Hermeticism — The Egyptian Gnostic Tradition
The Hermetic tradition (centered on the figure of Hermes Trismegistus) represents the Egyptian strain of Gnostic spirituality — combining Platonic philosophy, Egyptian religion, and Gnostic insight.
Hermeticism (the Hermetic tradition) is a strand of late antique religious-philosophical thought attributed to Hermes Trismegistus ('Thrice-Greatest Hermes' — a fusion of the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth). The Corpus Hermeticum (a collection of Greek texts, 1st-3rd centuries CE, rediscovered and published by Ficino in 1471) presents a distinctive blend of Platonism, Egyptian religion, and Gnostic insight. The most important Hermetic text is the Poimandres (Shepherd of Men) — a creation narrative and mystical ascent vision with clear Gnostic features: the divine Mind reveals the nature of reality to the initiate; the soul descends through the planetary spheres acquiring properties at each level; and the illuminated soul ascends by stripping these properties in reverse order. The famous Hermetic saying 'As above, so below' captures the Hermetic vision of correspondence between the macrocosm (divine realm) and microcosm (the human being) that constitutes the basis for all Hermetic magic and philosophy.
As above, so below; as below, so above; as within, so without; as without, so within.
Scholar Wouter Hanegraaff (Esotericism and the Academy) documents how Hermeticism was rediscovered in the Renaissance (Ficino's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, 1462) and became foundational for Western esotericism — its synthesis of ancient wisdom, natural philosophy, and spiritual practice has continued to influence Western thought from the Renaissance to the present.
Emerald Tablet