Kozmikus szomorúság: a lélek eredete a hermetikában
The Hermetic doctrine about the origin of the human soul

Summary/Abstract: In the Hermetic treatises the concepts about the divine origin of the human soul play a special role since its salvation is one of the main purposes of the doctrine that can be found in these documents. In my study I examine the main features of this doctrine that instruct us about from where human souls descend its heavenly abode. Furthermore, I scrutinize the problem, described in the Hermetic texts, why the originally divine soul has to descend to the material world evidence. After some methodological remarks, I discuss the main problems in four chapters. First of all, how the mythological description in the Kore kosmou depicts the creation and embodiments of the souls. Secondly, why the immaterial soul needs to take on a special substance (pneuma) to be able to appear in a material body. And finally, I analyse the parts and functions of the human soul after its embodiment in the material (sublunar) world. My main theses are that the Hermetic concept is in relation with the Platonic tradition as it can be seen from the doctrine concerning the material soul-vehicle (pneuma) widely used in Platonic texts. I also examine whether the human soul springs from the divine pneuma or from the world soul, and finally my conclusion is that its fatal descent to the material body is a consequence of some kind of foul before embodiment; namely that it wants to imitate the act of divine creation.

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