TL;DR

  • Hermetic writings shaped alchemy, secrecy, and cosmology; their vocabulary is still with us.
  • “Quintessence / quintessential” = the alchemist’s quinta essentia, the fifth, heavenly element.
  • “Hermetically sealed” recalls airtight alchemical vessels blessed by Hermes Trismegistus.
  • Pop-occult maxims like “As above, so below” trace to the Emerald Tablet.
  • The Golden Dawn & Tarot boom recycled Hermetic symbols into mainstream art & self-help.
  • “Hermit” is not Hermetic. It’s Greek erēmitēs (“of the desert”)—a case of folk etymology.

1. Five Elements, One Word: Quintessence#

Medieval alchemists hunted a “fifth essence”—purer than earth, air, fire, or water—thought to fill the heavens. Latin quinta essentia became French quintessence, then English “quintessential”, meaning the purest or best example of a thing. One forgotten cosmology now powers every click‑bait headline promising the quintessential taco stand. 1

2. Sealed Like a Secret: Hermetically Sealed#

Hermes Trismegistus was rumored to lock secrets in glass so no uninitiated eyes—or air—could intrude. Renaissance chemists borrowed the trick; Victorians borrowed the phrase. By 1894 “hermetically sealed” jars kept microbes out of canned peaches, and “hermetic” widened to mean opaque, esoteric, or ninja-level private. 2

3. “As Above, So Below” & Other Meme‑Ready Maxims#

The Emerald Tablet’s line quod est superius est sicut quod inferius morphed into the catch‑all mantra “As above, so below.” Occultists from Blavatsky to TikTok astrologers wield it to link cosmos and psyche—elegant marketing for a two‑millennia‑old idea that reality is fractal and sympathetic. 3

4. Tarot, Golden Dawn, and the Occult Revival#

The late-19th-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn grafted Kabbalah, astrology, and Hermetic lore onto Tarot. Its alumni (W.B. Yeats, Aleister Crowley) seeded pop culture: modern Tarot decks, fantasy novels, even Hollywood’s hooded-magician aesthetic owe a debt to this short-lived London lodge. 4

5. False Friends: Why Hermit Isn’t Hermetic#

Looks related; isn’t. Hermit comes from Greek erēmitēs (“desert‑dweller”) via Latin eremita, Old French hermite, and Middle English heremite. The h re‑entered by chance phonetic drift, not by Hermes. Still, the confusion survives—proof that folk etymology loves a tidy myth. 5

FAQ#

Q1. Did scientists ever use “quintessence” seriously? A. Yes—cosmologists revived the term in the late 1990s for a hypothetical dark-energy field driving cosmic acceleration, an ironic physics-class salute to medieval alchemy (yet still unproven).

Q2. Is “As above, so below” actually in the Emerald Tablet? A. Sort-of: the Latin vulgate says it; the oldest Arabic doesn’t. The snappier English slogan is a 19th-century paraphrase that went viral in occult circles.

Footnotes#

Sources#

  1. Copenhaver, Brian. Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius. Cambridge UP, 1992.
  2. Kahn, Didier. La Table d’Émeraude et sa tradition alchimique. Les Belles Lettres, 1994.
  3. Godwin, Joscelyn. The Golden Dawn Companion. Aquarian, 1991.
  4. Merriam-Webster. “Distilling the Essence of ‘Quintessence’.”
  5. Styler, Will. “The Alchemical Origin of ‘Hermetically Sealed’.” 2021.
  6. “As Above, So Below.” Wikipedia, last modified 2025-07.
  7. “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.” Wikipedia, last modified 2025-07.
  8. The Digital Ambler. “No, the words ‘hermit’ and ‘Hermeticism’ aren’t related,” 2024.

  1. Merriam‑Webster, “Distilling the Essence of ‘Quintessence.’” ↩︎

  2. W. Styler, “The Alchemical Origin of ‘Hermetically Sealed.’” ↩︎

  3. “As Above, So Below,” Wikipedia (accessed 2025‑08‑02). ↩︎

  4. “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,” Wikipedia. ↩︎

  5. The Digital Ambler, “No, the words ‘hermit’ and ‘Hermeticism’ aren’t related.” ↩︎