Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

* De Gen. Anim., II. i. 613c.

s Bibl, clxxxv. 8 Tim., 1079F.

TROTH THE LOGOS

But to resume. We have seen that Thoth was considered to be the " heart " and " tongue " of Ea the Supreme — that is, not only the reason and mental powers of the god Ea, and the means whereby they were translated into speech, but rather the Controller of the life and Instrument of the utterance of the Supreme Will ; He was the Logos in the fullest sense of that mysterious name, the Creative Word. He it is who utters the " words" whereby the Will of the Supreme is carried into effect, and his utterance is that of Necessity and Law ; his " words " are not the words of feeble human speech, but the compelling orders of the Creative Will.

" He spoke the words which resulted in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and he taught Isis the words which enabled her to revivify the dead body of Osiris, in suchwise that Osiris could beget a child by her ; and he gave her the formulae which brought back her son Horus to life after he had been stung to death by a scorpion."

All of which, I believe, refers microcosmically to the mystery of the resurrection from the dead, by the power of the Logos. " Osiris " must die before he can be raised, and beget a son, who is himself, by immaculate conception within his own spiritual nature. " Horus " must be poisoned to death by the scorpion of " Typhon " before he can be raised by the baptism of the pure waters of Life.

THE WORDS OF THOTH

Thoth's "knowledge and powers of calculation measured out the heavens and planned the earth, and everything which is in them ; his will and power kept the forces in heaven and earth in equilibrium ; it was his skill in celestial mathematics which made proper use of the laws (madt) upon which the foundation and maintenance of the universe rested ; it was he who directed the motions of the heavenly bodies and their times and seasons ; and without his words the gods, whose existence depended upon them, could not have kept their place among the followers of Ra" — but would presumably have disappeared into another universe.

Thoth is the Judge of the dead, the Eecorder and Balancer of all " words," the Recording Angel ; for the testing of the soul in the Balance of the Hall of Osiris is called the " weighing of words " and not of " actions." But these "words" were not the words a man uttered, nor even the " reasons " he thought he had for his deeds, but the innermost intentions of his soul, the ways of the will of his being.

This doctrine of "words" as expressions of will, however, had, in addition to its moral significance, a magical application. "The whole efficacy of prayer appears to have depended upon the manner and tone of voice in which the words were spoken."

It was Thoth who taught these words-of-power and how to utter them; he was the Master of what the Hindus would call mantra-vidya, or the science of invocation or sacred chanting. These mantrdh were held in ancient Egypt, as they were and are to-day in India, and elsewhere among knowers of such matters, of special efficacy in affecting the "bodies" and conditions of that fluid nature which exists midway between the comparative solidity of normal physical nature and the fixed nature of the mind.

These " words " were connected with vital " breath " and the knowing use of it ; that is to say, they were only really efficacious when the spoken words of physical sound corresponded naturally in their vowels and consonants, or their fluid and fixed elements, with the permutations and combinations of the inner elements of Nature; they then and only then were mad or true or authentic or real — that is to say, they were " words-of -power " in that they compelled matter to shape itself according to true cosmic notions.

Thus in a book called The Book of Breathings, it is said : " Thoth, the most mighty God, the Lord of Khemennu, cometh to thee, and he writeth for thee The Book of Breathings with his own fingers.1 Thus thy soul shall breathe for ever and ever, and thy form shall be endowed with life upon earth, and thou shalt be made a God, along with the souls of the Gods, and they shall be the heart of Ea [for thee], and thy members shall be the members of the Great God."

THOTH AND THE OSIRIFIED