Hermeticism

Hermeticism (also hermetism) is the modern name for an ancient religious-philosophical doctrine of revelation that had a strong after-effect, especially during the Renaissance. The name refers to the mythical figure of Hermes Trismegistos (ancient Greek Ἑρμῆς Τρισμέγιστος Hermḗs Trismégistos), the "threefold greatest Hermes", who was considered the giver of knowledge. This is a syncretic conflation, originating in Egyptian Hellenism, of the Greek god Hermes with Thoth, who is the god of wisdom and science in Egyptian mythology and religion. However, in some texts Hermes does not appear as the author of the revelation, but as its human recipient and herald.

In the Roman Imperial period, the doctrine gained considerable influence. The content of many different writings was traced back to communications of Hermes Trismegistos. They are summarized in research under the name "Hermetica". This heterogeneous literature falls into two groups: Next to theoretically oriented works that convey religious and philosophical doctrinal material, there are practice-oriented writings with the claim to provide the reader with usable knowledge about nature. The religious-philosophical Hermeticism gives explanations for the origin and nature of the world and gives instructions for the attainment of wisdom and the purification and redemption of the soul. Technical" Hermeticism aims at mastering life and nature through occult knowledge and magic. Their writings describe a variety of magical, astrological, and alchemical ideas.

In the early Renaissance, the previously lost Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of ancient Hermetic revelatory writings, was discovered. Marsilio Ficino translated it from Greek into Latin. The impact was powerful and lasting, for many Renaissance humanists believed Hermes Trismegistos to be a herald of time-honored wisdom teachings from the time of the Old Testament prophets. It was believed that his teachings were compatible with, and could even provide support for, the Christian faith. However, humanist worship of Hermes was deprived of its foundation when Isaac Casaubon proved in 1614 that the supposedly ancient corpus was of imperial origin. Nevertheless, the Hermetic revelations continued to fascinate in occult and esoteric circles.

Modern research asks about the origin of the ideas and deals with the embedding of Hermeticism in the overall context of imperial cultural history. The ancient Egyptian roots and the references to Platonism are emphasized. An often discussed topic is the relationship between the world interpretation of religious-philosophical revelations and the occult techniques of "popular" Hermeticism. At issue is the connection between the two main elements of Hermeticism: the wisdom-seeking of an educated elite and the interest of broader classes in tangible magical means of power. It has been shown that a clean separation between philosophical and technical hermeticism is impossible and unhistorical; rather, there are weighty overlaps.

Hermes Trismegistos as mythical originator and his admirers

The special reputation of the Hermetic writings was based on the belief that they were testimonies to ancient knowledge, proclaimed by Hermes Trismegistos, a god or divinely inspired man of primeval times. The god Thoth was considered omniscient in Egypt; the most important inventions, especially the art of writing and arithmetic, were attributed to him. Already in the age of Hellenism Thot was equated with Hermes. In the Egyptianlanguage he was praised as great three times; the repetition expressed an elative ("very great in every respect"), and by translation into Greek his honorific name Trismegistos ("the thrice greatest" or "the thrice greatest") arose. According to the prevailing research opinion, this name is only attested at the turn of the 1st and 2nd century; the first mention is found in Philon of Byblos, whose account, however, is only indirectly handed down. A presumed record in hieroglyphic writing from the time around 200 BC is disputed.

According to a widespread research opinion, Hermeticism was an exclusively or predominantly literary phenomenon. Whether there were organized communities of practicing followers and a cult is disputed. Some scholars see no convincing evidence for the existence of a cult community; rather, they say, there is strong evidence for a purely literary character of the writings. Others believe that the Hermetics were at least partially organized and held meetings for readings, meditations, and rituals. Peter Kingsley assumes an intensive interaction of teachers and students.

Pseudo-Manethon, the unknown author of the Book of Sothis, which has survived only in fragments, distinguished between two figures named Hermes. The first was Thot; he had lived before the Flood and had recorded his knowledge in hieroglyphs on stelae. After the flood, the texts were translated into Greek, and the second Hermes, Trismegistos, translated them into books. The church father Augustine also knew this distinction. He attached importance to the statement that already the older Hermes (Latin Mercurius), the grandfather of Trismegistos, had lived after the time of Moses and that the Egyptian wisdom teaching was therefore younger than the biblical revelation.

One difference between the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian Hermes Trismegistos is that the Greek Hermes was often depicted pictorially, whereas no ancient images are known of Trismegistos, despite his popularity.

Argument pattern

Hermetic discourse is characterized by argumentation patterns, the structure of which Thomas Leinkauf has investigated. Leinkauf has identified four types of argumentation which, according to his findings, "clearly exhibit the rational structure of an analogical construction". He proposes the following generalizations for these types:

• (1) "A relates to B in X as A' relates to B' in Y." That is, a complete parallelism or correspondence is asserted between two self-contained entities. Such entities are the intelligible and the sensible world; the intelligible is the pattern of the sensible. From this follows the possibility of appropriate inferences concerning the nature of the elements of the two entities.
• (2) "A relates to B by m as C relates to D by m." Thus, if C is the unknown quantity (for example, God as the good par excellence), A becomes the inferential indicator of what is at least a determination in C. For example, the farmer by his sowing and planting relates to the grain or to a vine as God does to what he produces in heaven and on earth by the nature of his producing.
• (3) "A contains x in itself in relation to C as B contains y in itself in relation to C." For example, the medicinal plant A contains a force x which, according to its functional status, is in correspondence with the function which the injured organ y of man B, or the cause of the injury, occupies in relation to the human organism (C). The therapeutic effect of the plant is attributed to this.
• (4) "A implies B and B is nothing but the realization of this implication, so that the difference of A and B can be thought as the separation of a unity into its moments A and A' without the underlying unity being annulled." Thus every being is a more or less adequate unfolding of its own seed-like unity.