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Back to: The Hermetic Laws & Quantum Physics
Sources and References
Every claim in this module is grounded in scholarly sources, primary texts, and established reference works. The list is organized by topic so you can follow specific threads deeper on your own. Where I have drawn on Wikipedia or other encyclopedic summaries, I have done so only to corroborate material that is also available in peer-reviewed or scholarly form. For serious study, the scholarly sources are primary.
Primary Hermetic Texts
Copenhaver, B. P. (Trans.). (1992). Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Mead, G. R. S. (Trans.). (1906). Thrice-Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis (3 vols.). Theosophical Publishing Society. (Public domain; widely available online.)
Salaman, C., van Oyen, D., Wharton, W. D., & Mahé, J.-P. (Trans.). (2000). The Way of Hermes: New Translations of The Corpus Hermeticum and The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. Inner Traditions.
The Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina). (n.d.). Multiple translations compared; see especially Isaac Newton’s English translation in Dobbs (1991) and the Arabic versions discussed in Holmyard’s and Ruska’s scholarship.
Three Initiates [Atkinson, W. W.]. (1908). The Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece. Yogi Publication Society.
Three Initiates [Atkinson, W. W.]; Deslippe, P. (Ed.). (2011). The Kybalion: The Definitive Edition. Tarcher/Penguin.
Scholarly Studies of Hermeticism and Western Esotericism
Copenhaver, B. P. (2015). Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press.
Dobbs, B. J. T. (1991). The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton’s Thought. Cambridge University Press.
Ebeling, F. (2007). The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times. Cornell University Press.
Faivre, A. (1994). Access to Western Esotericism. State University of New York Press.
Fowden, G. (1986). The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. Cambridge University Press.
Hanegraaff, W. J. (2012). Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge University Press.
Hanegraaff, W. J. (2022). Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity. Cambridge University Press.
Lachman, G. (2011). The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus: From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World. Floris Books.
Yates, F. A. (1964). Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. University of Chicago Press.
The Emerald Tablet
Holmyard, E. J. (1957). Alchemy. Penguin Books. (Republished 1990 by Dover.)
Linden, S. J. (Ed.). (2003). The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge University Press.
Ruska, J. (1926). Tabula Smaragdina: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der hermetischen Literatur. Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung.
Selwood, D. (2023, April 25). The Emerald Tablet and the Origins of Chemistry. Medievalists.net.
Quantum Physics: History and Foundations
Al-Khalili, J. (2004). Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Becker, A. (2018). What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics. Basic Books.
Capellmann, H. (2016). The Development of Elementary Quantum Theory from 1900 to 1927. arXiv:1606.00190.
Feynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B., & Sands, M. (1965). The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume III: Quantum Mechanics. Addison-Wesley.
Gamow, G. (1966). Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory. Dover Publications.
Heisenberg, W. (1958). Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science. Harper & Brothers.
Jammer, M. (1974). The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. Wiley-Interscience.
Kumar, M. (2009). Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality. W. W. Norton.
Küçük, E. V. (2025). The Birth of Quantum Mechanics: A Historical Study Through the Canonical Papers. arXiv:2503.13630.
Von Neumann, J. (1955). Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton University Press. (Originally published in German, 1932.)
Consciousness, Physics, and Their Intersection
Capra, F. (1975/2010). The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (35th Anniversary Edition). Shambhala.
Ball, P. (2018). Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different. University of Chicago Press.
Bohm, D. (1980). Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Routledge.
Kastrup, B. (2019). The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality. iff Books.
Miller, A. I. (2009). 137: Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession. W. W. Norton.
Schrödinger, E. (1964). My View of the World. Cambridge University Press.
Stapp, H. P. (2011). Mindful Universe: Quantum Mechanics and the Participating Observer (2nd ed.). Springer.
Stenger, V. J. (2009). Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos, and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness. Prometheus Books.
Wilber, K. (Ed.). (2001). Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists (Revised Edition). Shambhala.
Logic, Fallacies, and Methodology
Cohen, M. R., & Nagel, E. (1934). An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Copi, I. M., Cohen, C., & McMahon, K. (2014). Introduction to Logic (14th ed.). Pearson.
Hansen, H. V. (2020). Fallacies. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Sagan, C. (1995). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House.
Walton, D. (2008). Informal Logic: A Pragmatic Approach (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Encyclopedic and Reference Entries Consulted
Britannica, Encyclopædia. (2026). Hermetic Writings. Encyclopædia Britannica.
Britannica, Encyclopædia. (2026). Emerald Tablet. Encyclopædia Britannica.
Encyclopedia.com. (n.d.). Hermetism. Entry adapted from Faivre et al.
Wikipedia contributors. (2026). Corpus Hermeticum, Hermetica, The Kybalion, Emerald Tablet, History of Quantum Mechanics, The Tao of Physics. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (Used for corroboration of dates and textual history only; primary scholarly sources preferred.)
Recommended Video Resources
Esoterica (YouTube channel by Dr. Justin Sledge, philosopher and scholar of Western esotericism). Multiple episodes on the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet, the authorship of the Kybalion, and the history of Hermetic thought.
Al-Khalili, J. (2014). The Secrets of Quantum Physics. BBC Horizon (two-part documentary).
PBS Space Time. (ongoing). Quantum mechanics series. PBS Digital Studios.
Greene, B. (2011). The Fabric of the Cosmos. NOVA/PBS (four-part series).
PhET Interactive Simulations. (ongoing). University of Colorado Boulder. Free browser-based simulations of the double-slit experiment, the photoelectric effect, and related quantum phenomena.
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