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ENDRE ÁDÁM HAMVAS
initiation can be applied to the Hermetica. I understand that such a brief
survey of the subject will necessarily be sketchy, but in my assessment, a few
examples suffice to demonstrate what I mean by Hermetic initiation. Also,
let me mention here at the outset as a theoretical presupposition that, in my
opinion, the technical language of the Greek mysteries is fundamental to any
understanding of the Hermetic concept of initiation.
If we want to understand the core meaning of Hermetic initiation, it will
be profitable to take a glance at the Greek mysteries first. As I think that
a solid terminological basis can be found in Walter Burkert’s analysis of this
term, I shall use his findings as a guideline for my research. As he points
out, the only common feature in the so-called mysteries is the phenomenon
of initiation. However, a fundamental difference between the Hermetic and
classical Greek mysteries must immediately be emphasized. In the Greek
mysteries, the initiates did not refuse the traditional cultic practices of the
Greek polis, whereas in the Hermetic texts, the rejection of these practices is
pivotal insofar as the material sacrifices differ from the true Hermetic spiritual
sacrifice (logiké thysia), which is a real knowledge of God. On the other hand,
the phenomenon of initiation is an essential character of the Hermetica,
as can be seen plainly from the first, the fourth, and the thirteenth treatises
of the corpus and from the Latin Asclepius. But if it is true that we have
a hermeneutical key to interpreting the nature of the Hermetic initiation
as it is described in the texts, there is still another significant question,
namely, whether the initiation rituals described in the texts were real ritual
actions or only written imitations of mystery cults. Hence the main question
remains whether the readers of Hermes fulfilled real ritual, initiation-related
practices, or we have to choose a different hermeneutical method whereby we
understand the features referring to initiation as a spiritual reinterpretation
of empirical ritual practices. The latter approach would mean that the text
itself is the instrument and medium of a spiritual initiation. In other words,
we can propose that in the Hermetica and in the Hermetic communities there
were no real initiative practices, but the initiation was the reading of the text
itself. In my paper, I use Burkert’s definition as a guideline. Depending on this
conceptual frame, and considering the Hermetica as a tool for spiritual
initiation, I consider some peculiarities of the Hermetic texts and examine
what kind of baptism and life-giving potion play a role in the Hermetic
mysteries. Furthermore, I demonstrate that if we read the description of these
rituals symbolically, and not in an empirical sense, this does not exclude the
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