The Divine Pymander

Credits and Licensing:

Translated formerly out of the Arabick into Greek, and thence into Latine, and Dutch, and now out of the original into English; by Doctor [John] Everard.

London: Printed by Robert White, for Tho. Brewster, and Greg. Moule,

Original author:Hermes Trismegistus

Translator:John Everard

Year of original or translation:1650

Any source archive/website:https://sacred-texts.com/eso/pym/index.htm

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

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JUDICIOUS READER,

This Book may justly challenge the first place for antiquity, from all the Books in the World, being written some hundreds of years before Moses his time, as I shall endeavour to make good. The Original (as far as is known to us) is Arabic, and several Translations thereof have been published, as Greek, Latin, French, Dutch, etc., but never English before. It is pity the Learned Translator [Dr. Everard] had not lived, and received himself, the honour, and thanks due to him from the Englishmen for his good will to, and pains for them, in translating a Book of such infinite worth, out of the Original, into their Mother-tongue.

Concerning the Author of the Book itself, Four things are considerable, viz., His Name, Learning, Country, and Time.

First, Because it is received amongst the Ancients, that he was the first that invented the Art of communicating Knowledge to the World, by Writing or Engraving. Now if so, then in all probability he was before Moses; for it is said of Moses that he was from his childhood [Acts vii.22] skilled in all the Egyptian Learning, which could not well have been without the help of Literature, which we never read of any before that invented by Hermes [Chapter x.].

Secondly, he is said by himself, to be the son of Saturn and by others to be the Scribe of Saturn. Now Saturn according to Historians, lived in the time of Sarug, Abraham’s great Grand-Father [Sanchoniathon]. I shall but take in Suidas his judgment, and so rest satisfied, that he did not live only before, but long before Moses; His words are these, Credo Mercurium Trismegistum sapientem Egyptium floruisse ante Pharaonem [Suidas].

In this Book, though so very old, is contained more true knowledge of God and Nature, than in all the Books in the World besides, except only Sacred Writ; And they that shall judiciously read it, and rightly understand it, may well be excused from reading many Books; the Authors of which, pretend so much to the knowledge of the Creator, and Creation. If God ever appeared in any man, he appeared in him, as it appears by this Book. That a man who had not the benefit of his Ancestors’ knowledge, being as I said before, The first inventor of the Art of Communicating Knowledge to Posterity by writing, should be so high a Divine, and so deep a Philosopher, seems to be a thing more of God than of Man; and therefore it was the opinion of some That he came from Heaven, not born upon Earth [Goropius Becanus]. There is contained in this Book, that true Philosophy, without which, it is impossible ever to attain to the height, and exactness of Piety, and Religion. According to this Philosophy, I call him a Philosopher, 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; and he that doth so, will acknowledge thanks to, and admire the Omnipotent Creator, Preserver, and Director of all these things. And he that shall be thus truly thankful, may truly be called Pious and Religious: and he that is Religious, shall more and more know where and what the Truth is: And learning that, he shall yet be more and more Religious.

The glory and splendour of Philosophy, is an endeavoring to understand the chief Good, as the Fountain of all Good: Now how can we come near to, or find out the Fountain, but by making use of the Streams as a conduct to it? The operations of Nature, are Streams running from the Fountain of Good, which is God. I am not of the ignorant, and foolish opinion of those that say, The greatest Philosophers are the greatest Atheists: as if to know the works of God, and to understand his goings forth in the Way of Nature, must necessitate a man to deny God. The [Job] Scripture disapproves of this as a sottish tenet, and experience contradicts it: For behold! Here is the greatest Philosopher, and therefore the greatest Divine.

Read understandingly this ensuing Book (and for thy help thou mayest make use of that voluminous Commentary written upon it [Hanbal Offeli Alabar] ) then it will speak more for its Author, than can be spoken by any man, at least by me.

Thine in the love of Truth, J.F.

MY THOUGHTS being once seriously busied about things that are, and my Understanding lifted up, all my bodily Senses being exceedingly holden back, as it is with them that are heavy of sleep, by reason either of fulness of meat, or of bodily labour: Methought I saw one of an exceeding great stature, and of an infinite greatness, call me by my name, and say unto me, What wouldst thou hear and see? Or what wouldst thou understand to learn and know? Trismeg.--I thank thee. Pimand.--But first conceive well the Light in they mind, and know it. 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.

The End of The Second Book, Called, POEMANDER

THE glory of all things, God, and that which is Divine, and the Divine Nature, the beginning of things that are.

The End of the Fragments of the Third Book, THE HOLY SERMON….

YESTERDAY'S Speech, O Asclepius, I dedicated to thee; this day it is fit to dedicate to Tat, because it is an Epitome of those general Speeches which were spoken to him.

THE END OF THE FOURTH BOOK, Called THE KEY….

THIS Discourse, I will also make to thee, O Tat, that thou mayest not be ignorant of the more excellent name of God.

GOD, O Asclepius, is in nothing but in God alone, or rather God himself is the Good always.

The End of the Sixth Book....

THAT IN GOD ALONE IS GOOD....

TO HIS SON TAT.

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.

THE SECRET SONG.

The Holy Speech.

The End of the Seventh Book….HIS SECRET SERMON IN THE MOUNT OF REGENERATION, AND THE PROFESSION OF SILENCE.

WHITHER are you carried, O Men, drunken with drinking strong Wine of Ignorance? which seeing you cannot bear, why do you vomit it up again?

The End of the Eighth Book, THE GREATEST EVIL IN MAN IS THE NOT KNOWING GOD.

en, but Nature.

The End of the Ninth Book, A UNIVERSAL SERMON TO ASCLEPIUS.

THE TENTH BOOK, THE MIND TO HERMES

FORBEAR thy Speech, O Hermes Trismegistus, and call to mind to those things that are said; but I will not delay to speak what comes into my mind, sithence many men have spoken many things, and those very different, concerning the Universe, and Good; but I have not learned the Truth.

The End of the Tenth Book, THE MIND TO HERMES.

THE Mind, O Tat, is of the very Essence of God, if yet there be any Essence of God.

The End of the Eleventh Book

OF THE COMMON MIND, TO TAT.

THE Workman made this Universal World, not with his Hands, but his Word.

The End of the Twelfth Book, HIS CRATER OR MONAS.

YESTERDAY, Asclepius, I delivered a perfect Discourse, but now I think it necessary, in suite of that, to dispute also of Sense.

The End of the Thirteenth Book, OF SENSE AND UNDERSTANDING.

Tat.

THOU has well explained these things, Father. Teach me furthermore these things, for thou sayest, that 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.

The End of The Fourteenth Book, OF OPERATION AND SENSE.

Herm.

OF TRUTH, O Tat, it is not possible that man, being an imperfect Wight, compounded of Imperfect members, and having his Tabernacle, consisting of different, and many Bodies, should speak with any Confidence.

The End of the Fifteenth Book, OF TRUTH TO HIS SON TAT.

Herm.

WE must now speak of the Soul and body, O Son, after what manner the soul is Immortal, and what operation that is, which constitutes the Body, and dissolves it.

The End of the Sixteenth Book, THAT NONE OF THE THINGS THAT ARE CAN PERISH.

BECAUSE, my Son, Tat, in thy absence, would needs learn the Nature of the things that are, he would not suffer 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.

The End of the Seventeenth Book, TO ASCLEPIUS, TO BE TRULY WISE. (End of the Divine Pymander--1650)