Hermeticism lays great emphasis on the sun, which is regarded as a kind of relay station for Gods creative and sustaining power and described in turn as the visible god and a second god.33 But although it isnt so surprising to find the sun givensuch prominence in the Hermetica, some passages about its importance are intriguingly specific. Treatise XVI, in which Asclepius expounds various points of teaching to King Ammon, contains two particularly tantalizing statements: For the sun is situated at the centre of the cosmos, wearing it like a crown 34; and Around the sun are the eight spheres that depend from it: the sphere of the fixed stars,the six of the planets, and the one that surrounds the earth.35

These spheres correspond to the modern concept of orbits, as it was thought that the celestial bodies were fixed to transparent spheres. Under the old Ptolemaic system the spheres surround (depend from) the Earth, with the sun occupying its own sphere. But this is not what is described in Treatise XVI, with the spheres surrounding the sun, which is situated at the centre. And the Earth has its own sphere which, like the other planets, depends from the sun in a way thatonly makes sense in Copernican terms.

Perhaps most interesting of all is the fact the heliocentric aspects are only mentioned in passing, when some other principle is being elucidated. It appears that the writers of at least these particular Hermetic treatises took the Earths journey around the sun for granted. Clearly, by referring to Hermes Trismegistus in his own exposition of the heliocentric system  besides quoting from Ficino on the sun as the embodiment of God  Copernicus shows that he was at least familiar with the prototype for his own ideas. As Frances Yates concluded:

  One can say, either that the intense emphasis on the sun in this new worldview was the emotional driving force which induced Copernicus to undertake his mathematical calculations on the hypothesis that the sun is indeed at the centre of the planetary system; or that he wished to make his discovery acceptable by presenting it within the framework of this new attitude. Perhaps both explanations would be true, or some of each.

  At any rate, Copernicus discovery came out with the blessing of Hermes Trismegistus upon its head, with a quotation from that famous work in which Hermes describes the sun-worship of the Egyptians in