The Hermopolis Symposium
2025
New Hermopolis, Egypt
27–30 October 2025With Digital Presentations
via the Arcanvm Channel
Hermetic Rebirth:
Towards an Ever-Present Renaissance
The motif of rebirth pervades the classical Hermetica as the path of return from the realm of birth and death into primordial immortality. Hermetism itself as a historical phenomenon has also been subject to its own share of births, deaths, and rebirths. To study the Hermetic “tradition” thus invites historical but also hiero-historical perspectives. Historically: the origin, reception, and renaissance of Hermetism in Græco-Egyptian, Islamicate, and European cultural contexts remains vital. Hiero-historically: the potential presence of a deeper Hermetic “current” underpinning its historical appearances and disappearances also deserves to be explored in a responsible manner. The coordination of both exoteric and esoteric perspectives is encouraged in order to illuminate the continued presence and florescence of the Hermetic vision.
Hermetic Rebirth:
Towards an Ever-Present Renaissance
Provisional Programme
Patrons
His Excellency Michele Quaroni
Italian Ambassador, Egypt
Professor Giuseppe Cecere
Italian Archaeological Centre, Italian Cultural Institute, Cairo
Professor Vinicio Serino
Professor of Anthropology, University of Siena
Organizing Committee
Mervat Nasser
Founder, New Hermopolis, Egypt
Leonardo Lovari
Harmakis Publications, Italy
Ike Baker
Arcanum, USA
Aaron Cheak
Rubedo Press, New Zealand
In-Person Speakers
27–30 October 2025, New Hermopolis, Egypt
Founding Committee Welcome
Mervat Nasser, Leonardo Lovari, Ike Baker, Aaron Cheak
The City of Hermes and the Migratory Routes of the Hermetic Idea
Mervat Nasser
Inscription and Reincarnation: A Hermetic “Terma” Tradition
Aaron Cheak (Tentative)
Plotinus and Hermes: Between Egypt and Italy
Charles Stang
Ficino, Hermes and the Hermetica
Leonardo Lovari
Giordano Bruno and Egyptian Philosophy in the Renaissance
Luca Valentini
The Hermetic Shakespeare and his Italian Plays
Juila Cleave
Hermes: The Myth of the Messenger
Jules Cashford
Emblems of Hermes and the Renaissance Literary Imagination
Siri Vevle
Hermes and Hermeneutics in Italo Calvino’s Literature
Virtual Speakers, English
The Arabic Hermes
Okasha El-Daly
Hermes in the Academy
Wouter Hanegraaff (Tentative)
Ficino, Friend of Mankind
Angela Voss
The Hermetic Writings and Renaissance Views of Human Nature
David Fideler
The Hermetic Symbolism in Florentine Art
Mary Atwood
Virtual Speakers, Italian
Hermes of Siena
Vinicio Serino
New Hermopolis, Egypt
New Hermopolis
Minya Governorate, 2313012, Egypt
New Hermopolis is an Eco-village founded by Dr Mervat Abdel-Nasser with the mission of harnessing Middle Egypt’s heritage towards the cultural and economic development of this region. Our founding is connected to the thought and philosophy of Ancient Hermopolis with its belief in harmonious living and the regenerative power of human creativity.