Corpus Hermeticum 13: The Discourse of Hermes to Tat · 1 of 5 · tr. G.R.S. Mead
Section 1a
The Secret Sermon on the Mountain <This dialogue is in many ways the culmination of the whole Corpus, summing up the theory of the Hermetic system at the same time as it provides an intriguing glimpse at the practice.
The focus of the dialogue is the experience of Rebirth, which involves the replacement of twelve Tormentors within the self by ten divine Powers, leading to the awakening of knowledge of the self and God.
<The "Secret Hymnody" (sections 17-20) is presented as a litany for worship, to be performed twice each day, at sunrise and sunset.
It's interesting to note that while the sunrise worship is performed facing east, the sunset worship is done to the south; Egyptian tradition from Pharaonic times onward saw the west as the direction of death.
1.
Tat: [Now] in the General Sermons, father, thou didst speak in riddles most unclear, conversing on Divinity; and when thou saidst no man could e'er be saved before Rebirth, thy meaning thou didst hide.
Further, when I became thy Suppliant, in Wending up the Mount, after thou hadst conversed with me, and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth (for this beyond all other things is just the thing I know not), thou saidst, that thou wouldst give it me - "when thou shalt have become a stranger to the world".
Wherefore I got me ready and made the thought in me a stranger to the world-illusion.
And now do thou fill up the things that fall short in me with what thou saidst would give me the tradition of Rebirth, setting it forth in speech or in the secret way.
I know not, O Thrice-greatest one, from out what matter and what womb Man comes to birth, or of what seed.
2.
Hermes: Wisdom that understands in silence [such is the matter and the womb from out which Man is born], and the True Good the seed.
Tat: Who is the sower, father?
For I am altogether at a loss.
Hermes: It is the Will of God, my son.
Tat: And of what kind is he that is begotten, father?
For I have no share of that essence in me, which doth transcend the senses.
The one that is begot will be another one from God, God's Son?
Hermes: All in all, out of all powers composed.
Tat: Thou tellest me a riddle, father, and dost not speak as father unto son.
Hermes: This Race, my son, is never taught; but when He willeth it, its memory is restored by God.
3.
Tat: Thou sayest things impossible, O father, things that are forced.
Hence answers would I have direct unto these things.
Am I a son strange to my father's race?
Keep it not, father, back from me.
I am a true-born son; explain to me the manner of Rebirth.
Hermes: What may I say, my son?
I can but tell thee this.
Whene'er I see within myself the Simple Vision brought to birth out of God's mercy, I have passed through myself into a Body that can never die.
And now i am not as I was before; but I am born in Mind.
The way to do this is not taught, and it cannot be seen by the compounded element by means of which thou seest.
Yea, I have had my former composed form dismembered for me.
I am no longer touched, but I have touch; I have dimension too; and [yet] am I a stranger to them now.
Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.
[auto] The passage describes the replacement of 'twelve Tormentors within the self', which functionally corresponds to the concept of archons in Hermeticism.
Eckhart's signature doctrine that the Father eternally begets the Son in the ground of the soul; the human interior as the actual site of the divine generative act, distinct from inner_light's static indwelling.
The 'Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth' is given to the soul, suggesting the divine word is born within.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
Hermes attributes the sowing of man to the 'Will of God' and states that memory is restored 'when He willeth it.'
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The goal of Rebirth is to become 'God's Son' and be composed of 'all powers,' implying transformation into the divine.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The intro notes mention a 'litany for worship' to be performed, indicating ritual practice.