About
How this site works
Three layers, always separated: established fact (cited), scholarly debate (both sides named), and reception & myth (labelled as such). Sources under every page. Corrections in the open. No initiations, no products of destiny.
The Hermeticum exists because the internet’s most fascinating tradition has the internet’s worst signal-to-noise ratio. Our answer isn’t gatekeeping — it’s method.
The three layers
Fact: what the manuscripts, documents and peer-reviewed scholarship establish — always with a source you can check. Scholarly debate: where serious researchers disagree, we name the positions and the people (Festugière vs Fowden on Egyptian origins; the dating of the Sirr al-khaliqa; the Yates thesis and its critics). Reception & myth: what popular culture repeats — quoted as reception, never laundered into fact.
Sources
Our working standards are the modern critical translations (Copenhaver 1992, Litwa 2018) and the field’s core scholarship (Fowden, Hanegraaff, Bull, van Bladel, and others cited per page). Public-domain translations (Everard 1650, Mead 1906) are linked as historical documents with their limitations flagged. We never link pirated copies of in-print scholarship.
Quotations
Key lines from the sources appear in our own working translations, always marked as such (“our working translation”) and checked against the modern critical editions. For full texts we link the public-domain translations (Everard 1650, Mead 1906) with a plain note about their age and limits. In-print scholarly translations (Copenhaver, Litwa) are quoted only briefly, within fair use — buy those books; they are the field’s backbone.
Honesty rules
Where evidence ends, we say “we don’t know”. Where we simplify, the fuller story is one link away. Where we err, we correct visibly — corrections are content, not embarrassment.
Who writes this
The Hermeticum is an editorial project with a single voice and a public method. It sells no readings, no initiations and no destiny. If it ever recommends a book, the reason will be printed next to it.
Fair questions
Why no author names?
The project speaks with an editorial voice; the method and sources are public, which we consider the stronger accountability.
Can I suggest a correction?
Please do — the reply address of every letter reaches the editors, and corrections are published openly.
Do you make money?
Not currently. The letter and the knowledge base are free. If that changes, it will be announced plainly.