The Hermeticist Next Door: Part II

The Hermeticist Next Door

Part II:

C. S. Lewis, Undiscerning Christian Leaders,

and the Western Esoteric Traditions

Introduction

Hermes Trismegistus,
Supposed Founder of
Hermeticism

Earlier articles in this blog have often focused upon problems with the teachings of C. S. Lewis and the other Inklings, but in this, the second part of our Hermeticist Next Door series, we will look deeply at the historical stream of which he and the influences surrounding him were a part. As we understand their philosophical, religious, and literary roots, their true nature will become clearer.

Lewis is deeply rooted in what is known as the Western Esoteric Traditions (or Tradition). This term describes a number of important movements and practices that have occurred over many centuries—powerful influences that have been very significant in the history of Christianity, right down to our present age. Yet sometimes these influences have gone completely unnoticed by the majority of Christians.

What exactly are the Western Esoteric Traditions?

The Western esoteric traditions have their roots in a religious way of thinking, which reaches back to Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism in the Hellenistic world during the first centuries A.D. In the Renaissance, the rediscovery of ancient texts led to the scholarly revival of magic, astrology, alchemy, and Kabbalah. Following the Reformation, this spiritual current gave rise to theosophy, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry, and the modern occult revival extends from nineteenth-century spiritualism, H. P. Blavatsky’s Theosophy, and ceremonial magic orders to twentieth-century esotericists such as Rudolf Steiner, Alice A. Bailey, and George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, and the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung. [The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2008. Kindle edition location 62,]

The book Western Esotericism by Antoine Faivre and Christine Rhone offers four definitions of esotericism, but we’ll just go with the first and most common one:

Five Meanings of the Term Esotericism

1.  Meaning 1: A Disparate  Grouping

In this meaning, which is the most current, esotericism appears, for example, as the title of sections in bookshops and in much media discourse to refer to almost everything that exudes a scent of mystery. Oriental wisdom traditions, yoga, mysterious Egypt, ufology, astrology and all sorts of divinatory arts, parapsychology, various “Kabbalahs,” alchemy, practical magic, Freemasonry, Tarot, New Age, New Religious Movements, and channeling are found thus placed side by side (in English, the label used in the bookshops is often Occult or Metaphysics). This nebula often includes all sorts of images, themes, and motifs, such as ontological androgyny [the belief that man was originally made a hermaphrodite], the Philosopher’s Stone, the lost Word, the Soul of the World, sacred geography, the magic book, and so on. [Western Esotericism by Antoine Faivre and Christine Rhone. (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions). State University of New York Press, 2010. Kindle edition location 115.]

The Romantic Movement, which I have written about extensively in this blog, is just one element in the much greater movement of the Western Esoteric Traditions.

To study the Western Esoteric Traditions as they manifest among non-Christians is strange, but not nearly as strange as seeing how people calling themselves Christians have played a major part in these traditions and have defended them as a valid part of Christianity. After Christ rescued me out of my involvement in that esotericism (and I definitely did not consider myself as a Christian until after my rescue), I found to my surprise that people were accepting aspects of it as totally valid and very positive for Christians to participate in. This was very difficult for me with my life experience to cope with.

For example, when I was a new Christian and waiting in a church lobby to see a pastor, I got into a conversation with a lady who was also waiting. She began sharing about her involvement with a well-known occultic figure named Rudolf Steiner. She said that she didn’t talk about it with most other Christians because they always thought Steiner was very weird and condemned her. (Steiner created a type of subdivision of Theosophy called Anthroposophy.) At the time I had been reading a book by C. S. Lewis in which he said there were some positive aspects about Anthroposophy, so, therefore, I didn’t become alarmed about what this woman was telling me. Later, I learned that Anthroposophy was actually just like the evil non-Christian occultism I had left behind. But because C. S. Lewis had approved of it, I didn’t warn this woman of the danger she was in.

Another time I got into a conversation with another student at the University of Oregon. I was sharing with him how positive I thought C. S. Lewis was and that I’d been reading his space trilogy, especially the last book called That Hideous Strength. I said quite innocently that I was a little disturbed because its ending scene reminded me of my previous occult involvement. In the scene, a group of Anglicans prayed for help against evil forces and through their prayer raised up Merlin the Magician from a long sleep. Merlin then led animals—bears and such—to attack the evil people. The other student was very shocked and annoyed that I’d think something was wrong with the occult. He was an avid reader of C. S. Lewis, and I believe he considered himself a Christian.

After years of studying historically the role of the Western Esoteric Traditions in Germany, Great Britain, and other countries, I have come to see how intricately all of these strange ideas and practices are connected with certain types of literature that many people consider Christian; and, furthermore, how more and more often this literature is being considered Christian by Evangelicals who used to be wary of literature but are now experiencing a literary renaissance with an explosion of fantasy writing under the label of “Christian fiction.”

These are just a few examples of why I am so disturbed about what is happening among Evangelicals today and feel compelled to keep speaking out.

I do think it can be positive that Evangelicals are more open to historical and cultural influences, but there must be discernment because some of these influences definitely are evil, and to look upon them without discernment is very dangerous. Church history has proven what a stumbling block for Christian thinking and living that pagan thinking and fantasy can be.

Furthermore, there is a massive occult explosion happening right now all around us, and many Christians—and especially young Christians—are being swept into tremendous bondage by these forces and influences. Perhaps one of the worst aspects of this explosion and its effects on the Church is the lack of discernment by some major Evangelical leaders and the influence they exert on their followers.

Undiscerning Evangelical Leaders

And Their Influence

This is an age in which many Evangelicals are caught up in certain aspects of the Western Esoteric Traditions while thinking they are really good, desirable, and innocent, and enable us to be alive in Christ.

One major influence comes from the Inklings and the support of the Inklings given by some Evangelical leaders.

John Piper. The most popular example is John Piper, who is currently giving lengthy and enthusiastic apologetics for Lewis, and encouraging people to read all of Lewis’s works. The bizarre nature of Piper’s approach is evident in his online video, “Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul.” He first lists the many problems and dangers with Lewis’s thinking and then extols his work as wonderful for Christians. He even subtitles the video, “Seems I Shouldn’t Find Lewis so Helpful.” Indeed.

John Warwick Montgomery. Another modern example of a supposed Christian leader introducing Hermeticism to Christians is John Warwick Montgomery, who as an apologist for the Inklings in his defense of Charles Williams, made appalling statements about the “usefulness” of Tarot cards for Christians.

In his book, Principalities and Powers (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany Fellowship, 1973), Montgomery claims that writers “such as T. S. Eliot (The Waste Land) and Charles Williams (The Greater Trumps) have employed its [the Tarot] imagery so effectively both in describing the lostness of the human condition and the Christian redemptive solution” (p. 131). He states, “Because the cards are so potent symbolically, they are also most dangerous when misused or perverted.” Misused? Perverted? They are essentially already dangerous occult techniques of divination and should never be used at all.

Montgomery also described Arthur Edward Waite as a Christian. Waite was a co-creator of a Tarot deck, wrote many occultic books, and was in the hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in England.

Temple of the Rosy Cross
Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618

Montgomery wrote his Ph.D. thesis defending the man who wrote the basic documents of Rosicrucianism, trying to dismiss them as just a joke. (See his Cross and Crucible: Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654), phoenix of the theologians, Volume 1.) (Founded in the 1600s by Christian Rosenkreuz, Rosicrucianism is an occult philosophy and part of the Western Esoteric Traditions.) 

Basically, Montgomery has been introducing Hermeticism to Christians.

Regent College, a graduate school in the Anglican tradition located in Vancouver, B.C. (where J. I. Packer has taught for years), has been republishing the works of Charles Williams, an open hermeticist. 

Speaking of Regent College evokes memories of our trip there around 20 years ago when we were exploring the possibility of attending. What we experienced was like a scene out of a novel. First we met with a professor and his wife whose office was like a cave out of The Hobbit. Then we met with the founder, John Huston, who treated us as though we were generic ciphers and who, after we had explained our ministry of many years, dismissed it and said that what we really needed was spiritual formation (his big focus). Then we met J. I. Packer, who staunchly defended psychology as a means of sanctification. So it’s not surprising that Regent is republishing the works of Charles Williams. (We decided not to attend.)

George MacDonald. Because C. S. Lewis has so greatly extolled George MacDonald, his writing has emerged from obscurity and become mainline Protestant literature. Lewis called MacDonald his “master” and stated that through reading MacDonald’s works, he experienced a “baptism” of his imagination. MacDonald, while appearing seemingly innocent, is actually very deceptive. MacDonald had been a Scot Calvinist preacher, but when he was removed from the pulpit for unorthodox doctrines, he began writing stories. 

MacDonald was strongly influenced by Novalis, a 19^th century hermeticist who was part of the Romantic Movement. (Novalis was his pen name; his real name was Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg.) MacDonald translated some of Novalis’ works into English and quoted him in some of his own books. (See my article, “’Christian’ Romanticism, the Inklings, and the Elevation of Mythology” for more details; also, the book Romantic Religion: A Study of Barfield, Lewis, Williams, and Tolkien by R. J. Reilly. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1972.)

                                 A Historical Perspective

A good way to grasp what the Western Esoteric Traditions are all about is to look at the historical figure of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), who influenced Charles Williams. 

Boehme was a leading Protestant mystic and a member of a Lutheran church in a region in Germany rich in Hermetic tradition. He presented an esoteric psychology based on alchemy, Kabbalah, and astrology, which placed him firmly within the Western Esoteric Traditions. This weird mixture is typical of the ways esotericism has been combined with Christian practice. Orthodox pastors rebuked him and forbade him to write, but he wrote secretly and gained many followers. (See The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Oxford University Press, 2008, Kindle edition, location 1712.)

There’s a direct connection between Boehme’s “theosophy” and Charles Williams in that William Law, a disciple of Boehme’s teachings, was very influential upon Charles Williams, who then was very influential upon C. S. Lewis. This is one example of how these occultic traditions have been passed along. In fact, Lewis considered Williams [a Hermeticist] as one of the holiest men he’d ever met. (See other posts in this blog discussing the problems with Williams.) Williams was also a Neoplatonist. Lewis apparently confused holiness with mysticism.

C. S. Lewis and the Cambridge Platonists

Lewis’s fascination with the occult is apparent in that he wanted to write his doctoral thesis on Henry More, a known alchemist and one of the most important of the Cambridge Platonists (1600s), but he decided to go into literature instead of philosophy so he changed the focus of his thesis.

As I showed in my earlier post, “The Hidden War,” Lewis actually was a Platonist and was teaching Platonism in his children’s stories. Frederick W. Baue, in his article, “It’s All in Plato: An Examination of C. S. Lewis’s Worldview,” revealed how strongly Platonism and Neo-platonism influenced Lewis’s worldview right up to his death. As I pointed out in that article, and believe it is important to stress, Lewis’s work has become so accepted that there is a universal blindness to the philosophy embedded in it.

The Cambridge Platonists were professors at Cambridge University who, though considering themselves Christians, incorporated Hermeticism and Neoplatonism with their Christian practices and thinking. And, of course, these practices and philosophies are contradictory to the teachings of the Bible, which warns against vain philosophies and witchcraft.

See to it that no one takes you captive to hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Colossians 2:8

 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

Revelation 22:14–16

Summary

Today the resurgence of Hermeticism and its blind promotion by many Christians is shaping modern Evangelicalism in powerful and disturbing ways. This article is a mere beginning in showing how very strong and alive the spiritual battle is of the temptation to be a “magical” Christian and how very destructive it is of a solid Christian life.

It is also a strong warning to be careful about whose writings we are following and ingesting into our thinking. Having our minds shaped by Biblical teaching is of the greatest importance. The Bible does not have to be the only book we should ever read, but it should be the canon—the measuring rod—of what we are reading and hearing. It is the very unique Word of Truth. 

"Christian" Magic

Introducing a new series:

The Hermeticist Next Door

Part I

“Christian” Magic

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times 

some will abandon the faith and

follow deceiving spirits and

things taught by demons.”

(1 Timothy 4:1, NIV)

Dan Brown’s popular novel The Da Vinci Code has created a storm of controversy. Many seem to believe it’s completely true, some dismiss it, and yet others find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Discernment can be difficult, not only with Dan Brown’s tangled work but with history in general.

What I have to say may seem more like a novel than history, but recorded writings and historical descriptions exist that confirm what I am about to say. It is a historical tale of deception in the Church that is not only stranger than fiction but is actually true.

Proceed at your own risk because facing disguised demonic teachings that pass for Christian—both past and present—can be disturbing, shocking, and nearly unbelievable.

Origen is the Origin

Origen is the origin of this story, which begins around 200 A.D. Some call this famous Greek Church Father a great mystical Christian theologian; others call him a heretic.

Origen was a man of extremes and imbalances, whose father was martyred in a great persecution. As a youth, Origen fervently wanted to join his father in martyrdom, but his mother hid his clothes so he couldn’t throw himself into the clutches of the persecutors. He was extremely brilliant—probably the most educated man of the time—and he wrote many books on the Holy Scriptures and philosophy. But, in his fervency to put Matthew 19:12 literally into practice, he also castrated himself.

Origen ranged far beyond Christian orthodoxy[i], and, as a matter of fact, he was partially educated under a pagan philosopher—a man named Ammonius Saccus (named Saccus because he moved sacks as a laborer). Saccus is considered the Father of Neoplatonism in Alexandria, Egypt, one of the great metropolises of the ancient world that became a center of Christianity. A fellow student of Origen was a pagan named Plotinus, known for propagating Neoplatonism.

Given this background, Origen came up with some rather strange ideas. These included the pre-existence of the soul; the eventual reunification of all creation into a god-figure that was not the Christian Trinity; and that the devil and the fallen angels and animals would all be saved, i.e., incorporated back into the “One.” For this last idea especially, he was condemned as a heretic after he died.  

What is Neoplatonism?

Neoplatonism was a new version of the teaching of the Greek philosopher Plato. It was a mixture of Egyptian religion, Platonism, and Greek and other non-Christian and Eastern philosophies. It also included magical practices, with an emphasis on demons. It is truly a doctrine of demons that has endured throughout the centuries and has exerted considerable influence within the Christian Church.

Augustine was a Neoplatonist before his conversion under the influence of the Christian Neoplatonist Ambrose of Milan. After becoming a Christian he became somewhat critical of Neoplatonism, especially about following demons, and the fact that the system didn’t have any place for Christ. However, he continued to hold some Neoplatonist attitudes, though not necessarily consciously. For example, he continued to view marriage as a lower state than celibacy (asceticism).

Neoplatonism was a little different than Gnosticism, mainly in that the Gnostics tended to view the world as evil, whereas the Neoplatonists tended to view it as just very low on the totem pole. But both the Gnostics and the Neoplatonists viewed achieving salvation as going up a spiritual “ladder,” attaining more and more knowledge and holiness until they finally returned to the godhead they supposedly came from. It definitely wasn’t salvation through faith by grace as taught in the Scriptures (see Ephesians 2).

What most people think of as Gnosticism in the early Church is what is called “negative” Gnosticism, but Neoplatonism could be described as a “positive” Gnosticism. Positive gnosis is very much like that view held by Neoplatonists and, in modern times, by people like C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams.[ii]

The kinds of teachings that Origen favored have persisted all throughout church history, and they are still influential today. They all fit under the general category of Hermeticism.

Hermeticism, Dan Brown, and Harry Potter

To date, I have written extensively about Romanticism (see previous posts). Due to my continuing research, however, I have come to view Romanticism as the more general movement (or tradition) of an ancient tradition known as Hermeticism.

We can view Neoplatonism as the philosophical arm of Hermeticism, but Hermeticism also includes the practice of magic and alchemy.

Hermeticism was essentially just an umbrella for a wide variety of occult teachings and practices.[iii] It is basically Egyptian mythology and theology, which gathered pagan teachings from many different cultures under the name of a mystical figure: Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice graced”). Hermes was considered a great prophet, a great priest, and a great king. (Sound familiar?—like Christ?)

The Egyptian name for Hermes Trismegistus was Thoth (the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic). The Romans called him Mercury, and the Greeks called him Hermes, which gives us the word hermetic, i.e., hidden or sealed.

As we will see, as Hermeticism developed, some of its practitioners were considered Christians. They attempted to integrate it with true Christianity—and even to replace true Christianity with it. A long history of these teachings exists woven into the development of the Christian Church, especially among Roman Catholic and Orthodox monks.

A highly honored manual of Neoplatonism written by someone called ‘Pseudo-Dionysus’[iv] appeared in the 5^th or early 6^th century. Pseudo-Dionysus “acquired almost apostolic authority” among Christians (see here).[v] (The Pseudo—meaning “false”—comes from the fact that the man who wrote it was not the real Dionysus, who was an associate of St. Paul.)

The book brought this type of teaching into monastic thinking where it continues today, especially within Roman Catholicism and the Orthodox Church. Accepting these teachings as Christian is a harmful fraud; they are actually disguised paganism. One of the evil results of these teachings is the diminishing of the importance of family and the very creation itself, that God made man male and female and created marriage. Asceticism distorts the Word of the Lord and is anti-family. (The Book of Colossians warns about this false mysticism and asceticism.)

This influence has continued up until today and is rapidly growing in the Christian Church. Amazingly, many contemporary Protestants continue this view. It partakes of the double view of paganism that the body is both something to be worshipped, through sex, and something to be rejected. Later blog posts and articles will go into this influence and discuss some of its practitioners in the Church in detail.

Fast-forward now to the Renaissance in the 1400s and to a very influential family in Florence called the Medicis.

Lorenzo de Medici (called “Lorenzo the Magnificent”) was a major Renaissance leader who had two talents: making money and sponsoring art and literature on the model of ancient Greece. Under his influence, a scholar named Facino translated some manuscripts from Greek into Latin (read in Italy at the time by the educated classes). These teachings, a set of books called The Corpus Hermeticum, became well known by scholars in the Renaissance and influenced many of the Church leaders.

During this period, an idea developed about gathering all religions together as one, in a way very similar to what is happening today through the World Council of Churches and other syncretistic[vi] movements. These hermetic teachings were the unifying factor.

Amazingly, at the same time, the teachings of the mystical Jewish books called The Cabbala were enthusiastically incorporated into this scheme. They taught many things similar to Hermeticism, and their promoters even called them “The Christian Cabbala.” This tradition still exists today. (Cabbala is spelled many different ways.) The main difference between Hermeticism and the Cabbala was the Cabbala’s emphasis upon divination through the Hebrew words and letters of the Old Testament. The currently popular book, The Harbinger, is another version of Cabbalism.

A lot of these writings incorporated mythological stories and themes, as well as secret writings, mystical imagery, and symbols. While Hermeticism was becoming popular, it was still treated as a mystery religion, suitable only for the initiated—the wealthy and educated.

Hermeticism in the heart of the Protestant Reformation

One aspect of this strange history that is very difficult for me to cope with is that this strong Hermetic influence was not confined to Roman Catholicism. In fact, there was an explosion of interest in Hermeticism among Protestants. And, the center of this “Christian” Hermeticism ended up actually being in Germany shortly after the Reformation. After the upsurge of so-called “Christian” Hermeticism in Germany, similar upsurges occurred in Great Britain and other European countries.

Following are a few examples.

Sebastian Franck was a former Roman Catholic priest who became a Reform preacher in the 1500s. He was also a major supporter of Hermeticism. The following quote exposes his real teaching:

“Franck derived his image of Hermes, as he acknowledges, largely from Ficino, though he clearly assigns a distinctly earlier date to Hermes: he was a contemporary of Abraham and thus clearly antedated Moses. Franck’s interpretation of Hermeticism was far more radical, however, in that he considered the Hermetic writings to be a pagan replacement for Christianity and for Judeo-Christian revelation. The Pimander contained ‘all that is necessary for a Christian to know.’”[vii] [The Pimander was a name for The Corpus Hermeticum mentioned earlier.]

This is just an example of how highly regarded Hermeticism was, even in the heart of the Protestant Reformation. The young Luther tended to look favorably upon some of these Hermetic and mystical writings, but later in his life he called Hermeticism fanaticism.

Another example.

Hermeticism in the Service of Promoting Tolerance

Christian apologetics had used Hermeticism to demonstrate that the Christian religion was consistent with the philosophy and theology of the ancient world. By the sixteenth century, however, circumstances had changed, and Christianity had become the cultural matrix, but, even then, Hermeticism served to indicate the compatibility of various cultures and religions. Indeed, once again Hermeticism served Christian apologetics.” (Same article, Kindle location: 1763, my bolding]

[Note: This same practice occurs in the 20^th century in the apologetic works of C. S. Lewis and his fellow “Inkling,” Charles Williams.]

Jacob Bohme. Bohme was a strange man—a sixteenth century shoemaker who started having visions. He represents a turning point of the influence of Hermetic philosophy because he tried to make it an acceptable aspect of Lutheranism.

“Bohme is a turning point in the history of Hermetic philosophy. Hermeticism and Christianity had always been strange bedfellows, and as we have seen, much of Hermetic thought—such as its conception of the divine or semi-divine status of man—is heretical by Christian standards. [Giordano] Bruno [a Dominican priest] even went so far as to advocate the abandonment of Christianity and the return to a Hermetic, ‘Egyptian’ religion. Bohme, in effect, acted to prevent the self-destruction of Hermetic philosophy in the face of its clear conflict with the dominant, orthodox faith. David walsh writes that ‘For the new occult philosophy to work, the old Christian philosophy must be redirected. The individual with the theoretical genius to effect their reconciliation and, thereby, become the transmitter of the new symbolism to the modern world was Jakob Bohme.’”[viii]

Bohme used Christian terminology but changed the real meanings. For instance, he used the word trinity, but definitely not in a Biblical sense. His influence extended even to England where he was quite popular. The English mystic William Law promoted his writings, which even influenced John and Charles Wesley for a while. Fortunately, they later turned away from Law’s influence.

Contemporary Examples of Hermeticism

Some obvious examples of contemporary Hermeticism in English literature can be seen in Dan Brown’s books, especially The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, as well as the immense popularity of imaginative, magical literature. This genre includes Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as well as his lesser-known Silmarillion, along with the fiction of C. S. Lewis. More recently, there is the popularity of the Harry Potter series and Phillip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials, which includes The Golden Compass.

In summary, the above facts give but a taste of the pervasive, corrupting influence of Hermetic thought and practice upon the Christian Church historically. Unfortunately, this influence has never died away, and today it is expanding with great speed within the Church. In coming posts, we will see that it is alive and spreading unconsciously through the teachings of many well-known Christian leaders.

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ENDNOTES

[i] I’ve encountered confusion about the term orthodoxy. One pastor I knew actually said orthodoxy means when a pastor wears a suit, but in reality it’s the solid core of biblical theology, included in the main Christian creeds and in the teachings of the Apostles: the Virgin birth, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Second Coming; and including justification by faith in Christ alone through grace alone.

[ii] This concept of positive and negative gnosis is described in Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances Yates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, 22.

[iii] Also known as the Western Esoteric Tradition. It basically views humanity as on a spiritual path to return to unity with the Divine.

[iv] Although Wikipedia states that the works of Pseudo-Dionysus were “mystical and show strong Neo-Platonist influence,” it still calls him a “Christian theologian and philosopher.” You can see the confusion I mentioned above.

[v] “Since Pseudo-Dionysius represented himself as St. Dionysius the Areopagite, an Athenian member of the judicial council, the Areopagus, who was converted instantly by St. Paul, his work, strictly speaking, might be regarded as a successful ‘forgery’, providing him with impeccable Christian credentials that conveniently antedated Plotinus by over two hundred years. So successful was this stratagem that Dionysius acquired almost apostolic authority, giving his writings enormous influence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance…” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

[vi] Syncretism is the uniting of religious ideas that conflict with one another.

[vii] The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times by Florian Ebeling. Cornell University Press, November 11, 2011. Kindle Edition. Location: 1735.

[viii] Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by Glenn Alexander Magee. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2001. The quote at the end of the quote comes from footnote 60: David Walsh, “A Mythology of Reason,” 151.