The Emperor's New Clothes
Once upon a time there lived a vain Emperor whose only worry in life was to dress in elegant clothes. He changed clothes almost every hour, and loved to show them off to his people.
Word of the Emperor's refined habits spread over his kingdom and beyond. Two scoundrels who had heard of the Emperor's vanity decided to take advantage of it. They introduced themselves at the gates of the palace with a scheme in mind.
"We are two very good tailors and after many years of research we have invented an extraordinary method to weave a cloth so light and fine that it looks invisible. As a matter of fact it is invisible to anyone who is too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its quality."
The chief of the guards heard the scoundrel's strange story and sent for the court chamberlain. The chamberlain notified the prime minister, who ran to the Emperor and disclosed the incredible news. The Emperor's curiosity got the better of him and he decided to see the two scoundrels. ....(more)
Once upon a time there lived a vain Emperor whose only worry in life was to dress in elegant clothes. He changed clothes almost every hour, and loved to show them off to his people.Word of the Emperor's refined habits spread over his kingdom and beyond. Two scoundrels who had heard of the Emperor's vanity decided to take advantage of it. They introduced themselves at the gates of the palace with a scheme in mind.
"We are two very good tailors and after many years of research we have invented an extraordinary method to weave a cloth so light and fine that it looks invisible. As a matter of fact it is invisible to anyone who is too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its quality."
The chief of the guards heard the scoundrel's strange story and sent for the court chamberlain. The chamberlain notified the prime minister, who ran to the Emperor and disclosed the incredible news. The Emperor's curiosity got the better of him and he decided to see the two scoundrels. ....(more)
Rebirth
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's responses are in italics)
Now, in the General Sermons, father, you spoke in riddles which were most unclear, conversing on Divinity. And when you said that no man could ever be saved before Rebirth, you hid your meaning.
Further, when I became your supplicant - in wending up the Mount, after you conversed with me - and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth - for this, beyond all other things, is the thing I don't know - you said that you would give it to me "when you have become a stranger to the world". And so I got myself ready, and made the thought in me a stranger to the world-illusion. ....(more)
The Secret Sermon on the Mountain
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's responses are in italics)
Now, in the General Sermons, father, you spoke in riddles which were most unclear, conversing on Divinity. And when you said that no man could ever be saved before Rebirth, you hid your meaning.
Further, when I became your supplicant - in wending up the Mount, after you conversed with me - and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth - for this, beyond all other things, is the thing I don't know - you said that you would give it to me "when you have become a stranger to the world". And so I got myself ready, and made the thought in me a stranger to the world-illusion. ....(more)
Truth
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's responses are in italics)
Oh Tat, it is not possible that man should speak of Truth with any confidence, oh Tat, as man is an imperfect being, compounded of imperfect members, his frame consisting of many different bodies.
But, in as far as it is possible to be right, I say that Truth is only in the eternal bodies, whose very bodies are also True.
Fire is fire itself only, and nothing else. Earth is earth itself and nothing else. Air is air itself and nothing else. Water is water itself and nothing else. ....(more)
Oh Tat, it is not possible that man should speak of Truth with any confidence, oh Tat, as man is an imperfect being, compounded of imperfect members, his frame consisting of many different bodies.
But, in as far as it is possible to be right, I say that Truth is only in the eternal bodies, whose very bodies are also True.
Fire is fire itself only, and nothing else. Earth is earth itself and nothing else. Air is air itself and nothing else. Water is water itself and nothing else. ....(more)
Action and Sense
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's responses are in italics)
You have well explained these things, father. Teach me more of these things. For you say that science and art were the actions of the rational, but now you say that beasts are unreasonable, and for that very lack of Reason they are beasts, and are called "brutes". So it must follow that unreasonable creatures do not partake of science or art, because they lack Reason.
It must needs be so, son.
Why then, oh father, do we see some unreasonable living creatures using both science and art? as the ants store up food for themselves against the winter, and birds likewise make their nests, and four-footed beasts know their own dens. ....(more)
You have well explained these things, father. Teach me more of these things. For you say that science and art were the actions of the rational, but now you say that beasts are unreasonable, and for that very lack of Reason they are beasts, and are called "brutes". So it must follow that unreasonable creatures do not partake of science or art, because they lack Reason.
It must needs be so, son.
Why then, oh father, do we see some unreasonable living creatures using both science and art? as the ants store up food for themselves against the winter, and birds likewise make their nests, and four-footed beasts know their own dens. ....(more)
The Order of Beings
(a.k.a. "The Definitions - or Perfect Sermon - of Asclepius to King Ammon")
Great is the sermon (logos) which I send to you, oh King: the summing up and digest, as it were, of all the rest. For it is not composed to suit the prejudices of the many, since it contains much that refutes them. Indeed, it will seem to you as well to contradict sometimes my sermons too.
Hermes, my master, in many a conversation - both when alone, and sometimes, too, when Tat was there - has said, that to those who come across my books, their composition will seem most simple and most clear. But, on the contrary, as it is unclear, and has the inner meaning of its words concealed, it will be still more unclear when, afterwards, the Greeks will want to turn our tongue into their own, for this will be a very great distorting and obscuring of what has been already written. Turned into our own native tongue, the sermon (logos) keeps clear the meaning of the words (logoi) , at any rate. Because its ....(more)
Great is the sermon (logos) which I send to you, oh King: the summing up and digest, as it were, of all the rest. For it is not composed to suit the prejudices of the many, since it contains much that refutes them. Indeed, it will seem to you as well to contradict sometimes my sermons too.
Hermes, my master, in many a conversation - both when alone, and sometimes, too, when Tat was there - has said, that to those who come across my books, their composition will seem most simple and most clear. But, on the contrary, as it is unclear, and has the inner meaning of its words concealed, it will be still more unclear when, afterwards, the Greeks will want to turn our tongue into their own, for this will be a very great distorting and obscuring of what has been already written. Turned into our own native tongue, the sermon (logos) keeps clear the meaning of the words (logoi) , at any rate. Because its ....(more)
Generation
(a letter from Hermes to Asclepius )
Since, in your absence, my son Tat desired to learn the nature of the things that are, and would not let me hold it over - as is natural to a younger son who has come fresh to gnosis of the teachings - I was compelled to tell him more on each single point, in order that the contemplation of them might be easier for him to follow.
I would like, then, to select the main topics of what was said, and write them in brief to you, explaining them more mystically, as to one of a greater age, and one well versed in Nature.
All the things that are manifest have been made, and are being made. And those made things are not made by their own selves but by another. And there are many things made, but especially all the things which are manifest, and which are different and not alike. And, as these things are being made by another than themselves, there is some one who makes these things, and He cannot be made, but is more ancient than the things that can be ....(more)
Since, in your absence, my son Tat desired to learn the nature of the things that are, and would not let me hold it over - as is natural to a younger son who has come fresh to gnosis of the teachings - I was compelled to tell him more on each single point, in order that the contemplation of them might be easier for him to follow.
I would like, then, to select the main topics of what was said, and write them in brief to you, explaining them more mystically, as to one of a greater age, and one well versed in Nature.
All the things that are manifest have been made, and are being made. And those made things are not made by their own selves but by another. And there are many things made, but especially all the things which are manifest, and which are different and not alike. And, as these things are being made by another than themselves, there is some one who makes these things, and He cannot be made, but is more ancient than the things that can be ....(more)
The Common Mind
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's responses are in italics)
The Mind, Oh Tat, is of God's very essence - if there is such a thing as essence of God - 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 therefore some of mankind are deities, and their humanity is near to divinity. ....(more)
The Mind, Oh Tat, is of God's very essence - if there is such a thing as essence of God - 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 therefore some of mankind are deities, and their humanity is near to divinity. ....(more)
The Key
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's responses are in italics)
I devoted yesterday's discourse (logos) to you, Asclepius, and so it is only right that I should devote today's to Tat; and this all the more because it is the abridgement of the General Sermons (Logoi) which he has had addressed to him.
"God, Father, and the Good", then, Tat, have the same nature, or more exactly, energy.
For nature is a predicate of growth, in things that change, both mobile and immobile - that is to say, both human and divine - each one of which He wills into being. ....(more)
I devoted yesterday's discourse (logos) to you, Asclepius, and so it is only right that I should devote today's to Tat; and this all the more because it is the abridgement of the General Sermons (Logoi) which he has had addressed to him.
"God, Father, and the Good", then, Tat, have the same nature, or more exactly, energy.
For nature is a predicate of growth, in things that change, both mobile and immobile - that is to say, both human and divine - each one of which He wills into being. ....(more)
Thought and Sense
I gave the Perfect Sermon yesterday, Asclepius. Today I think it right, as a sequel to that, to go through the Sermon about Sense, point by point.
Now sense and thought do seem to differ, in that the former has to do with matter, and the latter has to do with substance. But unto me both seem to be at-one and not to differ - in men I mean. In other living creatures, sense is at-one with Nature, but in men there is thought.
Now mind differs just as much from thought as God does from divinity. Because divinity comes to be through God, and thought comes to be through Mind, the sister of reason (logos) , and instruments of one another. For neither does reason (logos) find utterance without thought, nor is thought manifested without reason (logos) .
So sense and thought both flow together into man, as though they were entwined with one another. For neither can one think without sensing, nor can one sense without thinking. ....(more)
Now sense and thought do seem to differ, in that the former has to do with matter, and the latter has to do with substance. But unto me both seem to be at-one and not to differ - in men I mean. In other living creatures, sense is at-one with Nature, but in men there is thought.
Now mind differs just as much from thought as God does from divinity. Because divinity comes to be through God, and thought comes to be through Mind, the sister of reason (logos) , and instruments of one another. For neither does reason (logos) find utterance without thought, nor is thought manifested without reason (logos) .
So sense and thought both flow together into man, as though they were entwined with one another. For neither can one think without sensing, nor can one sense without thinking. ....(more)
The Perfect Sermon
(a.k.a. "The Sermon of Initiation" - this was spoken by Hermes to Asclepius. Asclepius' comments are in italics)
God, oh Asclepius, has brought you unto us that you may hear a Godly sermon, a sermon that may well seem more Godly than the piety of ordinary faith, more so that all the previous ones we’ve uttered, or with which we’ve been inspired by the Divine.
If you shall see this Sermon with the mind's eye, then your whole mind will be filled quite full of all things good; if indeed, the many may be good, and not the One in which are all. Indeed the difference between the two is found in their agreement: All is One, and One is All. So closely bound is each to the other, that neither can be parted from its mate.
But this you will learn from this sermon if you follow it with diligent attention. ....(more)
God, oh Asclepius, has brought you unto us that you may hear a Godly sermon, a sermon that may well seem more Godly than the piety of ordinary faith, more so that all the previous ones we’ve uttered, or with which we’ve been inspired by the Divine.
If you shall see this Sermon with the mind's eye, then your whole mind will be filled quite full of all things good; if indeed, the many may be good, and not the One in which are all. Indeed the difference between the two is found in their agreement: All is One, and One is All. So closely bound is each to the other, that neither can be parted from its mate.
But this you will learn from this sermon if you follow it with diligent attention. ....(more)
Nothing that exists is perishable
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's response is in italics)
Concerning Soul and Body, son, we now must speak of the way in which Soul is deathless, and from where comes the activity in composing and dissolving Body.
For there is no death for anything that is. The thought this word conveys is either void of fact, or - simply by knocking off a syllable - what is called "death", stands for "deathless".
For death is of destruction, and nothing in the Cosmos is destroyed. For if the Cosmos is the second God, a life that cannot die, it cannot be that any part of this immortal life should die. All things in the Cosmos are parts of the Cosmos: most of all man, the rational animal. ....(more)
Concerning Soul and Body, son, we now must speak of the way in which Soul is deathless, and from where comes the activity in composing and dissolving Body.
For there is no death for anything that is. The thought this word conveys is either void of fact, or - simply by knocking off a syllable - what is called "death", stands for "deathless".
For death is of destruction, and nothing in the Cosmos is destroyed. For if the Cosmos is the second God, a life that cannot die, it cannot be that any part of this immortal life should die. All things in the Cosmos are parts of the Cosmos: most of all man, the rational animal. ....(more)
Ignorance of God is the greatest Evil
Whither do you stumble, you drunkards, who have sopped up the wine of ignorance and are so unable to carry it that you already even spew it forth?
Stay you, and be sober, and gaze upwards with the true eyes of the heart! And if all of you cannot, then you at least who can! Because the ill of ignorance pours over all the earth, and overwhelms the soul that is battened down within the body, preventing it from reaching port within Salvation's harbours.
Do not be carried off by the fierce flood, but by using the shore-current - you who can - make for Salvation's port, and harbouring there, seek for one to take you by the hand and lead you to the gates of Gnosis.
Where clear Light shines , clean of every darkness; where not a single soul is drunk, but all sober, they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who wills to be seen. No ear can hear Him, nor can you see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but only mind and heart. ....(more)
Stay you, and be sober, and gaze upwards with the true eyes of the heart! And if all of you cannot, then you at least who can! Because the ill of ignorance pours over all the earth, and overwhelms the soul that is battened down within the body, preventing it from reaching port within Salvation's harbours.
Do not be carried off by the fierce flood, but by using the shore-current - you who can - make for Salvation's port, and harbouring there, seek for one to take you by the hand and lead you to the gates of Gnosis.
Where clear Light shines , clean of every darkness; where not a single soul is drunk, but all sober, they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who wills to be seen. No ear can hear Him, nor can you see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but only mind and heart. ....(more)
God alone is Good
Good, Oh Asclepius, is only found in God alone. Indeed, rather, Good is God Himself eternally.
If it be so, Good must be the essence - from every kind of motion, and becoming free, though nothing is free from It - possessed of stable energy around Itself, never too little, nor too much, an ever-full supply. Although It is one, It is the source of all. Good supplies all, and it is all Good forever.
This belongs to no one else save God alone. For He needs nothing - the desire of which would be bad - nor can a single thing, of the things that are, be lost to him - the loss of which should pain Him - for pain is part of bad.
Nor is there anything superior to Him, so that He should be subdued by it; nor any peer to Him to do Him wrong, or so that He should fall in love on its account; nor anything that gives no ear to Him, at which He should grow angry; nor anything wiser, for Him to envy. ....(more)
If it be so, Good must be the essence - from every kind of motion, and becoming free, though nothing is free from It - possessed of stable energy around Itself, never too little, nor too much, an ever-full supply. Although It is one, It is the source of all. Good supplies all, and it is all Good forever.
This belongs to no one else save God alone. For He needs nothing - the desire of which would be bad - nor can a single thing, of the things that are, be lost to him - the loss of which should pain Him - for pain is part of bad.
Nor is there anything superior to Him, so that He should be subdued by it; nor any peer to Him to do Him wrong, or so that He should fall in love on its account; nor anything that gives no ear to Him, at which He should grow angry; nor anything wiser, for Him to envy. ....(more)
Though invisible, God is very visible
I will recount to you this sermon (logos) too, Oh Tat, that you may cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark you well how that which seems invisible to the many, will grow most visible for you.
Now, were it visible, it would not be. For all that is visible is subject to becoming, for it has been made visible. But the invisible is eternal, for it does not desire to be made visible. It ever is, and it makes all other things visible.
Being Himself invisible, always existing, and always making-visible, God is not Himself made visible. God does not make Himself visible. He makes all other things visible through thought.
Now, manifestation by thought deals only with things that are made, because manifestation by thought is nothing else than making. ....(more)
Now, were it visible, it would not be. For all that is visible is subject to becoming, for it has been made visible. But the invisible is eternal, for it does not desire to be made visible. It ever is, and it makes all other things visible.
Being Himself invisible, always existing, and always making-visible, God is not Himself made visible. God does not make Himself visible. He makes all other things visible through thought.
Now, manifestation by thought deals only with things that are made, because manifestation by thought is nothing else than making. ....(more)
The Cup or Monad
(spoken by Hermes to Tat. Tat's responses are in italics)
The World-maker made the universal World with Reason (Logos) , not with hands, so you should think of him as everywhere and ever-being, the Author of all things, the One and Only, who by His Will has created all beings.
His Body is a thing no man can touch, or see, or measure: a body inextensible, like to no other frame. It is neither Fire nor Water, Air nor Breath (Spirit) , yet all of them come from it. Now, being Good, he willed the consecration of this Body to Himself alone, and set its Earth in order and adorn it.
So down to Earth He sent the Cosmos of this Divine Frame: man, a life that cannot die, and yet a life that dies. And man excelled over all other lives, and over Cosmos too, through his Reason (Logos) and the Mind. For man became the contemplator of God's works: he marvelled, and strived to know their Author. ....(more)
The World-maker made the universal World with Reason (Logos) , not with hands, so you should think of him as everywhere and ever-being, the Author of all things, the One and Only, who by His Will has created all beings.
His Body is a thing no man can touch, or see, or measure: a body inextensible, like to no other frame. It is neither Fire nor Water, Air nor Breath (Spirit) , yet all of them come from it. Now, being Good, he willed the consecration of this Body to Himself alone, and set its Earth in order and adorn it.
So down to Earth He sent the Cosmos of this Divine Frame: man, a life that cannot die, and yet a life that dies. And man excelled over all other lives, and over Cosmos too, through his Reason (Logos) and the Mind. For man became the contemplator of God's works: he marvelled, and strived to know their Author. ....(more)
The Sacred Sermon
The Glory of all things is God, Godhead, and Godly Nature. God is the Source of the things that are. God is both Mind and Nature - yes Matter, and the Wisdom that reveals all things. The Source too is Godhead, as is Nature, Energy, Necessity, and End, and Making-new-again.
In the Abyss was boundless Darkness, and Water too, and the subtle Breath of intelligence (Air): these were in Chaos, by Power of God.
Then Holy Light arose, and beneath it Dry Space was brought together, from out of the Moist Essence elements; and all the deities separated things out from fecund Nature.
All things being undefined and yet unwrought, the light things were assigned to the heights, and the heavy ones had their foundations laid down underneath the moist part of Dry Space. The universal things were bounded off by Fire, and hanged in Breath to keep them up. ....(more)
In the Abyss was boundless Darkness, and Water too, and the subtle Breath of intelligence (Air): these were in Chaos, by Power of God.
Then Holy Light arose, and beneath it Dry Space was brought together, from out of the Moist Essence elements; and all the deities separated things out from fecund Nature.
All things being undefined and yet unwrought, the light things were assigned to the heights, and the heavy ones had their foundations laid down underneath the moist part of Dry Space. The universal things were bounded off by Fire, and hanged in Breath to keep them up. ....(more)
God is Good
(Hermes talking to Asclepius. The replies of Asclepius are in italics)
All that is moved (changed) , Asclepius, is it not moved in something and by something?
Assuredly.
And must not that in which it is moved be greater than that which is moved? ....(more)
All that is moved (changed) , Asclepius, is it not moved in something and by something?
Assuredly.
And must not that in which it is moved be greater than that which is moved? ....(more)
Primer
(a.k.a. "the first book", spoken by Hermes, to his son, whose reply is in italics)
Oh my son, write this primer, both for the sake of humanity, and for piety towards God.
For there can be no religion more true or just, than to know the things that are, and to acknowledge thanks for all things, to him that made them. And I shall never cease from acknowledging this.
What should a man do, then, oh father, to lead his life well, seeing there is nothing true here? ....(more)
Oh my son, write this primer, both for the sake of humanity, and for piety towards God.
For there can be no religion more true or just, than to know the things that are, and to acknowledge thanks for all things, to him that made them. And I shall never cease from acknowledging this.
What should a man do, then, oh father, to lead his life well, seeing there is nothing true here? ....(more)
Intuition 2
(spoken by Intuition - the "Man Shepherd" - to Hermes. Hermes' responses are in italics)
Master this sermon (logos) , then, Thrice-greatest Hermes, and bear in mind the spoken words; and as it has come unto Me to speak, I will no more delay.
As many men say many things, and these diverse, about the All and Good, I have not learned the truth. Make it, then, clear to me, Oh my Master! For I can trust only Your explanation of these things alone.
Hear then, My son, how stands God and All. ....(more)
Master this sermon (logos) , then, Thrice-greatest Hermes, and bear in mind the spoken words; and as it has come unto Me to speak, I will no more delay.
As many men say many things, and these diverse, about the All and Good, I have not learned the truth. Make it, then, clear to me, Oh my Master! For I can trust only Your explanation of these things alone.
Hear then, My son, how stands God and All. ....(more)
Intuition
(Intuition, -a.k.a. Poemandres, or "Man Shepherd" - speaks to Hermes.)
It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back - just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from bodily fatigue.
I thought a being more than vast - beyond all bounds in size - called out my name, and said: "What do you wish to hear and see? And what have you in mind to learn and know?"
And I said: "Who are you?" ....(more)
It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back - just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from bodily fatigue.
I thought a being more than vast - beyond all bounds in size - called out my name, and said: "What do you wish to hear and see? And what have you in mind to learn and know?"
And I said: "Who are you?" ....(more)