<This longer
tractate presents itself explicitly as a summary or abridgement of the
General Sermons (CH II-IX), and discusses the Hermetic view of knowledge and
its role in the lives and afterlives of human beings. The attentive reader
will notice certain contradictions between the afterlife-teachings of this
and previous tractates.
<One of the
central concepts of The Key, and of Hermetic thought
generally, is the distinction between ordinary discursive knowledge which
can be expressed in words (in Greek, episteme, which Mead translates
somewhat clumsily as "science") and transcendent, unitive knowledge which
cannot be communicated (in Greek, gnosis, which Mead simply and
sensibly leaves untranslated). The same distinction can be found in many
systems of mystical thought. Unlike most of these, though, the Hermetic
teachings place value on both.
<Readers without
much experience in the jargon of Classical philosophy will want to remember
that "hylic" means "material", "passible" means "subject to outside forces
or to suffering", and "intelligible" means "belonging to the realm of the
Mind", and "motion" includes all kinds of change. The special implications
of "good" in Greek thought - of self-sufficiency and desirability - should
also be kept in mind.
<The delightful
irony of the Zen moment early in section 9, when Hermes - in the middle of
this very substantial lecture - defines the good and pious man as "he who
doth not say much or lend his ear to much" and thus rules out both himself
and his audience, seems to have been lost on subsequent commentators. - JMG>
1. Hermes: My
yesterday's discourse (logos) I did devote to thee, Asclepius, and so 'tis
[only] right I should devote toafy's to Tat; and this the more because 'tis
the abridgement of the General Sermons (Logoi) which he has had addressed to
him.
"God, Father and
the Good", then, Tat, hath the same nature, or more exactly, energy.
For nature is a
predicate of growth, and used of things that change, both mobile and
immobile, that is to say, both human and divine, each one of which He
willeth into being.
But energy
consists in something else, as we have shown in treating of the rest, both
things divine and human things; which thing we ought to have in mind when
treating of the Good.
2. God's energy
is then His Will; further His essence is to will the being of all things.
For what is "God and Father and the Good" but the "to be" of all that are
not yet? Nay, subsistence self of everything that is; this, then, is God,
this Father, this the Good; to Him is added naught of all the rest.
And though the
Cosmos, that is to say the Sun, is also sire himself to them that share in
him; yet so far is he not the cause of good unto the lives, he is not even
of their living.
So that e'en if
he be a sire, he is entirely so by compulsion of the Good's Good-will, apart
from which nor being nor becoming could e'er be.
3. Again, the
parent is the children's cause, both on the father's and the mother's side,
only by sharing in the Good's desire [that doth pour] through the Sun. It is
the Good which doeth the creating.
And such a power
can be possessed by no one else than Him alone who taketh naught, but wills
all things to be; I will not, Tat, say "makes".
For that the
maker is defective for long periods (in which he sometimes makes, and
sometimes doth not make) both in the quality and in the quantity [of what he
makes]; in that he sometimes maketh them so many and such like, and
sometimes the reverse.
But "God and
Father and the Good" is [cause] for all to be. So are at least these things
for those who can see.
4. For It doth
will to be, and It is both Itself and most of all by reason of Itself.
Indeed, all other things beside are just bacause of It; for the distinctive
feature of the Good is "that it should be known". Such is the Good, O Tat.
Tat: Thou hast,
O father, filled us so full of this so good and fairest sight, that thereby
my mind's eye hath now become for me almost a thing to worship.
For that the
vision of the Good doth not, like the sun's beam, firelike blaze on the eyes
and make them close; nay, on the contrary, it shineth forth and maketh to
increase the seeing of the eye, as far as e'er a man hath the capacity to
hold the inflow of the radiance that the mind alone can see.
Not only does it
come more swiftly down to us, but it does us no harm, and is instinct with
all immortal life.
5. They who are
able to drink in a somewhat more than others of this Sight, ofttimes from
out the body fall asleep in this fairest Spectacle, as was the case with
Uranus and Cronus, our forebears. may this be out lot too, O father mine!
Hermes: Yea, may
it be, my son! But as it is, we are not yet strung to the Vision, and not as
yet have we the power our mind's eye to unfold and gaze upon the Beauty of
the Good - Beauty that naught can e'er corrupt or any comprehend.
For only then
wilt thou upon It gaze when thou canst say no word concerning It. For Gnosis
of the Good is holy silence and a giving holiday to every sense.
6. For neither
can he who perceiveth It, perceive aught else; nor he who gazeth on It, gaze
on aught else; nor hear aught else, nor stir his body any way. Staying his
body's every sense and every motion he stayeth still.
And shining then
all round his mond, It shines through his whole soul, and draws it out of
body, transforming all of him to essence.
For it is
possible, my son, that a man's soul should be made like to God, e'en while
it still is in a body, if it doth contemplate the Beauty of the Good.
7. Tat: Made
like to God? What dost thou, father, mean?
Hermes: Of every
soul apart are transformations, son.
Tat: What
meanest thou? Apart?
Hermes: Didst
thou not, in the General Sermons, hear that from one Soul - the All-soul -
come all these souls which are made to revovlve in all the cosmos, as though
divided off?
Of these souls,
then, it is that there are many changes, some to a happier lot and some to
[just] the contrary of this.
Thus some that
were creeping things change into things that in the water dwell, the souls
of water things change to earth-dwellers, those that live on earth change to
things with wings, and souls that live in air change to men, while human
souls reach the first step of deathlessness changed into daimones.
And so they
circle to the choir of the Inerrant Gods; for of the Gods there are two
choirs, the one Inerrant, and the other Errant. And this is the most perfect
glory of the soul.
8. But if a soul
on entering the body of a man persisteth in its vice, it neither tasteth
deathlessness nor shareth in the Good; but speeding back again it turns into
the path that leads to creeping things. This is the sentence of the vicious
soul.
And the soul's
vice is ignorance. For that the soul who hath no knowledge of the things
that are, or knowledge of their nature, or of Good, is blinded by the body's
passions and tossed about.
This wretched
soul, not knowing what she is, becomes the slave of bodies of strange form
in sorry plight, bearing the body as a load; not as the ruler, but the
ruled. This [ignorance] is the soul's vice.
9. But on the
other hand the virtue of the soul is Gnosis. For he who knows, he good and
pious is, and still while on the earth divine.
Tat: But who is
such an one, O father mine?
Hermes: He who
doth not say much or lend his ear to much. For he who spendeth time in
arguing and hearing arguments, doth shadow-fight. For "God, the Father and
the Good", is not to be obtained by speech or hearing.
And yet though
this is so, there are in all the beings senses, in that they cannot without
senses be.
But Gnosis is
far different from sense. For sense is brought about by that which hath the
mastery o'er us, while Gnosis is the end <i.e., goal> of science, and
science is God's gift.
10. All science
is incorporeal, the instrument it uses being the mind, just as the mind
employs the body.
Both then come
into bodies, [I mean] both things that are cognizable by mond alone and
things material. For all things must consist out of antithesis and
contrariety; and this can otherwise not be.
Tat: Who then is
this material God of whom thou speakest?
Hermes: Cosmos
is beautiful, but is not good - for that it is material and freely passible;
and though it is the first of all things passible, yet is it in the second
rank of being and wanting in itself.
And though it
never hath itself its birth in time, but ever is, yet is its being in
becoming, becoming for all time the genesis of qualities and quantities; for
it is mobile and all material motion's genesis.
11. It is
intelligible rest that moves material motion in this way, since Cosmos is a
sphere - that is to say, a head. And naught of head above's material, as
naught of feet below's intelligible, but all material.
And head itself
is moved in a sphere-like way - that is to say, as head should move, is
mind.
All then that
are united to the "tissue" of this "head" (in which is soul) are in their
nature free from death - just as when body hath been made in soul, are
things that hath more soul than body.
Whereas those
things which are at greater distance from this "tissue" - there, where are
things which have a greater share of body than of soul - are by their nature
subject unto death.
The whole,
however, is a life; so that the universe consists of both the hylic and of
the intelligible.
12. Again, the
Cosmos is the first of living things, while man is second after it, though
first of things subject to death.
Man hath the
same ensouling power in him as all the rest of living things; yet is he not
only not good, but even evil, for that he's subject unto death.
For though the
Cosmos also is not good in that it suffers motion, it is not evil, in that
it is not subject to death. But man, in that he's subject both to motion and
to death, is evil.
13. Now then the
principles of man are this-wise vehicled: mind in the reason (logos), the
reason in the soul, soul in the spirit <or, rather, vital spirits>, and
spirit in the body.
Spirit pervading
[body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living
creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way.
For this cause
some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not
knowing that [at death] it is iteh spirit that must first withdraw into the
soul, whereon the blood congeals and veins and arteries are emptied, and
then the living creature <or life> is withdrawn; and this is body's death.
14. Now from one
Source all things depend; while Source [dependeth] from the One and Only
[One]. Source is, moreover, moved to become Source again; whereas the One
standeth perpetually and is not moved.
Three then are
they: "God, the Father and the Good", Cosmos and man.
God doth contain
Cosmos; Cosmos [containeth] man. Cosmos is e'er God's Son, man as it were
Cosmos' child.
15. Not that,
however, God ignoreth man; nay, right well doth He know him, and willeth to
be known.
This is the sole
salvation for a man - God's Gnosis. This is the Way Up to the Mount.
By Him alone the
soul becometh good, not whiles is good, whiles evil, but [good] out of
necessity.
Tat: What dost
thou mean, Thrice-greatest one?
Hermes: Behold
an infant's soul, my son, that is not yet cut off, because its body is still
small and not as yet come unto its full bulk.
Tat: How?
Hermes: A thing
of beauty altogether is [such a soul] to see, not yet befouled by body's
passions, still all but hanging from the Cosmic Soul!
But when the
body grows in bulk and draweth down the soul into its mass, then doth the
soul cut off itself and bring upon itself forgetfulness, and no more shareth
in the Beautiful and the Good. And this forgetfulness becometh vice.
16. It is the
same for them who go out from the body.
For when the
soul withdraws into itself, the spirit doth contract itself within the
blood, and the soul within the spirit. And then the mind, stripped of its
wrappings, and naturally divine, taking unto itself a fiery body, doth
traverse every space, after abandoning the soul unto its judgement and
whatever chastisement it hath deserved.
Tat: What dost
thou, father, mean by this? The mind is parted from soul and soul from
spirit? Whereas thou said'st the soul was the mind's vesture, and the soul's
the spirit.
17. Hermes: The
hearer, son, should think with him who speaks and breathe with him; nay, he
should have a hearing subtler than the voice of him who speaks.
It is, son, in a
body made of earth that this arrangement of the vestures comes to pass. For
in a body made of earth it is impossible the mind should take its seat
itself by its own self in nakedness.
For neither is
it possible on the one hand the earthly body should contain so much
immortality, nor on the other that so great a virtue should endure a body
passible in such close contact with it. It taketh, then, the soul for as it
were an envelope.
And soul itself,
being too and thing divine, doth use the spirit as its envelope, while
spirit doth pervade the living creature.
18. When then
the mind doth free itself from the earth-body, it straightway putteth on its
proper robe of fire, with which it could not dwell in an earth-body.
For earth doth
not bear fire; for it is all set in a blaze even by a small spark. And for
this cause is water poured around earth, to be a guard and wall, to keep the
blazing of the fire away.
But mind, the
swiftest thing of all divine outthinkings, and swifter than all elements,
hath for its body fire.
For mind being
builder doth use the fire as tool for the construction of all things - the
Mind of all [for the construction] of all things, but that of man only for
things on earth.
Stript of its
fire the mind on earth cannot make things divine, for it is human in its
dispensation.
19. The soul in
man, however - not every soul, but one that pious is - is a daimonic
something and divine.
And such a soul
when from the body freed, if it have fought the fight of piety - the fight
of piety is to know God and to do wrong to no man - such a soul becomes
entirely mind.
Whereas the
impious soul remains in its own essence, chastised by its own self, and
seeking for an earthly body where to enter, if only it be human.
For that no
other body can contain a human soul; nor is it right that any human soul
should fall into the body of a thing that doth possess no reason. For that
the law of God is this: to guard the human soul from such tremendous
outrage.
20. Tat: How
father, then, is a man's soul chastised?
Hermes: What
greater chastisement of any human soul can there be, son, than lack of
piety? What fire has so fierce a flame as lack of piety? What ravenous beast
so mauls the body as lack of piety the very soul?
Dost thou not
see what hosts of ills the impious soul doth bear?
It shrieks and
screams: I burn; I am ablaze; I know not what to cry or do; ah, wretched me,
I am devoured by all the ills that compass me about; alack, poor me, I
neither see nor hear!
Such are the
cries wrung from a soul chastised; not, as the many think, and thou, son,
dost suppose, that a [man's] soul, passing from body, is changed into a
beast.
Such is a very
grave mistake, for that the way a soul doth suffer chastisement is this:
21. When mind
becomes a daimon, the law requires that it should take a fiery body to
execute the services of God; and entering in the soul most impious it
scourgeth it with whips made of its sins.
And then the
impious soul, scourged with its sins, is plunged in murders, outrage,
blasphemy, in violence of all kinds, and all the other things whereby
mankind is wronged.
But on the pious
soul the mind doth mount and guide it to the Gnosis' Light. And such a soul
doth never tire in songs of praise [to God] and pouring blessing on all men,
and doing good in word and deed to all, in imitation of its Sire.
22. Wherefore,
my son, thou shouldst give praise to God and pray that thou mayst have thy
mind Good Mind. It is, then, to a better state the soul doth pass; it cannot
to a worse.
Further there is
an intercourse of souls; those of the gods have intercourse with those of
men, and those of men with souls of creatures which possess no reason.
The higher,
further, have in charge the lower; the gods look after men, men after
animals irrational, while God hath charge of all; for He is higher than them
all and all are less than He.
Cosmos is
subject, then, to God, man to the Cosmos, and irrationals to man. But God is
o'er them all, and God contains them all.
God's rays, to
use a figure, are His energies; the Cosmos's are natures, the arts and
sciences are man's.
The energies act
through the Cosmos, thence through the nature-rays of Cosmos upon man; the
nature-rays [act] through the elements, man [acteth] through the sciences
and arts.
23. This is the
dispensation of the universe, depending from the nature of the One,
pervading [all things] through the Mind, than which is naught diviner nor of
greater energy; and naught a greater means for the at-oning men to gods and
gods to men.
He, [Mind,] is
the Good Daimon. Blessed the soul that is most filled with Him, and wretched
is the soul that's empty of the Mind.
Tat: Father,
what dost thou mean, again?
Hermes: Dost
think then, son, that every soul hath the Good [Mind]? For 'tis of Him we
speak, not of the mind in service of which we were just speaking, the mind
sent down for [the soul's] chastisement.
24. For soul
without the mind "can neither speak nor act". For oftentimes the mind doth
leave the soul, and at that time the soul neither sees nor understands, but
is just like a thing that hath no reason. Such is the power of mind.
Yet doth it not
endure a sluggish soul, but leaveth such a soul tied to the body and bound
tight down by it. Such soul, my son, doth not have Mind; and therefore such
an one should not be called a man. For that man is a thing-of-life <or
animal> divine; man is not measured with the rest of lives of things upon
the earth, but with the lives above in heaven, who are called gods.
Nay more, if we
must boldly speak the truth, the true "man" is e'en higher than the gods, or
at the [very] least the gods and men are very whit in power each with the
other equal.
25. For no one
of the gods in heaven shall come down to the earth, o'er-stepping heaven's
limit; whereas man doth mount up to heaven and measure it; he knows what
things of it are high, what things are low, and learns precisely all things
else besides. And greater thing than all; without e'en quitting earth, he
doth ascend above. So vast a sweep doth he possess of ecstasy.
For this cause
can a man dare say that man on earth is god subject to death, while god in
heaven is man from death immune.
Wherefore the
dispensation of all things is brought about by means of there, the twain -
Cosmos and Man - but by the One.
