Corpus Hermeticum 14: The Discourse of Hermes to Ammon
§ 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.
Thrice-Greatest Hermes writes to Asclepius, wishing him good health of soul. He explains that in Asclepius's absence his son Tat desired to learn the nature of things, so Hermes was compelled to tell him more; now he sets down the chief heads briefly for Asclepius, more mystically. He argues that all made things are made by another, so there is One who makes, unmade and more ancient—Supreme, One, Only. This Maker cannot be seen. Hermes says to comprehend Him, marvel, and count oneself blessed. He assigns three names: God for Power, Maker for Energy, Father for Good, and reduces all to two, the made and the Maker, with no third. Neither exists without the other; the Maker leads, the made follows. He states God makes no evil; passions accompany making as rust accompanies brass. He asks whether a painter can make all things yet God cannot, calling denial impiety. God's one Passion is Good. Using the image of a husbandman sowing seeds and planting trees, Hermes says God sows Immortality in Heaven, Change on Earth, Life and Motion in the universe—four in all, with God and Genesis.
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