Hermeticism: The Ancient Wisdom of Hermes Trismegistus

The legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes Thrice Great) is the inspiration for the spiritual teachings known as Hermeticism. He is a syncretism (joining) of the Greek deity Hermes, the winged messenger of the Gods, and his Egyptian counterpart, the Ibis-headed moon god Thoth.
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The Way of Hermes involved altered states of consciousness in which practitioners went through a training regime that involved luminous visions, spiritual rebirth, cosmic consciousness, and union with the divine beauty of universal goodness and truth to attain the salvational knowledge known as gnosis.
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⌛ Timestamps
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0:00 Introduction
3:43 Renaissance of Hermeticism
9:33 Technical and Religio-philosophical Hermetica
11:38 Where to start?
15:53 Gnosis
18:36 Hermeticism and Gnosticism
21:40 Eusebeia
22:50 The Hermetic Universe: Ogdoad, Ennead, the One
25:20 The Three Worlds: God, Cosmos, Man
28:03 The Three Faculties: Logos, Gnosis, Nous
29:08 Corpus Hermeticum: Introduction
30:48 The Vision of Poimandres (Nous)
37:05 Corpus Hermeticum: Hermes and Tat
43:05 The Discourse on the Ogdoad and Ennead
46:22 Writing as Healing or Poison (Pharmakon)
48:24 The Illusion of Death
50:30 Man as a Divine Being
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🎶 Music used
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1. Desert City – Kevin MacLeod
2. Dreams Become Real – Kevin MacLeod
3. Promising Relationship – Kevin MacLeod
4. Smoother Move – Kevin MacLeod
5. Crystal Dream Mix Background Music – CO.AG Music
6. The Long Dark – Scott Buckley
7. Evening Fall Harp – Kevin MacLeod
8. I Walk With Ghost – Scott Buckley
9. Heartbreaking – Kevin MacLeod
10. Gregorian Chants – Kevin MacLeod
11. Extrapolation – Scott Buckley
📝 Sources
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- Copenhaver, B. P. (1995). Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English translation, with notes and introduction. Cambridge University Press.
- Hermes (Trismegistus), & Salaman, C. (2000). The way of Hermes: New translations of The Corpus - Hermeticum and the definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. Inner Traditions.
- Hanegraaff, W. (2008). Altered states of knowledge: The attainment of Gnōsis in the Hermetica. The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2(2), 128-163.
- Lachman, G. (2011). The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus: From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World. Floris Books.
- Hanegraaff, W. (2012). Esotericism and the academy: Rejected knowledge in Western culture. Cambridge University Press.
- Van den Broek, R., & Hanegraaff, W. J. (Eds.). (2013). Gnosis and hermeticism from antiquity to modern times. State University of New York Press.
- Salaman, C. (2013). Asclepius: the perfect discourse of Hermes Trismegistus. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Litwa, M. D., & Hermetica, II. (2018). The Excerpts of Stobaeus. Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and Introduction, Cambridge.
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#hermeticism #hermestrismegistus #thoth