In today’s fast-changing and increasingly dysfunctional world, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and disconnected. What can we learn from ‘ancient wisdom’ that can help us transform today’s complex global challenges? According to some experts, we’re living through a "polycrisis” – a tangled web of multiple crises, from climate change and pandemics to social unrest, wars and conflict. Their combined effects create situations far more dangerous and complex than the sum of the individual parts. How ‘on earth’ can ancient wisdom possibly help us in times like these?
What Is Ancient Wisdom, Anyway?
Ancient wisdom refers to the timeless insights passed down through different cultures over thousands of years, from ancient civilizations; the philosophical and mystical traditions of both the East and West; and the deep knowledge of Indigenous peoples around the world. Hermetic wisdom, for example, is rooted in the teachings of the legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus, who blended aspects of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian deity Thoth. Though the Hermetic texts were written in the early centuries of the Common Era, they are believed to reflect wisdom passed down orally from ancient Egypt. Its wisdom is sometimes described as ‘ancient yet ever new’, and it offers surprisingly relevant ideas for today’s world, despite emerging in very different social and ecological contexts. Here are three ideas from this tradition that resonate with transformational initiatives today.
1. Re-Minding Ourselves: The Power of Mind
Hermetic wisdom embraces an ontology of the Mind, that is to say, it teaches the reality of Mind (sometimes called Nous), or the truth of a mental, non-material, self-gnostic, knowing power. One of its core ideas is that “The All is Mind”. It says that “the Universe is Mental – held in the Mind of the All.” In other words it sees the fundamental reality as mental or conscious in nature – not just physical. The mind isn’t just something the brain produces. Hermetic insights recognize an Infinite Living Mind, and that consciousness permeates everything in the universe. This echoes similar teachings in Buddhism, which recognize the reality of Mind, or a luminous, pristine awareness, and teaches that “All mental phenomena have mind as their forerunner and chief”. It also resonates with emerging ideas in quantum physics, where scientists are beginning to question the idea of a purely objective material reality, and explore the role that consciousness itself plays in creating and shaping the world. Ancient wisdom invites us to explore the underlying substratum of consciousness, and to harness its liberating and creative powers. This is surely the basis for cultivating new ways of being, new paradigms and mindsets in much needed wider systems change. Ancient Wisdom can thus help ‘re-mind’ us – literally.
2. Re-Membering the Bigger Picture
Another well-known Hermetic idea is the phrase: “As Above, so Below. As Below, so Above.” This simple saying captures powerful truths: that there are higher planes of reality, non-material as well as material, inner as well as outer, and that there are correspondences between them. Hermetic philosophy unites Divine, Cosmic and Human principles in one integral, interconnected world view, and reminds us that human beings are spiritual-corporeal beings with relationships with the Divine and the Cosmos. It helps us hold the paradox that we are both ‘part of’ and ‘apart from’ nature. Its wisdom can help us move beyond purely materialist ways of thinking, and to understand relationships between different planes of reality. It teaches that we are not separate from either the Above or the Below – but have a unique role to play in consciously reuniting them. It thus helps us ‘re-member’ a bigger picture of reality.
3. A Source of ReGeneration
Hermeticism also illuminates powerful processes of inner transformation, healing and renewal, that lead to Rebirth or Regeneration. It reminds us that ‘crises’ can be catalysts for renewal. Just as nature goes through cycles of growth, decay, and renewal, we too can let go of outdated beliefs, systems, and identities, and emerge into something new. And the work of transformation isn’t just personal – it’s planetary. The idea of ‘conscious transformation’ is gaining traction today in areas like personal development, and social change initiatives, such as the Inner Development Goals (IDGs). This emphasizes that meaningful change in the outer world starts with changes within. As they put it: “Inner growth for the outer world.” We have a role to play in creating a more conscious, compassionate, and sustainable future, individually and collectively, regenerating from the inside-out.
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World
Although Hermeticism and other ancient wisdom traditions emerged in very different times, their insights remain powerfully relevant. They remind us of the deeper truths that reconnect us to a divine source, connect all human beings, and offer guidance for how we might live more wisely and in harmony with the universe. As the saying goes, “The future has an ancient heart.” Maybe it’s time we listened…
Image credit: Freya Purdue, In Time Oil on canvas 167cm x 274cm 2012 https://www.freyapurdue.com/
Check out Anne Baring’s course The Dream of the Cosmos, for more teachings on the urgency of reuniting the Above and Below, and the role of inner transformation, through the great work of alchemy.
