“More a kind of god imbued with hero-like human qualities. The books and documents that have become known as the Corpus Hermetica—Latin and Greek texts about him, and writings theoretically by him—arose around this mythic figure, but the Florentines read them all and assumed he was a real sage and priest. For them he was a fount of ancient, sacred wisdom contemporaneous with Moses, and believed to have influenced Plato, although it’s more likely that the Hermetic texts were based on some of Plato’s teachings, among others. But the thing to remember is that the texts were real enough, and fascinating, and they believed Hermes’ wisdom to be very ancient. Many scholars now think they are in fact texts from about a century after the time of Christ, but that they preserve much older oral traditions about pre-Christian Egyptian religious ideas. And to liberal thinkers who were looking for religious truths which might transcend the religious factions they were living through, they were a new vision! These texts allowed them to escape the life-and-death struggles about faith—whether to remain true to Rome or join Luther and Calvin, and whether to vilify Muslims and Jews. The ideas expressed in the Hermetic texts took them to the very essence of God’s being. And they were right in many ways to give them such respect, because we do know now how much the Egyptian religious view of the world influenced Moses.”

Alex laid a hand on Lucy’s lap, asking her to pause. The heady scent of the flowers in the close confines of the warm car, combined with the powerful ideas she was communicating, made him suddenly light-headed.

“Wait, Lucy. Have I got this right? When we speak of Hermeticism, it’s the literature that grew up around this supposedly human Hermes, who was invested with the divine attributes of the Greek god of the same name?” She nodded, and Alex asked: “And the significance of Hermes was…?”

“That he seemed to be speaking to them of a pure religious truth, unbranded, if you will. Ficino called the Hermetic documents ‘a light of divine illumination.’ By contemplating these teachings he felt one could rise above the mind’s deceptions and understand the Divine Mind. This was compelling stuff at a time when differing doctrinal issues pulled people in so many directions. Through this course of study you could apprehend the mind of God directly—or so they thought. Hermes even seemed to have anticipated the coming of Christ—but from a vantage point of Egyptian wisdom. There was a strong tinge of magic and occultism which was imported with his Egyptianized teachings—and a respect for women, too, from the worship of Isis. Hermes was so respected that his image was set into the altar at Siena’s cathedral.”