Podcast episode
October 21, 2020
Episode 105: Other Hermetic Worlds: The Asclepius and Korê Kosmou
Having discussed the Poimandres, we turn to the other two ancient Hermetica which give a full cosmological and anthropological picture: the Latin Asclepius and the Korê Kosmou. Both of these texts, like the Poimandres, give accounts of the creation and of man’s place in it, but all three accounts differ radically. The Asclepius and Korê Kosmou both contain a lot of Egyptian religious material, and the interplay between Egyptian and Greek elements is one of the most fascinating aspects of these texts.
Both texts tell us a lot about the lower divinities. In the Asclepius we find the famous ‘god-making’ passages, detailing how human beings can make statues suitable for inhabitation by divine powers, and then keep the powers within the statues, giving humans direct access to divine insights and other interventions. The Asclepius also gives us a window into a fascinating phenomenon: Hermetic millenarianism. Hermes the ancient sage delivers an ex eventu prophecy about the fate of Egypt and the world, which culminates in a ‘grand restauration’ where god scraps the tired old world and starts again.
In the Korê Kosmou we learn something about the mysterious star-gods (the ‘mysteries’, as the text describes them), among whom is none other than Hermes himself (that is, the planet Mercury, or perhaps a divine intelligence of some kind associated with that planet), who takes a major role in the actual process of kosmic creation, and intervenes in human history at a number of crucial junctures. We also learn something about how Isis, Osiris, and Horus fit into one iteration of the Hermetic world-view.
Having looked at these texts, we may be less sure than ever about a solid ‘Hermetic teaching’ or ‘tradition’ in antiquity, but we are much better-placed to understand the range of ideas which could travel under the name of Hermes.
Works Cited in this Episode:
Primary:
- Augustine cites the Asclepius: De civ. dei books 8-10.
- The planet Jupiter/Zeus as Φαέθων: Arist. Mu. 392a24; Eudox. Ars. 5.14; Cic. N.D. 2.52.
Asclepius:
- On ontological series of genus and species: 4 and 19.
- God-making: 23-24; 38.
- The apocalyptic prophecy of Egypt’s decline and the coming restoration by god: 24-26.
Secondary:
- Festugière on the ‘other Hermetica’: see A.-J. Festugière. La révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste. Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2014. pp. 473-99 (vol. II, pp. 1-28 in the old edition).
- M.D. Litwa. Hermetica II. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2018.
- William Shakespeare, ‘What a piece of work is man’, see Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2: ‘What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals.’
Recommended:
Edward Bleiberg has an interesting online article on Egyptian statues, how they acted, and why people used to destroy them to keep them from acting.
Themes
Alchemy, Esotericism, Fate, Hermes, Hermetica, Magic, Metempsychosis, Monotheism, Soul, Stoicism, Sympathy, Telestic Ritual
Mystieke School
October 23, 2020
Hi Earl,
Thank you for again a very interesting and insightful podcast about important hermetic texts.
When I read these texts I do the practice of ‘lectio divina’. I read the texts as if they are divine truths. Inconsistencies are then not mistakes of the author, but a lack of understanding in me. This is how it works for me. Other people read the texts more in an academic, rational way. Which is of course also a good approach.
The text of the Kore Kosmou reminds me of a term I read in the well-known Illuminatus Trilogy books. It was stated that enlightened persons had a ‘morgenheutegesterngefuhl’ (tomorrow-today-yesterday-feeling). They don’t see reality in a chronological way, or from one viewpoint.
So, maybe the inconsistencies in the Kore Kosmou are because the enlightened goddess Isis (or the enlightened human author) wrote it from different viewpoints and skipping back and forth in time to try – maybe in a desperate way – to make sense of the timeless activities of God and gods.
Earl Fontainelle
October 23, 2020
That’s a way of reading which I think the ancient Hermetists may well have used; just a guess, but we have good documentation for the scriptural Hermeneutics of contemporary Christians like Clement and Origen, who read precisely as you describe. However, we should also be attuned to the philosophic content of some Hermetica, which to me bespeaks a different kind of reading-strategy, one which is more analytical. The two can of course co-exist, along with others.
Mystieke School
October 23, 2020
Besides Hermeticism I also study and practice Sufism. When one studies Sufism you encounter different approaches and practices within this one mystical tradition. The Sufism of Ibn Arabi (with a focus on the Intellect) was different than the Sufism of Rumi (with a focus on the heart). The various branches (tariqat) all have different practices and approaches. Some in contradiction to others, e.g. ‘sober’ versus ‘drunk’ trances, silent dhikr versus loud dhikr, solitary practices versus group practices, or ‘orthodox’ versus ‘heterodox’. But with all the different approaches, practices and contradictions all Sufis still practice the same mystical branch of Islam. I think the same happened with Hermeticism. Various hermetic masters emphasized different things, but all would recognize each other as students on the Way of Hermes.
Jacob Eddinger-Smith
October 29, 2020
I read somewhere that Augustine identifies this Asclepius as the grandson of the Greek god of that name: Did I miss it, or do we know this figure’s relation to or identification with that god?
Earl Fontainelle
November 2, 2020
Hey, Jacob,
There are multiple different lineages for all these figures, and it’s never easy to tell with a given text what lineage the author has in mind. There does seem to be a general pattern, though, where a god (Hermes, Asclepius) stands at the head of the lineage, and has a number of human or quasi-divine descendents who write books and such. Sometimes, though, the initial god is already human, and there seems to have been some Euhemerism going on, as well as Egyptian ideas wherein the actual gods Osiris and Isis used to be kings in Egypt, back when the gods were closer to humans, so things get very confused. If you want to go down that rabbit hole, explore the literature in the bibliography to episode 100.