Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
2 f15ca\ov, or image or double. The theurgist is endeavouring to identify his ka with that of the god. It was with his ka also, presumably, that the consecrated statue of the god was "animated." Compare the exposition of this theory as given in P. S. A., and the " image " or "likeness of God " in Lactantius, ii. 10. According to the Egyptians, man possessed : (1) a physical body (khat) ; (2) a soul (6a) ; (3) a heart (ab) ; (4) a double (ka) ; (5) an intelligence (khu) ; (6) a power (sekhem) ; (7) a shadow (khaibif) • (8) a spiritual body (sdh [stc]) ; (9) a name (reri). See Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, ii. 299, 300. These are, of course, not arranged in any natural order or in a scientific distribution. The precise meaning of most of these terms is not known. Budge (op. tit., i. 163, 164), however, writes : " Related intimately to the body, but with undefined functions, as far as we can discover, was the sekhem, a word which has been translated ' power,' and ' form,' and even ' vital force ' ; finally the glorified body, to which had been united the soul, and spirit and power, and name of the deceased, had its abode in heaven. This new body of the deceased in heaven was called sdhu."
3 Thoth and Maat are represented as sitting on either side of
Ra in his boat.
IV. AN INVOCATION TO THOTH AS LOGOS
[Revised text, R. 22. Leemans, op. cit., II. 103, 7 ; Dieterich, op. cit., 189.]
1. Thee I invoke alone, thou who alone in all the world imposest order upon gods and men,1 who dost transform thyself in holy forms,2 making to be from things that are not, and from the things that are making the not to be.
2. O holy Thoth,3 the true sight of whose face none of the gods endures !
3. Make me to be in every creature's name4 — wolf, dog, [or] lion, fire, tree, [or] vulture,5 wall,6 [or] water,7 or what thou will'st, for thou art able [so to do].
V. AN INVOCATION TO HERMES AS THE SPIRITUAL LIGHT
[Revised text> R. 22, 23. Leemans, ibid., II. 87, 24 ; Dieterich, ibid., 176, 1.]
1. Thee I invoke who hast created all, who dost transcend the whole, the self-begotten God, who seest all and hearest all, but who art seen by none.
2. For thou didst give the sun his glory and all might, the moon her increase and her decrease, and [unto both] their ordained course. Though thou didst not diminish aught the [powers of] darkness, the still
1 That is, Hermes as the cosmic Logos.
2 Thoth changes his form in every heaven-space or sphere. Compare G. H., i. 13 ; and also the same idea in the descent of the Christos in a number of Gnostic systems, where the Saviour and King conceals himself in the forms of his servants in every phase of his descent. Cf. also 0. H., xi. (xii.) 16.
3 6a.vO.
4 That is, essence, or may be type.
5 Presumably a symbol for air.
6 Presumably a symbol for earth.
7 Compare G. H., xi. (xii.) 20 ; and P. S. A., vi.
more ancient [than the sun and moon], thou mad'st them equal [with it].1
3. For when thou didst shine forth, Cosmos came into being, and light appeared, and all things were dispensed through thee ; wherefore they all are under thee.
4. 0 thou, whose actual form none of the gods can see, who dost transform thyself into them all in visions [that men see], 0 thou Eternity of the eternity.2
5. Thee I invoke, 0 Lord, that thy true form may manifest to me, for that I am in servitude below thy world,3 slave to thy angel and unto thy fear.4
6. Through thee the pole and earth are fixed.
7. Thee I invoke, O Lord, e'en as the gods whom thou hast made to shine, that they may have their power.
The above prayers afford us some striking examples of the popular Hellenistic form of the Hermes religion,5
1 With the Egyptians, Darkness was the mystery of all mysteries. As Damascius (On First Principles) says : " Of the first principle the Egyptians said nothing ; but characterised it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a thrice unknown Darkness " (oWi-os &yvo>ffrov rpls TOVTO eiri<f>ri[i.i£ovTfs). See my Orpheus (London, 1896), p. 93, and for "Night," pp. 154 and 170 if. Perhaps this may again give some clue to the initiation " in the black " of the K. K. excerpt. The " dark wisdom " was the hidden of the hidden.
2 al&v aluvos. In another hymn, Hermes, as Logos, is called "Cosmos of cosmos" (R. 23, n. 1) — that is, the spiritual world or order.
3 That is the spiritual cosmos, or cosmos of Mind.