Egyptian Thoth: The Original Hermes

Who created the tablet and the 42 books of the Hermetica that includes alchemy, astrology, philosophy, geography, medicine, theology, and music texts? A deeper look into legend reveals that Thoth, an ancient figure straddling the realms of humans and gods, was the author of the Emerald Tablet and accompanying texts. Because of cultural cross-pollination between Greece and Egypt, Thoth was adopted by the Greeks as the god Hermes.

In Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, Thoth is thought to be Seth, the younger brother to Adam and Eve’s older sons Cain and Abel. Gnostic traditions hold that Seth/Thoth is the earliest ancestor of Noah, Moses, Abraham, Enoch, and Jesus. Seth/Thoth also inspired one of the earliest Gnostic cults, the Sethians, who heavily influenced modern Christian tradition and beliefs. Some scholars assert that the Torah is the “Lost Book of Thoth.”

Hauck tells us that “Thoth is impossible to categorize because he transcends definitions of gods and men.” At the Egyptian Temple of Seti, dated 1300 B.C.E., is an image of Thoth with the head of an ibis and an early caduceus, now a symbol of medicine. “The Book of Breathings,” said to be one of his scrolls, is instruction on how to develop the consciousness to survive beyond death — the immortality sought by alchemists through history.

Alexander the Great

The first Hermes, synonymous with Thoth, was said to be the son of Agathodaimon, the Great Thoth; god of all learning, knowledge and sacred scribes. When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, around 331 B.C.E., he became pharaoh, with access to all the ancient treasures of that country. He was obsessed with finding the tomb of Thoth, as he was told it contained secrets that could turn a man into a god.

Alexander located the tomb, tablet and cache of texts in present-day Libya. Retaining scholars and priests to copy and translate texts, Alexander commenced construction of the Library of Alexandria, dedicated to the study of the tablet and texts, called the Hermetica.

As the story goes, Alexander, with his armies, left for the east to conquer India, taking the Hermetica with him. On the way, he hid the tablet and texts in a cave, never to return — he died while on campaign.

It was that cave where young Balinas discovered them 300 years later. And it was Balinas who absorbed the tablet’s teachings and brought them to the light of human consciousness.

But accounts differ; ancient reports say that before the biblical Great Flood, Thoth build two great pillars, one emerald green and one gold, and placed all his scrolls, teachings, and sacred objects within. Hauck reports, “Egyptian records state that Thoth had authored 36,525 manuscripts, though that was just another way of stating that he wrote down the sum of all knowledge.”

According to the historian Herodotus, the pillars were discovered thousands of years later near the Egyptian cities of Heliopolis and Thebes. After, the pillars were placed in the Temple of Thebes, the oldest temple site in Egypt, and it was there that they were discovered by Alexander the Great.