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E-book
Author Hanegraaff, Wouter J., author.

Title Hermetic spirituality and the historical imagination : altered states of knowledge in late antiquity / Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Published Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2022
©2022

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 438 pages) : illustrations
Contents Hermetic spirituality -- Heart of darkness -- The presence of gods -- Children of Hermes -- Through a glass darkly -- Healing the soul -- The path of reverence -- Becoming alive -- The source -- The conquest of time
Summary In Egypt during the first centuries CE, men and women would meet discreetly in their homes, in temple sanctuaries, or insolitary places to learn a powerful practice of spiritual liberation. They thought of themselves as followers of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary master of ancient wisdom. While many of their writings are lost, those that survived have been interpreted primarily as philosophical treatises about theological topics. Wouter J. Hanegraaff challenges this dominant narrative by demonstrating that Hermetic literature was concerned with experiential practices intended for healing the soul from mental delusion. The Way of Hermes involved radical alterations of consciousness in which practitioners claimed to perceive the true nature of reality behind the hallucinatory veil of appearances. Hanegraaff explores how practitioners went through a training regime that involved luminous visions, exorcism, spiritual rebirth, cosmic consciousness, and union with the divine beauty of universal goodness and truth to attain the salvational knowledge known as gnôsis
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on July 07, 2022)
Subject Hermetism.
Spirituality -- History.
Knowledge, Theory of -- History
Civilization, Ancient.
hermetism.
RELIGION / History.
Civilization, Ancient
Hermetism
Knowledge, Theory of
Spirituality
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2021059217
ISBN 9781009127936
1009127934