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INITIATION IN THE HERMETICA The reference to the mixing bowl is a reference to the ritual of baptism. In the quoted passages of the Hermetic text, the ritual is spiritualized; this process means that the life-giving divine mind plays the same role as the lifegiving water in the cultic ritual. Certain Gnostic texts also offer evidence indicating that “material” cultic acts were spiritualized or interpreted symbolically. As K. Rudolph points out, “sometimes it is very difficult to ascertain whether in the utilization of cultic concepts—like, for instance, ‘living water’—we have to do with a rhetorical figure for the gift of Gnosis or enlightenment, or with a covert allusion to a water rite, which the sect practiced.”?! In the Christian tradition, we can find some clear evidence of the spiritual interpretation of baptism or washing in water, and there are some features in this interpretation which suggest that washing was a core element in the teaching of some Christian sects.?? In what follows, I will present two parallel descriptions of the spiritualization process of baptism that are very similar to the Hermetic descriptions of the ritual. I will show that in some early Christian texts, baptism plays a role similar to the role of the symbolic baptism in the divine mind in Hermetica, and this parallelism will, I hope, shed light on some aspects of the Hermetic mysteries. As we shall see, in this context the ritual of baptism means the initiation into a new life, while the ritual itself has a double character: it cleans the initiated person, and at the same time, it is the principle of a new, eternal life.” 3.2. The Spiritualization™ of Baptism in Early Christian Texts According to Hippolytus, the Naasseni held that their teachings went back to Paul’s doctrines. Hippolytus cites Paul’s Letter to the Romans 1, 20-27 as a starting point for the teaching of the Naasseni about the impurity of mankind. He then adds: For in these words which Paul has spoken they say the entire secret of theirs, and a hidden mystery of blessed pleasure, are comprised. For the promise of washing is not any other, according to them, than the introduction of him that is washed in, according to them, life-giving water, and anointed with ineffable ointment (than his introduction) into unfading bliss.” ?! Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis, Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 1987, 220. 2 About the possible connections between the Hermetica and early Christian literature, see W. C. Grese, Corpus Hermeticum Thirteen and Early Christian literature, Leiden, Brill, 1979, 44-47. Cf. Giovanni Filoramo: Baptismal Nudity as a Means of Ritual Purification in Ancient Christianity, in Jan Assmann — Guy G. Strousma (eds.), Transformations of the Inner Self in Ancient Religions, Leiden, Brill, 1999 393-404; Rudolph, Gnosis, 227. 4 Cf. Rudolph, Gnosis, 220. 35 Philosophumena V, 7, 19. 23 9 2] e Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 21 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:10
