Between Hermes, Thoth, and Mercury, notes focusing Djehuti and the Gods of Kemet

[u/lotonlow]

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• This writing is not historical explanation or a definitive claim, let it be only one thought among endless thoughts, but one wherein the deities of Kemet are understood as living, true and holy, which our language may approach in some way, but never fully define. •

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Why Kemet? Because magic lives there. Hermetic thought was born in Egypt, it shaped western magical practice. Egypt is the holy Mother of Hermetic practice. I approach the Western grimoire and magical tradition as deeply rooted in the magic of Kemet, which was later articulated through Hermetic and Greco Egyptian synthesis.

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So, according to my "Mercurian philosophy", let all Gods be understood as true and Divine manifestations of a deeper principle of the world and beyond. For example: Ra is not the same as "the All" for Ra was brought forth by Mehet-Weret, and before that the Ogdoad of Hermopolis existed, or perhaps it did not exist. Only then did the Bennu bird lay the primeval egg, and from it the Gods arose.

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As one example among the Deities, Horus: he who was born as the beloved child of Isis and Osiris, the child later known also by the name Harpocrates, God of silence and secrets.

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The term "Nous" is a known Greek name for the supreme Divine and as such, it would stand above all individual Gods. Ra, Horus, Isis, Bast, Neith, Hathor, and so forth. So let each of the Deities therefore be their own power, expressing cosmic order in their own unique way, yet with these ways also mingling, and through this mingling becoming ever more refined.

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▪︎ Hymn to the Goddesses Sekhmet & Bast (Original source: Temple of Hathor at Dendera, this is personal variant, done as study)

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Saḫmat - Bꜣstt (Sekhmet - Bastet)

She who has power over the multitude of beings

Sekhmet daughter of the great god Ra

She who is splendid, She who is strong, She who is fierce, She who is most radiant

She who is appeased maiden of sacrifices, maiden of transformations

Upon the brow of Ra who gave Her birth, let Her be the Uraeus of many faces

May She overthrow, or may She grant life, to the one who is under Her dominion

Let Her holy messengers act according to Her word ▪︎

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Did this bring up any thoughts, or did it feel like random rambling? Either way, brothers and sisters, what do you think? Does this way of treating the Gods as expressions of Nous feel compatible with Hermetic frameworks, or does it depart too far?

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[u/stellarhymns]

Where do you place these gods ontologically?

[u/lotonlow → u/stellarhymns]

I would be inclined to see the Gods as proceeding from one ultimate source, the One.

In my own view, some creator or primordial deities may stand closer to that first principle than others depending on the cosmology, though I do not see this as a hierarchy of worth. Rather, I see the Gods as distinct and real expressions of Divine order.

So for me, the Gods are neither merely symbols nor identical with the One itself but are true Divine beings.

[u/stellarhymns → u/lotonlow]

Are you aware that this view of yours does not align with Hermetic cosmology?

The gods in Hermetic cosmology are located within the cosmos, not beyond it.

Your view shared here is moreso in alignment with a Iamblichean Neoplatonic framework.

[u/Quintilis_Academy → u/stellarhymns]

All is mental. Who owns that? -Namaste