Corpus Hermeticum 2: The Serapeum · 2 of 4 · tr. G.R.S. Mead
Section 1b
A: How is it, then, that things down here, Thrice-greatest one, are moved with those that are [already] moved?
For thou hast said the errant spheres were moved by the inerrant one.
H: This is not, O Asclepius, a moving with, but one against; they are not moved with one another, but one against the other.
It is this contrariety which turneth the resistance of their motion into rest.
For that resistance is the rest of motion.
7.
Hence, too, the errant spheres, being moved contrarily to the inerrant one, are moved by one another by mutual contrariety, [and also] by the spable one through contrariety itself.
And this can otherwise not be.
The Bears up there <i.e., Ursa Major and Minor>, which neither set nor rise, think'st thou they rest or move?
A: They move, Thrice-greatest one.
H: And what their motion, my Asclepius?
A: Motion that turns for ever round the same.
H: But revolution - motion around same - is fixed by rest.
For "round-the-same" doth stop "beyond-same".
"Beyond-same" then, being stopped, if it be steadied in "round-same" - the contrary stands firm, being rendered ever stable by its contrariety.
8.
Of this I'll give thee here on earth an instance, which the eye can see.
Regard the animals down here - a man, for instance, swimming!
The water moves, yet the resistance of his hands and feet give him stability, so that he is not borne along with it, nor sunk thereby.
A: Thou hast, Thrice-greatest one, adduced a most clear instance.
H: All motion, then, is caused in station and by station.
The motion, therefore, of the cosmos (and of every other hylic <i.e., material> animal) will not be caused by things exterior to the cosmos, but by things interior [outward] to the exterior - such [things] as soul, or spirit, or some such other thing incorporeal.
'Tis not the body that doth move the living thing in it; nay, not even the whole [body of the universe a lesser] body e'en though there be no life in it.
9.
A: What meanest thou by this, Thrice-greatest one?
Is it not bodies, then, that move the stock and stone and all the other things inanimate?
H: By no means, O Asclepius.
The something-in-the-body, the that-which-moves the thing inanimate, this surely's not a body, for that it moves the two of them - both body of the lifter and the lifted?
So that a thing that's lifeless will not move a lifeless thing.
That which doth move [another thing] is animate, in that it is the mover.
Thou seest, then, how heavy laden is the soul, for it alone doth lift two bodies.
That things, moreover, moved are moved in something as well as moved by something is clear.
10.
A: Yea, O Thrice-greatest one, things moved must needs be moved in something void.
H: Thou sayest well, O [my] Asclepius!
For naught of things that are is void.
Alone the "is-not" is void [and] stranger to subsistence.
For that which is subsistent can never change to void.
A: Are there, then, O Thrice-greatest one, no such things as an empty cask, for instance, and an empty jar, a cup and vat, and other things like unto them?
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Body As Obstacleanthropology
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
The passage asserts that 'it is not the body that doth move the living thing,' positioning the body as passive and lifeless compared to the animate soul.
All passages →Correspondencecosmology
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text explicitly uses an earthly instance (a man swimming) to explain heavenly motion, reflecting the Hermetic axiom that cosmic structures are mirrored at different scales.
All passages →Cosmic Dualismtheology
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
[auto] The passage structures cosmic reality through the fundamental opposition of motion versus rest and errant versus inerrant spheres.
All passages →Kingdom Withinanthropology
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
The cosmos is described as being moved by things interior to the exterior (soul or spirit), implying that the active divine principle resides within rather than outside.
All passages →Microcosm Macrocosmcosmology
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The human swimmer is used as an analogical instance to illustrate the mechanics of the cosmic spheres, suggesting a reflection of macrocosmic laws in microcosmic action.
All passages →Paradox As Teachingethics
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
[auto] Hermes employs counter-intuitive statements, such as motion occurring in the stable, to convey cosmological truths.
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