Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Corpus Hermeticum·That God Is Unseen Yet Most Manifest

Source context

Theme

divine invisibility paradoxically inseparable from divine omnipresence and manifest fullness

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

not engaged in the GA corpus

Cross-tradition

• Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Enneads)The One in Plotinus is beyond all predication and utterly without form, yet is the source of all that is manifest — a structural parallel to the Hermetic claim that the unseen God is most fully disclosed through the totality of creation.
• Vedanta (Upanishadic tradition)The Upanishadic formula neti neti (not this, not this) holds that Brahman transcends every positive attribute while simultaneously being the inner self of all manifest things — a cross-tradition congruence with the chapter's paradox of divine hiddenness and ubiquity.
• Kabbalah (Ein Sof doctrine)The Kabbalistic Ein Sof (Infinite Without End) is utterly concealed and bears no positive description, yet its light structures every Sefirah and thus every level of manifest existence — a cross-tradition congruence with the apophatic-yet-manifest Hermetic deity.

That God Is Unseen Yet Most Manifest

This discourse I share with you, O Tat, so that you may not remain ignorant of the most excellent name of God.

Contemplate in your mind how that which seems hidden and unmanifest to many may become most manifest to you.

For if it were apparent to all, it would not encompass everything. Whatever is apparent is generated or made—it was made manifest.

But that which is unmanifest exists eternally.

It does not need to be made manifest, for it always is.

Being unmanifest and eternal, He makes all other things manifest, yet He Himself is not made manifest.

He is not made, yet in imagination He envisions all things; in appearance, He makes them appear. For appearance pertains only to things that are generated or made; appearance is nothing but generation.

But He is the One who is neither made nor generated; He is also unapparent and unmanifest.

Yet, by making all things appear, He appears in all and through all; but especially, He is manifested in those things wherein He chooses.

Therefore, O Tat, my son, pray first to the Lord and Father—the One and Only—from whom mercy flows to you, that you may know and understand so great a God, and that He may shine one of His beams upon your understanding.

For only the understanding perceives that which is not manifest or apparent, as it is itself not manifest or apparent. And if you can, O Tat, it will appear to the eyes of your mind.

For the Lord, free from envy, appears throughout the whole world. You may perceive His intelligence, grasp it in your mind, and contemplate the image of God.

But if that which is within you is not known or apparent to you, how can He within you be seen and appear to you through your eyes?

But if you wish to see Him, consider and understand the sun; consider the course of the moon; consider the order of the stars.

Who is it that maintains this order? For all order is defined by number and place.

The sun is the greatest of the gods in heaven, to whom all the heavenly gods yield, as to a king and potentate. Yet, being so great—greater than the earth or the sea—he is content to allow countless lesser stars to move above him. Whom does he fear in the meantime, O son?

Each of these stars in heaven follows a unique course; who has prescribed to each the manner and magnitude of their paths?

The constellation known as the Bear turns around itself and carries the whole world with it. Who possesses and crafted such an instrument?

Who has set the boundaries of the sea? Who has established the earth? For there must be someone, O Tat, who is the Maker and Lord of these things.

For it is impossible, O son, that place, number, or measure should exist without a Maker.

No order can arise from disorder or disproportion.

I wish it were possible for you, O my son, to have wings and fly into the air, and being lifted up between heaven and earth, to see the stability of the earth, the fluidity of the sea, the courses of the rivers, the vastness of the air, the sharpness and swiftness of fire, the motion of the stars, and the speed of the heavens as they circle around all these.

O son, what a joyful sight it would be to see all these at once—to see that which is unmovable moved, and that which is hidden appear and be manifest.

And if you wish to see and behold this Workman, even through mortal things upon earth and in the depths, consider, O son, how man is formed in the womb. Examine diligently the skill and artistry of the Workman. Learn who it was that wrought and fashioned the beautiful and divine shape of man. Who defined and outlined his eyes? Who formed his nostrils and ears? Who opened his mouth? Who stretched out and connected his sinews? Who channeled the veins? Who hardened and strengthened the bones? Who clothed the flesh with skin? Who divided the fingers and the joints? Who flattened and broadened the soles of the feet? Who carved the pores? Who stretched out the spleen? Who shaped the heart like a pyramid? Who made the liver broad? Who made the lungs spongy and full of air spaces? Who made the belly large and capacious? Who placed the more honorable parts in plain view and hid the unseemly ones?

See how many arts are combined in one material, how many works in one form—all exceedingly beautiful, all made with measure, yet all differing.

Who has made all these things? What mother? What father? None but God, who is unmanifest, who made all things by His own will.

No one says that a statue or an image is made without a sculptor or painter; was this workmanship made without a Workman? O great blindness, O great impiety, O great ignorance!

Never, O son Tat, can you separate the workmanship from the Workman. Rather, the best name of all the names of God is to call Him the Father of all, for so He is alone; and this is His work—to be the Father.

And if you urge me to speak more boldly, it is His essence to be pregnant with all things and to make them.

And just as it is impossible for anything to be made without a Maker, so it is impossible that He should not always be, and always be making all things—in heaven, in the air, on earth, in the depths, in the whole world, andin every part of the whole that is or that is not.

For there is nothing in the whole world that is not Himself—both the things that are and the things that are not.

For the things that are, He has made manifest; and the things that are not, He has hidden within Himself.

This is God, who is better than any name; this is He who is secret; this is He who is most manifest; this is He who is to be seen by the mind; this is He who is visible to the eye; this is He who has no body; and this is He who has many bodies. Rather, there is nothing of any body which is not He.

For He alone is all things.

And for this reason, He has all names, because He is the One Father; and therefore, He has no name, because He is the Father of all.

Who, then, can bless you or give thanks for you or to you?

Which way shall I look when I praise you?

Upward? Downward? Outward? Inward?

For around you there is no direction, no place, nor anything else of all things that exist.

But all things are in you; all things come from. you; you give all things and take nothing, for you have all things, and there is nothing that you do not have.

When shall I praise you, O Father? For it is neither possible to comprehend your hour nor your time.

For what shall I praise you? For what you have made or for what you have not made? For those things you have manifested or for those things you have hidden?

Why shall I praise you—as being of myself or having anything of my own, or rather being another's?

For you are what I am; you are what I do; you are what I say.

You are all things, and there is nothing else you are not.

You are you—all that is made and all that is not made.

The Mind that understands.

The Father that makes and forms.

The Good that works.

The Good that does all things.

Of matter, the most subtle and delicate part is air; of air, the soul; of the soul, the mind; of the mind, God.

The Sixth Book. Called "That in God alone is Good."

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