From Christians to Jewish including Arabs and Druses, from Paracelsus to Leonard da Vinci, Rabelais, Rimbaud... since the Hellenistic Greece to modern times : scholars, esotericists, scientists, philosophers, poets, musicians, doctors haven't stopped to draw from the hermetic knowledge's abundance.
Philosophy? Gnosis? Mystic? Religion? Ancient hermeticism is a doctrinal corpus extremely rich and heterogeneous. Its name is a derivation from Hermes, both a Greek God and an Egyptian divinity (Thoth), he is a mediator between sky and earth, young and old,
he will end up to be mistaken with Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice-great Hermes). He will be ascribed to a set of texts including the famous Corpus Hermeticum and the alchemist "codex" the Emerald Tablet.
"The character of Hermes is less related to someone than a spiritual influence" said Julius Evola in his book The Hermetic Tradition. That influence lasted for centuries and penetrated the most varied branches, such as poetic symbolism and artistic creation among others.
According to Françoise Bonardel, "hermeticism can give us the keys to go beyond the oppositions that torment our postmodern time especially the tradition-modernity divide and establish a bridge between the eastern and the western world".
But what is Hermeticism? What thin links does it have with esotericism and alchemy? If Man does bear a "Knowledge", a "Gnosis", where does it come from? The great history's hermeticists, who are they? And who are the poets, the artists, the intellectuals of the 20th century settled in that tradition?
To answer these questions, we meet Françoise Bonardel, professor at the Sorbonne, specialist in religion's philosophy, Claude-Henri Rocquet, writer and Jacques Fabry, university professor, germanist, specialist in mystic. A debate composed of two parts. Each part lasts 40 minutes, and is lightened up by Yonnel Ghernaouti.
From Christians to Jewish including Arabs and Druses, from Paracelsus to Leonard da Vinci, Rabelais, Rimbaud... since the Hellenistic Greece to modern times : scholars, esotericists, scientists, philosophers, poets, musicians, doctors haven't stopped to draw from the hermetic knowledge's abundance.
