HERMES
When speaking earlier about the Hermetic tradition we said that this properly refers to a knowledge that is not metaphysical but only cosmological, understanding this last in both its 'macrocosmic' and 'microcosmic' senses. Although this was only the expression of the strict truth, it was unfortunately enough to displease some who, viewing Hermeticism through their own fantasies, would like it to contain any and everything. It is true that such people hardly know what pure metaphysics is. However this may be, it must be understood that by saying that we in no way wished to depreciate the traditional sciences that belong to Hermeticism nor those that correspond to them in the other doctrinal forms of the East or West; but one has to know how to put each thing in its place, and these sciences, like any specialized knowledge, remain secondary and derivative with respect to principles, of which they are only the application to a lower level of reality. Only those who would give the 'Royal Art' preeminence over the 'Sacerdotal Art' can claim the contrary; [1] and perhaps this is at root the more or less conscious reason for the protestations just alluded to.
Without otherwise concerning ourselves with what anyone else may think or say, for we are not accustomed to taking into account such individual opinions which, for tradition, do not exist, it seems
that it might not be useless to add some new details confirming what we have already said, by focusing more particularly on Hermes, for at least no one contests that it is from Hermes that Hermeticism takes its name. [2] The Greek Hermes has in fact characteristics that correspond exactly to the sciences in question and that are especially expressed by his chief emblem, the caduceus, the symbolism of which we will no doubt find some other occasion to examine more fully. Suffice it to say for the moment that this symbolism relates essentially and directly to what might be called 'human alchemy' [3] that concerns possibilities of the subtle state, even if these are taken merely as the preparatory means to a higher realization, as the equivalent Hatha-Yoga practices are in the Hindu tradition. This can, moreover, be transferred to the cosmic order, since everything in man has its correspondence in the world, and inversely; [4] here again, and by reason of this very correspondence, the domain in question is the 'intermediary world', where forces are brought into play whose dual nature is very clearly figured by the two serpents of the caduceus. We will also recall in this connection that Hermes is represented as the messenger of the gods and as their
interpreter (hermeneutes), that is, precisely, as an intermediary between the celestial and terrestrial worlds, and that he has in addition the function of a 'psychopomp' [guide of the souls of the dead] which, in a lower order, is clearly related to the domain of subtle possibilities. [5]
It might be objected that in Hermeticism, Hermes takes the place of the Egyptian Thoth, with whom he was identified, and that Thoth properly represents Wisdom, which relates to the priesthood as the guardian and transmitter of the tradition. That is true enough, but since this assimilation cannot have been made without some reason, it must be admitted that it is more particularly a certain aspect of Thoth that is considered here, one corresponding to a certain part of the tradition that includes the branches of knowledge relating to the intermediary world; and in fact, all that can be known of the ancient Egyptian civilization from its vestiges shows precisely that this kind of knowledge was much more developed there and had acquired more importance there than anywhere else. There is besides another comparison, we might even say another equivalence, which shows clearly that this objection has no real significance: in India, the planet Mercury (or Hermes) is called Budha, a name whose root means Wisdom; here again, it is enough to determine the order where this Wisdom, which in its essence is the inspiring principle of all knowledge, is to find its more particular application when it is related to this specialized function. [6]
As concerns the name Budha, it is curious to note that it is in fact identical to the Scandinavian Odin, Woden, or Wotan; [7] it is thus not
at all arbitrary that the Romans assimilated Odin to Mercury, and in some Germanic languages the day of Mercury (in French mercredi) is still called the day of Odin. [8] What is perhaps even more remarkable is that this same name is found in the Votan of the ancient traditions of Central America, who moreover has the attributes of Hermes, for he is Quetzalcoatl, the 'bird-serpent', and the union of these two symbolic animals (corresponding respectively to air and fire) is also figured by the wings and the serpents of the caduceus. [9] One must indeed be blind not to see in such facts a sign of the fundamental unity of all traditional doctrines; unfortunately, such blindness is only too common in our time, where those who truly know how to read symbols are now a tiny minority, and where we find on the contrary all too many 'profane ones' who think themselves qualified to interpret 'sacred science', which they fit to the measure of their own more or less confused imagination.
Another no less interesting point is that in the Islamic tradition the prophet Idris is identified both with Hermes and with Enoch; this double assimilation seems to indicate a continuity of tradition going back before the Egyptian priesthood, for this latter merely inherited what Enoch represented, and he manifestly relates to an earlier period. [10] At the same time, the sciences attributed to Idris
and placed under his special influence are not the purely spiritual sciences, which are attributed to the prophet Aissa, that is, to Christ, but the sciences that can be qualified as 'intermediary', among which alchemy and astrology belong in the first rank; these are indeed the sciences that can properly be called Hermetic. But this brings us to another consideration, which, at least at first glance, might seem to indicate a rather strange reversal of the usual correspondences. Among the principal prophets, a particular one, as we shall see in a future study, presides over each of the planetary heavens and is its 'Pole' (al-Qutb). Now, it is not Idris who presides over the heaven of Mercury, but Aissa [Jesus], whereas Idris presides over the heaven of the sun; and this naturally involves the same transposition in the astrological correspondences of the sciences that are respectively attributed to them. This raises a very complex question which we could not hope to treat fully here; perhaps we shall have occasion to come back to it, but for the moment we will confine ourselves to a few remarks which will perhaps enable us to glimpse the solution, and will in any case at least show that there is something altogether different here from a simple confusion, and which what might pass for such in the eyes of a superficial and 'outward' observer is in reality based on very profound notions.
First, this is not an isolated case among all the traditional doctrines, for one can find something similar in Hebrew angelology. Generally, Mikaël is the angel of the sun, and Raphael is the angel of Mercury, but it sometimes happens that these roles are reversed. On the other hand, if Mikaël, insofar as he represents the solar Metatron, is esoterically assimilated to Christ, [11] Raphael, according to the meaning of his name, is the 'divine healer', while Christ also appears as 'spiritual healer' and as 'restorer'; one could find also other connections between Christ and the principle represented by Mercury
among the planetary spheres. [12] It is true that for the Greeks medicine was attributed to Apollo, that is, to the solar principle, and to his son Asclepius (in Latin, Aesculapius); but in the 'Hermetic books' Asclepius becomes the son of Hermes, and we should also note that the staff that is his emblem has close symbolic connections to the caduceus. [13] This example from medicine moreover allows us to understand how one and the same science can have aspects related to different orders, thus with equally different correspondences, even if the outward effects obtained are apparently similar, for there is a purely spiritual or 'theurgic' medicine, and there is also
Hermetic or 'spagyric' medicine; this is directly related to the question we are presently considering; and perhaps we will explain some day why from the traditional point of view medicine was considered as essentially a sacerdotal science.
On the other hand, there is nearly always a close connection made between Enoch (Idrīs) and Elijah (Dhūl-Kifl), both of whom were taken up to heaven without passing through corporeal death, [14] and Islamic tradition places both in the solar sphere. Similarly, according to the Rosicrucian tradition, Elias Artista, who presides over the Hermetic 'Great Work', [15] resides in the 'Solar Citadel', which is the abode of the 'Immortals' (in the sense of the Chirajivis of Hinduism, that is, beings 'endowed with longevity', whose life lasts throughout the whole cycle), [16] and which represents one of the aspects of the 'Center of the World'. All of this is certainly worthy of reflection, and if one also adds the traditions, which nearly everywhere liken the sun itself symbolically to the fruit of 'the Tree of Life, [17] one will perhaps understand the special relationship which the solar influence has with Hermeticism, insofar as this, like the 'lesser mysteries' of antiquity, has as its essential aim the restoration of the human 'primordial state'. Is this not the 'Solar Citadel' of the Rosicrucians, which is to 'descend from Heaven to earth' at the end of the cycle in the form of the 'Heavenly Jerusalem', realizing the 'squaring of the circle' according to the perfect measure of the 'golden reed'?