Category: Hermetica

What is hermetism, and who is hermes trismegistus?

In the last decade, scholars around the world have developed a new interest for the obscure and hidden tradition of hermetism, which has been resulting in a slow but steady recovering and translation of its ancient texts.

Hermetism is a tradition that seeks what i would say is “knowledge that can be considered true regardless of its context”. Its earliest literature that we know of dates around the year 200 c.E., and it was published in alexandria of egypt. It is presented as a syncretism of various philosophies, religions, arts and sciences, and has no definite shape if not that of a general movement around a perennial philosophy. As far as oral traditions go, it is often assumed to be much older, probably having its core in an older secret deviation of priests of the cult of thot during ancient egypt. About hermes trismegistus, they are the mythical herald of the movement, akin to the concept of both teacher and pen name for the movement’s thinkers. Historically, hermes is mainly depicted as a man, so we will go with that at least in this post of divulgation.

Hermetism is based on the idea of “See it for yourself”, and it works on the basis of self-convertion, because all adherents believe to be referencing to the same final truth all others are referencing, others being any kind of seeker of knowledge in their own. In short, it works if you believe in it, and you believe in it if it works. The very concept of equivalence of sciences in their fundamentality is also expected “To be seen for thyself” either/both in personal experience and/or in the generalization of one’s total knowledge. Thus, the doctrine is generally open to all others, in the measure that they don’t suppress the pursuit of knowledge. In the history of hermetism there are then no such things as stable institutions, or authorities, or school of thoughts in fight, if not for those secret societies that hermetists happen to form for their own safety and, of course, friendship.

Generally speaking, hermetism values personal freedom and human rights, and it’s actually quite radical in many aspects. Both in its core, and through the peculiarities of each author, in fact, hermetism has constantly included a variety of ideas that today still cover the entirety of gender theory (as far as saying that gender is a social construct to be abolished, in and out oneself), anti-authoritarianism, consociativism, the importance of all arts and sciences, an idea of mental health and its importance, and much more. To hermetists, this usually meant to be subject to harsh repression, pretty much for the same reasons they aren’t exactly welcomed in most of the world even today. This could also help explain why, in hermetic texts, it is generally hard to find an explicit political elaboration in the most general sense.

What is the politica hermetica?

The politica hermetica is what i call three, otherwise untitled, newly-found texts in latin attributed to hermes trismegistus, and that differ from most of the others in the aspect that they are somewhat explicit in their political connotation. The latin text was composed sometime around the early 800 c.E. In tuscany, near the city of poggibonsi, as a single unpublished manuscript now held in Rome, and is in turn an adaptation from the greek version, thought to be the original and, at least for now, lost.

All “Books” are just a few pages long, and we don’t know if any of them would be missing from the original. In brief, the script is an attempt to translate hermetism as a political discourse. It is in the form of a dialogue between a “Scientist” called nolanus and hermes themselves, representing a debate between what could be called “sciences” and “political hermetism”. Its structure is simple:

1. The first book is about hermes’ formal system, and is an attempt to fit the fundamental hermetic discourse into a nondualism between what substantially amounts to the platonic categories of ideas and matter. It includes themes typical of fundamental spiritualism and philosophy, and what now is related to mathematical sciences like physics and chemistry. Here is where hermes’ general point, shortly that of “Change is good”, is set, to which nolanus opposes the idea of certainty over uncertainty.
2. The second book is about humans taken both as individuals and as social animals, and hermes translates his system in themes that are typical of morals, ethics and social sciences. This is where “change” is mainly described at the human level, but at the end it is also included a final debate between sciences and hermetism in general.
3. The third book is akin to a “practical” hermetica, in which hermes describes the magic rituals that are to be enacted in accordance to the philosophy to achieve the ultimate goals of inner and social peace.

As it is an hermetic publication after all, the position of nolanus is not well elaborated, and the debate is evidently meant to favor hermes’ standpoint. Authors contemporary to its latin translation have mostly ignored the existence of these texts, except for two friends of the translator that mention them in some letters to eachother, immediately casting doubts on their opportunity and, quite frankly, their quality in general, not as translations but as hermetic works. As such, the politica hermetica was not commented further nor republished, and it was then obviously not integrated by the movement, so that its only translation was soon lost to times.

The latin physical copy, seen that it is not original and consists pretty much of three groups of ill-stiched pages of scribbles, joined together in a random old notebook (and given its irrelevancy to history i might add), is evidently of no particular value, not even as decoration, and is currently owned by a collectionist in rome. My cousin and I, being both hermetics enthusiasts, recently embarked in the quest of going to see it ourselves and, while we were not allowed to copy it nor take pictures of it, we were allowed to quickly sketch our translations. Hence, beside the aforementioned letters, there are currently at least two other texts about it that i know of: this one here, in english, and another one, that will be in georgian, being edited by my cousin herself and currently unpublished (come on girl!).

Why are you publishing it if its garbage?

While i agree on the “Poor quality” of the text, and its substantial historical aliency to hermetism and knowledge in general, i think that it is still an intriguing exercise for a couple of reasons. One is that, being some kind of political interpretation of hermetism, it offers a field of discussion that rarely has been explored in its specificy: in fact, many historical figures have been inspired by hermetism, and can be argued that a few of those did some kind of hermetic politics (giordano bruno being the most notable example in his clash with the catholic church, which at the time was indeed both a religious and a political authority), but there are virtually no commentaries in history that translate hermetism into political terms, except for one, lately, in the form of j. peterson’s sorry ramblings. Just to spite, i think i will provide a full commentary of the politica hermetica myself in the near future.

Anyway, while i understand that to the early medieval eye it may have looked quite superficial, other than badly written, i understood the text as more compatible with the shapes of the political discourse that has taken form in the political discourse since then. For this reason, and i am somewhat sorry for this, i took the liberty of stressing these analogies in the work of translation, so that this interpretation can be more obvious: if nothing else, since i like the text, i hope that this way of adapting it provides it a chance not to slip in the oblivion again. This is, of course, also part of the reason why i am using noblogs for its publishing, for which i thank the friends that make this possible.

Finally i would like to thank anyone for their interest in this kind of work. i think that, since i have a blog now, i will also use it to post other commentaries from time to time, so i would also like to invite anyone interested in the subjects of either politics, or what could be called “Political hermetism”, to reach out for a chat. :)