Library / Hermeticism / Corpus Hermeticum 6: The All-Father ← Section 1a Corpus Hermeticum 7: The Seven Powers, Section 1 → So then, Asclepius, the name alone of Good is found in men, the thing itself nowhere [in them], for this can never be.
For no material body doth contain It - a thing bound on all sides by bad, by labors, pains, desires and passions, by error and by foolish thoughts.
And greatest ill of all, Asclepius, is that each of these things that have been said above, is thought down here to be the greatest good.
And what is still an even greater ill, is belly-lust, the error that doth lead the band of all the other ills - the thing that makes us turn down here from Good.
4.
And I, for my part, give thanks to God, that He hath cast it in my mind about the Gnosis of the Good, that it can never be It should be in the world.
For that the world is "fullness" of the bad, but God of Good, and Good of God.
The excellencies of the Beautiful are round the very essence [of the Good]; nay, they do seem too pure, too unalloyed; perchance 'tis they that are themselves Its essences.
For one may dare to say, Asclepius - if essence, sooth, He have - God's essence is the Beautiful; the Beautiful is further also Good.
There is no Good that can be got from objects in the world.
For all the things that fall beneath the eye are image-things and pictures as it were; while those that do not meet [the eye are the realities], especially the [essence] of the Beautiful and Good.
Just as the eye cannot see God, so can it not behold the Beautiful and Good.
For that they are integral parts of God, wedded to Him alone, inseparate familiars, most beloved, with whom God is Himself in love, or they with God.
5.
If thou canst God conceive, thou shalt conceive the Beautiful and Good, transcending Light, made lighter than the Light by God.
That Beauty is beyond compare, inimitate that Good, e'en as God is Himself.
As, then, thou dost conceive of God, conceive the Beautiful and Good.
For they cannot be joined with aught of other things that live, since they can never be divorced from God.
Seek'st thou for God, thou seekest for the Beautiful.
One is the Path that leadeth unto It - Devotion joined with Gnosis.
6.
And thus it is that they who do not know and do not tread Devotion's Path, do dare to call man beautiful and good, though he have ne'er e'en in his visions seen a whit that's Good, but is enveloped with every kind of bad, and thinks the bad is good, and thus doth make unceasing use of it, and even feareth that it should be ta'en from him, so straining every nerve not only to preserve but even to increase it.
Such are the things that men call good and beautiful, Asclepius - things which we cannot flee or hate; for hardest thing of all is that we've need of them and cannot live without them.
§ Ask Guru about this passage → Themes
Apophatic Theologytheology Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The divine is described negatively by stating what it does not inhabit ('no material body doth contain It').
All passages → Body As Obstacleanthropology The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
[auto] The text states that no material body can contain the Good because it is bound by bad, pains, and desires.
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 centrally contrasts God/Good with the material world/bad, establishing an ontological opposition between spirit and matter.
All passages → Divine Hiddennesstheology The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The realities of the Beautiful and Good do not meet the eye and are concealed from ordinary perception.
All passages → Divine Simplicitytheology The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
[auto] The assertion that 'Good is God Himself' implies an undivided, simple divine essence without composite attributes.
All passages → Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
[auto] The speaker explicitly thanks God for the 'Gnosis of the Good,' highlighting direct knowledge as a key spiritual attainment.
All passages → Kenomacosmology The void or emptiness outside the pleroma; the realm of matter, ignorance, and deficiency.
The material world is described as the 'fullness of the bad,' conceptually aligning with the realm of deficiency and ignorance outside the divine.
All passages → Monadcosmology The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The identification of Good with God suggests a singular, undivided first principle from which existence flows.
All passages → Pleromacosmology The divine fullness or totality of the highest realm, populated by aeons and divine attributes, contrasted with the deficient material world.
God is described as the 'fullness' of Good, contrasting with the world's fullness of bad, mirroring the divine totality concept.
All passages → Rejection Of Hypocrisyethics Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.
[auto] The passage critiques humans for possessing only the 'name alone of Good' while lacking the thing itself, highlighting form without substance.
All passages → Separation From Sourcesoteriology The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The text describes humanity as turned down from Good and enveloped in bad, indicating a state of exile from the divine.
All passages → Related passages · 15 of 59 parallels
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“Now in the former treatises the course of the argument, as it came down from the highest to the lowest categories, embraced an ever-widening number of conceptions which increased at each stage of the descent, but in the present treatise it…”
Shared concept: Apophatic Theology — Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa. (derived)
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Shared concept: Divine Simplicity — The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being. (derived)
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“Your next inquiry doubts, “ how some of the Gods are beneficent, but others malefic .” This opinion, therefore, is assumed from the predictors of nativities.
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Shared concept: Pleroma — The divine fullness or totality of the highest realm, populated by aeons and divine attributes, contrasted with the deficient material world. (derived)
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Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
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“Their ultimate nature, which they possess in their own original being, is beyond Mind and beyond all Being and Knowledge.
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Shared concept: Divine Hiddenness — The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father. (derived)
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“"All sacrificing without faith and divine desire is an p.
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Shared concept: Rejection Of Hypocrisy — Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance. (derived)
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“In the reduction of your soul to its simplest self, its divine essence, you realize this union—this identity.
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Shared concept: Separation From Source — The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive. (derived)
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“"All was closed, and I saw no more." "For the folly of feeling a little bodily pain I unwisely lost for the time the comfort of all this blessed Shewing of our Lord God" And after this the good Lord shewed the Sixteenth [Revelation] on the…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
gnosticism | Gospel of Thomas | Logion 71
“Jesus said, "I shall destroy this house, and no one will be able to build it [...]."…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
greek_mystery | The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 9 (part 2)
“Or in the third place, it is impelled when it is not proper, and to objects to which it ought not to tend.
22.
Endeavour not to conceal your errors p.
49 by words, but to remedy them by reproof.
23.
It is not so difficult to err, as no…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
hinduism | Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 19
“Subjective consciousness arising from a natural cause is possessed by those who have laid aside their bodies and been absorbed into subjective nature. Those who have died, entered the paradise between births, are in a condition resembling m…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
hinduism | Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 31
“Grieving, despondency, bodily restlessness, the drawing in and sending forth of the life-breath also contribute to drive the psychic nature to and fro. The first two moods are easily understood. We can well see bow a sodden psychic conditio…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
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Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
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Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
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Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
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