Ancient Egypt is much associated with the origins of western perceptions of God. In the Corpus Hermeticum, the Black Land is called a “temple of the cosmos” and a “consecrated statue”. The orientation of the Nile from North to South, highlighting the passage of the Sun from East to West, so wonderfully manifests the principle: “As Above, So Below”.
Then, with the arrival of the Hellenistic period, the links between the old gods of wisdom, Thoth and Hermes, became clear, informing new explorations of the Logos, not least as the Christians knew it: incarnated in Christ, the one who came from above, uniting with all life below.
I recently visited New Hermopolis in Middle Egypt, founded by Dr Mervat Nasser. Alongside the village of Tuna el-Gebel, known for spectacular tombs, the location is also near the capital city founded by Akenhaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh devoted to the monotheistic Aten.
Then, there are the extraordinary catacombs of Thoth, and other artefacts from the Middle, New Kingdom and Ptolemaic eras.
New Hermopolis is devoted to ecological principles and an exploration of Hermeticism as it can inspire today: in the words of William Blake, key for Christian Hermeticism, “the human form divine”.
The Easter Triduum, or “three days” from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, is a good moment to contemplate these things. Drawing such links is controversial now, too, and it always has been. The streets of ancient Alexandria were not always peaceful as Neoplatonists rubbed shoulders with Christians.
But, meanwhile, the Mothers and Fathers of the desert pursued the path, often accused by their fellows of “navel-gazing”, the origin of the phrase.
That path can be described in alchemical ways, the soul receiving purification through dissolution and death, silence and rebirth, thereby becoming capable of conscious participation in the Light of God. “Unless a man be born of water and the Spirit,” Jesus said.
In this short film and discussion, I explore continuities between the ancient world and modern re-enchantment.
Also to say that I travelled to New Hermopolis with The Idler, which will host future trips.