Page 17 [17]
OCR
INITIATION IN THE HERMETICA possibility that they could play a significant role in a real spiritual initiation process.’ I call this mode of interpretation the “spiritualization of the ritual,” as van Moorsel did.? Before proceeding to a detailed analysis, we have to bear in mind that since there is no external evidence of the existence of Hermetic groups or of religious communities which regarded the Hermetic writings as their sacred books, we have to analyse the texts themselves as well as some parallel evidence in order to venture further conclusions. In recent years, some detailed analyses have appeared concerning the nature of the Hermetic spiritual ritual,* but as far as I can judge, Gerard Van Moorsel laid down the foundation for this kind of research, based on linguistic investigation, in his book The Mysteries of Hermes Trismegistus.° There is yet another essential similarity between the Hermetica and the mysteries. This feature can be called “individualization.” In the case of mysteries, there are public rituals accessible to the non-initiated, while the purpose of the real, non-public initiation is the total transformation of the person, of the inner self. As Walter Burkert’s definition runs, mysteries were initiation rituals of a voluntary, personal, and secret character which aimed at a change of mind through experience of the sacred.° I am asserting that the same holds true of the Hermetic initiation.’ There is an old debate about the nature of the Hermetic ritual. Some scholars considered the texts as sacred documents for religious groups. Richard Reitzenstein, in his pioneering work about Hermetica, tried to prove the existence of a so-called ‘Poimandres-community’, on which see R. Reitzenstein, Poimandres: Studien zur griechisch-aegyptischen und frühchristlichen Literatur, Leipzig, Teubner, 1904. On Reitzenstein’s method, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics. Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1990. For the opposing view, see Festugiére’s famous book, La revelation d’Hermes Trismegiste, 4 vols., Paris, Gabalda, 1950-1954. Apart from the references in the citations, see J.-P. Mahé, Hermés en haute-Egypte, 2 vols., Quebec, Presses de l’Université Laval. 1978-1982. In recent times, scholars do not exclude the possibility of Hermetic religious groups as definitely as Festugiére did. For more on the socio-cultural background, see R. Gurgel-Pereira, The Hermetic Logos: The Hermetic Literature from the Hellenistic Age to Late Antiquity, Saarbriicken, LAP, 2011. Gerard Van Moorsel, The Mysteries of Hermes Trismegistus. A Phenomenologic Study in the Process of Spiritualisation in the Corpus Hermeticum and Latin Asclepius, Utrecht, Kemink en zoon, 1955; and idem, Die Symbolsprache in der hermetischen Gnosis, Symbolon, 1960/1, 128-137. The following books are the most thought-provoking in this respect: J. P. Södergärd, The Hermetic Piety of the Mind: A Semiotic and Cognitive Study of the Discourse of Hermes Trismegistos, Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2003 (Coniectanea Biblica: New Testament series 41); Anna Van den Kerchove, La Voie d’Hermeés. Pratiques rituelles et traités hermétiques, Leiden, Brill, 2012 (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 77). See my footnote above. ® Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, 11. Giovanni Filoramo, The Transformation of the Inner Self in Gnostic and Hermetic Texts, in Jan Assmann — Guy G. Strousma (eds.), Transformations of the Inner Self in Ancient Religions, Leiden, Brill, 137-149. Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 15 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:09
