Corpus Hermeticum 13: The Discourse of Hermes to Tat
§ About this work
The collection opens with the narrator's vision of the Being Man-Shepherd (Poimandres), Mind of all-masterhood, who reveals the Light, the making of Man, the ascent through the Harmony to the Eighth, and sends the narrator to preach Gnosis. In the Serapeum, Hermes leads Asclepius to establish that the bodiless space containing all motion is God, Cause named Good and Father. The Sacred Sermon narrates cosmogony from Chaos, Darkness, and Water to men born for gnosis. Hermes then addresses Tat across several discourses: the Epistles, where Mind is set as a prize in a Cup; a discourse on the Unmanifest God who is all names and no name; the All-Father, locating Good in God alone; the Seven Powers, rebuking ignorance; and the Eight Sphere, denying true death. The Decalogue treats sense and thought and Cosmos as God's Son; the Sermon on the Mount describes souls' transformations and Gnosis as the Way Up. In the Hymn, Mind instructs Thrice-greatest Hermes on God, Aeon, Cosmos, Time, and Becoming; the Prayer teaches Mind as pilot against passion and Fate; the Discourse to Tat unfolds Rebirth, the twelve Tormentors driven out by ten Powers, and the Secret Hymnody. Hermes writes to Asclepius (to Ammon) on the One Maker who sows Immortality, Change, Life, and Motion. In the Definitions, Asclepius addresses King Ammon on God as All and One, the Sun as Demiurge, and Heimarmenē; a fragmentary discourse treats bodiless things in bodies and reflexions, the King postponing converse. The Encomium of Kings closes with musician analogies, ascending to God then descending to praise Kings, where Love works the harmony.
Tat reminds Hermes that in the General Sermons he spoke in riddles about Divinity and said no man could be saved before Rebirth, and recalls that Hermes promised the Sermon on Rebirth once Tat became a stranger to the world; Tat declares he has done so and asks how Man comes to birth. Hermes answers that the womb is Wisdom understanding in silence and the seed the True Good; the sower is the Will of God, and the begotten is composed of all powers. Hermes says the Race is never taught but restored by God's memory. He describes seeing within himself the Simple Vision and being born in Mind, his former form dismembered. Tat says he no longer sees himself. Hermes names the author of Rebirth as the Son of God, the One Man, by God's Will. Hermes describes what is true: unchanging, colorless, incomprehensible to sense. He tells Tat to withdraw into himself and purge the brutish torments. Hermes lists twelve Tormentors: Not-knowing, Grief, Intemperance, Concupiscence, Unrighteousness, Avarice, Error, Envy, Guile, Anger, Rashness, Malice. He invokes the Powers—Gnosis, Joy, Self-control, Continence, Righteousness, Sharing-with-all, Truth, Good, Life, Light—each driving out a torment. When the Ten drives out the Twelve, the Birth is complete and men become Gods. Tat declares he sees the All and himself in Mind. Hermes explains the twelve types-of-life and the Ten containing the One. He warns against telling the multitude. Tat asks about the Praise-giving Hermes heard at the Ogdoad; Hermes instructs him to worship facing south at sunset, east at sunrise. The Secret Hymnody follows, praising the Lord of all through the Powers. Tat sings his own praise-giving. Hermes bids him keep silence on the manner of Rebirth.
Section 1aSection 1bSection 1cSection 1dSection 1e