I have just finished reading The Hermetica - The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs, which is book 3 in my 52 in 52 series.

The book is by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, and is supposed to be an insight into sacred writings from around 3000BC by an Egyptian sage Hermes (which is actually the Greek interpretation of Thoth).

Thoth, who is attributed with the creation of hieroglyphics was also thought to be the architect of the pyramids.

The book is a translation of some of the ancient writings, combined with other sacred texts taken from the Stobaeus, the Asclepius, and the Nag Hammadi Hermetic Texts.

For the most part, the translations read like many things you would find the Christian Bible, especially is Psalms. They are songs and praises to the lord, in this case, Atum (the Father), or many of his creations such as the “Cosmos”, the “Mind”, mother Earth, and man.

In essence we learn that Atum created the cosmos is “his” own image. Cosmos then created everything else in it’s own image, and the purpose in life for all humans is to learn to know Atum. Pretty much identical to much of the Christian belief system in that our purpose on the Earth is to come to know God in all his/her elements.

Having done quite a bit of other reading on ancient Egyptian religion, this was really not much different. It clearly shows that many Christian premises about the nature of god, the universe, the divine, and humanity, came directly from civilizations that came before the BC/AD changeover.

There is a big focus on destiny, and only doing what is necessary - possibly the foundation of the predestination belief that is in many Christian denominations, and there is a lot of use of “the light” of the world, which mirrors much of what I heard growing up in the church.

One thing I did find interesting is that the teachings were supposed to be secret, and if you learned them, you were not supposed to share them with anyone else. Atum would share them directly if “he” felt as though you were worthy to learn them. This is very unlike religions of today which freely share their beliefs with anyone who will listen.

Overall, it was an interesting read, but again, it felt like I was reading the Christian Bible, only these writings were 3000+ years prior. I wouldn’t say I got a huge amount of insight from the book, though - there are many other Egyptian history books that have been more enlightening, so to speak.

So that is book 3 for 2008.

This sarcastic entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Books, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.