Hermes Trismegistus

Who wouldn't want to know the entire meaning of reality? The Emerald Tablet (gods always write their sacred lists on stone) may be the oldest surviving alchemical text. It's whatever you want it to be, which makes it bad science and great poetry.
Wisdom is born from the womb of the wind and is nursed by the earth. Her father is the sun, her mother the moon.
She is the elixir/stone/talisman which "vanquishes every subtle thing & penetrates every solid thing," according to Issac Newton's show more translation. show less

Read enough to discover that this so-called root of the "Western esoteric tradition" is basically a Gnostic gospel = this book has nothing to do with either Greek or Egyptian religions, and simply regurgitates and rehashes bits and pieces of the New Testament with some Neo-Platonism and calls it magic. Useful for historical context only.

At first I simply enjoyed a world-dragon filling up a sky to tell me to sit down and shut up, but then I was fascinated to see how much real wisdom this book held. Even when I'm reading it on several levels, it is a fairly easy read, and beautiful as well.

Interesting but....

It babbles at many parts. You can get past it for a while then it starts babbling again. The main issue is the formatting of this edition. Someone should inform the publisher of this book that proofreading is a major part of the publishing of a book. There are too many simple errors in this edition to be ignored. It just takes something away from the reading experience.