Breathing Hermeticism into an Ecology Beyond the Anthropocene

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the viability of the Hermetic worldview against the concept of the Anthropocene. Hermeticism’s unity of being offers a responsive ontology to the disruptive legacy of the epoch. Through review of its criticisms, the article highlights imperialist, naturalist, and anthropocentric assumptions that make the Anthropocene a problematic and inadequate description for future ecology. A reawakening of Hermeticism is examined as an alternative spiritual ecology addressing nature from the inside out. Taking insight from Green Hermeticism, the unity of being is contemplated as a creative principle in spagyrical alchemy as a practice of ecological healing.