The Odes of Solomon

Ode 1

1. The Lord is on my head like a crown, and I shall never be without Him.
2. Plaited for me is the crown of truth, and it caused Your branches to blossom in me.
3. For it is not like a parched crown that blossoms not;
4. For You live upon my head, and have blossomed upon me.
5. Your fruits are full and complete; they are full of Your salvation....

Ode 2

[There is no extant copy of Ode 2]

Ode 3

1. ... I am putting on the love of the Lord.
2. And His members are with Him, and I am dependent on them; and He loves me.
3. For I should not have known how to love the Lord, if He had not continuously loved me.
4. Who is able to distinguish love, except him who is loved?
5. I love the Beloved and I myself love Him, and where His rest is, there also am I.
6. And I shall be no stranger, because there is no jealousy with the Lord Most High and Merciful.
7. I have been united to Him, because the lover has found the Beloved, because I love Him that is the Son, I shall become a son.
8. Indeed he who is joined to Him who is immortal, truly shall be immortal.
9. And he who delights in the Life will become living.
10. This is the Spirit of the Lord, which is not false, which teaches the sons of men to know His ways.
11. Be wise and understanding and awakened.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 4

1. No man can pervert Your holy place, O my God; nor can he change it, and put it in another place.
2. Because he has no power over it; for Your sanctuary You designed before You made special places.
3. The ancient one shall not be perverted by those which are inferior to it. You have given Your heart, O Lord, to Your believers.
4. Never will You be idle, nor will You be without fruits;
5. For one hour of Your faith is more excellent than all days and years.
6. For who shall put on Your grace and be rejected?
7. Because Your seal is known; and Your creatures are known to it.
8. And Your hosts possess it, and the elect archangels are clothed with it.
9. You have given to us Your fellowship, not that You were in need of us, but that we are always in need of You.
10. Shower upon us Your gentle rain, and open Your bountiful springs which abundantly supply us with milk and honey.
11. For there is no regret with You; that You should regret anything which You have promised;
12. Since the result was manifest to You.
13. For that which You gave, You gave freely, so that no longer will You draw back and take them again.
14. For all was manifest to You as God, and was set in order from the beginning before You.
15. And You, O Lord, have made all.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 5

1. I praise You, O Lord, because I love You.
2. O Most High, forsake me not, for You are my hope.
3. Freely did I receive Your grace, may I live by it.
4. My persecutors will come but let them not see me.
5. Let a cloud of darkness fall upon their eyes; and let an air of thick darkness obscure them.
6. And let them have no light to see, so that they cannot seize me.
7. Let their designs become hardened, so that whatever they have conspired shall return upon their own heads.
8. For they have devised a plan, but it was not for them.
9. They prepared themselves maliciously, but they were found to be impotent.
10. Indeed my confidence is upon the Lord, and I will not fear.
11. And because the Lord is my salvation, I will not fear.
12. And He is as a woven crown upon my head, and I shall not be shaken.
13. Even if everything should be shaken, I shall stand firm.
14. And though all things visible should perish, I shall not die;
15. Because the Lord is with me, and I with Him.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 6

1. As the wind glides through the harp and the strings speak,
2. So the Spirit of the Lord speaks through my members, and I speak through His love.
3. For He destroys whatever is alien, and everything is of the Lord.
4. For thus it was from the beginning, and will be until the end.
5. So that nothing shall be contrary, and nothing shall rise up against Him.
6. The Lord has multiplied his knowledge, and He was zealous that those things should be known which through His grace have been given to us.
7. And His praise He gave us on account of His name, our spirits praise His Holy Spirit.
8. For there went forth a stream, and it became a river great and broad; indeed it carried away everything, and it shattered and brought it to the Temple.
9. And the barriers which were built by men were not able to restrain it, nor even the arts of them who habitually restrain water.
10. For it spread over the surface of all the earth, and it filled everything.
11. Then all the thirsty upon the earth drank, and thirst was relieved and quenched;
12. For from the Most High the drink was given.
13. Blessed, therefore, are the ministers of that drink, who have been entrusted with His water.
14. They have refreshed the parched lips, and have aroused the paralyzed will.
15. Even living persons who were about to expire, they have held back from death.
16. And limbs which have collapsed, they have restored and set up.
17. They gave strength for their coming, and light for their eyes.
18. Because everyone recognized them as the Lord's, and lived by the living water of eternity.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 7

1. As is the course of anger over wickedness, so is the course of joy over the Beloved; and brings in of its fruits unhindered.
2. My joy is the Lord and my course is towards Him, this path of mine is beautiful.
3. For there is a Helper for me, the Lord. He has generously shown Himself to me in His simplicity, because His kindness has diminished His dreadfulness.
4. He became like me, that I might receive Him. In form He was considered like me, that I might put Him on.
5. And I trembled not when I saw Him, because He was gracious to me.
6. Like my nature He became, that I might understand Him. And like my form, that I might not turn away from Him.
7. The Father of knowledge is the Word of knowledge.
8. He who created wisdom is wiser than His works.
9. And He who created me when yet I was not knew what I would do when I came into being.
10. On account of this He was gracious to me in His abundant grace, and allowed me to ask from Him and to benefit from His sacrifice.
11. For He it is who is incorrupt, the perfection of the worlds and their Father.
12. He has allowed Him to appear to them that are His own; in order that they may recognize Him that made them, and not suppose that they came of themselves.
13. For towards knowledge He has set His way, he has widened it and lengthened it and brought it to complete perfection.
14. And has set over it the traces of His light, and it proceeded from the beginning until the end.
15. For by Him He was served, and He was pleased by the Son.
16. And because of his salvation He will possess everything. And the Most High will be known by His holy ones:
17. To announce to those who have songs of the coming of the Lord, that they may go forth to meet Him and may sing to Him, with joy and with the harp of many tones.
18. The Seers shall go before Him, and they shall be seen before Him.
19. And they shall praise the Lord in His love, because He is near and does see.
20. And hatred shall be removed from the earth, and with jealousy it shall be drowned.
21. For ignorance was destroyed upon it, because the knowledge of the Lord arrived upon it.
22. Let the singers sing the grace of the Lord Most High, and let them bring their songs.
23. And let their heart be like the day, and their gentle voices like the majestic beauty of the Lord.
24. And let there not be anyone who breathes that is without knowledge or voice.
25. For He gave a mouth to His creation: to open the voice of the mouth towards Him, and to praise Him.
26. Confess His power and declare His grace.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 8

1. Open, open your hearts to the exultation of the Lord, and let your love abound from the heart to the lips.
2. In order to bring forth fruits to the Lord, a holy life; and to talk with watchfulness in His light.
3. Rise up and stand erect, you who sometimes were brought low.
4. You who were in silence, speak, for your mouth has been opened.
5. You who were despised, from henceforth be lifted up, for your Righteousness has been lifted up;
6. For the right hand of the Lord is with you, and He will be your Helper.
7. And peace was prepared for you, before what may be your war.
8. Hear the word of truth, and receive the knowledge of the Most High.
9. Your flesh may not understand that which I am about to say to you; nor your garment that which I am about to show you.
10. Keep my mystery, you who are kept by it; keep my faith, you who are kept by it.
11. And understand my knowledge, you who know me in truth; love me with affection, you who love;
12. For I turn not my face from my own, because I know them.
13. And before they had existed, I recognized them; and imprinted a seal on their faces.
14. I fashioned their members, and my own breasts I prepared for them, that they might drink my holy milk and live by it.
15. I am pleased by them, and am not ashamed by them.
16. For my workmanship are they, and the strength of my thoughts.
17. Therefore who can stand against my work? Or who is not subject to them?
18. I willed and fashioned mind and heart, and they are my own. And upon my right hand I have set my elect ones.
19. And my righteousness goes before them, and they shall not be deprived of my name; for it is with them.
20. Pray and increase, and abide in the love of the Lord;
21. And you who were loved in the Beloved, and you who are kept in Him who lives, and you who are saved in Him who was saved.
22. And you shall be found incorrupt in all ages, on account of the name of your Father.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 9

1. Open your ears, and I shall speak to you.
2. Give me yourself, so that I may also give you myself.
3. The word of the Lord and His desires, the holy thought which He has thought concerning His Messiah.
4. For in the will of the Lord is your life, and His purpose is eternal life, and your perfection is incorruptible.
5. Be enriched in God the Father; and receive the purpose of the Most High. Be strong and redeemed by His grace.
6. For I announce peace to you, His holy ones, so that none of those who hear shall fall in the war.
7. And also that those who have known Him may not perish, and so that those who received Him may not be ashamed.
8. An everlasting crown is Truth; blessed are they who set it on their head.
9. It is a precious stone, for the wars were on account of the crown.
10. But Righteousness has taken it, and has given it to you.
11. Put on the crown in the true covenant of the Lord, and all those who have conquered will be inscribed in His book.
12. For their book is the reward of victory which is for you, and she sees you before her and wills that you shall be saved.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 10

1. The Lord has directed my mouth by His Word, and has opened my heart by His Light.
2. And He has caused to dwell in me His immortal life, and permitted me to proclaim the fruit of His peace.
3. To convert the lives of those who desire to come to Him, and to lead those who are captive into freedom.
4. I took courage and became strong and captured the world, and the captivity became mine for the glory of the Most High, and of God my Father.
5. And the Gentiles who had been dispersed were gathered together, but I was not defiled by my love for them, because they had praised me in high places.
6. And the traces of light were set upon their heart, and they walked according to my life and were saved, and they became my people for ever and ever.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 11

1. My heart was pruned and its flower appeared, then grace sprang up in it, and my heart produced fruits for the Lord.
2. For the Most High circumcised me by His Holy Spirit, then He uncovered my inward being towards Him, and filled me with His love.
3. And His circumcising became my salvation, and I ran in the Way, in His peace, in the way of truth.
4. From the beginning until the end I received His knowledge.
5. And I was established upon the rock of truth, where He had set me.
6. And speaking waters touched my lips from the fountain of the Lord generously.
7. And so I drank and became intoxicated, from the living water that does not die.
8. And my intoxication did not cause ignorance, but I abandoned vanity,
9. And turned toward the Most High, my God, and was enriched by His favors.
10. And I rejected the folly cast upon the earth, and stripped it off and cast it from me.
11. And the Lord renewed me with His garment, and possessed me by His light.
12. And from above He gave me immortal rest, and I became like the land that blossoms and rejoices in its fruits.
13. And the Lord is like the sun upon the face of the land.
14. My eyes were enlightened, and my face received the dew;
15. And my breath was refreshed by the pleasant fragrance of the Lord.
16. And He took me to His Paradise, wherein is the wealth of the Lord's pleasure.
    I beheld blooming and fruit-bearing trees,
    And self-grown was their crown.
    Their branches were sprouting and their fruits were shining.
    From an immortal land were their roots.
    And a river of gladness was irrigating them,
    And round about them in the land of eternal life.
17. Then I worshipped the Lord because of His magnificence.
18. And I said, Blessed, O Lord, are they who are planted in Your land, and who have a place in Your Paradise;
19. And who grow in the growth of Your trees, and have passed from darkness into light.
20. Behold, all Your laborers are fair, they who work good works, and turn from wickedness to your pleasantness.
21. For the pungent odor of the trees is changed in Your land,
22. And everything becomes a remnant of Yourself. Blessed are the workers of Your waters, and eternal memorials of Your faithful servants.
23. Indeed, there is much room in Your Paradise. And there is nothing in it which is barren, but everything is filled with fruit.
24. Glory be to You, O God, the delight of Paradise for ever.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 12

1. He has filled me with words of truth, that I may proclaim Him.
2. And like the flowing of waters, truth flows from my mouth, and my lips declare His fruits.
3. And He has caused His knowledge to abound in me, because the mouth of the Lord is the true Word, and the entrance of His light.
4. And the Most High has given Him to His generations, which are the interpreters of His beauty,
   And the narrators of His glory,
   And the confessors of His purpose,
   And the preachers of His mind,
   And the teachers of His works.
5. For the subtlety of the Word is inexpressible, and like His utterance so also is His swiftness and His acuteness, for limitless is His progression.
6. He never falls but remains standing, and one cannot comprehend His descent or His way.
7. For as His work is, so is His expectation, for He is the light and dawning of thought.
8. And by Him the generations spoke to one another, and those that were silent acquired speech.
9. And from Him came love and equality, and they spoke one to another that which was theirs.
10. And they were stimulated by the Word, and knew Him who made them, because they were in harmony.
11. For the mouth of the Most High spoke to them, and His exposition prospered through Him.
12. For the dwelling place of the Word is man, and His truth is love.
13. Blessed are they who by means of Him have perceived everything, and have known the Lord in His truth.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 13

1. Behold, the Lord is our mirror. Open your eyes and see them in Him.
2. And learn the manner of your face, then declare praises to His Spirit.
3. And wipe the paint from your face, and love His holiness and put it on.
4. Then you will be unblemished at all times with Him.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 14

1. As the eyes of a son upon his father, so are my eyes, O Lord, at all times towards You.
2. Because my breasts and my pleasure are with You.
3. Turn not aside Your mercies from me, O Lord; and take not Your kindness from me.
4. Stretch out to me, my Lord, at all times, Your right hand, and be to me a guide till the end according to Your will.
5. Let me be pleasing before You, because of Your glory, and because of Your name let me be saved from the Evil One.
6. And let Your gentleness, O Lord, abide with me, and the fruits of Your love.
7. Teach me the odes of Your truth, that I may produce fruits in You.
8. And open to me the harp of Your Holy Spirit, so that with every note I may praise You, O Lord.
9. And according to the multitude of Your mercies, so grant unto me, and hasten to grant our petitions.
10. For You are sufficient for all our needs.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 15

1. As the sun is the joy of them who seek its daybreak, so is my joy the Lord;
2. Because He is my Sun, and His rays have lifted me up; and His light has dismissed all darkness from my face.
3. Eyes I have obtained in Him, and have seen His holy day.
4. Ears I have acquired, and have heard His truth.
5. The thought of knowledge I have acquired, and have enjoyed delight fully through Him.
6. I repudiated the way of error, and went towards Him and received salvation from Him abundantly.
7. And according to His generosity He gave to me, and according to His excellent beauty He made me.
8. I put on immortality through His name, and took off corruption by His grace.
9. Death has been destroyed before my face, and Sheol has been vanquished by my word.
10. And eternal life has arisen in the Lord's land, and it has been declared to His faithful ones, and has been given without limit to all that trust in Him.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 16

1. As the occupation of the ploughman is the ploughshare, and the occupation of the helmsman is the steering of the ship, so also my occupation is the psalm of the Lord by His hymns.
2. My art and my service are in His hymns, because His love has nourished my heart, and His fruits He poured unto my lips.
3. For my love is the Lord; hence I will sing unto Him.
4. For I am strengthened by His praises, and I have faith in Him.
5. I will open my mouth, and His Spirit will speak through me the glory of the Lord and His beauty,
6. The work of His hands, and the labor of His fingers;
7. For the multitude of His mercies, and the strength of His Word.
8. For the Word of the Lord investigates that which is invisible, and reveals His thought.
9. For the eye sees His works, and the ear hears His thought.
10. It is He who made the earth broad, and placed the waters in the sea.
11. He expanded the heaven, and fixed the stars.
12. And He fixed the creation and set it up, then He rested from His works.
13. And created things run according to their courses, and work their works, for they can never cease nor fail.
14. And the hosts are subject to His Word.
15. The reservoir of light is the sun, and the reservoir of darkness is the night.
16. For He made the sun for the day so that it will be light; but night brings darkness over the face of the earth.
17. And by their portion one from another they complete the beauty of God.
18. And there is nothing outside of the Lord, because He was before anything came to be.
19. And the worlds are by His Word, and by the thought of His heart.
20. Praise and honor to His name.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 17

1. Then I was crowned by my God, and my crown was living.
2. And I was justified by my Lord, for my salvation is incorruptible.
3. I have been freed from vanities, and am not condemned.
4. My chains were cut off by His hands, I received the face and likeness of a new person, and I walked in Him and was saved.
5. And the thought of truth led me, and I went after it and wandered not.
6. And all who saw me were amazed, and I seemed to them like a stranger.
7. And He who knew and exalted me, is the Most High in all His perfection.
8. And He glorified me by His kindness, and raised my understanding to the height of truth.
9. And from there He gave me the way of His steps, and I opened the doors which were closed.
10. And I shattered the bars of iron, for my own shackles had grown hot and melted before me.
11. And nothing appeared closed to me, because I was the opening of everything.
12. And I went towards all my bound ones in order to loose them; that I might not leave anyone bound or binding.
13. And I gave my knowledge generously, and my resurrection through my love.
14. And I sowed my fruits in hearts, and transformed them through myself.
15. Then they received my blessing and lived, and they were gathered to me and were saved;
16. Because they became my members, and I was their Head.
17. Glory to You, our Head, O Lord Messiah.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 18

1. My heart was lifted up and enriched in the love of the Most High, so that I might praise Him with my name.
2. My members were strengthened, that they may not fall from His power.
3. Infirmities fled from my body, and it stood firm for the Lord by His will; because His kingdom is firm.
4. O Lord, for the sake of those who are in need, do not dismiss Your Word from me.
5. Nor, for the sake of their works, withhold Your perfection from me.
6. Let not light be conquered by darkness, nor let truth flee from falsehood.
7. Let Your right hand set our salvation to victory, and let it receive from every region, and preserve it on the side of everyone who is besieged by misfortunes.
8. You are my God, falsehood and death are not in Your mouth; only perfection is Your will.
9. And vanity You know not, because neither does it know You.
10. And You know not error; because neither does it know You.
11. And ignorance appeared like dust, and like the foam of the sea.
12. And vain people thought that it was great, and they became like its type and were impoverished.
13. But those who knew understood and contemplated, and were not polluted by their thoughts;
14. Because they were in the mind of the Most High, and mocked those who were walking in error.
15. Then they spoke the truth, from the breath which the Most High breathed into them.
16. Praise and great honor to His name.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 19

1. A cup of milk was offered to me, and I drank it in the sweetness of the Lord's kindness.
2. The Son is the cup, and the Father is He who was milked; and the Holy Spirit is She who milked Him;
3. Because His breasts were full, and it was undesirable that His milk should be ineffectually released.
4. The Holy Spirit opened Her bosom, and mixed the milk of the two breasts of the Father.
5. Then She gave the mixture to the generation without their knowing, and those who have received it are in the perfection of the right hand.
6. The womb of the Virgin took it, and she received conception and gave birth.
7. So the Virgin became a mother with great mercies.
8. And she labored and bore the Son but without pain, because it did not occur without purpose.
9. And she did not require a midwife, because He caused her to give life.
10. She brought forth like a strong man with desire, and she bore according to the manifestation, and she acquired according to the Great Power.
11. And she loved with redemption, and guarded with kindness, and declared with grandeur.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 20

1. I am a priest of the Lord, and Him I serve as a priest;
2. And to Him I offer the offering of His thought.
3. For His thought is not like the world, nor like the flesh, nor like them who worship according to the flesh.
4. The offering of the Lord is righteousness, and purity of heart and lips.
5. Offer your inward being faultlessly; and let not your compassion oppress compassion; and let not yourself oppress a self.
6. You should not purchase a stranger because he is like yourself, nor seek to deceive your neighbor, nor deprive him of the covering for his nakedness.
7. But put on the grace of the Lord generously, and come to His Paradise, and make for yourself a garland from His tree.
8. Then put it on your head and be joyful, and recline upon His rest.
9. For His glory will go before you; and you shall receive of His kindness and of His grace; and you shall be anointed in truth with the praise of His holiness.
10. Praise and honor to His name.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 21

1. I lifted up my arms on high on account of the compassion of the Lord.
2. Because He cast off my bonds from me, and my Helper lifted me up according to His compassion and His salvation.
3. And I put off darkness, and put on light.
4. And even I myself acquired members. In them there was no sickness or affliction or suffering.
5. And abundantly helpful to me was the thought of the Lord, and His everlasting fellowship.
6. And I was lifted up in the light, and I passed before Him.
7. And I was constantly near Him, while praising and confessing Him.
8. He caused my heart to overflow, and it was found in my mouth; and it sprang forth unto my lips.
9. Then upon my face increased the exultation of the Lord and His praise.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 22

1. He who caused me to descend from on high, and to ascend from the regions below;
2. And He who gathers what is in the Middle, and throws them to me;
3. He who scattered my enemies, and my adversaries;
4. He who gave me authority over bonds, so that I might unbind them;
5. He who overthrew by my hands the dragon with seven heads, and set me at his roots that I might destroy his seed;
6. You were there and helped me, and in every place Your name surrounded me.
7. Your right hand destroyed his evil venom, and Your hand leveled the Way for those who believe in You.
8. And It chose them from the graves, and separated them from the dead ones.
9. It took dead bones and covered them with flesh.
10. But they were motionless, so It gave them energy for life.
11. Incorruptible was Your way and Your face; You have brought Your world to corruption, that everything might be resolved and renewed.
12. And the foundation of everything is Your rock. And upon it You have built Your kingdom, and it became the dwelling-place of the holy ones.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 23

1. Joy is for the holy ones. And who shall put it on but they alone?
2. Grace is for the elect ones. And who shall receive it but they who trusted in it from the beginning?
3. Love is for the elect ones. And who shall put it on but they who possessed it from the beginning?
4. Walk in the knowledge of the Lord, and you will know the grace of the Lord generously; both for His exultation and for the perfection of His knowledge.
5. And His thought was like a letter, and His will descended from on high.
6. And it was sent like an arrow which from a bow has been forcibly shot.
7. And many hands rushed to the letter, in order to catch it, then take and read it.
8. But it escaped from their fingers; and they were afraid of it and of the seal which was upon it.
9. Because they were not allowed to loosen its seal; for the power which was over the seal was greater than they.
10. But those who saw the letter went after it; that they might learn where it would land, and who should read it, and who should hear it.
11. But a wheel received it, and it came over it.
12. And a sign was with it, of the kingdom and of providence.
13. And everything which was disturbing the wheel, it mowed and cut down.
14. And it restrained a multitude of adversaries; and bridged rivers.
15. And it crossed over and uprooted many forests, and made an open way.
16. The head went down to the feet, because unto the feet ran the wheel, and whatever had come upon it.
17. The letter was one of command, and hence all regions were gathered together.
18. And there was seen at its head, the head which was revealed, even the Son of Truth from the Most High Father.
19. And He inherited and possessed everything, and then the scheming of the many ceased.
20. Then all the seducers became headstrong and fled, and the persecutors became extinct and were blotted out.
21. And the letter became a large volume, which was entirely written by the finger of God.
22. And the name of the Father was upon it; and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to rule for ever and ever.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 24

1. The dove fluttered over the head of our Lord Messiah, because He was her head.
2. And she sang over Him, and her voice was heard.
3. Then the inhabitants were afraid, and the foreigners were disturbed.
4. The bird began to fly, and every creeping thing died in its hole.
5. And the chasms were opened and closed; and they were seeking the Lord as those who are about to give birth.
6. But He was not given to them for nourishment, because He did not belong to them.
7. But the chasms were submerged in the seal of the Lord, and they perished in the thought with which they had remained from the beginning.
8. For they were in labor from the beginning, and the end of their travail was life.
9. And all of them who were lacking perished, because they were not able to express the word so that they might remain.
10. And the Lord destroyed the devices, of all those who had not the truth with them.
11. For they were lacking in wisdom, they who exalted themselves in their mind.
12. So they were rejected, because the truth was not with them.
13. For the Lord revealed His way, and spread widely His grace.
14. And those who understood it knew His holiness.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 25

1. I was rescued from my chains, and I fled unto You, O my God.
2. Because You are the right hand of salvation, and my Helper.
3. You have restrained those who rise up against me, and no more were they seen.
4. Because Your face was with me, which saved me by Your grace.
5. But I was despised and rejected in the eyes of many, and I was in their eyes like lead.
6. And I acquired strength from You, and help.
7. A lamp You set for me both on my right and on my left, so that there might not be in me anything that is not light.
8. And I was covered with the covering of Your Spirit, and I removed from me my garments of skin.
9. Because Your right hand exalted me, and caused sickness to pass from me.
10. And I became mighty in Your truth, and holy in Your righteousness.
11. And all my adversaries were afraid of me, and I became the Lord's by the name of the Lord.
12. And I was justified by His kindness, and His rest is for ever and ever.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 26

1. I poured out praise to the Lord, because I am His own.
2. And I will recite His holy ode, because my heart is with Him.
3. For His harp is in my hand, and the odes of His rest shall not be silent.
4. I will call unto Him with all my heart, I will praise and exalt Him with all my members.
5. For from the East and unto the West is His praise;
6. Also from the South and unto the North is His thanksgiving.
7. Even from the crest of the summits and unto their extremity is His perfection.
8. Who can write the odes of the Lord, or who can read them?
9. Or who can train himself for life, so that he himself may be saved?
10. Or who can press upon the Most High, so that He would recite from His mouth?
11. Who can interpret the wonders of the Lord? Though he who interprets will be destroyed, yet that which was interpreted will remain.
12. For it suffices to perceive and be satisfied, for the odists stand in serenity;
13. Like a river which has an increasingly gushing spring, and flows to the relief of them that seek it.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 27

1. I extended my hands and hallowed my Lord,
2. For the expansion of my hands is His sign.
3. And my extension is the upright cross.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 28

1. As the wings of doves over their nestlings, and the mouths of their nestlings towards their mouths, so also are the wings of the Spirit over my heart.
2. My heart continually refreshes itself and leaps for joy, like the babe who leaps for joy in his mother's womb.
3. I trusted, consequently I was at rest; because trustful is He in whom I trusted.
4. He has greatly blessed me, and my head is with Him.
5. And the dagger shall not divide me from Him, nor the sword;
6. Because I am ready before destruction comes, and have been set on His immortal side.
7. And immortal life embraced me, and kissed me.
8. And from that life is the Spirit which is within me. And it cannot die because it is life.
9. Those who saw me were amazed, because I was persecuted.
10. And they thought that I had been swallowed up, because I seemed to them as one of the lost.
11. But my injustice became my salvation.
12. And I became their abomination, because there was no jealousy in me.
13. Because I continually did good to every man I was hated.
14. And they surrounded me like mad dogs, those who in stupidity attack their masters.
15. Because their thought is depraved, and their mind is perverted.
16. But I was carrying water in my right hand, and their bitterness I endured by my sweetness.
17. And I did not perish, because I was not their brother, nor was my birth like theirs.
18. And they sought my death but did not find it possible, because I was older than their memory; and in vain did they cast lots against me.
19. And those who were after me sought in vain to destroy the memorial of Him who was before them.
20. Because the thought of the Most High cannot be prepossessed; and His heart is superior to all wisdom.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 29

1. The Lord is my hope, I shall not be ashamed of Him.
2. For according to His praise He made me, and according to His grace even so He gave to me.
3. And according to His mercies He exalted me, and according to His great honor He lifted me up.
4. And he caused me to ascend from the depths of Sheol, and from the mouth of death He drew me.
5. And I humbled my enemies, and He justified me by His grace.
6. For I believed in the Lord's Messiah, and considered that He is the Lord.
7. And He revealed to me His sign, and He led me by His light.
8. And He gave me the scepter of His power, that I might subdue the devices of the people, and humble the power of the mighty.
9. To make war by His Word, and to take victory by His power.
10. And the Lord overthrew my enemy by His Word, and he became like the dust which a breeze carries off.
11. And I gave praise to the Most High, because He has magnified His servant and the son of His maidservant.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 30

1. Fill for yourselves water from the living fountain of the Lord, because it has been opened for you.
2. And come all you thirsty and take a drink, and rest beside the fountain of the Lord.
3. Because it is pleasing and sparkling, and perpetually refreshes the self.
4. For much sweeter is its water than honey, and the honeycomb of bees is not to be compared with it;
5. Because it flowed from the lips of the Lord, and it named from the heart of the Lord.
6. And it came boundless and invisible, and until it was set in the middle they knew it not.
7. Blessed are they who have drunk from it, and have refreshed themselves by it.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 31

1. Chasms vanished before the Lord, and darkness dissipated before His appearance.
2. Error erred and perished on account of Him; and contempt received no path, for it was submerged by the truth of the Lord.
3. He opened His mouth and spoke grace and joy; and recited a new chant to His name.
4. Then He lifted his voice towards the Most High, and offered to Him those that had become sons through Him.
5. And His face was justified, because thus His Holy Father had given to Him.
6. Come forth, you who have been afflicted, and receive joy.
7. And possess yourselves through grace, and take unto you immortal life.
8. And they condemned me when I stood up, me who had not been condemned.
9. Then they divided my spoil, though nothing was owed them.
10. But I endured and held my peace and was silent, that I might not be disturbed by them.
11. But I stood undisturbed like a solid rock, which is continuously pounded by columns of waves and endures.
12. And I bore their bitterness because of humility; that I might redeem my nation and instruct it.
13. And that I might not nullify the promises to the patriarchs, to whom I was promised for the salvation of their offspring.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 32

1. To the blessed ones the joy is from their heart, and light from Him who dwells in them;
2. And the Word of truth who is self-originate,
3. Because He has been strengthened by the Holy Power of the Most High; and He is unshaken for ever and ever.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 33

1. But again Grace was swift and dismissed the Corruptor, and descended upon him to renounce him.
2. And he caused utter destruction before him, and corrupted all his work.
3. And he stood on the peak of a summit and cried aloud from one end of the earth to the other.
4. Then he drew to him all those who obeyed him, for he did not appear as the Evil One.
5. However, the perfect Virgin stood, who was preaching and summoning and saying:
6. O you sons of men, return, and you their daughters, come.
7. And leave the ways of that Corruptor, and approach me.
8. And I will enter into you, and bring you forth from destruction, and make you wise in the ways of truth.
9. Be not corrupted nor perish.
10. Obey me and be saved, for I am proclaiming unto you the grace of God.
11. And through me you will be saved and become blessed. I am your judge;
12. And they who have put me on shall not be falsely accused, but they shall possess incorruption in the new world.
13. My elect ones have walked with me, and my ways I will make known to them who seek me; and I will promise them my name.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 34

1. There is no hard way where there is a simple heart, nor barrier for upright thoughts,
2. Nor whirlwind in the depth of the enlightened thought.
3. Where one is surrounded on every side by pleasing country, there is nothing divided in him.
4. The likeness of that which is below is that which is above.
5. For everything is from above, and from below there is nothing, but it is believed to be by those in whom there is no understanding.
6. Grace has been revealed for your salvation. Believe and live and be saved.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 35

1. The gentle showers of the Lord overshadowed me with serenity, and they caused a cloud of peace to rise over my head;
2. That it might guard me at all times. And it became salvation to me.
3. Everyone was disturbed and afraid, and there came from them smoke and judgment.
4. But I was tranquil in the Lord's legion; more than shade was He to me, and more than foundation.
5. And I was carried like a child by its mother; and He gave me milk, the dew of the Lord.
6. And I was enriched by His favor, and rested in His perfection.
7. And I spread out my hands in the ascent of myself, and I directed myself towards the Most High, and I was redeemed towards Him.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 36

1. I rested on the Spirit of the Lord, and She lifted me up to heaven;
2. And caused me to stand on my feet in the Lord's high place, before His perfection and His glory, where I continued glorifying Him by the composition of His Odes.
3. The Spirit brought me forth before the Lord's face, and because I was the Son of Man, I was named the Light, the Son of God;
4. Because I was the most glorified among the glorious ones, and the greatest among the great ones.
5. For according to the greatness of the Most High, so She made me; and according to His newness He renewed me.
6. And He anointed me with His perfection; and I became one of those who are near Him.
7. And my mouth was opened like a cloud of dew, and my heart gushed forth like a gusher of righteousness.
8. And my approach was in peace, and I was established in the Spirit of Providence.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 37

1. I stretched out my hands towards the Lord, and towards the Most High I raised my voice.
2. And I spoke with the lips of my heart, and He heard me when my voice reached Him.
3. His Word came towards me, in order to give me the fruits of my labors;
4. And gave me rest by the grace of the Lord.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 38

1. I went up into the light of Truth as into a chariot, and the Truth led me and caused me to come.
2. And caused me to pass over chasms and gulfs, and saved me from cliffs and valleys.
3. And became for me a haven of salvation, and set me on the place of immortal life.
4. And He went with me and caused me to rest and did not allow me to err; because He was and is the Truth.
5. And there was no danger for me because I constantly walked with Him; and I did not err in anything because I obeyed Him.
6. For Error fled from Him, and never met Him.
7. But Truth was proceeding on the upright way, and whatever I did not understand He exhibited to me:
8. All the poisons of error, and pains of death which are considered sweetness.
9. And the corrupting of the Corruptor, I saw when the bride who was corrupting was adorned, and the bridegroom who corrupts and is corrupted.
10. And I asked the Truth, Who are these? And He said to me: This is the Deceiver and the Error.
11. And they imitate the Beloved and His Bride, and they cause the world to err and corrupt it.
12. And they invite many to the wedding feast, and allow them to drink the wine of their intoxication;
13. So they cause them to vomit up their wisdom and their knowledge, and prepare for them mindlessness.
14. Then they abandon them; and so they stumble about like mad and corrupted men.
15. Since there is no understanding in them, neither do they seek it.
16. But I have been made wise so as not to fall into the hands of the Deceivers, and I myself rejoiced because the Truth had gone with me.
17. For I was established and lived and was redeemed, and my foundations were laid on account of the Lord's hand; because He has planted me.
18. For He set the root, and watered it and endowed it and blessed it, and its fruits will be forever.
19. It penetrated deeply and sprang up and spread out, and it was full and was enlarged.
20. And the Lord alone was glorified, in His planting and in His cultivation;
21. In His care and in the blessing of His lips, in the beautiful planting of His right hand;
22. And in the attainment of His planting, and in the understanding of His mind.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 39

1. Raging rivers are the power of the Lord; they send headlong those who despise Him.
2. And entangle their paths, and destroy their crossings.
3. And snatch their bodies, and corrupt their natures.
4. For they are more swift than lightnings, even more rapid.
5. But those who cross them in faith shall not be disturbed.
6. And those who walk on them faultlessly shall not be shaken.
7. Because the sign on them is the Lord, and the sign is the Way for those who cross in the name of the Lord.
8. Therefore, put on the name of the Most High and know Him, and you shall cross without danger; because rivers shall be obedient to you.
9. The Lord has bridged them by His Word, and He walked and crossed them on foot.
10. And His footsteps stand firm upon the waters, and were not destroyed; but they are like a beam of wood that is constructed on truth.
11. On this side and on that the waves were lifted up, but the footsteps of our Lord Messiah stand firm.
12. And they are neither blotted out, nor destroyed.
13. And the Way has been appointed for those who cross over after Him, and for those who adhere to the path of His faith; and who adore His name.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 40

1. As honey drips from the honeycomb of bees, and milk flows from the woman who loves her children, so also is my hope upon You, O my God.
2. As a fountain gushes forth its water, so my heart gushes forth the praise of the Lord, and my lips bring forth praise to Him.
3. And my tongue becomes sweet by His anthems, and my members are anointed by His odes.
4. My face rejoices in His exultation, and my spirit exults in His love, and my nature shines in Him.
5. And he who is afraid shall trust in Him, and redemption shall be assured in Him.
6. And His possessions are immortal life, and those who receive it are incorruptible.
   Hallelujah.

Ode 41

1. Let all the Lord's babes praise Him, and let us receive the truth of His faith.
2. And His children shall be acknowledged by Him, therefore let us sing by His love.
3. We live in the Lord by His grace, and life we receive by His Messiah.
4. For a great day has shined upon us, and wonderful is He who has given to us of His glory.
5. Let us, therefore, all of us agree in the name of the Lord, and let us honor Him in His goodness.
6. And let our faces shine in His light, and let our hearts meditate in His love, by night and by day.
7. Let us exult with the exultation of the Lord.
8. All those who see me will be amazed, because I am from another race.
9. For the Father of Truth remembered me; he who possessed me from the beginning.
10. For His riches begat me, and the thought of His heart.
11. And His Word is with us in all our way, the Savior who gives life and does not reject ourselves.
12. The Man who humbled Himself, but was exalted because of His own righteousness.
13. The Son of the Most High appeared in the perfection of His Father.
14. And light dawned from the Word that was before time in Him.
15. The Messiah in truth is one. And He was known before the foundations of the world, that He might give life to persons for ever by the truth of His name.
16. A new chant is for the Lord from them that love Him.
    Hallelujah.

Ode 42

1. I extended my hands and approached my Lord, for the expansion of my hands is His sign.
2. And my extension is the upright cross, that was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One.
3. And I became useless to those who knew me not, because I shall hide myself from those who possessed me not.
4. And I will be with those who love me.
5. All my persecutors have died, and they sought me, they who declared against me, because I am living.
6. Then I arose and am with them, and will speak by their mouths.
7. For they have rejected those who persecute them; and I threw over them the yoke of my love.
8. Like the arm of the bridegroom over the bride, so is my yoke over those who know me.
9. And as the bridal chamber is spread out by the bridal pair's home, so is my love by those who believe in me.
10. I was not rejected although I was considered to be so, and I did not perish although they thought it of me.
11. Sheol saw me and was shattered, and Death ejected me and many with me.
12. I have been vinegar and bitterness to it, and I went down with it as far as its depth.
13. Then the feet and the head it released, because it was not able to endure my face.
14. And I made a congregation of living among his dead; and I spoke with them by living lips; in order that my word may not be unprofitable.
15. And those who had died ran towards me; and they cried out and said, Son of God, have pity on us.
16. And deal with us according to Your kindness, and bring us out from the bonds of darkness.
17. And open for us the door by which we may come out to You; for we perceive that our death does not touch You.
18. May we also be saved with You, because You are our Savior.
19. Then I heard their voice, and placed their faith in my heart.
20. And I placed my name upon their head, because they are free and they are mine.
    Hallelujah.

Septem Sermones ad Mortuos.1916

THE SEVEN SERMONS TO THE DEAD WRITTEN BY
BASILIDES IN ALEXANDRIA, THE CITY WHERE THE EAST
TOUCHETH THE WEST.

Transcribed by Carl Gustav Jung.

Sermo I.

The Dead came back from Jerusalem, where they found not
what they sought. They prayed me let them in and besought
my word, and thus i began my teaching.
Harken: I begin with nothingness. Nothingness is the same as
fullness. In infinity full is no better than empty.
Nothingness is both empty and full. As well might ye say anything
else of nothingness,as for instance, white is it, or black, or again,
it is not, or it is. A thing that is infinite and eternal hath no
qualities, since it hath all qualities.
This nothingness or fullness we name the Pleroma.
Therein both thinking and being cease, since the eternal and infinite
possess no qualities. In it no being is, for he then would be distinct
from the pleroma, and would possess qualities which would distinguish
him as something distinct from the pleroma.
In the pleroma there is nothing and everything. It is quite fruitless
to think about the pleroma, for this would mean self-dissolution.
Creatura is not in the pleroma, but in itself. The pleroma is
both beginning and end of the created beings. It pervadeth them, as
the light od the sun everywhere pervadeth the air. Although the pleroma
prevadeth altogether, yet hath created being no share thereof, just
as wholly transparent body becometh neither light nor dark through
the light nor dark through the light which pervadeth it. We are,however
, the pleroma itself, for we are a part of the eternal and the infinite.
But we have no share thereof, as we are from the pleroma infinitely
removed; not spiritually or temporally, but essentially, since we are
distinguished from the pleroma in our essence as creatura, which is
confined within time and space.

Yet because we are parts of the pleroma, the pleroma is also in us.
Even in the smallest point is the pleroma endless, eternal, and
entire, since small and great are qualities which are contained in it.
It is that nothingness which is everywhere whole and continuous.
Only figuratively, therefore, do I speak of created being as part of
the pleroma. Because, actually, the pleroma is nowhere divided,
since it is nothingness. We are also the whole pleroma, because,
figuratively, the pleroma is the smallest point (assumed only, not
existing) in us and the boundless firmanent about us. But wherefore,
then, do we speak of the pleroma at all, since it is thus everything
and nothing? I speak of it to make a beginning somewhere, and also
to free you from the delusion that somewhere, either without or within,
there standeth something fixed, or in some way established, from the
beginning. Every so-called fixed and certain thing is only relative.
That alone is fixed and certain which is subject to change.
What is changeable, however, is creature. Therefore is it the one thing
which is fixed and certain because it hath qualities: or as even a quality itself.

The question ariseth: How did creatura originate?
Created beings came to pass, not creatura: since created being is the very
quality of the pleroma, as much as non-creation which is the eternal death.
In all times and places is creation, in all times and places is death.
The pleroma hath all, distinctiveness and non-distinctiveness.
Distinctiveness is creatura.It is distinct. Distinctivness is its
essence. and therefore it distinguisheth. Wherefore also he distinguished
qualities of the pleroma which are not. He distinguisheth them out of
his own nature. Therefore he must speak of qualities of the pleroma
which are not.

What use, say ye, to speak of it?
Saidst thou not thyself, there is no profit in thinking upon the pleroma?
That said I unto you, to free you from the delusion that we are able
to think about the pleroma. When we distinguish qualities of
the pleroma, we are speaking from the ground of our own distinctiveness
and concerning our own distinctiveness. But we have said nothing
concerning the pleroma. Concerning our own distinctiveness, however,
it is needfull to speak, whereby we may distinguish ourselves enough.
Our very nature is distinctiveness. If we are not true to this nature
we do not distinguish ourselves enough. Therefore must we make
distinctions of qualities.

What is the harm, ye ask, in not distingusihing oneself?
If we do not distinguish, we get beyond our own nature, away from
creatura. We fall into indistinctiveness, which is the other quality of
the pleroma. We fall into the pleroma itself and cease to be creatures.
We are given over to dissolution in nothingness. This is the death
of the creature. Therefore we die in such measure as we do not
distinguish. Hence the natural striving of the creature goeth towards
distinctiveness, fighteth against primeval, perilous sameness.
This is called the PRINCIPIUM INDIVIDUATIONIS.
This principle is the essence of the creature. From this you can see why
indistictiveness and non-distinction are a great danger for the creature.
We must, therefore, distinguish the qualities of the pleroma.
The qualities are PAIRS OF OPPOSITES, such as -

The pairs of opposities are qualities of the pleroma which are not,
because each balanceth each. As we are the pleroma itself, we also
have all these qualities in us. Because the very ground of our nature
is distinctiveness, which meaneth -

When we strive after the good or the beautiful, we thereby forget our
own nature, which is disinctiveness, and we are delivered over to
the qualities of the pleroma, which are pairs of opposites.
We labor to attain the good and the beautiful, yet at the same time
we also lay hold of the evil and the ugly, since in the pleroma these
are one with the good and the beautiful. When, however, we remain
true to our own nature, which is distinctiveness, we distinguish
ourselves from the good and the beautiful,therefore, at the same time,
from the evil and ugly. And thus we fall not into the pleroma,
namely, into nothingness and dissolution.
Thou sayest, ye object, that difference and sameness are also qualities
of the pleroma. How would it be, then, if we strive after difference?
Are we, in so doing, not true to our own nature? And must we none the
less be given over to the sameness when we strive after difference?
Ye must not forget that the pleroma hath no qualities. We create them
through thinking. If, therefore, ye strive after difference or sameness,
or any qualities whatsoever, ye pursue thought which flow to you
our of the pleroma: thoughts, namely, concerning non-existing qualities
of the pleroma. Inasmuch as ye run after these thoughts, ye fall again
into the pleroma, and reach difference and sameness at the same time.
Not your thhinking, but your being, is distinctiveness.
Therefore not after difference, ye think it, must ye strive; but after
YOUR OWN BEING. At bottom, therefore, there is only one
striving, namely, the striving after your own being. If ye had this striving
ye would not need to know anything about the pleroma and its qualities,
and yet would ye come to your right goal by virtue of your own being.
Since, however, thought estrangeth from being, that knowledge must
I trach you wherewith ye may be able to hold your thought in leash.

Sermo II

In the night the dead stood along the wall and cried:
We would have knowledge of god.Where is god? Is god dead?
God is not dead. Now, as ever, he liveth. God is creatura, for he
is something definite, and therefore distinct from the pleroma.
God is quality of the pleroma, and everything I said of creatura
also is true concerning him.
He is distinguished, however, from created beings through this,
that he is more indefinite and indeterminable than they. He is less
distinct than created beings, since the ground of his being is effective
fullness. Only in so far as he is definite and distinct is he creatura,
and in like measure is he the manifestation of the effective fullness
of the pleroma.

Everthing which we do not distinguish falleth into the pleroma and
is made void by its opposite. If, therefore, we do noy distinguish
god, effective fullness is for us extinguished.
Moreover god is the pleroma itself, as likewise each smallest point
in the created and uncreated is pleroma itself.
Effective void is the nature of the devil. God and decil are the
first manifestations of nothingness, which we call the pleroma.
It is indifferent wether the pleroma is or is not, since in everything
it is balanced and void. Not so creatura. In so far as god and devil
are creatura they do not extinguish each other, but stand one against
the other as effective opposites. We need no proof of their existence.
It is enough that we must always be speaking of them. Even if both
were not, creatura, of its own essential distinctiveness, would forever
distinguish them anew out of the pleroma.

Everything that discrimination taketh out of the pleroma is a pair
of opposites. To god, therefore, always belongeth the devil.
This inseparability is as close and , as your own life hath made you
see, as indissoluble as the pleroma itself. Thus it is that both stand
very close to the pleroma, in which all opposites are extinguished
and joined.

God and devil are distinguished by the qualities of fullness and
emptiness, generation and destruction. EFFECTIVENESS is
common to both. Effectiveness joineth them. Effectiveness, therefore,
standeth above both; is a god above god, since in its effect it
uniteth fullness and emptiness.
This is a god whom ye knew not, for mankind forgot it. We name it by
its name ABRAXAS. It is more indefinite still than god and
devil. That god may be distinguished from it, we name god HELIOS
or sun. Abraxas is effect. Nothing standeth opposed to it but the
ineffective; hence its effective natyre freely unfoldeth itself.
The ineffective is not, therefore resisteth not. Abraxas standeth
above the sun and above the devil. It is improbable probability, unreal
reality. Had the pleroma a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation.
It is the effective itself, nor any particular effect, but effect in general.

The dead now raised a great tumult, for they were Christians.

Sermo III.

Like mists arising from a marsh, the dead came near and cried:
Speak further unto us concerning the supreme god.
Hard to know is the deity of Abraxas. Its power is the greatest,
because man perceiveth it not. From the sun he draweth the
summum bonum; from the devil the infimum malum:
but from Abraxas LIFE, altogether indefinite, the mother of good and evil.

Smaller and weaker life seemeth to be than the summum bonum;
wherefore is it also hard to conceive that Abraxas transcendeth even
the sun in power, who is himself the radient source of all the force of life.
Abraxas is the sun, and at the same time the eternally sucking gorge
of the void, the belittling and dismembering devil.

The power of Abraxas is twofold; but ye see it not, because for
your eyes the warring opposites of this power are extinguished.
What the god-sun speaketh is life.
What the devil speaketh is death.
But Abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word which is
life and death at the same time.
Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness,
in the same word and in the same act. Wherefore is Abraxas terrible.
It is splendid as the lion in the instant he striketh down his
victim. It is beautiful as a day in spring. It is the great Pan himself
and also the small one. It is Priapos.
It is the monster of the under-world, a thousand-armed polyp,
coiled knot of winged serpents, frenzy.
It is the hermaphrodite of the earliest beginning.
It is the lord of the toads and frogs,, which live in the water and gets
up on the land, whose chorus ascendeth at noon and at midnight.
It is abundance that seeketh union with emptiness.
It is holy begetting.
It is love and love`s murder.
It is the saint and his betrayer.
It is the brightest light of day and the darkest night of madness.
To look upon it, is blindness.
To know it, is sickness.
To worship it, is death.
To fear it, is wisdom.
To resist it not, is redemption.

God dwelleth behind the sun, the devil behind the night. What god
bringeth forth out of the light of the devil sucketh into the night.
But Abraxas is the world, its becoming and its passing- Upon every
gift that cometh from the god-sun the devil layeth his curse.

Everything that ye entreat from the god-sun begetteth a
deed from the devil.
Everything that ye create with the god-sun giveth effective
power to the devil.
That is terrible Abraxas.
It is the mightiest creature, and in it the creature is
afraid of itself.
It is the manifest opposition to the pleroma and its nothingness.
It is the son`s horror of the mother.
It is the mother`s love for the son.
It is the delight of the earth and the cruelty of the heavens.
Before its countenance man becometh like stone.
Before it there is no question and no reply.
It is the life of creatura.
It is the operation of distinctiveness.
It is the love of man.
It is the speech of man.
It is the appearance and the shadow of man.
It is illusory reality.

Now the dead howled and raged, for they were unperfected.

Sermo IV.

The dead filled the place murmuring and said;
Tell us of gods and devils, accursed one!
The god-suun is the highest good, the devil its opposite.
Thus have ye two gods. But there are many high and good things
and many great evils. Among these are two god-devils; the one is the
Burning One , the other the Growing One.
The burning one is EROS, who hath the form of flame.
Flame giveth light because it consumeth.
The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE.. It buddeth,
as in growing it heapeth up living stuff.
Eros flameth up and dieth. But the tree of life groweth with slow
and constant increase through unmeasured time.
Good and evil are united in the flame.
Good and evil are united in the increase of the tree. In their divinity
stand life and love opposed.
Innumerable as the host of the stars is the number of gods and devils.
Each star is a god, and each space that a star filleth is a devil.
But the empty-fullness of the whole is the pleroma.
The operation of the whole is Abraxas, to whom only the
ineffective standeth opposed.
Four is the number of the principal gods, as four is the
number of the world`s measurements.
One is the beginning, the god-sun.
Two is Eros; for he bindeth twain together and outspreadeth himself
in brightness.
Three is the Tree of Life, for it filleth space with bodily forms.
Four is the devil, for he openeth all that is closed. All that is
formed of bodily nature doth he dissolve; he is the destroyer in
whom everything is brought to nothing.

For me, to whom knowledge hath been given of the multiplicity and
diversity of the good, it is well. But woe unto you, who replace
these incompatible many by a single god. For in so doing ye beget
the torment which is bred from not understanding, and ye mutilate
the creature whose nature and aim is distinctiveness. How can ye
be true to your own nature when ye try to change the many into one?
What ye do unto the gods is done likewise unto you. Ye all become
equal and thus is your nature maimed.

Equalities shall prevail not for god, but only for the sake of man.
For the gods are many, whilst men are few. The gods are mighty and
can endure their manifoldness. For like the stars they abide in
solitude, parted one from the other by immense distances. Therefore
they dwell together and need communion, that they may bear their
separateness. For redemtion`s sake I teach you the rejected truth,
for the sake of which I was rejected.
The multiplicity of the gods correspondeth to the multiplicity of man. Numberless gods await the human state. Numberless gods have been men. Man shareth in nature of the gods. He cometh from the gods and goeth unto god. Thus, just as it serveth not to reflect upon the plerome, it availeth not to worship the multiplicity of the gods. Least of all availeth it to worship the first god, the effective abundance and the summum bonum.. By our prayer we can add to it nothing, and from it nothing take; because the effective void swalloweth all. The bright gods form the celestial world. It is manifold and infinitely spreading and increasing. The god-sun is the supreme lord of the world. The dark gods form the earth-world. They are simple and infinitely diminishing and declining. The devil is the earth-world`s lowest lord, the moon-spirit, satellite of the earth, smaller, colder, and more dead than the earth. There is no difference between the might of the celestial gods and those of the earth. The celestial gods magnify, the earth-gods diminish. Measurelesss is the movement of both.

Sermo V.

The dead mocked and cried: Teach us, fool, of the Church and the holy Communion. The world of the gods is made manifest in spirituality and in sexuality. The celestial ones appear in spirituality, the earthly in sexuality. Spirituality conceiveth and embraceth. It is womanlike and therefore we call it MATER COELESTIS, the celestial mother. Sexuality engendereth and createth. It is manlike, and therefore we call it PHALLOS, the earthly father. The sexuality of man is more of the earth, the sexuality of woman is more of the spirit. The spirituality of man is more of heaven, it goeth to the greater. The spirituality of woman is more of the earth, it goeth to the smaller. Lying and devilish is the spirituality of the man which goeth to the smaller. Lying and devilish is the spirituality of the woman which goeth to the greater. Each must go its own place. Man and woman become devils one to the other when they divide not their spiritual ways, for the nature of the creatura is distinctiveness. The sexuality of man hath an earthward course, the sexuality of woman a spiritual. Man and woman becomes devils one to the other if they distinguish not their sexuality. Man shall know of the smaller, woman the greater. Man shall distinguish himself both from spirituality and sexuality. He shall spirituality Mother, and set her between heaven and earth. He shall call sexuality Phallos, annd set him between himself and earth. For the Mother and the Phallos are super-human daemons which reveal the world of the gods. They are for us more effective than the gods, because they are closely akin to our own nature. Should ye not distinguish yourselves from sexuality and from spirituality, and not regard them as of a nature borh above you and beyond, then are ye delivered over to them as qualities of the pleroma. Spirituality and sexuality are not your qualities, not things ye possess and contain. But they possess and contain you; for they are powerfull daemons, manifestations of the gods, and are, therefore, things which reach beyond you, existing in themselves. No man hath a spirituality unto himself, or a sexuality unto himself. But he standeth under the law of Spirituality and of sexuality. No man, therefore, escapeth these daemons. Ye shall look upn them as daemons, and as a common task and danger, a common burdon which life hath laid upon you. Thus is life for you also a common task and danger, as are the gods, and first of all terrible Abraxas. Man is weak, therefore is communion indispensable. If your communion be not under the sign of the Mother, then is it under the sign of the Phallos. No communion is suffering and sickness. Communion in everything is dismemberment and dissolution. Distinctiveness leadeth to singleness. Singleness is opposed to communion. But because of man`s weakneess over against the gods and daemons and their invincible law is communion needful, not for man`s sake, but because of the gods.The gods force you to communion. As much as they force you, so much is the communion needed, more is evil. In communion let every man submit to the others, that communion be maintained, for ye need it. In Singleness the one man shall be superior to the others, that every man may come to himself and avoid slavery. In communion there shall be continence. In Singleness there shall be prodigality. Communion is depth. Singleness is height. Right measure in communion purifieth and preserveth. Right measure in Singleness purifieth and increaseth. Communion giveth us warmth, Singleness giveth us light.

Sermo VI.

The daemons of sexuality approacheth our soul as a serpent. It is half human and appeareth as thought-desire. The daemon of spirituality descendeth into our soul as the white bird. It is half human and appeareth as desire-thought. The Serpent is an earthly soul, half daemonic, a spirit, and akin to the spirits of the dead. Thus too, like these, she swarmeth around in the things of earth, making us either fear them or pricking us with intemperate desires. The Serpent hath a nature like unto woman. She seeketh company of the dead who are held by the spell of the earth, they who found not the way beyond that leadeth to singleness. The Serpent is a whore. She wantoneth with the devil and with evil spirits; a mischievous tyrant and tormentor, ever seducing to evilest company. The White Bird is a half-celestial soul of man. He bideth with the Mother, from time to time descending.The bird hath a nature like unto man, and is effective thought. He is chaste and solitary, a messenger of the Mother. He flieth high above earth. He commandeth singleness. He bringeth knowledge from the distant ones who went before and are perfected. He beareth our word above to the Mother. She intercedeth, she warneth, but against the gods she hath no power. She is a vessel of the sun. The serpent goeth below and with her cunning she lameth the phallic daemon, or else goadeth him on. She yieldeth up the too crafty toughts of the earthy one, those thoughts which creep through every hole and cleave to all things with desirousness. The Serpent, doubtless, willeth it not, yet she must be of use to us. She fleeth our grasp , thus showing us the way, which with our human wits we could not find.

With disdainful glance the dead spake: Cease this talk of gods and daemons and souls. At this hath long been known to us.

Sermo VII.

Yet when night was come the dead again approached with lamentable mien and said: There is yet one matter we forgot to mention. Teach us about man. Man is a gateway, through which from the outer world of gods, daemons, and souls ye pass into the inner world; out of the greater into the smaller world. Small and transitory is man. Already is he behind you, and once again ye find yourselves in endless space, in the smaller of innermost infinity. At immeasurable distance standeth one single Star in the zenith. This is the one god of this one man. This is his world, his pleroma, his divinity. In this world is man Abraxas, the creator and destroyer of his one world. This Star is the god and the goal of man. This is his one guiding god. In him goeth man to his rest. Toward him goeth the long journey of the soul after death. In him shineth forth as light all that man bringeth back from the greater world. To this one god man shall pray. Prayer increaseth the light of the Star. It casteth a bridge over death. It prepareth life for the smaller world and assuageth the hopleless desires of the greater. When the greater world waxeth cold, burneth the Star. Between man and his one god there standeth nothing, so long as man can turn away his eyes from the flaming spectacle of Abraxas. Man here, god there. Weakness and nothingness here, there eternally creative power. Here nothing but darkness and chilling moisture. There Wholly Sun.

Whereupon the dead were silent and ascended like the smoke above the herdman`s fire, who through the night kept watch over his flock.

The Corpus Hermeticum

Introduction to the Corpus Hermeticum (G.R.S. Mead Translation)
by John Michael Greer
 

On the Trail of the Winged God

Hermes and Hermeticism Throughout the Ages

by Stephan A. Hoeller

There are few names to which more diverse persons and disciplines lay claim than the term "Hermetic." Alchemists ancient and contemporary apply the adjective "Hermetic" to their art, while magicians attach the name to their ceremonies of evocation and invocation. Followers of Meister Eckhart, Raymond Lull, Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme, and most recently Valentin Tomberg are joined by academic scholars of esoterica, all of whom attach the word "Hermetic" to their activities.

Who, then, was Hermes, and what may be said of the philosophy or religion that is connected with him? The early twentieth-century scholar Walter Scott, in his classic edition of the Hermetic texts, writes of a legend preserved by the Renaissance writer Vergicius:

They say that this Hermes left his own country and traveled all over the world…; and that he tried to teach men to revere and worship one God alone, …the demiurgus and genetor [begetter] of all things; …and that he lived a very wise and pious life, occupied in intellectual contemplation…, and giving no heed to the gross things of the material world…; and that having returned to his own country, he wrote at the time many books of mystical theology and philosophy.¹

Until relatively recently, no one had a clear picture of either the authorship or the context of the mysterious writings ascribed to Hermes. Descriptions such as the one above are really no more than a summary of the ideal laid down in the "Hermetic" writings. The early Christian Fathers, in time, mostly held that Hermes was a great sage who lived before Moses and that he was a pious and wise man who received revelations from God that were later fully explained by Christianity. None mentioned that he was a Greek god.

The Greek Hermes

The British scholar R.F. Willetts wrote that "in many ways, Hermes is the most sympathetic, the most baffling, the most confusing, the most complex, and therefore the most Greek of all the Olympian gods."² If Hermes is the god of the mind, then these qualities appear in an even more meaningful light. For is the mind not the most baffling, confusing, and at the same time the most beguiling, of all the attributes of life?

The name Hermes appears to have originated in the word for "stone heap." Probably since prehistoric times there existed in Crete and in other Greek regions a custom or erecting a herma or hermaion consisting of an upright stone surrounded at its base by a heap of smaller stones. Such monuments were used to serve as boundaries or as landmarks for wayfarers.

A mythological connection existed between these simple monuments and the deity named Hermes. When Hermes killed the many-eyed monster Argus, he was brought to trial by the gods. They voted for Hermes' innocence, each casting a vote by throwing a small stone at his feet so that a heap of stones grew up around him.

Hermes became best known as the swift messenger of the gods. Euripides, in his prologue to the play Ion, has Hermes introduce himself as follows:

Atlas, who wears on back of bronze the ancient
Abode of the gods in heaven, had a daughter
Whose name was Maia, born of a goddess:
She lay with Zeus, and bore me, Hermes,
Servant of the immortals.

Hermes is thus of a double origin. His grandfather is Atlas, the demigod who holds up heaven, but Maia, his mother, already has a goddess as her mother, while Hermes' father, Zeus, is of course the highest of the gods. It is tempting to interpret this as saying that from worldly toil (Atlas), with a heavy infusion of divine inspiration, comes forth consciousness, as symbolized by Hermes.

Versatility and mutability are Hermes' most prominent characteristics. His specialties are eloquence and invention (he invented the lyre). He is the god of travel and the protector of sacrifices; he is also god of commerce and good luck. The common quality in all of these is again consciousness, the agile movement of mind that goes to and fro, joining humans and gods, assisting the exchange of ideas and commercial goods. Consciousness has a shadow side, however: Hermes is also noted for cunning and for fraud, perjury, and theft.

The association of Hermes with theft become evident in the pseudo-Homeric Hymn to Hermes, which tells in great detail how the young god, barely risen from his cradle, carries off some of Apollo's prize oxen. The enraged Apollo denounces Hermes to Zeus but is mollified by the gift of the lyre, which the young Hermes has just invented by placing strings across the shell of a tortoise. That the larcenous trickster god is the one who bestows the instrument of poetry upon Apollo may be a point of some significance. Art is bestowed not by prosaic rectitude, but by the freedom of intuition, a function not bound by earthly rules.

While Hermes is regarded as one of the earliest and most primitive gods of the Greeks, he enjoys so much subsequent prominence that he must be recognized as an archetype devoted to mediating between, and unifying, the opposites. This foreshadows his later role as master magician and alchemist, as he was regarded both in Egypt and in Renaissance Europe.

Mediterranean Hermes

One admirable quality of the ancient Greeks was the universality of their theological vision. Unlike their Semitic counterparts, the Greeks claimed no uniqueness for their deities but freely acknowledged that the Olympians often had exact analogues in the gods of other nations.

This was particularly true of Egypt, whose gods the Greeks revered as the prototypes of their own. It was a truth frequently recognized by the cultured elite of Greek society that some of the Egyptian gods, such as Isis, were of such great stature that they united within themselves a host of Greek deities.

The Romans, who were fully aware of the fact that their gods were but rebaptized Greek deities, followed the example of their mentors. As the Roman Empire extended itself to occupy the various Mediterranean lands, including Egypt, the ascendancy of the archetypes of some of the more prominent Egyptian gods became evident. Here we are faced with the controversial phenomenon of syncretism, which plays a vital role in the new manifestation of Hermes in the last centuries before Christ and in the early centuries of the Christian era.

During this period, the Mediterranean world was undergoing a remarkable religious development. The old state religions had lost their hold on many people. In their stead a large number of often-interrelated religions, philosophies, and rites had arisen, facilitated by the political unity imposed by the Roman Empire.

This new ecumenism of the spirit was one that we might justly admire. Though often derided as mere syncretism by later writers, it possessed many features to which various ecumenicists aspire even today. It is by no means impossible that the Mediterranean region of the late Hellenistic period was in fact on its way toward a certain kind of religious unity. The world religion that might conceivably have emerged would have been much more sophisticated than the accusation of syncretism would have us believe. Far from being a patchwork of incompatible elements, this emerging Mediterranean spirituality bore the hallmarks of a profound mysticism, possessing a psychological wisdom still admired in our own day by such figures as C.G. Jung and Mircea Eliade.

An important feature of this era was the rise of a new worship of Hermes. Proceeding from the three principal Egyptian archetypes of divinity, we find three great forms of initiatory religion spreading along the shores of the Mediterranean: the cults of the Mother Goddess Isis, the Victim God Osiris, and the Wisdom God Hermes, all of which appeared under various guises.

Of these three we shall concern ourselves here with Hermes. It was during this period that the swift god of consciousness took his legendary winged sandals and crossed the sea to Egypt in order to become the Greco-Egyptian Thrice-Greatest Hermes.

Hermes of Egypt

The Greek Hermes found his analogue in Egypt as the ancient Wisdom God Thoth (sometimes spelled Thouth or Tahuti). This god was worshiped in his principal cult location, Chmun, known also as the "City of the Eight," called Greek Hermopolis. There is evidence that this location was a center for the worship of this deity at least as early as 3000 B.C.

Thoth played a part in many of the myths of Pharaonic Egypt: he played a role in the creation myth, he was recorder of the gods, and he was the principal pleader for the soul at the judgment of the dead. It was he who invented writing. He wrote all the ancient texts, including the most esoteric ones, including The Book of Breathings, which taught humans how to become gods. He was connected with the moon and thus was considered ruler of the night. Thoth was also the teacher and helper of the ancient Egyptian trinity of Isis, Osiris, and Horus; it was under his instructions that Isis worked her sacred love magic whereby she brought the slain Osiris back to life.

Most importantly, perhaps, for our purposes, Thoth acted as an emissary between the contending armies of Horus and Seth and eventually came to negotiate the peace treaty between these two gods. His role as a mediator between the opposites is thus made evident, perhaps prefiguring the role of the alchemical Mercury as the "medium of the conjunction."

Thoth's animal form is that of the ibis, with its long, slightly curved beak: statues of Thoth often portray a majestic human wearing the mask of head of this bird; others simply display the ibis itself.

It was to this powerful god that the Egyptian Hermeticists of the second and third centuries A.D. joined the image and especially the name of the Greek Hermes. From this time onward the name "Hermes" came to denote neither Thoth nor Hermes proper, but a new archetypal figure, Hermes Trismegistus, who combined the features of both.

By the time his Egyptian followers came to establish their highly secretive communities, this Hermes underwent yet another modification, this time from the Jewish tradition. The presence of large numbers of Jews in Egypt in this period, many of whom were oriented toward Hellenistic thought, accounts for this additional element. In many of the Hermetic writings, Hermes appears less as an Egyptian or Greek god and more as a mysterious prophet of the kind one finds in Jewish prophetic literature, notably the Apocalypse of Baruch, 4 Esdras, and 2 Enoch. Still, when all is said and done, the Jewish element in the Hermetic writings is not very pronounced. The Hermes that concerns us is primarily Egyptian, to a lesser degree Greek, and to a very slight extent Jewish in character.

Hermetic Communities

Who, then, actually wrote the "books of Hermes," which, since their rediscovery in the fifteenth century, have played such a significant role in our culture? The writings are all anonymous: their mythic author is considered to be Hermes himself. The reasoning behind this pseudonymous approach is simple. Hermes is Wisdom, and thus anything written through the inspiration of true wisdom is in actuality written by Hermes. The human scribe does not matter; certainly his name is of no significance.

Customs of this sort have not been uncommon in mystical literature. The Kabbalistic text known as the Zohar, currently believed to have been written in the medieval period, claims to be the work of Shimon bar Yohai, a rabbi of the second century A.D. Two of the best-known Christian mystical classics, The Cloud of Unknowing and Theologia Germanica, were written anonymously.

The members of the Hermetic communities were people who, brought up in the immemorial Egyptian religious tradition, offered their own version of the religion of gnosis, which others propounded in a manner more appropriate to the psyches of other national backgrounds, notably Hebrew, Syrian, or Mesopotamian. Sir W.M.F. Petrie³ presents us with a study of such Pagan monks and hermits who gathered together in the deserts of Egypt and other lands. He tells us of the monks' attention to cleanliness, their silence during meals, their seclusion and meditative piety. It would seem that the Hermeticists were recluses of this kind. Unlike the Gnostics, who were mostly living secular lives in cities, the Hermeticists followed a lifestyle similar to the kind Josephus attributes to the Essenes.

When it came to beliefs, it is likely that the Hermeticists and Gnostics were close spiritual relatives. The two schools had a great deal in common, their principal difference being that the Hermeticists looked to the archetypal figure of Hermes as the embodiment of salvific teaching and initiation, while the Gnostics revered the more recent savior figure known as Jesus in a similar manner. Both groups were singularly devoted to gnosis, which they understood to be the experience of liberating interior knowledge; both looked upon embodiment as a limitation that led to unconsciousness, from which only gnosis can liberate the human spirit. Most of the Hermetic teachings closely correspond to fundamental ideas of the Gnostics. There were also some, mostly minor, divergences between the two, to which we shall refer later.

Judging by their writings and by the repute they enjoyed among their contemporaries, the members of the Hermetic communities were inspired persons who firmly believed that they were in touch with the Source of all truth, the very embodiment of divine Wisdom himself.

Indeed there are many passages in the Hermetic writings in which we can still perceive the vibrant inspiration, the exaltation of spirit, in the words whereby they attempt to describe the wonders disclosed to their mystic vision. Like the Gnostics, of whom Jung said that they worked with original, compelling images of the deep unconscious, the Hermeticists experienced powerful and extraordinary insights to which they tried to give expression in their writings. Intense feeling generated by personal spiritual experience pervades most of the Hermetic documents.

The Hermetic Curriculum

Until comparatively recently there was very little information available concerning the method of spiritual progress that the Hermeticists may have followed. The Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in 1945, contains at least one scripture whose content is unmistakably Hermetic. This is Tractate 6 of Codex VI, whose title is usually translated as The Discourse on the Eight and the Ninth. On the basis of this discourse, one of its early translators suggested a scheme of progress that was followed by some of the schools of Hermeticists.⁴

A Hermetic catechumen would begin with a process of conversion, induced by such activities as reading some of the less technical Hermetic literature or listening to a public discourse. A period of probation, including instruction received in a public setting, was required before progressing to the next stage.

This phase would be characterized by a period of philosophical and catechetical studies based on certain Hermetic works. (The Asclepius and the Kore Kosmou may be examples of such study material.) This instruction was imparted to small groups.

The next step entailed a progress through the Seven Spheres or Hebdomad, conducted in a tutorial format, one student at a time. This seems to have been a process of an experiential nature, aided by inspiring topical discourses. In this progression, the candidate is envisioned as beginning his journey from earth and ascending through the planets to a region of freedom from immediate cosmic influences. (The planets were regarded mostly as influences of restriction, which the ascending spirit must overcome.) One may note a close resemblance of this gradual ascent to similar ascensions outlined in various Gnostic sources, as well as to the later Kabbalistic patchwork on the Tree of Life.

The final step was what may be called the Mystery Liturgy of Hermes Trismegistus, of which The Discourse of the Eighth and the Ninth is often regarded as a good example. Here the Hermeticist is spiritually reborn in a transcendental region beyond the seven planets. His status is now that of a pneumatic, or man of the spirit. (Note once again the similarity with Gnosticism.) This level entails an experience of a very profound, initiatory change of consciousness wherein the initiate becomes one with the deeper self resident in his soul, which is a portion of the essence of God. This experience takes place in a totally private setting. The only persons present are the initiate and the initiator (called "son" and "father" in this text). The liturgy takes the form of a dialogue between these two.

The Hermeticists had their own sacraments as well. These appear to have consisted primarily of a form of baptism with water and an anointing resembling "a baptism and a chrism" as mentioned in the Gnostic Gospel of Philip. The Corpus Hermeticum mentions an anointing with "ambrosial water" and a self-administered baptism in a sacred vessel, the krater, sent down by Hermes from the heavenly realms.

The Hermetic Writings

The original number of Hermetic writings must have been considerable. A good many of these were lost during the systematic destruction of non-Christian literature that took place between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. Ancient writers often indicate the existence of such works: in the first century A.D., Plutarch refers to Hermes the Thrice-Greatest; the third-century Church Father Clement of Alexandria says that the books of Hermes treat of Egyptian religion;⁵ and Tertullian, Iamblichus, and Porphyry all seem to be acquainted with Hermetic literature. Scott shows how the ancient Middle Eastern city of Harran harbored both Hermeticists and Hermetic books into the Muslim period.⁶

A thousand years later, in 1460, the ruler of Florence, Cosimo de' Medici, acquired several previously lost Hermetic texts that had been found in the Byzantine Empire. These works were thought to be the work of a historical figure named Hermes Trismegistus who was considered to be a contemporary of Moses. Translated by the learned and enthusiastic Marsilio Ficino and others, the Hermetic books soon gained the attention of an intelligentsia that was starved for a more creative approach to spirituality than had been hitherto available.

The most extensive collection of Hermetic writings is the Corpus Hermeticum, a set of about seventeen short Greek texts. Another collection as made by a scholar named John Stobaeus in the firth century A.D. Two other, longer texts stand alone. The first is the Asclepius, preserved in a Latin translation dating probably from the third century A.D. The second takes the form of a dialogue between Isis and Horus and has the unusual title of Kore Kosmou, which means "daughter of the world."

The reaction of the Christian establishment to these writings was ambivalent. It is true that they were never condemned and were even revered by many prominent ecclesiastics. An authoritative volume of the Hermetic books was printed in Ferrara in 1593, for example. It was edited by one Cardinal Patrizzi, who recommended that these works should replace Aristotle as the basis for Christian philosophy and should be diligently studied in schools and monasteries. The mind boggles at the turn Western culture might have taken had Hermetic teachings replaced Aristotelian theology of Thomas Aquinas as the normative doctrine of the Catholic Church!

Such, however, was not to be. One of the chief propagandists of Hermeticism, the brilliant friar Giordano Bruno, was burnt at the stake as a heretic in 1600, and although others continued with their enthusiasm for the fascinating teachings of the books of Hermes, the suspicions and doubts of the narrow-minded continued to dampen any general ardor.

By the seventeenth century, the Hermetic books had enjoyed intermittent popularity in Europe for some 150 years. The coming of the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing religious strife, however, stimulated a tendency toward rationalistic orthodoxy in all quarter. Another factor was the work of the scholar Isaac Casaubon, who used internal evidence in the texts to prove that they had been written, not by a contemporary of Moses, but early in the Christian era.⁷

By the eighteenth century, the Hermetic teachings were totally eclipsed, and the new scholarship, which prided itself on its opposition to everything it called "superstition," took a dim view of this ancient fountainhead of mystical and occult lore. There wasn't even a critical, academically respectable edition of the Corpus Hermeticum until Walter Scott's Hermetica appeared in 1924.

If one needs an example of how egregiously academic scholarship can err and then persist in its errors, one need only contemplate the "official" scholarly views of the Hermetic books over the 150-year period up to the middle of the twentieth century. The general view was that these writings were Neoplatonic or anti-Christian forgeries, of no value to the study of religion. By the middle of the nineteenth century, such scholars as Gustave Parthey⁸ and Louis Menard⁹ began to raise objections to the forgery theory, but it took another 50 years for their views to gain a hearing.

The Occult Connection and the Hermetic Renaissance

Although the Hermetic system has undeniably influenced much of the best of Christian thought, the most abiding impact of Hermeticism on Western culture came about by way of the heterodox mystical, or occult, tradition. Renaissance occultism, with its alchemy, astrology, ceremonial magic, and occult medicine, became saturated with the teachings of the Hermetic books. This content has remained a permanent part of the occult transmissions of the West, and, along with Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, represents the foundation of all the major Western occult currents. Hermetic elements are demonstrably present in the school of Jacob Boehme and in the Rosicrucian and Masonic movements, for example.

It was not long before this tradition, wedded to secret orders of initiates and their arcane truths, gave way to a more public transmission of their teachings. This occurred initially by way of the work of H.P. Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society in the late nineteenth century.

G.R.S. Mead, a young, educated English Theosophist who became a close associate of Mme. Blavatsky in the last years of her life, was the main agent of the revival of Gnostic and Hermetic wisdom among the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century occultists. Mead first became known for his translation of the great Gnostic work Pistis Sophia, which appeared in 1890-91. In 1906 he published the three volumes of Thrice Greatest Hermes, in which he collected all the then-available Hermetic documents while adding insightful commentaries of his own.¹⁰ This volume was followed by other, smaller works of a similar order. Mead's impact on the renewal of interest in Hermeticism and Gnosticism in our century should not be underestimated.

A half-century later, we find another seminal figure who effectively bridged the gap between the occult and the academic. The British scholar Dame Frances A. Yates may be considered the true inaugurator of the modern Hermetic renaissance. Beginning with a work on Giordano Bruno and continuing with a number of others, Yates not only proved the immense influence of Hermeticism on the medieval Renaissance but showed the connections between Hermetic currents and later developments, including the Rosicrucian Enlightenment - itself the title of one of her books.

While some decades ago it might have appeared that the line of transmission extending from Greco-Egyptian wisdom might come to an end, today the picture appears more hopeful. The discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi Library generated a great interest in matters Gnostic that does not seem to have abated with the passage of time. Because of the close affinity of the Hermetic writings to the Gnostic ones, the present interest in Gnosticism extends to Hermeticism as well. Most collections of Gnostic scriptures published today include some Hermetic material.

Gnosticism and Hermeticism flourished in the same period; they are equally concerned with personal knowledge of God and the soul, and equally emphatic that the soul can only escape from its bondage to material existence if it attains to true ecstatic understanding (gnosis). It was once fashionable to characterize Hermeticism as "optimistic" in contract to Gnostic "pessimism," but such differences are currently being stressed less than they had been. The Nag Hammadi scriptures have brought to light a side of Gnosticism that joins it more closely to Hermeticism than many would have thought possible.

There are apparent contradictions, not only between Hermetic and Gnostic writings, but within the Hermetic materials themselves. Such contradictions loom large when one contemplates these systems from the outside, but they can be much more easily reconciled by one who steps inside the systems and views them from within. One possible key to such paradoxes is the likelihood that the words in these scriptures were the results of transcendental states of consciousness experienced by their writers. Such words were never meant to define supernatural matters, but only to intimate their impact upon experience.

From a contemporary view, the figure of Hermes, both in its Greek and its Egyptian manifestations, stands as an archetype of transformation through reconciliation of the opposites. (Certainly Jung and other archetypally oriented psychologists viewed Hermes in this light.) If we are inclined to this view, we should rejoice over the renewed interest in Hermes and his timeless gnosis. If we conjure up the famed image of the swift god, replete with winged helmet, sandals, and caduceus, we might still be able to ask him to reconcile the divisions and contradictions of this lower realm in the embrace of enlightened consciousness. And since, like all gods, he is immortal, he might be able to fulfill our request as he did for his devotees of old!