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I. HERMES MERCURIUS TRISMEGISTOS
Hermes Thrice-Blessed
The Developement Of Hermes Trismegistos
The Hermetic Texts and Scriptures
The Emerald Tablet
Virgin Of The World
The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus
The Essential Kybalion
HERMES THRICE-BLESSED,
or Roman Priests of Who?
by
Kenneth Allen Hite
©
When looking at the rules and supplements to Ars Magica, one
becomes aware of two great truths. The first is that the authors have
put together an incredibly good role playing game that captures
perfectly the feel of medieval magic, especially as seen through our
20th-century lenses. The second is that the authors have no idea who
"Hermes" is, in the context of medieval magic. They seem to think
that what is referred to as the "Hermetic tradition" descends from the
worship of the Greek god Hermes through the cult of his Roman
eidolon Mercury to the post-Roman survivals of knowledge in the
Middle Ages.
This is incorrect. The "Hermetic tradition" of Western magic, which is
one of the most powerful forces in the "underground stream" of
Western culture, has less to do with the Roman god Mercury than it
does with hermetic sealing.
The "Hermes" referred to is Hermes Trismesgistos "Hermes the
Thrice- Great", who was conflated with the Egyptian god Thoth.
When the Greeks came to Egypt, they were incredibly impressed by
the ancient wisdom of the Egyptian priests. So impressed, that they
immediately plastered their gods' names all over the older Egyptian
ones in the grand old syncretic Greek tradition. Hence Amon became
Zeus-Amon and Thoth, god of letters and sciences, became Thoth-
Hermes
(since Hermes invented the Greek alphabet, don't you know).
Here is where Game Truth and Historical Truth diverge. In Game
Truth (where diseases are caused by an imbalance of humors and the
sun goes around the Earth) Hermes Trismesgistos was a very
powerful ancient mage. He was _not_ a god. No reputable medieval
magus believed in polytheism -- most, like John Dee, were devout (if
goofy) Christians. In his writings, collectively called the Corpus
Hermeticorum, Hermes describes himself as "Philosopher, Priest, and
King". Hence, he was human. An incredibly powerful sorceror, to be
sure, but not a god. His exploits included building the Pyramids,
designing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, teaching Pythagoras, and
generally doing everything worth doing in antiquity. He also invented
the Egyptian alphabet and while doing that and building the odd
pyramid, became the inspiration for the legends of Thoth. After his
death (or occultation) he was worshipped as a god, much as Alexander
the Great was. Speaking of Alexander the Great, it was he who
discovered the Emerald Tablet (on which was written the whole
knowledge of magic in about two paragraphs -- apparently it wasn't
what he said, it was how he said it) clenched in the mummified hands
of Hermes Trismesgistos him self. Other legends say he discovered it
in the hands of the ancient magician Apollonius of Tyana, but since
Apollonius as born four hundred years after Alexander died, most
scholars doubt this theory. Still other legends say the Tablet was
discovered by Sarah, wife of Abraham, which would make Hermes
dead before he built the Hanging Gardens. Anyway, the knowledge on
the Tablet and in Hermes T's other writings (17 or so known books
plus commentary) was what was called "Hermetic Science".
In Real History, the whole thing was faked up about 200 AD by the
Gnostic community in Alexandria who were big with the alchemists
who lived around there and then.
Either way, the Corpus survived in Greek libraries and later in the
Arab world. It was, however, lost in the West except for the hints and
allusions that bled through from Arabic contacts. The
itinerant occultist adept al-Farabi (890?-954) is described as
"Hermetic", and it is likely that the alchemical writings of Geber (721-
766), Rhazes (850-924) and Avicenna (980-1036) draw on the
_Corpus_ to some extent. The Arab alchemistic writings began to
filter into Europe following the Papacy of Sylvester II (999-1003) and
were eventually disseminated such that the legend of Hermes
Trismesgistos achieved a certain degree of recognition. The actual
Corpus did not become available to the West until 1460, when the
documents salvaged from Constantinople surfaced in Florence. Their
translation in 1471, by Marsilio Ficino, set off the great explosion of
Renaissance magic personified by Dee, Trithemius, Agrippa, and
Paracelsus.
This then, in a nutshell, is the "Hermetic Tradition": either the Game
Truth (2500 BC Hermes T builds Pyramids, is Thoth, lives until c 550
BC when he finished off the Hanging Gardens, trained
Pythagoras, and died in a cave clutching his Emerald Tablet.
Discovered by Alexander, put in Library, alchemists study it,
knowledge lost with Fall of Rome, rediscovered in Dark Ages by
Vergil/Bonisagus/Aethelstan, spread by Order to this day) or the Real
Truth (200 AD Heretical alchemists work out consistent philosophy,
ascribe it to mythical figure to get credibility, knowledge survives in
alchemical tradition in Arab lands, stored in Byzantium, filters into
Europe c900-1250 AD from Spain, Crusades, Sicily, rediscovered in
1471, all hell breaks loose).
This is so much cooler that one wonders why anyone would drag
those stuffy old Roman priests into it at all. "Hermetic sealing" by the
way, comes from an alchemical practice named for Guess Who.
As above, so below.
Kenneth Hite, LHN
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HERMES
TRISMEGISTOS
By
Secretum Secretorum
©
Thoth was among the most diverse and popular of all the
Egyptian gods. Like many of his colleagues he was a composite,
even an accumulation, rather than a figure cast whole and
unambiguously defined. In particular, Thoth was regarded
even in the most primitive period as the moon-god; and from
this lunar association arose many of his most distinctive
functions. Just as the moon is illuminated by the sun, so Thoth
derived much of his authority from being secretary and
counselor to the solar divinity Re. The moon, 'ruler of the stars,
distinguishes seasons, months and years';[83] and so Thoth
became the lord and multiplier of time, and the regulator of
individual destines. Indeed, so important were the moon's
phases in determining the rhythms of Egyptian life, that Thoth
became regarded as the origin both of cosmic order and of
religious and civil institutions. He presided over almost every
aspect of the temple cults, law and the civil year, and in
particular over the sacred rituals, texts and formulas, and the
magic arts that were so closely related. To him, as divine scribe,
inventor of writing and lord of wisdom, the priesthood
attributed much of its sacred literature, including, for example,
parts of the Book of the Dead. Of occult powers latent in all
aspects of the cult of the gods, Thoth was the acknowledged
source. By extension he became regarded as the lord of
knowledge, language and all science-even as Understanding or
Reason personified. Esoteric wisdom was his special preserve,
and he was called 'the Mysterious,' 'the Unknown.' His magical
powers made of him a doctor too; and when the body finally
succumbed to mortality, it was Thoth who conducted the dead
person to the kingdom of the gods, and sat in judgment on his
soul. However, it was at Hermoupolis Magna, the main center
of his cult, that Thoth attained the pinnacle of his glory-indeed,
his distinctly Hermoupolitan character was recognized
throughout Egypt. Naturally enough his clergy were eager to
aggrandize their patron; and the obvious way to do so was
through the development of a distinct cosmogony,
Hermoupolis being widely regarded as the oldest place on
earth. So it was that Thoth acquired a leading role in the drama
of creation itself, as a demiurge who called things into being
merely by the sound of his voice. Besides the common near
Eastern idea that speech has creative power, we can surely
detect here the influence of Thoth the god of Magic.
Perhaps, though, it was to be his role as guide of souls and
judge of the dead that Thoth most owed his popularity with
ordinary people. He continued to inspire strong popular
devotion throughout the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.[84] His
was an inescapable presence; and it is easy to see why foreign
settlers in Egypt were tempted to try to establish some sort of
link with him. The second-century BCE Jewish romancer
Artapanus, for instance, wrote an account of the life of Moses in
which he assimilated his hero to 'Hermes' (i.e. Thoth), making
him responsible for introducing the Egyptians to ships,
machines, weapons, and philosophy; for dividing the country
up into nomes, each with its own divine patron; for inventing
the hieroglyphs; and for assigning lands of their own to the
priests. And the Greek settlers, also, identified Thoth with their
god Hermes. Like Thoth the classical Hermes was associated
with the moon, medicine and the realm of the dead.
Furthermore, both had a reputation for inventiveness and
trickery, and both functioned as messenger of the gods, which
in Hermes's case prepared him as well for his characteristic
function in the Hellenistic period, as the
logos
or 'word', the
interpreter of the divine will to humanity. This Hellenistic
Hermes-
logos
was a thoroughly cosmopolitan divinity: The
Lycaonians, who were sufficiently un-Hellenized to have
retained their native language, had no difficulty in recognizing
the apostle Paul as Hermes come down to earth, 'because he
was the chief speaker.'[85] The Stoics assigned Hermes a still
more central role in their theology, magnifying his function
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zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl audipoznan.keep.pl
I. HERMES MERCURIUS TRISMEGISTOS
Hermes Thrice-Blessed
The Developement Of Hermes Trismegistos
The Hermetic Texts and Scriptures
The Emerald Tablet
Virgin Of The World
The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus
The Essential Kybalion
HERMES THRICE-BLESSED,
or Roman Priests of Who?
by
Kenneth Allen Hite
©
When looking at the rules and supplements to Ars Magica, one
becomes aware of two great truths. The first is that the authors have
put together an incredibly good role playing game that captures
perfectly the feel of medieval magic, especially as seen through our
20th-century lenses. The second is that the authors have no idea who
"Hermes" is, in the context of medieval magic. They seem to think
that what is referred to as the "Hermetic tradition" descends from the
worship of the Greek god Hermes through the cult of his Roman
eidolon Mercury to the post-Roman survivals of knowledge in the
Middle Ages.
This is incorrect. The "Hermetic tradition" of Western magic, which is
one of the most powerful forces in the "underground stream" of
Western culture, has less to do with the Roman god Mercury than it
does with hermetic sealing.
The "Hermes" referred to is Hermes Trismesgistos "Hermes the
Thrice- Great", who was conflated with the Egyptian god Thoth.
When the Greeks came to Egypt, they were incredibly impressed by
the ancient wisdom of the Egyptian priests. So impressed, that they
immediately plastered their gods' names all over the older Egyptian
ones in the grand old syncretic Greek tradition. Hence Amon became
Zeus-Amon and Thoth, god of letters and sciences, became Thoth-
Hermes
(since Hermes invented the Greek alphabet, don't you know).
Here is where Game Truth and Historical Truth diverge. In Game
Truth (where diseases are caused by an imbalance of humors and the
sun goes around the Earth) Hermes Trismesgistos was a very
powerful ancient mage. He was _not_ a god. No reputable medieval
magus believed in polytheism -- most, like John Dee, were devout (if
goofy) Christians. In his writings, collectively called the Corpus
Hermeticorum, Hermes describes himself as "Philosopher, Priest, and
King". Hence, he was human. An incredibly powerful sorceror, to be
sure, but not a god. His exploits included building the Pyramids,
designing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, teaching Pythagoras, and
generally doing everything worth doing in antiquity. He also invented
the Egyptian alphabet and while doing that and building the odd
pyramid, became the inspiration for the legends of Thoth. After his
death (or occultation) he was worshipped as a god, much as Alexander
the Great was. Speaking of Alexander the Great, it was he who
discovered the Emerald Tablet (on which was written the whole
knowledge of magic in about two paragraphs -- apparently it wasn't
what he said, it was how he said it) clenched in the mummified hands
of Hermes Trismesgistos him self. Other legends say he discovered it
in the hands of the ancient magician Apollonius of Tyana, but since
Apollonius as born four hundred years after Alexander died, most
scholars doubt this theory. Still other legends say the Tablet was
discovered by Sarah, wife of Abraham, which would make Hermes
dead before he built the Hanging Gardens. Anyway, the knowledge on
the Tablet and in Hermes T's other writings (17 or so known books
plus commentary) was what was called "Hermetic Science".
In Real History, the whole thing was faked up about 200 AD by the
Gnostic community in Alexandria who were big with the alchemists
who lived around there and then.
Either way, the Corpus survived in Greek libraries and later in the
Arab world. It was, however, lost in the West except for the hints and
allusions that bled through from Arabic contacts. The
itinerant occultist adept al-Farabi (890?-954) is described as
"Hermetic", and it is likely that the alchemical writings of Geber (721-
766), Rhazes (850-924) and Avicenna (980-1036) draw on the
_Corpus_ to some extent. The Arab alchemistic writings began to
filter into Europe following the Papacy of Sylvester II (999-1003) and
were eventually disseminated such that the legend of Hermes
Trismesgistos achieved a certain degree of recognition. The actual
Corpus did not become available to the West until 1460, when the
documents salvaged from Constantinople surfaced in Florence. Their
translation in 1471, by Marsilio Ficino, set off the great explosion of
Renaissance magic personified by Dee, Trithemius, Agrippa, and
Paracelsus.
This then, in a nutshell, is the "Hermetic Tradition": either the Game
Truth (2500 BC Hermes T builds Pyramids, is Thoth, lives until c 550
BC when he finished off the Hanging Gardens, trained
Pythagoras, and died in a cave clutching his Emerald Tablet.
Discovered by Alexander, put in Library, alchemists study it,
knowledge lost with Fall of Rome, rediscovered in Dark Ages by
Vergil/Bonisagus/Aethelstan, spread by Order to this day) or the Real
Truth (200 AD Heretical alchemists work out consistent philosophy,
ascribe it to mythical figure to get credibility, knowledge survives in
alchemical tradition in Arab lands, stored in Byzantium, filters into
Europe c900-1250 AD from Spain, Crusades, Sicily, rediscovered in
1471, all hell breaks loose).
This is so much cooler that one wonders why anyone would drag
those stuffy old Roman priests into it at all. "Hermetic sealing" by the
way, comes from an alchemical practice named for Guess Who.
As above, so below.
Kenneth Hite, LHN
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HERMES
TRISMEGISTOS
By
Secretum Secretorum
©
Thoth was among the most diverse and popular of all the
Egyptian gods. Like many of his colleagues he was a composite,
even an accumulation, rather than a figure cast whole and
unambiguously defined. In particular, Thoth was regarded
even in the most primitive period as the moon-god; and from
this lunar association arose many of his most distinctive
functions. Just as the moon is illuminated by the sun, so Thoth
derived much of his authority from being secretary and
counselor to the solar divinity Re. The moon, 'ruler of the stars,
distinguishes seasons, months and years';[83] and so Thoth
became the lord and multiplier of time, and the regulator of
individual destines. Indeed, so important were the moon's
phases in determining the rhythms of Egyptian life, that Thoth
became regarded as the origin both of cosmic order and of
religious and civil institutions. He presided over almost every
aspect of the temple cults, law and the civil year, and in
particular over the sacred rituals, texts and formulas, and the
magic arts that were so closely related. To him, as divine scribe,
inventor of writing and lord of wisdom, the priesthood
attributed much of its sacred literature, including, for example,
parts of the Book of the Dead. Of occult powers latent in all
aspects of the cult of the gods, Thoth was the acknowledged
source. By extension he became regarded as the lord of
knowledge, language and all science-even as Understanding or
Reason personified. Esoteric wisdom was his special preserve,
and he was called 'the Mysterious,' 'the Unknown.' His magical
powers made of him a doctor too; and when the body finally
succumbed to mortality, it was Thoth who conducted the dead
person to the kingdom of the gods, and sat in judgment on his
soul. However, it was at Hermoupolis Magna, the main center
of his cult, that Thoth attained the pinnacle of his glory-indeed,
his distinctly Hermoupolitan character was recognized
throughout Egypt. Naturally enough his clergy were eager to
aggrandize their patron; and the obvious way to do so was
through the development of a distinct cosmogony,
Hermoupolis being widely regarded as the oldest place on
earth. So it was that Thoth acquired a leading role in the drama
of creation itself, as a demiurge who called things into being
merely by the sound of his voice. Besides the common near
Eastern idea that speech has creative power, we can surely
detect here the influence of Thoth the god of Magic.
Perhaps, though, it was to be his role as guide of souls and
judge of the dead that Thoth most owed his popularity with
ordinary people. He continued to inspire strong popular
devotion throughout the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.[84] His
was an inescapable presence; and it is easy to see why foreign
settlers in Egypt were tempted to try to establish some sort of
link with him. The second-century BCE Jewish romancer
Artapanus, for instance, wrote an account of the life of Moses in
which he assimilated his hero to 'Hermes' (i.e. Thoth), making
him responsible for introducing the Egyptians to ships,
machines, weapons, and philosophy; for dividing the country
up into nomes, each with its own divine patron; for inventing
the hieroglyphs; and for assigning lands of their own to the
priests. And the Greek settlers, also, identified Thoth with their
god Hermes. Like Thoth the classical Hermes was associated
with the moon, medicine and the realm of the dead.
Furthermore, both had a reputation for inventiveness and
trickery, and both functioned as messenger of the gods, which
in Hermes's case prepared him as well for his characteristic
function in the Hellenistic period, as the
logos
or 'word', the
interpreter of the divine will to humanity. This Hellenistic
Hermes-
logos
was a thoroughly cosmopolitan divinity: The
Lycaonians, who were sufficiently un-Hellenized to have
retained their native language, had no difficulty in recognizing
the apostle Paul as Hermes come down to earth, 'because he
was the chief speaker.'[85] The Stoics assigned Hermes a still
more central role in their theology, magnifying his function
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]