"I wish to learn about the things that are, to understand their nature and to know God. How much I want to hear!" from [Discourse] of Hermes Trismegistus : Poimandres Hermeticism "The fifteen tractates of the Corpus Hermeticum, along with the Perfect Sermon or Asclepius, are the foundation documents of the Hermetic tradition. Written by unknown authors in Egypt sometime before the end of the third century C.E., they were part of a once substantial literature attributed to the mythic figure of Hermes Trismegistus, a Hellenistic fusion of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. This literature came out of the same religious and philosophical ferment that produced Neoplatonism, Christianity, and the diverse collection of teachings usually lumped together under the label "Gnosticism": a ferment which had its roots in the impact of Platonic thought on the older traditions of the Hellenized East. There are obvious connections and common themes linking each of these traditions, although each had its own answer to the major questions of the time." John Michael Greer : An Introduction to the Corpus Hermeticum "The Corpus Hermeticum landed like a well-aimed bomb amid the philosophical systems of late medieval Europe. Quotations from the Hermetic literature in the Church Fathers (who were never shy of leaning on pagan sources to prove a point) accepted a traditional chronology which dated "Hermes Trismegistus," as a historical figure, to the time of Moses. As a result, the Hermetic tractates' borrowings from Jewish scripture and Platonic philosophy were seen, in the Renaissance, as evidence that the Corpus Hermeticum had anticipated and influenced both. The Hermetic philosophy was seen as a primordial wisdom tradition, identified with the "Wisdom of the Egyptians" mentioned in Exodus and lauded in Platonic dialogues such as the Timaeus. It thus served as a useful club in the hands of intellectual rebels who sought to break the stranglehold of Aristotelian scholasticism on the universities at this time. It also provided one of the most important weapons to another major rebellion of the age - the attempt to reestablish magic as a socially acceptable spiritual path in the Christian West. Another body of literature attributed to Hermes Trismegistus was made up of astrological, alchemical and magical texts." John Michael Greer : An Introduction to the Corpus Hermeticum Hermes was given as the author of a series of treatises. It was from Egypt that the Hermetica emerged, evolved and became the form that we know them now. "Enter thou into my spirit and my thoughts my whole life long, for thou art I and I am thou; thy name I guard as a charm in my heart." and "I know thee Hermes, and thou knowest me: I am thou, and thou art I" from Greek Hermetic papyri : quoted in S. Angus : The Mystery Religions and Christianity Scholars such as Diodorus Siculus (from Sicily, writing in the 1st century BC) studied the Hermetic writings, and like many others, believed that all original knowledge had originated from Egypt. The Greek and Roman God's had been 'born' there. Egypt was the source of wisdom, and knowledge, and was considered a sacred land. Alexandria, until the destruction of its famous library was the melting pot of Hellenism, Hellenistic Jewish beliefs, Egyptian beliefs, and later on Christian philosophy. This was natural, with its library, in the Serapeum (dedicated to Serapis), containing a fabulous collection of ancient knowledge. "... are you ignorant, O Asclepius, that Egypt is the image of heaven? Moreover, it is the dwelling place of heaven and all the forces that are in heaven. If it is proper for us to speak the truth, our land is the temple of the world." from the Asclepius "There is no beginning to what you seek, and no end. There is no time and no place. No limit and no boundary. The knowledge that you seek is contained wholly within your love of the truth. The love that you seek is contained within the knowledge that will be revealed to you. In the beginning was the Demiurge. And this had cognisance of itself and its surroundings [environment] It knew itself and was content. But contentment never lasts. At last it began to feel a need to expand. To seek to see if there was More - that it did not Know. And to seek this Knowledge, it decided to Create. From this initial Creation all else follows. From this Act - the search began. And that search is out of love for all creation. And all creation is out of love for this seeking." (3.7.99) NB. the use of the word Demiurge puzzled me but in Hermetic and Gnostic writings it is used for the creator God, the demiourgos , 'one who works for the people', the 'workman' or 'craftsman'. Plato used this term in his Timaeus for the maker of the cosmos. The Demiurge came to be seen on Platonism as a second God, the Intellect ( nous ), the agent or logos of the Supreme God. in the Chaldean Oracles, there is the passage: " The Father brought everything to completion and handed it over to the second mind, whom you - all humankind - call the first. " " 'The elements of nature - whence have they arisen?' 'From the counsel of god which, having taken in the word and having seen the beautiful cosmos, imitated it, having become a cosmos through its own elements and its progeny of souls. The mind who is god, being androgyne and existing as life and light, by speaking gave birth to a second mind, a craftsman, who, as god of fire and spirit, crafted seven governors; they encompass the sensible world in circles, and their government is called fate.' " Modern scholars sometimes distinguish between two types of Hermetica, the philosophocal works, and the more occult orientated treatises. To some extent this is an artificial division, as others have put it, whether practical or theoretical, magical or philosophical, the corpus of works all came out of the same ' very complex Greco-Egyptian culture of Ptolemaic, Roman and early Christian times. ' Several of these occult works deal with astrology, often in specialised circumstances, such as the Brontologion , which analyses the significance of thunder heard in different months especially in relation to astrology; and the Peri seismon which did the same for earthquakes. The Iatromathematika is a collection of treatises on astrological medicine, such as the Book of Asclepius Called Myriogenesis which looks at the medical aspects of the theory of correspondance between the human microcosm, and universal macrocosm. The Holy Book of Hermes to Asclepius looks at plants from an astrological point of view, whilst the Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants and Images , looks at the some stars for their medical properties. Alchemical works appeared under the name of Hermes, some before the Christian era. A prologue from one of these works, the Kuranides , says that: "the god Hermes Trismegistus received this book from the angels as god's greatest gift and passed it on to all men fit to recieve secrets." The first of the six surviving Kuranides has 24 chapters, one for each letter of the Greek alphabet that begins the names of the plant, bird, fish, and stone treated in that chapter. It is likely that all these books can be traced back to Bolos Democritus of Mendes who dates back to some time after 200 BC. To the people's of this long period, there was no clear distinction between religion - as it regards the fate of the soul, and magic - as a practical, if lesser, art of achieving defined aims. Often they both talk of the recipient being inspired (inspiration = enpneumatosis ), literally being filled with pneuma or spirit (= Holy Spirit). "Salvation in the largest sense - the resolution of man's fate wherever it finds him - was a common concern of theoretical and technical Hermetica alike, though the latter texts generally advertised a quotidian deliverence from banal misfortunes of disease, poverty and social strife, while the former offered a grander view of salvation through knowledge of God, the other and the self." Brian P. Copenhaver : Hermetica In some of these excerpts, the soul's functions in light of its astral origins are described as well as how the embedded soul has been influenced by variations in its astrological and elementary mix. Others go on to talk of the intimate relationship between the breath (atmos ) and the soul - a very Eastern idea. At least one text indicates that this 'breath in soul' is necessary to achieve enlightenment. The Hermeticum literally burst again upon the western world when Cosimo de Medici had Marsilio Ficino make a Latin translation of a Greek text brought to Italy from Byzantium. Christian and Pagan symbolism became fused together, and in art in particular, classical symbolism was understood and incorporated at all levels of meaning. A picture by Pintoricchio in the Vatican for instance, shows the Goddess Isis sitting on a throne instructing both Hermes and Moses. Connections In the late 1940's a number of Gnostic texts were found in Chenoboskion, in Upper Egypt, which had been hidden away sixteen centuries earlier. There were 49 works in the library (with several repetitions). Included in this Gnostic library however are some Hermetic works. Jean Doresse suggests the: " intentional juxtaposition of Hermetic writings and Gnostic treatises shows that some interchange was then going on between the two schools of doctrine. Here ... is that syncretic movement which associated the Gnostic prophets not only to the Hermes of Cyllene, but also to the more learned Hermes of the Greek mystical treatises. " "The Trismegistus, then, came under the influence of the early Christian Gnostics, many of whom adopted large chunks of it in defense of their 'heresies'.