There were produced out of the Ideos, the elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth, whose birth, however, did not take place in a material mode, or by simple separation," but by spiritual and dynamical, not even complex, combinations -- e.g., mechanical mixture as opposed to chemical combination -- just as fire may come out of a pebble, or a tree out of a seed, although there is originally no fire in the pebble, nor a tree in the seed.
Spirit is living, and Life is Spirit, and Life and Spirit ( Prakriti Purusha ) (?) produce all things, but they are essentially one and not two.
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The elements too, have each one its own Yliaster, because all the activity of matter in every form is only an effluvium of the same fount.
But as from the seed grow the roots with their fibres, and after that the stalk with its branches and leaves, and lastly the flowers and seeds; likewise all beings were born from the elements, and consist of elementary substances out of which other forms may come into existence, bearing the characteristics of their parents." ("This doctrine, preached 300 years ago," remarks the translator, "is identical with the one that has revolutionized modern thought, after having been put into new shape and elaborated by Darwin.
It was still more elaborated by Kapila in the Sankhya philosophy") .
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The elements as the mothers of all creatures are of an invisible, spiritual nature, and have souls.* They all spring from the " Mysterium Magnum.
" ( Philosophia ad Athenienses.
) Compare this with Vishnu Purana.
"From Pradhana (primordial substance) presided over by Kshetrajna (embodied Spirit?) proceeds the evolution of those qualities.......
From the great Principle Mahat (Universal Intellect, or mind).....
proceeds [[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]] * The Eastern Occultist says -- "are guided and informed by the Spiritual Beings" the Workmen in the invisible worlds and behind the veil of Occult nature, or nature in Abscondito.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 285 HERMES CHRISTIANIZED.
the origin of the subtle elements and from these the organs of sense ( Book I., ii.
) .
Thus it may be shown that all the fundamental truths of nature were universal in antiquity, and that the basic ideas upon spirit, matter, and the universe, or upon God, Substance, and man, were identical.
Taking the two most ancient religious philosophies on the globe, Hinduism and Hermetism, from the scriptures of India and Egypt, the identity of the two is easily recognisable.
This becomes apparent to one who reads the latest translation and rendering of the "Hermetic Fragments" just mentioned, by our late lamented friend, Dr.
Anna Kingsford.
Disfigured and tortured as these have been in their passage through Sectarian Greek and Christian hands, the translator has most ably and intuitionally seized the weak points and tried to remedy them by means of explanations and foot-notes.
And she says:..........
The creation of the visible world by the 'working gods' or Titans, as agents of the Supreme God,* is a thoroughly Hermetic idea, recognisable in all religious systems, and in accordance with modern scientific research (?), which shows us everywhere the Divine power operating through natural Forces." "That Universal Being, that contains all, and which is all, put into motion the Soul and the World, all that nature comprises, says Hermes.
In the manifold unity of universal life, the innumerable individualities distinguished by their variations, are, nevertheless, united in such a manner that the whole is one, and that everything proceeds from Unity." ( Asclepios, Part I.
) "God is not a mind, but the cause that the mind is; not a spirit, but the cause that the Spirit is; not light, but the cause that the Light is." ( Divine Pymander, Book IX., v.
64.) The above shows plainly that "Divine Pymander," however much distorted in some passages by Christian "smoothing," was nevertheless written by a philosopher, while most of the so-called "hermetic Fragments" are the production of sectarian pagans with a tendency towards an anthropomorphic Supreme Being.
Yet both are the echo of the Esoteric philosophy and the Hindu Puranas.
Compare two invocations, one to the Hermetic "Supreme All," the [[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]] * A frequent expression in the said Fragments, to which we take exception.
The Universal Mind is not a Being or "God." [[Vol.
1, Page]] 286 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
other to the "Supreme All" of the later Aryans.
Says a Hermetic Fragment cited by Suidas (see Mrs.
Kingsford's " The Virgin of the World ") : - "I adjure thee, Heaven, holy work of the great God; I adjure thee, Voice of the Father, uttered in the beginning when the universal world was framed; I adjure thee by the word, only Son of the Father who upholds all things; be favourable, be favourable." This just preceded by the following: "Thus the Ideal Light was before the Ideal Light, and the luminous Intelligence of Intelligence was always, and its unity was nothing else than the Spirit enveloping the Universe.
Out of whom is neither God nor Angels, nor any other essentials, for He (It?) is the Lord of all things and the power and the Light; and all depends on Him (It) and is in Him (It), etc." ( Fragments of the writings of Hermes to Ammon.
) This is contradicted by the very same Trismegistos, who is made to say: "To speak of God is impossible.
For corporeal cannot express the incorporeal.
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That which has not any body nor appearance, nor form, nor matter, cannot be apprehended by sense.
I understand, Tatios, I understand, that which it is impossible to define -- that is God." ( Physical Eclogues, Florilegium of Stobaeus.
) The contradiction between the two passages is evident; and this shows ( a ) that Hermes was a generic nom-de-plume used by a series of generations of mystics of every shade, and ( b ) that a great discernment has to be used before accepting a Fragment as esoteric teaching only because it is undeniably ancient.
Let us now compare the above with a like invocation in the Hindu Scriptures -- undoubtedly as old, if not far older.
Here it is Parasara, the Aryan "Hermes" who instructs Maitreya, the Indian Asclepios, and calls upon Vishnu in his triple hypostasis.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage explicitly critiques anthropomorphic tendencies in Hermetic fragments, noting 'a tendency towards an anthropomorphic Supreme Being' and contrasting this with the apophatic passages, making it a central topic of discussion.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The passage quotes 'To speak of God is impossible. For corporeal cannot express the incorporeal... that which it is impossible to define -- that is God,' a clear via negativa describing the divine only by negation.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The entire passage is a cosmogonic narrative: the production of elements from Ideos, the birth of beings from elements, the evolution from Pradhana through Mahat to subtle elements, all describing how the cosmos came into being.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
The passage identifies the 'working gods' or Titans as secondary agents who create the visible world on behalf of the Supreme God, a clear demiurgic function distinct from the transcendent source.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The passage emphasizes that God is beyond all apprehension, has 'no body nor appearance, nor form, nor matter,' and cannot be defined, presenting the supreme principle as radically concealed.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The passage states 'That Universal Being, that contains all, and which is all, put into motion the Soul and the World, all that nature comprises,' and 'all depends on Him (It) and is in Him (It),' asserting the divine pervades all of creation.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The passage references 'the Ideal Light was before the Ideal Light, and the luminous Intelligence of Intelligence was always' and 'God is not... light, but the cause that the Light is,' treating divine light as a central theological concept.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The apophatic passage describing God as having 'no body nor appearance, nor form, nor matter' and being impossible to define touches on divine simplicity as undivided being beyond all composite attributes.
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.
The passage describes a clear cascade from Ideos to elements to beings, and from Pradhana through Mahat to subtle elements and organs of sense, each level derived from the one above.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage argues for the identity of Hindu and Hermetic esoteric traditions as echoes of a common source, implying a cross-cultural chain of transmission of secret wisdom.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage emphasizes that 'a great discernment has to be used before accepting a Fragment as esoteric teaching' and that the esoteric philosophy is the source behind distorted outer texts, implying concealed inner meaning.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage explicitly states that the elements are 'of an invisible, spiritual nature' and are 'guided and informed by the Spiritual Beings... the Workmen in the invisible worlds and behind the veil of Occult nature.'
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage describes a staged descent from spirit (Pradhana, Mahat) through subtle elements to material beings, tracing a directional process of spirit unfolding into matter in successive stages.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The Hermetic invocation references 'the Voice of the Father, uttered in the beginning when the universal world was framed,' a clear logos-as-creative-word concept mediating between the transcendent and the created.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage states 'the whole is one, and that everything proceeds from Unity' and identifies Spirit and Life as 'essentially one and not two,' pointing to a single undivided source from which all multiplicity flows.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts 'Spirit is living, and Life is Spirit... they are essentially one and not two' and 'the whole is one, and that everything proceeds from Unity,' a direct non-dualist theological claim.