Corpus Hermeticum
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.
Source context· Egyptian-Hebrew stream · Egypto-Chaldean cultural impulse
- Stream
- Egyptian-Hebrew
- Cultural impulse
- Egypto-Chaldean (3rd post-Atlantean cultural age)
- Composed
- c. 200 CE
- Written down
- Greco-Latin (4th post-Atlantean cultural age) manuscript epoch
- 1The First Book — I. Poimandres — the Shepherd of Men
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.
1,055 words - 2Second Book. Called — II. Universal Sermon — to Asclepius
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.
2,817 words - 3The Third Book. Called "The Holy Sermon." — III. The Holy Sermon — Sacred Discourse
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.
404 words - 4The Fourth Book. Called “The Key." — IV. The Key (Kratir) — Hermes to Tat
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.
2,623 words - 5That God Is Unseen Yet Most Manifest — V. That God is Unseen yet Most Manifest
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.
1,346 words - 6Goodness Exists Only in God — VI. Goodness exists only in God
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.
2,469 words - 7The Secret Hymn: The Holy Speech — VII. The Secret Hymn — the Holy Speech
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'.
9,850 words - 8Understanding and Sense." — VIII. Understanding and Sense
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.
4,098 words
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