The Hermetic Tradition

The Hermetic Tradition is over two thousand years old. It is a living pagan tradition with some unbroken links to the past. Its ideas and practices have influenced most western pagan and occult movements. These include Practical Cabbala, the Grimoires, Enochian Magic, Freemasonry, The Golden Dawn system, Thelema, Wicca and others. Its practitioners work primarily with the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or Judeo Christian Deities. Yet other traditions such as the Norse, Celtic or Hindu have also been included in its scope.

The roots of the Hermetic Tradition go back deep into the pagan past of mankind. In it can be found elements of shamanistic and folk practices as well as cross fertilisations from Babylonian or Chaldean religion. The tradition as a whole came together in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, in particular in the cosmopolitan Hellenistic City of Alexandria. There, a unique mixture of Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Jewish Cultures produced the blending of ideas that would become Hermeticism.

The pagans of Alexandria and Roman Egypt lived in a country where several pantheons of gods and goddesses competed equally for attention. A system was needed through which different gods and goddesses could be compared and honoured. Hermeticism provided this. Within a single system Greek, Egyptian, Roman and even Judeo Christian deities could be honoured, evoked and used, as could the mythical parts of their star lore, philosophy and science.

Out of that blending together came four related traditions, all of which together form the Hermetic Tradition. Astrology studies the stars and their mythology. It can be used both for prediction and as an aid to ritual working. Alchemy studies the Earth and the human body and builds an elaborate symbolism and mythology around them. It can be used practically (in what has now become chemistry), or spiritually for self-development. Stoicheia now known as Cabbala studies things in their most basic forms. Letters, sounds, spiritual states god forms etc. Cabbala is used as an aid to meditation and for practical ritual work. Finally Mageia or magic is a technology of mind used to produce inner change in the mind of magician and (possibly) the world around him or her.

The key idea that distinguishes the Hermetic Tradition is the idea of correspondence. This might be the correspondence of an Egyptian God with its Greek Counterpart. Or it might be the correspondence of a deity with particular colours, incenses, precious stones days of the week etc. The potential application of correspondence to both meditative and operative methods of occultism is very great. There is a large literature dealing with this side of the tradition alone. It is true to say that correspondence is the mainstay of western paganism and occultism, having applications as diverse as crystal healing or demonology, incense making or pathworking. Its influence is immense.

A second influential idea used in Hermeticism is that of the quest for self-improvement or self-perfection. The idea has been expressed in various ways. In alchemy it is the quest for the mythical Philosophers Stone, that turns base matter into gold, and makes the alchemist immortal. In Cabbala it is the quest to have "Knowledge and conversation of a Holy Guardian Angel". In magic it is the quest to become a Magus, a superhuman and godlike magician capable of doing anything he or she wills.

Other influential ideas include the speaking of special words of power (the so called Barbarous names of Evocation). They are the "magic words" of popular magic and pantomime. Hermeticism also developed and formalised the method of preparing magical amulets or talismans for self-protection and self-confidence.

These concepts will be familiar to practitioners of western paganism and occultism. Later times took Hermetic methods and adapted them to whatever work was at hand. It could be the evocation of angels or demons in Judeo-Christian magic or it could be the scheme of ethical self-improvement espoused by the Golden Dawn. It could be the sexual magic used by Crowley and Thelema, or it could be the earth centred spirituality of Wicca and Paganism. Even the astrology columns of the newspapers derive from a method of working first formalised in Roman Egypt. The tradition was adaptable enough to assist all of them.

The Hermetic current was also the carrier of another survival from the ancient world, that of staged initiation and the "Mysteries". In the ancient world as now it was possible to study spiritual development and practical magic under a teacher. These courses of study were called the Mysteries. They tended to be associated with a particular place. With no available postal or telecommunications systems, one usually had to go to a particular place and reside there in order to study. Mysteries were to be found all around the Pagan Mediterranean World.

Most of these mysteries were closed down around 400 C.E. when Christianity achieved dominance within the Roman World. However some of them survived in part within the Hermetic Tradition (there were also survivals of female mysteries within the practice of Witchcraft). Early modern groups Hermetic derived groups such as Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and the Golden Dawn conduct initiation and training in a way that would have been familiar to an initiate in the ancient world. The idea of ascent through various stages of knowledge and responsibility under conditions of ritual secrecy was passed down to the modern Western World through Hermeticism.

The traditions described in this article can all be classed as Popular Hermeticism. There is a much more limited description of Hermeticism current in some circles. Hermeticism defined in this more limited way refers to "The Corpus Hermeticum", a collection of religious and philosophical texts, which survived in Byzantium and were then translated and promulgated in Renaissance Italy. Originally thought to be the "Book of Thoth", a ritual manual known to have existed in ancient Egypt, the texts are now thought to be the heavily edited remains of the liturgy of a native Egyptian mystery cult strongly influenced by Gnosticism and Christianity. In early modern England Hermeticism became associated exclusively with alchemy. Even today some will use the word Hermetic as a synonym for alchemy.

The Hermeticism we have now grew out of the best traditions of the ancient world. By entering this current we can ally ourselves with a tradition and a line of teachers that has been until very recently the main path of the Western Occult Tradition.

However, we now live in a world of change and ever-briefer attention spans. Many magicians want to divest themselves of any affiliation to the past. Their ideal is one of unrestricted freedom both of belief and action. Eclecticism and do-it-yourself are the order of the day. We have in some respects come full circle back to a situation similar to the tumultuous mixing of peoples and faiths that was Roman Egypt. Today's Cosmopolis is the infinite variety of cyberspace. Allying oneself with any one tradition, in a world awash with traditions, is a suspect move to many of today's magicians. It smacks of elitism and the academy.

To justify itself now the Hermetic tradition may have to go back to basics, to reconsider the Greek God Hermes after whom the whole tradition was named. Hermes is a complicated ambiguous figure. Male but with female attributes, the god of travel and communication, a trader but also a thief. Hermes is a keeper of the hidden knowledge who gives out that knowledge only sparingly. He is a psychopomp, a guide to the underworld, and the deep places of the psyche. He is at times masked, at times invisible. His emblem is the Phallic Herm around which curl the twin serpents of knowledge and experience. He speaks all tongues but is often silent or evasive. He is the Lord of Riches but goes about naked or in disguise.

In the present day occult culture where belief can be temporarily assumed and then put aside, the image of Hermes has much to recommend it. Hermes demands no pre-ordained code of ethics. Advances in communications are of the essence of his cult. His wand the caduceus is the essence of healing, and mystic sexuality. Above all he is adaptable. He flows into and out of any situation. He will not tell you how to feel, what to do, or where to go. But when you have decided your own path, Hermes the god of travellers will speed you on your way.