Hermeticism
A tradition of writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, a Greek name for a figure joined to the Egyptian god Thoth.
Also: Hermetic tradition, Corpus Hermeticum, Hermes Trismegistus
The Corpus Hermeticum is a group of Greek texts written mostly in Roman Egypt in the first to third centuries, about God, the cosmos and the soul. Marsilio Ficino translated it into Latin in 1463, and the Renaissance took it for very old Egyptian wisdom. In 1614 Isaac Casaubon showed that the texts were of late antique date, though interest in Hermetic ideas persisted in alchemy, astrology and ceremonial magic. The Emerald Tablet, a short text on correspondence, was especially cited by alchemists. Later orders, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, took the name for their own systems. Hermeticism is therefore both an ancient body of texts and a tradition built on them.