The Corpus Hermeticum

• I. Poemandres, the Shepherd of Men • II. To Asclepius • III. The Sacred Sermon • IV. The Cup or Monad • V. Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest • VI. In God Alone Is Good And Elsewhere Nowhere • VII. The Greatest Ill Among Men is Ignorance of God • VIII. That No One of Existing Things doth Perish, but Men in Error Speak of Their Changes as Destructions and as Deaths • IX. On Thought and Sense • X. The Key • XI. Mind Unto Hermes • XII. About The Common Mind • XIII. The Secret Sermon on the Mountain

Credits: A Translation for the PUBLIC DOMAIN by G.R.S. Mead

Author: translated by G.R.S. Mead

This edition was prepared and modified by Spark Visions, Inc. (dba Alexandria), https://seekalexandria.com, in 2025. A cover and summary has been added to the title page by Spark Visions, Inc. Original text from the public domain.

This version is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). You are free to share and adapt this material for any purpose, even commercially, provided proper credit is given.

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The Corpus Hermeticum

The Corpus Hermeticum are the core documents of the Hermetic tradition. Dating from early in the Christian era, they were mistakenly dated to a much earlier period by Church officials (and everyone else) up until the 15th century. Because of this, they were allowed to survive and we seen as an early precursor to what was to be Christianity. We know today that they were, in fact, from the early Christian era, and came out of the turbulent religious seas of Hellenic Egypt.

These are all taken from Mead's translations, which are in the public domain at this point.

1 It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back − just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.

Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?

He saith: I am Man−Shepherd (Poemandres), Mind of all−masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I'm with thee everywhere.

3. [And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.

He answered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will teach thee. opened to me, and I see a Vision limitless, all things turned into Light − sweet, joyous [Light]. And I became transported as I gazed.

But in a little while Darkness came settling down on part [of it], awesome and gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methought it like unto a snake.

And then the Darkness changed into some sort of a Moist Nature, tossed about beyond all power of words, belching out smoke as from a fire, and groaning forth a wailing sound that beggars all description.

[And] after that an outcry inarticulate came forth from it, as though it were a Voice of Fire. 5. [Thereon] out of the Light [...] a Holy Word (Logos) descended on that Nature. And upwards to the height from the Moist Nature leaped forth pure Fire; light was it, swift and active too.

The Air, too, being light, followed after the Fire; from out of the Earth−and−Water rising up to Fire so that it seemed to hang therefrom.

But Earth−and−Water stayed so mingled with each other, that Earth from Water no one could discern. Yet were they moved to hear by reason of the Spirit−Word (Logos) pervading them.

Nay; that shall I know, said I.

That Light, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature which appeared from Darkness; the

Light−Word (Logos) [that appeared] from Mind is Son of God.

What then? − say I.

Know that what sees in thee and hears is the Lord's Word (Logos); but Mind is Father−God. Not separate are they the one from other; just in their union [rather] is it Life consists.

Thanks be to Thee, I said.

So, understand the Light [He answered], and make friends with it.

But when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and

Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand.

And when I saw these things I understood by reason of Man−Shepherd's Word (Logos). whose being is before beginning without end. Thus spake to me Man−Shepherd.

And I say: Whence then have Nature's elements their being?

To this He answer gives: From Will of God. [Nature] received the Word (Logos), and gazing upon the

Cosmos Beautiful did copy it, making herself into a cosmos, by means of her own elements and by the births of souls. to give things form, who, God as he was of Fire and Spirit, formed Seven Rulers who enclose the cosmos that the sense perceives. Men call their ruling Fate. formation, and was at−oned with the Formative Mind; for it was co−essential with it. And Nature's downward elements were thus left reason−less, so as to be pure matter. whorl, set turning his formations, and let them turn from a beginning boundless unto an endless end. For that the circulation of these [spheres] begins where it doth end, as Mind doth will.

And from the downward elements Nature brought forth lives reason−less; for He did not extend the Reason (Logos) [to them]. The Air brought forth things winged; the Water things that swim, and Earth−and−Water one from another parted, as Mind willed. And from her bosom Earth produced what lives she had, four−footed things and reptiles, beasts wild and tame. in love, as being His own child; for he was beautiful beyond compare, the Image of his Sire. In very truth, God fell in love with his own Form; and on him did bestow all of His own formations. [so] assent was given him by the Father.

Changing his state to the formative sphere, in that he was to have his whole authority, he gazed upon his

Brother's creatures. They fell in love with him, and gave him each a share of his own ordering.

And after that he had well learned their essence and had become a sharer in their nature, he had a mind to break right through the Boundary of their spheres, and to subdue the might of that which pressed upon the

Fire. his face downwards through the Harmony, breaking right through its strength, and showed to downward

Nature God's fair form.

And when she saw that Form of beauty which can never satiate, and him who [now] possessed within himself each single energy of [all seven] Rulers as well as God's own Form, she smiled with love; for 'twas as though she'd seen the image of Man's fairest form upon her Water, his shadow on her Earth.

He in turn beholding the form like to himself, existing in her, in her Water, loved it and willed to live in it; and with the will came act, and [so] he vivified the form devoid of reason.

And Nature took the object of her love and wound herself completely around him, and they were intermingled, for they were lovers. the essential man immortal.

Though deathless and possessed of sway o'er all, yet doth he suffer as a mortal doth, subject to Fate.

Thus though above the Harmony, within the Harmony he hath become a slave. Though male−female, as from a Father male−female, and though he's sleepless from a sleepless [Sire], yet is he overcome [by sleep].

The Shepherd said: This is the mystery kept hid until this day.

Nature embraced by Man brought forth a wonder, oh so wonderful. For as he had the nature of the Concord of the Seven, who, as I said to thee, [were made] of Fire and Spirit − Nature delayed not, but immediately brought forth seven "men", in correspondence with the natures of the Seven, male−female and moving in the air.

Thereon [I said]: O Shepherd, ..., for now I'm filled with great desire and long to hear; do not run off.

The Shepherd said: Keep silence, for not as yet have I unrolled for thee the first discourse (logoi).

Lo! I am still, I said.

Water filled with longing; ripeness she took from Fire, spirit from Aether. Nature thus brought forth frames to suit the form of Man.

And Man from Light and Life changed into soul and mind − from Life to soul, from Light to mind.

And thus continued all the sense−world's parts until the period of their end and new beginnings.

The period being ended, the bond that bound them all was loosened by God's Will. For all the animals being male−female, at the same time with Man were loosed apart; some became partly male, some in like fashion [partly] female. And straightway God spake by His Holy Word (Logos):

"Increase ye in increasing, and multiply in multitude, ye creatures and creations all; and man that hath Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself is deathless, and that the cause of death is love, though Love is all." generations founded. And so all things were multiplied according to their kind.

And he who thus hath learned to know himself, hath reached that Good which doth transcend abundance; but he who through a love that leads astray, expends his love upon his body − he stays in Darkness wandering, and suffering through his senses things of Death.

Thou seem'st, He said, O thou, not to have given heed to what thou heardest. Did I not bid thee think?

Yea do I think, and I remember, and therefore give Thee thanks.

If thou didst think [thereon], [said He], tell me: Why do they merit death who are in Death?

It is because the gloomy Darkness is the root and base of the material frame; from it came the Moist Nature; from this the body in the sense−world was composed; and from this [body] Death doth the Water drain. (Logos) hath declared?

And I reply: the Father of the universals doth consist of Light and Life, from Him Man was born.

Thou sayest well, [thus] speaking. Light and Life is Father−God, and from Him Man was born.

If then thou learnest that thou art thyself of Life and Light, and that thou [happen'st] to be out of them, thou shalt return again to Life. Thus did Man−Shepherd speak.

But tell me further, Mind of me, I cried, how shall I come to Life again...for God doth say: "The man who hath Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself [is deathless]."

Thou sayest well, O thou, thus speaking. I, Mind, myself am present with holy men and good, the pure and merciful, men who live piously.

[To such] my presence doth become an aid, and straightway they gain gnosis of all things, and win the

Father's love by their pure lives, and give Him thanks, invoking on Him blessings, and chanting hymns, intent on Him with ardent love.

And ere they give up the body unto its proper death, they turn them with disgust from its sensations, from knowledge of what things they operate. Nay, it is I, the Mind, that will not let the operations which befall the body, work to their [natural] end. For being door−keeper I'll close up [all] the entrances, and cut the mental actions off which base and evil energies induce. and love impiety, I am far off, yielding my place to the Avenging Daimon, who sharpening the fire, tormenteth him and addeth fire to fire upon him, and rusheth upon him through his senses, thus rendering him readier for transgressions of the law, so that he meets with greater torment; nor doth he ever cease to have desire for appetites inordinate, insatiately striving in the dark.

Way Above as now it is [for me].

To this Man−Shepherd said: When the material body is to be dissolved, first thou surrenderest the body by itself unto the work of change, and thus the form thou hadst doth vanish, and thou surrenderest thy way of life, void of its energy, unto the Daimon. The body's senses next pass back into their sources, becoming separate, and resurrect as energies; and passion and desire withdraw unto that nature which is void of reason.

To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de−energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de−energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering

Arrogance, [also] de−energized; unto the fifth, unholy Daring and the Rashness of Audacity, de−energized; unto the sixth, Striving for Wealth by evil means, deprived of its aggrandizement; and to the seventh zone, Ensnaring Falsehood, de−energized. to that Nature which belongs unto the Eighth, and there with those−that−are hymneth the Father.

They who are there welcome his coming there with joy; and he, made like to them that sojourn there, doth further hear the Powers who are above the Nature that belongs unto the Eighth, singing their songs of praise to God in language of their own.

And then they, in a band, go to the Father home; of their own selves they make surrender of themselves to

Powers, and [thus] becoming Powers they are in God. This the good end for those who have gained Gnosis − to be made one with God.

Why shouldst thou then delay? Must it not be, since thou hast all received, that thou shouldst to the worthy point the way, in order that through thee the race of mortal kind may by [thy] God be saved?

But I, with thanks and belssings unto the Father of the universal [Powers], was freed, full of the power he had poured into me, and full of what He'd taught me of the nature of the All and of the loftiest Vision.

And I began to preach unto men the Beauty of Devotion and of Gnosis:

O ye people, earth−born folk, ye who have given yourselves to drunkenness and sleep and ignorance of God, be sober now, cease from your surfeit, cease to be glamoured by irrational sleep!

Ye earth−born folk, why have ye given yourselves up to Death, while yet ye have the power of sharing

Deathlessness? Repent, O ye, who walk with Error arm in arm and make of Ignorance the sharer of your board; get ye out from the light of Darkness, and take your part in Deathlessness, forsake Destruction!

Death; others entreated to be taught, casting themselves before my feet.

But I made them arise, and I became a leader of the Race towards home, teaching the words (logoi), how and in what way they shall be saved. I sowed in them the words (logoi) of wisdom; of Deathless Water were they given to drink.

And when even was come and all sun's beams began to set, I bade them all give thanks to God. And when they had brought to an end the giving of their thanks, each man returned to his own resting place. rejoiced. For body's sleep became the soul's awakening, and closing of the eyes − true vision, pregnant with

Good my silence, and the utterance of my word (logos) begetting of good things.

All this befell me from my Mind, that is Man−Shepherd, Word (Logos) of all masterhood, by whom being

God−inspired I came unto the Plain of Truth. Wherefore with all my soul and strength thanksgiving give I unto Father−God.

Holy art Thou, O God, whose Will perfects itself by means of its own Powers.

Holy art Thou, O God, who willeth to be known and art known by Thine own.

Holy art Thou,who didst by Word (Logos) make to consist the things that are.

Holy art Thou, of whom All−nature hath been made an image.

Holy art Thou, whose Form Nature hath never made.

Holy art Thou, more powerful than all power.

Holy art Thou, transcending all pre−eminence.

Holy Thou art, Thou better than all praise.

Accept my reason's offerings pure, from soul and heart for aye stretched up to Thee, O Thou unutterable, unspeakable, Whose Name naught but the Silence can express. and fill me with Thy Power, and with this Grace [of Thine], that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my Brethren, and Thy Sons.

For this cause I believe, and I bear witness; I go to Life and Light. Blessed art Thou, O Father. Thy Man would holy be as Thou art holy, e'en as Thou gave him Thy full authority [to be].

Asclepius: Assuredly.

H: And must not that in which it's moved be greater than the moved?

A: It must.

H: Mover, again, has greater power than moved?

A: It has, of course.

H: The nature, furthermore, of that in which it's moved must be quite other from the nature of the moved?

A: It must completely.

A: Assuredly.

H: And massive, too, for it is crammed with multitudes of other mighty frames, nay, rather all the other bodies that there are?

A: It is.

H: And yet the cosmos is a body?

A: It is a body.

H: And one that's moved?

H: Of what size, then, must be the space in which it's moved, and of what kind [must be] the nature [of that space]? Must it not be far vaster [than the cosmos], in order that it may be able to find room for its continued course, so that the moved may not be cramped for want of room and lose its motion?

A: Something, Thrice−greatest one, it needs must be, immensely vast. bodiless?

A: Agreed.

H: Space, then, is bodiless. But bodiless must either be some godlike thing or God [Himself]. And by "some godlike thing" I mean no more the generable [i.e., that which is generated] but the ingenerable. it is to be thought of otherwise [than God], and in this way.

God is first "thinkable" for us, not for Himself, for that the thing that's thought doth fall beneath the thinker's sense. God then cannot be "thinkable" unto Himself, in that He's thought of by Himself as being nothing else but what He thinks. But he is "something else" for us, and so He's thought of by us. be thought, [He should] not [be conceived] as space, but as energy that can contain [all space].

Further, all that is moved is moved not in the moved but in the stable. And that which moves [another] is of course stationary, for 'tis impossible that it should move with it.

A: How is it, then, that things down here, Thrice−greatest one, are moved with those that are [already] moved? For thou hast said the errant spheres were moved by the inerrant one.

H: This is not, O Asclepius, a moving with, but one against; they are not moved with one another, but one against the other. It is this contrariety which turneth the resistance of their motion into rest. For that resistance is the rest of motion. mutual contrariety, [and also] by the spable one through contrariety itself. And this can otherwise not be.

The Bears up there, which neither set nor rise, think'st thou they rest or move?

A: They move, Thrice−greatest one.

H: And what their motion, my Asclepius?

A: Motion that turns for ever round the same.

H: But revolution − motion around same − is fixed by rest. For "round−the−same" doth stop "beyond−same".

"Beyond−same" then, being stopped, if it be steadied in "round−same" − the contrary stands firm, being rendered ever stable by its contrariety. man, for instance, swimming! The water moves, yet the resistance of his hands and feet give him stability, so that he is not borne along with it, nor sunk thereby.

A: Thou hast, Thrice−greatest one, adduced a most clear instance.

H: All motion, then, is caused in station and by station.

The motion, therefore, of the cosmos (and of every other hylic animal) will not be caused by things exterior to the cosmos, but by things interior [outward] to the exterior − such [things] as soul, or spirit, or some such other thing incorporeal. 'Tis not the body that doth move the living thing in it; nay, not even the whole [body of the universe a lesser] body e'en though there be no life in it. and all the other things inanimate?

H: By no means, O Asclepius. The something−in−the−body, the that−which−moves the thing inanimate, this surely's not a body, for that it moves the two of them − both body of the lifter and the lifted? So that a thing that's lifeless will not move a lifeless thing. That which doth move [another thing] is animate, in that it is the mover.

Thou seest, then, how heavy laden is the soul, for it alone doth lift two bodies. That things, moreover, moved are moved in something as well as moved by something is clear.

H: Thou sayest well, O [my] Asclepius! For naught of things that are is void. Alone the "is−not" is void [and] stranger to subsistence. For that which is subsistent can never change to void.

A: Are there, then, O Thrice−greatest one, no such things as an empty cask, for instance, and an empty jar, a cup and vat, and other things like unto them?

H: Alack, Asclepius, for thy far−wandering from the truth! Think'st thou that things most full and most replete are void?

H: Is not air body?

A: It is.

H: And doth this body not pervade all things, and so, pervading, fill them? And "body"; doth body not consist from blending of the "four" ? Full, then, of air are all thou callest void; and if of air, then of the "four".

Further, of this the converse follows, that all thou callest full are void − of air; for that they have their space filled out with other bodies, and, therefore, are not able to receive the air therein. These, then, which thou dost say are void, they should be hollow named, not void; for they not only are, but they are full of air and spirit. which doth pervade all things, and so, pervading, fill them. What are we, then, to call that space in which the all doth move?

H: The bodiless, Asclepius.

A: What, then, is Bodiless?

H: 'Tis Mind and Reason (logos), whole out of whole, all self−embracing, free from all body, from all error free, unsensible to body and untouchable, self stayed in self, containing all, preserving those that are, whose rays, to use a likeness, are Good, Truth, Light beyond light, the Archetype of soul.

A: What, then, is God? that are. Nor hath He left a thing beside that is−not; but they are all from things−that−are and not from things−that−are−not. For that the things−that−are−not have naturally no power of being anything, but naturally have the power of the inability−to−be. And, conversely, the things−that−are have not the nature of some time not−being.

H: God, therefore, is not Mind, but Cause that the Mind is; God is not Spirit, but Cause that Spirit is; God is not Light, but Cause that the Light is. Hence one should honor God with these two names [the Good and

Father] − names which pertain to Him alone and no one else.

For no one of the other so−called gods, no one of men, or daimones, can be in any measure Good, but God alone; and He is Good alone and nothing else. The rest of things are separable all from the Good's nature; for [all the rest] are soul and body, which have no place that can contain the Good. things bodiless, things sensible and intelligible things. Call thou not, therefore, aught else Good, for thou would'st imious be; nor anything at all at any time call God but Good alone, for so thou would'st again be impious.

God not understood by all, but both unto the gods and some of the men they out of ignorance do give the name of Good, though they can never either be or become Good. For they are very different from God, while

Good can never be distinguished from Him, for that God is the same as Good.

The rest of the immortal ones are nonetheless honored with the name of God, and spoken of as gods; but God is Good not out of courtesy but out of nature. For that God's nature and the Good is one; one os the kind of both, from which all other kinds [proceed].

The Good is he who gives all things and naught receives. God, then, doth give all things and receive naught.

God, then, is Good, and Good is God. make.

Wherefore child−making is a very great and a most pious thing in life for them who think aright, and to leave life on earth without a child a very great misfortune and impiety; and he who hath no child is punished by the daimones after death.

And this is the punishment: that that man's soul who hath no child, shall be condemned unto a body with neither man's nor woman's nature, a thing accursed beneath the sun.

Wherefore, Asclepius, let not your sympathies be with the man who hath no child, but rather pity his mishap, knowing what punishment abides for him.

Let all that has been said then, be to thee, Asclepius, an introduction to the gnosis of the nature of all things.

both Mind and Nature − yea Matter, the Wisdom that reveals all things. Source [too] is Godhead − yea

Nature, Energy, Necessity, and End, and Making−new−again.

Darkness that knew no bounds was in Abyss, and Water [too] and subtle Breath intelligent; these were by

Power of God in Chaos.

Then Holy Light arose; and there collected 'neath Dry Space from out Moist Essence Elements; and all the

Gods do separate things out from fecund Nature. ones had their foundations laid down underneath the moist part of Dry Space, the universal things being bounded off by Fire and hanged in Breath to keep them up.

And Heaven was seen in seven circles; its Gods were visible in forms of stars with all their signs; while

Nature had her members made articulate together with the Gods in her. And [Heaven's] periphery revolved in cyclic course, borne on by Breath of God. four−footed beasts, and creeping things, and those that in the water dwell, and things with wings, and everything that beareth seed, and grass, and shoot of every flower, all having in themselves seed of again−becoming.

And they selected out the births of men for gnosis of the works of God and attestation of the energy of

Nature; the multitude of men for lordship over all beneath the heaven and gnosis of its blessings, that they might increase in increasing and multiply in multitude, and every soul infleshed by revolution of the Cyclic

Gods, for observation of the marvels of Heaven and Heaven's Gods' revolution, and of the works of God and energy of Nature, for tokens of its blessings, for gnosis of the power of God, that they might know the fates that follow good and evil [deeds] and learn the cunning work of all good arts. 4. [Thus] there begins their living and their growing wise, according to the fate appointed by the revolution of the Cyclic Gods, and their deceasing for this end.

And there shall be memorials mighty of their handiworks upon the earth, leaving dim trace behind when cycles are renewed.

For every birth of flesh ensouled, and of the fruit of seed, and every handiwork, though it decay, shall of necessity renew itself, both by the renovation of the Gods and by the turning−round of Nature's rhythmic wheel.

For that whereas the Godhead is Nature's ever−making−new−again the cosmic mixture, Nature herself is also co−established in that Godhead.

thou shouldst think of him as everywhere and ever−being, the Author of all things, and One and Only, who by His Will all beings hath created.

This Body of Him is a thing no man can touch, or see, or measure, a body inextensible, like to no other frame. 'Tis neither Fire nor Water, Air nor Breath; yet all of them come from it. Now being Good he willed to consecrate this [Body] to Himself alone, and set its Earth in order and adorn it. that dies. And o'er [all other] lives and over Cosmos [too], did man excel by reason of the Reason (Logos) and the Mind. For contemplator of God's works did man become; he marvelled and did strive to know their

Author. any, for grudging cometh not from Him, but hath its place below, within the souls of men who have no Mind.

Tat: Why then did God, O father, not on all bestow a share of Mind?

H: He willed, my son, to have it set up in the midst for souls, just as it were a prize.

H: He filled a mighty Cup with it, and sent it down, joining a Herald [to it], to whom He gave command to make this proclamation to the hearts of men: Baptize thyself with this Cup's baptism, what heart can do so, thou that hast faith thou canst ascend to him that hath sent down the Cup, thou that dost know for what thoudidst come into being!

As many then as understood the Herald's tidings and doused themselves in Mind, became partakers in the

Gnosis; and when they had "received the Mind" they were made "perfect men".

But they who do not understand the tidings, these, since they possess the aid of Reason [only] and not Mind, are ignorant wherefor they have come into being and whereby. their impulses, they fail in all appreciation of those things which really are worth contemplation. These center all their thought upon the pleasures of the body and its appetites, in the belief that for its sake man hath come into being.

But they who have received some portion of God's gift, these, Tat, if we judge by their deeds, have from

Death's bonds won their release; for they embrace in their own Mind all things, things on the earth, things in the heaven, and things above the heaven − if there be aught. And having raised themselves so far they sight the Good; and having sighted it, they look upon their sojourn here as a mischance; and in disdain of all, both things in body and the bodiless, they speed their way unto that One and Only One.

T: Father, I, too, would be baptized.

H: Unless thou first shall hate thy Body, son, thou canst not love thy Self. But if thou lov'st thy Self thou shalt have Mind, and having Mind thou shalt share in the Gnosis.

T: Father, what dost thou mean?

H: It is not possible, my son, to give thyself to both − I mean to things that perish and to things divine. For seeing that existing things are twain, Body and Bodiless, in which the perishing and the divine are understood, the man who hath the will to choose is left the choice of one or the other; for it can never be the twain should meet. And in those souls to whom the choice is left, the waning of the one causes the other's growth to show itself. makes the man a God, but also shows his piety to God. Whereas the [choosing] of the Worse, although it doth destroy the "man", it doth only disturb God's harmony to this extent, that as processions pass by in the middle of the way, without being able to do anything but take the road from others, so do such men move in procession through the world led by their bodies' pleasures. ourselves, let this press onward and have no delay, for 'tis not God, 'tis we who are the cause of evil things, preferring them to good.

Thou see'st, son, how many are the bodies through which we have to pass, how many are the choirs of daimones, how vast the system of the star−courses [through which our Path doth lie], to hasten to the One and Only God.

For to the Good there is no other shore; It hath no bounds; It is without an end; and for Itself It is without beginning, too, though unto us it seemeth to have one − the Gnosis. being known.

Let us lay hold, therefore, of the beginning. and quickly speed through all [we have to pass]. `Tis very hard, to leave the things we have grown used to, which meet our gaze on every side, and turn ourselves back to the Old Old [Path].

Appearances delight us, whereas things which appear not make their believing hard.

Now evils are the more apparent things, whereas the Good can never show Itself unto the eyes, for It hath neither form nor figure.

Therefore the Good is like Itself alone, and unlike all things else; or `tis impossible that That which hath no body should make Itself apparent to a body.

The Oneness being Source and Root of all, is in all things as Root and Source. Without [this] Source is naught; whereas the Source [Itself] is from naught but itself, since it is Source of all the rest. It is Itself Its

Source, since It may have no other Source.

The Oneness then being Source, containeth every number, but is contained by none; engendereth every number, but is engendered by no other one.

Perfect [One] none of these things doth hold. Now that which is increasable increases from the Oneness, but succumbs through its own feebleness when it no longer can contain the One.

And now, O Tat, God's Image hath been sketched for thee, as far as it can be; and if thou wilt attentively dwell on it and observe it with thine heart's eyes, believe me, son, thou'lt find the Path that leads above; nay, that Image shall become thy Guide itself, because the Sight [Divine] hath this peculiar [charm], it holdeth fast and draweth unto it those who succeed in opening their eyes, just as, they say, the magnet [draweth] iron.

the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most manifest for thee.

Now were it manifest, it would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becoming, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest for ever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things.

Being Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making−manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking−manifest, He thinketh all things manifest.

Now "thinking−manifest" deals with things made alone, for thinking−manifest is nothing else than making. unmanifest.

And as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest.

Do thou, then, Tat, my son, pray first unto our Lord and Father, the One−and−Only One, from whom the One doth come, to show His mercy unto thee, in order that thou mayest have the power to catch a thought of this so mighty God, one single beam of Him to shine into thy thinking. For thought alone "sees" the Unmanifest, in that it is itself unmanifest.

If, then, thou hast the power, He will, Tat, manifest to thy mind's eyes. The Lord begrudgeth not Himself to anything, but manifests Himself through the whole world.

Thou hast the power of taking thought, of seeing it and grasping it in thy own "hands", and gazing face to face upon God's Image. But if what is within thee even is unmanifest to thee, how, then, shall He Himself who is within thy self be manifest for thee by means of [outer] eyes? order of the stars. Who is the One who watcheth o'er that order? For every order hath its boundaries marked out by place and number.

The sun's the greatest god of gods in heaven; to whom all of the heavenly gods give place as unto king and master. And he, this so−great one, he greater than the earth and sea, endures to have above him circling smaller stars than him. Out of respect to Whom, or out of fear of Whom, my son, [doth he do this]?

Nor like nor equal is the course each of these stars describes in heaven. Who [then] is He who marketh out the manner of their course and its extent? of this instrument? Who He who hath set round the sea its bounds? Who He who hath set on its seat the earth?

For, Tat, there is someone who is the Maker and the Lord of all these things. It cound not be that number, place and measure could be kept without someone to make them. No order whatsoever could be made by that which lacketh place and lacketh measure; nay, even this is not without a lord, my son. For if the orderless lacks something, in that it is not lord of order's path, it also is beneath a lord − the one who hath not yet ordained it order. earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowings of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftness, [and] the coursing of the stars, the swiftness of heaven's circuit round them [all]!

Most blessed sight were it, my son, to see all these beneath one sway − the motionless in motion, and the unmanifest made manifest; whereby is made this order of the cosmos and the cosmos which we see of order. man's being fashioned in the womb, my son, and strictly scrutinize the art of Him who fashions him, and learn who fashioneth this fair and godly image of the Man.

Who [then] is He who traceth out the circles of the eyes; who He who boreth out the nostrils and the ears; who He who openeth [the portal of] the mouth; who He who doth stretch out and tie the nerves; who He who channels out the veins; who He who hardeneth the bones; who He who covereth the flesh with skin; who He who separates the fingers and the joints; who He who widens out a treading for the feet; who He who diggeth out the ducts; who He who spreadeth out the spleen; who he who shapeth heart like to a pyramid; who He who setteth ribs together; who He who wideneth the liver out; who He who maketh lungs like to a sponge; who He who maketh belly stretch so much; who he who doth make prominent the parts most honorable, so that they may be seen, while hiding out of sight those of least honor? exceeding fair, and all in perfect measure, yet all diversified! Who made them all? What mother, or what sire, save God alone, unmanifest, who hath made all things by His Will? such workmanship as this exist without a Worker? What depth of blindness, what deep impiety, what depth of ignorance! See, [then] thou ne'er, son Tat, deprivest works of Worker!

Nay, rather is He greater than all names, so great is He, the Father of them all. For verily He is the Only One, and this is His work, to be a father. [them].

And as without its maker its is impossible that anything should be, so ever is He not unless He ever makes all things, in heaven, in air, in earth, in deep, in all of cosmos, in every part that is and that is not of everything.

For there is naught in all the world that is not He.

He is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, He keepeth things that are not in Himself. contemplate, He visible to the eyes [as well]; He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather

He of every body.

Naught is there which he is not. For all are He and He is all. And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no nome, in that He's Father of [them] all.

Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee?

Whither, again, am I to turn my eyes to sing Thy praise; above, below, within, without?

There is no way, no place [is there] about Thee, nor any other thing of things that are.

All [are] in Thee; all [are] from Thee, O Thou who givest all and takest naught, for Thou hast all and naught is there Thou hast not.

For what, again, shall I sing hymn? For things that Thou hast made, or things Thou hast not? For things Thou hast made manifest, or things Thou hast concealed?

How, further, shall I hymn Thee? As being of myself? As having something of mine own? As being other?

For that Thou art whatever I may be; Thou art whatever I may do; Thou art whatever I may speak.

For Thou art all, and there is nothing else which Thou art not. Thou art all that which doth exist, and Thou art what doth not exist − Mind when Thou thinkest, and Father when Thou makest, and God when Thou dost energize, and Good and Maker of all things.

For that the subtler part of matter is the air, of air the soul, of soul the mind, and of mind God.

If it be so, [Good] must be essence, from every kind of motion and becoming free (though naught is free from

It), possessed of stable energy around Itself, never too little, nor too much, an ever−full supply. [Though] one, yet [is It] source of all; for what supplieth all is Good. When I, moreover, say [supplieth] altogether [all], it is for ever Good. But this belongs to no one else save God alone.

For He stands not in need of any thing, so that desiring it He should be bad; nor can a single thing of things that are be lost to him, on losing which He should be pained; for pain is part of bad.

Nor is there aught superior to Him, that He should be subdued by it; nor any peer to Him to do Him wrong, or [so that] He should fall in love on its account; nor aught that gives no ear to Him, whereat He should grow angry; nor wiser aught, for Him to envy.

For just as naught of bad is to be found in such transcendent Being, so too in no one of the rest will Good be found.

For in them are all of the other things − both in the little and the great, both in each severally and in this living one that's greater than them all and the mightiest [of them].

For things subject to birth abound in passions, birth in itself being passible. But where there's passion, nowhere is there Good; and where is Good, nowhere a single passion. For where is day, nowhere is night; and where is night, day is nowhere.

Wherefore in genesis the Good can never be, but only be in the ingenerate.

But seeing that the sharing in all things hath been bestowed on matter, so doth it share in Good.

In this way is the Cosmos Good; that, in so far as it doth make all things, as far as making goes it's Good, but in all other things it is not Good. For it's both passible and subject unto motion, and maker of things passible. and good down here is the least part of bad.

It cannot, therefore, be that good down here should be quite clean of bad, for down here good is fouled with bad; and being fouled, it stays no longer good, and staying not it changes into bad.

In God alone, is, therefore, Good, or rather Good is God Himself.

So then, Asclepius, the name alone of Good is found in men, the thing itself nowhere [in them], for this can never be.

For no material body doth contain It − a thing bound on all sides by bad, by labors, pains, desires and passions, by error and by foolish thoughts.

And greatest ill of all, Asclepius, is that each of these things that have been said above, is thought down here to be the greatest good.

And what is still an even greater ill, is belly−lust, the error that doth lead the band of all the other ills − the thing that makes us turn down here from Good. it can never be It should be in the world. For that the world is "fullness" of the bad, but God of Good, and

Good of God.

The excellencies of the Beautiful are round the very essence [of the Good]; nay, they do seem too pure, too unalloyed; perchance 'tis they that are themselves Its essences.

For one may dare to say, Asclepius − if essence, sooth, He have − God's essence is the Beautiful; the

Beautiful is further also Good.

There is no Good that can be got from objects in the world. For all the things that fall beneath the eye are image−things and pictures as it were; while those that do not meet [the eye are the realities], especially the [essence] of the Beautiful and Good.

Just as the eye cannot see God, so can it not behold the Beautiful and Good. For that they are integral parts of

God, wedded to Him alone, inseparate familiars, most beloved, with whom God is Himself in love, or they with God. than the Light by God. That Beauty is beyond compare, inimitate that Good, e'en as God is Himself.

As, then, thou dost conceive of God, conceive the Beautiful and Good. For they cannot be joined with aught of other things that live, since they can never be divorced from God.

Seek'st thou for God, thou seekest for the Beautiful. One is the Path that leadeth unto It − Devotion joined with Gnosis. and good, though he have ne'er e'en in his visions seen a whit that's Good, but is enveloped with every kind of bad, and thinks the bad is good, and thus doth make unceasing use of it, and even feareth that it should be ta'en from him, so straining every nerve not only to preserve but even to increase it.

Such are the things that men call good and beautiful, Asclepius − things which we cannot flee or hate; for hardest thing of all is that we've need of them and cannot live without them.

already even spew it forth?

Stay ye, be sober, gaze upwards with the [true] eyes of the heart! And if ye cannot all, yet ye at least who can!

For that the ill of ignorance doth pour o`er all the earth and overwhelm the soul that's battened down within the body, preventing it from fetching port within Salvation's harbors. port, and, harboring there, seek ye for one to take you by the hand and lead you unto Gnosis' gates.

Where shines clear Light, of every darkness clean; where not a single soul is drunk, but sober all they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who willeth to be seen.

No ear can hear Him, nor can eye see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but [only] mind and heart.

But first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear − the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption's chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation's corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice. may'st not gaze above, and having seen the Beauty of the Truth, and Good that dwells therein, detest the bad of it; having found out the plot that it hath schemed against thee, by making void of sense those seeming things which men think senses.

For that it hath with mass of matter blocked them up and crammed them full of loathsome lust, so that thou may'st not hear about the things that thou should'st hear, nor see the things thou should'st see.

1. [Hermes:] Concerning Soul and Body, son, we now must speak; in what way Soul is deathless, and whence comes the activity in composing and dissolving Body.

For there's no death for aught of things [that are]; the thought this word conveys, is either void of fact, or [simply] by the knocking off a syllable what is called "death", doth stand for "deathless".

For death is of destruction, and nothing in the Cosmos is destroyed. For if Cosmos is second God, a life that cannot die, it cannot be that any part of this immortal life should die. All things in Cosmos are parts of

Cosmos, and most of all is man, the rational animal. image", Cosmos, brought into being by Him, sustained and fed by Him, made deathless, as by his own Sire, living for aye, as ever free from death.

Now that which ever−liveth, differs from the Eternal; for He hath not been brought to being by another, and even if He have been brought to being, He hath not been brought to being by Himself, but ever is brought into being.

For the Eternal, in that It is eternal, is the all. The Father is Himself eternal of Himself, but Cosmos hath become eternal and immortal by the Father. spherical − wrapping it round the life − [a sphere] which is immortal in itself, and that doth make materiality eternal.

But He, the Father, full−filled with His ideas, did sow the lives into the sphere, and shut them in as in a cave, willing to order forth the life with every kind of living.

So He with deathlessness enclosed the universal body, that matter might not wish to separate itself from body's composition, and so dissolve into its own [original] unorder.

For matter, son, when it was yet incorporate, was in unorder. And it doth still retain down here this [nature of unorder] enveloping the rest of the small lives − that increase−and−decrease which men call death. order allotted to them by the Father as their rule; and it is by the restoration of each one [of them] this order is preserved indissolute.

The "restoration" of bodies on the earth is thus their composition, whereas their dissolution restores them to those bodies which can never be dissolved, that is to say, which know no death. Privation, thus, of sense is brought about, not loss of bodies. beyond all earthly lives − not only doth have feeling with the second God, but also hath conception of the first; for of the one 'tis sensible as of a body, while of the other it conceives as bodiless and the Good Mind.

Tat: Doth then this life not perish?

Hermes: Hush, son! and understand what God, what Cosmos [is], what is a life that cannot die, and what a life subject to dissolution.

Yea, understand the Cosmos is by God and in God; but Man by Cosmos and in Cosmos.

The source and limit and the constitution of all things is God.

through point by point the Sermon about Sense.

Now sense and thought do seem to differ, in that the former has to do with matter, the latter has to do with substance. But unto me both seem to be at−one and not to differ − in men I mean. In other lives sense is at−oned with Nature, but in men thought.

Now mind doth differ just as much from thought as God doth from divinity. For that divinity by God doth come to be, and by mind thought, the sister of the word (logos) and instruments of one another. For neither doth the word (logos) find utterance without thought, nor is thought manifested without word. neither without sensing can one think, nor without thinking sense.

But it is possible [they say] to think a thing apart from sense, as those who fancy sights in dreams. But unto me it seems that both of these activities occur in dream−sight, and sense doth pass out of the sleeping to the waking state.

For man is separated into soul and body, and only when the two sides of his sense agree together, does utterance of its thought conceived by mind take place. contraries when [it receiveth them] from the daimonials; no part of Cosmos being free of daimon, who stealthily doth creep into the daimon who's illumined by God's light, and sow in him the seed of its own energy.

And mind conceives the seed thus sown, adultery, murder, parricide, [and] sacrilege, impiety, [and] strangling, casting down precipices, and all such other deeds as are the work of evil daimons.

Devotion is God−gnosis; and he who knoweth God, being filled with all good things, thinks godly thoughts and not thoughts like the many [think].

For this cause they who Gnostic are, please not the many, nor the many them. They are thought mad and laughted at; they're hated and despised, and sometimes even put to death.

For we did say that bad must needs dwell on earth, where 'tis in its own place. Its place is earth, and not

Cosmos, as some will sometimes say with impious tongue.

But he who is a devotee of God, will bear with all − once he has sensed the Gnosis. For such an one all things, e'en though they be for others bad, are for him good; deliberately he doth refer them all unto the

Gnosis. And, thing most marvelous, 'tis he alone who maketh bad things good. constitute him man. But 'tis not [every] man, as I have said, who benefits by thought; for this man is material, that other one substantial.

For the material man, as I have said, [consorting] with the bad, doth have his seed of thought from daimons; while the substantial men [consorting] with the Good, are saved by God.

Now God is Maker of all things, and in His making, He maketh all [at last] like to Himself; but they, while they're becoming good by exercise of their activity, are unproductive things.

It is the working of the Cosmic Course that maketh their becomings what they are, befouling some of them with bad and others of them making clean with good.

For Cosmos, too, Asclepius, possesseth sense−and−thought peculiar to itself, not like that of man; 'tis not so manifold, but as it were a better and a simpler one.

Organ of the Will of God, so organized that it, receiving all the seeds into itself from God, and keeping them within itself, may make all manifest, and [then] dissolving them, make them all new again; and thus, like a

Good Gardener of Life, things that have been dissolved, it taketh to itself, and giveth them renewal once again.

There is no thing to which it gives not life; but taking all unto itself it makes them live, and is at the same time the Place of Life and its Creator. of fire.

But they are all composed; some are more [composite], and some are simpler. The heavier ones are more [composed], the lighter less so.

It is the speed of Cosmos' Course that works the manifoldness of the kinds of births. For being a most swift

Breath, it doth bestow their qualities on bodies together with the One Pleroma − that of Life. are by Cosmos.

And properly hath it been called Cosmos [Order]; for that it orders all with their diversity of birth, with its not leaving aught without its life, with the unweariedness of its activity, the speed of its necessity, the composition of its elements, and order of its creatures.

The same, then, of necessity and propriety should have the name of Order.

The sense−and−thought, then, of all lives doth come into them from without, inbreathed by what contains [them all]; whereas Cosmos receives them once for all together with its coming into being, and keeps them as a gift from God. thus impiously speak.

For all the things that are, Asclepius, all are in God, are brought by God to be, and do depend on Him − both things that act through bodies, and things that through soul−substance make [other things] to move, and things that make things live by means of spirit, and things that take unto themselves the things that are worn out.

And rightly so; nay, I would rather say, He doth not have these things; but I speak forth the truth, He is them all Himself. He doth not get them from without, but gives them out [from Him].

This is God's sense−and−thought, ever to move all things. And never time shall be when e'en a whit of things that are shall cease; and when I say "a whit of things that are", I mean a whit of God. For thigs that are, God hath; nor aught [is there] without Him, nor [is] He without aught. understand, things not to be believed.

To understand is to believe, to not believe is not to understand.

My word (logos) doth go before [thee] to the truth. But mighty is the mind, and when it hath been led by word up to a certain point, it hath the power to come before [thee] to the truth.

And having thought o'er all these things, and found them consonant with those which have already been translated by the reason, it hath [e'en now] believed, and found its rest in that Fair Faith.

To those, then, who by God['s good aid] do understand the things that have been said [by us] above, they're credible; but unto those who understand them not, incredible.

Let so much, then, suffice on thought−and−sense.

devote toafy's to Tat; and this the more because 'tis the abridgement of the General Sermons (Logoi) which he has had addressed to him.

"God, Father and the Good", then, Tat, hath the same nature, or more exactly, energy.

For nature is a predicate of growth, and used of things that change, both mobile and immobile, that is to say, both human and divine, each one of which He willeth into being.

But energy consists in something else, as we have shown in treating of the rest, both things divine and human things; which thing we ought to have in mind when treating of the Good.

Father and the Good" but the "to be" of all that are not yet? Nay, subsistence self of everything that is; this, then, is God, this Father, this the Good; to Him is added naught of all the rest.

And though the Cosmos, that is to say the Sun, is also sire himself to them that share in him; yet so far is he not the cause of good unto the lives, he is not even of their living.

So that e'en if he be a sire, he is entirely so by compulsion of the Good's Good−will, apart from which nor being nor becoming could e'er be.

Good's desire [that doth pour] through the Sun. It is the Good which doeth the creating.

And such a power can be possessed by no one else than Him alone who taketh naught, but wills all things to be; I will not, Tat, say "makes".

For that the maker is defective for long periods (in which he sometimes makes, and sometimes doth not make) both in the quality and in the quantity [of what he makes]; in that he sometimes maketh them so many and such like, and sometimes the reverse.

But "God and Father and the Good" is [cause] for all to be. So are at least these things for those who can see. are just bacause of It; for the distinctive feature of the Good is "that it should be known". Such is the Good, O Tat.

Tat: Thou hast, O father, filled us so full of this so good and fairest sight, that thereby my mind's eye hath now become for me almost a thing to worship.

For that the vision of the Good doth not, like the sun's beam, firelike blaze on the eyes and make them close; nay, on the contrary, it shineth forth and maketh to increase the seeing of the eye, as far as e'er a man hath the capacity to hold the inflow of the radiance that the mind alone can see.

Not only does it come more swiftly down to us, but it does us no harm, and is instinct with all immortal life. asleep in this fairest Spectacle, as was the case with Uranus and Cronus, our forebears. may this be out lot too, O father mine!

Hermes: Yea, may it be, my son! But as it is, we are not yet strung to the Vision, and not as yet have we the power our mind's eye to unfold and gaze upon the Beauty of the Good − Beauty that naught can e'er corrupt or any comprehend.

For only then wilt thou upon It gaze when thou canst say no word concerning It. For Gnosis of the Good is holy silence and a giving holiday to every sense. hear aught else, nor stir his body any way. Staying his body's every sense and every motion he stayeth still.

And shining then all round his mond, It shines through his whole soul, and draws it out of body, transforming all of him to essence.

For it is possible, my son, that a man's soul should be made like to God, e'en while it still is in a body, if it doth contemplate the Beauty of the Good.

Hermes: Of every soul apart are transformations, son.

Tat: What meanest thou? Apart?

Hermes: Didst thou not, in the General Sermons, hear that from one Soul − the All−soul − come all these souls which are made to revovlve in all the cosmos, as though divided off?

Of these souls, then, it is that there are many changes, some to a happier lot and some to [just] the contrary of this.

Thus some that were creeping things change into things that in the water dwell, the souls of water things change to earth−dwellers, those that live on earth change to things with wings, and souls that live in air change to men, while human souls reach the first step of deathlessness changed into daimones.

And so they circle to the choir of the Inerrant Gods; for of the Gods there are two choirs, the one Inerrant, and the other Errant. And this is the most perfect glory of the soul. in the Good; but speeding back again it turns into the path that leads to creeping things. This is the sentence of the vicious soul.

And the soul's vice is ignorance. For that the soul who hath no knowledge of the things that are, or knowledge of their nature, or of Good, is blinded by the body's passions and tossed about.

This wretched soul, not knowing what she is, becomes the slave of bodies of strange form in sorry plight, bearing the body as a load; not as the ruler, but the ruled. This [ignorance] is the soul's vice. while on the earth divine.

Tat: But who is such an one, O father mine?

Hermes: He who doth not say much or lend his ear to much. For he who spendeth time in arguing and hearing arguments, doth shadow−fight. For "God, the Father and the Good", is not to be obtained by speech or hearing.

And yet though this is so, there are in all the beings senses, in that they cannot without senses be.

But Gnosis is far different from sense. For sense is brought about by that which hath the mastery o'er us, while Gnosis is the end of science, and science is God's gift.

Both then come into bodies, [I mean] both things that are cognizable by mond alone and things material. For all things must consist out of antithesis and contrariety; and this can otherwise not be.

Tat: Who then is this material God of whom thou speakest?

Hermes: Cosmos is beautiful, but is not good − for that it is material and freely passible; and though it is the first of all things passible, yet is it in the second rank of being and wanting in itself.

And though it never hath itself its birth in time, but ever is, yet is its being in becoming, becoming for all time the genesis of qualities and quantities; for it is mobile and all material motion's genesis. head. And naught of head above's material, as naught of feet below's intelligible, but all material.

And head itself is moved in a sphere−like way − that is to say, as head should move, is mind.

All then that are united to the "tissue" of this "head" (in which is soul) are in their nature free from death − just as when body hath been made in soul, are things that hath more soul than body.

Whereas those things which are at greater distance from this "tissue" − there, where are things which have a greater share of body than of soul − are by their nature subject unto death.

The whole, however, is a life; so that the universe consists of both the hylic and of the intelligible. to death.

Man hath the same ensouling power in him as all the rest of living things; yet is he not only not good, but even evil, for that he's subject unto death.

For though the Cosmos also is not good in that it suffers motion, it is not evil, in that it is not subject to death.

But man, in that he's subject both to motion and to death, is evil. soul in the spirit, and spirit in the body.

Spirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way.

For this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowing that [at death] it is iteh spirit that must first withdraw into the soul, whereon the blood congeals and veins and arteries are emptied, and then the living creature is withdrawn; and this is body's death. is, moreover, moved to become Source again; whereas the One standeth perpetually and is not moved.

Three then are they: "God, the Father and the Good", Cosmos and man.

God doth contain Cosmos; Cosmos [containeth] man. Cosmos is e'er God's Son, man as it were Cosmos' child.

This is the sole salvation for a man − God's Gnosis. This is the Way Up to the Mount.

By Him alone the soul becometh good, not whiles is good, whiles evil, but [good] out of necessity.

Tat: What dost thou mean, Thrice−greatest one?

Hermes: Behold an infant's soul, my son, that is not yet cut off, because its body is still small and not as yet come unto its full bulk.

Tat: How?

Hermes: A thing of beauty altogether is [such a soul] to see, not yet befouled by body's passions, still all but hanging from the Cosmic Soul!

But when the body grows in bulk and draweth down the soul into its mass, then doth the soul cut off itself and bring upon itself forgetfulness, and no more shareth in the Beautiful and the Good. And this forgetfulness becometh vice.

For when the soul withdraws into itself, the spirit doth contract itself within the blood, and the soul within the spirit. And then the mind, stripped of its wrappings, and naturally divine, taking unto itself a fiery body, doth traverse every space, after abandoning the soul unto its judgement and whatever chastisement it hath deserved.

Tat: What dost thou, father, mean by this? The mind is parted from soul and soul from spirit? Whereas thou said'st the soul was the mind's vesture, and the soul's the spirit. hearing subtler than the voice of him who speaks.

It is, son, in a body made of earth that this arrangement of the vestures comes to pass. For in a body made of earth it is impossible the mind should take its seat itself by its own self in nakedness.

For neither is it possible on the one hand the earthly body should contain so much immortality, nor on the other that so great a virtue should endure a body passible in such close contact with it. It taketh, then, the soul for as it were an envelope.

And soul itself, being too and thing divine, doth use the spirit as its envelope, while spirit doth pervade the living creature. with which it could not dwell in an earth−body.

For earth doth not bear fire; for it is all set in a blaze even by a small spark. And for this cause is water poured around earth, to be a guard and wall, to keep the blazing of the fire away.

But mind, the swiftest thing of all divine outthinkings, and swifter than all elements, hath for its body fire.

For mind being builder doth use the fire as tool for the construction of all things − the Mind of all [for the construction] of all things, but that of man only for things on earth.

Stript of its fire the mind on earth cannot make things divine, for it is human in its dispensation.

And such a soul when from the body freed, if it have fought the fight of piety − the fight of piety is to know

God and to do wrong to no man − such a soul becomes entirely mind.

Whereas the impious soul remains in its own essence, chastised by its own self, and seeking for an earthly body where to enter, if only it be human.

For that no other body can contain a human soul; nor is it right that any human soul should fall into the body of a thing that doth possess no reason. For that the law of God is this: to guard the human soul from such tremendous outrage.

Hermes: What greater chastisement of any human soul can there be, son, than lack of piety? What fire has so fierce a flame as lack of piety? What ravenous beast so mauls the body as lack of piety the very soul?

Dost thou not see what hosts of ills the impious soul doth bear?

It shrieks and screams: I burn; I am ablaze; I know not what to cry or do; ah, wretched me, I am devoured by all the ills that compass me about; alack, poor me, I neither see nor hear!

Such are the cries wrung from a soul chastised; not, as the many think, and thou, son, dost suppose, that a [man's] soul, passing from body, is changed into a beast.

Such is a very grave mistake, for that the way a soul doth suffer chastisement is this: God; and entering in the soul most impious it scourgeth it with whips made of its sins.

And then the impious soul, scourged with its sins, is plunged in murders, outrage, blasphemy, in violence of all kinds, and all the other things whereby mankind is wronged.

But on the pious soul the mind doth mount and guide it to the Gnosis' Light. And such a soul doth never tire in songs of praise [to God] and pouring blessing on all men, and doing good in word and deed to all, in imitation of its Sire.

It is, then, to a better state the soul doth pass; it cannot to a worse.

Further there is an intercourse of souls; those of the gods have intercourse with those of men, and those of men with souls of creatures which possess no reason.

The higher, further, have in charge the lower; the gods look after men, men after animals irrational, while

God hath charge of all; for He is higher than them all and all are less than He.

Cosmos is subject, then, to God, man to the Cosmos, and irrationals to man. But God is o'er them all, and

God contains them all.

God's rays, to use a figure, are His energies; the Cosmos's are natures, the arts and sciences are man's.

The energies act through the Cosmos, thence through the nature−rays of Cosmos upon man; the nature−rays [act] through the elements, man [acteth] through the sciences and arts. through the Mind, than which is naught diviner nor of greater energy; and naught a greater means for the at−oning men to gods and gods to men.

He, [Mind,] is the Good Daimon. Blessed the soul that is most filled with Him, and wretched is the soul that's empty of the Mind.

Tat: Father, what dost thou mean, again?

Hermes: Dost think then, son, that every soul hath the Good [Mind]? For 'tis of Him we speak, not of the mind in service of which we were just speaking, the mind sent down for [the soul's] chastisement. that time the soul neither sees nor understands, but is just like a thing that hath no reason. Such is the power of mind.

Yet doth it not endure a sluggish soul, but leaveth such a soul tied to the body and bound tight down by it.

Such soul, my son, doth not have Mind; and therefore such an one should not be called a man. For that man is a thing−of−life divine; man is not measured with the rest of lives of things upon the earth, but with the lives above in heaven, who are called gods.

Nay more, if we must boldly speak the truth, the true "man" is e'en higher than the gods, or at the [very] least the gods and men are very whit in power each with the other equal. doth mount up to heaven and measure it; he knows what things of it are high, what things are low, and learns precisely all things else besides. And greater thing than all; without e'en quitting earth, he doth ascend above.

So vast a sweep doth he possess of ecstasy.

For this cause can a man dare say that man on earth is god subject to death, while god in heaven is man from death immune.

Wherefore the dispensation of all things is brought about by means of there, the twain − Cosmos and Man − but by the One.

as it hath come unto Me to speak, I will no more delay.

Hermes: As many men say many things, and these diverse, about the All and Good, I have not learned the truth. Make it, then, clear to me, O Master mine! For I can trust the explanation of these things, which comes from Thee alone.

God; Aeon; Cosmos; Time; Becoming.

God maketh Aeon; Aeon, Cosmos; Cosmos, Time; and Time, Becoming.

The Good − the Beautiful, Wisdom, Blessedness − is essence, as it were, of God; of Aeon, Sameness; of

Cosmos, Order; of Time, Change; and of Becoming, Life and Death.

The energies of God are Mind and Soul; of Aeon, lastingness and deathlessness; of Cosmos, restoration and the opposite thereof; of Time, increase and decrease; and of Becoming, quality.

Aeon is, then, in God; Cosmos, in Aeon; in Cosmos; Time; in Time, Becoming.

Aeon stands firm round God; Cosmos is moved in Aeon; Time hath its limits in the Cosmos; Becoming doth become in Time.

God's power is Aeon; Aeon's work is Cosmos − which never hath become, yet ever doth become by Aeon.

Therefore will Cosmos never be destroyed, for Aeon's indestructible; nor doth a whit of things in Cosmos perish, for Cosmos is enwrapped by Aeon round on every side.

Hermes: But God's Wisdom − what is that?

Mind: The Good and Beautiful, and Blessedness, and Virtue's all, and Aeon.

Aeon, then, ordereth [Cosmos], imparting deathlessness and lastingness to matter.

Now Genesis and Time, in Heaven and upon the Earth, are of two natures.

In Heaven they are unchangeable and indestructible, but on the Earth they're subject unto change and to destruction.

Further, the Aeon's soul is God; the Cosmos' soul is Aeon; the Earth's soul, Heaven.

And God in Mind; and Mind, in Soul; and Soul, in Matter; and all of them through Aeon.

But all this Body, in which are all the bodies, is full of Soul; and Soul is full of Mind, and Mind of God.

It fills it from within, and from without encircles it, making the All to live.

Without, this vast and perfect Life [encircles] Cosmos; within, it fills [it with] all lives; above, in Heaven, continuing in sameness; below, on Earth, changing becoming. whatever else a man supposes or shall suppose. And all is this − God energizing.

The Energy of God is Power that naught can e'er surpass, a Power with which no one can make comparison of any human thing at all, or any thing divine.

Wherefore, O Hermes, never think that aught of things above or things below is like to God, for thou wilt fall from truth. For naught is like to That which hath no like, and is Alone and One.

And do not ever think that any other can possibly possess His power; for what apart from Him is there of life, and deathlessness and change of quality? For what else should He make?

God's not inactive, since all things [then] would lack activity; for all are full of God.

But neither in the Cosmos anywhere, nor in aught else, is there inaction. For that "inaction" is a name that cannot be applied to either what doth make or what is made.

For He who makes, is in them all; not stablished in some one of them, nor making one thing only, but making all.

For being Power, He energizeth in the things He makes and is not independent of them − although the things

He makes are subject to Him.

Now gaze through Me upon the Cosmos that's now subject to thy sight; regard its Beauty carefully − Body in pure perfection, though one than which there's no more ancient one, ever in prime of life, and ever−young, nay, rather, in even fuller and yet fuller prime!

Aeon! [See how] all things [are] full of light, and nowhere [is there] fire; for 'tis the love and the blending of the contraries and the dissimilars that doth give birth to light down shining by the energy of God, the Father of all good, the Leader of all order, and Ruler of the seven world−orderings! [Behold] the Moon, forerunner of them all, the instrument of nature, and the transmuter of its lower matter! [Look at] the Earth set in the midst of All, foundation of the Cosmos Beautiful, feeder and nurse of things on

Earth!

And contemplate the multitude of deathless lives, how great it is, and that of lives subject to death; and midway, between both, immortal [lives] and mortal, [see thou] the circling Moon. around the Earth; [see] how the right [move] not unto the left, nor yet the left unto the right; nor the above below, nor the below above.

And that all there are subject unto Genesis, My dearest Hermes, thou hast no longer need to learn of Me. For that they bodies are, have souls, and they are moved.

But 'tis impossible for them to come together into one without some one to bring them [all] together. It must, then, be that such a one as this must be some one who's wholly One. ordered for them all, it is impossible that there should be two or more makers for them.

For that one single order is not kept among "the many"; but rivalry will follow of the weaker with the stronger, and they will strive.

And if the maker of the lives that suffer change and death, should be another, he would desire to make the deathless ones as well; just as the maker of the deathless ones, [to make the lives] that suffer death.

But come! if there be two − if matter's one, and Soul is one, in whose hands would there be the distribution for the making? Again, if both of them have some of it, in whose hands may be the greater part? of an immortal, or a mortal, or an irrational [life].

For that all living bodies are ensouled; whereas, upon the other hand, those that live not, are matter by itself.

And, in like fashion, Soul when in its self is, after its own maker, cause of life; but the cause of all life is He who makes the things that cannot die.

Hermes: How, then, is it that, first, lives subject to death are other than the deathless ones? And, next, how is it that Life which knows no death, and maketh deathlessness, doth not make animals immortal? manifest. For, also, Soul is one, and Life is one, and Matter one.

Hermes: But who is He?

Mind: Who may it other be than the One God? Whom else should it beseem to put Soul into lives but God alone? One, then, is God.

It would indeed be most ridiculous, if when thou dost confess the Cosmos to be one, Sun one, Moon one, and

Godhead one, thou shouldst wish God Himself to be some one or other of a number! deathlessness, and change, when thou [thyself] dost do so many things?

For thou dost see, and speak, and hear, and smell, and taste, and touch, and walk, and think, and breathe. And it is not one man who smells, another one who walks, another one who thinks, and [yet] another one who breathes. But one is he who doth all these.

And yet no one of these could be apart from God. For just as, should thou cease from these, thou wouldst no longer be a living thing, so also, should God cease from them (a thing not law to say), no longer is He God. not make (if it be law to say), He is imperfect. But if He is not only not inactive, but perfect [God], then He doth make all things.

Give thou thyself to Me, My Hermes, for a little while, and thou shalt understand more easily how that God's work is one, in order that all things may be − that are being made, or once have been, or that are going to be made. And this is, My beloved, Life; this is the Beautiful; this is the Good; this, God. beget. Yet this is not like unto that, for He doth not enjoy.

For that indeed He hath no other one to share in what He works, for working by Himself, He ever is at work, Himself being what He doth. For did He separate Himself from it, all things would [then] collapse, and all must die, Life ceasing.

But if all things are lives, and also Life is one; then, one is God. And, furthermore, if all are lives, both those in Heaven and those on Earth, and One Life in them all is made to be by God, and God is it − then, all are made by God.

Life is the making−one of Mind and Soul; accordingly Death is not the destruction of those that are at−oned, but the dissolving of their union.

Sun.

The people call change death, because the body is dissolved, and life, when it's dissolved, withdraws to the unmanifest. But in this sermon (logos), Hermes, My beloved, as thou dost hear, I say the Cosmos also suffers change − for that a part of it each day is made to be in the unmanifest − yet it is ne'er dissolved.

These are the passions of the Cosmos − revolvings and concealments; revolving is conversion and concealment renovation.

Since, then, Cosmos is made to be all−formed, what may its maker be? For that, on the one hand, He should not be void of all form; and, on the other hand, if He's all−formed, He will be like the Cosmos. Whereas, again, has He a single form, He will thereby be less than Cosmos.

What, then, say we He is? − that we may not bring round our sermon (logos) into doubt; for naught that mind conceives of God is doubtful.

He, then, hath one idea, which is His own alone, which doth not fall beneath the sight, being bodiless, and [yet] by means of bodies manifesteth all [ideas]. And marvel not that there's a bodiless idea. strongly from the rest, but really are quite smooth and flat.

And now consider what is said more boldly, but more truly!

Just as man cannot live apart from Life, so neither can God live without [His] doing good. For this is as it were the life and motion as it were of God − to move all things and make them live.

I'm going to say.

All are in God, [but] not as lying in a place. For place is both a body and immovable, and things that lie do not have motion.

Now things lie one way in the bodiless, another way in being made manifest.

Think, [then,] of Him who doth contain them all; and think, that than the bodiless naught is more comprehensive, or swifter, or more potent, but it is the most comprehensive, the swiftest, and most potent of them all. will it be. And bid it journey oceanwards; and there, again, immediately 'twill be, not as if passing on from place to place, but as if being there.

And bid it also mount to heaven; and it will need no wings, not will aught hinder it, nor fire of sun, nor auther, nor vortex−swirl, nor bodies of the other stars; but, cutting through them all, it will soar up to the last

Body [of them all]. And shouldst thou will to break through this as well, and contemplate what is beyond − if there be aught beyond the Cosmos; it is permitted thee. [do them]?

Then, in this way know God; as having all things in Himself as thoughts, the whole Cosmos itself.

If, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God, thou canst not know Him. For like is knowable unto like [alone].

Make, [then,] thyself to grow to the same stature as the Greatness which transcends all measure; leap forth from every body; transcend all time; become Eternity; and [thus] shalt thou know God.

Conceiving nothing is impossible unto thyself, think thyself deathless and able to know all − all arts, all sciences, the way of every life.

Become more lofty than all height, and lower than all depth. Collect into thyself all senses of [all] creatures − of fire, [and] water, dry and moist. Think that thou art at the same time in every place − in earth, in sea, in sky; not yet begotten, in the womb, young, old, [and] dead, in after−death conditions.

And if thou knowest all these things at once − times, places, doings, qualities, and quantities; thou canst know

God.

I fear the sea; I cannot scale the sky; I know not who I was, who I shall be − what is there [then] between [thy] God and thee?

For thou canst know naught of things beautiful and good so long as thou dost love thy body and art bad.

The greatest bad there is, is not to know God's Good; but to be able to know [Good], and will, and hope, is a

Straight Way, the Good's own [Path], both leading there and easy.

If thou but settest thy foot thereon, 'twill meet thee everywhere, 'twill everywhere be seen, both where and when thou dost expect it not − waking, sleeping, sailing, journeying, by night, by day, speaking, [and] saying naught. For there is naught that is not image of the Good.

Mind: Hush! Who is more manifest than He? For this one reason hath He made all things, that through them all thou mayest see Him.

This is the Good of God, this [is] His Virtue − that He may be manifest through all.

For naught's unseen, even of things that are without a body. Mind sees itself in thinking, God in making.

So far these things have been made manifest to thee, Thrice−greatest one! Reflect on all the rest in the same way with thyself, and thou shalt not be led astray.

what that is, it and it only knows precisely.

The Mind, then, is not separated off from God's essentiality, but is united to it, as light to sun.

This Mind in men is God, and for this cause some of mankind are gods, and their humanity is nigh unto divinity.

For the Good Daimon said: "Gods are immortal men, and men are mortal gods." there also Soul.

But in irrational lives their soul is life devoid of mind; for Mind is the in−worker of the souls of men for good − He works on them for their own good.

In lives irrational He doth co−operate with each one's nature; but in the souls of men He counteracteth them.

For every soul, when it becomes embodied, is instantly depraved by pleasure and by pain.

For in a compound body, just like juices, pain and pleasure seethe, and into them the soul, on entering in, is plunged. their prepossessions, just as a good physician doth upon the body prepossessed by sickness, pain inflict, burning or lancing it for sake of health.

In just the selfsame way the Mind inflicteth pain on the soul, to rescue it from pleasure, whence comes its every ill.

The great ill of the soul is godlessness; then followeth fancy for all evil things and nothing good.

So, then, Mind counteracting it doth work good on the soul, as the physician health upon the body. irrational.

For [Mind] becomes co−worker with them, giving full play to the desires toward which [such souls] are borne − [desires] that from the rush of lust strain after the irrational; [so that such human souls,] just like irrational animals, cease not irrationally to rage and lust, nor are they ever satiate of ills.

For passions and irrational desires are ills exceeding great; and over these God hath set up the Mind to play the part of judge and executioner. risks to be overset.

For that if it be absolutely fated for a man to fornicate, or commit sacrilege, or do some other evil deed, why is he punished − when he hath done the deed from Fate's necessity?

Hermes: All works, my son, are Fate's; and without Fate naught of things corporal − or good, or ill − can come to pass.

But it is fated, too, that he who doeth ill, shall suffer. And for this cause he doth it − that he may suffer what he suffereth, because he did it. other [of our sermons]; but now our teaching (logos) is about the Mind: − what Mind can do, and how it is [so] different − in men being such and such, and in irrational lives [so] changed; and [then] again that in irrational lives it is not of a beneficial nature, while that in men it quencheth out the wrathful and the lustful elements.

Of men, again, we must class some as led by reason, and others as unreasoning.

And though all men do suffer fated things, those led by reason (those whom we said Mind doth guide) do not endure like suffering with the rest; but, since they've freed themselves from viciousness, not being bad, they do not suffer bad.

Tat: How meanest thou again, my father? Is not the fornicator bad; the murderer bad; and [so with] all the rest?

Hermes: [I meant not that;] but that the Mind−led man, my son, though not a fornicator, will suffer just as though he had committed fornication, and though he be no murderer, as though he had committed murder.

The quality of change he can no more escape than that of genesis.

But it is possible for one who hath the Mind, to free himself from vice. would have greatly helped the race of men; for He alone, my son, doth truly, as the Firstborn God, gazing on all things, give voice to words (logoi) divine) − yea, once I heard Him say: "All things are one, and most of all the bodies which the mind alone perceives. Our life is owing to [God's] Energy and Power and Aeon. His Mind is good, so is His Soul as well. And this being so, intelligible things know naught of separation. So, then, Mind, being Ruler of all things, and being Soul of God, can do whate'er it wills." about Mind's Fate.

For if thou dost with accuracy, son, eliminate [all] captious arguments (logoi), thou wilt discover that of very truth the Mind, the Soul of God, doth rule o'er all − o'er Fate, and Law, and all things else; and nothing is impossible to it − neither o'er Fate to set a human soul, nor under Fate to set [a soul] neglectful of what comes to pass. Let this so far suffice from the Good Daimon's most good [words].

Tat: Yea, [words] divinely spoken, father mine, truly and helpfully. But further still explain me this. impulses.

But impulses of lives irrational, as I do think, are passions.

Now if the Mind co−worketh with [these] impulses, and if the impulses of [lives] irrational be passions, then is Mind also passion, taking its color from the passions.

Hermes: Well put, my son! Thou questionest right nobly, and it is just that I as well should answer [nobly]. [themselves] all passions.

For every thing that moves itself is incorporeal; while every thing that's moved is body.

Incorporeals are further moved by Mind, and movement's passion.

Both, then, are subject unto passion − both mover and the moved, the former being ruler and the latter ruled.

But when a man hath freed himself from body, then is he also freed from passion.

But, more precisely, son, naught is impassible, but all are passible.

Yet passion differeth from passibility; for that the one is active, while the other's passive.

Incorporeals moreover act upon themselves, for either they are motionless or they are moved; but whichsoe'er it be, it's passion.

But bodies are invaribly acted on, and therefore they are passible.

Do not, then, let terms trouble thee; action and passion are both the selfsame thing. To use the fairer sounding term, however, does no harm.

Hermes: Consider this as well, my son; that these two things God hath bestowed on man beyond all mortal lives − both mind and speech (logos) equal to immortality. He hath the mind for knowing God and uttered speech (logos) for eulogy of Him.

And if one useth these for what he ought, he'll differ not a whit from the immortals. Nay, rather, on departing from the body, he will be guided by the twain unto the Choir of Gods and Blessed Ones.

Hermes: Nay, son; but use of voice; speech is far different from voice. For speech is general among all men, while voice doth differ in each class of living thing.

Tat: But with men also, father mine, according to each race, speech differs.

Hermes: Yea, son, but man is one; so also speech is one and is interpreted, and it is found the same in Egypt, and in Persia, and in Greece.

Thou seemest, son, to be in ignorance of Reason's (Logos) worth and greatness. For that the Blessed God, Good Daimon, hath declared: "Soul is in Body, Mind in Soul; but Reason (Logos) is in Mind, and Mind in God; and God is Father of [all] these." and Form [the image] of the Soul.

The subtlest part of Matter is, then, Air; of Air, Soul; of Soul, Mind; and of Mind, God.

And God surroundeth all and permeateth all; while Mind Surroundeth Soul, Soul Air, Air Matter.

Necessity and Providence and Nature are instruments of Cosmos and of Matter's ordering; while of intelligible things each is Essence, and Sameness is their Essence.

But of the bodies of the Cosmos each is many; for through possessiong Sameness, [these] composed bodies, though they do change from one into another of themselves, do natheless keep the incorruption of their

Sameness. structure cannot be, or composition, or decomposition.

Now it is units that give birth to number and increase it, and, being decomposed, are taken back again into themselves.

Matter is one; and this whole Cosmos − the mighty God and image of the mightier One, both with Him unified, and the conserver of the Will and Order of the Father − is filled full of Life.

Naught is there in it throughout the whole of Aeon, the Father's [everlasting] Re−establishment − nor of the whole, nor of the parts − which doth not live.

For not a single thing that's dead, hath been, or is, or shall be in [this] Cosmos.

For that the Father willed it should have Life as long as it should be. Wherefore it needs must be a God. things?

For that death is corruption, and corruption destruction.

How then could any part of that which knoweth no corruption be corrupted, or any whit of him the God destroyed?

Tat: Do they not, then, my father, die − the lives in it, that are its parts?

Hermes: Hush, son! − led into error by the term in use for what takes place.

They do not die, my son, but are dissolved as compound bodies.

Now dissolution is not death, but dissolution of a compound; it is dissolved not so that it may be destroyed, but that it may become renewed.

For what is the activity of life? Is it not motion? What then in Cosmos is there that hath no motion? Naught is there, son!

Hermes: Nay, son; but rather that she is the only thing which, though in very rapid motion, is also stable.

For how would it not be a thing to laugh at, that the Nurse of all should have no motion, when she engenders and brings forth all things?

For 'tis impossible that without motion one who doth engender, should do so.

That thou should ask if the fourth part is not inert, is most ridiculous; for the body which doth have no motion, gives sign of nothing but inertia.

Now that which is kept moving, also lives; but there is no necessity that that which lives, should be all same.

For being simultaneous, the Cosmos, as a whole, is not subject to change, my son, but all its parts are subject unto it; yet naught [of it] is subject to corruption, or destroyed.

It is the terms employed that confuse men. For 'tis not genesis that constituteth life, but 'tis sensation; it is not change that constituteth death, but 'tis forgetfulness.

Since, then, these things are so, they are immortal all − Matter, [and] Life, [and] Spirit, Mind [and] Soul, of which whatever liveth, is composed. recipient of God, and co−essential with Him.

For with this life alone doth God consort; by visions in the night, by tokens in the day, and by all things doth

He foretell the future unto him − by birds, by inward parts, by wind, by tree.

Wherefore doth man lay claim to know things past, things present and to come. creatures water, terrene earth, and aery creatures air; while man doth use all these − earth, water air [and] fire; he seeth Heaven, too, and doth contact it with [his] sense.

But God surroundeth all, and permeateth all, for He is energy and power; and it is nothing difficult, my son, to conceive God. behavior of its ordering; behold thou the Necessity of things made manifest, and [see] the Providence of things become and things becoming; behold how Matter is all−full of Life; [behold] this so great God in movement, with all the good and noble [ones] − gods, daimones and men!

Tat: But these are purely energies, O father mine!

Hermes: If, then, they're purely energies, my son − by whom, then, are they energized except by God?

Or art thou ignorant, that just as Heaven, Earth, Water, Air, are parts of Cosmos, in just the selfsame way

God's parts are Life and Immortality, [and] Energy, and Spirit, and Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, Soul, and Mind, and the Duration of all these that is called Good?

And there are naught of things that have become, or are becoming, in which God is not.

Hermes: Matter, my son, is separate from God, in order that thou may'st attribute to it the quality of space.

But what thing else than mass think'st thou it is, if it's not energized? Whereas if it be energized, by whom is it made so? For energies, we said, are parts of God.

By whom are, then, all lives enlivened? By whom are things immortal made immortal? By whom changed things made changeable?

And whether thou dost speak of Matter, of Body, or of Essence, know that these too are energies of God; and that materiality is Matter's energy, that corporeality is Bodies' energy, and that essentiality doth constituteth the energy of Essence; and this is God − the All. surroundeth God; for He is All, and All surroundeth all, and permeateth all.

Unto this Reason (Logos), son, thy adoration and thy worship pay. There is one way alone to worship God; [it is] not to be bad.

Divinity; and when thou saidst no man could e'er be saved before Rebirth, thy meaning thou didst hide.

Further, when I became thy Suppliant, in Wending up the Mount, after thou hadst conversed with me, and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth (for this beyond all other things is just the thing I know not), thou saidst, that thou wouldst give it me − "when thou shalt have become a stranger to the world".

Wherefore I got me ready and made the thought in me a stranger to the world−illusion.

And now do thou fill up the things that fall short in me with what thou saidst would give me the tradition of

Rebirth, setting it forth in speech or in the secret way.

I know not, O Thrice−greatest one, from out what matter and what womb Man comes to birth, or of what seed. born], and the True Good the seed.

Tat: Who is the sower, father? For I am altogether at a loss.

Hermes: It is the Will of God, my son.

Tat: And of what kind is he that is begotten, father? For I have no share of that essence in me, which doth transcend the senses. The one that is begot will be another one from God, God's Son?

Hermes: All in all, out of all powers composed.

Tat: Thou tellest me a riddle, father, and dost not speak as father unto son.

Hermes: This Race, my son, is never taught; but when He willeth it, its memory is restored by God. unto these things. Am I a son strange to my father's race?

Keep it not, father, back from me. I am a true−born son; explain to me the manner of Rebirth.

Hermes: What may I say, my son? I can but tell thee this. Whene'er I see within myself the Simple Vision brought to birth out of God's mercy, I have passed through myself into a Body that can never die. And now i am not as I was before; but I am born in Mind.

The way to do this is not taught, and it cannot be seen by the compounded element by means of which thou seest.

Yea, I have had my former composed form dismembered for me. I am no longer touched, but I have touch; I have dimension too; and [yet] am I a stranger to them now.

Thou seest me with eyes, my son; but what I am thou dost not understand [even] with fullest strain of body and of sight.

Hermes: I would, my son, that thou hadst e'en passed right through thyself, as they who dream in sleep yet sleepless.

Tat: Tell me this too! Who is the author of Rebirth?

Hermes: The Son of God, the One Man, by God's Will. before,... for [now] I see thy Greatness identical with thy distinctive form.

Hermes: Even in this thou art untrue; the mortal form doth change with every day. 'Tis turned by time to growth and waning, as being an untrue thing.

Hermes: That which is never troubled, son, which cannot be defined; that which no color hath, nor any figure, which is not turned, which hath no garment, which giveth light; that which is comprehensible unto itself [alone], which doth not suffer change; that which no body can contain.

Tat: In very truth I lose my reason, father. Just when I thought to be made wise by thee, I find the senses of this mind of mine blocked up.

Hermes: Thus is it, son: That which is upward borne like fire, yet is borne down like earth, that which is moist like water, yet blows like air, how shalt thou this perceive with sense − the that which is not solid nor yet moist, which naught can bind or loose, of which in power and energy alone can man have any notion − and even then it wants a man who can perceive the Way of Birth in God?

Hermes: Nay, God forbid, my son! Withdraw into thyself, and it will come; will, and it comes to pass; throw out of work the body's senses, and thy Divinity shall come to birth; purge from thyself the brutish torments − things of matter.

Tat: I have tormentors then in me, O father?

Hermes: Ay, no few, my son; nay, fearful ones and manifold.

Tat: I do not know them, father.

Hermes: Torment the first is this Not−knowing, son; the second one is Grief; the third, Intemperance; the fourth, Concupiscence; the fifth, Unrighteousness; the sixth is Avarice; the seventh, Error; the eighth is Envy; the ninth, Guile; the tenth is Anger; eleventh, Rashness; the twelfth is Malice.

These are in number twelve; but under them are many more, my son; and creeping through the prison of the body they force the man that's placed therein to suffer in his senses. But they depart (though not all at once) from him who hath been taken pity on by God; and this it is which constitutes the manner of Rebirth. And... the Reason (Logos). cease.

Henceforth rejoice, O son, for by the Powers of God thou art being purified for the articulation of the Reason (Logos).

Gnosis of God hath come to us, and when this comes, my son, Not−knowing is cast out.

Gnosis of Joy hath come to us, and on its coming, son, Sorrow will flee away to them who give it room. The

Power that follows Joy do I invoke, thy Self−control. O Power most sweet! Let us most gladly bid it welcome, son! How with its coming doth it chase Intemperance away!

For without judgement see how she hath chased Unrighteousness away. We are made righteous, son, by the departure of Unrighteousness.

Power sixth I call to us − that against Avarice, Sharing−with−all.

And now that Avarice is gone, I call on Truth. And Error flees, and Truth is with us.

See how [the measure of] the Good is full, my son, upon Truth's coming. For Envy is gone from us; and unto

Truth is joined the Good as well, with Life and Light.

And now no more doth any torment of the Darkness venture nigh, but vanquished [all] have fled with whirring wings. the Twelve, the Birth in understanding is complete, and by this birth we are made into Gods.

Who then doth by His mercy gain this Birth in God, abandoning the body's senses, knows himself [to be of

Light and Life] and that he doth consist of these, and [thus] is filled with bliss. energy the Mind doth give me through the Powers.

In Heaven am I, in earth, in water, air; I am in animals, in plants; I'm in the womb, before the womb, after the womb; I'm everywhere!

But further tell me this: How are the torments of the Darkness, when they are twelve in number, driven out by the ten Powers? What is the way of it, Thrice−greatest one? the twelve types−of−life, this being composed of elements, twelve in number, but of one nature, an omniform idea. For man's delusion there are disunions in them, son, while in their action they are one. Not only can we never part Rashness from Wrath; they cannot even be distinguished.

According to right reason (logos), then, they naturally withdraw once and for all, in as much as they are chased out by no less than ten powers, that is, the Ten.

For, son, the Ten is that which giveth birth to souls. And Life and Light are unified there, where the One hath being from the Spirit. According then to reason (logos) the One contains the Ten, the Ten the One.

Hermes: This is, my son, Rebirth − no more to look on things from body's view−point (a thing three ways in space extended)... though this Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth, on which I did not comment − in order that we may not be calumniators of the All unto the multitude, to whom indeed God Himself doth will we should not.

Hermes: Hush, [son]! Speak not of things impossible, else wilt thou sin and thy Mind's eye be quenched.

The natural body which our sense perceives is far removed from this essential birth.

The first must be dissolved, the last can never be; the first must die, the last death cannot touch.

Dost thou not know thou hast been born a God, Son of the One, even as I myself? thou wert at the Eight [the Ogdoad] of Powers

Hermes: Just as the Shepherd did foretell [I should], my son, [when I came to] the Eight.

Well dost thou haste to "strike thy tent", for thou hast been made pure.

The Shepherd, Mind of all masterhood, hath not passed on to me more than hath been written down, for full well did he know that I should of myself be able to learn all, and hear what I should wish, and see all things.

He left to me the making of fair things; wherefore the Powers within me. e'en as they are in all, break into song.

Hermes: Be still, my son; hear the Praise−giving now that keeps [the soul] in tune, Hymn of Re−birth − a hymn I would not have thought fit so readily to tell, had'st thou not reached the end of all.

Wherefore this is not taught, but is kept hid in silence.

Thus then, my son, stand in a place uncovered to the sky, facing the southern wind, about the sinking of the setting sun, and make thy worship; so in like manner too when he doth rise, with face to the east wind.

Now, son, be still!

The Secret Hymnody

Open thou Earth! Let every bolt of the Abyss be drawn for me. Stir not, ye Trees!

I am about to hymn creation's Lord, both All and One.

Ye Heavens open and ye Winds stay still; [and] let God's deathless Sphere receive my word (logos)!

For I will sing the praise of Him who founded all; who fixed the Earth, and hung up Heaven, and gave command that Ocean should afford sweet water [to the Earth], to both those parts that are inhabited and those that are not, for the support and use of every man; who made the Fire to shine for gods and men for every act.

Let us together all give praise to Him, sublime above the Heavens, of every nature Lord! 'Tis He who is the Eye of Mind; may He accept the praise of these my Powers!

O blessed Gnosis, by thee illumined, hymning through thee the Light that mond alone can see, I joy in Joy of

Mind.

Sing with me praises all ye Powers!

Sing praise, my Self−control; sing thou through me, my Righteousness, the praises of the Righteous; sing thou, my Sharing−all, the praises of the All; through me sing, Truth, Truth's praises!

Sing thou, O Good, the Good! O Life and Light, from us to you our praises flow!

Father, I give Thee thanks, to Thee Thou Energy of all my Powers; I give Thee thanks, O God, Thou Power of all my Energies! [my] reasonable oblation!

Thus cry the Powers in me. They sing Thy praise, Thou All; they do Thy Will.

From Thee Thy Will; to Thee the All. Receive from all their reasonable oblation. The All that is in us, O Life, preserve; O Light, illumine it; O God, in−spirit it.

It it Thy Mind that plays the shepherd to Thy Word, O Thou Creator, Bestower of the Spirit [upon all]. 20. [For] Thou art God, Thy Man thus cries to Thee through Fire, through Air, through Earth, through Water, [and] through Spirit, through Thy creatures. 'Tis from Thy Aeon I have found praise−giving; and in thy Will, the object of my search, have I found rest.

Tat: By thy good pleasure have I seen this praise−giving being sung, O father; I have set it in my Cosmos too.

Hermes: Say in the Cosmos that thy mind alone can see, my son.

Tat: Yea, father, in the Cosmos that the mind alone can see; for I have been made able by thy Hymn, and by thy Praise−giving my mind hath been illumined. But further I myself as well would from my natural mind send praise−giving to God.

Tat: Aye. What I behold in mind, that do I say.

To thee, thou Parent of my Bringing into Birth, as unto God I, Tat, send reasonable offerings. o God and

Father, thou art the Lord, thou art the Mind. Receive from me oblations reasonable as thou would'st wish; for by thy Will all things have been perfected.

Hermes: Send thou oblation, son, acceptable to God, the Sire of all; but add, my son, too, "through the Word" (Logos).

Tat: I give thee, father, thanks for showing me to sing such hymns. die.

And now that thou hast learnt this lesson from me, make promise to keep silence on thy virtue, and to no soul, my son, make known the handing on to thee the manner of Rebirth, that we may not be thought to be calumniators.

And now we both of us have given heed sufficiently, both I the speaker and the hearer thou.

In Mind hast thou become a Knower of thyself and our [common] Sire.

The Corpus Hermetica

Attributed to Hermes Trismestigustus

• The First Book. • The Second Book. Called "Poemander." • The Third Book. Called "The Holy Sermon." • The Fourth Book. Called "The Key." • The Fifth Book. • The Sixth Book. Called "That in God alone is Good." •The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence. To

His Son Tat. • The Eighth Book. That The Greatest Evil In Man, Is The Not Knowing God. • The Ninth Book. A Universal Sermon To Asclepius. • The Tenth Book. The Mind to Hermes. • The Eleventh Book. Of the Common Mind to Tat. • The Twelfth Book. His Crater or Monas. • The Thirteenth Book. Of Sense and Understanding. • The Fourteenth Book. Of Operation and Sense. • The Fifteenth Book. Of Truth to His Son Tat. • The Sixteenth Book. That None of the Things that are, can Perish. • The Seventeenth Book. To Asclepius, to be Truly Wise.

"Enoch was the first who invented books and different sorts of writing. The ancient Greeks declare that Enoch is the same as Mercury Trismegistus [Hermes], and that he taught the sons of men the art of building cities, and enacted some admirable laws...He discovered the knowledge of the Zodiac, and the course of the Planets; and he pointed out to the sons of men, that they should worship God, that they should fast, that they should pray, that they should give alms, votive offerings, and tenths. He reprobated abominable foods and drunkenness, and appointed festivals for sacrifices to the Sun, at each of the Zodiacal Signs." − Hebrae

O my Son, write this first Book, both for Humanity's sake, and for Piety towards God.

For there can be no Religion more true or just, than to know the things that are; and to acknowledge thanks for all things, to him that made them, which thing I shall not cease continually to do.

What then should a man do, O Father, to lead his life well, seeing there is nothing here true ?

Be Pious and Religious, O my Son, for he that doth so, is the best and highest Philosopher; and with− out

Philosophy, it is impossible ever to attain to the height and exactness of Piety or Religion.

But he that shall learn and study the things that are, and how they are ordered and governed, and by whom and for what cause, or to what end, will acknowledge thanks to the Workman as to a good Father, an excellent Nurse and a faithful Steward, and he that gives thanks shall be Pious or Religious, and he that is

Religious shall know both where the truth is, and what it is, and learning that, he will be yet more and more

Religious.

For never, O Son, shall or can that Soul which while it is in the Body lightens and lifts up itself to know and comprehend that which is Good and True, slide back to the contrary; for it is infinitely enamoured thereof. and forgetteth all Evils; and when it hath learned and known its Father and progenitor it can no more

Apostatize or depart from that Good.

And let this, O Son, be the end of Religion and Piety; whereunto when thou art once arrived, thou shalt both live well, and die blessedly, whilst thy Soul is not ignorant whether it must return and fly back again.

For this only, O Son, is the way to the Truth, which our Progenitors travelled in; and by which, making their

Journey, they at length attained to the Good. It is a Venerable way, and plain, but hard and difficult for the

Soul to go in that is in the Body.

For first must it war against its own self, and after much Strife and Dissention it must be overcome of one part; for the Contention is of one against two, whilst it flies away and they strive to hold and detain it.

But the victory of both is not like; for the one hasteth to that which is Good, but the other is a neighbour to the things that are Evil; and that which is Good, desireth to be set at Liberty; but the things that are Evil, love

Bondage and Slavery.

And if the two parts be overcome, they become quiet, and are content to accept of it as their Ruler; but if the one be overcome of the two, it is by them led and carried to be punished by its being and continuance here.

This is, O Son, the Guide in the way that leads thither for thou must first forsake the Body before thy end, and get the victory in this Contention and Strifeful life, and when thou hast overcome. return.

But now, O my Son, I will by Heads run through the things that are: understand thou what I say, and remember what thou hearest.

All things that are, are moved; only that which is not, is unmovable.

Every Body is changeable.

Not every Body is dissolvable.

Some Bodies are dissolvable.

Every living thing is not mortal.

Not every living thing is immortal.

That which may be dissolved is also corruptible.

That which abides always is unchangeable.

That which is unchangeable is eternal.

That which is always made is always corrupted.

That which is made but once, is never corrupted, neither becomes any other thing.

First, God; Secondly, the World; Thirdly, Man.

The World for Man, Man for God.

Of the Soul, that part which is Sensible is mortal, but that which is Reasonable is immortal.

Every essence is immortal.

Every essence is unchangeable.

Every thing that is, is double.

None of the things that are stand still.

Not all things are moved by a Soul, but every thing that is, is moved by a Soul.

Every thing that suffers is Sensible, every thing that is Sensible suffereth.

Every thing that is sad rejoiceth also, and is a mortal living Creature.

Not every thing that joyeth is also sad, but is an eternal living thing.

Not every Body is sick; every Body that is sick is dissolvable.

The Mind in God.

Reasoning (or disputing or discoursing) in Man, Reason in the Mind.

The Mind is void of suffering.

No thing in a Body true.

All that is incorporeal, is void of Lying.

Every thing that is made is corruptible.

Nothing good upon Earth, nothing evil in Heaven.

God is good, Man is evil.

Good is voluntary, or of its own accord.

Evil is involuntary or against its will.

The Gods choose good things, as good things.

Time is a Divine thing.

Law is Humane.

Malice is the nourishment of the World.

Time is the Corruption of Man.

Whatsoever is in Heaven is unalterable.

All upon Earth is alterable.

Nothing in Heaven is servanted, nothing upon Earth free.

Nothing unknown in Heaven, nothing known upon Earth.

The things upon Earth communicate not with those in Heaven.

All things in Heaven are unblameable, all things upon Earth are subject to Reprehension.

That which is immortal, is not mortal: that which is mortal is not immortal.

That which is sown, is not always begotten; but that which is begotten always, is sown.

Of a dissolvable Body, there are two Times, one from sowing to generation, one from generation to death.

Of an everlasting Body, the time is only from the Generation.

Dissolvable Bodies are increased and diminished, Dissolvable matter is altered into contraries; to wit, Corruption and Generation, but Eternal matter into its self, and its like.

The Generation of Man is Corruption, the Corruption of Man is the beginning of Generation.

That which off−springs or begetteth another, is itself an offspring or begotten by another.

Of things that are, some are in Bodies, some in their Ideas.

Whatsoever things belong to operation or working, are in a Body.

That which is immortal, partakes not of that which is mortal.

That which is mortal, cometh not into a Body immortal, but that which is immortal, cometh into that which is mortal.

Operations or Workings are not carried upwards, but descend downwards.

Things upon Earth do nothing advantage those in Heaven, but all things in Heaven do profit and advantage the things upon Earth.

Heaven is capable and a fit receptacle of everlasting Bodies, the Earth of corruptible Bodies.

The Earth is brutish, the Heaven is reasonable or rational.

Those things that are in Heaven are subjected or placed under it, but the things on Earth, are placed upon it.

Heaven is the first Element.

Providence is Divine Order.

Necessity is the Minister or Servant of Providence.

Fortune is the carriage or effect of that which is without Order; the Idol of operation, a lying fantasy or opinion.

What is God? The immutable or unalterable Good.

What is Man? An unchangeable Evil.

If thou perfectly remember these Heads, thou canst not forget those things which in more words I have largely expounded unto thee; for these are the Contents or Abridgment of them.

Avoid all Conversation with the multitude or common People, for I would not have thee subject to Envy, much less to be ridiculous unto the many.

For the like always takes to itself that which is like, but the unlike never agrees with the unlike: such

Discourses as these have very few Auditors, and peradventure very few will have, but they have something peculiar unto themselves.

They do rather sharpen and whet evil men to their maliciousness, therefore it behoveth to avoid the multitude and take heed of them as not understanding the virtue and power of the things that are said.

How dost Thou mean, O Father?

Thus, O Son, the whole Nature and Composition of those living things called Men, is very prone to

Maliciousness, and is very familiar, and as it were nourished with it, and therefore is delighted with it. Now this wight if it shall come to learn or know, that the world was once made, and all things are done according to Providence and Necessity, Destiny, or Fate, bearing Rule over all: Will he not be much worse than himself, despising the whole because it was made. And if he may lay the cause of evil upon Fate or Destiny, he will never abstain from any evil work.

Wherefore we must look warily to such kind of people, that being in ignorance, they may be less evil for fear of that which is hidden and kept secret.

bodily Senses being exceedingly holden back, as it is with them that are very heavy of sleep, by reason either of fulness of meat, or of bodily labour. Me thought I saw one of an exceeding great stature, and an infinite greatness call me by my name, and say unto me, "What wouldest thou Hear and See? or what wouldest thou

Understand, to Learn, and Know!

"I am," quoth he, "Poemander, the mind of the Great Lord, the most Mighty and absolute Emperor: I know what thou wouldest have, and I am always present with thee.

"How?" said he.

I answered, "That I would gladly hear.'' Then he, "Have me again in thy mind, and whatsoever thou wouldst learn, I will teach thee." things were opened unto me: and I saw an infinite Sight, all things were become light, both sweet and exceedingly pleasant; and I was wonderfully delighted in the beholding it. which seemed unto me to be changed into a Certain Moist Nature, unspeakably troubled, which yielded a smoke as from fire; and from whence proceeded a voice unutterable, and very mournful, but inarticulate, insomuch that it seemed to have come from the Light.

Fire from the moist Nature upward on high; it is exceeding Light, and Sharp, and Operative withal. And the

Air which was also light, followed the Spirit and mounted up to Fire (from the Earth and the Water) insomuch that it seemed to hang and depend upon it. the Water, but they were moved, because of the Spiritual Word that was carried upon them.

"I shall know," said I.

Then said he, "I am that Light, the Mind, thy God, who am before that Moist Nature that appeareth out of

Darkness, and that Bright and Lightful Word from the Mind is the Son of God." 9. "How is that?" quoth I.

"Thus," replied he, "Understand it, That which in thee Seeth and Heareth, the Word of the Lord, and the

Mind, the Father, God, Differeth not One from the Other, and the Unison of these is Life.

Trismegistus. "I thank thee.

Pimander. "But first conceive well the Light in thy mind and know it." trembled at his Idea or Form.

Ornament or World; and that the Fire is comprehended or contained in or by a most great Power, and constrained to keep its station. unto me, "Hast thou seen in thy mind that Archetypal Form, which was before the Interminated and Infinite

Beginning?" Thus Pimander to me.

"But whence," quoth I, "or whereof are the Elements of Nature made?

Pimander : "Of the Will and Counsel of God; which taking the Word, and beholding the beautiful World (in the Archetype thereof) imitated it, and so made this World, by the principles and vital Seeds or Soul−like productions of itself.

Workman: Which being God of the Fire, and the Spirit, fashioned and formed seven other Governors, which in their Circles contain the Sensible World, whose Government or Disposition is called Fate or Destiny. the clean and pure Workmanship of Nature, and was united to the Workman, Mind, for it was Consubstantial; and so the downward born Elements of Nature were left without Reason, that they might be the only Matter. round as a Wheel his own Workmanships, and suffered them to be turned from an indefinite Beginning to an undeterminable End; for they always begin where they end.

Elements brought forth unreasonable or brutish creatures, for they had no reason, the Air flying things, and the Water such as swim. brought forth from herself such Living Creatures as she had, four−footed and creeping Beasts, wild and tame. he loved as his proper Birth, for he was all beauteous, having the Image of his Father.

Workmanships. But he seeing and understanding the Creation of the Workman in the whole, would needs also himself Fall to Work, and so was separated from the Father, being in the sphere of Generation or operation. every one made him partaker of his own Order. and break through the Circumference of the Circles, and to understand the Power of him that sits upon the

Fire.

World, stooped down and peeped through the Harmony, and breaking through the strength of the Circles, so shewed and made manifest the downward−born Nature, the fair and beautiful Shape or Form of God. and the Form or Shape of God, he Smiled for love, as if he had seen the Shape or Likeness in the Water, or the shadow upon the Earth of the fairest Human form. it; and immediately upon the resolution, ensued the Operation, and brought forth the unreasonable Image or

Shape. mingled, for they loved one another.

Immortal because of the substantial Man: For being immortal, and having power of all things, he yet suffers mortal things, and such as are subject to Fate or Destiny.

Hermaphrodite, or Male and Female, and watchful, he is governed by and subjected to a Father, that is both

Male and Female and watchful. mingled with Man brought forth a Wonder most wonderful; for he having the Nature of the Harmony of the

Seven, from him whom I told thee, the Fire and the Spirit, Nature continued not, but forth with brought forth seven Men all Males and Females and sublime, or on high, according to the Natures of the Seven Governors." 30. "And after these things, O Pimander," quoth I, "I am now come into a great desire, and longing to hear, do not digress, or run out." the Water desirous of Copulation, took from the Fire its ripeness, and from the aether Spirit; and so Nature produced bodies after the Species and Shape of men." generating. living Creatures being Hermaphroditical, or Male and Female, were loosed and untied together with Man; and so the Males were apart by themselves and the Females likewise. my Creatures and Workmanships. And let Him that is endued with Mind, know Himself to be Immortal; and that the cause of Death is the Love of the Body, and let Him Learn all Things that are.

Generations, and all things were multiplied according to their kind, and he that knew himself, came at length to the Superstantial of every way substantial good. the things of death. immortality.

Nature, of which moist Nature, the Body consisteth in the sensible World, from whence death is derived. Hast thou understood this aright!

Light, whereof Man is made." believe thyself to be of the Life and Light, thou shalt again pass into Life." merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection, and natural Love: And before they give up their Bodies to the death of them, they hate their Senses, knowing their Works and Operations. 55. "Rather I that am the Mind itself, will not suffer the Operations or Works, which happen or belong to the body, to be finished and brought to perfection in them; but being the Porter and Door−keeper, I will shut up the entrances of Evil, and cut off the thoughtful desires of filthy works. 56. "But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off giving place to the avenging Demon, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensibly, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment. 57. "And such a one never ceaseth, having unfulfillable desires and unsatiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness for the Demon afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more." moreover, after the return is made, what then?" the form which it had, becometh invisible; and the idle manners are permitted, and left to the Demon, and the

Senses of the Body return into their Fountains, being parts, and again made up into Operations. 60. "And Anger and Concupiscence go into the brutish or unreasonable Nature; and the rest striveth upward by Harmony. 61. "And to the first Zone it giveth the power it had of increasing and diminishing. 62. "To the second, the machination or plotting of evils, and one effectual deceit or craft. 63. "To the third, the idle deceit of Concupiscence. 64. "To the fourth, the desire of Rule, and unsatiable Ambition. 65. "To the fifth, profane Boldness, and headlong rashness of Confidence. 66. "To the sixth, Evil and ineffectual occasions of Riches. 67. "And to the seventh Zone, subtle Falsehood always lying in wait. 68. "And then being made naked of all the Operations of Harmony it cometh to the eighth Nature, having its proper power, and singeth praises to the Father with the things that are, and all they that are present rejoice, and congratulate the coming of it; and being made like to them with whom it converseth, it heareth also the

Powers that are above the eighth Nature, singing praise to God in a certain voice that is peculiar to them. 69. "And then in order they return unto the Father, and themselves deliver themselves to the powers, and becoming powers they are in God. 70. "This is the Good, and to them that know to be deified. 71. "Furthermore, why sayest thou, What resteth, but that understanding all men, thou become a guide, and way−leader to them that are worthy; that the kind of Humanity or Mankind, may be saved by God!

Nature, of the Nature of the whole and having seen the greatest sight or spectacle.

Sleep, and to the Ignorance of God, be Sober, and Cease your Surfeit, whereto you are allured, and invited by

Brutish and Unreasonable Sleep.

Power to Partake of Immortality; Repent and Change your Minds, you that have together Walked in Error, and have been Darkened in Ignorance. way of death. them to rise up, became a guide of mankind, teaching them the reasons how, and by what means they may be saved. And I sowed in them the words of Wisdom, and nourished them with Ambrosian Water of Immortality. to give thanks to God; and when they had finished their thanksgiving, everyone returned to his own lodging.

I was exceeding glad.

Sight, and my silence great with child and full of good; and the pronouncing of my words, the blossoms and fruits of good things. of the Word; whereby I became inspired by God with the Truth.

Me, and Enlighten with this Grace, those that .are in Ignorance, the Brothers of my Kind, but Thy Sons.

Renovation.

Spirit intelligible in Power; and there went out the Holy Light, and the Elements were coagulated from the

Sand out of the moist Substance. heavy things were founded upon the moist sand, all things being Terminated or Divided by Fire; and being sustained or hung up by the Spirit they were so carried, and the Heaven was seen in Seven Circles. the Gods in them. And the Sphere was all lined with Air, carried about in a circular, motion by the Spirit of

God. footed things, and creeping things, and such as live in the Water, and such as fly, and every fruitful Seed, and

Grass, and the Flowers of all Greens, and which had sowed in themselves the Seeds of Regeneration. of Nature, and a multitude of men, and the Dominion of all things under Heaven and the knowledge of good things, and to be increased in increasing, and multiplied in multitude. the Gods, Divine Works, and the Operations of Nature; and for Signs of good things, and the knowledge of the Divine Power, and to find out every cunning workmanship of good things.

Gods; and to be resolved into that which shall be great Monuments; and Remembrances of the cunning

Works done upon Earth, leaving them to be read by the darkness of times. necessity be renewed by the renovation of the Gods, and of the Nature of a Circle, moving in number; for it is a Divine thing, that every world temperature should be renewed by nature, for in that which is Divine, is

Nature also established.

Epitome of those general speeches that were spoken to him.

Operation. another about things unchangeable, and about things unmoveable, that is to say, Things Divine and Human; every one of which, himself will have so to be; but action or operation is of another thing, or elsewhere, as we have taught in other things, Divine and Human, which must here also be understood. existence itself, of those things that are!

Good, and of Life, to living Creatures: And if this be so, he is altogether constrained by the Will of the Good, without which it is not possible, either to be, or to be begotten or made. the Son. nothing, and yet willeth all things to be; for I will not say, O Tat, making them; for he that maketh is defective in much time, in which sometimes he maketh not, as also of quantity and quality; for sometimes he maketh those things that have quantity and quality and sometimes the contrary. for himself(as is true) in him that can see it. become more holy by the sight or spectacle. fiery shining brightness, maketh the eye blind by his excessive Light, that gazeth upon it; rather the contrary, for it enlighteneth, and so much increaseth the light of the eye, as any man is able to receive the influence of this Intelligible clearness. that are capable and can draw any store of this spectacle, and sight do many times fall asleep from the Body, into this most fair and beauteous Vision ; which thing Celius and Saturn our Progenitors obtained unto. yet open the eyes of our minds to behold the incorruptible, and incomprehensible Beauty of that Good: But then shall we see it, when we have nothing at all to say of it. understands that understand anything else, nor he that sees that, see any thing else, nor hear any other thing, nor in sum, move the Body. from the Bodily Senses and Motions, it draweth it from the Body, and changeth it wholly into the Essence of

God.

Contemplate the Beauty of the Good. those Souls, which in all the world are tossed up and down, as it were, and severally divided? Of these Souls there are many changes, some into a more fortunate estate, and some quite contrary; for they which are of creeping things, are changed into those of watery things and those of things living in the water, to those of things living upon the Land; and Airy ones are changed into men, and human Souls, that lay hold of immortality, are changed into Demons.

Gods, one of them that wander, and another of them that are fixed. And this is the most perfect glory of the

Soul. partaker of the good. evil Soul. the Nature of them, nor that which is good, but is blinded, rusheth and dasheth against the bodily Passions, and unhappy as it is, not knowing itself, it serveth strange Bodies, and evil ones, carrying the Body as a burthen, and not ruling, but ruled. And this is the mischief of the Soul. already Divine. hearings, fighteth in the shadow. end of Sense.

Mind useth the Body.

Setting One against Another, and Contrariety, all Things must Consist. And it is impossible it should be otherwise, nay, it is the first of all passible things; and the second of the things that are, and needy or wanting somewhat else. And it was once made and is always, and is ever in generation, and made, and continually makes, or generates things that have quantity and quality. material motion after this manner. the feet there is nothing intellectual. immortal, and as in the Soul of a made Body, hath its Soul full of the Body; but those that are further from that Membrane, have the Body full of Soul. mortal and therefore hath whatsoever benefit of the Soul all the others have: And yet for all this, he is not only not good, but flatly evil, as being mortal.

Spirit, the Spirit in the Body.

Creature, and after a certain manner beareth it. the Spirit must return into the Soul, and then the blood is congealed, the veins and arteries emptied, and then the living thing dieth: And this is the death of the Body. and is not moved, and the World hath Man; and the World is the Son of God, and Man as it were the Offspring of the World. healthful to man; the Knowledge of God: this is the return of Olympus; by this only the Soul is made good, and not sometimes good, and sometimes evil, but of necessity Good.

Body, which is not yet grown, but is very small; how then if it look upon itself, it sees itself beautiful, as not having been yet spotted with the Passions of the Body, but as it were depending yet upon the Soul of the

World. the Fair and the Good, and Forgetfulness is Evilness. is contracted into the blood and the Soul into the Spirit; but the Mind being made pure, and free from these clothings; and being Divine by Nature, taking a fiery Body rangeth abroad in every place, leaving the Soul to judgment, and to the punishment it hath deserved.

Spirit? When even now thou saidst the Soul was the Clothing or Apparel of the Mind, and the Body of the

Soul. he must have his hearing swifter and sharper than the voice of the speaker. mind should establish or rest itself, naked, and of itself; in an Earthly Body; neither is the Earthly Body able to bear such immortality; and therefore that it might suffer so great virtue the Mind compacted as it were, and took to itself the passible Body of the Soul, as a Covering or Clothing. And the Soul being also in some sort

Divine, useth the Spirit as her Minister and Servant, and the Spirit governeth the living thing.

Coat, which it could not do having to dwell in an Earthly Body. about the Earth, as a Wall or defence, to withstand the flame of fire.

Elements, hath the fire for its Body. that is the Workman of all, useth it to the making of all things, as it is used by man, to the making of Earthly things only; for the Mind that is upon Earth, void, or naked of fire, cannot do the business of men. nor that which is otherwise the affairs of God.

And such a Soul, after it is departed from the Body, having striven the strife of Piety, becomes either Mind or

God.

Body to enter into. of an unreasonable living thing: for it is the Law or Decree of God, to preserve a Human Soul from so great a contumely and reproach. the Body as it doth the Soul.

Consumed, I know not what to Say, or Do, I am Devoured, Unhappy Wretch, of the Evils that compass and lay−hold upon me; Miserable that I am, I neither See nor Hear anything. the Soul going out of the Body grows brutish or enters into a Beast: which is a very great Error, for the Soul punished after this manner. into the wicked Soul, torments it with the whips of Sins, wherewith the wicked Soul being scourged, turns itself to Murders, and Contumelies, and Blasphemies, and divers Violences, and other things by which men are injured words and deeds, always doing good in imitation of her Father. men, with those of Beasts. best of all, and all things are less than he.

Natures; and the beams of Man are Arts and Sciences. by the Elements, and man by Arts and Sciences. down by the One Mind, than which nothing is more Divine, and more efficacious or operative; and nothing more uniting, or nothing is more One. The Communion of Gods to Men, and of Men to God. empty of it! that Minister of which we said before, That he was sent from the Judgment. from the Soul, and in that hour the Soul neither seeth nor heareth, but is like an unreasonable thing; so great is the power of the Mind. pressed down. them that are above in Heaven, that are called Gods. equal in power, one to the other, For none of the things in Heaven will come down upon Earth, and leave the limits of Heaven, but a man ascends up into Heaven, and measures it. his Nature. an Immortal Man. which is One.

"That God is not Manifest and yet most Manifest.

God. manifest unto thee. manifest, but that which is not manifest is ever. manifest, he is not made manifest. appearance is only of those things that are generated or made, for appearance is nothing but generation. things wherein himself listeth. whom is one to be merciful to thee, that thou mayest knowest and understand so great a God; and that he would shine one of his beams upon thee In thy understanding. apparent; and if thou canst, O Tat, it will appear to the eyes of thy Mind. take it in thy hands, and contemplate the Image of God. unto thee by the eyes? order of the Stars. potentate; and yet he being such a one, greater than the Earth or the Sea, is content to suffer infinite lesser stars to walk and move above himself; whom doth he fear the while, O Son? prescribed unto every one, the manner and the greatness of their course! and made such an Instrument. is the Maker and Lord of these things. the midst, between Heaven and Earth, to see the stability of the Earth, the fluidness of the Sea, the courses of the Rivers, the largeness of the Air, the sharpness or swiftness of the Fire, the motion of the Stars; and the speediness of the Heaven, by which it goeth round about all these. that which is hidden appear and be manifest.

Consider, O Son, how Man is made and framed in the Womb; and examine diligently the skill and cunning of the Workman, and learn who it was that wrought and fashioned the beautiful and Divine shape of Man; who circumscribed and marked out his eyes? who bored his nostrils and ears? who opened his mouth? who stretched out and tied together his sinews! who channelled the veins? who hardened and made strong the bones! who clothed the flesh with skin? who divided the fingers and the joints! who flatted and made broad the soles of the feet! who digged the pores! who stretched out the spleen, who made the heart like a Pyramis? who made the Liver broad! who made the Lights spungy, and full of holes! who made the belly large and capacious? who set to outward view the more honourable parts and hid the filthy ones. beautiful, and all done in measure, and yet all differing. all things by his own Will. 26;: And no man says that a statue or an image is made without a Carver or a Painter, and was this

Workmanship made without a Workman? O great Blindness, O great Impiety, O great Ignorance. the Names of God, to call him the Father of all, for so he is alone; and this is his Work to be the Father. things, and to make them. be, and always be making all things in Heaven, in the Air, in the Earth, in the Deep, in the whole World, and in every part of the whole that is, or that is not. not. that is to be seen by the Mind ; this is he that is visible to the eye; this is he that hath no body; and this is he that hath many bodies, rather there is nothing of any body, which is not He. because He is the Father of all. things and there is nothing that thou hast not. thou hast manifested, or for those things thou hast hidden? another's?

Mind God.

void or empty of him. giving abundantly. which is altogether and always Good. anything be taken from him; the loss whereof may grieve him; for sorrow is a part of evilness. love with it; nothing unheard of to be angry, with nothing wiser to be envious at.

Good be found. particulars as in this living Creature the greater and mightiest of all.

Passion is there is not the Good; where the Good is, there is no Passion; where it is day, it is not night, and where it is night, it is not day. or made. manner is the World good, as it maketh all things, and in the part of making or doing it is Good, but in all other things not good. which is not very evil, is here good; and that which is here called Good, is the least particle, or proportion of evil. and growing Evil, it doth not still abide Good; and not abiding Good it becomes Evil. not, for it is impossible; for a material Body receiveth (or Comprehendeth), is not as being on every side encompassed and coarcted with evilness, and labours, and griefs, and desires, and wrath, and deceits, and foolish opinions. the greatest good, especially that supreme mischief the pleasures of the Belly, and the ring−leader of all evils; Error is here the absence of the Good. it is impossible it should be in the World. they are also the Essence of it. fair or beautiful; but no good is comprehended in this World. subject to the eye, are ever, especially the Essence of the Fair and the Good. inseparable, most lovely, whereof either God is enamoured, or they are enamoured of God. enlightening, and most enlightened by God. to any other living Creatures because they are inseparable from God. same thing, that is Piety with Knowledge. seeing so much as in a dream, what Good is; but being enfolded and wrapped upon all evil, and believing that the evil is the Good, they by that means, both use it unsatiably, and are afraid to be deprived of it; and therefore they strive by all possible means, that they may not only have it, but also increase it. the hardest thing of all, that we have need of them, and cannot live without them.

I. Tat. In the general Speeches, O Father, discoursing of the Divinity, thou speakest enigmatically, and didst not clearly reveal thyself, saying, That no man can be saved before Regeneration. having a great desire, to learn this Argument of Regeneration ; because among all the rest, I am ignorant only of this thou toldst me thou wouldst impart it unto me, when I would estrange myself from the World: whereupon I made myself ready, and have vindicated the understanding that is in me, from the deceit of the

World. secretly; for I know not, O Trismegistus, of what Substance, or what Womb or what Seed a Man is thus born. understandeth in me. powers. remembrance. contradict them.

Regeneration. unfeigned sight or spectacle, made by the mercy of God, and I am gone out of myself into an immortal body, and am riot now what I was before, but was begotten in Mind. was neglected by me; and that I am now separated from it ; for I have both the touch and the measure of it, yet am I now estranged from them. and bodily sight, thou canst not see, nor understand what I am now. self. forsaken me, for I see the greatness, and shape of all things here below, and nothing but falsehood in them all. being falsehood; what therefore is true, O Trismegistus? that which is naked, bright, comprehensible only of itself, unalterable, unbodily. these thoughts thou hast quite dulled all my senses. which is carried downward as Earth, that which is moist as Water, and that which bloweth or is subject to blast as Air; how can he sensibly understand that which is neither hard, nor moist, nor tangible, nor perspicuous, seeing it is only understood in power and operation; but I beseech and pray to the Mind which alone can understand the Generation, which is in God. but Willing, and it shall be done; quiet (or make idle) the Senses of the Body, purging thyself from unreasonable brutish torments of matter.

Concupiscence, a fifth, Injustice, a sixth, Covetousness, a seventh, Deceit, an eighth, Envy, a ninth, Fraud or

Guile, a tenth, Wrath, an eleventh, Rashness, a twelfth, Maliciousness. force the inwardly placed Man to suffer sensibly consists, both the manner and the reason of Regeneration. not cease, or be wanting unto us. the Truth. capable of it. ourselves, O Son, most willingly, for how at her coming hath she put away Intemperance. firm foundation of Justice. away.

Truth is accompanied with the Good, together also with Life and Light. and tumultuarily.

Intellectual Generation is perfected, and then it driveth away the twelve; and we have seen it in the

Generation itself. bodily sense, knoweth himself to consist of divine things, and rejoiceth, being made by God stable and immutable. which is by the Powers. I am in Heaven, in the Earth, in the Water, in the Air, I am in living Creatures, in the

Plants, in the Womb, everywhere. away and expelled by the Ten powers. What is the manner of it, Trismegistus? the Idea of one; but all formed Nature admit of divers Conjugations to the deceiving of Man. inseparable from Anger) and they are also indeterminate: Therefore with good Reason, do they make their departure, being driven away by the Ten powers; that is to say, By the dead. number of Unity is born of the Spirit. subject to the three dimensions, according to this Speech which we have now commented. That we may not at all calumniate the Universe. grow wicked. this not; and that is mortal, but this immortal. Dost thou not know that thou art born a God and the Son of the

One, as I am. the Powers when I was in the Octonary.

Solution of the Tabernacle, for thou art purified. 6o. Pimander, the Mind of absolute Power and Authority, hath delivered no more unto me, than those that are written; knowing that of myself, I can understand all things, and hear, and see what I will. And he commanded me to do those things that are good; and therefore all the Powers that are in me sing. 6i. Tat. I would hear thee, O Father, and understand these things.

Regeneration, which I did not determine to have spoken of so plainly, but to thyself in the end of all. down of the Sun, and to the South, when the Sun ariseth; And now keep silence, Son.

The Secret Song.

The Holy Speech. commanded the sweet Water to come out of the Ocean; into all the World inhabited, and not inhabited, to the use and nourishment of all things, or men. the Mind. that which is righteous. 8o. I give thanks unto thee, O Father, the operation or act of my Powers. 8i. I give thanks unto thee, O God, the power of my operations. is from thee unto thee.

Word ; O Spirit bearing Workman.

Water, by the Spirit, by thy Creatures. have I put and placed it in my World. gladly would I send from my Understanding a Thanksgiving unto God.

Author of thy succeeding Generations, I send unto God these reasonable Sacrifices. which Thou requirest of Me. by Word. branches. tradition of Regeneration, lest we be reputed Calumniators; For we both have now sufficiently meditated, I in speaking, thou in hearing. And now thou dost intellectually know thyself and our Father.

cannot bear: Why do you not vomit it up again? many as you can. suffering it to arrive at the Havens of Salvation.

Haven of Safety, and make your full course towards it. clear Light is that is pure from Darkness, where there is not one drunken, but all are sober and in their heart look up to him, whose pleasure it is to be seen. foundation of all Mischief; the bond of Corruption ; the dark Coverture; the living Death ; the sensible

Carcass, the Sepulchre, carried about with us; the dornestical Thief which in what he loves us, hates us, envies us. self; lest looking up, and seeing the beauty of Truth, and the Good that is reposed therein, thou shouldst hate the wickedness of this garment, and understand the traps and ambushes, which it hath laid for thee. determined; and the things that are truly, it hides, and envelopeth in such matter, filling what it presents unto thee, with hateful pleasure, that thou canst neither hear what thou shouldst hear, nor see what thou shouldst see.

is moved? much bigger, that it may receive the continuity of Motion? and lest that which is moved should for want of room, he stayed, and hindered in the Motion? himself And by some thing Divine, I do not mean that which was made or begotten. otherwise intelligible. which understandeth by Sense. he cannot be understood by himself.

Mace, but as a capable Operation. resteth, and that which moveth standeth or resteth, for it is impossible it should be moved with it. moved? for thou sayest that the Spheres that wander are moved by the Sphere that wanders not. like manner, but contrary one to the other; and contrariety hath a standing resistance of motion for resistance is a staying of motion. one from another contrariety standing of itself. think it moveth or standeth still? for that which is about the same forbids that which is above the same, if it stand to that which is about the same. the Water is carried one way, the reluctation or resistance of his feet and hands is made a station to the man, that he should not be carried with the Water, nor sink underneath it. things that are without the World, but by those things within it, a Soul, or Spirit, or some other unbodily thing, to those things which are without it. are they not moving Bodies?

Body, that moves both as well the Body of that which beareth, as the Body of that which is born; for one dead or inanimate thing, cannot move another; that which moveth, must needs be alive if it move. 45 Asclepius. The things that are, O Trismegistus, must needs be moved in that which is void or empty, Vacuum. empty and a stranger to existence or being. never be made empty. empty Hogshead, an empty Well, an empty Wine−Press, and many such like? thou account them void and empty. them? and that Body doth it not consist of the mixture of the four? therefore all those thou callest empty are full of Air. exist and are full of Air and Spirit. which the whole Universe is moved? undeceivable, invisible, impassible from a Body itself, standing fast in itself, capable of all things, and that favour of the things that are. things that are; for he left nothing destitute of Being. not the nature to be able to be made; and again, the things that are, have not the nature never to be, or not to be at all. not Light, but the Cause that Light is. though never so little, good, save only God alone. both sensible and intelligible.

God, but only the Good, for so thou shalt again be impious.

Ignorance they call both the Gods, and some men Good, that can never either be or be made so. according to Heaven, but Nature. receives nothing. to make. well−minded, to beget children. and this man is punished after death by the Demons, and the punishment is this, To have the Soul of this childless man, adjudged and condemned to a Body, that neither bath the nature of a man, nor of a woman, which is an accursed thing under the Sun. misfortune, knowing what punishment abides, and is prepared for him.

Nature.

speak what comes into my mind, since many men have spoken many things, and those very different, concerning the Universe and Good; but I have not learned the Truth. these things. eternity.

Eternity. upon Eternity, even as Eternity doth of God. unchangeable and incorruptible, but on Earth they are changeable and corruptible.

God.

Human or Divine. for if thou dost thou errest from the Truth.

Power to any other thing. what other thing should he make. thing void or empty, both of a Doer and a thing done. doing one thing, but all things. things that are made are under him. different course.

Operation of God, the Father of all Good, the Prince of all Order, and the Ruler of the seven Worlds.

Matter here below. and Nurse of Earthly things. the Moon going about in the midst of both, to wit, of things immortal and mortal. some things about the Earth, and neither of those on the right hand to the left; nor those on the left hand to the right; nor those things that are above, down. ward; nor those things that are below, upwards. together. among them all; It is impossible there should be two or more Makers. ones, as he that were the Maker of immortal ones, would do to make mortal. facture? immortal, and that which is mortal, and unreasonable. cause of Life, is after a manner, the cause of immortal things. know not how many gods. dost so many things? breathest. and another that smelleth, and another that walketh, and another that understandeth, and another that breatheth, but One that doth all these things. cease from those, he were not (which is not lawful to say) any longer God.

God? necessary work of God that all things should be made or done that are done or were once done, or shall be done.

Fellow−workman. maketh. one Life in all things which are made by God, and that is God, then certainly all things are made, or done by

God. which appeareth not. every day part thereof becomes invisible ; but that it is never dissolved.

Occultation is Renovation. regard less than the World. concerning God, is yet known. sight, and yet shews all forms by the Bodies. hut they are by nature smooth and even. neither can God live, not doing good. that are there placed, have no motion. incorporeal, nothing more swift, nothing more powerful, but it is most capacious, most swift and most strong. be there. but suddenly it will be there. of the Sun, not the Aether, not the turning of the Spheres, not the bodies of any of the other Stars, but cutting through all, it will fly up to the last, and furthest Body. thing without) thou mayest. thoughts, or intellections.

Time, become Eternity and thou shalt understand God: If thou believe in thyself that nothing is impossible, but accountest thy self immortal, and that thou canst understand all things, every Art, every Science and the manner and custom of every living thing.

Creatures, of the Fire, the Water, the Dry and Moist; and conceive likewise, that thou canst at once be everywhere in the Sea, in the Earth. after death, and all these together as also times, places, deeds, qualities, quantities, or else thou canst not yet understand God. am afraid of the Sea, I cannot climb up into Heaven, I know not who I am, I cannot tell what I shall be; what hast thou to do with God; for thou canst understand none of those Fair and Good things; be a lover of the

Body, and Evil. and it will everywhere meet thee, and everywhere be seen of thee, plain and easy, when thou dost not expect or look for it; it will meet thee, waking, sleeping, sailing, travelling, by night, by day, when thou speakest, and when thou keepest silence.

against their Natures. descendeth, she is moistened and tincted with them. their prepossessions or presumptions. sake. disease of the Soul proceedeth. thing that the Soul of unreasonable living things. they are carried by the torrent of their Appetite, and so tend to brutishness. are satisfied with evil. overthrown; For if it be fatal for any man to commit Adultery or Sacrilege or do any evil, he is punished also, though he of necessity do the work of Fate or Destiny. be done. in brute Beasts changed

Concupiscences. 3o. And of men thou must understand some to be rational or governed by reason, and some irrational.

Fate or Destiny. free from viciousness, and being not evil, they do suffer evil. all others. but as the Murderer. the Mind, may escape. had much profited all mankind: For he alone, O Son. as the first born, God, seeing all things, truly spake

Divine words. I have heard him say sometimes, That all Things are one thing, Especially Intelligible Bodies, or that all Especially Intelligible Bodies are one. can do whatsoever it will.

I mean concerning Fate and the Mind. in Truth, the Mind, the Soul of God bears rule over all things, both over Fate and Law and all other things. also with their (impetus) inclinations. co−operate with these impetuous Inclinations, and that they are the Passions in brute Beasts, certainly the

Mind is also a Passion, conforming itself to Passions.

Bodies by the Mind. Now motion is Passion, and there they both suffer; as well that which moveth, as that which is moved, as well that which ruleth, as that which is ruled. be, it is a Passion. that it is not grievous to use the more honourable name. things, these two, to wit, Mind and Speech, or Reason, equal to immortality. the Gods, and blessed Ones. common to all men, but Voice is proper unto every kind of living thing. found the same, both in Egypt, Persia, and Greece.

Soul, the Word, or Speech, or Reason in the Mind, and the Mind in God, and that God is the Father of them all.

Idea of the Soul. the Mind God. and the Air about the Matter. of Matter. 75: For the Bodies that are put together, and that have, and make their changes into other, having this

Identity, do always save and preserve the uncorruption of the Identity. dissolution. the Order and Will of the Father, is the fulness of Life. parts which cloth not live. also. 84, How therefore, O Son, can there be in God, in the Image of the Universe, in the fulness of Life, any dead things? made new. bringeth forth all things. 97. .And a ridiculous question it is, Whether the fourth part of the whole, be idle: For the word immovable, or without Motion, signifies nothing else, but idleness.

Diminution. same. and lying hid. Or better thus. For Generation is not a Creation of Life, but a Production of Things to Sense, and making them Manifest. Neither is Change Death, but an Occultation or Hiding of that which was. thing consisteth.

God, and converseth with him. by an Oak. come. things in Water, Land wights upon the Earth, Flying Fowls in the Air. by his Sense. things that have been, and are done. and Demons, and Men. by God? same manner the Members of God, are Life, and Immortality, and Eternity, and Spirit, and Necessity, and

Providence, and Nature, and Soul, and Mind, and the Continuance or Perseverance of all these which is called

Good.

God. that are changeable, by whom are they changed? this is God the whole.

All, through all, and about all.

above, that by his Will hath framed the things that are. dedicated that name unto himself alone. thither, but is of abode here below in the Souls of men, that have not the Mind. him that sent this Cup; thou that acknowledgest whereunto thou wert made. were made partakers of Knowledge, and became perfect men, receiving the Mind. whereunto they were made, or by whom. admire the things worthy of looking on. than mortal men. anything above Heaven. to make their abode here.

God, the Cup itself being Divine. shalt have the Mind, and having the Mind, thou shalt also partake the Knowledge or Science. the Election or Choice of either is left to him that will choose; For no man can choose both. operation of the other. sheweth Piety and Religion towards God.

Pageants, when they come abroad, cannot do any thing themselves, but hinder; after the same manner also do these make Pomps or Pageants in the World, being seduced by the pleasures of the Body. them proceed also from us, without any scarcity or sparing. continuity and courses of Stars, that we may make haste to the One, and only God. us, seeming to have a beginning, even our knowledge of it. things that are ancient, and according to the original. that Appear not, are Hard to believe. 4I. The things most apparent are Evil, but the Good is secret, or hid in, or to the things that appear for it hath neither Form nor Figure. should be made known, or appear to a Body. like. other things. begetteth every number, itself being begotten of no other number. being not able to receive the Unity. consider, and view by the eyes of thy mind, and heart, believe me, Son, thou shalt find the way to the things above, or rather the Image itself will lead thee. draws unto it, as they say, the Loadstone cloth Iron.

also of Sense.

Speech, and they the Instruments one of another. the Word. another. that fantasy Visions in their Dreams. up out of sleep, unto awaking. the understanding childed, or brought forth by the Mind pronounced. from God; and the contrary when it receives them from Devils. proper operation; and the Mind did make pregnant, or did bring forth that which was sown, Adulteries, Murders, Striking of Parents, Sacrileges, Impieties, Stranglings, throwing down headlong, and all other things which are the works of evil Demons.

I6. And the Piety is the Knowledge of God, whom whosoever knoweth being full of all good things, hath

Divine Understanding and not like the Many. they seem to be mad, and to move laughter, hated and despised, and many times also murdered. things; for though they be evil to other men, yet to him all things are good. at, he alone makes evil things good. but they that are with the Good essentially, are saved with God. purifying some with good. 30 And the World, Asclepius, hath a peculiar Sense and Understanding, not like to Man's, nor so various or manifold, but a better and more simple. again into itself; for it is the Organ or Instrument of the Will of God. from God, and keeping them in itself, it maketh all things effectually and dissolving them, reneweth all things. casting of Seed, renovation to all things that grow. things alive. of Air, some of Fire, and all are compounded, but some are more compounded, and some are more simple. spiration or influence, being most frequent, extendeth unto the Bodies qualities with one fulness, which is of

Life. things with the variety of Generation, and indeficiency of Life, which the unweariedness of Operation, and the swiftness of Necessity with the mingling of Elements, and the order of things done. by that which compasseth them about, and continueth them.

Mind, or Understanding.

Bodies, some moving by a Soul−like Essence, some quickening by a Spirit, and some receiving the things that are weary, and all very fitly. without, but exhibiting them outwardly. without him, nor he without anything. not, incredible. unto the Truth, but the Mind is great, and being led or conducted for a while by Speech, is able to attain to the

Truth. were delivered and interpreted by Speech, believeth; and in that good belief, resteth. that understand them not, incredible.

Science and Art were the Operations of the rational, but now thou sayest that Beasts are unreasonable, and for want of reason, both are and are called Brutes; so that by this Reason, it must needs follow that unreasonable

Creatures partake not of Science, or Art, because they come short of Reason.

Pismires treasure up for themselves food against the Winter, and Fowls of the Air likewise make them Nests, and four−footed Beasts know their own Dens. taught, but none of these brute Beasts are taught any of these things. unto all, but unto some. learned something by the working of Science or Art. their food according to Science and Art. do it by Science or Art.

Necessity, cannot possibly remain idle of their own proper Operation. always by the Act and Operation, or for them. and Instruments of Acts or Operations.

Corporification if it be always. together with being made man, being about brutish or unreasonable things. 18, But the purer Operations do insensibly in the change of time, work with the oblique part of the Soul.

Bodies into Mortal ones. without the Body. without a Body, but Acts or Operations cannot be without Bodies. 22 This is a sacred speech, Son, the Body cannot Consist without a Soul.

Body. becomes invisible. the Body the same act or operation. one Matter, and so doth not the mortal one; and the immortal one doth, but this suffereth. ruled. breathless Bodies, or without Souls, Wood, and Stones, and such like, increasing and hearing fruit, ripening, corrupting, rotting, putrifying and breaking, or working such like things, and whatsoever inanimate Bodies can suffer. made, or rather all things. 32 For the World is never widowed or forsaken of any of those things that are, but being always carried or moved in itself, it is in labour to bring forth the things that are, which shall never be left by it to corruption. it be. and some of the generals, and some of the parts of every thing. these also are perfect, and being upon or in perfect Bodies. affirm, that there be many other Acts or Operations. follow. 45, Understand therefore, O Son, the difference of Operations, it is sent from above. manifesteth it, making it as it were corporeal. they are born with the Body, and die with it. of things inanimate are passive only, according to Augmentation and Diminution.

Acts or Operations.

Pleasure. apprehend. wights. bodily, are moved by the brutish parts of the Soul therefore I say, they are both maleficial or doers of evil. to him that suffers it. unbodily, we say are in Bodies. and therefore it is not incorporeal.

Bodies and some incorporeal.

Members, and having his Tabernacle consisting of different and many Bodies, should speak with any confidence. also true. nothing else; the water, water itself and nothing else.

Water, and Air, and yet there is neither Fire, nor Earth, nor Water, nor Air, nor anything true. understand it only, except God would? neither, for they are but few that are so. appearance. operation from above, it is left a lie. and it is seen to have eyes, but it sees nothing, and ears, but hears nothing at all; and all other things hath the picture, but they are false, deceiving the eyes of the beholder, whilst they think they see the Truth, and yet they are indeed but lies. true things. nor know the Truth. cannot be generated or made. understand it. encompassed by a Body, naked, clear, unchangeable, venerable, unalterable Good. 22 But the things that are here, O Son, are visible, incapable of Good, corruptible, passible, dissolvable, changeable, continually altered, and made of another. other and other appearances. constitution and remains, and abides according to itself, such as it is.

Idea after Idea, or form after form, and this while he is yet in the Tabernacle. known their own Parents. contrary, he is Falsehood, being in many Appearances of changes. therefore not True, but man is a certain Appearance, and Appearance is the highest Lie or Falsehood. they might have had true Matter. changed, but abides in itself, is Truth? making all things whom I do both honour, and adore his Truth; and after the One, and First, I acknowledge him the Workman. without Figure or Shape, Immutable, Unalterable, which always is; but Falsehood, O Son, is corrupted. will encompass them. the things generated must needs be corrupted, that the Generation of things being, may not stand still or cease. sometimes another: For it is impossible they should be made the same things again, and that which is not the same, how is it true? fantasy or appearance of a Child; an old man, the appearance of an old man; a young man, the appearance of a young man; and a man of ripe age, the appearance of a man of ripe age. man. 48 But the things that pre−exist and that are, being changed are false. even of the truth itself.

operation that is, which constitutes the Body, and dissolves it. wrongly called Death (by the taking away the first letter,) instead of Immortal. [Thanatos for Athanatos.] Immortal living Wight should die.

Wight. Šnd immortalized; and as from its own Father, ever living. itself, not by any other, but it is always made. immortal. it round like a Sphere, endued it with Quality, being itself immortal, and having Eternal Materiality. deliberating to beautify with every Quality, that which should afterwards be made.

Composition, should be dissolved into its own disorder. revolved about other little things, endued with Qualities, in point of Augmentation, and Diminution, which men call Death, being indeed a disorder happening about earthly living wights.

Beginning, and is by the instauration of each of them, kept indissolveable. indissoluble, that is, Immortal.

Father, a Mind above other earthly wights. the Good. what a dissolvable One is.

me to give over (as coming very young to the knowledge of every individual) till I was forced to discourse to him many things at large, that his contemplation might from point to point, be more easy and successful. spoken, and to interpret them more mystically, because thou hast, both more years, and more knowledge of

Nature. do them; and he unmade, and more ancient than the things that are made. made any should be more ancient than all, but only that which is not made. himself. continuity of the Facture and of the Operation. that he may be visible; and therefore he makes them always. knowest thy natural Father. or of all Three? That of God because of his Power; the Maker because of his Working and Operation; and the

Father, because of his Goodness.

Made, and Him Which is the Maker; for there is nothing in the middle, between these Two, nor is there any third. nothing into doubt; neither of the things above, nor of the things below; neither of things changeable, nor things that are in darkness or secret. cannot depart, or be divided from the Other. self−same thing; therefore cannot the One of them be separated from the other, no more than a thing can be separated from itself. necessity, that he makes the same thing to himself, to whom it is the Generation of him that maketh to be also

All that is made.

Maker that which is made, neither is made, nor is; for the one of them without the other, hath lost his proper

Nature by the privation of the other. this going before, and that following. it will. aspersion of baseness, or infamy upon God, for it is the only Glory of him to do, or make All things. nothing evil, or filthy to be imputed, or There is Nothing thought Evil or Filthy.

Change to be, as one should say, The Purgation of Generation.

Sea, and Men, and brute Beasts, and inanimate Things, and Trees; and is it impossible for God to make these things? O the great madness, and ignorance of men in things that concern God! yet in not ascribing to him the making or doing of All things, they know him not.

Passions, as Pride, or Oversight, or Weakness, or Ignorance, or Envy. impious to affirm. rest, but God is Good itself. the Good and that can make or do all things. mayest see an Image thereof, very beautiful, and like. elsewhere some other Seeds.

Generation, in which are all things.