Atlas Trail
A Beginner's Route Through Hermeticism
Hermeticism is easier to name than to enter, because almost everything written about it assumes you already know who Hermes Trismegistus is meant to be. This route takes the long way in: the two gods behind the name first, then the tradition, then the one short text everybody quotes, then the neighbours it is constantly confused with.
Stop 1 of 6.
Deities
Start with the Egyptian god of writing and reckoning, because the composite figure the whole tradition is named after begins here and not in Greece.
Stop 2 of 6.
Deities
Now the Greek god the Egyptians were identified with under Ptolemaic rule. The identification is the hinge: neither figure on its own produces Hermes Trismegistus.
Stop 3 of 6.
Religions
With both halves in place, the tradition itself. Read it knowing that its founding author is a composite and that the dating of its texts has been argued over since the seventeenth century.
Stop 4 of 6.
Alchemical Principles
One stop sideways into the practical tradition that took the previous text as a charter. Mercury here is a principle, not the metal and not the planet, and keeping those three apart is most of the difficulty.
Stop 5 of 6.
Religions
The first of the two neighbours. Much of what is loosely called Hermetic is Neoplatonic, and the two are separable.
Stop 6 of 6.
Religions
The second neighbour, and the one most often merged with Hermeticism in modern writing. End here with the distinction in hand rather than assuming it.
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