Who was Hermes Trismegistus?

Hermes Raphael Thoth Trismegistus , Greek god whose name means, Hermes the thrice
great, or he who possesses the gift of triple wisdom. Hermes is the founding father of the
Hermetic sciences and all its literature. The same is for the Greeks, the generator and
revealer of culture and writing; patron of merchants and thieves, of roads and walkers.

Hermes is recognized in different traditions under different names, always being the one
who reveals, the one who brings the teaching from the heavens. This is how Thoth is called
in Egypt, and Mercury by the Romans. The medieval Christian tradition venerates her as
the custodian and guide of all hermetists, that is, those who practice the sciences of
alchemy, magic, astrology and kabbalah.

It is represented as a symbol or mythological figure, whose name is like that of Buddha,

Jesus, Rama and other avatars; It was used to designate a representative of a divine caste
"like" God. It is said, on the other hand, that Hermes was a being capable of reliably
interpreting the word or message of the gods and, likewise, the one in charge of mediating
before the gods to offer testimony about the existence of divinity. Hermes in Greek means
interpreter . The word Trismegistus was added to Hermes - Tri: (three times) and Mega:
(great). Thus, his name means, three times wise, three times great. Other authors identify
him as a Teacher of Teachers. It is also said that Hermes is a kind of divinity, the great
initiator of the priestly classes in Egypt and, consequently, the repository of the initiatory
and occult traditions of that civilization. Hermes is compared to the supreme divinity, that
is, to God. Also, it is similar to the planet Mercury , which represents wisdom and
knowledge of everything that is secret.

1
Hermes was born in Egypt, surrounded by mystical knowledge from India , Persia and
Ethiopia. Within his people he is considered a king and priest, as a being chosen by the
gods. In the time of Hermes, Egypt became the great center of mystical wisdom and was
considered the mother of occultism.

Some authors point out that Hermes was a contemporary of Abraham and became the
teacher who instructed him and initiated him into the mysteries of the highest Priestly
Magic. The work of Hermes, whose legacy he obtained by divine inspiration, was a matter
of obligatory consultation for any aspirant to delve into the spiritual mysteries. The
evidence of having bequeathed his musical inventions is attributed to his training; the
preliminary exercises for the practice of Hata Yoga, principles of Arithmetic, treatises on
medicine , through the sacred art of alchemy; the art of handling metals ; the three-stringed
lyre; the ceremonies of worship to God; Astronomy studies; writing or engraving and many
other skills.

For magic, Hermes is a demigod, a being who participates in the human and the divine.
These beings are also called Heroes. Some have manifested spiritual qualities in life that
made them seem like angels or spirits, as in the case of the so-called divine Apollonius, by
Apollonius of Tyana. In the case of Hermes, magic believes that he is the manifestation of
the spirit of the planet Mercury, which revealed itself in various ways in all those places
where it has been recognized as the messenger of the gods.

HERMETISM IN HISTORY

The hermetic tradition is represented as a golden chain that links all hermetists from
different places and times. Raimundo Lulio, Albert the Great, who was also awarded the
authorship of the Emerald Tablet, Nicolá s Flamel, Pico de la Mirarla, Cornelio Agrippa,
Robert Fludd among others, are recognized as inspired masters and inspirers of
Hermeticism. Historical thought, which seeks to find and follow the traces of this tradition
in different peoples and cultures, finds itself with the shell, with the clothing, but not with
hermeticism itself. This happens in this way because their knowledge cannot be captured
in the same way as profane knowledge. To find the chasms of hermetic knowledge, it is
necessary to live up to this knowledge. At all times, divinity ensures that certain people
maintain this knowledge and preserve it, that is, the initiates and adepts.

Important schools and initiation circles have formed adepts, people initiated into
hermeticism, but also other people unrelated to these same circles who did not have these
initiations were and are part of this tradition that is hermeticism, as in the case of
2
iatrochemists, doctors dedicated to healing by alchemical means. A clear example is the
alchemist Van Helmont, teacher of many generations of later scholars.

HERMETIC KNOWLEDGE: Know yourself

Hermeticism is a set of knowledge that makes up a single knowledge, as if they were

branches of the same tree. If hermetic knowledge, hermetics is the tree, the branches are
alchemy, astrology, magic and kabbalah. Each of these branches is alive in a broader
context that is this revealed and revealing knowledge known as hermeticism.

Hermeticism is not just a school in the current sense of the term. It is not a doctrine either.
Hermeticism is an experimentation of arcana. The word arcane refers to teaching, mystery
and ark. Ark in the sense of a space for preserving the sacred. An arcana is a force. To know
an arcana it is necessary to live it, to come into contact with its light. An arcana is a force
that transforms and transmutes. And hermeticism is a school of arcana. It is not enough to
know in the school sense. You have to know in a tri-megistic way. You have to know, verify,
and embody what has been known and verified. It is for all this that hermeticism cannot
divulge, but must teach in an initiatory way. This is that a teacher, who with his experience
has achieved knowledge, initiates his disciples. There is no other way to learn if it is not
from someone who knows, because this knowledge is not intellectual, but rather vital. The
master transfers, grafts like a skilled and delicate gardener, light into the spirit of his
disciple. Light that he acquired from his teachers and that increased with his experience.

Hermetic knowledge is defined as an encounter between the superior and the

inferior, between the internal and the external, the objective and the subjective, and
especially, between faith and reason.

A hermetist, that person who is initiated into this knowledge, is someone who, being able to
believe, allows himself to think and who, being able to think, allows himself to believe. The
dichotomy between reason and faith is a confinement for the soul. This confinement, this
crossroads is resolved following a

method of hermeticism, neutralizing, unifying and harmonizing the two aspects that appear
as opposites in order to discover that in essence these opposites are complements of a
single reality. This is how Gnosis, true knowledge, also called enlightened reason, arises
from the union of reason and faith.

3
The methods and ways in which man aspires and achieves this enlightenment are
meditation or prayer, study and practice. For hermeticism, man is the measure of all things.
This is how by knowing yourself you know God and nature.

The knowledge of nature is not possible without the knowledge of God, of the divine, since
it is not possible to separate without breaking, without damaging, and nature, man and
God, are a unit that interacts. For this reason, Hermeticism proposes a mystical way of
understanding the world, mystical in the sense that it implies not removing the sacred
element inherent to reality. And this sacred sense of the world cannot be taken except
mystically.

SOME HERMETIC AXIOMS

These axioms or propositions are structured in such a way that man learns to know his
own nature and its behavior :
a. "To change your characteristic or mental state, change your vibration."
b. "To destroy an undesirable degree of vibration, put the principle of polarity into
operation and concentrate your attention on the opposite pole to that which you wish
to suppress. The undesirable is killed by changing the polarity."
c. "The mind, as well as metals and elements, can be transmuted from degree to degree,
from condition to condition, from pole to pole, from vibration to vibration."
d. "Rhythm can be neutralized through the art of polarization."
e. "Nothing escapes the principle of cause and effect, but there are many planes of
causation and one can use the laws of the higher plane to dominate those of the
lower."
f. "THE ALL is mind; the Universe
g. "Macrocosm and Microcosm, has no beginning or end."

When analyzing each of these propositions we realize that they have served as the
foundation for the development of new trends of spiritual thought in action . In fact,
practices aimed at personal and spiritual development, which is conceptualized in what has
been called the new era, have their basis in these teachings.

THE KYBALION

According to El Kybalió n, sacred book of mysteries "... Hermes was and is the Great Central
Sun of occultism. He is also called the God of Wisdom. The name Hermes has been used by
the occult sciences to mean everything that is not in the public domain, everything that is
4
sacred, private. In this sense, it can be said that the hermetic sciences, as their name
indicates, hide the secret and esoteric tradition of humanity. Therefore, we constantly find
that the word hermetic is used to name or identify everything that is "... closed to all those
who do not have the word, the formula to open it"

The fundamental basis of the secret doctrines of our days is based on the work attributed
to Hermes, part of which has been transmitted from generation to generation and compiled
under the name : The Kybalion. Some scholars of the subject point out that a large part of
the original information was lost and what remains has been rescued by oral tradition, as
we know it today.
Now, the teaching of El Kybalión assumes the basic principles of Hermetic alchemy and its
Universal Philosophy. Aldous Huxley, a contemporary author, has spoken to us about this
Philosophy, who calls it Perennial Philosophy. Now, the philosophical construction that El
Kybalión makes is based on seven basic principles, considered these as Universal Principles
of creation and are the following:
1.- MENTALISM
2.- CORRESPONDENCE
3.- VIBRATION
4.- POLARITY
5.- RHYTHM
6.- CAUSE AND EFFECT
7.- GENERATION

The Kybalió n, likewise, guides human endeavor towards the search for spirituality through
divine learning in the earthly, when he points out that:
“Wherever the Master's footprints are, there the ears of those who are ready to
receive his teachings open wide. When the ear is able to hear, then come the lips
that will fill them with wisdom."
Such an assertion is in line with popular wisdom that says that the teacher will appear
when the disciple is ready or receptive to receiving the teachings.