What Hermeticism is
Hermeticism is a body of religious and philosophical teaching based on writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, “Hermes the Thrice-Greatest.” The core texts were written in Greek, probably in Roman-era Egypt, and present a path of spiritual knowledge in which the student learns about God, the cosmos and their own mind.
Later writers used the word “Hermetic” more broadly, for anything inspired by this literature. That includes alchemy, astrology and ritual magic, which is why Hermeticism is a central strand in Western esotericism.
Who was Hermes Trismegistus?
Hermes Trismegistus is best understood as a legendary figure rather than a historical person. The name joins the Greek god Hermes, messenger and guide of souls, with the Egyptian god Thoth, associated with writing and wisdom. In antiquity and later, he was presented as an ancient Egyptian sage who wrote revealed teachings. Some Christian writers, including Lactantius and Augustine, discussed him; they treated him as a very old pagan author with partial insight into truth.
Modern scholars generally do not think the texts come from a single author or from remote antiquity. They are usually dated to roughly the first to third centuries CE.
The core texts
- The Corpus Hermeticum is a collection of Greek treatises, in which Hermes or other speakers instruct students. See what the Corpus Hermeticum is.
- The Asclepius is a dialogue that survives in a Latin translation. It includes passages on the divinity of the cosmos and on the making of ritual statues.
- Fragments preserved by the anthologist Stobaeus and a few texts found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt also belong to the philosophical Hermetica.
- Technical Hermetica are separate works on astrology, alchemy and magic that carry Hermes’s name. They are much less philosophical in tone.
- The Emerald Tablet is a short text, important to alchemists, that comes from the medieval Arabic tradition rather than from the Greek corpus; see what the Emerald Tablet says.
Main ideas
Hermetic writings vary, but several themes recur:
- One divine source. God is described as the origin of everything, often with language of Mind or Light.
- The cosmos as ordered and alive. The heavens and the earth are tied together, which later developed into the idea of correspondences.
- Humans as akin to the divine. In the Poimandres, the first treatise of the Corpus, humanity shares in the divine nature while also being bound to the body.
- Knowledge as rebirth. Understanding God is described as a transformation of the self, not just information.
Unlike many forms of Gnosticism, the main Hermetic texts generally present the cosmos as good, not as a flawed prison. Scholars still debate how closely the two are related; see Gnosticism and esotericism.
Renaissance revival and the question of dating
In 1460 a manuscript of the Greek Hermetic texts reached Florence. Marsilio Ficino, working for Cosimo de’ Medici, translated it into Latin in the 1460s, and the translation was later printed. Renaissance readers assumed the writings were extremely ancient, even older than Moses, and so gave them great authority.
In 1614 the scholar Isaac Casaubon argued from the Greek language and content that the texts were not that old. His conclusion is still the basis of modern dating. Later, the historian Frances Yates argued that Hermetic ideas had an outsized influence on Renaissance thought and the rise of science. Many scholars now consider her claims overstated, though her work revived interest in the subject.
Is the Kybalion actually Hermetic?
The Kybalion was published in 1908 under the pen name “Three Initiates,” and is often attributed to the writer William Walker Atkinson. It presents seven “Hermetic principles,” including Mind, Correspondence, Vibration and Polarity. It is a work of the early twentieth century, influenced by New Thought, and is not an ancient Hermetic text. The ancient Hermetica do not contain this list of principles. The line “as above, so below” comes from a later paraphrase of the Emerald Tablet.
So the answer is mixed. The Kybalion uses Hermetic names and some themes, and it has become popular in modern spirituality. A reader who wants the ancient tradition should go to the primary texts and scholarly translations.
Is Hermeticism occult?
It depends on what “occult” means. If it means hidden or secret, the answer is partly yes: the texts describe teachings passed to a student, and Hermetic ideas were drawn on by later occult movements. If it means magic and spirit-working, the philosophical Hermetica are mostly about knowledge of God, not magic, though the technical Hermetica do deal with astrology and related arts. Many scholars treat it as a religious and philosophical current within the broader field of esotericism, rather than as “the occult” in the popular sense.
Hermeticism’s later influence
Hermetic ideas, or ideas labeled Hermetic, appear in alchemy, in the Rosicrucian manifestos, and in the very name of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn’s blend with Kabbalah is the subject of the Hermetic Kabbalah.