Library / Hermeticism / Corpus Hermeticum 7: The Seven Powers ← Corpus Hermeticum 6: The All-Father, Section 1b Corpus Hermeticum 8: The Eight Sphere, Section 1a → The Greatest Ill Among Men is Ignorance of God 1. Whither stumble ye, sots, who have sopped up the wine of ignorance and can so far not carry it that ye already even spew it forth? Stay ye, be sober, gaze upwards with the [true] eyes of the heart! And if ye cannot all, yet ye at least who can! For that the ill of ignorance doth pour o`er all the earth and overwhelm the soul that's battened down within the body, preventing it from fetching port within Salvation's harbors. 2. Be ye then not carried off by the fierce flood, but using the shore-current <lit., "back-current" or "up-current">, ye who can, make for Salvation's port, and, harboring there, seek ye for one to take you by the hand and lead you unto Gnosis' gates. Where shines clear Light, of every darkness clean; where not a single soul is drunk, but sober all they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who willeth to be seen. No ear can hear Him, nor can eye see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but [only] mind and heart. But first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear - the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption's chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation's corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice. 3. Such is the hateful cloak thou wearest - that throttles thee [and holds thee] down to it, in order that thou may'st not gaze above, and having seen the Beauty of the Truth, and Good that dwells therein, detest the bad of it; having found out the plot that it hath schemed against thee, by making void of sense those seeming things which men think senses. For that it hath with mass of matter blocked them up and crammed them full of loathsome lust, so that thou may'st not hear about the things that thou should'st hear, nor see the things thou should'st see.
§ Ask Guru about this passage → Themes
Active Contemplationpraxis A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.
[auto] It instructs to 'gaze upwards with the [true] eyes of the heart,' indicating an internal visual meditation.
All passages → Apophatic Theologytheology Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
[auto] It states God cannot be heard, seen, or spoken of by physical organs, defining the divine primarily via negation.
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 describes the soul as 'battened down within the body,' which prevents it from reaching salvation.
All passages → Cosmic Dualismtheology Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
[auto] It contrasts ignorance with sobriety, darkness with clear Light, and the material earth with Salvation's port.
All passages → Detachment Gelassenheitpraxis Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The seeker is instructed to tear off the cloak of ignorance and matter to attain salvation, representing a radical letting-go.
All passages → Divine Hiddennesstheology The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
[auto] God is described as one who 'willeth to be seen' yet cannot be perceived by ordinary senses.
All passages → Divine Lighttheology The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
[auto] It describes a realm where 'shines clear Light, of every darkness clean.'
All passages → Divine Sparkscosmology Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
[auto] The soul is depicted as trapped within the body and needing liberation to return to its source.
All passages → Evil As Privationtheology Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Ignorance is depicted as a cloak of darkness and corruption that blocks the senses from truth rather than a positive ontological entity.
All passages → Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
[auto] The passage explicitly calls for seeking 'Gnosis' gates' and knowing God through mind and heart rather than physical senses.
All passages → Inner Lightanthropology The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.
[auto] The 'eyes of the heart' and the clear Light where souls gaze suggest an internal luminous faculty.
All passages → Inner Silencepraxis The practice of stilling the mind and speech to open receptivity to divine knowledge or presence.
The call to 'be sober' contrasts with the drunkenness of ignorance, implying inner stillness.
All passages → Kingdom Withinanthropology The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
Divine perception is internal, accessible only by mind and heart rather than external senses or ears.
All passages → Meditationpraxis Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The instruction to gaze upwards with the heart's eyes functions as a contemplative practice.
All passages → Mystical Unionsoteriology The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
[auto] The goal involves gazing directly on the Divine with the heart's eyes, implying intimate encounter.
All passages → Paradox As Teachingethics Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The text uses paradoxical imagery such as 'living death' and a 'tomb thou carriest with thee' to describe the state of ignorance.
All passages → Pneumatic Electsoteriology A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.
[auto] It distinguishes between those who are drunk on ignorance and 'ye who can' achieve sobriety and salvation.
All passages → Return To Sourcesoteriology The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
[auto] The goal is described as 'fetching port within Salvation's harbors,' implying a return to the divine origin.
All passages → Ritual Puritypraxis The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.
Removing the cloak of corruption is presented as a necessary purification for encountering God.
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 soul is described as battened down within the body and overwhelmed by ignorance, preventing it from reaching Salvation's harbors.
All passages → Spiritual Ascentpraxis A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.
[auto] The text urges the listener to 'gaze upwards' and 'make for Salvation's port.'
All passages → Related passages · 11 parallels
neoplatonism | Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 85 (part 1)
“Section 10 10.
But if Matter is devoid of quality how can it be evil?
It is described as being devoid of quality in the sense only that it does not essentially possess any of the qualities which it admits and which enter into it as into a…”
Shared concept: Evil As Privation — Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness. (derived)
christian_mysticism | Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1d
“And we press upwards to those beams which in the Holy Scripture shine upon us; wherefrom we gain the light which leads us unto 55 the Divine praises 64 64 πρὸς τοὺς θεαρχικοὺς ὕμνους.
Either (1) “leads us to declare the Divine praises”; or…”
Shared concept: Return To Source — The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination. (derived)
western_esoteric | Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | 3. The Triangle Of Solomon-c
“These shells, envelopes petrified or carnified, were such an expression possible, are the source of errors or of evil, which connects with the heaviness and hardness of animal envelopes.
In the book Zohar , and in that of the Revolution of…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
neoplatonism | Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 127
“Section 5 5. It may be objected that the Intellectual-Principle possesses its content in an eternal conjunction so that the two make a perfect unity, and that thus there is no Matter there. But that argument would equally cancel the Matter…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Dualism — Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality. (derived)
neoplatonism | Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XX
“Omitting, therefore, these things, we may reasonably adduce a second cause, assigned by you, of the above mentioned particulars: viz. “ that the soul says and imagines these things, and that they are the passions of it, excited from small i…”
Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)
hinduism | Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III | Sutra 7
“This threefold power, of Attention, Meditation, Contemplation, is more interior than the means of growth previously described. Very naturally so; because the means of growth previously described were concerned with the extrication of the sp…”
Shared concept: Meditation — Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting. (derived)
hinduism | Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III | Sutra 47
“Mastery over the powers of perception and action comes through perfectly concentrated Meditation on their fivefold forms; namely, their power to grasp their distinctive nature, the element of self-consciousness in them, their inherence, and…”
Shared concept: Active Contemplation — A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness. (derived)
christian_mysticism | Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | PREFACE-a
““ Meister Eckhart ,” who has been called the “Father of German thought,” was a Dominican monk, and one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages.
He was born about 1260 A.D.
in Thuringia, and died at Cologne 1327 A.D.
In 1295 he w…”
Shared concept: Detachment Gelassenheit — Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim. (derived)
neoplatonism | Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXI
“Is, therefore, what you add in the third place more true; viz. “ that there is a certain mixed form of hypostasis, consisting of our soul and divine inspiration externally derived ?” Consider this then more accurately, lest we should be dec…”
Shared concept: Inner Light — The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection. (derived)
renaissance_hermeticism | The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogue-g
“Wherefore not only can we never discourse about things divine, but we cannot even think of them without detracting from, rather than adding to the glory of them; so that the best thing to be done with regard to them is, that man, in the pre…”
Shared concept: Inner Silence — The practice of stilling the mind and speech to open receptivity to divine knowledge or presence. (derived)
western_esoteric | Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XIX (part 7)
“In the reduction of your soul to its simplest self, its divine essence, you realize this union—this identity.
But this sublime condition is not of permanent duration.
It is only now and then that we can enjoy this elevation above the limi…”
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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