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Foundations of Hermeticism: glossary of religiously oriented terms 2001-09-14 - 5:40 p.m. 
The following is a paper I composed on the origins of Hermeticism. For those of you not familiar with this branch of mysticism, the paper is more or less a general introduction to it. What follows is a cursory glossary of terms. In subsequent entries, I will sometimes have a note after a sentence, set off from the paper, to make your analysis a little more clear. This paper is academic in origin, so it may use alot of vocabulary that seems archaic or overdone. Bear with it and keep dictionary.com handy. It really is worthwhile. So, the glossary: adherent - someone who follows a faith or creed. corpus - literally "body." Usually refers to a body of knowledge, located in books, your brain, scrolls, etc. exoteric - anything existing within the outer world that is not located within us. The "real" world is exoteric to us. esoteric - what is located around or centered within the individual. One's faith is an esoteric process. gnosis - knowledge. From Greek. logos - knowledge of something. Comes from Greek. Esoteric logos would be getting to know oneself...exoteric logos would be trying to understand the world surrounding you. numina - literally a sortof divine force or energy. Numina was/is thought to be the essence of some divine power, usually collected in unfrequented places (caves, abandoned temples, wild natural spots, etc.). Ptah - An egyptian creator god in some accounts. Thought to have formed the world using the power of the word alone.
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