{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "hermetic-corpus", "name": "Corpus Hermeticum", "stream": "egyptian-hebrew", "epoch_reflected": "egypto-chaldean", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "hermetic philosophy", "tradition": "Hermetic", "author": "Anonymous (Greek-Egyptian Hermetists, c. 100–300 CE)", "year_approx": 200, "note": "Greek philosophical-religious treatises ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus and composed in Egypt c. 100–300 CE — the discourses of Hermes with Tat, Asclepius, and Ammon on cosmogony, the divine Mind, and the ascent of the soul. Together with the *Asclepius* and the Stobaean *Excerpts*, the textual basis of Renaissance Hermeticism.", "books_slug": "hermes-trismegistus--corpus-hermeticum", "books_slugs": null, "has_project_translation": false, "steiner_loci": [ "GA 60: The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World — Hermes / Mercury", "GA 123: The Gospel of St. Matthew — Hermes as an individuality", "GA 106: Egyptian Myths and Mysteries — Hermetic mystery-stream" ] }, "parents": [], "translation": { "title": null, "author": null, "source": null }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "01-the-first-book", "title": "The First Book", "words": 1055, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/01-the-first-book/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/01-the-first-book.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "I. *Poimandres* — the Shepherd of Men", "blurb": "The opening and most famous treatise of the *Corpus Hermeticum*. Hermes' great vision: *Poimandres*, the Shepherd of Men, reveals the cosmic origin of the human being — the Logos descending into Nature, Anthropos falling from the height into matter, the path of return through the seven planetary gates." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "02-second-book-called", "title": "Second Book. Called", "words": 2817, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/02-second-book-called/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/02-second-book-called.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "II. Universal Sermon — *to Asclepius*", "blurb": "The second treatise, addressed by Hermes to Asclepius. The universal sermon on the divine mind and its descent through the orders of being. The *will* of the Father is the source of every existence; what proceeds from him does so by a necessity that is yet wholly free." }, { "num": 3, "slug": "03-the-third-book-called-the-holy-sermon", "title": "The Third Book. Called \"The Holy Sermon.\"", "words": 404, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/03-the-third-book-called-the-holy-sermon/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/03-the-third-book-called-the-holy-sermon.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "III. The Holy Sermon — *Sacred Discourse*", "blurb": "The brief but doctrinally weighted third treatise. The cosmogony reaffirmed: God's making is by his Word; the dignity of man as the creature who can know the divine source. Establishes the high anthropology that the later treatises elaborate." }, { "num": 4, "slug": "04-the-fourth-book-called-the-key", "title": "The Fourth Book. Called “The Key.\"", "words": 2623, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/04-the-fourth-book-called-the-key/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/04-the-fourth-book-called-the-key.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "IV. The Key (*Kratir*) — Hermes to Tat", "blurb": "*The Bowl* or *The Key* — Hermes to his son Tat on the *Bowl* (κρατήρ) that God filled with *Nous* (Mind) and sent down for those who would bathe in it. The dual ranks of mankind: those who have received Nous, and those who remained in the realm of perception only." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "05-that-god-is-unseen-yet-most-manifest", "title": "That God Is Unseen Yet Most Manifest", "words": 1346, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/05-that-god-is-unseen-yet-most-manifest/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/05-that-god-is-unseen-yet-most-manifest.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "V. That God is Unseen yet Most Manifest", "blurb": "The fifth treatise's central paradox: God is invisible — yet most manifest. Manifest in everything because everything proceeds from him; invisible because no finite sense or thought can encompass the infinite source. The Hermetic apophatic-kataphatic tension." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "06-goodness-exists-only-in-god", "title": "Goodness Exists Only in God", "words": 2469, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/06-goodness-exists-only-in-god/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/06-goodness-exists-only-in-god.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "VI. Goodness exists only in God", "blurb": "On the radical thesis that the good in its proper sense is found only in God. Whatever appears good in creatures is good only by participation in the divine goodness; nothing finite is good in itself; the good is the divine, and the divine alone is good in the strict sense." }, { "num": 7, "slug": "07-the-secret-hymn-the-holy-speech", "title": "The Secret Hymn: The Holy Speech", "words": 9850, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/07-the-secret-hymn-the-holy-speech/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/07-the-secret-hymn-the-holy-speech.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "VII. The Secret Hymn — the Holy Speech", "blurb": "The closing-hymn fragment. A liturgical-poetic passage in which the Hermetic disciple addresses the Father in the words of *holy speech*. The model of every later Hermetic invocation; the prayer of one who has 'received Nous from the Bowl'." }, { "num": 8, "slug": "08-understanding-and-sense", "title": "Understanding and Sense.\"", "words": 4098, "url": "/sources/hermetic-corpus/08-understanding-and-sense/", "api": "/api/sources/hermetic-corpus/08-understanding-and-sense.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "VIII. Understanding and Sense", "blurb": "On the two faculties — *nous* (understanding) and *aisthēsis* (sense) — and the relation between them. Sense binds the soul to the world; understanding releases the soul to the divine source. The discipline of subordinating sense to understanding is the Hermetic path of return." } ] }