Wing III
The Ideas
TL;DR
Fourteen load-bearing ideas of Hermetic thought, each with what the sources say, what scholars debate and what the internet gets wrong.
- As above, so belowEveryone quotes it. Few know where it’s from.
- NousThe divine Mind, the tradition’s central term.
- GnosisKnowledge that transforms the knower.
- PalingenesiaThe rebirth of CH XIII: ten powers vs twelve torments.
- Hermetic meditationWhat CH XIII gives, and what was added later.
- The seven Hermetic principlesEach one with its real source, or none.
- CorrespondencesThe web that links the levels of the world.
- Prisca theologiaThe myth of the first, purest wisdom.
- TheurgyRitual as ascent: Iamblichus and the divine work.
- The Ogdoad and EnneadThe eighth and ninth spheres of ascent.
- Hermeticism & its neighboursGnosticism, Platonism, Kabbalah: kinships and look-alikes.
- The caduceusHermes’ two-snake staff, and how it reached medical badges.
- Hermetic alchemyWhy alchemy is called the Hermetic art.
- The Great WorkMagnum opus: beyond making gold.
- Golden DawnThe Hermetic Order founded in London in 1888.
- The alchemical homunculusThe artificial little man of the alchemists, recipe and reception.
- The ouroborosThe tail-eating serpent, and where the image comes from.