Apollonian Texts and Literature

Above all, Apollonianism encourages the study of modern empirical sciences, including chemistry, physics, biology, and other natural sciences, but most especially astronomy and cosmology, for these seek answers to our most fundamental questions of the Cosmos. Anyone wishing to put to practice Apollonian ideals needs only to open a book on science and endeavor to learn.

However, we also recognize that science alone does not provide a sufficient intellectual framework through which we can achieve a complete understanding of ourselves and our relationship with the universe. For this reason, Apollonians study various philosophical spiritual system of ancient times, including the works of Plato and Aristotle, and the philosophies which came after them, for these do not stand contrary to science.

Hermes Trismegistus

Just who is Hermes Trismegistus? Was he a man, a prophet, a god? Put simply, Hermes Trismegistus is an archetypal figure — the divine embodiment of all knowledge, science, and magic. He is Mercury to the Romans, Hermes to the Greeks, and Thoth to the Egyptians. His name means “Thrice-Greatest Hermes”, and he was hailed as “Hermes the Great, Great, Great” and “Thoth who is Greater than Great”.

Some believe Hermes-Thoth was a philosopher who lived in an age of forgotten antiquity. Others say that Hermes is the divine spirit of Knowledge which moves from age to age, passing through various incarnations of enlightened philosophers — men such as Moses, Pythagoras, Apollonius of Tyana, and the great Eastern Masters. Some who have studied the Hermetic writings have concluded that the name Hermes, and the names of this students (Ammon, Asclepius, and Tat) were neither the names of gods nor men, but rather, served as titles of initiation, with “Hermes” being the highest, most exhausted degree of mastery. And, of course, one cannot overlook Hermes-Thoth, the god of science, magic, astrology, knowledge, healing, and the swift messenger of the gods who bridged the eternal, heavenly spheres with the earthly, mortal world.

Whether or not the Hermetic texts were written by a divine man or a prophet named Hermes, or if they were penned by various anonymous philosophers who were themselves divinely inspired by the god Hermes-Thoth, makes little difference. Trismegistus never claimed to be a god, but rather, taught that his mind aspired to reach the height enlightenment — to loose the bonds of Necessity and break free from the chains of Cosmic Fate, thus ascending to the Divine World where mortal mind joins with the First Mind in the great Oneness of All. The spirit of Hermes exists in all ages and at all times, from the civilizations of lost antiquity, through the great philosophers both known and forgotten, all the way to our present day. Hermes lived not once, but in countless incarnations. As the messenger of the gods, and the god of knowledge, science, and magic, Hermes Thrice-Greatest embodies the highest state of human enlightenment.

What Is Hermetic Philosophy?

Classical Hermetic philosophy, termed Hermetism by scholars (to differentiate from Renaissance Hermeticism), is the philosophy contained within body of literature known as Hermetica. The Hermetica were written sometime between the 1st to 3rd centuries CE, by Hellenized Egyptians living in and around Alexandria, Egypt. Hermetic literature is written in dialogue form between Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes-Thoth) and one or more of his students (much as Plato wrote in dialogue using Socrates as his mouthpiece). Thus, as these dialogues are narrated by Hermes (or occasionally his student, Asclepius, or other such as Tat or Isis), they are referred to as Hermetica. The Corpus Hermeticum is the most well known and most accessible collection of the central texts of the Hermetic philosophy, but there are some additional texts as well, such as the Asclepius and the Kore Kosmou.

The basic philosophy is essentially Platonic and early Neoplatonic in nature. We like to define Hermetism as the late Hellenistic philosophy of Plato as it developed on the southern shore of the Mediterranean (that is, Egypt), while Neoplatonism itself is the late Hellenistic philosophy of Plato as it developed on the north shore of the Mediterranean (in Greece, Syrian, and Rome).