Hermes Trismegistus
thumb|Hermes Trismegistos (1763)
Hermes Trismegistus (Greek: Ἑρμῆς Τρισμέγιστος Hermes Trismegistos "thrice greatest Hermes"), the thrice great Thoth, was the inaugurator and teacher of Egyptian culture. Since ancient times, he was considered the author of the Corpus Hermeticum (also called Poimandres after first tractate in the Corpus Hermeticum), which, however, was probably only written down between 100 and 300 AD. The reference to Thoth-Hermes identifies him as an initiate of Mercury. The ancient sacred wisdom that he brought to the Egyptians is said to go back to that time, the three Sothis periods of 1460 years each, before the year 1322 BC, which marks the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, i.e. to the 6th millennium BC. (Lit.:GA 60, p. 369f) In this time, which lies long before the beginning of the Egyptian cultural epoch and even just before the ancient Persian time, falls the first work of Hermes. At that time, many people still had the brightest clairvoyance as a natural disposition. The dark Kali Yuga, with which this clairvoyance largely disappeared within a very short time, only began in 3101 BC, and the Egyptian cultural epoch, which only began in 2907 BC, was already completely immersed in this spiritual darkness. Only on a perilous path of initiation, which only a chosen few could tread, could the spiritual light still be found. This light, to which Hermes pointed the way, the essential spiritual Sun that would one day transform the Earth, is the Christ himself. Hermes pointed to him when he gave his wisdom teachings, which are recorded in the Tabula Smaragdina.
Literature
- Julius Ruska: Tabula smaragdina: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der hermetischen Literatur. Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung, Heidelberg 1926 PDF with handwritten annotations (German)
- Rudolf Steiner: Antworten der Geisteswissenschaft auf die großen Fragen des Daseins, GA 60 (1983), ISBN 3-7274-0600-3 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Ägyptische Mythen und Mysterien, GA 106 (1992), ISBN 3-7274-1060-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
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