Trismegistus

Hermeticism

A Brief Look

Hermeticism is an aspect of the Western intellectual and philosophical tradition that has taken a back seat in the modern world, yet for much of the last two millennia no education was considered complete without some familiarity with Hermetic teachings.

Hermeticism emerged alongside Christianity and Neoplatonism in late antiquity, in the first two centuries AD. It focuses on a figure named Hermes Trismegistus—that is, Hermes Thrice-Greatest—and on three major texts: The Corpus Hermeticum, The Emerald Tablet, and The Perfect Sermon.

Hermes Trismegistus was generally understood by the Church Fathers to have been a wise pagan priest who foresaw the coming of Christianity. Some considered him a contemporary of Moses, while more modern interpreters often consider him a composite figure of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, who thus preserves the pagan wisdom of ancient Greece and Egypt. The teachings of Hermeticism proved highly influential during the Renaissance and Reformation, and continue to form the core of many, if not most, esoteric philosophical and spiritual movements today.

As a philosophy, Hermeticism is monotheistic, referring to ultimate reality as God, the One, or the All. The Hermetic understanding of God, however, is largely deistic: God is completely transcendent and removed from the created world, aloft and aloof in the heavens. Hermeticists believe in a prisca theologia, a first or primal theology, which is true at all times and in all places, and was given by God to Man in the ancient past. This perennial philosophy forms the core of all religions worthy of the name.

Hermeticism affirms the existence of spirits, such as angels and elementals, as well as the human soul. The maxim of Hermetic belief is, “As above, so below,” meaning that what occurs on one level of reality—physical, emotional, or mental—occurs simultaneously on all other levels. Moreover, the human being, body, mind, and soul, is understood to be a microcosm of the universe, and the universe a macrocosm of the self. Thus, to study the cosmos is to study one’s own being, and vice versa.

Hermetic wisdom consists primarily of three parts: alchemy, astrology, and theurgy.

(1) Alchemy, the study of transformation—of what things are, and how they become other things—is often reduced to the transmutation of lead into gold, but alchemy was a broader and more spiritual art, studying physical and biological laws, whilst seeking the purification and immortality of the soul.

(2) Astrology, the study of numbers in both space and time, exemplifies the “as above, so below” maxim, in that contemplation of nature results in self-knowledge and inner wisdom. Later thinkers would distinguish between natural and judicial astrology: the former deals with environmental influences, the latter with fate.

(3) Theurgy involves communion with angelic spirits, pursuing the wisdom of higher intelligences that operate within deeper levels of reality. Theurgy’s darker twin sister, goetia, involves the summoning of demonic spirits for the same purpose.

Alchemy and astrology led quite directly to chemistry and astronomy, so that one can see clearly how Hermeticism influenced the Renaissance and early modern scientific inquiry. But theurgy and spiritualism played an equally influential role, giving the Enlightenment a spooky cast that contemporary historians find alternately fascinating and embarrassing.

In terms of morality, Hermeticism stresses that only God is truly Good, and thus all knowledge of goodness comes from God, while knowledge of evil stems from demons. Though God frowns upon a materialistic lifestyle, He takes pleasure in creativity and in people doing something positive with their lives—for indeed, God is a generative power. Refusal to build up or to sub-create leads to “sterility” of life. Some Hermetic texts suggest that multiple reincarnations might be necessary for the soul’s ascent to God.

In Hermetic cosmogony, God creates by a free act of will: first prime matter; then the four elements, earth, wind, fire, and water; and the seven heavens of the classical planets, which govern destiny. The Word, or Logos, sprang forth from the elements, and Nous, or Reason, caused the heavens to start spinning.

While Nature fell in love with the All (looking up), Man fell in love with Nature (looking down at his own reflection), thus losing the Word and becoming a “double,” mortal in body yet immortal in spirit, possessing authority over Nature yet subject to destiny.

In other versions of the Hermetic creation story, the All created gods to rule over the spheres of creation, and Man (here given a spiritual and celestial origin) was punished for pride—a desire to be as the gods—by being imprisoned in physical bodies. Those whose actions prove worthy of their divine origins will eventually ascend back to God, while those who remain “sterile” shall continue through cycles of reincarnation.

As one can gather, Hermeticism stems from a time when science, philosophy, and religion were not compartmentalized, as they are today. Many Christians throughout history have embraced Hermetic teachings. And while modern institutions of higher learning no longer offer the writings of Hermes Trismegistus as anything other than a curiosity, nevertheless some esoteric organizations continue to include Hermeticism as an integral part of the rightful inheritance of every well-educated Western mind.