Hermeticism

I thought I made the distinction in my post?

I suppose I would say Hermeticism is a spiritual science. It spills over into the physical sciences, of course. I was highlighting the distinction between the alchemist seeking enlightenment, and the alchemist seeking power / wealth / money, etc.
 
ah....yes I was reading that they saw hermeticism as the impetus/forerunner to scientific method?

of course you know the parts that intrigue me...
The tradition claims descent from a prisca theologia, a doctrine that affirms the existence of a single, true theology that is present in all religions and that was given by God to man in antiquity.
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and
Reincarnation is mentioned in Hermetic texts. Hermes Trismegistus asked:

O son, how many bodies have we to pass through, how many bands of demons, through how many series of repetitions and cycles of the stars, before we hasten to the One alone?
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and
Tobias Churton, Professor of Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter, states, "The Hermetic tradition was both moderate and flexible, offering a tolerant philosophical religion, a religion of the (omnipresent) mind, a purified perception of God, the cosmos, and the self, and much positive encouragement for the spiritual seeker, all of which the student could take anywhere."[45] Lutheran Bishop James Heiser recently evaluated the writings of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola as an attempted "Hermetic Reformation".
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Prisca theologia was a term introduced by Italian Renaissance Platonists, notably Marsilio Ficino.

Ficino and others sought to synthesise Christianity and Platonism, and to validate this they proposed a Prisca theologia, the idea that these two streams emerged from a mythical text that is the source of all religious thought.

The idea goes back quite some way, but it's error lies in failing to distinguish between the universal and the particular, in that it places a universal idea – contemplation of the divine – in the realms of the particular, that there existed one text or revelation, from which all subsequent revealed texts, or all subsequent religious traditions, derive. That idea crumbles in the face of scholarship that treats of the origin of ideas as such. The claim being that Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, etc., on the one hand, and Moses, Christ, the Fathers and Mohammed (pbuh) on the other, all had access to a single text on which they based their teachings.

In Ficino's case it was an attempt to arrive at a syncretic amalgam of Christianity and Platonism. The reality, from the evidence we have, which Ficino didn't have, is somewhat different.

Christian philosopher/theologians of the Patristic era were all, with a few rare exceptions, Platonists, and sought to synthesise Plato and Christ – the baptism of Plato, as we say. Irenaeus, who wrote the first 'catechism' as such, was not a Platonist, but expresses a debt to Justin, who was.

The foremost exponent of this was Maximus the Confessor, who rather than synthesised, radically restructured the Platonic idea of human (and cosmological) origin: stasis-kinesis-genesis, to read genesis-kinesis-stasis, to bring it into line with Biblical revelation. This restructuring does away with Platonic and indeed all dualisms, and proposes an essentially Hebraic and holistic idea of the origins of the world and of man.

Since then the myth has grown as successive generations came into contact with more diverse religious traditions and attempt the same thing, to claim that all the world's religions derive from one documentary source, despite the fact there is no mention of any such document by the traditions themselves.

The earliest texts of the Corpus Hermeticum date from around the 3rd century. Hermetic texts can be found among the 4th century Nag Hammadi finds. The Emerald Tablet, another famous Hermetic text, has been dated to a 6th century Arabic source.

The Tarot is often considered as a product of the Hermetic Tradition, but this again is largely mythical. Tarot cards playing cards introduced into Europe in the mid 15th century. The creation of Tarot decks for divination and occult purposes was made popular in the 18th century by the French occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette who went under the pseudonym Etteilla.

There is also the 'problem' that the idea of a prisca theologia finds support among the intellectual elites who sought to distance themselves from the hoi-polloi (Gk: 'the many'), and insist they had access to a 'secret' or 'esoteric doctrine' reserved for the very few, the pneumatics, who were naturally 'enlightened' by the knowledge of the spark or soul they possessed, and who were in effect a class above the common stock of humanity. They in turn could 'enlighten' those who possessed this spark/soul but were ignorant of it – the psychics. The vast majority of humanity, the hylics, did not possess this spark at all, and spiritual knowledge and realisation was beyond them.

The 'esoteric schools' of the Renaissance, through to current times, tend towards this intellectual elitism, and like so much of the Renaissance, owe a great deal to the influx of Arab thought, both in the further recovery of lost Greek texts, and the contact with Sufism.
 
In addition to the above ...

The Philosophia or Sophia Perennis – the Perennial Philosophy – was a revision of the prisca theologia and has come to be understood as holding to the idea that the unseen and formless Universal Truth manifests in all the great religions, adapted to contingent circumstances, and as such each religious tradition comprises in itself all that is necessary to attain its end.

It differs from the prisca theologia in that the prisca assumes that all religious traditions are, to a greater of lesser degree, corruptions of an original, pure, formal revelation.

The term was coined by another Christian Neoplatonist, Agostino Steuco, influenced by Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

Whilst Ficino remained a priest, Steuco was appointed bishop, and made librarian of the papal libraries in Rome. In 1547 he was sent by the Pope to the Council of Trent, but died the following year.

The Theosophical Society makes claim to the Sophia Perennis, but their ideas are in line with the prisca rather than the sophia, which they reject, holding the sacra doctrina of the world to be corruptions. The idea was popularised in the English-speaking world through Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy, but today European writers have proved the most influential exponents of the Perennial Philosophy, notably René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Martin Lings, Marco Pallis and others, among whom is Titus Burckhardt, who has authored a book on alchemy, and is probably one of the best commentators on the topic as a spiritual science.
 
Thomas: "It [Perennial Philosophy] differs from the prisca theologia in that the prisca assumes that all religious traditions are, to a greater of lesser degree, corruptions of an original, pure, formal revelation."

Theosophy of Blavatsky & her gurus accepts both as true. The former (PP) is buried to a greater or lesser extent under the specific religion's accretions. But if one follows the mystic insights of the latter, (PT) to its core, then it is adequate as a spiritual path.
 
Hi Skull –

Where does one find the mystic insights of the Prisca Theologia?
 
Hi Skull –

Does not the prisca theologia assume a prior written/oral tradition from which subsequent traditions derive?

I see no evidence of it?

Because, for example, there is an apophatic aspect in Christian theology, and in Hindu theology, that does not necessarily mean that both derive from a prior apophatic theology, or that one necessarily derives from the other ... simply, it's a product of the rational intellect with regard to the contemplation of the Divine.

It does rather appear that Ficino invented the term to validate his attempt to synthesise Christian and Platonic teaching.
 
Thomas, Skull has poor education and vocabulary, so I am losing your point. All I know about prisca theology is what you wrote above.

Curiously, Blavatsky starts her Secret Doctrine volume with "An Archaic Manuscript — a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown process — is before the writer’s eye." Now this is not the ultimate source, that would have been what the author(s) knew who produced this small document. But is this the sort of thing you mean as the physical root of prisca theology?
 
Thomas said:
The idea was popularised in the English-speaking world through Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy...
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Really! I know you've talked about Perennial Philosophy many times and I've asked you about literature without following through. But I'm comparing Brave New World to 1984 in a paper right now so I would gladly buy the book now if you think it's insightful. Otherwise I think you've mentioned Marco Pallis before as a go to author?
 
A Cup Of Tea said:
Really! I know you've talked about Perennial Philosophy many times and I've asked you about literature without following through. But I'm comparing Brave New World to 1984 in a paper right now so I would gladly buy the book now if you think it's insightful. Otherwise I think you've mentioned Marco Pallis before as a go to author?
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I never read Huxley, and never even knew he'd compiled his book until I was well into the Traditionalists. From what I understand, his 'Perennial Philosophy' is a collection of texts from various sources gathered under headings, to show that the mystical traditions of the given religions say 'much the same thing'. Looking on Amazon, a lot of people think it's the best things since sliced bread ... you can read it online.

My interest is more into the metaphysics of the idea, rather than cross-referencing texts that suggest the idea. I think Schuon's The Transcendent Unity of Religions says more, and more precisely, than Huxley.

Marco Pallis triggered my 'Damascus Moment', but he is a Tibetan Buddhist and writes on Buddhist matters. Most of the writers of the PP are Sufi. Frithjof Schuon is, I would say, the more poetic writer. Guénon is the more forensic. I read them both like water from a clear spring, with all the healing effects such waters are reputed to have. Indeed, after a while, I could pick up a book and know within the first few lines that the author is a Traditionalist.

I would recommend "The Sword of Gnosis", an anthology of texts on 'Metaphysics, Cosmology, Tradition, Symbolism' edited by Jacob Needleman as a good intro, it was for me! Pallis' essay 'The Veil of the Temple' is part of this volume (the link is to the essay online). You can read Guénon's Oriental Metaphysics and Schuon's Understanding and Believing and The Human Margin, also from the same volume ... in fact, I reckon you can find every essay online! If you get a chance to read them, and like what you find, I'll hunt down the remaining essays for you.

Here's an essay by René Guénon entitled Hermes on the nature of the Hermetic Tradition.

And here's another on Rites and Symbols which so many assume to be nothing more than sensible consolations.

As a passing comment, those who think 'interfaith dialogue' is represented here at IO might do themselves a favour by dipping into some of these essays. They might just realise why I think a paraphrase of Gandhi is appropriate:
Q: What do I think of Interfaith Org?
A: I think it would be a very good idea.
 
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