Does Pythagoras mean the Universal Soul or an individual soul?

But in both cases, a soul needs a body to "cling" to. This can be an animal or a human, but it can also be something else, like a planet or even an imaginary body. Or in the case of our dreams, a temporary body.

A book about authentic Hermeticism that is unknown but I can highly recommend is The Gospel of Hermes by Duncan Greenlees. It is also pretty affordable compared to some of the academic books.

wayofhermes.com/reviews/revi...

The Ritman Library and Centrum de Roos near the Vondelpark?

What are fun occult spaces in Amsterdam?

It is Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, so either watching Sinterklaasjournaal or grabbing a handful of pepernoten. Probably the latter, or both.

The transliteration is based upon the translation by Richard Jasnow and Karl-Theodor Zauzich (The Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth: A Demotic Discourse on Knowledge and Pendant to the Classical Hermetica)

As a Hermetist it is my belief that God and the gods care about the Anthropos, the living archetype of humanity. As we are individual, temporary expressions of Anthropos, in an indirect way He/they care about us.

Or the thistle:

www.tuinadvies.nl/artikels/dis...

A doctor or nurse stands out from the crowd, a policeperson stands out from the crowd, a fireman stands out from the crowd. Why? Because people need to see who they can turn to for help or advice. A flower stands out from the grass. But not every flower is seen as helpful or beautiful by any bee.

In Hermeticism the point is to live a life in line with divine will. To know what the divine will is, you need to gain Nous. Then, whatever your will is, is the divine will, and vice versa. Using magic is what you want to happen, but can you go against the will of the divine? Do you want to?

Zosimos quotes Hermes about how truly enlightened masters accept whatever God has decided for them, good or bad. Perhaps because they recognize that the true cause of whatever happens in their life is the Supreme Good, and attempting to change what He wills reveals that they question God's will.

It seems you have arrived at the same spot Zosimos of Panopolis saw the use of magic.

This saying is used in the 3rd degree of Dutch Freemasonry. I wonder how many freemasons know that its source is the Thrice-greatest.

The less we become ourself, the more we become our Self.

Maybe it is my background in Sufism, but I also prefer seeing Hermes Trismegistus as a human spiritual guide (who became divinized) and the eponymous founder of what we now call the Way of Hermes. It is not his way, as the path to the divine existed before him, but was later named after him.