The Backyard Professor

Hermes Trismegistus, Hermetic Books of Scripture, and the Restored Gospel

In gathering my notes on the ascension literatures, and bringing it out front that the Tarot card symbolisms are “Hermetic,” and in fact one of the “Hermetic Books” brought back to us in the Medieval ages, and that alchemical themes are prominent (the colors, for instance, in the Waite-Rider deck), and that Kabbalah, alchemy, Gnosticism, Early Christianity and Judaism, etc., are all intertwined in some remarkable ways, I decided to do a quick check into some of Hugh Nibley’s writings about the Hermetic literatures, and who this Hermes, Hermes Trismegistus character was. Hermes Trismegistus was considered the author of the Emerald Tablet, the ultimate sacred text and foundation of the alchemical enterprise of finding the gold in human souls, i.e., realizing we are Divine.

I found, as usual, that Nibley was the most useful LDS scholar on this theme, (among dozens and dozens of others!) but other LDS scholars have mentioned a little bit about it all. So this is basically very interesting and engaging background information, usually elucidating the Egyptian religion, but also some other high points of interest, that is worth browsing. It will startle you how wide and extensive the connections are with various types of important prophets, wisemen, and rulers with Hermes and Hermes Trismegistus.

And I side with Nibley that the doctrines, ideas, and ideologies of Hermeticism are not strange, but rather extend way back as a primordial revelation to mankind, about the possibility

The Throne & Council of Gods in the Book of Mormon, Books of Enoch, and the Old & New Testaments: An Authentic Touch

Some of this information is from Hugh Nibley’s “Ancient Documents and the Pearl of Great Price,” and I elaborate and bring in other sources and ideas from various scholars as I find relevance to them. The breadth and depth of Nibley’s understanding is incredible, and I think a lot of we LDS simply fail to appreciate his expanded vision and incredible aha! insights into things. You could call this my personal commentary on Nibley’s commentary! [I shall bracket my comments and ideas and sources.]

[The Book of Mormon opens up with a bang…, a big bang…, with Lehi’s vision of God on his throne.] This is the revelation to Lehi's dispensation. "And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a vision [he gets carried away; here's an ascension again] even that he saw the heavens open, [he sees the heavens open, and this is the ascension to heaven] and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne…." There is the theme. The heavenly hosts are assembled around God on his throne. But you notice that it's put as a vision (he thought he saw God). It was as if he experienced it because he is going way back in time. This is the Council in Heaven at the foundation of the earth you are beginning to see.

Nibley's Egyptian connection of Atum=Adam

In Nibley's Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price, we read of some fascinating connections with the Egyptian Atum = Adam of the Bible. This is Nibley in his finest, most interesting form. I emphasize some things, but the entire post here is amazing!

We will see a lot about Ptah-Tenen. Notice, he is being acclaimed on the throne. He is the father. Ptah-Tenen is a rare form, but Ptah-Tenen means Ptah's office translated down to earth. It means the exalted one. It refers to the hill, among other things, the exalted hill. It refers both to the first land that emerged after the flood and the first land that emerged in the beginning when waters and darkness covered the earth. There was the later flood, and these are the waters the Egyptians are referring to as you learn from the Pearl of Great Price.

Remember, when she discovered the land, it was under water. She went there after the flood. But emerging from the flood is a very important thing. And Ptah-Tenen is the land that first emerged. But it is also the person who first occupied it and first lived in it. It means the exalted one, the exalted or uplifted land. This Ptah-Tenen always belongs to the earth.

He is the earthly representative of the heavenly order. Everything about him is earthy, and so he is chthonian. Chthon is the Greek word for "like earth." The solar is the light, and the dark is the chthonian. A perfect example of that is in our Facsimile No 2.

Notice all these deities are solar deities. (those in the upper half of facsimiles 2) They all have suns, and they are moving forth in glory. All these (in the lower upside-down half of the facsimile 2) are chthonian, the cow, the female, and including the inscription which tells us this is the dark place where everything comes to a halt. But you have to have both if you are going to create.

This is the womb; that's why the cow. That's Hathor, the mother cow-the womb from whom all life comes. And the four figures in front of her are, as Joseph Smith says, the four elements-the four regions of the earth from which physical bodies must be compounded.

Hugh Nibley Reading Club

For those interested, a good start to enjoying learning pros and cons of the brilliant LDS scholar Hugh Nibley is going on with Clark Goble's web blog. I admire Clark's intelligence with everything he discusses, and I think his idea of reading Hugh Nibley and understanding his contributions is an important one for LDS and non-LDS alike. Here is the link

http://www.libertypages.com/clark/reading3.html

I likewise will continue to point out things I find amazing with Nibley as well as where and why I disagree with him on some things. Overall, it is precisely because of Nibley's willingness to.... ahem...... "look beyond the mark," (to quote the BofM, [my personal abbreviation of the Book of Mormon] which uses this comment in a negative fashion, whilst I am using it in a positive fashion) in the Mormon scriptures, delving deeper and thus showing them to be far more interesting and significant than we think they are. Nibley's insights and analysis has caused me to jump full blown into the scholarship and literature of the scriptures for the past 30 years, and I believe I am a far better person because of his influence.