Corpus Hermeticum XVI: The Definitions of Asclepius unto King Ammon · 4 of 6 · tr. G.R.S. Mead
Section 1d
1 The daimons, therefore, exercise the whole of this terrene economy, 2 using our bodies as [their] instruments.
And this economy Hermes has called Heimarmenē.
3 17.
The World Intelligible, 4 then, depends from God; the Sensible from the Intelligible [World].
The Sun, through the Intelligible and the Sensible Cosmos, pours forth abundantly the stream from God of Good,—that is, the demiurgic operation.
And round the Sun are the Eight Spheres, dependent from Him—the [Sphere] of the p.
276 [paragraph continues] Non-wandering Ones, the Six [Spheres] of the Wanderers, and one Circumterrene.
And from the Spheres depend the daimones; and from these, men.
And thus all things and all [of them] depend from God.
1 18.
Wherefore God is the Sire of all; the Sun’s [their] Demiurge; the Cosmos is the instrument of demiurgic operation.
Intelligible Essence regulateth Heaven; and Heaven, the Gods; the daimones, ranked underneath the Gods, regulate men.
This is the host 2 of Gods and daimones.
3 Through these God makes all things for His own self.
And all [of them] are parts of God; and if they all [are] parts—then, God is all.
Thus, making all, He makes Himself; nor ever can He cease [His making], for He Himself is ceaseless.
4 Just, then, as God doth have no end and no beginning, so doth His making have no end and no beginning.
5 * * * * * Footnotes 266:1 At the end after P.
S.
A.
, but the pages are unnumbered.
267:1 This presumably means from the hieroglyphic into the demotic—τῇ πατρῷᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἐρμηνευόμενος.
267:2 Lit.
the mind.
267:3 Or, perhaps, smartness.
267:4 Make jejune, so to say—ἐξίτηλον ποιήσῃ.
267:5 That is, “words of power,” words that do things.
268:1 Cf.
R.
127, 3; and P.
S.
A.
, i.
1.
268:2 Lit.
mind.
268:3 The construction is very elliptical; ἐκδεξάμενος simply.
268:4 That is, completeness, perfection,—πληρώματος.
268:5 Cf.
Plato, Soph.
, 259 D, E.
269:1 Cf.
P.
S.
A.
, iv.
1.
269:2 Sc.
Earth.
269:3 A magazine, a store-house,—ταμιεῖον.
The term “treasure” (θησαυρός) is found in most lavish use in the Greek-Coptic Gnostic works, and also in Christian Gnostic literature and Jewish Apocalyptic.
269:4 Sc.
matter’s.
269:5 τὴν ἄνωθεν ὕπαρξιν,— hyparxis , substance or subsistence, a word of frequent use and highly technical meaning with the last of the Neo-Platonists, especially with Proclus.
Cf.
C.
H.
, x.
(xi.) 2.
269:6 Cf.
P.
S.
A.
, xxix.
4.
269:7 Lit.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
A regulatory chain is described where Intelligible Essence regulates Heaven, Heaven regulates Gods, and Daimones regulate men.
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.
The passage describes the terrene economy exercised by daimons as Heimarmenē (Fate), ordered by God.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The passage explicitly outlines a chain of dependence flowing from God through the Intelligible and Sensible Worlds, Spheres, and Daimones down to men.
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 text states that all things are parts of God, implying an ontological participation in the divine nature.