#hermetica

[cryptotheism]

If you’ve tried to study alchemy, you’ve probably come across the name “Hermes Trismegistus.” Hermes the Thrice-Great is often referred to as the mythical sage who invented everything from alchemy to mathematics to Judaism. There is no evidence he ever existed, but the legend of Hermes Trismegistus is the mortar holding together the bricks of western alchemy. 

As you read the rest of this book, Hermeticism will come up a lot. Occultists love Hermeticism because it is a powerful tool for syncretizing disparate spiritual traditions. In short, it is religious duct tape. 

First, it gave us a legendary sage that supposedly all knowledge came from. A common problem with religions is that they disagree. Hermeticism says that if two theologies have a similar idea, that’s because they both came from Trismegistus. Additionally, the history of alchemy and magic is complicated. By saying “it all comes from Trismegistus” you save quite a bit of time. Because of this, Hermeticism serves as a scaffolding for the otherwise chaotic history of western esoterica.

Talking about Hermetica today on patreon!

[thesirenisles]

Pharaoh’s Dancers 🪄🐍

[autofuneral]

Puppies the elder - a Byzantine Hermeticist from whom we get much of our surviving Greek translation of "A discourse from Hermes to Cat" - disagreed with common thinking of the time. He agreed with the food bowl/water bowl dualism that was emblematic of his era, but Puppies sought a more rigorous understanding of the connection between Dog and Naptime. He thought that any Hermeticist wishing to truly know The Mailman would not only nourish their mind through the transformative act of playtime, but they would also need to pacify the physical body by engaging in frequent and rigorous walks. In addition, he stressed that proper panting technique must be taught in order to fill the body with pneuma, as it was needed to help propel the soul upwards in its travels to the divine realm. This belief spread rapidly among his contemporaries, who had mainly focused on begging for treats and other forms of spiritual piety. This is a watershed moment for Hermeticism as we would know today, as it played a large role in distancing Hermetic thought from being a mere curiosity among monotheistic scholars.

[polyphanes]

Thoughts and Cautions about Litwa's "Hermetica I"

As I’ve referenced countless times on my blog in the past when talking about the classical Hermetic texts, Litwa’s Hermetica II is a fantastic resource for lots of the lesser-read ones among them, especially the Stobaean Fragments but also plenty of other texts that aren’t the Corpus Hermeticum, Asclepius, Armenian Definitions, or the Nag Hammadi Hermetica; it’s a treasure trove of so much that I…

[doctormonthattan]

[escuerzoresucitado]

[eyeoftheheart]

“If then you do not make yourself equal to God, you cannot apprehend God; for like is known by like.

Leap clear of all that is corporeal, and make yourself grown to a like expanse with that greatness which is beyond all measure; rise above all time and become eternal; then you will apprehend God. Think that for you too nothing is impossible; deem that you too are immortal, and that you are able to grasp all things in your thought, to know every craft and science; find your home in the haunts of every living creature; make yourself higher than all heights and lower than all depths; bring together in yourself all opposites of quality, heat and cold, dryness and fluidity; think that you are everywhere at once, on land, at sea, in heaven; think that you are not yet begotten, that you are in the womb, that you are young, that you are old, that you have died, that you are in the world beyond the grave; grasp in your thought all of this at once, all times and places, all substances and qualities and magnitudes together; then you can apprehend God.

But if you shut up your soul in your body, and abase yourself, and say “I know nothing, I can do nothing; I am afraid of earth and sea, I cannot mount to heaven; I know not what I was, nor what I shall be,” then what have you to do with God?”

~ Hermes Trismegistus, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius

[assaultmystic]

Asclepius §21, in Hermetica (trans. Brian Copenhaver).