To the source
When a gnostic from the school of Valentinus writes that gnosis is the quest for understanding 'who we were and what we have become; where we were, whither we are hastening; from what we are being released; what is birth and what rebirth', he reflects in a few words the common core of a complex of teachings and conceptions which are embraced by the term Gnosis.
Gnosis is knowledge resulting from insight, experience; an intuitive process of self-knowledge, in which the self is identical to the divine within us; self-knowledge implies knowledge of God. One's own mind is a guiding principle on this path of awakening and self-discovery; there is no method. Look unto God, the gnostic recommends, and know thyself.
The path of the individual is that which gnostics, mystics and 'heretics' of all ages have in common. Their strictly individualist attitude opposes the church as an institution and undermines the clerical organisation: after all, because of their immediate bond with the divine, gnostics can do without ecclesiastical authorities: enlightenment and inner security are sufficient.
The developing Christian church responded by fighting gnosticism in word and deed. These anti-gnostic works were the major source of information concerning gnosticism until the Nag Hammadi library was discovered in 1945.
The Nag Hammadi codices, once characterized as the 'Zen of the West', provide an interpretation of biblical knowledge in the perspective of redemption through knowledge: the story of Paradise is seen through the eyes of the serpent who represents the principle of redemption through gnosis; Jesus is seen, not as much as the redeemer, but rather as a guide showing his disciples the path to enlightenment, as a result of which they will become equal to him. God is both male and female. The Jahwe from the Old Testament is identified with the evil Demiurge, an unfaithful, jealous god with above him the first creator: Sophia, or wisdom, god the mother.
There are many differences between the hermetic writings and the gnostic corpus, but there are also similarities: for instance God's androgyny, his anonymity and the fact that he cannot be known, the creating Demiurge, the primordial man Anthropos and his 'fall' into matter. Moreover, both types of text show a similar tendency to return to their transcendent source by bridging the duality, a pursuit motivating both the gnostic and the Hermetist.
The Nag Hammadi codices contain a number of Hermetic texts, among which two fragments from the Asclepius, a work attributed to Hermes Trismegistus which has survived in Latin. The translation was believed to have been provided by Apuleius of Madaura. Added to Apuleius' work, this Hermetic treatise already circulated in the Middle Ages, before the rediscovery of the Corpus Hermeticum. It was known to a great many philosophers and mystics, including Hildegard von Bingen, Nicolaus de Cusa, Marsilio Ficino, Agrippa and Giordano Bruno. The Asclepius fragment in Nag Hammadi codex VI contains the famous passage on the magical animation of statues by demons.
The Hermetic writings developed independently of the gnostic teachings. Its core consists of a number of aphorisms or principles which, through the addition of interpretations and comments, were enlarged to become Hermetic treatises. The comments might be derived from Egyptian, Jewish, Greek and gnostic sources, as a result of which some of the preserved treatises acquired a distinct gnostic flavour. The Hermetic principles were part of philosophical schooling and initiation, and may have been used in communities which applied 'gnostic' magic to 'open the heavens' in ecstasy and reach redemption.
The transmission of gnostic and Hermetic thought in the Middle Ages - in so far as it did not happen through the Asclepius - is still largely shrouded in mystery. But an important part is played by Hellenistic (and Arabian) alchemy which interacted with gnosticism: the alchemist Zosimos for example uses gnostic concepts and images in his search for redemption; some gnostics use a more or less chemical terminology to express their longing for purification.
Beside mystical alchemy, Jewish Cabbala also has traits in common with gnosticism and Hermetism: the cabbalistic Adam Kadmon can be compared to the Hermetic Anthropos, and in both the Cabbala and Hermetism, emphasis is on creation through the Word, the creative Logos.
Related themes recur in the work of Neoplatonists like Macrobius and Dionysius the Areopagite, which is not at all surprising in view of the Platonic backgrounds of Hermetism and gnosticism. Dionysius the Areopagite derived his authority from the fact that he was taken for the 'Areopagite' of the Acts, who was converted by Paul. His views on the hierarchies of the heavens and his 'negative theology' exerted great influence on mystics and philosophers as Eckhart, Tauler, Cusa and Ficino: following Dionysius, they define God by that which he is not, as God transcends any positive statement about Him.
The definite triumph of Hermes Trismegistus begins in 1460, when a Macedonian monk, Leonardo of Pistoia, delivers to Cosimo de Medici a Greek codex containing fourteen treatises: the Corpus Hermeticum.
Through the Council of Ferrara, which was set up to unite the church of the West with the church of the East, the Aristotelian West came into contact with Oriental Platonism. At the instance of the Byzantine Gemisthus Pletho, Cosimo de Medici founded the Platonic Academy in Florence, appointing a young scholar, Marsilio Ficino, as its principal. Cosimo commissioned Ficino to translate the Corpus Hermeticum, for which Marsilio temporarily set aside his translation of the work of Plato: after all, Hermes was even more ancient than Plato and he was considered the source of all wisdom. The Hermetic writings were printed in the early years of the art of printing.
Hermes Trismegistus derived his authority from the fact that he was regarded as the Egyptian Moses, and one of those who had stood at the source of the divine revelation. His texts evoke reminiscences of Genesis and Plato's Timaeus. Moreover, he spoke of the Trinity, the Fall of Man and Redemption by the Son of God, Christian baptism, eternal life and resurrection, and these words made him the first pagan philosopher to anticipate Christian truths. As such, he was the preceptor of Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato.
Despite philological criticism claiming that the contemporary redaction of the Hermetic texts was of a much more recent date, Hermes retained his authority in the eyes of 17th-century philosophers. In his magisterial work Hermes en Haute Egypte, (1978-82) Jean-Pierre Mahé proved, also on philological grounds, that the core of a Hermetic text is certainly older and reveals Egyptian influences.
The magic described in Asclepius remained a crucial point. Moderate Hermetists regarded the passage either as an interpolation of the alleged translator, the magus Apuleius, or - as did Lazarelli - they interpreted the fragment in a Christian sense: it was Christ's inspiration which animated the statues - his Apostles - as a result of which they became equal to him.
Ficino uses the magic from Asclepius cautiously to build a bridge between the duality of the material present and the Eternal One.
The magic of the radical Hermetist Giordano Bruno reaches further: he directly addresses the One, whom he tries to approach within his own consciousness by means of a Hermetically interpreted mnemonic system. This makes him a Renaissance gnostic.
Cleared from magic by French Hermetists and associated with the Christian Cabbala by Pico della Mirandola, the Hermetic ideas spread throughout Europe. Although we do not as yet know exactly how their dissemination came about, a subject insufficiently investigated as yet, we do know that men like Agrippa of Nettesheim and Paracelsus were substantial figures in this development.
The German protestant mystic Jacob Boehme transforms the terminology of Paracelsus into his own theosophic system using Cabbalistic and Gnostic aspects, including the idea of the androgynous Adam and his heavenly bride Sophia. The Sophia-theory of the followers of Boehme culminates in the work of Gottfried Arnold. His ecclesiastical oeuvre sparked off scholarly research into Gnosticism.
This exhibition aims to show the continuance of the basic principles of gnosis: the attempt to bridge the duality by means of self-knowledge in order to return to the divine origin.
A selection was made from the library's four main collection areas: Hermetism, Mysticism, Alchemy, and the early Rosicrucian writings. The authors of these texts all have one thing in common: they strive for gnosis. They are all part of a ramified flow which springs from that one source.
F. van Lamoen