Hermetism and Other Religions - Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Hermeticism is a Gnostic religion, being one of the two major branches of Gnosticism, the other being Christian Gnosticism, together they are often seen as being sister religions, both flourishing in the same period in, in the same spiritual climate, sharing the goal of the soul escaping from the material realm through true understanding, and emphasizing personal knowledge of God. Both were part of the third pillar of Western culture; representing the balance between Greek rationality and biblical faith along with the Cathars. Both groups saw the fundamental relationship between God and man was found through gnosis in a goal to "see" God and in some instances become one with God.

Christian Gnostics, however, felt that there was something seriously wrong with Nous, a part of The All; to them, it seemed that the concept could be stretched so far as to say that by bringing the world into existence, God had to remove himself from it at the same time. They also differed on the basis of theology, cosmology, and anthropology. Though both agreed in God's transcendence over the Universe, Hermetists believed that God could still be comprehended through philosophical reasoning, in agreement with philosophers and Christian theologians, but Gnostics felt God was completely unknowable. While the Gnostics indulged in mythological references often, Hermetic texts are generally void of mythology, with Poimandres as an exception. Hermetism is optimistic about God, while many forms of Chritian Gnosticism are pessimistic about the creator (a different being from their conception of God): Several Christian Gnostic sects saw the Cosmos were the product of an evil creator and thus evil itself, while Hermetists saw the Cosmos as a beautiful creation in the image of God. Both view that mankind was originally divine and has become entrapped in the material world, a slave to passion and distracted from divine nature. However, the Gnostics often held a pessimistic view of mankind as a result while the Hermetic belief is generally positive towards mankind just the same. Rather, Hermetists believed that the human body was not bad in itself, but materialistic impulses such as sexual desire were the cause of evil in the world.