The scheme of Alexander the Great to establish a Greek flavored Mystery Babylon as the global religious system might have succeeded very early, but for one big setback. The rise of Christianity, with its Judeo-Christian meta-narrative, both rivaled and weakened the system. The big trend whose conclusion is the demarcation between ancient times and the middle Ages is the triumph of Christianity over Paganism as the primary religious narrative of the Roman Empire.
As Paganism became increasingly under siege, Hermeticism was increasingly seen among the various pagan communities as the standard bearer of a united Pagan spirituality. Iamblichus of Chalcis sought to create a united Pagan front using Hermeticism as point guard.31
After the fall of Ancient Paganism, Hermeticism survived throughout the Middle Ages by blending in with the pre-dominant religions. Hermeticism initially made some inroads among certain church fathers, albeit at the cost of those father attempting to redefine Hermeticism on Christian rather than Pagan terms.
“…a number of church fathers did their best to co-opt Hermetic writings in support of Christianity, going to the extent of forging ‘oracles of Hermes’ that predicted the coming of Jesus…Hermetic documents that might otherwise have been consigned to the flames were preserved and copied throughout the Middle Ages. A good deal of Hermeticism thus survived in Christian garb, giving rise to Christian occult traditions”32
While some Hermeticism survived in Christian guise, the most fertile ground for Hermeticism in the Middle Ages was found in Islamist countries. The New Encyclopedia of the Occult provides some background here
“The Arab invasion of the eighth century replaced one dogmatic religion with another in Egypt and through much of the Mediterranean world. The Muslim conquerors absorbed many of the cultural traditions of the peoples they overran, however, and a large body of Hermetic practice was taken over both by mystically minded Muslims and by Arab magicians. The Quran, the holy book of Islam, also provided a loophole for Hermeticists by including ‘Sabians’ among the Peoples of the Book. What the term Sabian meant… was widely interpreted to mean Hermeticism” 33
Medieval Islam as carrier of Hermeticism
When Islam conquered Arab, Greek, Persian and Hindu lands many of the native occult practices survived. Some of these became integrated into one of several Sufi traditions. Sufi Islam emphasizes intimate experience with God and often involved mysticism or pantheistic or gnostic concepts of God.
When Islam conquered Arab, Greek, Persian and Hindu lands many of the native occult practices survived. Some of these became integrated into one of several Sufi traditions. Sufi Islam emphasizes intimate experience with God and often involved mysticism or pantheistic or gnostic concepts of God.
One cult that seems to spread throughout Islam is the cult of Hermes Trismegistus. In Islamic thought it was believed that all religion contained kernals of truth but would evolve into Islam. The following illustration is used
“The first chapter of the Fusus al-hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom) is entitled 'The Wisdom of Divinity in the Word of Adam'. It begins with the assertion that the Real created the cosmos as an all-inclusive object in which he could contemplate the entities of his names, but that until he created Adam and breathed his spirit into him, the cosmos remained like an unpolished mirror. Here Ibn al-'Arabi's idea seems to be that the cosmos as a whole - the totality of existent entities - manifests all the divine names but does so in a diffuse way, whereas man, as a microcosm endowed with consciousness, brings them into sharp focus as a unity. Potentially every man is a microcosm, but in practice men differ in their polishing of the cosmic mirror, with only a select few realizing their primordial nature. These are the prophets and saints, all of whom belong to the category of 'the perfect man' (al-insan al-kamil). They alone assume the character traits of God, which are latent in all human beings, and manifest them in perfect equilibrium.
“Muhammad is the 'perfect man' par excellence. Basing his argument on the hadith (sayings of the Prophet), 'I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay', Ibn al-'Arabi propounds the view that as 'the Muhammadan reality' (al-haqiqa al-Muhammadiyya), Muhammad is identical with 'the first intellect' (al-'aql al-awwal), the eternal principle unifying the immutable entities. All the other prophets, beginning with Adam, only became prophets during their historical mission; each was the bearer of a fragment of this Muhammadan reality in a particular place and time, a bezel in which a jewel of the divine wisdom was displayed. None the less, after their mission the prophets continued to exert an influence through the saints who were their spiritual heirs.” 34
What this commentary about Islamic scholar Ibn al-'Arabi is saying is that each man is a microcosm of the god-universe and his consciousness is capable and unifying the divine attributes and thus unifying god in the world. The view is that man's ability to 'polish the cosmic mirror' is the key to realizing the divine nature and that people differ in their ability to polish that mirror. This is a scheme of spiritual evolution that is seen here as ending with Islam.
This spiritual evolution is standard Hermeticism: From god emanates his nature into the universe.Man is needed to unify, evolve and focus the divine nature. As man evolved into the divine nature by polishing the cosmic mirror, the full reality of god is fulfilled.
According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Mystical philosophy has an intimate connection with the mainstream of Islamic philosophy. It consists of several main strands, ranging from Isma'ili thought to the metaphysics of al-Ghazali and Ibn al-'Arabi, and with a continuing powerful presence in the contemporary Islamic world” 35 Nasr has this to say about the role of Hermeticism in Islam.
“Two of the notable philosophical elements associated with Shi'ism in general and Isma'ilism in particular during the early centuries of Islamic history are Hermetism and Pythagoreanism, the presence of which is already evident in that vast corpus of writings associated with Jabir ibn Hayyan, who was at once alchemist and philosopher. The philosophical dimension of the Jabirian corpus is certainly of a mystical nature, having incorporated much of Hermeticism into itself, as are later works of Islamic alchemy which in fact acted as channels for the transmission of Hermetic philosophy to the medieval West. When one thinks of the central role of Hermeticism in Western mystical philosophy, one must not forget the immediate Islamic origin of such fundamental texts as the Emerald Tablet and the Turba Philosophorum, and therefore the significance of such works as texts of Islamic mystical philosophy. Obviously, therefore, one could not speak of Islamic mystical philosophy without mentioning at least the Hermetical texts integrated into Islamic thought by alchemists as well as philosophers and Sufis, and also Hermetic texts written by Muslim authors themselves.” 36
Hermetic Roots of Jihadism.
As much as Islamists claim to want to return to pure Islam without pagan contamination there are Hermetic roots to the modern Islamist movement. Sayyid Qutb is considered a leading figure in the modern Islamist movement. He was a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood who wrote extensively. His brother Muhammad Qutb, mentored Dr Ayman Zahawiri who mentored Osama bin Laden. His writings influence modern jihadists and contain Hermetic ideas. The following quote from Qutb should make this clear
“So all creation issuing as it does from one absolute, universal, and active Will, forms an all-embracing unity in which each individual part is in harmonious order with the remainder...Thus, then, all creation is a unity comprising different parts; it has a common origin, a common providence and purpose, because it was produced by a single, absolute, and comprehensive Will...So the universe cannot be hostile to life, or to man; nor can 'Nature' in our modern phrase be held to be antagonistic to man, opposed to him, or striving against him. Rather she is a friend whose purposes are one with those of life and of mankind. And the task of living beings is not to contend with Nature, for they have grown up in her bosom, and she and they together form a part of the single universe which proceeds from the single will.” 37
The phrase 'issuing from' implies that creation is co-eternal. It also contains the idea of god bringing forth a creation containing divine essence. Also Qutb seems to personify nature. Mother nature gave birth and nursed man in this figure. This sounds like the mother-goddess myths of pagan lore. Qutb here also seems to be promoting an absolute unity of man and nature with nature and the human race flowing in the same purpose. Nature personified could be interpreted to mean evolution and, that the evolution of government flows from natural evolution. Qutb's framework here can easily be used to justify a global government issuing straight from god as if it were god himself-with mother nature channeling the action. In Qutb's view this would be a global Islamic State that assumes “the vice-regency of God on earth”. 38
Since man, in this Islamo-Hermetic thought, is needed to focus or channel the divine consciousness it follow that a unified, focused humanity is in order. A human race that thinks as one person: given the inequality of men in polishing the divine mirror - a particular world-historical personage emerges. A very short step brings the Hermeticist to exalt a global state and a global dictator as god.
When the Islamist Ottoman Empire, which was the seventh head of the beast, conquered the Byzantine Roman Empire, the stage was set for events to start the Renaissance.
The Renaissance
In the early 15th century, the Ottoman Empire was about to conquer the Roman Empire. The impending doom of the Byzantine Roman Empire created in climate that allowed the Great Whore occult networks an opportunity to infiltrate Western Europe.
When the Roman Empire in the East fell many scholars from the Roman Empire fled to Western Europe. Some of these had views that were compatible with Christian orthodoxy; others had views more compatible with Occult practices and philosophies like Neo-Platonism, Occult Mysticism, Gnosticism, and Hermeticism. The occult oriented scholars brought to Western Europe both the occult practices and occult networks of the Great Whore to Western Europe.
Of the many scholars who promoted the occult in Western Europe, George Gemistos Plethon was the most influential. He got his opportunity when the Eastern Orthodox churches sought to pursue union with the Roman Catholic Church in order to secure the co-operation of Western Europe in combating the Islamic Ottoman Empire. The Roman and Eastern Orthodox Clergy agreed to meet in Florence Italy. Florence was then an independent city-state on Roman turf.
Because Roman Emperor John 8 Palaeologus ”...knew they were going to face some of the finest minds in the Roman Church on their own soil; he therefore wanted the best minds available in support of the Byzantine cause to accompany him. Consequently, the Emperor appointed George Gemistos as part of the delegation....”39
Gemistos Plethon was born sometime after 1355.40 As a young man he went to school at Hadrianopolis (now Edirne, Turkey). Hadrianopolis was, in Plethon's youth, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. While he was there he was schooled in Neo-platonism, which at that time was the philosophical framework for various occult mysteries. Gemistos went to the capital city of the Great Whore to learn her secrets.
When Gemistos went to Florence he was invited by “some Florentine humanists to give a series of lectures on the differences between Plato and Aristotle”41 A temporary school was set up and Gemistos lectured on Neo-platonism and related occult mysteries.
Gemistos not only taught Neo-platonism generally but also distributed to the west a specific body of occult texts called the Corpus Hermeticum. Wheras Neo-platonism is the philosophy of Hermeticism the Corpus Hermeticum is the “Bible” of Hermeticism.
Gemistos lectures made a huge impact on the intellectual community of Florence. The timing was perfect, as Florence was undergoing a Renaissance that would influence subsequent European history. With 50 years the many leading scientists, intellectuals and many political figures were practicing Hermetic occultism and other occult practices.
References
31 The New Encyclopedia of the Occult, 2004, John Michael Greer,
Llewellyn Publications, St Paul MN. Page 223, 3rd para.
32 ibid Page 223, para 4-5.
33 ibid, Page 223, para 6.
34 Ibn al-'Arabi, Muhyi al-Din (1164-1240), Neal Robinson, Islamic Philosophy Online, (1998),
Retrieved from
35 Mystical Philosophy in Islam, Seyyed Hossein Nasr , Islamic Philosophy Online, (1998),
Retrieved from
36 ibid
37 Sayyid Qutb, From Social Justice in Islam (1949),
Cited in History of the Middle East Database, Ted Thornton, Department of History and Social Science, Northfield Mount Hermon School (2006),
Retrieved from
38 ibid
39 George Gemistos Plethon on God: Heterodoxy in Defense of Orthodoxy, Darien C. DeBolt
University of Oklahoma
Retrieved from
Retrieved from
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