The Hermetica is a classic piece of sacred literature, believed to have been written around 3000 B.C. by the Egyptian sage Hermes. So revered and honoured was Hermes, and so great was his wisdom, that he was given the title Trismegistus, meaning "thrice-great," and was eventually considered a god. His writings, which influenced much of ancient Egyptian and Greek and modern Western thought and civilisation, are without question as important as such well-known Eastern scriptures including the Upanishads, the Dhammapada, and the Tao Te Ching. In the past, translations of this ancient book were written primarily for scholars, archaeologists, and anthropologists. Now Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, two respected scholars of Western religion and philosophy, have done painstaking research to present a collection of excerpts that are easily understood by, and relevant to, today's reader.
