"Content is Atum, father of the gods.
Content are Shu and Tefnut.
Content are Geb and Nut.
Content are Osiris and [Isis].
Content are Seth and Neith.
Content are all the gods who are in the sky.
Content are all the gods who are on Earth, who are in the flat-lands.
Content are all the southern and northern gods.
Content are all the western and eastern gods.
Content are all the gods of the nomes.
Content are all the gods of the towns.

With this great and might word, which issued from the mouth of THOTH for Osiris, the Treasurer of Life, Seal-bearer of the gods, Anubis, who claims hearts, claims Osiris King Pepi ...

Hear O THOTH, in whom is the peace of the gods ...
Pyramid Texts, §§ 1521 - 1524 & 1465

Abstract

The religion of Ancient Egypt has been reconstructed by the Greeks (in the Hermetica), by the Abrahamic tradition (in their Scriptures) and by the Western Mystery Tradition (Hermeticism). But these reconstructions are flawed. The Hermetic teachings incorporate an un-Egyptian view on the mysteries (stressing the mind at the expense of the body). The protagonists of the revealed religions (Judaism, Christianity & Islam), as well as the initiators of Hermeticism, were unable to read the hieroglyphs, and if they did, only allegorical, explaining the obscure with more obscurity. Only the last two hundred years has a reliable historical reconstruction become available, offering a basic historical framework.

Not the Qabalah (Jewish or Christian), but the Ancient Egyptian Mystery Tradition (or Kemetism) is the backbone of the Western Tradition. To approach Kemetism today, ten Hermetic principles are isolated. Each is associated with a fundamental teaching found in Egyptian texts. This exercise is possible because the Hermetica are rooted in the native Egyptian religion, albeit Hellenized. The authors were Egyptians still able to read the "words of the gods". In this way, the Western Tradition may finally stretch its roots in perennial soil, first in Alexandrian thought and from there in the native Egyptian tradition, its natural ally.

Introduction

historical Hermetism : religio mentis

The influence of Ancient Egypt on Greek philosophy as well as the history of the rise of Hermetism have been discussed elsewhere.  These studies showed the presence of three fundamental phases :

1. native Hermopolitan theology : as early as the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 - 2198 BCE), the perennial worship of the native Egyptian Thoth, "the mightiest of the gods", was centered in Hermopolis ("Hermoupolis Magna"). Although the contents of this theology is only know from Ptolemaic sources, "Khnum Khemenu", "the Eight town" (also called "Per-Djehuty", the "house of Thoth") existed in the Vth Dynasty (ca. 2487 - 2348 BCE) and was associated with the Ogdoad or company of eight precreational gods (frog heads) & goddesses (serpent-headed). A few of them were mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, but the complete list is first mentioned in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE). These deities emerged from Nun (the primordial, undifferentiated ocean) and constituted the soul of Thoth. They may also be understood as further characterizations of this dark, unlimited pre-creational realm : Amun and Amaunet (hiddenness), Heh and Heket or Huh and Hauhet (eternity), Kek and Keket or Kuk and Kauket (darkness), Nun and Nunet or Nun and Naunet (primordial chaos). Hermopolitan theology will provide the framework for Ptolemaic Hermetism. Other textual traces of this worship are found in the Coffin Texts, the Book of the Dead and the Books of the Netherworld, whereas in the Late Period (ca. 664 - 30 BCE), its theology was written down on the walls of more than one Ptolemaic temple (ca. 332 - 30 BCE). Because Thoth was Lord of Time, he was associated with astrology, in particular when the astral science of Chaldea entered Egypt (at the end of the Third Intermediate Period, ca. 1075 - 664 BCE) ;

2. historical Hermetism : or the identification of Thoth, "Thrice Greatest", with Hermes Trismegistus, who, in his philosophical teachings, is Greek and human (although Egyptian elements persist), but who assumed, in the technical Hermetica, the cosmicity of the native Egyptian Thoth. The technical Hermetica are attested under the Ptolemies, and the existence, in the first century BCE, of an Alexandrian multi-cultural Hermetic Lodge is likely. The philosophical sources are the 17 treatises of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Latin Asclepius, the Armenian Hermetic Definitions and the Coptic Hermetica found at Nag Hammadi, in particular The Eighth and the Ninth Sphere (Codex VI.6), which all date from the first centuries CE. It is possible to see Hermetism as a "gnosticism" (for "gnosis", i.e. direct spiritual insight, is all-important). But Hermetic gnosticism is particular to imperial Alexandrian culture, for the notion of an evil demiurge (as in Christian Gnosticism) is not present. Constituted by Egyptian, Greek and Jewish elements, Hermetism will influence Judaism (the Merkabah mystics of the Jewish gnostics of Alexandria), Christianity (Clement of Alexandria, the Greek Fathers, the "Orientale Lumen") and the Islam (the Hermetic star worshippers of Harran and Sufism) ;

3. literary Hermeticism : Renaissance Hermeticism produced a fictional Trismegistus as the Godhead of its esoteric concept of the world as an organic whole, with an intimate sympathy between its material (natural) and spiritual (supernatural) components. This view was consistent with the humanistic phase of modernism, which was followed by a mechanization of the world and the "enlightenment" of the 18th century. These new forces ousted all formative & final causes from their physical inquiries, and reduced the four Aristotelian categories of determination (material, efficient, formal and final cause) to material & efficient causes only. Astrology, magic and alchemy were deemed scientifically backward & religiously suspect. "Actio-in-distans" was deemed impossible, and Paganism was Satanical. In 1666, Colbert evicts astrology from the Academy of Sciences (the court-astrologer Morin de Villefranche, 1583 - 1656, was concealed behind a curtain in the royal apartment at the time when the future Grand Monarque was born). In the nineteenth century, under the influence of the morbid but exotical fancies of the Romantics, Hermeticism became part of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Theosophy and generalized egyptomania (cf. Golden Dawn, Thelemism, Pyramidology, etc.). Today it returns as the ideological core of the expanding New Age religion.

Before the first, steady interactions between Greek & Egyptian culture emerged (ca. 670 BCE), the "Hermetic" particularities of Late New Kingdom henotheist theology were inscribed on the Shabaka Stone and elucidated in its Memphite theology. This XXVth Dynasty (ca. 716 - 702 BCE) stone copy of an important Ramesside papyrus scroll, contained thoughts which look remarkably like those developed in the contexts of the Platonic, Philonic and Christian "logos". More than a century ago, Breasted wrote regarding the Memphite theology :
 
"The above conception of the world forms quite a sufficient basis for suggesting that the later notions of nous and logos, hitherto supposed to have been introduced into Egypt from abroad at a much later date, were present at this early period. Thus the Greek tradition of the origin of their philosophy in Egypt undoubtedly contains more of the truth than has in recent years been conceded. (...) The habit, later so prevalent among the Greeks, of interpreting philosophically the function and relations of the Egyptian gods (...) had already begun in Egypt before the earliest Greek philosophers were born ..."
Breasted, 1901, p.54.

Indeed, the Greek words "nous" ("mind, thinking, perceiving") and "noés" ("perceive, observe, recognize, understand"), could be derived from the Egyptian "nu" ("nw"), "to see, look, perceive, observe" :

On the one hand, according to Stricker (1949), the Corpus Hermeticum is a codification of the Egyptian religion. Ptolemy I Soter (304 - 282 BCE) and his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus (282 - 246 BCE) promised to publish the secret literature of the three groups of citizens of Egypt : native Egyptians, Greeks and Jews. For him, Hermetism is the Greek version of a redaction of Egyptian literature. Its form is Greek, but its contents is Egyptian (the Septuagint being the equivalent Jewish redaction). On the other hand, father Festugière (1945) claims the CH contains extremely little Egyptian elements, except for the context, the ideas expressed being those of popular Greek thought, a mixture of Platonism, Aristotelism and Stoicism ... Both positions are avoided. Most agree the CH contains no Christian elements (the opposite is true - cf. the influence of Philonic thought in particular and Alexandrian philosophy in general on the apostle Paul - Quispel, 1992).

Let us conjecture the emergence, under the first three Ptolemies, of a Greek elitist version of the Egyptian religion, a Graeco-Egyptian religion, and this among the upper native classes (of priest, scribes, administrators & high-skilled workmen). This Graeco-Egyptian religion would be based in Alexandria and Memphis, and (at first) entail a strong emphasis on the native component. It emerged in the priestly scribal class and had its focus on Thoth, who created the world by means of his Divine words, in accord with the verbal tradition founding Egypt. For the Greeks, Thoth was "Hermes, Trismegistos", indicative of both his antiquity and greatness. Because of the important influence of the native intellectual milieu on the genesis of this Alexandro-Egyptian cultural form, "Graeco-Egyptian religion turns out to be based on a profound imbalance, in favour of the autochthonous, between its two constituent elements." (Fowden, 1986, p.19). Zandee (1992, p.161) mentions a Hermetical text going back to the third century BCE and for Petrie (1908) at least some passages of the Corpus Hermeticum had to refer to the Persian period ... This feature proves to be essential in a possible thematical reconstruction.

But, the Hellenization entailed by using the Greek language and participating in the syncretic Alexandrian intellectual climate (the Mouseion and Serapeion), should not be underestimated, and makes Stricker's proposals too unlikely. These native Egyptians must have been proud of their Hermopolitan & Memphite theologies (both verbal & scribal), but eventually accepted to incorporate uncompromisingly un-Egyptian elements in their Hermetism (like the popular Greek denial of the physical body, evasive mysteries and an elusive, vague description of the afterlife). The importance of the Netherworld is no longer felt.

Many other Greek themes are to be found in the Corpus Hermeticum, showing Festugière was not completely wrong. In a study of Zandee published in 1992, the Egyptian influence was confirmed, although besides the negative view on the body, he also identified the depreciation of the world, the celestial voyage of the soul (or mystical initiation - cf. Mahé, 1992) and reincarnation as Hermetic teachings not to be found in Ancient Egypt. To this list could be added the Hermetic variant of the Greek mysteries and magical techniques aimed to compel the will of the gods (impossible in Ancient Egypt). Indeed, the difference between Egyptian initiation and Greek mysteries is pertinent (the attitude of the worshipper as well as the responsiveness of the deities differ).

We may argue that the technical Hermetica are rooted in perennial Egyptian traditions like magic ("heka") and the "books of Thoth". It is probable that, at least insofar as medicine & magic were concerned, this indeed was the case ? The philosophical Hermetica also share certain features with the Egyptian wisdom-discourses or instruction genre.

Hermetism is not a "Sammelbecken" (heterogeneous doctrines), nor a single synthesis, but an autonomous mode of discourse, a "way of Hermes" (Iamblichus), more theological than philosophical (like Plotinus, who -compared to Plato- was more religious than political) and foremost (in number) "technical" : astrology, magic & alchemy. This Graeco-Egyptian religion was influenced by three major players : the Greeks, the native Egyptians and the Jews. It could define its own path precisely because of its roots in the Ancient Egyptian Mystery Tradition, to which most of its members adhered. In its mature stage, Hermetism manifested the religion of the mind ("religio mentis") of Mediterranean Antiquity. This Late Hellenistic Hermetism would survive and eventually fire the European Renaissance and humanism. But the "ad fontes" principle of the latter only returned to Late Hellenism. Antiquity would remain unavailable for several centuries. Not unlike Spinoza's "amor intellectualis Dei", philosophical Hermetism gave body to an intellectual love for the One, albeit in modo antiquo, and never without magic & alchemy. In the 17th century, this technical side was left behind by the European academia, whereas the philosophical Hermetica became part of Hermeticism and its various branches.

The "gnosis" of Hermetism (the secret it shared through initiation) was an ecstasy born out of cognitive activities, involving trance, contemplation, ritual, music and astrology. In Hermetism, astrology served as the bridge between the purely technical Hermetica -magic, medicine- and the theological & philosophical Hermetica. Astrology was concerned with the timing of events, both festive, initiatory or individual.

"It is certain that the Hermetics had no cult, with priests, sacrifices, processions and the like. But the texts suggest the existence of (small) Hermetic 'communities', conventicles, groups or lodges, in which individual experiences and insights were collectively celebrated with rituals, hymns and prayers."
Quispel, 1992/1994, p.15.

The Corpus Hermeticum and the Graeco-Egyptian religion of which it was the chief extant codification, was a spiritual way in its own right. Alexandrian Hermetism was a mixture of Greek thought with genuine Egyptian religious traditions. Scholars have pointed to the reverence for the creative word, the magical power of divine statues, the wisdom literature, the bi-sexual nature of god, the one and the many, the Sun as creator, the cosmos as an ordered whole and also noted Jewish components and imagery. In this paper, other important Egyptian themes will be put forward.

the core teachings of Hermetism

Hermetic ontology distinguished between three spheres of being : God, the world (of the Deities, minerals, plants & animals) and man. These were sympathetically interlinked (X.22-23), allowing us to glimpse His genius in these beauties (V.1-8), God is also conceived as the creator of All rather than Himself the All (i.e. pan-en-theism instead of pantheism), and immanentism is not exclusive. Hermetism tried to rise from "episteme" towards "gnosis", i.e. from knowledge about God to knowledge of Him ("cognoscere Deum / cognitia Dei"). God is best known and worshipped in the absolute purity of silence (as the Pythagoreans had claimed, and the Ancient Egyptians had stressed for millennia - cf. Hymns to Amun). Like Late Ramesside Amun-theology, Hermetism was henotheist, but in a rational mode of cognition : the One God was deemed essentially hidden (cf. the Nun) but manifest in "millions of appearances" and Deities (cf. Atum-Re and the Ennead).

Hermes tells Tat (XIII), that "the tent" or "tabernacle" of the Earthly body was formed by the circle of the Zodiac (XIII.12 & Ascl.35) and dominated by fate, who's decrees, according to the astrologers, were unbreakable. The seven planets represented the "perfect movements" of the Deities, the unalterable "will of the Gods" as expressed in predictable astral phenomena. Magicians tried to compel this will, while Hermetism did not try to resist fate, but irreversibly moved beyond it. The existence of the Deities was acknowledged (they belonged to the order of creation and were the object of sacrifices and processions and the celestial Powers ruling the astrological septet). Indeed, the Deities, Hermes and God were situated in the eighth, ninth and tenth sphere (Ogdoad, Ennead and Decad). The "eighth" involved purification, Self-knowledge and the direct "gnostic" experience of the "Nous" as "logos", whereas in the "ninth" man was deified by assuming God's attributes, as did the Godman Hermes, in particular His Universal Mind, the Divine Nous, Intellect or "soul of God" (XII.9). The "tenth" or Decad was God Himself for Himself.

In Ancient Egypt, man and the pantheon had never been directly in touch. Firstly, because the spirit of the deities remained for ever in the sky (the light of the stars), and secondly because gods only converse with gods. The only exception was Pharaoh, the mediator between mankind and the deities, for he himself was the son of the creator god Re and daily returned, by voice-offerings of truth & justice, the order of being back to its origin, hereby sustaining creation and sealing the unity of the "Two Lands", namely Egypt as "image of the world".

In Hermetism, man, the most glorious of God's creations, was animated by a Divine spark and was therefore -in the depth of his being- truly Divine (I.2, I.30 & XIII.14). In man, the divide between God and the world was bridged, and so to awaken him to his own Inner Being, was the goal of Hermetic initiation & ritual. Every man and woman is a Deity.

"Hermes : Do You not know that You have become of God, and son of the One, even as I have ?"
CH, Libellus XIII, 14.

Ignorance crippled man (VII), and this is overcome by helping him to understand his true, Divine nature, bringing him to know God and discovering his own Divinity (X.9). The crucial choice is therefore a choice between the "material" world (ruled by the seven Powers of fate) and the "spiritual" Perfect Man, between the corporeal/visible and the incorporeal/invisible. The attainment of Self-knowledge (exposure to the true Self) is described in terms of "rebirth" ("palingenesia" - XIII), viewed as a bursting into a new plane of existence, namely the "Ogdoadic nature", previously unsuspected and potential.

"I rejoice, my son, that You are like to bring forth fruit. Out of the Truth will spring up in You the immortal brood of virtue, for by the working of mind, You have come to know yourself and your Father."
CH, Libellus XIII, 22a.

Palingenesia liberates the soul and is a reversal of physical birth (which imprisoned the soul in the body). This spiritual birth leads (thanks to the presence of a spiritual master and an initiatory father/son-relationship) to the soul's perfection through the knowledge of God, a "baptism in intellect" (IV.3-4). In the process of purification and Self-knowledge, traditional rituals may have been used, but the higher mysteries (the Hermetic initiation proper) involved a "mental" or "spiritual" sacrifice (I.31), the offering of hymns of praise and thanksgiving. The ritual and the noetic were thus fully integrated.

Indeed, the "Nous", the Divine intellect or "soul of God", binds together the hierarchy of God, the world (of the Deities, minerals, plants & animals) and man. In particular, "Nous" is the way of the human soul to free itself from the snares of the flesh and be illuminated by the "light" of the "gnosis", for indeed, God is experienced as light. A "good Nous" will be able to repel the assaults of the world. The spiritual master becomes a personification of this Divine intellect. The master becomes one with the Divine Nous ("I am Mind") in the initiation of his disciple. In Hermetism, this "Nous" is personified by Hermes Trismegistus, the Universal Mind of the "highest Power" (situated on the Enneadic plane).

the Hermetic Divine triad

In Ancient Egyptian theology, divine triads were used to express the divine family-unit, usually composed out of Pharaoh (the son) and a divine couple (father & mother), legitimizing his rule as divine king. Pharaoh Akhenaten had introduced a monotheistic triad (exclusive and against all other deities) : Aten, Akhenaten and Nefertiti. In Heliopolis, the original triad was Atum, Shu and Tefnut, in Memphis, Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertem emerged, whereas Thebes worshipped Amun, Mut and Khonsu. The trinity naturally developed into three or one Ennead.

In Hermetic triad reads as :

1. God, the Unbegotten One, the essence of being, the Father of All - the "Decad" ;

2. Nous, the First Intellect, the Self-Begotten One, the Mind or Light of God - the "Ennead" ;

3. Logos, the "son" from "Nous", the Begotten One above the Seven Archons - the "Ogdoad".

The One Entity or God (the "Tenth") is known to Its creation as the One Mind or Hermes which contains the "noetic" root of every individual existing thing (cf. Plato, Spinoza). This Divine Mind (the attributes or names of the nameless God) allows all things to be sympathetic transformations (adaptations, modi) of God.

Hermetism is initiatory because it wants to elevate the soul to the level of its true Divine nature. Palingenesia is an ascension while alive. Rebirth implies more than just a confrontation with the Gods (as in Ancient Egypt), but a true interaction between Perfect Man and -thanks to the Presence of Mind- God. This interaction leads to a total emergence of the Divine spark in man and hence to his Deification (finally being completely his own Divine Self and thus himself "a God", a being permanently realizing the Enneadic nature (XIII.3,10 & 14). This highest state may be attained in the afterlife, although the Ogdoadic nature may be realized while alive on Earth.

"Man is a Divine being, not to be compared with the other Earthly beings, but with those who are called Gods, up in the heavens. Rather, if one must dare to speak the truth, man truly is established above even these Gods, or at least fully their equal. After all, none of the celestial Gods will leave the heavenly frontiers and descend to Earth ; yet man ascends even into heavens, and measured them, and knows their heights and depths, and everything else about them he learns with exactitude, and, supreme marvel, he even has no need to leave the Earth to establish himself upon high, so far does his power extend ! We must thus dare to say : Earthly man is a mortal God, the celestial God is an immortal Man. And so it is through these two, the world and man, that all things exist ; but they were all created by the One."
CH, Libellus X, 24-25.

The Hermetic triad can be traced back to Egyptian sources thus :

1. the one god alone, pre-existing before creation as the primordial ocean of Nun ;

2. the self-creative creator (in the form of Atum-Re), emerging out of the Nun (hatching out of his egg) as the origin of everything and the "father of the gods ;

3. the unique "son of god" or Pharaoh, who mediates between the realm of the deities (sky) and the realm of humans (Earth).

In this scheme, 10 ontological layers, strata or realms are posited : One supernatural Divine triad ("agennetos, autogennetos, gennetos") and Seven natural "powers of fate" or "archons". Hermetism is a gnosticism because it claims knowledge of God is possible. To know God one has to merge with Universal Mind, conveying a "special" light, causing a private and inner illumination or "gnosis". The purified soul is absorbed into God and realizes its own Divinity. Hermetism is a "way of immortality" (X.7). But as an Alexandro-Egyptian gnosticism, Hermetism did not introduce "evil" in the archons : God our Father is Good and His creation (including His Deities) is beautiful, the crucial moral choice is up to the individual.

"For from thee, the unbegotten one, the begotten one came into being. The birth of the self-begotten one is through thee, giving birth to all begotten things that exists."
Robinson, 1984, p.294.

The Hermetic Divine triad is modalistic and subordinates the hierarchy of being. God (10 : the Decad) is the first and ultimate level of existence, the One existing for Unity Alone (the Absolute in its Absoluteness). God (the incomprehensible, unrevealable  and unknowable Father) is unborn, the "Logos autogenes" and the "son of Nous" born. What this is can not be said (cf. apophasis : absolute silence, no tales). Hermes (9 : the Ennead) is Self-begotten (not created or generated by God) and is the "soul" of God, the mode of God's holding together His creation by Universal Mind (Nous) and Word (logos). The Begotten One (8 : the Ogdoad), again a level lower, has no power of Self-generation, and is part of the process of time and space (this "son" is the "world" or "logos" given by Hermes as master, teacher and father). This level of the Perfect(ed) Human beings is higher than the Deities (or at least equal to them).

The Seven Archons, ruling fate and subordinated to supernatural command, are beautiful and good (demons may exists, but there is no evil God). That evil exists at all is due to man's nature and his slavish prostrations before his physical passions & vices. Clouding his true nature, these evils cause ignorance and make man subject to the fatal blows of the blind planetary forces, measured by astrologers and manipulated by magicians. On their own, both astrologers and magi fail to reach the Hermetic goal of life : "gnosis" or an inner awakening in the light coming forth from God's Mind, i.e. an entrance in the supernatural strata of being (the Ogdoad, which borders the natural world, and the Ennead).

"{O my Father}, yesterday You promised me that You would bring my mind into the eighth and afterwards You would bring me into the ninth. You said that this is the order of the tradition."
Robinson, 1984, p.292.

Resisting fate binds one to fate. Only the Divine light of "gnosis" allows the soul to move beyond nature and abide in the supernatural. Here, fate has no hold, for the Gods never leave their heaven, and, as Paracelsus would claim centuries earlier : the wise command the stars !

literary Hermeticism and the Western Tradition : a few highlights

The earliest links made between Egyptian wisdom and Christianity appear in the writings of Clement of Alexandria (150 - 215), Origen of Alexandria (185 - 254) and Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430).

"As early as Origen's Contra Celsus (I, 28), we encounter the claim that it was in Egypt, and specifically as an adult laborer, that Jesus had learned all the magical arts which which he worked miracles and on which he based his divinity. The tradition also occurred in early rabbinic literature, but it was of course suppressed in official Christianity."
Hornung, 2001, pp.76-77.

Indeed, Morton (1978) writes :

"The rabbinic report that in Egypt Jesus was tattooed with magic spells does not appear in polemic material, but is cited as a known fact in discussion of a legal question by a rabbi who was probably born about the time of the crucifixion. The antiquity of the source, type of citation, connection with the report that he was in Egypt, and agreement with Egyptian magical practices are considerable arguments in its favor."
Morton, 1978, pp.150-151.

The link between Egyptian wisdom, under the guise of Hermetism, Christianity and Islam is also pertinent and often forgotten.

"The mystical powers of Hermes exerted themselves far beyond the Pagan world of Late Antiquity, transmuting medieval Christian and Islamic understanding of the relationship between rational knowledge and revelation."
Green, 1992, p.85.

This explains why, when Arab translations overflowed Europe, Hermetic concepts came along.

"The Sabaeans in Harran, who were without a sacred scripture under Islam, in order to count as a 'people of the Book', elevated the Corpus Hermeticum into such a holy book in the ninth century, thereby contributing to the continued existence of Hermetic texts among the Arab writers."
Hornung, 2001, pp.53.

The first elements of literary Hermeticism were probably introduced in Western Europe by the Knight Templars (an order initiated in 1118). This powerful organization would pass on "the light of the Orient" to Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. Both drew on the translations of the Corpus Hermeticum, available as early as 1471, but also on alchemy, centuries older.

"The first Latin texts on alchemy were translated from Arabic in the 12th century, and included the Septem tractatus Hermetis Sapientia Triplicis and the Liber de Compositione Alchemiae of Morienus. A leitmotif that occurs with respect of the Arabic and Latin alchemical texts is the discovery in an underground chamber or crypt of a stela made of marble, ebony or emerald, with mysterious writing or symbols on it."
Burnett, Ch (Ucko & Champion, 2003, p.94).

the Order of the Temple

Jerusalem fell to the curved swords of Islam in 638 AD. In 1095, Pope Urban II decided to incite the sovereigns of the West to recapture the city. He wanted to bring together the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) strains of Christianity, a scandalous divide caused by a fundamental dogmatic difference about the nature of the Holy Spirit (who, in the Eastern Church, does not proceed from the Son as in the Filioquist West). In 1099, the year Godefroy de Bouillon of Flanders conquered the city, the Pope died. It would be recaptured in 1244.

According to Templar tradition, the Order of the Knights Templar was founded by Huges de Payns, a 48 year old nobleman, and eight other Knights. They took their vows on the 12th of June 1118 at the Castle of Arginy in the County of Rhône. The nine Knights were devoted to Christ and pledged to ensure the safety of the pilgrims to Jerusalem and the protection of the Holy Sepulchre. The Grand Master was very successful and obtained gifts of land and property to start the order.

By 1129, the Templar Order was established in Europe. The battle standard of the Order, the Gonfalon Beauceant or Beauseant was a red eight-pointed cross, the "Croix patteé gueules", on a background of white and black squares. Their motto was : Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tua da gloriam. The seal of the Order was the design of two horsemen on the same horse, indicating the vow of poverty, the fraternity as well as the dual role of monk and warrior.

When Pope Honorius died in 1130, Bernard of St. Clairvaux supported the man who became Innocent II, to the great advantage of the Order, for eventually his Templars were subject to no authority save the Pope's. Their Order became a state within states and enjoyed considerable freedom, endowed with incredible wealth. The purity of these ideals were compromised by the politics of the Near East. Although the inner order retained the ideal, the outer structures failed.

This inner order had access to "heretical" knowledge. Hermetical doctrines taught them the universe was conditioned by the laws of sound, color, number, weight and measure. Impregnated with the "Orientale Lumen", studying the "sciences of the Moors", Jewish Qabalah & Muslim Sufism and helped by Arab translations, they were able to read unknown Greek & Latin authors and drink from the grand reservoir of Mediterranean and Hellenistic spirituality. Eventually, new technologies were learned. These were introduced in the West, fertilized Christian culture, transformed the architecture of churches & cathedrals and enlightened the intelligentsia of their time. Hence, the Templar Order helped prepare the European Renaissance ...

In 1312, during a Council held in Vienne, Pope Clement V, backed by the King of France (who had been refused by the Order) abolished the Order of the Knights Templar. After this, the Order lost central command, and various groups were created, like the Order of Montesa in Spain (1317), the Order of Christ in Portugal (1319) and the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in France (returning from Scotland). These "Frères Aînés de la Rose-Croix" (1317) drew up a new Templar Rule adopted by a college of 33 men, renewed and maintained by co-option.

Templars made links with troubadours, alchemists, qabalists and Muslims, in particular certain Muslim brotherhoods (the flowering of Sufism, the mysticism of Islam, was conterminous with the rise of the Knights Templar). It was one of the tasks of St. Bernard and his Templars, to bring Judaism, Christianity and Islam together, and in this intention they saw the work of the Paraclete. They also worked to allow the latter to manifest in this world again and strove for the "Return of the Christ in Solar Glory". This was accepted by both Judaism (the coming of the Messiah), Christianity (the "Parousia") and Islam (prophet Jesus, the "Word" of Allah, returning to judge the world). Templars are called to sacrifice the selfish aspect of their natures, so the spirit of Christ may manifest in them in victu.

the Zohar

Before the entry of the Hermetica on the European scene, Jewish gnosticism made its move. In the Sepher Zohar (Book of Splendor), the "classic" of Jewish mysticism, a commentary on the Torah is presented. Written in Aramaic, it was purported to be the teachings of the 2nd century Palestinian Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai. During the time of Roman persecution, so its legend relates, Rabbi Shimon hid in a cave for 13 years, studying the Torah with his son. During this time, he is said to have been inspired by God to write the Zohar ... Around the same time, the Corpus Hermeticum was codified.

In the 13th century, a Spanish Jew by the name of Moshe de Leon (according to Graetz "a base and despicable swindler") claimed to have discovered the text, and it was subsequently published and distributed throughout the Jewish world. This strategy of finding so-called "lost texts" would become a standard approach (only in the previous century would it make real science, cf. the Qumran scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library). The influence of the Zohar was considerable, also on members of the Western Tradition. Eventually, its basic scheme, the "Tree of Life", would be viewed as the backbone of Western spirituality ...

"... the level of abstraction reached by cabalistic thought was foreign to the Egyptian mindset. Nevertheless, in later esoterica, we constantly find a link between Egyptosophy and cabala, and the connection between Moses and Egyptian wisdom to be found in many Christian writers is also relevant to our theme."
Hornung, 2001, p.80.

Unfortunately for the literalists, historian Gershom Scholem made clear de Leon himself was the most likely author of the Zohar. He had forged its ancient origins. Among other things, but most importantly, Scholem noticed frequent errors in Aramaic grammar and its highly suspicious traces of Spanish words and sentence patterns ! There is no real mention of this book in any Jewish literature until the 13th century. Moreover, recent studies showed how early qabalah (cf. Sepher Bahir, Sepher Yetzirah) was influenced by the Greeks, in particular the mathematical mysticism of Pythagoras (the Sephiroth and the Greek Decad, numerology and Merkabah mysticism - Barry, 1999). It even contains elements of Egyptian thought, introducing precreation and describing it in identical negative terms as had the Egyptians (cf. Nun and "Ain Soph Aur").

"... it is sufficient to note that Hebrew Qabalist doctrines reached their pinnacle of importance in Judaism in Europe during the Middle Ages. Consequently they also had a huge influence on Western magical tradition, which drew heavily on Jewish esoteric lore, and as a source for the inner gnosis of orthodox Christian thought."
Barry, 1999, p.185.

In the best case scenario, Jewish mysticism cannot claim roots earlier than the Second Temple and in general the impact of Hellenism (Hermetism and Philonic thought) on Judaism has been largely underestimated by orthodox Jews. Rabbinical Judaism as a whole may well be the product of a Hellenistic interpretation of the available scriptural sources (by themselves posing considerable historical problems regarding authenticity).

"Of the large number of Hebrew sacred writings, the canon of books that were eventually selected for the Hebrew Bible, or 'Old Testament', as the Christians later called it, was only established after the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 CE, by surviving rabbis at Jamnia who were anxious to preserve their religion from the catastrophe of the failed Jewish revolt."
Barry, 1999, p.175.

the first translation of the Corpus Hermeticum

"The thirteenth century saw a renaissance of pyramids and sphinxes. (...) the first western representation of the pyramids appeared in San Marco in Venice, but they were believed to be the granaries of Joseph, and thus not part of an esoteric tradition."
Hornung, 2001, p.83.

In Florence, a new Platonic Academy had been founded in 1459. It tried to resume the traditions of the Athenian Academy closed by emperor Justinian in 529. Around 1460 CE, Brother Leonardo of Pistoia brought a Greek manuscript from Macedonia to Florence. Cosimo de' Medici was fascinated and asked his Plato expert Marsilio Ficino (1433 - 1499) to stop translating Plato in order to look into these texts. In 1463, even before finishing his Latin version of the works of Plato, he translated them, which took him only a few months. For Fincino, the CH contained a philosophy older than Plato's.

This Latin version of the Corpus Hermeticum was extremely influential, especially its first treatise, the Poimandres, circulating in many copies before it was published in Treviso in 1471 together with the other books as Liber de potestate et sapientia Dei (On the Power and Wisdom of God). Fincino also translated the On the Mysteries of the Egyptians by Iamblichus, and the latter's Opera omnia, published in Basel in 1561. The original Greek version of the CH was published in Paris in 1554.

Hermes Trismegistus
Giovanni di Stefano, 1488, Dom Siena

When the Renaissance finally flowered over Europe, Hermes Trismegistos was already the patron saint of occult knowledge, a mythical figure crowning literary Hermeticism.

"In 1612, G. Crosmann put the likenesses of the ten most famous naturalists, physicians, and alchemists in the bay window of the town pharmacy in the old Hanseatic city of Lemgo. Here, we find Dioscorides, Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates ; the sixth is the turbaned Hermes Trismegistos, and the tenth is Paraclesus - a beautiful example of how Hermes continued to be treated as a historical personage."
Hornung, 2001, p.91.

Freemasonry

In the records of the city of London, the term "freemason" appears as early as 1375. In those days, this referred to working masons permitted to freely travel the country at a time when the feudal system shackled most peasants closely to the land. They gathered in groups to work on large projects, moving from one finished castle or cathedral to the planning and building of the next. For mutual protection, education, and training, they bound themselves together into a local lodge - the building, put up at a construction site, where workmen could eat and rest. Eventually, a lodge came to signify a group of masons based in a particular locality. The premier Grand Lodge was formed in England in 1717, the official date of the organization of the various lodges and the start of Freemasonry proper.

Although the style of Masonic ritual suggest Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Templar, Rosicrucian and qabalistic origins, nothing less is true. A historical link cannot be established and given the fact that in those days no Mason was able to read Egyptian, no direct connection with Egyptian spirituality was available. Unmistakably, the Founding Fathers of Masonry incorporated Egyptian symbols in their various rituals and grades, as every one dollar bill makes clear. These archaisms prove the need of Freemasonry to root its teachings and practices in a nonexistent, fictional historical past in order to give itself, its rituals and precepts an air of antiquity. This is especially the case in the Romantic era, when exotic tastes became fashionable. With Freemasonry, egyptomania no longer served isolated individuals & groups, but fed the ruling classes, who were desperately trying to cope with the antagonisms and lack of humanity of emergent capitalism and the religious wars raging in Europe since the days of Luther (1483 - 1546). Freemasonry and its founding myth was deemed the alternative of the educated. The God of revelation was also the "Great Architect", and in every lodge a Bible or a Koran was present. This to show the "God of the philosophers" was not a priori in conflict with the God of revelation. But the Roman Church was antagonistic, as could be expected.

As a system of personal growth within a closed community of kindred spirits, Freemasonry survived to this day, divided between those who accept God and those who do not, between those who see symbols as instruments of growth and those who use them as gates to occult regions of the universe, etc. However, its basic humanistic outlook is warranted by the existence of atheist Masons, recruiting among politicians, academics, journalists, lawyers, judges, well-to-do artists and the captains of industry. Masonry has become (or has always been ?) conservative and opaque. Its non-transparant and non-democratic (military) features may run against non-strategic, open communication, which is the foundation of social-economical justice and equality. Sociologically, Freemasonry is more of an interest group than a spiritual organization, although some lay claim to precisely the opposite. As none of the original Egyptian teachings were available to its Founding Fathers, Masonry, in order to accommodate the new times ahead, is bound to be reformed.

the Rosicrucian Order

As a system of belief, Rosicrucianism came to the notice of the general public in the 17th century. In the two Rosicrucian Manifestoes, a mysterious personage called "Christian Rosenkreutz" is mentioned. But according to legend, the symbolism of the Rose and the Cross was first displayed in 11th century Spain. During a fierce battle against the Moors, an Aragonese Knight named Arista saw a cross of light in the sky with a rose on each of its arms. A monastery to commemorate his victory was erected and time later an Order of Chivalry with the emblem of these Roses and the Cross founding the monastery. The Rose and the Cross appeared in the banner of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse when he tried to defend the Cathars against the armies of Pope Innocent III. It was in the form of a cross, described as "de gueules à la croix et pommettée d'or" ("gueule" means "red", derived from the Arabic "gul", which means "rose"). The emblem of the Cross with the red Rose in the middle square became the emblem of the Rosicrucian movement and its many orders, lodges and societies.

In the Fama Fraternitatis (or Laudable Fraternity of the Rosy Cross), Christian Rosenkreutz is said to have journeyed to Damascus, Damcar, Egypt and Fez. He met those in possession of "secret teachings". He synthesized the best of these teachings and went to Spain. Finally, he returned to Germany and chose three men with whom he founded an order, meant to instruct its members in the knowledge he had obtained in the Middle East. So the typical founding myth goes. After the publication of the Manifestos, the Rosicrucians influenced the culture of Western Europe.

Rosicrucianism developed along two lines, on the one hand, the scientists, intellectuals and reformers in the social, political and philosophical fields (like Descartes and Boyle) and, on the other hand, those (like Fludd, Dee, Comenius and Ashmole) concerned with occultism and mysticism (cf. the distinction between philosophical and technical Hermetica). In France, Rosicrucianism had a revival climaxing in the early 19th and the first years of the 20th century. Especially Martinez de Pasqually (1727 - 1774), Louis-Claude de Saint Martin (1743 - 1803) and Papus (1865 - 1918) are noted.

the Golden Dawn

In 1865, and Englishman named Robert Wentforth Little founded an esoteric society, the Rosicrucian Society in Anglia. Membership was limited to Master Masons. When Little died in 1878, three men took over, a retired medical doctor, William Woodman (1828 - 1891), a coroner, Wynn Westcott (1848 - 1925) and Samuel Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers (1854 - 1918), who, as a young man, spent much of his time in the British Museum, working through piles of dusty manuscripts. He translated three Medieval magical texts : The Greater Key of King Solomon, The Kaballah Unveiled and The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.

In 1887, so the story goes, Westcott received from Reverend Woodward, an elderly parson and author on Freemasonry, a set of cipher manuscripts. He asked the clairvoyant and inspired Mathers to assist him (one legend says both men forged the document, in another Westcott found it on a bookstall in Farringdon Street, and in yet another the document was inherited).

Both men found the code of the cipher was contained in a work of Trithemius, the influential Steganographia extolled by John Dee (1527 - 1608), the Elizabethan scholar and astrologer of Queen Elisabeth I. It concerned "angel-magic" and Dee had secured a copy of it in Antwerp. They uncovered skeletons of rituals and Mathers expanded them. Together they started the Golden Dawn (GD), a secret Victorian society aiming to harbor true Rosicrucianism and allow its members to accomplish the Great Work. A complete system of ritual magic based on the history of Western occultism was practiced. In contrast with the Masonic policy of the Rosicrucian Society, the order admitted women members as equals. Its members were recruited from every circle of life.

In these rituals, Egyptian, Jewish, Greek & Christian elements were combined. However, the combination of these various traditions led to depletion. A spiritual tradition is as strong as it is pure, i.e. devoid of notions, ideas, concepts, symbols, beliefs, rituals etc. foreign to it. Although syncretism may be intellectually satisfying, it hinders spiritual emancipation. This is certainly true if the elements combined are very different, as is the case here. Because Mathers was unable to read Egyptian texts, he could not make the crucial distinction between the Egyptian approach and the Hellenistic view (incorporated in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hermetism and Hermeticism). Neither could he isolate the native Egyptian elements present in historical Hermetism. By nevertheless incorporating Egyptian deities (in particular the Osiris-cycle), the GD walked the path of egyptomania.

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) entered the GD in 1898, introduced to the order by George Cecil Jones (1873 - 1953). The influence of this "Hermetic Order" shaped his life. He continued to ferment the teachings of the GD until he died. In fact, he considered himself and his Thelemic Order of the Silver Star to be its lawful heir.

The problems between Crowley and the Adepts of the order started in December 1899 (the first time he met Mathers), i.e. by the time he had taken his Portal grade, the preliminary to the crucial Adept Minor degree. When, in September 1900, he applied to be advanced to the level of Adepthood, the College of Adepts refused.

They disliked Crowley, his attitudes and way of life. Some of them probably did not believe an adept should drink, have fun, fornicate and raising hell with enthusiasm. His scandalous reputation won the disapproval of his seniors, who were in their right to refuse him. So, in the same month, Crowley went to Paris, and was initiated in the Ahathoor Temple by Mathers himself ! Between Paris and London a deep schism had been in the making and now tensions truly exploded.

When the London adepts heard Mathers had initiated him, the breach was complete. When applying for the lectures he was now entitled, he was again refused and physically thrown out. To Florence Farr, Yeats and many others, Crowley was an outcast, an opportunist who had endangered the link with Mathers. He promptly notified Mathers and the latter arranged a meeting with the "rebels" in London. Crowley acted as Mathers' plenipotentiary, and to protect himself, dressed up in the garb of Highland chieftain, concealing his face with a heavy black mask. Clearly Mathers had been a poor judge of characters, raising lunatic power freaks to Adepthood ...

The GD did not recover from the insanity and within a few years became a dispersed organization, with several Temples conducted by different groupings of men, each appointing their own Chiefs. Waite kept the Isis-Urania Temple, but in 1914 he closed it down.

Next, Crowley invented his own egyptomanic movement. In Cairo in 1904, the "minister" of Re dictated a new revelation to him, the "Book of the Law" ! Crowley became the "prophet" of the New Age of Horus ! The two major Egyptian deities he incorporated were the sky-goddess Nut and Horus of Edfu ("Hadit"). Had he known the cults of Ancient Egypt well enough, he would have realized they had no revelation or dogma, and certainly no "holy" books (for hieroglyphic writing itself was sacred). Was Crowley's "law" a concoction of his own power driven subconscious mind ? In 1909, he called in the "demon of demons" and turned Satanic. The psychosis had become irreversible ...

Do these highlights show the scope of the phantasies, fictions and lies incorporated into the Western Tradition since the start of the Renaissance ? Indeed, to identify the backbone of this Tradition with the Qabalah was the outstanding mistake prompted by the fraud of Moses de Leon. This has perturbated thousands of excellent minds, causing them to constantly replay their own illusions, and loose, unlike Rabbi Akiba, after entering the "garden of delights", their sight, reason or faith in God.

"The impeding turn of the millennium nourishes hopes of a new spiritual light for humankind in the aspirations of many. Egypt will surely play a role in such developments in both its forms : pharaonic Egypt and the esoteric-Hermetic Egypt. There has been increasing talk of the relevance of the Hermetic Weltanschauung as a point of view that can contribute to making sense of our modern world by seeking a direct connection with the original wisdom of the oldest cultures and with the core idea of all esoteric thought, according to which the ancient wisdom continues to be valid even in a world that has been transformed."
Hornung, 2001, pp.200-201.

Kemetism

Can we today turn the page ? Can a spiritual movement emerge which focuses on a thematical reconstruction of Ancient Egyptian spirituality, and this based on the evidence of contemporary science regarding Ancient Egyptian religious practice in general and its basic ritual matrix in particular ? Several individuals work along those lines, coupling study with ritual practice (Hope, 1986, Schueler, 1989, Clark, 2003, Draco, 2003).

In such a "Kemetic" reconstruction, no Jewish, Greek, Hermetic, Christian or Hermeticist elements should persist. Is this really possible, and if so, is such spirituality indeed the true backbone of our Western Tradition ? The advantage being the isolation of a tradition untouched by what today may be called "foreign elements".

Such an exercise is not easy (not to speak of the contextual limitations of any author). For Hermetism did retain parts of the Egyptian Mystery Tradition, and in a lesser degree, the same goes for Hermeticism, and yes, even for the revealed religions, Christianity first. The thematical reconstruction sought is approached in two steps :

1. the influence of Egyptian spirituality on Alexandrian Hermetism ;

2. the form of the basic matrix of native Egyptian religion.

In this paper, the first step is dealt with. The second will only be touched in the Epilogue. In the following ten paragraphs, we study ten basic notions of Hermetism (in other forms present in the mix of Hermeticism and in the "mystical" traditions of the religions). We try to find their Ancient Egyptian equivalent "in embryo" :

• mentalism : the gods, the world and humanity are the outcome of Divine thought ;

• correspondence : the same characteristics apply to each unity or plane of the world ;

• change : nothing remains the same, everything vibrates, nothing is at rest ;

• polarity : everything has two poles, there are two sides to everything ;

• rhythm : all things have their tides, rise and fall, advance and retreat, act and react ;

• cause & effect : everything happens according to law, there is no coincidence ;

• gender : male and female are in every body and mind, but not in the soul ;

• timing : everything happens when the time is ripe, things start at the right time ;

• intent : nature works according to a purposeful plan, pure will masters the stars ;

• transformation : everything can be transformed into something else, opposites meet.

In earlier studies, the special cognitive features of Ancient Egyptian thought, language & literature have been explained. Grosso modo, these imply the difference between rational thought, initiated by the Greeks, and ante-rationality. The latter is the mode of thought of pre-Greek Antiquity and of societies untouched by the linearizing streak of the Hellenes. Before the advent of rationality, three modes of thought prevailed, as Piaget, genetical epistemology and neurophilosophy made clear. These are mythical, pre-rational and proto-rational thought, in which the Ancient Egyptians excelled. Clearly Hermetism was codified using Greek conceptual rationality (giving birth to the influential systems of Plato and Aristotle). Hence, if we try to correlate these concepts with their native Egyptian equivalent, this cognitive difference has to be taken into account, and the multiplicity of approaches characterizing Egyptian thought has to be made an integral part of the equation. So because of this crucial difference, in all my translations of Egyptian texts and commentary, terms related to the Divine are not capitalized (i.e. god, gods, goddess, goddesses, divine, and pantheon), while in Hermetism and all rational discourses they are. This in accord with the contextualizing feature of anterationality, while rationality always puts context between brackets, and by doing so articulates an abstract, theoretical concept of the Divine.

Thoth as the scribe of truth
Papyrus of Taukherit - XXIth Dynasty - ca. 1075 - 945 BCE.

01 The mental origin of the world and of man : Ptah.

Shabaka Stone : LINE 48 : "the gods who manifest in Ptah"
beginning of the Memphis theology - ca. 710 BCE.

Pyramid Texts, § 1100.

"Indeed, the lips of Pharaoh Merenre are as the Two Enneads. This Pharaoh is the Great Speech."
Pyramid Texts, § 1100.

"The tongue of this Pharaoh Pepi is the pilot in charge of the Bark of Righteousness & Truth."
Pyramid Texts, § 1306.