Salvation in the Corpus Hermeticum

Hermes Trismegistos, “Thrice Greatest Hermes,” is the Greek name for the Egyptian God Thoth. He is accredited as a great writer, and many works associate him with the skills of astrology, alchemy, spells, and medicine. The basic Hermetic perspective on the cosmos and human beings was very similar to what is known as the “gnostic” view.  The Hermetic tradition saw the material world as corrupt and inferior.  Additionally, humanity contains within itself an element from a higher level of existence to which people should strive to return (Rives 167).  Thus, the idea of salvation for Hermetic worshipers was found in the ability to free their spirit from their material body.  This separation was accomplished through the acquirement of certain knowledge that is hidden within the human spirit.  If one learns the all-important fact that he is originally from life and life, he “shall advance to life once again” (Rives 179).

The dialogue between the divine Hermes and his student Tat in the Corpus Hermeticum elaborate in greater detail these points on the Hermetic conception of the human condition and salvation.  In addition to confirming the condemned state of the material world, Hermes reveals to Tat that those who are born from God are also themselves God. Knowledge is not taught, but remembered whenever God wills it (65). Thus, for Hermetic worshipers the knowledge necessary for salvation and detachment from the physical cannot be imparted to them from an outside source; it must be found within them because it already exists hidden and silent within them.  Hermes then instructs Tat to cleanse “himself from the torments of the material world which arise from the lack of reason” (67). There are twelve torments in total which Hermes addresses barriers towards salvation: Ignorance, sorrow, intemperance, lust, injustice, greed, deceit, envy, treachery, anger, recklessness, and malice. Each of these torments is overcome by ten powers of God that are imparted during the process of rebirth, with knowledge listed as the foremost power among the ten. After singing a hymn of thanks and praise for receiving the rebirth and salvation from the powers of God (70), Hermes gives Tat one final order.  “And now that you have learnt this from me, keep silence about this miracle and reveal it to no one the tradition of rebirth, lest we be called betrayers” (71). This condition of secrecy is peculiar in light of the early statement made by Hermes that knowledge cannot be taught, but rather is only recalled according to God’s will. If the salvific knowledge can’t be taught, then Tat’s words should carry no consequence. Nevertheless, those who have been reborn must exercise the utmost secrecy.

Out of the various models of religious esoterica the Rives outlines in his chapter, the Hermetic tradition most obviously falls under the allure of salvation. This is best captured by a quote from Hermes, where he instructs Tat that “the visible body born of nature is far different from that of spiritual birth. For the one can be dissolved and the other cannot; the one is mortal and the other immortal. Do you not know that you have become divine and that you are a son of the One?  So also am I” (68). The Hermetic tradition offers a means to not just merely continue on in the afterlife with a somewhat comfortable existence, as is the case with Isis worshipper Lucius (Rives 174).  Instead, those who acquire the saving knowledge become immortal spirits, who eventually become like god (Rives 179).  The Hermetic tradition seems to also fall under Rives model of religious intensification quite well.  The imparting of the ten powers of God is an extremely intimate exchange.  That the Corpus Hermeticum is in the format of a discussion also lends to prove how this tradition contained the advantage of an intense and personal religious experience.

The Hermetic Tradition

 The Hermetic tradition focuses in on the god Hermes Trismegistus. This gods name means Thrice Great Hermes and is the name that the Greeks gave to the Egyptian god Thoth. The tradition teaches that “the material world is corrupt and inferior, and that humanity contains within itself an element from a higher level of existence to which people should strive to return.”(Rives, pp. 167)I had a hard time finding specific aspects that the god possess, but I think that he is associated with this higher aspect of humanity. The Hermetic tradition teaches that salvation is possible through learning this true nature. The text Poimandres says, “life and light are god and father, from whom the man came to be; so if you learn that you are from light and life, and you happen to come from them, you shall advance to life once again”.(Rives, pp. 179)

In the Corpus Hermeticum XIII dialogue, Tat learns that the material world and the material body are illusions, something lesser than the true form. By knowing this truth the lower form can be escaped and the higher level can be entered into. Hermes makes it clear that this knowledge is a gift from the creator god and is already present in man, This kind of knowledge is not taught, O son, but through God it is remembered, whenever he wills.”(Corpus Hermeticum XIII.3) To achieve this Hermes tells Tat that he must retreat into himself and separate himself from the material world. “Make idle the senses of the body and the spirit will be born” (Corpus Hermeticum XIII.7). This enlightened state of mind is described as a sort unity or presence with all things. To have “Nous”, Hermes says is “to no longer picture oneself with regard to the three dimensional body” (Corpus Hermeticum XIII.13).

This text fits into Rives discussion of religious esoterica in Chapter 6 fairly neatly. The text offers a divine wisdom and interaction with the divine that Rives lays out on page 162. The Hermetic tradition offers a path to salvation that seems similar to me to the Gnostic tradition, a point that Rives also makes. To go a bit further, when removed from contextI don’t think it is too much of a stretch to say that some of the passages sound a bit Christian in general. The advantage of the dialogue genre has when discussing salvation is that the knowledge of salvation and how to attain it can be shown to come directly from the source. If this knowledge is shown in a text as coming right from a god or divinity then I think that would go a long way to making it more credible.