The Corpus Hermeticum

by Hermes Trismegistus

  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.

  6. But all things must be made; both ever made, and also in accordance with the influence of every space.

  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!

  7. Behold, again, the seven subject Worlds; ordered by Aeon’s order, and with their varied course full-filling 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.

  8. And all are full of soul, and all are moved by it, each in its proper way; some round the Heaven, others 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.

  9. For as the many motions of them [all] are different, and as their bodies are not like, yet has one speed been 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 from the maker of the immortals, 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?

  10. But thus conceive it, then; that every living body doth consist of soul and matter, whether [that body be] 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?

  11. Mind: First, that there is some one who does these things, is clear; and, next, that He is also One, is very 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!

  12. All things, therefore, He makes, in many [ways]. And what great thing is it for God to make life, soul, and 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.

  13. For if it hath been shown that no thing can [inactive] be, how much less God? For if there’s aught he doth 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.

  14. And if thou wouldst in practice understand [this work], behold what taketh place with thee desiring to 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 i.e., God is the One Life - 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.

  15. Aeon, moreover, is God’s image; Cosmos [is] Aeon’s; the Sun, of Cosmos; and Man, [the image] of the 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.

  16. The Cosmos is all-formed - not having forms external to itself, but changing them itself within itself. 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.

  17. For it is like the form of reason (logos) and mountain-tops in pictures. For they appear to stand out strongly from the rest, but really are quite smooth and flat.

  And now consider what is said more boldly, but more tru
ly!

  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.

  18. Now some of the things said should bear a sense peculiar to themselves. So understand, for instance, what 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.

  19. And, thus, think from thyself, and bid thy soul go unto any land, and there more quickly than thy bidding 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.

  20. Behold what power, what swiftness, thou dost have! And canst thou do all of these things, and God not [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 literally, Aeon; 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.

  21. But if thou lockest up thy soul within thy body, and dost debase it, saying: I nothing know; I nothing can; 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.

  22. Hermes: Is God unseen?

  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.

  12. About The Common Mind

  The “common mind” discussed in this dialogue is the same Mind which appears as a divine power in other parts of the Hermetic literature. It is identical, as well, with the “Good Daimon” whose words are quoted at several points here and elsewhere.

  The Greek word logos - which means both “word” and “reason”, among other things - is central to much of the argument, and it’s unfortunate that English has no way to express the same complex of meanings. The praise of reason in parts 13-14 is also, and equally, a praise of human language, and this sort of double meaning plays a part elsewhere in this and other parts of the Hermetic literature. - JMG

  1. Hermes: The Mind, O Tat, is of God’s very essence - (if such a thing as essence of God there be) - and 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.”

  2. But in irrational lives Mind is their nature. For where is Soul, there too is Mind; just as where Life, there is 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.

  3. O’er whatsoever souls the Mind doth, then, preside, to these it showeth its own light, by acting counter to 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.

  4. But whatsoever human souls have not the Mind as pilot, they share in the same fate as souls of lives 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.

  5. Tat: In that case, father mine, the teaching (logos) as to Fate, which previously thou didst explain to me, 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 i.e., either 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.

  6. But for the moment, [Tat,] let be the teaching as to vice and Fate, for we have spoken of these things in 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.

  7. But all men are subj
ect to Fate, and genesis and change, for these are the beginning and the end of Fate.

  And though all men do suffer fated things, those led by reason (those whom we said Mind doth guide) do not endure a 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.