The Hermetica The Lost Wisdom of the Pharohs by Timothy Freke / Peter Gandy   Paperback 159 pages (March 1999) ISBN: 0874779502 Bookshelf Categories Egypt Alchemy & Hermeticism

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Synopsis:

The first accessible translation of the great forgotten Egyptian classic that has influenced Western thought for more than five thousand years. The Hermetica is a classic piece of sacred literature, believed to have been written around 3000 B.C. by the Egyptian sage Hermes. So revered and honored was Hermes, and so great was his wisdom, that he was given the title Trismegistus, meaning "thrice-great," and was eventually considered a god. His writings, which influenced much of ancient Egyptian and Greek and modern Western thought and civilization, are without question as important as such well-known Eastern scriptures including the Upanishads, the Dhammapada, and the Tao Te Ching. In the past, translations of this ancient book were written primarily for scholars, archaeologists, and anthropologists. Now Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, two respected scholars of Western religion and philosophy, have done painstaking research to present a collection of excerpts that are easily understood by and relevant to, today's reader. Providing a fascinating introduction to the mystical philosophy of ancient Egypt and Greece that has shaped our world for five millennia, The Hermetica is a book for anyone interested in the first great Western civilization or in the knowledge of sacred traditions from all corners of the world. TIMOTHY FREKE is the author of many books on mystical philosophy, including The Tao Te Ching and, with PETER GANDY, The Complete Guide to World Mysticism

Reviews:

Classic Thought Made Accessible	8/18/2000
Reviewer: Phil from Ohio
I was wary of this book when I first purchased it, but to my delight it turned out to be the best introduction to the Hermes/Thoth literature available. Beyond the value of its clear and readable presentation of some of the oldest wisdom tracts in the Western World, the authors also briefly touch on the provinence of the works. Because the Hermes Corpus was declared a fraud in the 17th century, the heavy lifting required to point out that they are not is simply beyond the scope of this volume. But any reader who is intrigued by the material can go on and discover for themselves the story of Hermes and make their own judgement. I place the rediscovery of the Hermes Corpus on the same level as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts, so this fine introductory volume should be considered by anyone interested in ancient literature and spirituality.

Excellent introduction to the Hermetica	6/20/2000
Reviewer: Damon from CA
Speaking from the perspective of a fundamentalist Christian, this book has a lot of very revealing information concerning one of the most influential collections of literature on early Christian philosophers such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen. It's just one more reason that Christians should avoid philosophy altogether (Col. 2:9). Even so, it's well worth the time to read it. Did the idea of being "born again now" have its origin, in part, in the Hermetica? Possibly. Did the idea of mystic contemplation of the unknowable god, in contradistinction to Jer. 9:23-24, have its origin, in part, in the Hermetica? Again, possibly. This book is a good place to begin such investigative studies. This book gives only an overview of the material contained in the Hermetica. For more advanced studies, I would recommend "The Egyptian Hermes" by Garth Fowden and "Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition" by Frances Yates. What's annoying is that a bibliography is given at the end of the book, but there are NO FOOTNOTES in the text. Comments such as "The pyramid texts of Saqquara...are over 5000 years old and yet contain doctrines that are identical to those expounded in the Hermetica [which were composed, most likely from pre-existing material, in the 2nd and/or 3rd cent. AD]" may or may not be found in the texts in the bibliography. There's no easy way to tell, other than purchasing and reading the listed titles. It's even more annoying that one of the books in the bibliography is badly misrepresented. The author's name is Lucie Lamy, not Lucy Lamy, and the title is "Egyptian Mysteries: New Light on Ancient Knowledge" not "The Mysteries of Ancient Egypt." This is the one that the aforementioned comment most likely came from, but it took me several weeks to realize the authors' mistake. Okay, I'm done griping now. Enjoy the read. :-)