The Corpus Hermeticum are the core documents of the Hermetic tradition. Dating from the early part of the Christian era, they were mistakenly dated to a much earlier period by Church officials up until the 15th century.

(Photo by authors David Cox and Damian Nabot. At the door Mr. Licio Gelli)

"The doors of all banks vaults open to the right." Licio Gelli

The mysterious donkey, another illustration by Nazari. In some mysteries many keys are needed to unlock the correct door.

From Giovanni Battista Nazari, Il metamorfosi metallico et humano (1564).

This image is directly tied to one of the greatest criminal mysteries. You can learn about it in Enigma.

P2

Stuart Christie in his book Stefano Delle Chiaie writes:
"Freemasonry is, perhaps, the most large-scale political organizaion of the middle-class in every western nation. The Grand Orient of Italy, a particularly powerful institution, is no exception. One important difference between the Grand Orient of Italy and the Grand Lodge of England -- the mother lodge- is the existence in Italy of covered or secret lodges whose membership is unknown even to the council members of the Grand Orient."

As we now know in Italy there were two secret lodges under the Grand Orient of Italy, the P1 and P2. The P2 was controlled by Licio Gelli. As Christie explains Licio Gelli is an old guard fascist from the Mussolini era who fled to Argentina following disclosures that he had been involved in the murder of Italian partisans.

Mithra and the mysteries

One of the most elusive and hotly debated issues in the study of antiquity is the precise nature of the connection between the Iranian deity Mithra and the military Roman Mithraic mystery cult. The cult which venerated Mithra in Roman circles (where he is traditionally known as Mithras), and which enjoyed a life of nearly 400 years, was esoteric, confined to male members of the Roman military and political elite (though traders and even slaves may have been eligible for membership), and demanded a series of seven graded initiation rites. One of our stunned discoveries was to learn who in the present still venerates this deity.