Hermetica 2

The Hermetica are Egyptian-Greek wisdom texts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD,^[1] which are mostly presented as dialogues in which a teacher, generally identified as Hermes Trismegistus ("thrice-greatest Hermes"), enlightens a disciple.

The texts form the basis of Hermeticism. They discuss the divine, the cosmos, mind, and nature. Some touch upon alchemy, astrology, and related concepts.

The Hermetica is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures. The dialogue called the Asclepius (after the Greek god of healing) describes the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in statues with the help of herbs, gems, and odors, so that the statue could speak and engage in prophecy. In other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf.

Contents of Corpus Hermeticum

Corpus Hermeticum: first Latin edition, by Marsilio Ficino, 1471 CE, at the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam.

The following are the titles given to the eighteen tracts, as translated by G.R.S. Mead:

I. Pœmandres, the Shepherd of Men

(II.) The General Sermon II.

(III.) To Asclepius III.

(IV.) The Sacred Sermon IV.

(V.) The Cup or Monad V.

(VI.) Though Unmanifest God is Most Manifest VI.

(VII.) In God Alone is Good and Elsewhere Nowhere VII.

(VIII.) The Greatest Ill Among Men is Ignorance of God VIII.

(IX.) That No One of Existing Things doth Perish, but Men in Error Speak of Their Changes as Destructions and as Deaths IX.

(X.) On Thought and Sense X.

(XI.) The Key XI.

(XII.) Mind Unto Hermes XII.

(XIII.) About the Common Mind XIII.

(XIV.) The Secret Sermon on the Mountain XIV.

(XV.) A Letter to Asclepius

(XVI.) The Definitions of Asclepius unto King Ammon

(XVII.) Of Asclepius to the King

(XVIII.) The Encomium of Kings

The following are the titles given by John Everard:

1. The First Book
2. The Second Book. Called Poemander
3. The Third Book. Called The Holy Sermon
4. The Fourth Book. Called The Key
5. The Fifth Book
6. The Sixth Book. Called That in God alone is Good
7. The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and
8. The Profession of Silence. To His Son Tat
9. The Eighth Book. That The Greatest Evil In Man, Is The Not Knowing God
10. The Ninth Book. A Universal Sermon To Asclepius
11. The Tenth Book. The Mind to Hermes
12. The Eleventh Book. Of the Common Mind to Tat
13. The Twelfth Book. His Crater or Monas
14. The Thirteenth Book. Of Sense and Understanding
15. The Fourteenth Book. Of Operation and Sense
16. The Fifteenth Book. Of Truth to His Son Tat
17. The Sixteenth Book. That None of the Things that are, can Perish
18. The Seventeenth Book. To Asclepius, to be Truly Wise