In 1466 the philosopher and magician Marcilio Ficino acquired a
manuscript in Florence reviving the memory of certain remarkable
doctrines once taught and practiced on the soil of the land of Egypt.
Under the name of Hermes Trismegistus - - - "Thrice Great Hermes" - -
-
it contained a series of Greek language texts and set in ancient Egypt
(where Greek had served as the diplomatic language under both the
Ptolemaic Pharoas and also the Roman era). These Hermetic books, most
of them in the form of dialogues, described the process of divine
interaction with the material world and a program for human
enlightenment that strikingly paralleled some of the formulations of
Plato and his followers, of Hebrew mystics, and to a certain extent of
Christianity. The dialogues spoke of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian
wisdom, and Egyptian ways of attracting the powers of God and the
spirits to bring long life, good health, and spiritual enlightenment.
Ficino and his contemporaries read the ancient books with amazement,
debating whether Hermes Trismegistus came before or after Moses; some
scholars suggested that Hermes might be the master from whom Moses had
first learned the secret wisdom of Egypt. The more they read, the
more Ficino and his friends became convinced that the texts of Hermes ...

On Sep 16, 11:55 pm, Sar Draconis aol.com> wrote: