Hermes Trismegistus | Magus #7
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Show notes
For this month's episode of Magus we're finally discussing the life of the first Magus ever, Hermes Trismegistus!
An ancient Egyptian sage written about by Cicero and early Christian church fathers, he is the literal reason why the magical practices of Hermeticism and Alchemy came into existence. He was still being referenced by the likes of Isaac Newton during the European Enlightenment, and his writings remain popular in esoteric and occult circles even today.
Discovery of his existence came about in Italy, at the same time as other ancient writers, including Plato, were being translated into Latin for the very first time, prompting the whirlwind array of changes we call 'the Renaissance.'
The man to whom the task fell specifically was Italian philosopher and Catholic priest Marsilio Ficino, who soon established a Neo-Platonic Academy attended by artists including Boticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, their work all funded by Cosimo di Medici, the richest man in the world.
Their collective project was to recover the past and remake it, all so mankind could reshape its physical existence through magic. Ficino's product was The Hermetica, an entire magical system based on philosophies of Matter and Spirit. It quickly became one of the most famous magic books in all of history, and for centuries the story of Hermes Trismegistus, his learning, wisdom, and magical system, were all beyond doubt.
Only then along came a classical scholar and philologist called Isaac Casaubon, who had questions about some of the 'ancient Egyptian' vocabulary used in The Hermetica, which prompted others to wonder whether Hermes Trismegistus had ever existed at all...
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