Oldal 21 [21]
INITIATION IN THE HERMETICA
to a pure meal which contains no living thing.” Why is it so important that
the meal not contain meat? A parallel can be found for a vegetarian meal for
example in the mysteries at Cave Ida in Crete. Ifthe meal is free of meat, this
means that the initiated person has no contact with life or death anymore."
The instruction of Hermes is an obvious allusion to a pure, sacred meal, and
it makes sense for the reader only if it refers to an empirical cultic practice.
Below, I will analyse two examples of spiritualized ritual acts in Hermetic
texts, baptism and the function of life-giving potion.
Second, two conclusions can be drawn from the fact that—apart from
the Hermetic texts—we do not have any evidence about the existence of
Hermetic communities. The first conclusion was drawn by Van Moorsel, who
contended to have found the proper method of interpretation.’* According to
Van Moorsel, it is possible that in Hellenistic times the spiritual or allegorical
interpretation of the mysteries was a widespread method in some philosophical
or religious communities. On the basis of this hypothesis, we may suppose
that the Hermetica played a special, significant role in these circles and that
the books themselves—not cultic practices—had their own effect. Yet we
cannot assume anything more than that, because of the lack of any solid proof.
Otherwise, an argumentum ex silentio like this does not mean that there were
no Hermetic groups at all. So according to my hypothesis, it does seem right to
suppose that the Hermetica preserves the description of a real initiation. Since
the edition of the Nag Hammadi Corpus we have some external evidence that
the Hermetic texts were used and widely known.” We know from Iamblichus
or Zosimos that there were readers who used the Hermetica as one of their
important sources." From this fact derives the second conclusion: if the rituals
in Hermetic texts refer to a real initiation, then there could be communities
which applied the Hermetic texts and rituals.
Asclepius Latinus: Haec optantes convertimus nos ad puram et sine animalibus cenam,
Nock-Festugiére, Corpus Hermeticum, Vol. 2, 355.
Burkert, Greek religion, 280.
16 Van Morsel, The Mysteries, 34-76.
The Hermetic texts found in the Nag Hammadi Library have special importance for
the examinations concerning the ritual practices in Hermetica. For further details see Karl¬
Wolfgang Troger, On Investigating the Hermetic Documents Contained in Nag Hammadi
Codex VI, in R. M. Wilson (ed.), Nag Hammadi and Gnosis, Leiden, Brill, 117-121; James
M. Robinson, The Coptic Gnostic Library, Vol. 9, Leiden, Brill, 1979; J.-P. Mahé, La voie
dimmortalité a la lumiére des Hermetica de Nag Hammadi et des découvertes plus récentes,
Vigiliae Christianae, 45/4 (1991), 347-37; R. Van den Broek, Religious Practices in the Hermetic
Lodge, in, R. Van Heertum — Roelof Van den Broek (eds.), From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme:
Gnosis, Hermetism and the Christian Tradition, Amsterdam, In de Pelikaan, 2000, 78-95.
For the explicit reference to Hermes by Zosimos, see On the Letter Omega, in Michéle
Mertens (trans.), Les alchimistes Grecs, Tome IV/1, 1-10. In the case of Iamblichus,
the most famous example is his De mysteriis, on which see Johan C. Thom (ed.), Jamblichus:
On the Mysteries, trans. Emma Clarke, John Dillon, and Jackson P Hershbell, Atlanta,
Society of Biblical Literature, 2003.
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