Hermetica I Audiobook By M. David Litwa cover art

Hermetica I

The Corpus Hermeticum, Asclepius, and Nag Hammadi Hermetica Ordered as a Path of Initiation

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Hermetica I

By: M. David Litwa
Narrated by: Elegwen O'Maoileoin
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About this listen

The Hermetic corpus is a spiritual and intellectual treasure stemming from ancient Egyptian sages who could write and think in Greek. Since the Renaissance, this corpus has appeared in an order that does not fit the path of spiritual initiation suggested by the corpus itself.

The present edition reorders the corpus—including the Latin Asclepius and the Nag Hammadi Hermetica—into four progressing parts: introductory tractates, general discourses, detailed discourses, and revelatory discourses. A short spiritual commentary follows each tractate.

The book is written for all lovers of the Hermetica, but in particular for those who are willing, in some sense, to join the way of immortality.

©2025 M. David Litwa (P)2025 M. David Litwa Ancient Egypt Middle East Spirituality Ancient Egypt
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I highly recommend this audio version of the Corpus Hermeticum.

I have read the Hermetica in its entirety in the Scott translation, and have read more than once the Poimandres, The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, and The Prayer of Thanksgiving in my Gnostic Bible, edited by Barnstone & Meyer, so I have some familiarity with these tractates and concepts. I have also watched/listened to many podcosts on this subject. I have found the Hermetica to be very interesting, profoundly informative, and a lot of fun. I love to read esoteric texts and glean what I can from the various worldviews presented (and especially to find commonalities). The phrase, “As Above, So Below” is a condensed essence of the Hermetica.

In deep and significant ways, I find the central themes and mysteries of the work to be quite analogous to Jesus’ “mysteries of the kingdom”. In fact, I think you can get closer to the actual meaning of Jesus’ message by reading the Hermetica than you will from reading the New Testament; or at least, by reading the two together.

The Content of the Book Itself:

The book is made up of several dialogues and trialogues between a teacher, and students/initiates, and these characters change throughout the book. Questions are asked, answers are given. Discourses are taught and expanded upon. It deals with universal, cosmic truths and connections, Earthly creation and maintenance, Ethical understanding and action, and truly, how to gain a direct experience of God. And much, much more.

Both Jesus and John the Baptist began their ministries with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. This is one of the most misinterpreted sayings of the entire New Testament (though there are many). In truth, this statement has nothing to do with feeling remorse and changing your ways because the kingdom of god is coming soon, and you’d better watch out. Rather, it is actually analogous to the phrase, “As Above, So Below”. Other versions of this story have Jesus saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and people do not see it.” And others say, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” It refers to the heavens that we see above us at night. The Greek word for which “repent” is a translation has more to do with shifting your worldview and having a new view of yourself, God, and the world (it’s a spiritual rebirth, which is what baptism symbolizes). The term, “At hand”, doesn’t mean it’s on it’s way, it means you can reach out and touch it, it’s right here, just as the other versions attest to. Thus the true meaning is something more like, “Wake up and see things new, because the kingdom is all around you and within you.” And that is the Hermetica in a nutshell (though the full Hermetica grows it into a tree).

The Translation:

As far as the translation itself is concerned, I found it to be very easy to understand, though, as I do not read or speak Greek, Coptic, or Latin, I have no idea how accurate the translation is. I find the Scott translation to be more poetic in some of my favorite passages, however, as a whole, I find Doctor Litwa’s translation to be much more digestible, requiring less of my own pauses to interpret and rephrase for myself what is being said. I had to do this a lot with the Scott translation, and very little with the Litwa translation. This translation is done in such a way as to make it truly flow, like I am listening to an actual dialogue in English, rather than hearing an often poor google translation that I have to reinterpret in my head.

The interesting thing about hearing this read, rather than reading it in the text version, is that the many brackets are missing. There is no instance in the reading where any lacunae (missing text) is noticed. So somehow this has been glossed over in a way that is not objectionable to this listener. It was one of my primary concerns in beginning this audiobook, but I found that it was done so smoothly that I could never tell when/if something was being glossed.

While it is nice to know where the various brackets mentioned in the introduction occur, that is what the text version of the book is for, so this is not only fine, but preferable.

The Ordering:

I am not an expert in these texts at all, and I do not know what order they were originally intended to be read, or heard by initiates into the Hermetic order. I do however, recall many times during my read through of the other translation that “this ought to have come before this”, or, “this would have done better if placed after that”, just because that’s how my brain works. I have a rather topical overview sort of a mind, and naturally view things holistically. The order he has put these in, in terms of content, does in fact feel much more conducive to gleaning the meaning; the concepts build on one another in a more cohesive way, and I think he really is onto something here.

The Commentary:

I rarely read the commentary of texts when first reading something new, I just find that it alters my own experience and perception of them. Often, once I am well versed on my own, I will go in and read the notes and commentaries by editors, or translators. It’s always interesting, and sometimes enlightening. Though often I find I disagree with the interpretations and conclusions, it’s still fun to hear other perspectives. I always appreciate when the commentary comes after the text, and not before, as Dr. Litwa has done here.
All of that being said, I absolutely loved his commentary. There were a few places where I disagreed, but in all, I learned a great deal from his comments. The amount of scholarship and cross-referencing that he does within the Hermetica, and without (in various Jewish, Christian, and other texts) is wonderfully instructive and really illuminates the texts in ways I hadn’t considered before. More than that, it’s clear through listening to him that these texts have had a profound impact on his own worldview and that he has a deep, personal connection to these texts.

The Audio Quality:

The quality of the audio was great. There were only a couple of glitches, but to be honest, it could have been my download, or my player/connection. I wasn’t bothered a bit by anything that had to do with the recording quality. Very professionally done.

The Narration:

On the whole, the narration was wonderful. It held my attention quite well, which, for a work like this is probably the most important thing. It isn’t easy to read a text such as this, and no two people would read it the same, so a lot of slack has to be given here, even more so than in most books I believe. There have been very few narrations that I haven’t been critical of. While I can become used to any voice, accent, or speech pattern, I often am bothered by pronunciations, inflections, and emphasis that are different from my own. But that’s my problem, and as I say, I get over it quite quickly.
The same was true with this narrator. There were times where he took on a more oratory voice, when I felt it should have been more solemn, or conversational, and visa versa. That is where listening to a book be read is very different from reading it yourself. The tone, and even the entire meanings can seem to change based on the inflection, speed, or volume of any given line. This narrator did a fine job, and despite long periods of listening, his reading held my attention, which surprised me, in as dense of a work as is the Hermetica.

My one complaint in the reading is the pronunciation of the “G” in “Gnosis” in almost all occurrences, which is a lot. I’ve never heard it pronounced this way, and I very much dislike that pronunciation. Perhaps many people pronounce it this way, and I just haven’t noticed it before as I have listened to podcasts and watched videos on these subjects, but it was very noticeable in this reading. If there were any way to soften that in post, I would enjoy it even more. But as I say, I got over it, though sometimes it still bothered me.

Conclusion:

All in all, this was a wonderful production, of one of my favorite religious texts, done with incredible translation, and presented in, what seems to me, a much more appropriate order. I would highly recommend this audio book to anyone who is interested. I will be listening to it often and am so grateful to have an audio version of this incredible ancient text.

Wonderful Reading/Ordering of This New Translation

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A must have for students of western esoteric systems. A somewhat modernized rendition of the classic.

Excellent naration

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