Hermeticism is publicly announced to be the following of Hermes Trismesgustus (Hermes Thrice Great) But this is a personal writing and we are seekers and lovers and family.
Hermeticism was better known as Alchemy for at least a millennia and all Alchemist should know they are Hermeticist. A few noted Alchemist (just so you don't think this is all fooey) include : Sir Isaac Newton, Carl Jung, Robert Boyles (Boyles Law), Tycho Brahe, and more recently Terrence McKenna. This is indeed where the word Hermit comes from. The old man living peacefully in the woods with his back to the world seeking to transmute that inner raw material into the gleaming gold of the enlightened soul. That image of the old mage in the woods is true to form but back to Hermes and just what makes him so great.
Reincarnation. Hermes was Hermes(winged messenger god) to the Greeks and Romans. He was Thoth(god of writing and wisdom) to the Egyptians before Rome ever rose. These identities are documented and the progression of them throughout history is much studied and sometimes debated. Large sects of the Modern Masons are based largely on the Thoth identity. But these are just the last two reincarnations and it is the first that is so intriguing(Thrice Great=3x). Evidence is always lacking for what matters most but the greatest truths are best understood with stories and symbols so here is a very abbreviated story.
It is said that in the age before ours, in a time that is now all but forgotten, Hermes as we call him was the Priest King of ancient Atlantis. If words like age and time do not work for your sensibilities then some researchers believe this was around 150,000-30,000 BCE. Priest King in modern parlance is something like Chief Directing Professor of Research. This isn't a pope, this is the lead scientist of a research team comprised of the majority of the countries population. It is said that in the days of Atlantis there were several sentient species on our planet. The Atlantians themselves began similar to ourselves early humans but they mastered the genome at some point in their development and close to the end were largely a hybrid race. ThoTh is often depicted as an Ibis having the head of a bird and the body of a man. It is only recently that the collective perception of humanity has been able to view these hybrids as anything other than pure folly. There is now a large body of the population with a hint of perception that perhaps humanity could genetically engineer itself into minotaurs and mermaids. But back to Atlantis. As this great civilization advanced, largely beyond our present ability to comprehend, they achieved the ability to shed their material forms. This is written into our collective psyches for a reason. These Atlantians now exist entirely in another paradigm another reality if you will but one that overlays our own. This great evolutionary step was also the end of the old paradigm, death and rebirth hand in hand. As they began changing over it wasn't some great enlightenment it was just evolution and evil if such a thing exist evolved right along with good. In this new found state of existence there was much debate, some say the higher beings harness some form of energy from material life, others say the debate was over noninterference vs gardening nurturing, for whatever reason all the stories end the same, ever present and ongoing war in the heavens that effects earth.
Not a lot is physically available to corroborate that story and certainly it stands apart from modern archaeological understanding and very very far apart from the currently accepted view on metaphysical beings(there isn't one). But there are certain things we do know. We know that what Jung calls Archetypes, what others have called Gods and Devils but beings or presences that can be interacted with do certainly exist. Now when I say exist I mean any individual can have a personal experience with them and indeed the world is ripe with individuals that do. With a clear view of history it is easily seen how perceived interactions with these beings have shaped human development. They of course "live in the mind" but that mental nature is no less real than what we might ordinarily consider real such as a piece of wood or a chair. Jung wrote of the rise of Wodin through Nazism and how hindsight was 20/20 for anyone could see that Wodin was deeply rooted in the psyche of the Nordic peoples and would be stirred again. The science of this psychology is largely unknown and perfectly ill-suited to the current methodology. Interacting with these beings is by definition not a materially measurable phenomenon. As such work has been slow and knowledge is limited. We know nothing but the stories we are told and tell ourselves. Our very senses lie and twist our perception, every interaction tweaking the subjective experience. But one thing is known, these beings may be experienced first hand, there are keys to interaction and when you are ready you will experience them. These keys have been hidden in plain sight for all of human history and any who seek shall find them.
I have walked the paths of darkness woven in light, flew through space and time across realms of thought and consciousness. I am a builder of the Adytum and a creator of love. I seek to transmute whatever darkness I may find into light. I am an Alchemist, a student of Hermes, a follower of THoTH. THought or THime is my garden not my master.
There is a stone or a tablet known as the Emerald Tablet. It is said to contain the recipe for the philosophers stone, the legendary substance that could transmute lead into gold, but again that is for the public. The philosophers stone is the key that turns the blind man into the sighted, it is the formula for enlightenment.
Here is a link to various translations
http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/emerald.htm
Here is a link to purchase 1 kg of Acacia Confusa a perfectly legal root branch
https://www.theacaciastore.com/product-page/1kg-acacia-confusa-root-bark
Here is a link to a key simple to follow recipe
https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=44251
Enjoy!