<This dialogue
is in many ways the culmination of the whole Corpus, summing up the theory
of the Hermetic system at the same time as it provides an intriguing glimpse
at the practice. The focus of the dialogue is the experience of Rebirth,
which involves the replacement of twelve Tormentors within the self by ten
divine Powers, leading to the awakening of knowledge of the self and God.
<The "Secret
Hymnody" (sections 17-20) is presented as a litany for worship, to be
performed twice each day, at sunrise and sunset. It's interesting to note
that while the sunrise worship is performed facing east, the sunset worship
is done to the south; Egyptian tradition from Pharaonic times onward saw the
west as the direction of death.
<The usual
difficulties with the multiple meanings of the Greek word logos
appear in the translation, compounded by Mead's awkward style. Additionally,
one of Mead's few evasions can be found in section 12, where he relates the
twelve Tormentors to the "twelve types-of-life". This should more simply,
and more accurately, have been translated as "the twelve signs of the
Zodiac". The Theosophical distaste for astrology may well have been involved
here. - JMG>
1. Tat: [Now] in
the General Sermons, father, thou didst speak in riddles most unclear,
conversing on Divinity; and when thou saidst no man could e'er be saved
before Rebirth, thy meaning thou didst hide.
Further, when I
became thy Suppliant, in Wending up the Mount, after thou hadst conversed
with me, and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth (for this
beyond all other things is just the thing I know not), thou saidst, that
thou wouldst give it me - "when thou shalt have become a stranger to the
world".
Wherefore I got
me ready and made the thought in me a stranger to the world-illusion.
And now do thou
fill up the things that fall short in me with what thou saidst would give me
the tradition of Rebirth, setting it forth in speech or in the secret way.
I know not, O
Thrice-greatest one, from out what matter and what womb Man comes to birth,
or of what seed.
2. Hermes:
Wisdom that understands in silence [such is the matter and the womb from out
which Man is born], and the True Good the seed.
Tat: Who is the
sower, father? For I am altogether at a loss.
Hermes: It is
the Will of God, my son.
Tat: And of what
kind is he that is begotten, father? For I have no share of that essence in
me, which doth transcend the senses. The one that is begot will be another
one from God, God's Son?
Hermes: All in
all, out of all powers composed.
Tat: Thou
tellest me a riddle, father, and dost not speak as father unto son.
Hermes: This
Race, my son, is never taught; but when He willeth it, its memory is
restored by God.
3. Tat: Thou
sayest things impossible, O father, things that are forced. Hence answers
would I have direct unto these things. Am I a son strange to my father's
race?
Keep it not,
father, back from me. I am a true-born son; explain to me the manner of
Rebirth.
Hermes: What may
I say, my son? I can but tell thee this. Whene'er I see within myself the
Simple Vision brought to birth out of God's mercy, I have passed through
myself into a Body that can never die. And now i am not as I was before; but
I am born in Mind.
The way to do
this is not taught, and it cannot be seen by the compounded element by means
of which thou seest.
Yea, I have had
my former composed form dismembered for me. I am no longer touched, but I
have touch; I have dimension too; and [yet] am I a stranger to them now.
Thou seest me
with eyes, my son; but what I am thou dost not understand [even] with
fullest strain of body and of sight.
4. Tat: Into
fierce frenzy and mind-fury hast thou plunged me, father, for now no longer
do I see myself.
Hermes: I would,
my son, that thou hadst e'en passed right through thyself, as they who dream
in sleep yet sleepless.
Tat: Tell me
this too! Who is the author of Rebirth?
Hermes: The Son
of God, the One Man, by God's Will.
5. Tat: Now hast
thou brought me, father, unto pure stupefaction. Arrested from the senses
which I had before,...<lacuna in original text>; for [now] I see thy
Greatness identical with thy distinctive form.
Hermes: Even in
this thou art untrue; the mortal form doth change with every day. 'Tis
turned by time to growth and waning, as being an untrue thing.
6. Tat: What
then is true, Thrice-greatest One?
Hermes: That
which is never troubled, son, which cannot be defined; that which no color
hath, nor any figure, which is not turned, which hath no garment, which
giveth light; that which is comprehensible unto itself [alone], which doth
not suffer change; that which no body can contain.
Tat: In very
truth I lose my reason, father. Just when I thought to be made wise by thee,
I find the senses of this mind of mine blocked up.
Hermes: Thus is
it, son: That which is upward borne like fire, yet is borne down like earth,
that which is moist like water, yet blows like air, how shalt thou this
perceive with sense - the that which is not solid nor yet moist, which
naught can bind or loose, of which in power and energy alone can man have
any notion - and even then it wants a man who can perceive the Way of Birth
in God?
7. Tat: I am
incapable of this, O father, then?
Hermes: Nay, God
forbid, my son! Withdraw into thyself, and it will come; will, and it comes
to pass; throw out of work the body's senses, and thy Divinity shall come to
birth; purge from thyself the brutish torments - things of matter.
Tat: I have
tormentors then in me, O father?
Hermes: Ay, no
few, my son; nay, fearful ones and manifold.
Tat: I do not
know them, father.
Hermes: Torment
the first is this Not-knowing, son; the second one is Grief; the third,
Intemperance; the fourth, Concupiscence; the fifth, Unrighteousness; the
sixth is Avarice; the seventh, Error; the eighth is Envy; the ninth, Guile;
the tenth is Anger; eleventh, Rashness; the twelfth is Malice.
These are in
number twelve; but under them are many more, my son; and creeping through
the prison of the body they force the man that's placed therein to suffer in
his senses. But they depart (though not all at once) from him who hath been
taken pity on by God; and this it is which constitutes the manner of
Rebirth. And... <lacuna in the original text> the Reason (Logos).
8. And now, my
son, be still and solemn silence keep! Thus shall the mercy that flows on us
from God not cease.
Henceforth
rejoice, O son, for by the Powers of God thou art being purified for the
articulation of the Reason (Logos).
Gnosis of God
hath come to us, and when this comes, my son, Not-knowing is cast out.
Gnosis of Joy
hath come to us, and on its coming, son, Sorrow will flee away to them who
give it room. The Power that follows Joy do I invoke, thy Self-control. O
Power most sweet! Let us most gladly bid it welcome, son! How with its
coming doth it chase Intemperance away!
9. Now fourth,
on Continence I call, the Power against Desire. <lacuna in the original
text> This step, my son, is Righteousness' firm seat. For without judgement
<other translators read this "without effort"> see how she hath chased
Unrighteousness away. We are made righteous, son, by the departure of
Unrighteousness.
Power sixth I
call to us - that against Avarice, Sharing-with-all.
And now that
Avarice is gone, I call on Truth. And Error flees, and Truth is with us.
See how [the
measure of] the Good is full, my son, upon Truth's coming. For Envy is gone
from us; and unto Truth is joined the Good as well, with Life and Light.
And now no more
doth any torment of the Darkness venture nigh, but vanquished [all] have
fled with whirring wings.
10. Thou knowest
[now], my son, the manner of Rebirth. And when the Ten is come, my son, that
driveth out the Twelve, the Birth in understanding <literally "intellectual
birth", noera genesis> is complete, and by this birth we are made
into Gods.
Who then doth by
His mercy gain this Birth in God, abandoning the body's senses, knows
himself [to be of Light and Life] and that he doth consist of these, and
[thus] is filled with bliss.
11. Tat: By God
made steadfast, father, no longer with the sight my eyes afford I look on
things, but with the energy the Mind doth give me through the Powers.
In Heaven am I,
in earth, in water, air; I am in animals, in plants; I'm in the womb, before
the womb, after the womb; I'm everywhere!
But further tell
me this: How are the torments of the Darkness, when they are twelve in
number, driven out by the ten Powers? What is the way of it, Thrice-greatest
one?
12. Hermes: This
dwelling-place through which we have just passed <i.e., the human body>, my
son, is constituted from the circle of the twelve types-of-life, this being
composed of elements, twelve in number, but of one nature, an omniform idea.
For man's delusion there are disunions in them, son, while in their action
they are one. Not only can we never part Rashness from Wrath; they cannot
even be distinguished.
According to
right reason (logos), then, they <the Twelve> naturally withdraw once and
for all, in as much as they are chased out by no less than ten powers, that
is, the Ten.
For, son, the
Ten is that which giveth birth to souls. And Life and Light are unified
there, where the One hath being from the Spirit. According then to reason
(logos) the One contains the Ten, the Ten the One.
13. Tat: Father,
I see the All, I see myself in Mind.
Hermes: This is,
my son, Rebirth - no more to look on things from body's view-point (a thing
three ways in space extended)... <lacuna in text>, though this Sermon
(Logos) on Rebirth, on which I did not comment - in order that we may not be
calumniators of the All unto the multitude, to whom indeed God Himself doth
will we should not.
14. Tat: Tell
me, O father: This Body which is made up of the Powers, is it at any time
dissolved?
Hermes: Hush,
[son]! Speak not of things impossible, else wilt thou sin and thy Mind's eye
be quenched.
The natural body
which our sense perceives is far removed from this essential birth.
The first must
be dissolved, the last can never be; the first must die, the last death
cannot touch.
Dost thou not
know thou hast been born a God, Son of the One, even as I myself?
15. Tat: I
would, O father, hear the Praise-giving with hymn which thou didst say thou
heardest then when thou wert at the Eight [the Ogdoad] of Powers
Hermes: Just as
the Shepherd did foretell [I should], my son, [when I came to] the Eight.
Well dost thou
haste to "strike thy tent" <i.e., be free from the physical body>, for thou
hast been made pure.
The Shepherd,
Mind of all masterhood, hath not passed on to me more than hath been written
down, for full well did he know that I should of myself be able to learn
all, and hear what I should wish, and see all things.
He left to me
the making of fair things; wherefore the Powers within me. e'en as they are
in all, break into song.
16. Tat: Father,
I wish to hear; I long to know these things.
Hermes: Be
still, my son; hear the Praise-giving now that keeps [the soul] in tune,
Hymn of Re-birth - a hymn I would not have thought fit so readily to tell,
had'st thou not reached the end of all.
Wherefore this
is not taught, but is kept hid in silence.
Thus then, my
son, stand in a place uncovered to the sky, facing the southern wind, about
the sinking of the setting sun, and make thy worship; so in like manner too
when he doth rise, with face to the east wind.
Now, son, be
still!
The Secret
Hymnody
17. Let every
nature of the World receive the utterance of my hymn!
Open thou Earth!
Let every bolt of the Abyss be drawn for me. Stir not, ye Trees!
I am about to
hymn creation's Lord, both All and One.
Ye Heavens open
and ye Winds stay still; [and] let God's deathless Sphere receive my word
(logos)!
For I will sing
the praise of Him who founded all; who fixed the Earth, and hung up Heaven,
and gave command that Ocean should afford sweet water [to the Earth], to
both those parts that are inhabited and those that are not, for the support
and use of every man; who made the Fire to shine for gods and men for every
act.
Let us together
all give praise to Him, sublime above the Heavens, of every nature Lord!
'Tis He who is
the Eye of Mind; may He accept the praise of these my Powers!
18. Ye powers
that are within me, hymn the One and All; sing with my Will, Powers all that
are within me!
O blessed
Gnosis, by thee illumined, hymning through thee the Light that mond alone
can see, I joy in Joy of Mind.
Sing with me
praises all ye Powers!
Sing praise, my
Self-control; sing thou through me, my Righteousness, the praises of the
Righteous; sing thou, my Sharing-all, the praises of the All; through me
sing, Truth, Truth's praises!
Sing thou, O
Good, the Good! O Life and Light, from us to you our praises flow!
Father, I give
Thee thanks, to Thee Thou Energy of all my Powers; I give Thee thanks, O
God, Thou Power of all my Energies!
19. Thy Reason
(Logos) sings through me Thy praises. Take back through me the All into
[Thy] Reason - [my] reasonable oblation!
Thus cry the
Powers in me. They sing Thy praise, Thou All; they do Thy Will.
From Thee Thy
Will; to Thee the All. Receive from all their reasonable oblation. The All
that is in us, O Life, preserve; O Light<,> illumine it; O God<,> in-spirit
it.
It it Thy Mind
that plays the shepherd to Thy Word, O Thou Creator, Bestower of the Spirit
[upon all].
20. [For] Thou
art God, Thy Man thus cries to Thee through Fire, through Air, through
Earth, through Water, [and] through Spirit, through Thy creatures.
'Tis from Thy
Aeon I have found praise-giving; and in thy Will, the object of my search,
have I found rest.
Tat: By thy good
pleasure have I seen this praise-giving being sung, O father; I have set it
in my Cosmos too.
Hermes: Say in
the Cosmos that thy mind alone can see, my son.
Tat: Yea,
father, in the Cosmos that the mind alone can see; for I have been made able
by thy Hymn, and by thy Praise-giving my mind hath been illumined. But
further I myself as well would from my natural mind send praise-giving to
God.
21. Hermes: But
not unheedfully, my son.
Tat: Aye. What I
behold in mind, that do I say.
To thee, thou
Parent of my Bringing into Birth, as unto God I, Tat, send reasonable
offerings. o God and Father, thou art the Lord, thou art the Mind. Receive
from me oblations reasonable as thou would'st wish; for by thy Will all
things have been perfected.
Hermes: Send
thou oblation, son, acceptable to God, the Sire of all; but add, my son,
too, "through the Word" (Logos).
Tat: I give
thee, father, thanks for showing me to sing such hymns.
22. Hermes:
Happy am I, my son, that though hast brought the good fruits forth of Truth,
products that cannot die.
And now that
thou hast learnt this lesson from me, make promise to keep silence on thy
virtue, and to no soul, my son, make known the handing on to thee the manner
of Rebirth, that we may not be thought to be calumniators.
And now we both
of us have given heed sufficiently, both I the speaker and the hearer thou.
In Mind hast
thou become a Knower of thyself and our [common] Sire.
