The Quantic Hermetism derives its name from its mythical founding father Hermes Trismegistus the thrice great great great Hermes. Hermetists had a positive view about the material world and believed that human beings could find their original divinity by means of an intuitive mystical gnosis.
The Corpus Hermeticum, an important collection of texts attributed to Hermes, was translated into Latin in the second half of the Fifteenth century by the Neoplatonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino. This resulted in a widespread revival during the Renaissance which has exerted an important cultural influence up to our present many biblical sources led the way to the discovery of the Kabbalah, a Jewish form of mysticism.
Influenced by these sources, Renaissance scholars introduced many innovations into these practices. Particularly important among these was the development of a Christian version of the Kabbalah, an event that inspired the further development of the esoteric traditions within Christianity.
The modern reformulation of these ‘Hermetic sciences’ gave rise to Theosophy, Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry in the eighteen century. Further developments inspired the proliferation of esoteric rites and systems during the Enlightenment, many of which are still in vogue.
The Romantic imagination had its own esoteric revival during which notonly older esoteric traditions found a new life, but also many new esoteric manifestations were born: German Naturphilosophie, Occultism, Sweden-borgianism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism and many varieties of Freemasonand Rosicrucian orders.
The Romantic imagination had its own esoteric revival during which notonly older esoteric traditions found a new life, but also many new esoteric manifestations were born: German Naturphilosophie, Occultism, Sweden-borgianism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism and many varieties of Freemasonand Rosicrucian orders.
The Romantic fascination with the exoticism ofhe East had an important impact on esotericism which has been flexible enough to enhance its pedigree by now adding Buddhist, Indian, Chinese and other Eastern influences into its perennial sources of ‘true wisdom’.
These developments paved the way to today’s major esoteric currents and teachings: Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society; Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy. C. G. Jung and his archetypal psychology.
These developments paved the way to today’s major esoteric currents and teachings: Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society; Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy. C. G. Jung and his archetypal psychology.
The Fourth Way movements inspired by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and contemporary versions of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism. All these esoteric currents have never been as popular as they are today. 8 day. See Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964).
Roelof van den Broek and Wouter J. Hanegraaff, eds., Gnosis and Hermeticism: From Antiquity to Modern Times (New York: State University of New York Press, 1998); Antoine Faivre, The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus (Grand. Rapids, Mich: Phanes Press, 1995.
In the twentieth century esotericism found new forms of expression, among them the New Thought movement, a development which is experiencing a revival in the early years of the twenty first century. Also worth mention is the New Age, a complex and amorphous religious movement with roots in the esoteric tradition, born from the counter-cultural currents of the 1960s it started to gain momentum in the 1970s and that has grown into a much billion of dollar.
