Why this word is great
HERMETICISM — [Noun] The spiritual, philosophical, and esoteric tradition based on writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, concerning the unity of the cosmos and the potential for human spiritual ascent. From English hermetic (pertaining to Hermes Trismegistus or to sealed alchemical practices) + -ism (denoting a system or doctrine). Unlike alchemy, which denotes the practical, often grimy pursuit of transmutation and elixirs, or occultism, a sprawling modern term for hidden knowledge, Hermeticism is the specific, vaulted theology of correspondence that undergirds them. It is the warm, sulphurous scent rising from a sealed crucible; the precise, unbroken wax seal around a parchment containing the axiom "As above, so below"; and the palpable silence of a library where the universe is understood to be a single, living mind. Ultimately, it is a tradition that argues, against all evidence of fracture and decay, for a cosmos hermetically sealed in divine unity.