PATIENT
The Hermetic writings
ATTRIBUTED TO
Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes + Thoth)
ERA
1st–3rd century CE, Egypt
CORE
Corpus Hermeticum, 18 tractates
CHIEF COMPLAINT
What is the mind, what is God, and how does a person wake up?
HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS
Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, 'Thrice-Greatest Hermes', a fusion of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, these texts were treasured by Renaissance philosophers, alchemists and mystics as the oldest wisdom tradition on earth. Modern scholarship dates most to 1st–3rd century CE Egypt, where Greek philosophy met Egyptian sacred tradition. The Corpus Hermeticum is a set of dialogues between Hermes and his divine teacher Poimandres, his son Tat and Asclepius. The Asclepius survives in Latin. The Emerald Tablet survives through the Arabic and Islamic world, with an older oral tradition behind it.
REVIEW OF SYSTEMS
NOUS
Mind, the divine intelligence that is also a cosmic principle. God has given logos to all, but nous only to those who turn toward it.
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
The universe is a self-similar system. The Emerald Tablet compresses it into thirteen lines.
THE DESCENT AND RETURN
In Poimandres the soul descends through the seven planetary spheres and must shed what each imprints on the way back.
REBIRTH
The Secret Sermon on the Mountain (CH XIII) is about palingenesis, rebirth. Hermes says it cannot be taught, only experienced.
ALCHEMY
Understood on two levels at once: the literal transformation of metals and the transformation of the soul.
PHYSICAL EXAM — STYLE & STRUCTURE
- —Poimandres (CH I) is the foundational text: a trance vision of creation, light descending into darkness.
- —CH VII is a short, urgent street-sermon: 'You are drunk.' The world is a river of forgetfulness.
- —The Lament of Hermes (in the Asclepius) is the most haunting passage: a prophecy that Egypt's gods will leave.
- —The Definitions are 49 short statements, possibly closer to the original oral tradition than the literary Corpus.
- —Hermeticism was never only theory. The texts include prayers, hymns and a practice of silence.
ASSESSMENT & PLAN
Start with Poimandres, then CH VII, CH XI and the Emerald Tablet. Read the Secret Sermon on the Mountain (CH XIII) last, and expect the text itself to say that reading is not the point. It is a non-denominational reference guide.