DeConick A.D

80
SUPERPOWERS AND MONSTERS
call these people Sethians. The Sethians have an old ancestry, emerging
in the first century CE, although whether they first formed in Alexandria,
Palestine, or Mespotamia is debated (Turner 2001, 256–301; Pearson
2007, 15–19, 51–133; Denzey Lewis 2013, 118–29). There is evidence that
the Hermetic tradition may have an even older history within Egyptian
religion (Fowden 1986, 155–76). From the Hermetics and the Sethians we
have highly developed writings that already were composed as early as the
last decade of the first century or the early second century CE. These writings
include the Hermetic Definitions, sections of Trimorphic Protennoia,
and a pre-Christian version of the Apocryphon of John.
The Superpower Hermes
Who is this thrice-great god the Hermetics venerate, their superpower?
At the most basic level, he is an amalgam of the Egyptian god Thoth the
Thrice-Great and the Greek god Hermes (Fowden 1986, 26.). Thoth the
Thrice-Great is the Egyptian lord of language, science, and knowledge,
of what is known and unknown, of what is revealed and secret. He is the
personification of reason and understanding, bearing messages to humans
from the gods. He participates in the judgment of the deceased in the
underworld and conducts the pure of heart to Osiris’s throne (figure 3.2).
He is associated with everything from medicine to the moon.
Greeks who settled in Egypt identified Thoth with their god Hermes,
who likewise conducts the deceased to the underworld and brings messages
from the gods to humans. Hermes, like Thoth, crosses impenetrable
boundaries and traverses impervious barriers to communicate with humanity
across the chasm that separates the human and divine worlds.
In Hermetic circles, Hermes Trismegistus becomes a powerful new god
whom the Hermetics identify with the creator of heaven and earth. He is
so great, so extraordinary, that he is recognized as the world ruler, who
presides over fate and justice. He is a cosmic deity of cosmic proportions.
He is called Poimandres, a title which means “the Mind of Rê” (Kingsley
2000). Hermes Trismegistus is the mind of the sun god himself.
Yet this new god who emerges from the religious buffer is not just a
simple syncretic blend of Thoth with Hermes. He is not just a powerful
cosmic divinity who appears on earth as a god. He is not just an alien