Hermetic teachings for the Seeker: Chapter 12:The Hermetic Vision of God
The seeker and the mystic walked slowly through the courtyard, the evening light catching on the stone columns like faint gold. A quiet breeze stirred the leaves overhead as the seeker spoke.
Seeker: “I’ve been reading the Hermetica, but I’m confused. Is Hermeticism monotheistic? Polytheistic? Pantheistic? Or something else entirely? The texts seem to say so many different things.”
The mystic smiled softly, as if the question had followed him many years.
Mystic: “You’re not alone, seeker. Students of Hermes have puzzled over this for centuries. The divine in the Hermetica is too vast to be captured by a single label. But let me show you how the tradition itself speaks.”
They came to rest beside a small fountain, its water whispering over the stone.
Mystic: “The Hermetica begin with a single truth: there is One Source behind all things. Sometimes called the Good, sometimes The All, sometimes Nous, the Divine Mind.
In Poimandres, Hermes hears:
‘The One, who is prior to all beings, is the Good… He is all and everything that is.’
((CH I, Poimandres))
This is the monistic heart of Hermeticism. The One is not a deity among others, nor a being within the cosmos. The One is before all beings.”
The seeker nodded slowly.
Mystic: “But unlike the God of the Abrahamic faiths, the One is not approached through obedience or exclusive worship. Hermeticism invites an inward search, a recognition that the divine is not separate from you.”
Seeker: “But the Hermetica talk about gods too. How can there be many gods if there is only One?”
The mystic gestured upward to the sky.
Mystic: “Just as light radiates from the sun without diminishing it, so too do the powers of the cosmos emanate from the One. The Hermetica speak of gods, but they are divine intelligences — not rivals to the One, but expressions of it.”
He quoted gently:
“The gods are not uncreated, but were born from the One through the Logos.”
“These gods dwell in the spheres, in the celestial harmony. They are powers, forces, intelligences — intermediaries that hold the cosmos in order.
This is not polytheism as competition. It is emanation — unity expressing itself as multiplicity.”
The mystic picked up a fallen leaf and held it between his fingers.
Mystic: “Hermeticism teaches that God is all things — the breath of the world.”
He recited from memory:
‘There is nothing which is not God… He is in all things, and all things are in Him.’
Mystic: “This is pantheism — the divine in everything.
But the Hermetica go further:
God is also beyond everything.
More than the sum of creation.
This is panentheism.”
He let the leaf fall.
Mystic: “The One is both the essence within all and the transcendence beyond all. Hermes refuses to choose between these truths.”
Seeker: “And why does Hermes call God ‘He’? Is God male in the Hermetica?”
The mystic shook his head gently.
Mystic: “No more than the ocean is male. The masculine pronoun comes from Greek grammar — ho theos, ‘the God,’ is grammatically masculine. But the Hermetica themselves say God contains all opposites.”
He recited:
“God is all — male and female, source and end, light and life.”
“Later Hermetic and Gnostic writings even elevate feminine principles — Nature, Wisdom, Sophia — as divine forces. The One is beyond gender, form, or limitation.”
The seeker flipped open his notebook.
Seeker: “Then how should I think about the Hermetic God compared to other religions?”
Mystic: “Think of it this way:”
| View | Hermetic Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monotheism | Partial | One supreme source, but not exclusive or jealous |
| Polytheism | No | Gods exist, but as emanations, not rivals |
| Pantheism | Yes | God is the All |
| Panentheism | Yes | The All is in God, but God is also beyond all |
| Emanationism | Yes | All things flow from the One |
Mystic: “Hermeticism blends these into a single current.
One Source.
Many powers.
All divine.”
The mystic’s voice softened.
Mystic: “Ultimately, Hermeticism is not a belief system. It is an invitation. A call to gnosis — direct knowledge of the divine.”
He continued:
Mystic: “Christianity says:
‘There is one God; worship Him alone.’
Hermeticism says:
‘There is One from whom all things come — and in knowing the One, you become divine.’
This is the difference: God is not distant but present. Not separate but within. The divine is not something you worship from afar — it is something you awaken to.”
He placed a hand over the seeker’s chest.
Mystic: “The real journey is not upward or outward. It is inward. The One is already here, waiting to be known.”
The Witch's and Druids Den 