhead after we leave behind incarnation.
2.1.1.4. Synagiasmos as Theurgic Salvation⁑
Such realizations as gnōsis are distinct from merely learning about things in the sense that gnōsis can be thought of as a fundamentally life-altering awareness of the essential truth of a thing. Gnōsis is not merely some fact kept in the brain or some article of faith, but a truth you know deep in your own bones, a truth you cannot deny but only ever accept as a foundation of and shaper of your very reality. Gnōsis is described in the Hermetic texts like a magnet: just as when a piece of iron gets close enough to a magnet it changes direction and is drawn up by it, so too does gnōsis lead us onto a divine Way of living—the Way of Hermēs—by giving us something that we cannot refute as being anything but true. However, gnōsis is often not simply a one-time thing: although we must work towards its cultivation and realization, one can have multiple moments and experiences of gnōsis, each of which draws us further along the Way, and which helps us to eventually abide in a state of gnōsis that is not just realization of knowledge but a dwelling-within the knowledge, where the distinction between the knower, the thing known, and the knowing itself disappears in complete Oneness. It is this which provides us freedom from suffering, in that it allows us to more perfectly realize and experience all the gifts and processes of the cosmos, our place among them, and yet still maintain the distinction between what we are and what is ours so that we do not let it strangle us or drown us in its overwhelming of ourselves, and so that we can remain free to partake in the cosmos as a whole as well as divinity itself no matter who, where, or what we are or become.
Achieving such experiences and states of gnōsis in the Hermetic texts is done through multiple methods, combining contemplative approaches with ritualistic ones, but ultimately is achieved through the cultivation of reverential awe, finding the glory of the Godhead in all that is and all that occurs; rejoicing in creation, its creating, and its creator; understanding how things come to be, from what beginnings, and what ends. While this might sound like a mere academic pursuit, merely learning things for their own sake is actually against the Hermetic ēthos, since the proper Hermetic approach to such things is to always bear in mind the Godhead as an end of mystic realization and achievement. In a word, all this might be encapsulated by the word synagiasmos which appears in the prayer of Hermēs Trismegistos at the end of book I of the Corpus Hermeticum; although this word appears nowhere else and is accordingly hard to translate, it is perhaps best understood as “being holy as God is holy”, “being sanctified together with God”, or “sharing in holiness”.
Despite the possibilities of interpretation of this word, it is clear that the overall Hermetic aim of synagiasmos is an approach to theurgy. Although sometimes this word might refer to a specific hieratic practice of making deities manifest or abide in idols, this word also refers to a ritualized approach or way of life towards theōsis “becoming divine” or henōsis “becoming one with divinity”, and synagiasmos takes this latter approach. In remembering our divine origin and not so much who we are as what we are and in revering divinity as much as our own divine nature and origin, by engaging in the co-creation of the world as is right and proper for us, we eventually come to rejoin God as God. This whole approach of a theurgic way of life, although helped at times through initiation and ritual work, is focused more on gradual growth and progressing spiritually. In this, we achieve “the way up” as a path of salvation, of release from cosmic vice and suffering into divine virtue and peace, wherever and whenever we might be in the world.
2.1.1.5. Soul and Mind from Life and Light⁑
Although humanity is most commonly described as being essentially psykhē “soul” in the Hermetic texts, much is also given to the notion of nous “mind”. In the revelation of Poimandrēs to Hermēs, the Godhead is described as both Life and Light, not distinct from another but joined as one in and as each other. Moreover, it is in a likeness of the Godhead that humanity itself is made, the soul of humanity as a likeness of the Life of the Godhead and the mind of humanity as a likeness of the Light of the Godhead. If we are thus a likeness of the Godhead and if Life and Light in the Godhead are one, then are soul and mind likewise one, both forming our essence as one?
What “soul” is in the Hermetic texts is taken for granted; it is assumed that it exists as an incorporeal essence, and that it is what we are at our core. Although there is discussion of the powers of the soul or how it compares to the energies of drive and desire that operate in the body and might fight against the soul in administering how we live our incarnate lives, the existence of souls and the fact that we are souls is otherwise simply accepted without further clarification about any fundamental underlying reality of the soul; indeed, texts like the Korē Kosmou even suggest that such knowledge is an unknowable mystery. Regardless, the elevation and salvation of ourselves as souls is universally paramount as a focus of the Hermetic texts.
What of “mind”, then? In contrast to the “servile mind” that might better be understood as the cognitive faculties and nervous activities of our corporeal brains that result in day-to-day processing of sense and thought, mind in Hermeticism is a more elevated concept that refers to something like the soul’s faculty of the divine awareness of truth; it may be considered that nous is to gnōsis what the eye is to vision, in that the mind is the spiritual “organ” of spiritually understanding reality at an essential level. It is through mind that we can achieve gnōsis, and so the cultivation of mind as something useful to us is part of our own full realization as human beings.
However, it is not clear in the Hermetic texts whether mind is something we have or something we are, whether it is something that we originally lack and must receive to be complete or which lies dormant within us and must be awakened and activated; different texts often provide different answers to such a question. Ultimately, the Hermetic goal of having such a divine mind, whether activated or at all, is an important step along the Way of Hermēs; although we are all made in the likeness of the Godhead, we cannot be complete without both soul and mind, nor can we progress along the Way drawn by gnōsis without mind to help us realize such gnōsis to begin with. It is when we cannot make use of mind to do this, whether because we lack it at all or merely lack its activation, that we end up spiritually blind and bereft of the guiding light of truth.
2.1.1.6. Fate, Necessity, and Providence⁑
Much how alchemy can be thought of as a “spiritualization” of the earlier technical arts of metallurgy, dyemaking, and other early forms of chemical engineering from a set of technical disciplines into a mystic approach to spirituality, Hermeticism might be thought of as a “spiritualization” of the technical disciplines and practices of astrology. Although seeing the events and happenings of the world and the people in it as being influenced or directed by the stars has been a widespread belief both within a classical Greco-Egyptian context as well as beyond it, Hermēs Trismegistos himself is commonly associated as being the mythic progenitor of astrology as a discipline, and so astrology has a particularly important, if not principally central, role to play in Hermetic views of the cosmos, especially as it comes to deal with the question of fate.
The Hermetic texts present a worldview as being fundamentally and essentially deterministic, with notions of “free will” as it is normally thought of in a mundane sense to be an illusion, but this can be misleading without bearing in mind the relation of the soul with the body. There may be considered a sort of “chain of influence” that determines how things come to be in the world and in our lives:
The fundamental ruling principle in all things is the will of God, also called Providence. As the will of God, this is what establishes the ideal or highest notions of what things are to become in the world.
Necessity, as a servant of Providence, is what arranges the logical consequences and ramifications of Providence. Necessity determines what needs to happen for the things established by Providence to be self-consistent and without contradiction in the world.
Fate, as a servant of Necessity as Necessity is a servant of Providence, is what arranges the sequence of things that happen and which must happen, either according to Necessity or to Providence or both.
The powers of the stars, both the seven wandering planets as well as the myriad fixed stars, effect Fate upon the things that exist in the world below from the directives of Fate above by projecting and exerting influences and energies into the world for them to take place.
On the one hand, this is why astrology is so important for Hermeticism, whether as a mere study or as an established practice, because the study of the planets and stars grants us insight into Fate, and thus by Fate the very will of the Godhead. Astrology helps us to “know thyself” by likewise helping us to know our place in Fate and our role to fulfill Providence within the boundaries established by Necessity, as well as all other things from harvests to construction, from peacemaking to battle, from commerce to travel, from the most minute of occurrences in day-to-day life to the grandest of history-altering events.
On the other hand, such cosmic energies and influences are limited in their reach only to cosmic entities and events. Fate is a matter that only applies to the cosmos, and as such, Hermeticism is deterministic only insofar as the cosmos and cosmic things are concerned. This applies to the body, which arises from the cosmos, lives within it, and eventually returns to it, but this does not apply to the soul which has an origin beyond the cosmos; because the soul comes from beyond the cosmos, they are likewise beyond the reach of Fate. As such, our souls are not compelled by the stars or constrained by Fate, but because the soul inhabits the body, it may still be impelled by the stars or influenced by Fate to act in certain ways in a non-binding way, much how a body is not the shirt that it wears but the quality, structure, cleanliness, tightness, or other matters of comfort or discomfort can impact and influence the body that wears it. For Hermeticism, we as humans are only in the world rather than of it, so even while we may not be in ultimate control of what happens in the world, we can still overcome it on the level of someone who participates in it for our own sakes.
It is in understanding Fate, and thus also Necessity and Providence, that we as souls come to conquer it. In a way, we might consider ourselves actors of a play on a stage; we might not be able to rewrite our scripts and lines, but we can play our roles to more or less engaging or inspired degrees; it is on us to fulfill our roles in the world as best as we can and, in doing so, learn from such roles for the benefit of the soul that does what it can in the form of the body to best play out its station in the world. It is not through meek and unquestioning compliance with Fate but an active and understanding involvement in its fulfillment that we not only co-create the world around us for the benefit of ourselves and the perfection of everything else, but also for the learning how to fully express the soul in a way that does not take the energies and influences of the cosmos as masters upon us but as means for us to express ourselves—and in allowing the soul to rise up and achieve its fullest divine expression, also allows us access to higher powers that can themselves steer and direct Fate itself.
2.1.1.7. Two Kinds of Good and Evil⁑
The Greek words agathos and kakos appear often in the Hermetic texts, and are usually and reasonably translated as “good” and “evil”, respectively, but care must be taken with these words in context to properly understand them. Sometimes these words are used in ways to describe different kinds of people in their relation to divinity, sometimes in ways that contrast the Godhead with anything that exists, sometimes in ways that clearly separate goodness from evil, sometimes in ways that conflate the two, and so on. It is important to not read these words in ways that other traditions or contexts might use them, but to understand that there is a specific philosophical usage of these terms that was common in Hellenistic literature at the time that does not easily map The fundamental ruling principle in all things is the will of God, also called Providence. As the will of God, this is what establishes the high-level notions of what things are to be. Necessity, as a “servant” of Providence, is what arranges the logical consequences and ramifications of Providence. Fate, as a “servant” of Necessity as Necessity is a “servant” of Providence, is what arranges the sequence of things that happen (and which must happen, either according to Necessity or to Providence). The powers of the stars, both the seven planets as well as the myriad fixed stars, facilitate Fate upon the things that exist in the world below from the directives of Fate above to everyday senses of these terms, which the Hermetic texts themselves occasionally point out.
In a philosophical sense, that which is good, or that which is the Good, has the following descriptions:
Is the substance of all motion and generation
Has an energy about it that stays at rest
Has neither lack nor excess
Is perfect and perfectly complete
Is a source of supply for everything, present in the origin of all things
Is what gives everything and receives nothing
Longs for nothing, since it lacks for nothing
Grieves for nothing, since nothing can be lost to it
Antagonizes nothing, since nothing is stronger than it and nothing can injure it
Desires nothing, since nothing completes it
Is angered by nothing, since nothing is unheeding of it
Is jealous of nothing, since nothing is better than it
Is always and forever and only what it is, remaining in itself and its own nature
Is what maintains its own consistency from itself alone
Is unmuddied by matter and unshrouded by body
Is naked, manifest, unshifting, sacred, unchangeable, and ever-existing
Is not corruptible, vulnerable, or dissolvable from one thing to another
In the end, all this is what is used to describe the Godhead, such that the Godhead is the Good and the Good is the Godhead. All these qualities only ever apply to the Godhead, and the Godhead is described as singular and unique in its own classification of entities or concepts. Since “evil” is set in opposition to “good” such that that which is not good is evil and that which is not evil is good, and since goodness is bound up with the Godhead, the logical result is that anything that is not the Godhead is therefore evil: the cosmos, the demiurge, humanity, everything that exists. This is a straightforward and technical usage deprived of any moral estimation, but this is complicated when the Hermetic texts also use the term “evil” to refer to particular behaviors or acts or ways of thinking.
To that end, one should consider that there are two uses of “good” and “evil” in the Hermetic texts:
Existential goodness and evil
Existential goodness is the Godhead.
Existential evil is that which is not the Godhead.
Moral goodness and evil
Moral goodness is that which leads to existential goodness (i.e. the Godhead) as a mystical or spiritual end
Moral evil is that which leads away from existential goodness towards anything else as a mystical or spiritual end
Because all things come from the Godhead, and because the Godhead is the Good, then all things themselves depend on and come from the Good, but because they are not themselves the Godhead cannot and should not be conceived of as having any of the same qualities of the Godhead and thus goodness in an existential sense. The problem arises when one aims to do something for its own sake or focuses on something that is not the Godhead as an end of doing something: living life generally in ignorance or irreverence of the Godhead is the same thing as living life specifically as if the Godhead were irrelevant. Merely eating is neither good nor evil, but eating for its own sake or eating beyond what is needed becomes gluttony, which make eating in such a way become evil. Any of the arts and sciences, when done for their own sake, become detached from the Godhead and so lead people astray, but when these things are done to better understand creation as the creating of the Creator, to better appreciate the work of the divine, to better engage with the cosmos as part of our divine heritage and providence—it is this orientation that keeps the Godhead as a mystical and spiritual end and has these things become morally good to engage with.
While technically anything that exists can be called “evil” in a Hermetic light, one can only do so in an existential way that must be separated from any moral or ethical evaluation of it. Sex, eating, sleeping, prayer, meditation, magic—none of these and nothing else are in and of themselves morally evil except when done in a way heedless of our own divine nature. Morally evil things keep us wayward and distant from the Godhead because they entice and encourage us to remain apart from the Godhead, while morally good things do the opposite. Even externally-seeming pious works like prayer, when done for the wrong reasons or in the wrong way, become things that lead us further from divinity, and so caution must be taken to use the terms “good” and “evil” in a Hermetic context that stresses the centrality of reaching the Godhead as the only objective measure of the worth of something, whether as a reason or a manner of action or purpose.
2.1.1.8. Death, Reincarnation, and Ascent⁑
Death in and of itself is described as nothing particularly significant in the Hermetic texts, merely being the final departure of the soul from the body and the dissolution of the body into its constituent components back into the cosmos. It is not some sort of permanent or final destruction of what we are, because we are not ourselves bodies, only souls that have bodies; the death of the body is no more significant to our soul than a shirt becoming too worn out to wear again for us in public. Death is a natural part of the cosmos and of the cycle of life, and should be understood as such rather than being something to shun or fear. However, because of the ignorance many people suffer that conflates what they are as souls with what they have as bodies, in thinking of themselves as primarily or only as bodies, death becomes something terrifying and so subjects the soul to further confusion and trauma. The result is like someone developing a phobia from watching something in a movie: although the movie is distinctly not real, by imagining oneself so vividly as participating in the movie, anything that is seen to happen in the movie is incorporated as being part of one’s own self and life, and so one might develop an actual traumatic fear of something even though nothing actually happened to them, causing them to live their lives continuing as if they were part of the movie even after the movie has finished.
In the Hermetic texts, a notion of reincarnation of the soul from one life to another is seen repeatedly. In general, it appears that a soul can incarnate in both human and non-human animal bodies, with a soul incarnating in a body generally suited to its aspirations and inclinations. All living bodies are subject to the cosmic energies of thymos and epithymia, emotional “drive” and appetitive “desire”, which help a living entity fortify and satisfy itself so as to continue living; in non-human animal bodies these energies are what primarily or only drive the body to act, while in a human body the soul is also present to tame, harness, and direct these energies to behave in a way suited for the dignity of a soul. When a soul succumbs to being tamed by these energies rather than taming them, a soul becomes more and more inclined to incarnate into a body where these energies are stronger, even to the point of incarnating in a non-human animal body where the soul becomes incapable of fully expressing and developing itself. It is only in a human body that a soul can properly function in the world, and so human birth is seen as most dignified, noble, and appropriate for souls in the world. However, even among human bodies, the station into which one is born and the purpose to which one is fated also depends in part on the strength and maturity of the soul.
Incarnation in and of itself is not to be considered a curse or punishment in Hermetic thought; it is a beautiful thing that arose from the love of witnessing creation and a desire to participate in it in likeness of our divine forebear. However, it cannot be denied that incarnation comes with its trials and struggles, for even if it is beautiful, because growth and decay are both necessary and inevitable in the cosmos for anything and everything to come about, pleasure cannot be separated from pain, laughter from lament, gain from loss. It is the awareness that all these are part and parcel of creation that helps us be aware of their common origin in the Godhead, and seeing them for what they are helps us to enjoy them for what they are. However, because of our ignorance and confusion through the forgetfulness that arises in incarnate life, we all too often chase after some things and flee from others in a way that mistakenly makes them out to be what they are not in any real sense. It is this misguided craving after and dread of particular aspects of the cosmos that ensnares us in an ongoing cycle of unwilling and unintentional reincarnation, a kind of addiction to incarnate life that such an afflicted soul becomes slave to.
The goal of Hermeticism as a mystic way is salvation, which is attained through union with the Godhead through “the way up”, the process of coming to terms with one’s addiction, both in its positive aspect of craving and negative aspect of dreading, with incarnation and to reckon with the very powers that give rise to our lives in the world itself. These powers are not in and of themselves morally evil, but because in our ignorance they can misguide us and lead us away from the Godhead by keeping us trapped in the cosmos from the conscious and full embrace of the divine, it is on us to process our reliance and subsistence on them so as to transform them into means for our ascent, returning them to their cosmic sources in the proper way. In this, we lighten the burden of our soul, rising up through the heavens by stages to eventually be free of any addiction to these very powers but rather able to engage in them consciously and with the full awareness of all that they are and only that which they are. This, eventually, whether in the course of one life or over the span of many lives, is the destination of the Way of Hermēs: Oneness with the Source itself, freed from suffering by achieving Goodness.
2.1.2. The Hermetic Texts⁑
Although it is common to talk about “the Hermetica” as if it were a single text or group of texts, it is more appropriate to consider this as referring to the entire genre of Hermetic literature, which is sometimes split into the academic categories of “philosophical/theoretical Hermetica” and the “practical/technical Hermetica”. The former category focuses on the religious, philosophical, cosmological, theosophical, and otherwise doctrinal side of Hermeticism, and generally consist of dialogues or letters between Hermēs Trismegistos and his students; although they may mention them at a high level, the philosophical Hermetica generally lack details regarding practice-oriented topics, like the study of astrology, the consecration of talismans, the ensoulment of statues, or the like, even if these things are assumed by the texts as a given. The latter category focuses on precisely those things the philosophical Hermetica lack, but tend to be a much more varied genre of texts that sometimes bear little to no association with any of the goals or frameworks outlined by the former category, and continued to be produced far longer and by many other people than those in the philosophical Hermetic milieu.
For the purposes of the Hermetic Synaxis, familiarity with both the philosophical and practical Hermetica is encouraged, but it is the philosophical Hermetica that provide the beating heart of the mysticism of the Way of Hermēs. These texts include and are commonly abbreviated as:
The Corpus Hermeticum (CH)
The most famous and most well-known collection of Hermetic texts today, consisting of 17 tractates or “books”.
Some early translations included texts now better reckoned as part of the Stobaean Fragments (SH 2B and SH 11).
Due to editorial history to preserve numbering across editions and translations, there is no book XV, skipping instead from book XIV to book XVI.
The Perfect Sermon, more commonly known as the Asclepius (AH)
The most famous single Hermetic text along with the Corpus Hermeticum, especially before the recovery of the Corpus Hermeticum in western Europe in the 15th century CE.
Although originally written in Greek, such a text is not currently extant.
The most popular version of this text is preserved only in Latin.
Sections 21 through 29 of the Latin Asclepius is also preserved in Coptic as part of the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC VI,8).
The final thanksgiving prayer is also present in Coptic in the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC VI,7) as well in Greek as part of the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM III.590—611).
The Stobaean Fragments (SH)
A series of 29 Hermetic extracts of varying lengths by John of Stobi in his 5th century CE Anthology.
One of the most famous series of Hermetic texts in the Stobaean Fragments is the Korē Kosmou (“Virgin of the World” or “Pupil of the World”), preserved as SH 23–27.
The Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth (D89)
A text describing a ritual of spiritual elevation and divine ascent preserved in Coptic as part of the Nag Hammadi Codices.
The Armenian Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius (DH)
A collection of 49 “definitions” or summary-teachings preserved in Armenian and translated in the late 20th century CE.
The Oxford Fragments (OH)
A series of five Hermetic extracts.
The Vienna Fragments (VH)
A series of four badly-preserved Hermetic texts, only the first two of which are partially decipherable.
Other various miscellaneous fragments and excerpts preserved by other authors and writers (FH)
Other various testimonies and references to Hermetic doctrines or teachings (TH)
Although more texts than these were written in the classical period, not all texts have survived to the modern day, whether completely or at all; sometimes there are lacunae in the surviving texts, sometimes marginalia have been incorporated into the main body of a text, and sometimes the language itself has become corrupted enough as to be rendered difficult to read, translate, and understand. We only have today what survives the knife of time and the redactor’s pen through the past two millennia, but with the help of continued research, analysis, archaeology, and other efforts to recover the wisdom of the past, more texts are periodically discovered that continue to flesh out our understanding of Hermeticism as it was construed in the classical period. Even if the texts are corrupted or incomplete to one degree or another, we today have more than enough information to build off them and follow their guidance to a living Way of Hermēs.
Some might claim, however, that the Hermetic texts are not corrupted so much as they are encrypted or encoded for the sake of preserving mystery and guarding secrets away from the uninitiated, but there is no evidence nor reason to believe that this is the case except out of a desire to mystify esoteric topics beyond their actual mysteries. It is true that the texts are dense and difficult to read for many, but this is a function of two things: that the very subject matter of the Hermetic texts strains against the limits of effability, and that the texts were written in an idiom and style that is difficult to translate and approach by modern students. However, for the kind of texts that they are, they were written in the usual rhetorical and literary styles of their day common to many philosophical or religious texts in a Hellenistic setting, and there has never been any indication or evidence or suggestion that they were encrypted only for initiates to decipher or that there are multiple encoded levels of meaning in the text to be metaphorically teased out. The texts, despite their subject matter, strive to be as clear as they can to help those who give themselves over to their sincere study.
Besides the above texts, other collections of texts can also be helpful for the study of Hermeticism, especially regarding more practical aspects. Principal among these are the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC), a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts from the 4th century CE, as well as the Greek Magical Papyri along with the Demotic and Coptic Magical Papyri (respectively PGM, PDM, PCM), which are collections of various magical texts generally preserved in papyri but also sometimes on ostraka or other medium that show various magical procedures, remedies, and prayers. Both of these as well as related Greco-Egyptian spiritual literature have some overlap with or connection to the milieu of classical Hermeticism, and so should also be given study, even if not directly pertinent to the study or practice of Hermeticism itself.
2.1.3. Historical Development of Hermeticism and “Hermeticism”⁑
Although one cannot definitively point to any particular person or school of Hermeticism in a classical context, it may be better to consider Hermeticism to have arisen more as a milieu than as a movement. In the classical period starting under the Ptolemaic dynasty and continuing under subsequent Roman colonialism, Egypt began a process of Hellenization through cultural exchange and imperialism, which had as much an impact on the development of its native philosophies and spiritualities as it did its government and economy. Although indigenous Egyptian religion did not die out for some time and often retained much of its traditional forms, there was an increasing trend towards some amount of syncretism or eclecticism that incorporated varying amounts of both natively Egyptian and non-Egyptian elements into particular spiritual practices. This had impacts not only in the establishment of new temples with either new deities or new forms of traditional deities, but in the less-formal approaches of household religion and magical practices, especially with the introduction of non-Egyptian astrology as practiced elsewhere in the Hellenistic world.
It is in this particular context, well outside the principally and culturally Greek area of Alexandria and more in the actual cultural centers of Thebes, Hermopolis, Faiyum, and Panopolis, that a new kind of Greco-Egyptian spirituality began to arise. Although the specific origins are still debated, based on evidence from the texts and other attestations in the classical period, it seems that a specific kind of monist mysticism arose in the priestly class or the non-priestly students of priests among those who had an education both in traditional Egyptian spirituality as well as the recently-introduced Hellenistic philosophies of Platonism and Stoicism. Such a spirituality was not meant to supplant traditional religious cults or practices, but rather to supplement them as a sort of spiritual “extracurricular” or “after-hours” endeavor, perhaps centered in small groups by more mystically-minded priests in the corners of temples or at home among their students as such mystical teachings and practices became more spread outside a strict temple context. It was in this period that there is evidence of people known as “Trismegists” who practiced a certain kind of gnosticism, attesting to some participation in a spirituality founded in some sense or other by Hermēs Trismegistos, but it is otherwise unclear if this refers to what we find in the extant Hermetic texts or not. However, whether or not these were the same people we might today identify as classical Hermeticists, it is in this context that we see a variety of philosophical and practical Hermetic texts written originally in the lingua franca of classical Koine Greek from approximately the end of the first century CE to sometime in the fourth century CE.
After this period, due to Christian hegemony in the Roman Empire, the persecution of traditional religions began to increase dramatically with institutional backing, resulting in the widespread closing of temples and the eventual cultural destruction of many forms of non-Christian religious practices. This coincides with the cessation of the production of philosophical Hermetic texts, given that the mysticism and spirituality of them was founded on traditional Egyptian religion, depriving them of fertile ground in which to flourish; consequently, although there may have been some pockets of mystics that survived quietly and privately after this point that may have influenced later mystical or spiritual movements outside a traditional Egyptian context like in early Christian ascetic movements or early Sufi schools, the specific kind of Hermetic mysticism seen in the texts appears to have likewise been extinguished. However, this can only be said to apply to Hermetic mysticism, not Hermetic magic; although the philosophical Hermetica ceased to be produced around this time, practical Hermetica continued to be produced, since various technical disciplines like astrology or conjuration or consecration were easier to be adopted by and adapted to non-traditional religions.
It is in this light that the “Hermetic arts” of astrology and alchemy, along with other introductions of various forms of magic for various purposes, continued to be developed by later cultures, especially by Islamic cultures before being transmitted to Europe in the form of various kinds of magical manuals and procedures. For several centuries, with the exception of the mangled Platonism in the Asclepius with its pagan description of temple worship of idols, it was this alchemical and magical form of esoteric practice that became known as Hermeticism to Europe. It was only with the recovery of the Corpus Hermeticum from eastern Mediterranean monasteries into Italy and its subsequent translation from Greek into Latin as well as other Western European languages that Hermetic mysticism became known once again, which as much complemented as well as conflicted with the more alchemical establishment of Hermeticism already current throughout Europe. Because such different schools of thought began to come to the fore all at once, especially in the spiritual blossoming of Europe during the Renaissance into various mystic orders and schools, they were often taken up and further adopted by and adapted to yet newer spiritual contexts. Over time, such kinds of Hermetic beliefs and practices were integrated with Christian appropriations of Jewish kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Solomonic magic, and other disciplines of spirituality.
In the modern era, because of the twisted and twisting path that such practices and beliefs have taken, there is a historical claim to the term “Hermeticism” that has it reflect the accrued systems of esotericism in Western Europe that make “Hermeticism” into something far more—and also far more detached—than its classical origination. In one sense, “Hermeticism” has often been used as a synonym for “Western European esotericism”, in the sense of being esoteric beliefs and practices that is not particularly offensive albeit not wholly licit to institutional religious sensibilities; in another sense, “Hermeticism” has sometimes been used more mythically to refer to any form of timeless wisdom kept secret and reserved for unspecified lineages of initiates, a la the alchemical phrase of “Hermetically sealed”. Because of the distance both in time and culture as well as focus between these later uses of the term and the original sense of what is Hermetic in the form of the Hermetic texts, some have taken to using the term “Hermetism” to refer to the strictly classical form of mysticism and spirituality and “Hermeticism” to refer to the broader historical presence. However, ultimately, it is still this classical form of mysticism that drives and directs all subsequent such developments, and should be the means by which the Hermeticness of a given belief or practice should be gauged.
2.1.4. A Selection of Aphorisms⁑
Throughout the Hermetic texts, there are many short statements, as brilliant as they are terse, that point to an inspired, even ecstatic approach to piety, holiness, and truth of the Way of Hermēs. Some of these are good for considering as aphorisms for special contemplation, meditation, repetition, memorization, or other use throughout one’s Hermetic studies and development.
God is the glory of all things, who is both the Divine and divine Nature. (CH III.1)
What cannot be expressed—this is God. (SH 1.2)
The one God requires no name; unique is the one who truly exists and without name. (VH II.2)
God, the Master, the Maker, the Parent, the All-Encompassing, both the All who is One and the One who is All. (CH XVI.3)
God is the Good, and the Good is God. (CH II.16)
The Good is in nothing except in God alone, and God himself is always with the Good. (CH VI.1)
Truth is the most perfect excellence, the undiluted Good itself. (SH 2a.9)
Few seeds come from God, but they are potent and beautiful and good: virtue, moderation, and reverence. (CH IX.4)
God sows immortality in Heaven, change in the Earth, and life and motion throughout the All. (CH XIV.10)
There is but one religion of God: to not be evil. (CH XII.23)
Irreverence is humanity’s greatest evil against the gods. (CH XVI.11)
To do good is of the gods; to be reverent is of humanity; to assist is of the daimones. (CH XVI.11)
Let this be the goal of devotion: to know the place and nature of truth. (SH 2B.3–4)
The vice of the soul is ignorance. (CH X.8)
To be ignorant of the Divine is the ultimate vice, but to be able to know, to will, and to hope is the straight and easy way leading to the Good. (CH XI.21)
Let the one who is mindful recognize that they are immortal and that desire is the cause of death; let them come to know all that exists. (CH I.18)
The one who has understood themselves advances towards God. (CH I.21)
God does not ignore humans, but knows them and wishes to be known by them. (CH X.15)
For humanity this is the only deliverance: the knowledge of God. (CH X.15)
Only one road travels from here to the beautiful: reverence combined with knowledge. (CH VI.5)
Whoever knows God does not fear God; whoever does not know God fears God. (DH IX.3)
To understand is to believe; not to believe is not to understand. (CH IX.10)
Truly blessed is the one who has beheld God. (SH 6.18)
I think; I remember; I am thankful. (CH I.20)
I give thanks to God for what God has put in my mind. (CH VI.4)