# 303: BOOK OF THE WEEK — “The Hermetica”
Story behind the Book Choice
As you can see — I am still deep into my research on ancient Egyptian philosophy and spirituality. If you do that, The Hermetica plays a crucial role. It is actually the collected wisdom of the Egyptian God and mythical figure Thoth who came to be known as Hermes to the Greeks (Hermes Trismegistus). The original texts were mostly composed in a dialogue format with different people which makes it kind of confusing to follow the different chapters and perspectives, as the authors explain. In their “modern” version, they have done a wonderful job in selecting and introducing crucial parts of Thoth/Hermes’s wisdom in prose and poetry. Every chapter is preceded by a short introduction and then the translated writings follow mostly in a poetic format.
To make a long story short: What you will learn by reading this is not only what the pharaos had to offer in terms of “knowledge.” It shows you how contemporary this knowledge, which deserves the label “wisdom,” actually is. And that is also why The Hermetica plays such an outstanding role in the history of philosophy. It became the basis of what would be picked up by the great Greek philosophers who would then give way to all the other philosophers we are still studying up to the present day. In order to not repeat what a I wrote about yesterday about the intertwinement of philosophy and theology: When you read about ancient Egypt, there is no way to leave out spirituality. Still, what you read in this book is the gist of fine human thinking as you find it in people who have pondered the workings of the world in its entirety.
Let us hope that, by any means, we can prevent humanity from losing or willingly destroying this wisdom.
- Alexandria
As you can read in the passage, what ended up as the Books of Hermes was the collection of the writings of many people, similar to the New Testament. As with Jesus, nobody knows who Thoth/Hermes was exactly and whether these authors are talking about the same God who inspired their collective accounts. Still, Toth as the God of Wisdom and Learning in ancient Egypt clearly left his mark on what the authors received as the lessons they wanted to share with the world. Obviously, and I totally agree, it would mean a tremendous contribution to scholarship if we were to find out without ambiguation who exactly wrote it down, when, and where. But it is equally important to note, as the authors state, that this would not make a difference to the content itself.
There is one aspect about this story of the origin of the text which still is important to me: The mentioning of Alexandria. For those who have never been to Egypt — this is the city where Alexander the Great realized his vision of a progressive metropolis. And for book lovers and wisdom seekers like me, the library of Alexandria is the most fascinating thing ever. It was probably built around the third century B.C. It was the biggest library of the world and all famous scholars and intellectuals met exactly in this spot. And guess what is left of it?
Nothing.
It was probably destroyed by the Arabs upon their invasion but it does not matter to me right now to share all the details which I still need to research more about myself. What I simply want to point out is how devastating the destruction of such a hallmark of intellectual history can be; with many more consequences than the physical loss. Think of Egypt today: political corruption, poverty, economic, and intellectual decline. No, I am not going to turn this blog into a commentary on foreign affairs (read Juan Cole if you want an expert on this…). I just want to mention how such a great intellectual legacy can mean nothing a few thousand years later.
Yes, you might argue that is a long time in human history. I agree. Still, the fact that we also tend to completely ignore and/or forget this history might not only be devastating for the respective countries involved, it might also deprive us of so many opportunities. Why do we not suggest to our children and students to do a semester abroad in Egypt or Africa instead of the UK and the USA? Oh, yes, it is all about political instability, right. You cannot send your kids to some danger zone, where there is hunger, war, and illness. I claim: You can! Do it. Let them study there. It does not matter if the universities might be less well-equipped and without academic celebrities. But the kids (also grown-ups) will get a taste of what is out there and what has been lost as well and they will become more careful in their lives to look at what is behind the obvious and also look back at the history of these things.
That will contribute to global wisdom gain.
2. “Spiritual philosophy”
I really love that term “spiritual philosophy” in the passage. Again, it fits in beautifully with what I wrote yesterday about philosophy and theology needing each other. But this here opens up another dimension — really an entire universe. We are not talking about some 21st-century scholar claiming this. We are not talking about someone from the Middle Ages. We are talking about Thoth, the God that, as the legend goes, ruled approx. five thousand years ago. Yes, The Hermetica was not written back then. Still, the unity of faith and science is something that points to the unity of the universe and of everything therein which links the ancient Egyptian belief system with the one of all other denominations in the present, even if they count as “monotheistic” and ignore the others.
I think, the universities can contribute a good share to bringing about this unity again.
They started with the unity of God and scholarship.
In the mean time, they got rid of the spiritual part altogether (at least in the “West”) —
and of the unity of scholars as thinkers, doers, and ‘sensors.’
Now they can make up for it again — maybe.
3. Playing your part
This gives you a taste of the original words. And it gives you a lot to think about. If you are still wondering about the purpose of life and the reason why men are walking on this planet, there are many inspirations in the book that might help you find answers. One given here is a very logical one. Definitely, we do not know if human beings are so much different from all other creatures as we think they are. And we still do not know for sure which living beings might be populating other planets. What we know for sure, so far, is that human beings are the only ones writing books and thinking about their lives and the planet to the extent we know. In other words: They are gifted with brains and something we call consciousness that makes us unique in some way. So, there must be some purpose behind that.
Use it wisely for playing your part.
Reflection Questions
1) How do you think about studying abroad?
2) Are you worried that crucial knowledge will get lost in the future? What kind of knowledge?
3) What is the special “part” that only human beings can “play” on earth according to your opinion?