{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/herm/hermes12.htm","path":"chr/herm/hermes12.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/herm/hermes12.htm","text":"<The \"common mind\" discussed in this dialogue is\nthe same Mind which appears as a divine power in other parts of\nthe Hermetic literature. It is identical, as well, with the \"Good\nDaimon\" whose words are quoted at several points here and\nelsewhere.\n<The Greek word logos - which means both \"word\" and\n\"reason\", among other things - is central to much of\nthe argument, and it's unfortunate that English has no way to\nexpress the same complex of meanings. The praise of reason in\nparts 13-14 is also, and equally, a praise of human language,\nand this sort of double meaning plays a part elsewhere in this\nand other parts of the Hermetic literature. - JMG>\n1. Hermes: The Mind, O Tat, is of God's very essence - (if such\na thing as essence of God there be) - and what that is, it and\nit only knows precisely.\nThe Mind, then, is not separated off from God's essentiality,\nbut is united to it, as light to sun.\nThis Mind in men is God, and for this cause some of mankind are\ngods, and their humanity is nigh unto divinity.\nFor the Good Daimon said: \"Gods are immortal men, and men\nare mortal gods.\"\n2. But in irrational lives Mind is their nature. For where is\nSoul, there too is Mind; just as where Life, there is there also\nSoul.\nBut in irrational lives their soul is life devoid of mind; for\nMind is the in-worker of the souls of men for good - He works\non them for their own good.\nIn lives irrational He doth co-operate with each one's nature;\nbut in the souls of men He counteracteth them.\nFor every soul, when it becomes embodied, is instantly depraved\nby pleasure and by pain.\nFor in a compound body, just like juices, pain and pleasure seethe,\nand into them the soul, on entering in, is plunged.\n3. O'er whatsoever souls the Mind doth, then, preside, to these\nit showeth its own light, by acting counter to their prepossessions,\njust as a good physician doth upon the body prepossessed by sickness,\npain inflict, burning or lancing it for sake of health.\nIn just the selfsame way the Mind inflicteth pain on the soul,\nto rescue it from pleasure, whence comes its every ill.\nThe great ill of the soul is godlessness; then followeth fancy\nfor all evil things and nothing good.\nSo, then, Mind counteracting it doth work good on the soul, as\nthe physician health upon the body.\n4. But whatsoever human souls have not the Mind as pilot, they\nshare in the same fate as souls of lives irrational.\nFor [Mind] becomes co-worker with them, giving full play to the\ndesires toward which [such souls] are borne - [desires] that from\nthe rush of lust strain after the irrational; [so that such human\nsouls,] just like irrational animals, cease not irrationally to\nrage and lust, nor are they ever satiate of ills.\nFor passions and irrational desires are ills exceeding great;\nand over these God hath set up the Mind to play the part of judge\nand executioner.\n5. Tat: In that case, father mine, the teaching (logos) as to\nFate, which previously thou didst explain to me, risks to be overset.\nFor that if it be absolutely fated for a man to fornicate, or\ncommit sacrilege, or do some other evil deed, why is he punished\n- when he hath done the deed from Fate's necessity?\nHermes: All works, my son, are Fate's; and without Fate naught\nof things corporal - or <i.e., either> good, or ill - can\ncome to pass.\nBut it is fated, too, that he who doeth ill, shall suffer. And\nfor this cause he doth it - that he may suffer what he suffereth,\nbecause he did it.\n6. But for the moment, [Tat,] let be the teaching as to vice\nand Fate, for we have spoken of these things in other [of our\nsermons]; but now our teaching (logos) is about the Mind: - what\nMind can do, and how it is [so] different - in men being such\nand such, and in irrational lives [so] changed; and [then] again\nthat in irrational lives it is not of a beneficial nature, while\nthat in men it quencheth out the wrathful and the lustful elements.\nOf men, again, we must class some as led by reason, and others\nas unreasoning.\n7. But all men are subject to Fate, and genesis and change, for\nthese are the beginning and the end of Fate.\nAnd though all men do suffer fated things, those led by reason\n(those whom we said Mind doth guide) do not endure <a> like\nsuffering with the rest; but, since they've freed themselves from\nviciousness, not being bad, they do not suffer bad.\nTat: How meanest thou again, my father? Is not the fornicator\nbad; the murderer bad; and [so with] all the rest?\nHermes: [I meant not that;] but that the Mind-led man, my son,\nthough not a fornicator, will suffer just as though he had committed\nfornication, and though he be no murderer, as though he had committed\nmurder.\nThe quality of change he can no more escape than that of genesis.\nBut it is possible for one who hath the Mind, to free himself\nfrom vice.\n8. Wherefore I've ever heard, my son, Good Daimon also say -\n(and had He set it down in written words, He would have greatly\nhelped the race of men; for He alone, my son, doth truly, as the\nFirstborn God, gazing on all things, give voice to words (logoi)\ndivine) - yea, once I heard Him say:\n\"All things are one, and most of all the bodies which the\nmind alone perceives. Our life is owing to [God's] Energy and\nPower and Aeon. His Mind is good, so is His Soul as well. And\nthis being so, intelligible things know naught of separation.\nSo, then, Mind, being Ruler of all things, and being Soul of\nGod, can do whate'er it wills.\"\n9. So do thou understand, and carry back this word (logos) unto\nthe question thou didst ask before - I mean about Mind's Fate.\nFor if thou dost with accuracy, son, eliminate [all] captious\narguments (logoi), thou wilt discover that of very truth the Mind,\nthe Soul of God, doth rule o'er all - o'er Fate, and Law, and\nall things else; and nothing is impossible to it - neither o'er\nFate to set a human soul, nor under Fate to set [a soul] neglectful\nof what comes to pass. Let this so far suffice from the Good\nDaimon's most good [words].\nTat: Yea, [words] divinely spoken, father mine, truly and helpfully.\nBut further still explain me this.\n10. Thou said'st that Mind in lives irrational worked in them\nas [their] nature, co-working with their impulses.\nBut impulses of lives irrational, as I do think, are passions.\nNow if the Mind co-worketh with [these] impulses, and if the impulses\nof [lives] irrational be passions, then is Mind also passion,\ntaking its color from the passions.\nHermes: Well put, my son! Thou questionest right nobly, and\nit is just that I as well should answer [nobly].\n11. All things incorporeal when in a body are subject unto passion,\nand in the proper sense they are [themselves] all passions.\nFor every thing that moves itself is incorporeal; while every\nthing that's moved is body.\nIncorporeals are further moved by Mind, and movement's <i.e.,\nmovement is> passion.\nBoth, then, are subject unto passion - both mover and the moved,\nthe former being ruler and the latter ruled.\nBut when a man hath freed himself from body, then is he also freed\nfrom passion.\nBut, more precisely, son, naught is impassible, but all are passible.\nYet passion differeth from passibility; for that the one is active,\nwhile the other's passive.\nIncorporeals moreover act upon themselves, for either they are\nmotionless or they are moved; but whichsoe'er it be, it's passion.\nBut bodies are invaribly acted on, and therefore they are passible.\nDo not, then, let terms trouble thee; action and passion are both\nthe selfsame thing. To use the fairer sounding term, however,\ndoes no harm.\n12. Tat: Most clearly hast thou, father mine, set forth the\nteaching (logos).\nHermes: Consider this as well, my son; that these two things\nGod hath bestowed on man beyond all mortal lives - both mind and\nspeech (logos) equal to immortality. He hath the mind for knowing\nGod and uttered speech (logos) for eulogy of Him.\nAnd if one useth these for what he ought, he'll differ not a whit\nfrom the immortals. Nay, rather, on departing from the body,\nhe will be guided by the twain unto the Choir of Gods and Blessed\nOnes.\n13. Tat: Why, father mine! - do not the other lives make use\nof speech (logos)?\nHermes: Nay, son; but <i.e., only> use of voice; speech\nis far different from voice. For speech is general among all\nmen, while voice doth differ in each class of living thing.\nTat: But with men also, father mine, according to each race,\nspeech differs.\nHermes: Yea, son, but man is one; so also speech is one and is\ninterpreted, and it is found the same in Egypt, and in Persia,\nand in Greece.\nThou seemest, son, to be in ignorance of Reason's (Logos) worth\nand greatness. For that the Blessed God, Good Daimon, hath declared:\n\"Soul is in Body, Mind in Soul; but Reason (Logos) is in\nMind, and Mind in God; and God is Father of [all] these.\"\n14. The Reason, then, is the Mind's image, and Mind God's [image];\nwhile Body is [the image] of the Form; and Form [the image] of\nthe Soul.\nThe subtlest part of Matter is, then, Air <or vital spirit>;\nof Air, Soul; of Soul, Mind; and of Mind, God.\nAnd God surroundeth all and permeateth all; while Mind Surroundeth\nSoul, Soul Air, Air Matter.\nNecessity and Providence and Nature are instruments of Cosmos\nand of Matter's ordering; while of intelligible things each is\nEssence, and Sameness is their Essence.\nBut of the bodies of the Cosmos each is many; for through possessiong\nSameness, [these] composed bodies, though they do change from\none into another of themselves, do natheless keep the incorruption\nof their Sameness.\n15. Whereas in all the rest of composed bodies, of each there\nis a certain number; for without number structure cannot be, or\ncomposition, or decomposition.\nNow it is units that give birth to number and increase it, and,\nbeing decomposed, are taken back again into themselves.\nMatter is one; and this whole Cosmos - the mighty God and image\nof the mightier One, both with Him unified, and the conserver\nof the Will and Order of the Father - is filled full of Life.\nNaught is there in it throughout the whole of Aeon, the Father's\n[everlasting] Re-establishment - nor of the whole, nor of the\nparts - which doth not live.\nFor not a single thing that's dead, hath been, or is, or shall\nbe in [this] Cosmos.\nFor that the Father willed it should have Life as long as it should\nbe. Wherefore it needs must be a God.\n16. How then, O son, could there be in the God, the image of\nthe Father, in the plenitude of Life - dead things?\nFor that death is corruption, and corruption destruction.\nHow then could any part of that which knoweth no corruption be\ncorrupted, or any whit of him the God destroyed?\nTat: Do they not, then, my father, die - the lives in it, that\nare its parts?\nHermes: Hush, son! - led into error by the term in use for what\ntakes place.\nThey do not die, my son, but are dissolved as compound bodies.\nNow dissolution is not death, but dissolution of a compound; it\nis dissolved not so that it may be destroyed, but that it may\nbecome renewed.\nFor what is the activity of life? Is it not motion? What then\nin Cosmos is there that hath no motion? Naught is there, son!\n17. Tat: Doth not Earth even, father, seem to thee to have no\nmotion?\nHermes: Nay, son; but rather that she is the only thing which,\nthough in very rapid motion, is also stable.\nFor how would it not be a thing to laugh at, that the Nurse of\nall should have no motion, when she engenders and brings forth\nall things?\nFor 'tis impossible that without motion one who doth engender,\nshould do so.\nThat thou should ask if the fourth part <or element> is\nnot inert, is most ridiculous; for the body which doth have no\nmotion, gives sign of nothing but inertia.\n18. Know, therefore, generally, my son, that all that is in Cosmos\nis being moved for increase or for decrease.\nNow that which is kept moving, also lives; but there is no necessity\nthat that which lives, should be all same.\nFor being simultaneous, the Cosmos, as a whole, is not subject\nto change, my son, but all its parts are subject unto it; yet\nnaught [of it] is subject to corruption, or destroyed.\nIt is the terms employed that confuse men. For 'tis not genesis\nthat constituteth life, but 'tis sensation; it is not change that\nconstituteth death, but 'tis forgetfulness.\nSince, then, these things are so, they are immortal all - Matter,\n[and] Life, [and] Spirit, Mind [and] Soul, of which whatever liveth,\nis composed.\n19. Whatever then doth live, oweth its immortality unto the Mind,\nand most of all doth man, he who is both recipient of God, and\nco-essential with Him.\nFor with this life alone doth God consort; by visions in the night,\nby tokens in the day, and by all things doth He foretell the future\nunto him - by birds, by inward parts, by wind, by tree.\nWherefore doth man lay claim to know things past, things present\nand to come.\n20. Observe this too, my son; that each one of the other lives\ninhabiteth one portion of the Cosmos - aquatic creatures water,\nterrene earth, and aery creatures air; while man doth use all\nthese - earth, water air [and] fire; he seeth Heaven, too, and\ndoth contact it with [his] sense.\nBut God surroundeth all, and permeateth all, for He is energy\nand power; and it is nothing difficult, my son, to conceive God.\n21. But if thou wouldst Him also contemplate, behold the ordering\nof the Cosmos, and [see] the orderly behavior of its ordering\n<this is a play on the word \"cosmos\", which means\n\"order, arrangement\">; behold thou the Necessity\nof things made manifest, and [see] the Providence of things become\nand things becoming; behold how Matter is all-full of Life; [behold]\nthis so great God in movement, with all the good and noble [ones]\n- gods, daimones and men!\nTat: But these are purely energies, O father mine!\nHermes: If, then, they're purely energies, my son - by whom,\nthen, are they energized except by God?\nOr art thou ignorant, that just as Heaven, Earth, Water, Air,\nare parts of Cosmos, in just the selfsame way God's parts are\nLife and Immortality, [and] Energy, and Spirit, and Necessity,\nand Providence, and Nature, Soul, and Mind, and the Duration <that\nis, Aeon or Eternity> of all these that is called Good?\nAnd there are naught of things that have become, or are becoming,\nin which God is not.\n22. Tat: Is He in Matter, father, then?\nHermes: Matter, my son, is separate from God, in order that thou\nmay'st attribute to it the quality of space. But what thing else\nthan mass think'st thou it is, if it's not energized? Whereas\nif it be energized, by whom is it made so? For energies, we said,\nare parts of God.\nBy whom are, then, all lives enlivened? By whom are things immortal\nmade immortal? By whom changed things made changeable?\nAnd whether thou dost speak of Matter, of Body, or of Essence,\nknow that these too are energies of God; and that materiality\nis Matter's energy, that corporeality is Bodies' energy, and that\nessentiality doth constituteth the energy of Essence; and this\nis God - the All.\n23. And in the All is naught that is not God. Wherefore nor\n<i.e., neither> size, nor space, nor quality, nor form,\nnor time, surroundeth God; for He is All, and All surroundeth\nall, and permeateth all.\nUnto this Reason (Logos), son, thy adoration and thy worship pay.\nThere is one way alone to worship God; [it is] not to be bad.","title":"About the Common Mind","type":"page"}