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

It should, however, be remembered that this must not be taken in its absolute sense even for the initiate, much less for the uninitiated. For even in the mystic schools themselves, as we may see from our treatises, there were three modes in which knowledge could be communicated — " By simple instruction, by distant vision, or by personal participation." 2 For indeed there were many phases of being, many steps of the great ladder, each in ever greater fullness embracing the stages mentioned, each a reflection or copy of a higher phase.

Thus, for example, " the solemn address, described in the Sai-an-Sinsin, of the ' Gods in the House of Osiris,' followed by the response of the ' Gods in the House of Glory' — the joyous song of the holy departed who stand victorious before the judgment-seat, echoed triumphantly by the inner chorus of their beloved who have gone before them into the fullness of life " 3 — must be taken as indicative of several stages. Such, for instance, as the normal union of the man's consciousness with that

1 Op. tit., pp. 103, 104. « Op. cit., p. 148. s Op. tit., p. 120.

of his higher ego, after exhausting his spiritual aspirations in the intermediate heaven-world — this is the joining the " those-that-are " of " The Shepherd " treatise, in other words, the harvest of those past lives of his that are worthy of immortality; or again the still higher union of the initiated with the " pure mind " ; or again the still sublimer union of the Master with the nirvanic consciousness; and so on perchance to still greater Glories.

Thus we are told that the new twice-born, on his initiation, "clothed in power and crowned with light, traverses the abodes or scenes of his former weakness, there to discern, by his own enlightened perception, how it is ' Osiris who satisfies the balance of Him who rules the heavens'; to exert in its supernal freedom his creative will, now the lord, not the slave of the senses; and to rejoice in the just suffering which wrought his Illumination and Mastery." x

But higher and still higher he has yet to soar beyond earth and planets and even beyond the sun, " across the awful chasms of the unfathomable depths to far-off Sothis, the Land of Eternal Dawn, to the Ante-chamber of the Infinite Morning." 2

AN ILLUMINATIVE STUDY

Many other passages of great beauty and deep interest could we quote from the pages of Marsh am Adams' illuminative study, but enough has been said for our purpose. The Wisdom of Egypt was the main source of our treatises without a doubt. Even if only one-hundredth part of what our author writes were the truth, our case would be established ; and if Egypt did not teach this Wisdom, then we must perforce bow 1 Op. tit., p. 185. 2 Op. tit., p. 186.

down before Mr Adams as the inventor of one of the most grandiose religions of the universe. But the student of inner nature knows that it is not an invention, and though, if he be a scholar at the same time, he cannot but regret that Mr Adams has omitted his references, he must leave the critics to one or other of the horns of the dilemma; they must either declare that our author has invented it all and pay homage to what in that case would be his sublime genius, or admit that the ancient texts themselves have inspired Mr Adams with these ideas. And if this be a foretaste of what Egypt has preserved for us, what may not the future reveal to continued study and sympathetic interpretation !

VOL. i.

IV

THE POPULAK THEURGIC HEEMES-CULT IN
THE GEEEK MAGIC PAPYEI

THE "EELIGION OF HERMES"