The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus With Thirty-Nine Plates

by Antoine Faivre

Hermes -- the fascinating, mercurial messenger of the gods, eloquent revealer of hidden wisdom, and guardian of occult knowledge -- has played a central role in the development of esotericism in the West. The enigmatic Hermes Trismegistus, legendary author of ancient Gnostic writings, was the father of the Hermetic tradition. Drawing upon rare books and manuscripts, this highly illustrated work explores the question of where Hermes Trismegistus came from, how he came to be a patron of the esoteric traditions, and how the figure of Hermes has remained lively and inspiring to our own day.

Genres: History, Occult, Mythology, Spirituality, Religion, Nonfiction, Philosophy

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Antoine 'Tony' Faivre was Professor of Germanic studies at the University of Haute-Normandie, director of the Cahiers del Hermétisme and of Bibliothèque de l'hermétisme, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and Chair of the History of Esoteric Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe at École Pratique des Hautes Études at the Sorbonne, and served as editor of Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism along with Wouter J. Hanegraaff. He was awarded the Ordre National du Mérite in 2009.

Faivre was the first to define "Western esotericism" as a legitimate field of interdisciplinary academic study and is held to be one of the foremost scholars in the field he pioneered.

Reviews

[B. Rule · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems appropriate that a work on Hermes is a lightning-fast miscellany that churns through millennia of history in a few short pages. Faivre's erudition is deep, and he packs an incredible density of reference and comment into the text. You could probably extract any random paragraph here and expand it into a dissertation.

Faivre traces both the god Hermes/Mercurius and the alchemical culture hero Hermes Trismegistus, showing how they intertwine at times but are fundamentally distinct. The portrait of Hermes the god highlights his role as psychopomp and trickster. His speed, eloquence, and wit serve to increase mobility and exchange of all kinds: he is the god of thieves, of travel, of windfalls, of promiscuity, and the guide of souls. He is a god defined not by a destination but the sheer joy of journeying, of the intercourse and mixing of all things in existence. As Faivre notes, wherever Hermes passes, tolerance prevails.

Hermes Trismegistus may begin as a euhemerist derivation of the god, but it's clear that his path diverges. Revered as an ancient sage contemporary with Moses (at least until Isaac Casaubon debunked the antiquity of the Hermetica), Hermes in this aspect sheds a lot of the playfulness and trickster traits, instead serving as the fons et origo of a supposed prisca theologia, the stew of pseudo-Pythagorean and Kabbalistic attitudes undergirding the history of Western esotericism, alchemy/science, and magic. One can still see the hints of the ur-Hermes here though in his role at the crossroads of reason and imagination, a golden-tongued interpreter of an eclectic assortment of wisdom from many traditions. Hermes Trismegistus shares hermeneutics with Hermes-Thoth-Mercurius.

The first several chapters of the book trace these fascinating figures and their associations. The second half of the book has an annotated history of the visual representation of Hermes, with lots of excellent old plates and odd esoteric ephemera, and an annotated bibliography of Hermes-literature. Great stuff for any scholar, although a little of a slog to the casual reader. Faivre has impeccable academic chops in assembling all of this, but he's also not afraid to let a little of Hermes' humor seep in: the book also analyzes the hidden hand of Hermes in modern mythology, including Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. We all know who really rules Bartertown.

[Sergio ruocchio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il nome di Ermete evoca l'universo della mitologia, della religione e dell'esoterismo occidentale. Nelle sue diverse facce e rappresentazioni Ermete-Mercurio non è solo il messaggero alato, ma colui che detiene la sapienza e che opera come mediatore tra il mondo degli uomini e quello degli dei.
A lui è legato quel personaggio storico-mitologico, Ermete Trismegisto, che è per eccellenza il detentore dei segreti e della saggezza. L'esoterismo occidentale ruota intorno a questa figura e ai testi che gli sono stati attribuiti.
Il saggio di Antoine Faivre racconta, per così dire, in modo profondo ma al contempo affascinante, la storia di questa figura corredandola con il mondo antico greco, egizio e romano e ossevando le sue trasformazioni e la sua influenza sino ai giorni nostri. Si dipana così un intreccio tra diverse culture antiche e, in seguito, con l'islamismo e il cristianesimo dando luogo a un personaggio che racchiude in sé gli elementi fondamentali dell'esoterismo e che rappresenta quella che si può chiamare la 'gnosi ermetica'. La lettura de I Volti di Ermete permette di entrare all'interno dell'errmetismo e comprendere appieno quelle radici 'arcane' che influenzano ancora oggi il pensiero esoterico.

[Philippe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this somewhat random collection of essays on the fluid genealogy that links the mortal Hermes Trismegistus and the god of Olympus. Sprinkled throughout the text are many small and striking factoids that I found helpful for my research. But the author's impressive scholarship also shines in the big ideas. He elucidates the link between hermeticism and hermeneutics with fine aplomb: "The universe, conceived as a system of analogical and dynamic relationships, like a text to be read, decoded, is obviously one of the biggest common denominators within this vast current of thought." Also revealing the foregrounding of the Hermetic's taste for the particular, reflected in a penchant for both symbolism and experimentation. Another important idea discussed is the central importance of the myths of Fall and regeneration. Indeed, here is a possible basis for an ecology founded on myth and metaphysics. In the closing paragraphs of Chapter 2 Faivre reflects on the possible meaning of Hermes for our Promethean times. Again here is a fascinating hint towards a 'systemic' and plural practice of hermeneutics:

"If Hermeticism today has a role to play, it is that of demystifying, so as to remythify. To regain the sense of myth, whether within the framework of a constituted religion or outside it, is also to learn or relearn how to 'read'. What a beautiful lesson so many of the thinkers of the Renaissance teach us, those who knew how to read the book of the world, of Man and of theophanies! They had understood that language starts with reading and passes through it—the reading of myths, of anthropos and of the cosmos. Is not the art of memory, so well studied by Frances A. Yates, first of all a means of reading the world so as to interiorize it and, in some sense, to rewrite it within the self? (...) And Hermesian reading is an open, in-depth reading, one that lays bare the metalanguages for us, that is to say, the structures of signs and correspondences that only symbolism and myth make it possible to conserve and transmit. To read, to find the depth of things—by looking in the right place."

This hints at an epistemology and ethics that is utterly contemporary and resonates with the ideas of pragmatists, cyberneticians and postcolonial thinkers.

"Is this a new ratio, opposed to the one that has held sway until now in our Promethean and triumphant civilization? Rather, it is a different but nonetheless complementary ratio, which integrates without excluding, which dynamizes without reducing. (...) This 'ratio hermetica' means saying first of all that nature is pluralistic and that these pluralities are concrete things. (...) Unification is brought about by the mediation of an energy principle that is seen to assure order in the cosmos and unification of the subject. This is to show how much Hermeticism can today facilitate comprehension of a multiple reality which, far from limiting itself to a project of flat rationality, would associate the flesh and the flame ..."

Altogether a very rich and rewarding source of insights on the hermeticist current in our Western intellectual history.

[Bohdan Pechenyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great, concise overview of the Hermetic tradition from the ancient times to its rediscovery through the Arabic scholars during the Renaissance, and to the broader Hermeticism (alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalism, Paracelsism) from late Renaissance and up to the 20th century. With a historical survey, with many illustrations tracing the portrayal of Hermes Trismegistus (as distinct from the Greek god Hermes per se), with explanation of the rich symbolism and the multi-faceted significance of the Hermetic myth, this is a great introduction to this ancient esoteric tradition.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource on the history of Alchemy. It does rather gloss over the divine origins of Hermes as assymed knowledge. The history of the (de)evokution of Hermes (or Hermes-Mercury, or Hermes-Thoth) into the alchemical figure of Trismegistus is very dense, and even here presented, difficult to follow entirely.
A brilliant collation of resources into thesophical and humanist works is also annotated.

[Maan Kawas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed, brief, and factual, never capturing the mystery of Hermeticism: Why Hermes and why the three manifestations?

[John Kulm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not an academic, so I might have found this book difficult. However, Hermes Trismagistus has special meaning to me, so I loved every page.
Hermes is the god associated with depth psychology, because he's the Greek deity who is the guide of the underworld, the land of the dead, dreams, and the psyche.
What I particularly like about Eternal Hermes. is the author's lengthy explanations of how the god's attributes apply to us: As god of roads he is able to cross boundaries and become the mediator; As god of thieves he's able to enter forbidden places and bring treasures you can't grasp within yourself, and also procure useful information from outside.
As his name, Mercury, implies, like the liquid metal he can change form and appearance, and he can help to bring change in your life. He's the god of change. As messenger of the gods, he brings inspiration and realization, so of course he's a perfect god for writers and seekers.
He's the one god in the Greek pantheon who is credited with a large number of books, still available for us to read, The Hermeticum.
I liked the book, of course, because I can't get enough of the topic and the person.