{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th1/th107.htm","path":"gno/th1/th107.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th1/th107.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\nThat at one period the \u201cReligion of Hermes\u201d was not only widely spread, but practically supreme, in popular Hellenistic circles, may be seen from a study of the texts of the numerous magic papyri which have been preserved, and made accessible to us by the industry of such immensely laborious scholars as Leemans, Dieterich, Wessely, and Kenyon.\nThe Greek Hermes prayers, as with many others of a similar nature, are manifestly overworkings of more ancient types, and, as we might expect, are of a strongly syncretistic nature. In them we can distinguish in popular forms, based on the ancient traditions of Egyptian magic, most interesting shadows of the philosophic and theosophic ideas which our Trismegistic literature has set forth for us in the clear light of dignified simplicity.\nBut just as we now know that the once so-called \u201cGnostic,\u201d Abraxas and Abraxoid amulets, gems, and rings pertained to the general popular magical religion and had nothing to do with the Gnosis proper, so we may be sure that the circles of high mysticism, who refused to offer to God even so pure a sacrifice as\nthe burnt offering of incense, and deemed naught worthy of Him, short of the \u201cprayers and praises of the mind,\u201d had nothing directly to do with the popular Hermes prayers, least of all with the invocatory rites of popular theurgy, and phylactery or amulet consecration.\nNevertheless, there is much of interest for us in these invocations, and much that can throw side-lights on the higher teaching and practice which transformed all external rites into the discipline of inner spiritual experience.\nThe following prayers, which, as far as I know, have not been previously translated, are rendered from the most recently revised texts of Reitzenstein, who has omitted the magic names, and emended the previous editions. I cannot but think, however, that these texts might be submitted to a more searching analysis than has yet been accorded them. They seem to present somewhat similar phenomena to the recensions of the Book of the Dead; that is to say, fragments of material from the tradition of a greater past have been adapted and overworked for the needs of a lesser age. Indeed, the whole effort of the Trismegistic schools seems to have been to restore the memory of that greater past; it had been forgotten, and its dim record had become a superstition instead of a living faith, a degenerate magic instead of a potent theurgy. The theurgy of our prayers is that of dwarfs; the theurgy of the past was believed to have been that of giants.\n[Revised text, R. 15-18; Leemans (C.), Papyri Gr\u00e6c. Mus. Ant. Pub. Lug. Bat. (Leyden, 1885), II. 141, 14 ff., and V. 27, 27 ff.; Dieterich (A.), Abraxas (Leipzig, 1891), 195, 4 ff.; and Jahrb\u00fccher f. class. Phil., Suppl. XVI. 808 ff. (Papyrus Mag. Mus. Lug. Bat.).]\n1. Come unto me, O thou of the four winds, 2 almighty one, 3 who breathest spirit into men to give them life;\n2. Whose name is hidden, and beyond the power of men to speak; 4 no prophet [even] can pronounce it; yea, even daimons, when they hear thy name, are fearful!\n3. O thou, whose tireless eyes are sun and moon, 5\u2014[eyes] that shine in the pupils 6 of the eyes of men!\n4. O thou, who hast the heaven for head, \u00e6ther for body, [and] earth for feet, and for the water round thee ocean\u2019s deep! 7 Thou the Good Daimon art, who art the sire of all things good, and nurse of the whole world. 8\n5. Thy everlasting revelling-place 9 is set above.\n6. Thine the good emanations 10 of the stars,\u2014those daimons, fortunes, and those fates by whom are given\nwealth, good blend [of nature], 1 and good children, good fortune, and good burial. For thou art lord of life,\u2014\n7. Thou who art king of heavens and earth and all that dwell in them;\n8. Whose Righteousness is never put away; whose Muses hymn thy glorious name; whom the eight Wardens guard,\u2014thou the possessor of the Truth 2 pure of all lie!\n9. Thy Name and Spirit rest upon the good. 3\n10. O mayst thou come into my mind and heart for all the length of my life\u2019s days, and bring unto accomplishment all things my soul desires!\n11. For thou art I, and I am thou. 4 Whate\u2019er I speak, may it for ever be; for that I have thy Name 5 to guard me in my heart. 6\n12. And every serpent 1 roused shall have no power o\u2019er me, nor shall I be opposed by any spirit, or daimonial power, or any plague, or any of the evils in the Unseen World; 2 for that I have thy Name within my soul.\n13. Thee I invoke; come unto me, Good, altogether good, [come] to the good, 3\u2014thou whom no magic can enchant, no magic can control, 4 who givest me good health, security, 5 good store, good fame, victory, [and] strength, and cheerful countenance! 6\n14. Cast down the eyes of all who are against me, and give me grace on all my deeds! 7\n[Revised and restored text, stripped of later overworkings, R. 20, 21. Wessely (C.), Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, \u201cNeue griechische Zauberpapyri\u201d (Vienna, 1893), vol. xlii. p. 55; Kenyon (F. G.), Greek Papyri in the British Museum (London, 1893), i. 116.]\n1. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, even as into women\u2019s wombs [come] babes! 8\n2. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, who dost collect the food of gods and men! 9\n3. Lord Hermes, come to me, and give me grace,\n[and] food, [and] victory, [and] health and happiness, and cheerful countenance, 1 beauty and powers in sight of all!\n4. I know thy Name that shineth forth in heaven; I know thy forms 2 as well; I know thy tree; 3 I know thy wood 4 as well.\n5. I know thee, Hermes, who thou art, and whence thou art, and what thy city is.\n6. I know thy names in the Egyptian tongue, 5 and thy true name as it is written on the holy tablet in the holy place at Hermes\u2019 city, where thou dost have thy birth.\n7. I know thee, Hermes, and thou [knowest] me; [and] I am thou, and thou art I. 6\n8. Come unto me; fulfil all that I crave; be favourable to me together with good fortune and the blessing of the Good. 7\n[Revised and restored text, R. 21. It is worked in with the preceding, but is of later date.]\n1. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, O thou of many names, who know\u2019st the secrets hidden both beneath the poles [of heaven] and underneath the earth!\n2. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, thou benefactor, who doest good to all the world!\n3. Give ear to me, [and] give me grace with all that are on earth; open for me the hands of all that give like thee; 1 [and] make them give me what their hands contain!\n4. Even as Horus, 2 if e\u2019er he called on thee, O greatest of all gods, in every trial, in every space, \u2019gainst gods, and men, and daimones, and things that live in water and on earth,\u2014had grace and riches with gods, and men, and every living thing beneath the earth;\u2014so let me, too, who call on thee! So give me grace, form, beauty!\n6. Hear me, O Hermes, doer of good deeds, thou the inventor of [all] incantations, 3 speak me good words! 4\n7. Hear me, O Hermes, for I have done all things [that I should do] for thy black dog-ape, 5 lord of the nether ones!\n8. O, soften all [towards me], and give me might\n[and] form, 1 and let them give me gold, and silver [too], and food of every kind continually.\n9. Preserve me evermore for the eternity from spells, deceits, and witchery of every kind, from evil tongues, from every check and every enmity of gods and men!\n10. Give unto me grace, victory, success, and satisfaction!\n11. For thou art I, and I am thou; thy Name is mine, and mine is thine; for that I am thy likeness. 2\n12. Whatever shall befall me in this year, or month, or day, or hour,\u2014it shall befall the Mighty God, whose symbol is upon the holy vessel\u2019s prow. 3\n[Revised text, R. 22. Leemans, op. cit., II. 103, 7; Dieterich, op. cit., 189.]\n1. Thee I invoke alone, thou who alone in all the world imposest order upon gods and men, 1 who dost transform thyself in holy forms, 2 making to be from things that are not, and from the things that are making the not to be.\n2. O holy Thoth, 3 the true sight of whose face none of the gods endures!\n3. Make me to be in every creature\u2019s name 4\u2014wolf, dog, [or] lion, fire, tree, [or] vulture, 5 wall, 6 [or] water, 7 or what thou will\u2019st, for thou art able [so to do].\n[Revised text R. 22, 23. Leemans, ibid., II. 87, 24; Dieterich, ibid., 176, 1.]\n1. Thee I invoke who hast created all, who dost transcend the whole, the self-begotten God, who seest all and hearest all, but who art seen by none.\n2. For thou didst give the sun his glory and all might, the moon her increase and her decrease, and [unto both] their ordained course. Though thou didst not diminish aught the [powers of] darkness, the still\nmore ancient [than the sun and moon], thou mad\u2019st them equal [with it]. 1\n3. For when thou didst shine forth, Cosmos came into being, and light appeared, and all things were dispensed through thee; wherefore they all are under thee.\n4. O thou, whose actual form none of the gods can see, who dost transform thyself into them all in visions [that men see], O thou Eternity of the eternity. 2\n5. Thee I invoke, O Lord, that thy true form may manifest to me, for that I am in servitude below thy world, 3 slave to thy angel and unto thy fear. 4\n6. Through thee the pole and earth are fixed.\n7. Thee I invoke, O Lord, e\u2019en as the gods whom thou hast made to shine, that they may have their power.\nThe above prayers afford us some striking examples of the popular Hellenistic form of the Hermes religion, 5\nin its theurgic phase. In it Hermes is regarded as the Mind 1 or Logos. The Mind is invoked to enter the mind and heart (I. 10). 2 With the shining out of the Mind, the Spiritual or Intelligible Light shines forth in the world and man (v. 3). The Mind is thus the guide of souls. 3 He is also identified with the Good Daimon (of whom Chnuphis or Horus are variants), with the Great Ocean, the Heaven-Space or Celestial Nile, the Great Green, the Light, the \u00c6on.\nIn connection with the above invocations Reitzenstein gives the text of a very interesting ritual of lower theurgy, or rite of the sacred flame, which he characterises by the term \u201cmystery of lychnomancy or lamp-magic.\u201d This is the lower side of such high vision as is referred to in \u201cThe Shepherd of Men\u201d treatise and in the rite described in the following passage of the Pistis Sophia, 272, 373:\n\u201cJesus said unto his disciples: Come unto me! And\nthey came unto him. He turned to the four quarters of the world, and spake the Great Name over their heads, and blessed them, and breathed on their eyes.\n\u201cJesus said unto them: Look, see what ye may see!\n\u201cAnd lifting up their eyes they saw a great Light, exceeding vast, which no dweller on earth could describe.\n\u201cHe said to them again: Gaze into the Light, and see what ye may see!\n\u201cThey said: We see fire and water, and wine and blood.\u201d\n[Revised text, R. 25-27. Wessely, op. cit., \u201cGriechische zauberpapyrus von Paris und London\u201d (Vienna, 1888), 68, 930 ff.]\n(a) Invocation to the Light 1\n1. I invoke thee, O God, the living one, 2 who dost show forth thy splendour in the fire, thou unseen Father of the Light! 3 Pour forth thy strength; awake thy daimon, and come down into this fire; inspire it with [thy] holy spirit; show me thy might, and let the house of the almighty God, which is within this light, be opened for me! Let there be light,\u2014\n[thy] breadth-depth-length-height-ray; 1 and let the Lord, the [God] within, shine forth!\n(b) A Stronger Form to be used if the Flame dies down\n2. I adjure thee, O Light, holy ray, breadth-depth-length-height-ray, by the holy names which I have uttered, 2 and am now about to speak . . . abide with me in this same hour, until I have besought thy God, and learnt about the things that I desire!\n(c) The Theagogy or Invocation of the God proper\n3. Thee I invoke, thou mightiest God and Master . . . thou who enlightenest all and pour\u2019st thy rays by means of thine own power on all the world, O God of gods!\n4. O Word (Logos) that orderest night and day, who guid\u2019st the ship, 3 and hold\u2019st the helm, thou dragon-slayer, 4 Good Holy Daimon . . . !\n5. To whom the East and West give praise as thou dost rise and set, thou who art blest by all the gods, angels, and daimones!\n6. Come, show thyself to me, O God of gods . . . !\n7. Enter, make manifest thyself to me, O Lord; for I invoke as the three apes invoke thee\u2014who symbol-wise name forth thy holy Name.\n8. In thy ape-form 1 enter, appear to me, O Lord; for I name forth thy mightiest names!\n9. O thou who hast thy throne about the height of cosmos, 2 and judgest all, encircled with the sphere of Surety and Truth! 3\n10. Enter, appear to me, O Lord, for that I was before the fire and snow, and shall be after [them];\n11. I am the one who has been born from heaven. 4\n12. Enter, appear to me, O Lord of mighty names, whom all have in their hearts, 5 who dost burst open rocks, 6 and mak\u2019st the names of gods to move!\n13. Enter, appear to me, O Lord, who hast thy power and strength in tire, who hast thy throne within the seven poles. 7\n14. And on thy head a golden crown, and in thy hand a staff . . . 1 by which thou sendest forth the gods!\n15. Enter, O Lord, and give me answer with thy holy voice, that I may clearly hear and truthfully about this thing!\n(d) A Stronger Form of Adjuration if (c) fails\n16. He doth enjoin thee, He the great living God, who is for the eternities of the eternities, the shaker and the thunderer, who doth create each soul and every birth. Enter, appear to me, O Lord, joyous, benignant, gentle, glorious, free from all wrath; for I adjure thee by the Lord [of all]!\n(e) The Greeting when the Presence of the God is manifested\n17. Hail Lord, O God of gods, thou benefactor . . . ! Hail to thy glories 2 ever more, O Lord!\n(f) The Farewell to the God\n18. I give thee thanks, O Lord. Depart, O Lord, to thine own heavens, thine own realms, and thine own\ncourse, preserving me in health, free from all harm, free from all fear of any ka, 1 free from all stripes, and all dismay, hearkening to me for all the days of [all] my life!\n(g) The Farewell to the Flame\n19. Depart, O holy ray; depart, O fair and holy light of highest God!\nIn connection with the above, we may also take the following ritual-prayer used in the consecration of an amulet ring.\n[Revised text, R. 28, 29. Wessely, ibid., 84, 1598 ff.]\n1. Thee I invoke, O greatest God, Lord everlasting, thou world-ruler, above the world, beneath the world, mighty sea-ruler;\n2. Who shinest forth at dawn, out from the East rising for all the world, and setting in the West!\n3. Come unto me, thou who dost rise from the four winds, joyous Good Daimon, for whom the heaven is thy revelling-place! 2\n4. I call upon thy holy, mighty, hidden names which thou dost joy to hear.\n5. When thou dost shine the earth doth sprout afresh, the trees bear fruit when thou dost laugh, the animals bring forth when thou dost turn to them.\n6. Give glory, honour, grace, fortune and power . . . !\n7. Thee I invoke, the great in heaven . . . , O dazzling Sun, who shed\u2019st thy beams on all the world!\n8. Thou art the mighty serpent, the chief of all the\ngods, 1 O thou who dost possess Egypt\u2019s beginning, 2 and the end of all the world!\n9. Thou art the [God] who saileth o\u2019er the ocean; thou art the [God] who doth come into sight each day.\n10. O thou who art above the world, and art beneath the world, O mighty ruler of the sea, give ear unto my voice this day, this night, these holy hours [of thine], and through this amulet let that be done for which I consecrate it!\n84:1 I have supplied the titles.\n84:2 Perhaps originally spirits or breaths.\n84:3 \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03ba\u03c1\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03c1, used of Hermes, Anth. P., append., 282.\n84:4 Compare Lactantius, i. 6 (Frag. II.); and especially iv. 7 (Frag. VI.).\n84:5 The \u201ceyes and light of Horus,\u201d according to Plutarch, De Is. et Os., lii.; mystically, the higher and lower \u201cego\u201d and much else.\n84:6 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03cc\u03c1\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2\u2014compare the dissertation on the meaning of the title of our treatise generally translated \u201cVirgin (\u03ba\u03cc\u03c1\u03b7) of the World,\u201d in the commentary thereto.\n84:7 Sc. the Ocean of Space, the \u201cGreat Green\u201d of the Ritual.\n84:8 That is, father-mother of the universe.\n84:9 \u03ba\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd\u2014that is, heaven. See VII. 3 below.\n84:10 \u1f00\u03c0\u03cc\u03c1\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1\u03b9\u2014or personified influences. See Plutarch, De Is. et Os., xxxviii., liii., lviii.; and especially Pistis Sophia, where it occurs over and over again. Compare also K. K., 1; Stob., p. 405, 17 (W.).\n85:1 \u03b5\u1f50\u03ba\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03b1\u2014referring apparently to the composition of \u201cbody\u201d and \u201csoul.\u201d\n85:2 That is, the Pleroma or \u00c6on (see VI. 9 below). Reitzenstein (p. 18) says rightly, as we have seen, that Egyptologists have long recognised that the God here identified with Agathodaimon was originally the Hermes or Thoth of Hermopolis Magna, Lord of the Eight Wardens (the Ogdoad), symbolised by apes, hymned by the Muses (? the Nine or Ennead), and spouse of Isis-Righteousness (cf. Plut., De Is. et Os., iii.).\n85:3 See 13 below.\n85:4 Compare the extra-canonical logos: \u201cI stood on a lofty mountain and saw a gigantic man, and another, a dwarf; and I heard as it were a voice of thunder, and drew nigh for to hear; and He spake unto me and said: I am thou, and thou art I; and wheresoever thou mayest be I am there. In all am I scattered [that is, the Logos as seed or \u201cmembers\u201d], and whencesoever thou wiliest, thou gatherest Me; and gathering Me, thou gatherest Thyself.\u201d (From the Gospel of Eve, quoted by Epiphanius, H\u00e6res., xxvi. 3.) Cf. II. 7.\n85:5 In the Egyptian sense\u2014that is, thy true \u201cperson\u201d or \u201cpresence.\u201d See R. 17, n. 6, for many references to this fundamental concept of Egyptian religion.\n85:6 \u03c6\u03c5\u03bb\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd\u2014lit., as a phylactery or amulet. See R. 18, n. 8, for Egyptian origin of Jewish phylacteries.\n86:1 \u03b4\u03c1\u03ac\u03be\u2014here the symbol of any hostile elemental force. Compare K. K.,\u2014Stob., 402, 22 (W.).\n86:2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u2019 \u1f0d\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5.\n86:3 See 9 above.\n86:4 \u1f00\u03b2\u03ac\u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2, \u1f00\u03b2\u03ac\u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2.\n86:5 \u03c3\u03c9\u03c4\u03b7\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03bd, or salvation.\n86:6 See II. 2 below.\n86:7 Compare with this prayer for the descent of the Mind into the heart, the ascent of the man into the Mind of C. H., xiii. (xiii.) 3.\n86:8 This is an echo of spiritual rebirth or regeneration.\n86:9 In its highest sense the heavenly food, or wisdom, the \u201csupersubstantial bread,\u201d or \u201cbread of life.\u201d\n87:1 \u1f10\u03c0\u03b1\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03b4\u03b9\u03c3\u03af\u03b1\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5. See I. 13 above.\n87:2 The symbols of which are: the ibis in the east, ape in the west, the serpent in the north, the wolf (or jackal) in the south. So says the overworking of the text; but perhaps wolf should rather be dog.\n87:3 The terebinth, or turpentine palm. Compare this with the story of Terebinthus, from whose four Books Manes is said, in the Acta Archelai, to have derived his system.\n87:4 The ebony; perhaps symbolic of the \u201cdark\u201d wisdom, the initiation \u201cin the black\u201d of the K. K. Fragments.\n87:5 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c1\u03b2\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u1f70 \u1f40\u03bd\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u2014lit., barbarous, that is, non-Greek.\n87:6 Cf. I. 11.\n87:7 Lit., with Agathodaimon; compare \u03c3\u1f7a\u03bd \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff7\u2014\u201cwith God\u2019s blessing.\u201d\n88:1 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b4\u03c9\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd\u2014a \u1f05\u03c0\u03b1\u03be \u03bb\u03b5\u03b3\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd\u2014\u03b4\u03ce\u03ba\u03c9 (\u03b4\u03af\u03b4\u03c9\u03bc\u03b9) may be compared with \u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03ba\u03c9 (\u1f35\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bc\u03b9). The image may be taken from the well-known symbolical representation of the sun sending forth rays, each furnished with a hand for giving and blessing, especially in the frescoes of the Atem-cult period. Cf. K. K., 11 and 31.\n88:2 In the mystery-myth.\n88:3 Orig., medicines or philtres.\n88:4 \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03bb\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u2014a unique and inelegant expression in Greek, and of uncertain translation into English.\n88:5 This appears here to refer to Anubis, the \u201cdog\u201d of Hades, or the \u201cdeath-genius,\u201d the attendant on Thoth. \u201cBlack\u201d is lit. \u201cEthiopian.\u201d But compare in Pistis Sophia, 367, \u201c\u00c6thiopic Ariouth,\u201d a ruler among the infernal daimonials, who is \u201centirely black.\u201d The Ethiopians were famous for their sorcery and black magic. They were the traditional opponents of the \u201cwhite magicians\u201d of Egypt. Compare \u201cHor, son of the Negress\u201d in the \u201cSecond Story of Khamuas,\u201d in Griffith\u2019s (F. Ll.) Stories of the High Priests of Memphis (Oxford, 1900), pp. 51 ff.\n89:1 This is not necessarily a prayer for physical form and the rest, but a prayer that the subtle ka of the man, the plastic soul-substance, may take a form of power and beauty, in the unseen world.\n89:2 \u03b5\u1f34\u03b4\u03c9\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd, or image or double. The theurgist is endeavouring to identify his ka with that of the god. It was with his ka also, presumably, that the consecrated statue of the god was \u201canimated.\u201d Compare the exposition of this theory as given in P. S. A., and the \u201cimage\u201d or \u201clikeness of God\u201d in Lactantius, ii. 10. According to the Egyptians, man possessed: (1) a physical body (khat); (2) a soul (ba); (3) a heart (\u0227b); (4) a double (ka); (5) an intelligence (khu); (6) a power (sekhem); (7) a shadow (khaibit) (8) a spiritual body (s\u0227\u1e25 [sic]); (9) a name (ren). See Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, ii. 299, 300. These are, of course, not arranged in any natural order or in a scientific distribution. The precise meaning of most of these terms is not known. Budge (op. cit., i. 163, 164), however, writes: \u201cRelated intimately to the body, but with undefined functions, as far as we can discover, was the sekhem, a word which has been translated \u2018power,\u2019 and \u2018form,\u2019 and even \u2018vital force\u2019; finally the glorified body, to which had been united the soul, and spirit and power, and name of the deceased, had its abode in heaven. This new body of the deceased in heaven was called s\u0101\u1e25u.\u201d\n89:3 Thoth and Ma\u0101t are represented as sitting on either side of R\u0101 in his boat.\n90:1 That is, Hermes as the cosmic Logos.\n90:2 Thoth changes his form in every heaven-space or sphere. Compare C. H., i. 13; and also the same idea in the descent of the Christos in a number of Gnostic systems, where the Saviour and King conceals himself in the forms of his servants in every phase of his descent. Cf. also C. H., xi. (xii.) 16.\n90:3 \u03b8\u03b1\u03cd\u03b8.\n90:4 That is, essence, or may be type.\n90:5 Presumably a symbol for air.\n90:6 Presumably a symbol for earth.\n90:7 Compare C. H., xi. (xii.) 20; and P. S. A., vi.\n91:1 With the Egyptians, Darkness was the mystery of all mysteries. As Damascius (On First Principles) says: \u201cOf the first principle the Egyptians said nothing; but characterised it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a thrice unknown Darkness\u201d (\u03c3\u03ba\u03cc\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f04\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u03c1\u1f76\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4\u03bf \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c6\u03b7\u03bc\u03af\u03b6\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2). See my Orpheus (London, 1896), p. 93, and for \u201cNight,\u201d pp. 154 and 170 ff. Perhaps this may again give some clue to the initiation \u201cin the black\u201d of the K. K. excerpt. The \u201cdark wisdom\u201d was the hidden of the hidden.\n91:2 \u03b1\u1f30\u1f7c\u03bd \u03b1\u1f30\u1ff6\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2. In another hymn, Hermes, as Logos, is called \u201cCosmos of cosmos\u201d (R. 23, n. 1)\u2014that is, the spiritual world or order.\n91:3 That is the spiritual cosmos, or cosmos of Mind.\n91:4 Compare Isaiah xlv. 7: \u201cI form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.\u201d Cf. C. H., i. 23, \u201cthe avenging daimon\u201d; and ibid., 15, \u201cWithin the Harmony he hath become a slave.\u201d\n91:5 Called in the Trismegistic literature the \u201cReligion of the Mind\u201d (Mentis religio). See P. S. A., xxv.\n92:1 Compare the cosmogony in Dieterich, Abraxas, 17, 43: \u201cThrough the Bitterness of God, there appeared Mind . . . that restrains the heart, and was called Hermes.\u201d With this peculiar phrase \u201cBitterness of God\u201d compare the \u201cBitter Chaos\u201d of the hymn at the end of the J. source of the Naassene Document in \u201cThe Myth of Man\u201d chapter; also the \u201cBitter Water\u201d or Chaos of the Sethian System (Hipp., Philos., v. 19); so also Julian, in Oration V., who writes: \u201cThe oracles of the gods declare that through purification not only our soul but also our bodies are judged worthy of being greatly helped and preserved, for it is said in them that \u2018the mortal vesture of bitter matter is preserved.\u2019\u201d Is it thus possible that the \u201cBitterness\u201d of Jacob B\u00f6hme may be a reminiscence of the ancient Gnosis?\n92:2 For pure Egyptian parallels see R. 24, n. 1.\n92:3 See the theogony in Dieterich, op. cit., 18, 75: \u201cAnd the soul came into being. And God said: \u2018Thou shalt move all things . . . Hermes guiding thee.\u2019\u201d Compare C. H., x. (xi.) 21: \u201cBut on the pious soul the Mind doth mount, and guide it to the Gnosis\u2019 light;\u201d also xii. (xiii.) 12, ix. (x.) 10, iv. (v.) 11, vii. (viii.) 2.\n93:1 These rubrics I have added, following the example of Reitzenstein, but not his wording.\n93:2 Compare the expression \u201cJesus the living [one]\u201d found frequently in the Introduction to the \u201cFirst Book of Ieou\u201d (Carl Schmidt, Gnostische Schriften in koptischer Sprache aus dem Codex Brucianus (Leipzig, 1892), 142-145\u2014reprinted with his recent translation of the Pistis Sophia in Band I. of his Koptisch gnostische Schriften (Leipzig, 1905); and also the Preface to the newest found logoi: \u201cThese are the . . . words which Jesus, the living [one], spake\u201d (Grenfell and Hunt, New Sayings of Jesus, London, 1904).\n93:3 Compare in the same writings the oft-repeated \u201cFather of all fatherhood, Boundless Light.\u201d\n94:1 See Dieterich, Jahrb. f. Phil., Suppl., xvi. 802, 171, and 706. Compare also Ephes. iii. 18, and the Valentinian interpretation of the terms in this text as given by Hippolytus, Philos., vi. 34 (Dunker and Schneidewin, p. 248); also the interpretation of the Light Hymn in Pistis Sophia, 146, where the \u201cheight\u201d is identified with the \u201chome\u201d of the Light.\n94:2 The magic names of power are omitted, as in the other prayers.\n94:3 Horus is often represented as pilot of the sun-ship in its voyage across the ocean of space, the \u201cGreat Green.\u201d\n94:4 The dragon here undoubtedly meaning darkness. Cf. C. H., i. 4.\n95:1 \u1f61\u03c2 \u03ba\u03c5\u03bd\u03bf\u03ba\u03ad\u03c6\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2. Can it be possible that behind this strange symbolism there may once have been some such idea as this\u2014that as the ape is to man, so was this great elemental to the God?\n95:2 Lit., art seated on the head of cosmos.\n95:3 That is the Eternity or \u00c6on, called elsewhere the Pleroma or \u201cfullness of grace,\u201d and identified with Agathodaimon (see prayer, R. 30). See also Wessely, op. cit., 185 (R. 362); and compare John i. 14, \u201cfull of grace and truth\u201d; and 16, \u201cOf his fullness have we received, and grace for grace.\u201d\n95:4 The regenerate, or spirit-born\u2014that is of \u201cvirgin-birth\u201d or the \u201cbirth of Horus.\u201d But compare the declaration of the soul on its entrance into the unseen world after death, as given on an inscription found in the tomb of an Orphic or Pythagorean initiate, at Petilia, in what was once Magna Gr\u00e6cia: \u201cOf Earth and starry Heaven child am I; my race is of the Heavens!\u201d (See Inscr. Gr. Sicili\u00e6 et Itali\u00e6, 638; and my \u201cNotes on the Eleusinian Mysteries,\u201d Theosophical Review, xxii. 317.)\n95:5 These are the logoi hidden in the hearts of all.\n95:6 This may be merely a figurative expression in praise of the might that can not only dissolve the most stable things on earth, but also set in motion the centre of stability of spiritual essences; or it may refer to the idea of the \u201cGod born from the rock,\u201d which is most familiar to us from the Mithriac mystery-tradition, where the rock is said to symbolise in physics the \u201cfirmament,\u201d which was thought of as solid or rigid by the ancients.\n95:7 That is, the seven cosmic spheres.\n96:1 \u03bc\u03b5\u03bc\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd\u2014an untranslatable reading. Is it Egyptian?\u2014or is it intended for \u03bc\u03b5\u03bc\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd? If the latter, it would presumably be connected with the Egyptian myth and cult of Memnon (see Roscher\u2019s Lexikon, coll. 2661 ff.). The Memnon cult was somehow connected with Hermes, for in the ruins of the temple were still (at the beginning of the third century) to be seen \u201cstatues of Hermes,\u201d according to Philostratus (Vit. Apoll., vi. 4), who also (Imag., i. 7) tells us that the Memnon statue was as a lyre which was struck by the rod (\u03c0\u03bb\u1fc6\u03ba\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd), that is the ray (\u1f21 \u1f00\u03ba\u03c4\u03af\u03c2), of the sun. If so, \u201cthe rod [of power], by which thou sendest forth the gods,\u201d that is thy rays, each god being a ray of the spiritual sun, might have the epithet Memnonian applied to it. But in our present lack of information, this interpretation seems very strained.\n96:2 \u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03b1\u03b9\u2014here meaning powers.\n97:1 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03b4\u03c9\u03bb\u03cc\u03c0\u03bb\u03b7\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd.\n97:2 \u03ba\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd. Cf. I. 5 above.\n98:1 The serpent was a symbol of the Logos, and this is the idea underlying the so-called Ophite systems of the Gnosis.\n98:2 This refers to the first nome of Upper Egypt, whose metropolis, Elephantine, was once the chief seat of the popular Agathodaimon cult (R. 29, n. 4). The \u201cworld\u201d was thus the Egyptian civilised world, beyond which was the darkness of Ethiopia.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1: IV. The Popular Theurgic ...","type":"page"}