User:King Vegita/Sandbox/History of Hermetism and Hermeticism

''Please do not make this an actual article at this time. I am attempting to have a functional article within 5 days of actually posting in order to make this eligible for Did You Know?''

The History of Hermetism and Hermeticism is outlined in this article. Hermetism began as a version of the Egyptian religion made for export to the Hellenic world, devoid of the mythology and lore of the traditional religion.

The Egyptian Religion and Its Origin
Though it is known that Hermetism arose from the Egyptian religion, and even moreso in the Egyptian mystery schools, the ultimate origins of the religion is uncertain. E. A. Wallis Budge, the Late Keeper of the Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum, notes that the religion had prominent aspects of both monotheism and polytheism, but it is impossible to relate which preceded either because the records go back to the beginning of known history. Budge himself had conflicts with a contemporary, notable egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie on the topic of where the religion originated from. The theory proposed by Budge was that it was created by an indigenous African people, while Petrie insisted that it could not have possibly been created by Africans and instead was brought by Aryan invaders. A less mainstream theory was proposed by occult and Hermetic scholar, Manly P. Hall, who believed that the origin of the religion comes rather from Atlantis.

Cult of Hermes
By 331 BCE, when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, Hermetism, the cult of Hermes, was already established. The actual beginning of the cult is not known. However, it is suggested that it began in the Egyptian mystery schools years ago. The Greek settlers began applying the name Trismegistus (Τρισμεγιστος meaning Thrice-great ) to Hermes within a century and during some time between the first centuries BCE and CE, the character of Hermes Trismegistus can be verified to have emerged.