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Hermetism and Hermeticism: An Introduction: Staff of The Rosicrucian Digest
Hermetism and Hermeticism: An Introduction: Staff of The Rosicrucian Digest
An Introduction
Staff of the Rosicrucian Digest
n this issue of the Rosicrucian Digest, When Alexander the Great conquered
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This discourse, expressed
in our ancestral language keeps
clear the meaning of its words.
The very quality of the speech
and the sound of Egyptian words
have in themselves the energy
of the objects they speak of. 7
Several of the articles in this issue tell the
story of how these Hermetic works made
their way from the ancient world, through
the Middle East, to the Roman Empires
capital of Constantinople, as well as through
the Islamic world, to the Italian Renaissance,
and finally to the modern day. To distinguish
these movements, the term Hermetism
usually refers to the practices of the Hermetic
Athanasius Kircher, Title Page of Ars Magna Lucis path in the ancient world before the
et Umbrae (1646). Hermes Trismegistus is the Renaissance, while Hermeticism refers to
source of the Light. From the collection of the Renaissance and modern Hermetic work.
Rosicrucian Research Library.
For most of this time, Hermes Trismegistus
and alchemical treatises began to emerge as
was accepted by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim
well. As Garth Fowden has demonstrated
scholars as an ancient prophet, and the writings
in his seminal work The Egyptian Hermes,
attributed to him were afforded considerable
these two genres formed part of a consistent
respect. Then the Swiss Classicist Isaac
Hermetic progression from below to above.4
Casaubon(15591614) demonstrated that the
Each Egyptian Temple has its language of the Corpus Hermeticum had to have
accompanying Per AnkhHouse of Life come from the secondthird centuries ce. For
where the Mysteries were handed from many, this appeared to sever the connection
initiates to candidates. These had been united with ancient Egypt.
in the Eighteenth Dynasty during the reign Nevertheless, as we will see, the Hermetic
of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III under the Tradition continued to inspire mystics, and
Vizier Hapuseneb, an event recognized by indeed, modern scholarship has returned to
Rosicrucians as pivotal to the transmission
of the Primordial Tradition which manifests
today in AMORC.5
Ancient sources believed that the
Hermetic materials were a Hellenized
manifestation of the traditions taught in
the Houses of Life. Clement of Alexandria
(ca.150215 ce) reports seeing a procession
of the forty-two books of Hermes in the
first decade of the third century ce.6
Stele of Iry and Meru (First Intermediate Period, ca.
Indeed, the Corpus Hermeticum itself 21922066 bce). For Ancient Egyptians, writing
alludes to the Egyptian origins of its or pronouncing the name of something in Egyptian
brought that reality into manifestation such as in this
materials, even in a text that has come down family stele. From the collection of the Rosicrucian
to us in Greek: Egyptian Museum.
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the affirmation that the Hermetic Tradition For the Deity says, Let those who
is indeed a reflection of the Primordial are mindful recognize themselves. All
Tradition in Egypt, filtered through the people have mind, do they not?
Hellenistic and Coptic cultures.8 I myself, the mind, am present
Let us then proceed on the path of Hermes, to the blessed and good and pure and
following the advice of the Corpus Hermeticum: mercifulto the reverentand my
But tell me again, I asked, how presence becomes a help; they quickly
shall I advance to life, O my mind? recognize everything.9
Endnotes
1 Asclepius 24:1. Adapted from G. R. S. Mead, Thrice materials in the Hermetica: Brian P. Copenhaver, ed.
Greatest Hermes (London: Theosophical Publishing Hermetica, xlvlix; E. Daumas, Le fonds gyptien de
Society, 1906), 2:351. www.sacred-texts.com/gno/th2/ lhermtisme, in Gnosticisme et monde hellnistique,
th245.htm ed. J. Ries (Louvain-la-Neuve, France: 1982), 123;
2 E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians P. Derchain, Lauthenticit de linspiration gyptienne
(London: Methuen and Co., 1904), 400415. dans le Corpus Hermeticum, in Revue de lhistoire
3 Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes (Princeton: des religions 61 (1962): 17598; E. Iversen, Egyptian
Princeton University Press, 1986), 2627, 162, 216217. and Hermetic Doctrine (Copenhagen: Museum
4 See the discussion throughout Fowden, The Egyptian Tusculanum Press), 1984; Peter Kingsley, Poimandres:
The Etymology of the Name and the Origins of the
Hermes.
5
Hermetica, in Journal of the Warburg and Courtaud
Steven Armstrong, Hidden Harmonies: Institute 56 (1993): 325; J.-P. Mah, Herms en haute-
Rediscovering the Egyptian Foundations of the Egypte (Qubec: Presses de lUniversit Laval, 197882);
Rosicrucian Path, Rosicrucian Digest 85 No. 1:4750 B. H. Stricker, De Brief van Aristeas (Amsterdam: Noord-
6 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata (Miscellanies), 6:4:35
Hollandsche Uitg. Mij.,1956). See also R. Jasnow and
37. www.sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020394.htm. Karl-Th. Zausich, A Book of Thoth? (paper given
7 Definitions of Asclepius to King Ammon (Corpus at the 7th International Congress of Egyptologists,
Hermeticum 16), 1. Adapted from Brian P. Copenhaver, Cambridge, 39 September 1995); Sir William Flinders
ed. and trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Petrie, Historical References in the Hermetic writings,
Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English in Transactions of the Third International Congress of the
Translation, with Notes and Introduction (Cambridge: History of Religions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908),
Cambridge University Press, 1995), 58. 1:196225, and Personal Religion in Egypt before
8 Jeremy Naydler in Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Christianity (New York: Harpers, 1909), 8591.
Texts (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2005), 363n9 9 Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum 1), 2122.
Rosicrucian
Digest provides several examples of modern scholarship Adapted from Brian P. Copenhaver, ed. and trans.,
No. 1 supporting the genuine Egyptian origins of the Hermetica, 5.
2011
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