Hermes Trismegistus was a Dream
A couple years ago, early in my process of researching my book on the history, theory, and practice of oneiromancy, I wrote a post discussing the medieval philosopher Ibn Khaldun’s claim that the Ghâyat al-Hakîm or Picatrix contained “dream words” that if recited before bed would allow you to dream whatever you want. These words appear in the Ghâyat as the four names of the Perfect Nature, an Arabic Hermetic analogue to the concept of the Holy Guardian Angel. And while the text mentions that Hermes first met his Perfect Nature in a dream, it was unclear whether this had any more to do with oneiromantic dream incubation. Now that I have finished writing my book, I wanted to follow up by saying that not only did I find the answer, but that the rituals of the Perfect Nature found in the Ghâyat and the earlier technical Hermetica it references, along with the history of Hermeticism itself, are far more interrelated with oneiromantic practices than I’d anticipated, going back to the us...
