Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity

«This book is about the search for knowledge, the human experience of being in touch with how things really are.» — la primera frase del Prólogo.

«Can scholars tell the truth about truths beyond scholarship? Or can truth not be told but only experienced? If what we call knowledge is a function of our state of mind, then could there be other ways of knowing than those of reason and the senses?» — las preguntas que declara no poder responder.

«All writers try to put a spell on their audience.» — Lo aplica a los autores herméticos, a los especialistas que los estudiaron y a sí mismo.

«Readers who decide to follow my lead through the Hermetic labyrinth will learn about the spell of phantasmata, the unruly stream of mental imagery charged with emotion that fills much of our conscious and unconscious life on a daily basis.»

«consciousness is not stable and reliable but fluid and susceptible to alteration» — el hecho incuestionable al que apunta el subtítulo: «Alterations of consciousness result in altered states of knowledge.»

«which means that I neither affirm nor deny the ultimate truth of Hermetic beliefs» — la fórmula del «radical methodological agnosticism» que declara para todo el libro.

«The gnōsis that they considered possible I see as beyond either verification or falsification.» — Añade: «After all, what do I know? I have not been there.»

«I have not been there. The divine nous has not appeared to me, my body has not been exorcized, my soul has not been reborn, nor have I ever traveled in my mind to an utterly nondual reality of pure spiritual bliss.» — su declaración de límite.

«I consider it my job as a scholar to do what I can to understand what they were trying to tell their readers.»

«the Hermetic discourse of gnōsis and noēsis (direct “noetic” perception of ultimate reality) confronts us with the unavoidable aporias of human understanding.»

«A practice of radical empiricism and methodological agnosticism is central to my understanding of the study of religion as a neither religionist nor reductionist field of research.»

«whereas my earlier work was focused on the Renaissance revival of the Hermetica, in this book I travel back all the way to the sources in Roman Egypt.» — el corte respecto de su obra anterior, dicho por él.

«it requires a reading practice of hermeneutic circularity: while the argument as a whole is built up from its component parts, presented one by one in linear succession, to understand those parts you need a synthetic view of the whole.»

«But does it help us understand what Chopra meant?» — objeta el método genealógico dominante con el ejemplo de una historiadora del futuro que estudia el «quantum healing» de Deepak Chopra rastreando la física cuántica.

«Shouldn’t we rather begin by asking what quantum healing meant for him, within his discourse, rather than what quanta “really” meant in the twentieth century or what they meant for others?»

«Instead of assuming that I already know what this word means […] I want the authors of the Hermetica to tell me what it meant for them.» — sobre nous.

«scholars are no exception to the rule that humans tend to explain the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar, the unknown in terms of the known. In academic research, this has profoundly conservative effects.»

«The object of study in this book is neither “the Hermetic tradition” nor “the Hermetic literature” per se.» — la primera es «a scholarly construct of considerable popular appeal but questionable validity»; la segunda, textos dispares que a veces solo comparten la referencia a Hermes como autoridad.

«Its purpose was to heal the soul from negativity, free it from such powerful influences as fear and aggression, and open its eyes to the beauty of existence.» — así cierra el Prólogo, tras llamar a la espiritualidad hermética un camino gozoso que celebraba la vida y la luz.

«It was not concerned with domination but with knowledge and understanding – or, more precisely, with knowledge as understanding.»

«In Egypt during the first centuries of the Common Era, men and women would meet discreetly in their homes, in temple sanctuaries, or in solitary places to learn a powerful practice of spiritual liberation.» — la frase con que abre el capítulo 1.

«But the Way of Hermes was not an easy path. It required patience and devotion, trust and discipline, diligent study, persistent practice, and a willingness to question conventional wisdom.»

«of Hermetic philosophy instead, but we will see that this terminology is misleading» — los estudiosos llevan mucho tiempo hablando así; usar en cambio «Hermetic spirituality» significa romper con una larga tradición de la investigación académica.

«faculties rather resided in the heart» — según las antropologías egipcia, semítica y griega antiguas, las facultades intelectuales estaban ahí; de ahí las referencias herméticas al conocimiento del corazón y a los ojos del corazón.

«In our efforts to reveal the meaning of ancient words, we have to resort to modern equivalents that in fact conceal their meaning; and yet we have no choice, because only through such acts of concealment can we hope to reveal at least something of the original.»

«once you enter the rabbit hole of translation in pursuit of just one single word, you find yourself in a wonderland of meaning where literally nothing is what it seems and there are no stable rules to hold on to.»

«In short, translation presupposes the untranslatable.» — porque el puente entre emisor y receptor lo tiende «something» que no puede ponerse en lenguaje.

«They strongly believed in the metaphysical stability of meaning and the accessibility of truth, while insisting that ultimate meaning and truth could be found only beyond the sphere of thought and language.» — los autores de los Hermetica, ajenos al relativismo lingüístico.

«“Noetic perceptions” as understood in the Hermetica […] are not the normal “intellectual” or “mental” activities we commonly have in mind today but are claimed precisely to go beyond them. They have absolutely nothing to do with thinking, let alone with sensory perception.»

«What their authors meant by “knowledge” is something entirely different from the intellectual understanding achieved through mental activity – thinking – that our modern philosophical traditions have taught us to understand by that word.»

«A second reason not to speak of Hermetic “philosophy” has less to do with the exact content of that term than with its polemical function in common academic and even in everyday discourse.»

«Philosophers did not practice magic» — La frase se cierra con la premisa tácita que reconstruye en los especialistas: los magos «were not thinking straight».

«intimately linked to the liberal neo-humanist» — así adjudica el sesgo de los clasicistas profesionales: su filhelenia estaba ligada a las perspectivas neohumanistas del Kulturprotestantismus alemán del siglo XIX, con su hostilidad hacia Egipto.

«an irritant to the scholarly imagination» — que los Hermetica fueran textos griegos escritos en Egipto lo fue, y por eso, dice, se volvieron campo ideal de disputa ideológica.

«Zielinski’s “higher Hermetism” stood for Greek philosophy, while its “lower” counterpart stood for Egyptian magic; the former was worthy of attention, the latter was not.»

«classicists responded by claiming the Hermetica for themselves – that is to say, for “Greece.”» — la reacción al desdibujamiento de fronteras que había hecho Reitzenstein, vivido como provocación.

«these developments did not lead scholars to abandon the basic distinction between two types of Hermetica. … Only the terminology was adapted somewhat» — tras el abandono, desde los años setenta, de la ideología pro-griega y antiegipcia.

«No comprehensive study or textual edition of the “popular” Hermetica has been published after Festugière’s first volume of 1942.»

«often determine which other texts, practices, ideas, or traditions will be seen as most» — las terminologías que elegimos no solo colorean la interpretación: deciden con qué se compara.

«By speaking of “Hermetic spirituality,” I hope to highlight precisely those dimensions that philosophers […] have always found most difficult to handle but which are central to the study of religion: experiences and practices.»

«primarily as philosophical treatises about» — temas teológicos — así resume la CONTRATAPA la interpretación dominante de los escritos herméticos, y anuncia que el autor la desafía mostrando que se ocupaban de prácticas experienciales para sanar el alma de la ilusión mental.

La ficha catalográfica de la Library of Congress da el título completo, «Hermetic spirituality and the historical imagination : altered states of knowledge in late antiquity», y clasifica la obra bajo «Hermetism», «Spirituality – History» y «Knowledge, Theory of – History».

Los agradecimientos consignan que Liana Saif verificó la transliteración árabe del libro, Gregory Shaw comentó los capítulos sobre Jámblico y la teurgia, y Matthew Melvin-Koushki aportó materiales sobre Suhrawardī y el pitagorismo.

El epígrafe del Prólogo es de Gadamer: «Sein, das verstanden werden kann, ist Sprache» — el ser que puede ser comprendido es lenguaje, en traducción nuestra.

El epígrafe del capítulo 1 es de Lutero: «Qui non intelligit res, non potest ex verbis sensum elicere» — quien no entiende la cosa no puede sacar el sentido de las palabras.

«philosophical language of Platonism lacked a specific term for referring to an organ of perception meant exclusively for mystical intuition» — Festugière sobre el nous, en traducción del propio Hanegraaff.

«the same word nous refers at the same time to the normal instrument for knowing things that can be thought and to the instrument of mystical intuition that enters into contact with the anoēton» — Festugière, continuación del mismo pasaje.

«a person in effect rewrites a text entirely» — David N. Wigtil sobre la traducción: se abandonan la gramática y el vocabulario del original, y el único control del proceso es la idea o pensamiento de la fuente.

«Reitzenstein’s chief error was that he completely obscured the distinction between higher and lower Hermetism.» — Tadeusz Zielinski en 1904, la reacción filhelénica que Hanegraaff reproduce entera.

Consigna que Walter Scott, en el primer volumen de su edición inglesa de 1924, se limitó a las enseñanzas «religious or philosophic» y excindió formalmente las «masses of rubbish» de astrología, magia y alquimia.

«At heart [Hermetism] was a spiritual way, the way of Hermetic gnōsis – a means to an end immune from the scrutiny of philologist, philosopher and historian alike.» — la última frase de The Egyptian Hermes de Garth Fowden (1986).

«In antiquity, true philosophy … means spiritual exercise.» — Pierre Hadot, citado in extenso al abrir el capítulo sobre la sanación del alma.

Registra que Hadot distingue tajantemente los ejercicios espirituales de la formación filosófica corriente de los que producen alteraciones extremas, e insiste en que aquéllos no tienen nada que ver con un estado de trance o catalepsia.

«j’avoue que tout cela me paraît du roman» — Festugière en 1942, despachando la comunidad hermética de Reitzenstein como novela.

«At first encountering the writings of Zosimos, one has the feeling of having entered a chapel, of having access to an esoteric religion full of passwords, fantastic beliefs, and strange rites.» — Festugière, en el pasaje que Hanegraaff lee como argumento contra sus propias conclusiones.

«[W]hat was new and exhilarating for the French reader was the optimistic and holistic outlook which coupled science with esoterism and presented a living, fascinating, and mysterious cosmos» — Mircea Eliade sobre el cambio de humor de los años sesenta.

«where every thing, every being, every force is like a voice yet to be understood … where every word that is pronounced has innumerable echoes and resonances; where the stars are looking, listening, and exchanging signs among themselves the way we do ourselves.» — Eugenio Garin, la visión cosmológica de la que Yates es deudora según Hanegraaff.

«What there is, then, in a dream is an image that goes unrecognized as an image, an image that in the dream is simply taken as the original.» — John Sallis sobre la chōra, en el análisis del que Hanegraaff extrae su definición de la gnōsis.

«a term is a paralyzed word, and terminological use of a word is an act of violence committed against speech» — Gadamer, citado en nota.

«is not the intellect but a principle of lucidity superior to» — ordinary reason, y «strictly untranslatable» — Godel sobre el Νοῦς, citado en nota.

«The historian must ‘get it right.’ He must determine not only what was said […] but what was meant to be said and at what diverse levels of understanding the saying was to be received» — George Steiner, en After Babel.

«Who would disagree? We must describe what we are comparing before we compare.» — Jonathan Z. Smith, con la salvedad gadameriana que Hanegraaff le añade.

El epígrafe del capítulo 4 no es de un clásico sino de la banda de rock progresivo Van der Graaf Generator.

El epígrafe del Epílogo es de Goethe: «Die Geisterwelt ist nicht verschlossen; / Dein Sinn ist zu, dein Herz ist todt!».

En nota remite a su propia obra anterior para el problema de la «tradición hermética» reificada: «On the problematics of a reified “Hermetic tradition,” see e.g. Hanegraaff, Esotericism and the Academy, 327–334 (focusing on Frances Yates)».

«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.» — la contratapa, en tercera persona, anuncia así el giro del libro frente a la lectura de los Hermetica como tratados filosóficos.

«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.» — así resume la contratapa el Camino de Hermes.

«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 gnōsis.» — la contratapa enumera el régimen de entrenamiento que el libro reconstruye.

«They thought of themselves as followers of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary master of ancient wisdom.» — contratapa, sobre quienes se reunían en casas y santuarios del Egipto romano.

«He is the author of six monographs, including New Age Religion and Western Culture (1996) and Esotericism and the Academy (2012), and editor of eight collective works, including the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (2005).» — la nota biográfica editorial, que declara la relación de este libro con el resto de su obra.

«There was quite some interest for Hermetic literature in the Netherlands at that time, largely due to the spectacular and widely publicized efforts of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam.» — los agradecimientos datan en 1991 el arranque de su interés, ligado a la traducción neerlandesa del Corpus Hermeticum.

«The historian of Christianity Roelof van den Broek, one of the two scholars responsible for the 1991 Dutch Corpus Hermeticum translation, became my first model of scholarly excellence in these domains.» — los agradecimientos nombran a van den Broek como su primer modelo académico en el campo.

«It so happened that around the same time, Rosalie Basten, a Dutch businesswoman fascinated by the Hermetica, was reading the Dutch Corpus Hermeticum as well.» — los agradecimientos atribuyen a ese encuentro el origen institucional de la cátedra de Ámsterdam.

«Their meeting was a success, and what came out of their collaboration was a unique academic chair and Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP), created at the University of Amsterdam in 1999.» — los agradecimientos fechan en 1999 la creación de la cátedra y del centro HHP.

«For any errors that might still remain, the responsibility is of course entirely mine.» — cierra la lista de colegas y lectores que revisaron el manuscrito.

«Whenever I think about the pharmakon of gnōsis and the Hermetic kratēr filled with nous, I see the face of Norberto Jurasek.» — la dedicatoria, que enlaza dos de las imágenes centrales del libro con una figura personal.

«Hermès Trismégiste, vol. 1: Corpus Hermeticum I-XII (A.D. Nock and A.-J. Festugière), Les Belles Lettres: Paris 1991» — la lista de abreviaturas declara las ediciones que el libro cita por sigla; HT es la de Nock y Festugière, Cop la de Copenhaver, HHE la de Mahé y HG la de van den Broek y Quispel.

«interestingly enough “we still do not fully understand what knowledge is” (Nagel, Knowledge, 6, 116).» — Jennifer Nagel, citada en nota al plantear qué se entiende por conocimiento.

«If one divides all that exists in noēton [that which can be thought] and aisthēton [that which can be perceived by the senses], then God belongs evidently on the side of the former.» — Festugière, en el pasaje que Hanegraaff traduce del francés y comenta; los corchetes son suyos.

«But by calling him that, one simply wants to make clear that he does not have a body – one does not mean to say that he can actually be known or understood through discursive language and can be named.» — Festugière, continuación del mismo pasaje sobre la ambigüedad de *noēton*.