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1At this point the question naturally arises, “of what personal or selfish benefit is the propagation of error to the inhabitants of the dark satellite?” The answer is simply this, it furnishes them with the means of prolonging their external existence while on earth, and supplies them with an additional lease of life in the world to come; as will be made manifest from the Hermetic laws of death given below. According to Hermetic laws, death is not what is known as physical dissolution, but is a failure on the part of the human being to polarize the atoms which constitute his soul so he may realize immortality. It is, therefore, a falling from the human plane to the animal plane, where conscious existence may be pro¬ longed indefinitely by means of dark magical arts. The following are an accurate rendering of the real ideas as taught by Hermes Trismegistus. THE LAWS OF DEATH I. “As it is below, so it is above; as on the earth, so in the sky.” II. “There are two states of being; one is mortal, the other is immortal.” III. “That which is mortal is dissolvable, and dissolvable bodies pass away like a mist in the morning.” THE DARK SATELLITE 157 IV. “An immortal body is an essence which is eternal and incorruptible.” V. “But the twain, the mortal and the immortal, cannot exist together forever, but each returneth to the place from whence it came.” VI. “The mortal body is sensible, but the immortal is reasonable.”
2VII. “The former contains nothing that is perfect, the latter nothing that is imperfect; for the one is the essence of the matter, and the other the essence of spirit, and man, the microcosm, holds the balance of the twain.” VIII. “And there is a fierce warfare for the victory, between the lower and the upper, as they both desire to obtain the body as their prize; for the state of man is envied by the lower and glorified as a noble state by the higher.” IX. “Now if the man inclines toward the lower nature which is mortal, he thereby aids the lower imperfect powers to oppose the higher which is immortal, and must suffer the pains of slavery for his disobedience to the Work-Man, his maker. But if he inclines to the higher, then he is truly wise and blest.” X. “Should man, after being attracted by the vanities of the world and then, after obtaining a knowledge of the things that are, return to the vanities of the world, he will be punished with torments and fire in the darkest states of disembodied souls.” XI. “Should a man after knowing the things that are become rebellious of restraint to that part which is immortal, and return to the vanities of the world, the higher essence will straightway depart from him, and he will become the slave of the lower essence which will seize upon him and drive him to all sorts of wicked arts and evil ways.”
3XII. “When man has thus impiously disobeyed his Creator and turned his face away from that which is immortal, behold, he is then disinherited from his birthright, and is no longer counted among the children of God, because he has become an evil, perverse thing, possessing only those things which are mortal, and he is punished with death.” XIII. “And so death is meted out to all those who rebel against their Creator impiously, because they know the things that are. But to those foolish souls who are ignorant, and who have not knowingly Gooqle 158 THE LIGHT OF EGYPT rejected their Creator, behold, they are purified after much suffering and are sent to the world again.” The teachings involved in the above laws are so clear, so simple, and we may also add so divinely just, that to attempt in any way to explain or annotate them would only be to sow the first seeds of error and misunderstanding. We will, therefore, leave them with the reader as they are, pure and free from the mental bias of any mortal being.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1At this point the question naturally arises, “of what personal or selfish benefit is the propagation of error to the inhabitants of the dark satellite?” The answer is simply this, it furnishes them with the means of prolonging their external existence while on earth, and supplies them with an additional lease of life in the world to come; as will be made manifest from the Hermetic laws of death given below. According to Hermetic laws, death is not what is known as physical dissolution, but is a failure on the part of the human being to polarize the atoms which constitute his soul so he may realize immortality. It is, therefore, a falling from the human plane to the animal plane, where conscious existence may be pro¬ longed indefinitely by means of dark magical arts. The following are an accurate rendering of the real ideas as taught by Hermes Trismegistus. THE LAWS OF DEATH I. “As it is below, so it is above; as on the earth, so in the sky.” II. “There are two states of being; one is mortal, the other is immortal.” III. “That which is mortal is dissolvable, and dissolvable bodies pass away like a mist in the morning.” THE DARK SATELLITE 157 IV. “An immortal body is an essence which is eternal and incorruptible.” V. “But the twain, the mortal and the immortal, cannot exist together forever, but each returneth to the place from whence it came.” VI. “The mortal body is sensible, but the immortal is reasonable.”
2VII. “The former contains nothing that is perfect, the latter nothing that is imperfect; for the one is the essence of the matter, and the other the essence of spirit, and man, the microcosm, holds the balance of the twain.” VIII. “And there is a fierce warfare for the victory, between the lower and the upper, as they both desire to obtain the body as their prize; for the state of man is envied by the lower and glorified as a noble state by the higher.” IX. “Now if the man inclines toward the lower nature which is mortal, he thereby aids the lower imperfect powers to oppose the higher which is immortal, and must suffer the pains of slavery for his disobedience to the Work-Man, his maker. But if he inclines to the higher, then he is truly wise and blest.” X. “Should man, after being attracted by the vanities of the world and then, after obtaining a knowledge of the things that are, return to the vanities of the world, he will be punished with torments and fire in the darkest states of disembodied souls.” XI. “Should a man after knowing the things that are become rebellious of restraint to that part which is immortal, and return to the vanities of the world, the higher essence will straightway depart from him, and he will become the slave of the lower essence which will seize upon him and drive him to all sorts of wicked arts and evil ways.”
3XII. “When man has thus impiously disobeyed his Creator and turned his face away from that which is immortal, behold, he is then disinherited from his birthright, and is no longer counted among the children of God, because he has become an evil, perverse thing, possessing only those things which are mortal, and he is punished with death.” XIII. “And so death is meted out to all those who rebel against their Creator impiously, because they know the things that are. But to those foolish souls who are ignorant, and who have not knowingly Gooqle 158 THE LIGHT OF EGYPT rejected their Creator, behold, they are purified after much suffering and are sent to the world again.” The teachings involved in the above laws are so clear, so simple, and we may also add so divinely just, that to attempt in any way to explain or annotate them would only be to sow the first seeds of error and misunderstanding. We will, therefore, leave them with the reader as they are, pure and free from the mental bias of any mortal being.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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