Terminology
The term Hermetic is from medieval Latin hermeticus, which is derived from the name of the Greek god, Hermes. In English, it has been attested since the 17th century as the adjective Hermetic (as in "Hermetic writers" e.g. Franz Bardon). The synonymous Hermetical also occurs in the 17th century. Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici of 1643 wrote "Now besides these particular and divided Spirits, there may be (for ought I know) a universal and common Spirit to the whole world. It was the opinion of Plato, and is yet of the Hermeticall Philosophers." (R.M. Part 1:32).
In Greece, the use of words beginning with herm dates from at least 600 BCE. Hermetic refers to a pillar or post that was used in pre-classical Greece, "of square shape, surmounted by a head with a beard. The square, limbless Hermes was a step in advance of the unwrought stone." The stone pillar was used to communicate with the deities. The god, Hermes, is a generic term used by the pre-classical Greeks for any deity, and was only later associated with the god of knowledge in Athens in the 2nd Century CE. The word, hermetic, was used by Dr. Everard in the English translation of The Pimander of Hermes(1650). Mary Anne Atwood mentioned the use of the word Hermetic by Dufresnoy in 1386.
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