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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 KarlWolfgang 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. +19 + Daröczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 19 ® 2020. 06.15. 11:04:10
