Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)While Gary Lachman latest book is less of a quest than a fascinating stroll through the Hermetic library, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Much of it involved familiar names - Plato, Pythagoras, Petrarch, Ficino, Pico, Bruno, John Dee, G.R.S. Mead - but to his credit Lackman does a great job of adding less familiar magi (Casaubon, Suhrawardi, Mavronmatis) in making for a compelling narrative. I appreciated his commentary, historical corrections, occasional insights and explanations of Hermeticism, keeping to the story line even when we headed down some dark corridors. This is above all a history book, one that could have been tedious, but Lachman's writing kept my interest. I especially liked the emphasis put on ancient Egypt and how Hermeticism naturally flows from the waters of the Nile, permeating everything in its wake from the Alexandrian Hermeticists to Freemasons to Bruno to Gurdjieff to Rudolf Steiner to Rilke ... I also very much appreciated his crediting Jeremy Naydler's reworking of Plato's instruction to "practice dying" and how it raises the likelihood that texts like the Book of the Dead were not simply used for funerary purposes, but as a vehicle for connecting the microcosm and macrocosm. This goal, given many names, is an essential theme that runs throughout the book. Lackman does a great job in describing the two paths of knowledge, gnosis and epistme, and he points to some exciting new possibilities, but the 'third path' is one that can only be experienced by someone willing to "interiorize" the world for themselves.Embodying Osiris: The Secrets of Alchemical Transformation
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus: From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World
From the sands of Alexandria via the Renaissance palaces of the Medicis, to our own times, this spiritual adventure story traces the profound influence of Hermes Trismegistus -- the 'thrice-great one', as he was often called -- on the western mind. For centuries his name ranked among the most illustrious of the ancient world. Considered by some a contemporary of Moses and a forerunner of Christ, this almost mythical figure arose in fourth century BC Alexandria, from a fusion of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes. Master of magic, writing, science, and philosophy, Hermes was thought to have walked with gods and be the source of the divine wisdom granted to man at the dawn of time. Gary Lachman has written many books exploring ancient traditions for the modern mind. In The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus, he brings to life the mysterious character of this great spiritual guide, exposing the many theories and stories surrounding him, and revitalizing his teachings for the modern world. Through centuries of wars, conquests and religious persecutions, the fragile pages of the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus have still survived.This is a book for all thinkers and enquirers who want to recover that lost knowledge and awaken a shift in human consciousness.
Get 34% OFF
0 comments:
Post a Comment