Hermetica and Modem Hermeticism

The Hermetica contain many elements that have been retained in modern Western Hermeticism a state of mind, a philosophical attitude, a permanent reference to a mythical scenario of faU and regeneration. 

The state of mind that is here under discussion is also characterized by an apparent contradiction between two different ways of 

These reflections on optimistic and pessimistic attitudes make it easier to understand the philosophical premises of the Hermetica and of modern Hermeticism. In these traditions there is no absolute dualism. For example, what is called moist nature in the Poimandies, is not presented as an ontological principle,- there is deprivation, but not a complete break. This applies equally well, in modem tradition, to Jacob Boehme and other theosophers. There could not be a real dualism, especially as the world below, so complex, is in homological and analogical touch with the worlds above, which are also extremely complex. In the treatise Nous to Hermes, Nous addresses Hermes in order to teach him how to 

Because the universe is a forest of symbols, it is natural to wish to examine closely all that it contains. Whereas Aristotelianism had a tendency to be interested in the general, the Hermetic showed an extremely pronounced taste for the particular, for the hidden 

Apart from popular Hermetism, as Festugiere used to say, represented by astrology and other occult sciences, there is erudite Hermetism, which is what principally interests us here, and which revolves entirely around the idea that Man can discover the divine, on one hand because of theurgic practices, and on the other hand through establishing a mystical relationship between the universe and humanity. One of the basic concepts of Hermetism (Hermetica as well as modern Hermeticism) is that one can regain his divine essence, lost since the Fall, by renewing his links with the divine 

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