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The emergence of a glorious new culture in Florence signalled the end of the Dark Ages. We call this period the 'Renaissance', meaning 'rebirth', which is a fitting name, for at the heart of the Hermetic philosophy is the idea of being spiritually reborn.
Copernicus' momentous claim that the sun, not the Earth, is at the centre of the solar system was a choice, not a discovery, made after studying Hermetic/Platonic philosophy at an Italian university. On the first page of On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs, published in 1543, Copernicus quotes the words of Thrice-Great Hermes — 'The Sun is the Visible God'
Bruno interpreted the new sun-centred cosmos proposed by Copernicus in an entirely mystical way, as the rising of a new sun at the dawning of a New Age. He believed that the Egyptian religion of Hermes was the ancestor of the Greek Mystery Schools, the religion of Moses and the Jews, and the birthplace of Christianity.
Indeed the word 'alchemy' means 'from Egypt'.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes: The Egyptians are religious to excess, beyond any other nation in the world... they are meticulous in everything which concerns their religion... It was only, if I may put it so, the day before yesterday that the Greeks came to know the origin and form of the various gods... The names of all the gods came to Greece from Egypt... for the names of all the gods have been known in Egypt from the beginning of time.
Over a hundred years before Plato, the Greek sage Pythagoras had set out on a journey to acquire the knowledge of the world. This led him to Egypt where he spent twenty-two years in the temples being initiated into the religion of the Egyptians. According to the ancient Greek scholar Diogenes Laertius, Plato purchased three books of Pythagorean doctrines based on Egyptian wisdom, and these he adapted into the Timaeus. The similarities between the works of Plato and the Hermetica are not surprising, therefore, since many of Plato's ideas were direct descendants of ancient Egyptian philosophy.
That which is called the Christian religion existed among the ancients, and never did not exist, from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in the flesh, at which time the true religion which already existed began to be called Christianity. St Augustine, Retractions
The Hermetica was undoubtedly written by Alexandrian scholars for a Greek-speaking readership. But it contains a powerful echo of the ancient wisdom on which it was based. It offers us one of the best windows available to gaze into Egypt's remotest past. With its help we can understand the mystical vision that inspired the awesome Giza pyramids.
At the heart of Hermes' teachings is one simple idea — God is a Big Mind. Everything which exists is a thought within the Mind of God. This book is a thought in the Mind of God. Your body is a thought in the Mind of God. These ideas which are being discussed are thoughts in the Mind of God. How can we understand this?
Ultimately, everything that exists in your life is a thought within your mind. Your mind, however, is limited by being trapped in a physical body. Imagine for a moment that it is not. Imagine that it is free to be conscious of everything, at all times and in all places. Then everything that is, has been, and will be, would exist as a thought within your mind. This is the nature of God's Mind. He is not limited by a physical body. He is the Big Mind within which everything exists.
Hermes teaches that the mind of a human being is made in the image of God's Big Mind. If we can free our mind from the limitations imposed by the physical body, we can experience the Mind of God. We were created with the specific purpose of learning to do this. This is the spiritual goal of human life. To reach this destination we must expand our awareness. We must use the power of our little minds to reach out to God's Big Mind.
It is through appreciating the awesome beauty of the cosmos and understanding the fundamental laws by which it functions, that we can come to know the Mind of God.
Hermes declares that 'man is a marvel'. With his mind he may not only understand the universe, but even come to know God. He is not a mortal body which will live and die. He is an immortal soul which, through the experience of a spiritual rebirth, may become a god.
The main surviving philosophical Hermetic texts are the eighteen books known as the Corpus Hermeticum (seventeen survive, Book XV is missing), the Asclepius, the Stobaeus and various fragments.
Hermes writes: My teachings will seem more obscure in times to come, when they are translated from our Egyptian mother tongue into that of the Greeks. Translation will distort much of their meaning. Expressed in our native language, the teachings are clear and simple, for the very sound of an Egyptian word resonates with the thing signified by it. All possible measures should be taken to prevent these holy secrets being corrupted by translation into Greek, which is an arrogant, feeble, showy language, unable to contain the cogent force of my words. The Greek language lacks the power to
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The philosophy that Hermes teaches is not just a clever intellectual exercise. It is about focussing the mind in deep meditation on Atum (an ancient Egyptian name for God).
Pure philosophy has been replaced by the teachings of clever intellectuals with no mystical understanding of life. People have ceased to see the universe as a source of wonder, and no longer revere it as the work of God. Spirituality has come to be dismissed by science as primitive superstition. The profound wisdom of the ancient Egyptians is thought of as a dead religion and as little more than an archaeological curiosity.
Pure philosophy is spiritual striving, through constant contemplation, to attain True Knowledge of Atum the One-God. But, speaking now in prophecy, I say that in times to come, no one will pursue philosophy with single-mindedness and purity of heart. Those with a grudging and ungenerous temperament will try and prevent men discovering the priceless gift of immortality. Philosophy will become confused, making it hard to comprehend. It will be corrupted by spurious speculation. It will be entangled with bewildering sciences like arithmetic, music and geometry.
By Atum's will, the elements of nature were born as reflections of this primal thought in the waters of potentiality. These are the primary things; the prior things; the first principles of all in the universe. Atum's Word is the creative idea — the supreme limitless power which nurtures and provides for all the things that through it are created.
God is Oneness. Everything is a part of one Supreme Being. Like the number one, which is the source of all subsequent numbers, God is the source of all. Yet just as when the number one is divided or multiplied by itself it remains one, so God constantly remains the Oneness.
Atum works with Nature, within the laws of Necessity, causing extinction and renewal, constantly creating creation to display his wisdom. Yet, the things that the eye can see are mere phantoms and illusions. Only those things invisible to the eye are real. Above all are the ideas of Beauty and Goodness. Just as the eye cannot see the Being of Atum, so it cannot see these great ideas.
Try and understand that Atum is Mind. This is how he contains the Cosmos. All things are thoughts which the Creator thinks.
The past has gone and does not exist. The future has yet to happen and does not exist. The present moment passes so quickly that it has no permanence. Before we have even said 'now', the moment has gone. We can never catch the present, so in what way could it be said to exist? This mystical insight into the illusory nature of time is a way to glimpse the Oneness of God, who exists beyond time. For God, there is no past, present and future — only eternity. Freeing ourselves from the illusion of time is yet another way we can experience God.
THE HIERARCHY OF CREATION Atum creates the Cosmic Mind. The Cosmic Mind creates the Cosmos. The Cosmos creates Time. Time creates Change. The essence of Atum is Primal Goodness. The essence of the Cosmic Mind is permanent sameness. The essence of the Cosmos is beautiful order. The essence of Time is movement. The essence of Change is Life. Atum works through Mind and Soul. The Cosmic Mind works through immortality and duration. The Cosmos works through turning and returning. Time works through increase and decrease. Change works through quality and quantity. The Cosmic Mind is in Atum.
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God created humankind because he wanted there to be a creature capable of appreciating the great beauty of his Cosmos. He asks each of the gods who administer the Cosmos to provide something to benefit humanity. The sun gives joy. The moon gives sleep. Saturn offers the limits of necessity and the balancing force of justice. Jupiter gives peace and Mars gives struggle. Venus offers love and Mercury wisdom.
When God hears what the gods will offer, he thinks humankind into existence. At first humanity is just a thought — a soul. It is unable to tend and look after the Earth as God wishes, so God gives each human a mortal body within which to house the immortal soul. To do this he first creates Nature. She is like a beautiful woman, and God makes her mistress of the world. She produces the seeds of natural life. Seeing in the human soul an image of God, Nature falls in love and merges with her beloved. This is the blending of body and soul which produces each one of us. Hence all human beings have
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God gives humankind a last great gift — the ability to reproduce. More than this, he makes the process a holy loving sacrament which reflects the marriage of matter and spirit that creates the Cosmos. The sacred bond of love unites man and woman togethe...
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The Hermetica teaches that the universe will not be finished until mankind has played his part in the story. The arts and sciences invented by humanity complete the grand plan of Destiny, art completes what nature cannot finish. All those who cooperate with the will of the Creator apply their skill and knowledge to enhance the beauty of the Cosmos.
Chance is movement without order, and skill is the force which creates order. The Earth is kept in order by means of humanity's knowledge and application of the arts and sciences — for Atum willed that the universe should not be complete until man had played his part.
Human beings are the meeting place of spirit and matter. We have, therefore, a dual nature. We are Mind enclosed by a physical body. The human mind is an image of God's Mind — it is immortal, eternal, divine and free. The human body, on the other hand, is mortal and controlled by the laws of Destiny which are governed by the stars.
The purpose of human life is to rise above our merely human nature and awaken our divine nature. Human beings have the unique potential to know God, and God's greatest wish is that we fulfil this potential.
There are then these three — Atum, Cosmos, man. The Cosmos is contained by Atum. Man is contained by the Cosmos. The Cosmos is the son of Atum. Man is the son of the Cosmos, and the grandson, so to speak, of Atum. Atum does not ignore man, but acknowledges him fully, as he wishes to be fully acknowledged by man, for this alone is man's purpose and salvation — the ascent to heaven and the Knowledge of Atum.
God created humans to appreciate the awesome wonder of his universe; to be themselves a beautiful embellishment of the Cosmos; and to share in God's creative powers and participate in the work of creation. The heavenly gods the planets, who had already bestowed on man some of their own power, now urged the Creator to be cautious. They fear that man will use his inquisitive mind for destructive as well as constructive purposes. Man's powers, they complain, are too great and unlimited, and therefore dangerous to himself and the order of the Cosmos. God responds to their concerns by creating the
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It is man's function to complete the work of Atum. He was made to view the universe with awe and wonder, and to come to know its Maker.
Destiny sows the seed. Necessity compels the results. In the wake of Destiny and Necessity comes order — the interweaving of events in time.
Atum implants each human soul in flesh by means of the gods who circle in heaven. It is man's lot to live his life according to the fate determined for him by these circling celestial powers — and then to pass away and be resolved into the elements. There are some whose name will live on, through the memorials of their mighty handiwork, but the names of the many will fade into darkness.
Our fundamental human nature remains the same throughout our life, but our individual fate changes in accordance with the constantly changing pattern of the stars. As in astrology, Hermes teaches that our individual destiny is created by the positions of the planets at our moment of birth. These are the 'gods' who take charge of us, controlling our bodies and shaping our souls.
When we are born, the planetary gods who are at that time on duty as ministers of birth take charge of us. These particular powers, that change according to the rotation of the planets, make their way in through the body, and mould the shape of our souls. They penetrate our nerves and marrow, veins and arteries, even our innermost organs.
I have seen a vision of souls about to be shut up in bodies. Some of them wailed and moaned. Some struggled against their doom, like noble beasts caught by crafty hunters and dragged away from their wild home. One shrieked and looking up and down exclaimed: 'O Heaven, source of Being, bright shining stars and unfailing sun and moon, Light and Life-breath of the One, all you that share our home — how cruel it is that we are being torn away from such celestial splendour! We are to be expelled from this holy atmosphere and from the blissful life we live here, to be imprisoned in a mean and sorry
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Death is simply the end of this particular person and the soul's transformation into another state. Death is just the discarding of a worn-out body. Most people are ignorant of this fact and therefore needlessly fear death.
After leaving the body at death, the individual soul is judged by the chief of the gods, to see if it is pure and honourable. Pure souls are assigned to a heavenly realm. Ignorant souls fall once again into the material realms and are reincarnated. A soul which during its earthly life has come to know God, will have become all Mind. When it leaves the body it takes on a body of Light and is freed from all limitations. Such an enlightened soul has recognised that its essential nature is god-like, and on death it communes with God. It has 'run the race of purity' and is now completely spiritual
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Everything on Earth must be destroyed, for without destruction nothing can be created. The new comes out of the old. Every birth of living flesh, like every growth of crop from seed, will be followed by destruction. But from decay comes renewal, through the circling course of the celestial gods, and the power of Nature, who has her being in the Being of Atum.
For man, time is a destroyer, but for the Cosmos it is an ever-turning wheel. These earthly forms that come and go are illusions.
Birth is not the beginning of life — only of an individual awareness. Change into another state is not death — only the ending of this awareness. Most people are ignorant of the truth, and therefore afraid of death, believing it to be the greatest of all evils. But death is only the dissolution of a worn-out body.
Our term of service as guardians of the world is ended when we are freed from the bonds of this mortal frame and restored, cleansed and purified, to the primal condition of our higher nature. After quitting the body, Mind, which is divine by nature, is freed from all containment. Taking on a body of Light, it ranges through all space — leaving the soul to be judged and punished, according to its deserts. Souls do not all go to the same place. Nor to different places at random. Rather, each is allocated to a place that fits its nature.
When a soul leaves the body it undergoes a trial and investigation by the chief of the gods. When he finds a soul to be honourable and pure, he allows it to live in a region that corresponds to its characteristics. But if he finds it stained with incurable ignorance, he hurls it down to the storms and whi...
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Only a good soul is spiritual and divine. Having wronged no one and come to know Atum, such a soul has run the race of purity, and becomes all Mind. After it leaves its physical form, it becomes a ...
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At the dissolution of the body, first the physical form is transformed and is no longer visible. The vital spirit returns to the atmosphere. The bodily senses go back to the universe, and recombine in new ways to do other work. Then the soul mounts upwards through the structures of the heavens. In the first zone, it is relieved of growth and decay. In the second, evil and cunning. In the third, lust and deceiving desire. In the fourth, domineering arrogance...
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Having been stripped of all that was put upon it by the structures of the heavens, the soul now possesses its own proper power and may ascend to the eighth sphere — rejoicing with all those...
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The gods that dwell above the eighth sphere sing praises with a voice that is theirs alone, call each soul to surrender to the gods, and so each one becomes itself a god by entering communion with Atum. This is Primal Goodness. This is the consummation of True Knowledge. Having been initiated into immortality, a human soul, now transformed into a...
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