Hermeticism, an Overview
Before I begin, I should mention that I’m not arguing for the validity of the Hermetic Sciences. I do think they have validity, but my apology for them will have to form a separate essay.
Going forward, take it as read that I am defining Hermeticism as merely a sincere endeavour that was and is pursuing science by means slightly different from the scientific method.
The Hermetic Sciences can be traced back fifty centuries. They began, not in Egypt, but in the Far East, from which they spread west, leaving scholars in every civilized outpost along the way pursuing the quest to understand nature.
The following is critical.
The Enlightenment, a mere four centuries ago, was a rediscovery of humanity’s ability to understand nature without recourse to received (religious) authority.
Hermeticism’s primary goal is a better understanding of nature. In other words, it is an example of scientific inquiry.
The second most important aspect of the Hermetic Sciences to understand is its nomenclature, especially its definition of the word ‘God.’
It is a mistake of the highest order to think of the Hermeticist’s God as being similar to, or having anything to do with the God of the Levantine religions (the religions of the Book – Judaism, Christianity, Islam).
The god of the Hermeticist is not a separate, self-aware, creator who gives laws and judges the world.
Rather, The Hermetic ‘God’ is Nature itself; the whole of it, substance and laws. The Hermetic Sciences are pantheistic in essence.
The Hermetic Scientist views nature as a living being, composed of the apparently separate parts that we perceive, but in reality a unity surpassing all others, because it encompasses literally everything.
Despite our sense of separateness, we are a part of this unity, which bears the Hermetic label ‘God.’
Science’s definition of ‘Nature’ is identical to the Hermeticist’s definition of ‘God’ minus the notion of the whole being a living thing.
In the following passage from the Æscpepius, this definition of ‘God’ should be kept in mind every time Hermes uses the words ‘God,’ ‘Lord,’ ‘Divine,’ &c.
