Mervat Nasser, MD, MPhil, FRCPsych, is a graduate of Cairo Medical School and fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, London. She holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and a doctorate in psychiatry from London University. She took an early retirement from her job as a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Kings College London in 2007 and returned to Egypt to pursue her dream of establishing the project of New Hermopolis. She is author of The Path to the New Hermopolis: The History, Philosophy, and Future of the City of Hermes. Her website is https://www.newhermopolis.org/

Here she describes the ancient Egyptian god, Thoth, the scribe in the afterlife, whom the Greeks equated with Hermes. A fusion of the Greek and Egyptian deities gave birth in ancient times to the Hermetic tradition. Different strands of this tradition became associated with Gnosticism, Alchemy, and Neo-Platonism and have continued to have an influence on Western culture – through various philosophical, psychological, and esoteric teachings – to the present day.

(Recorded on August 10, 2020)

Published on September 9, 2020