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

2. I adjure thee, 0 Light, holy ray, breadth-depthlength-height-ray, by the holy names which I have uttered,2 and am now about to speak . . . abide with me in this same hour, until I have besought thy God, and learnt about the things that I desire !

(c) The Theagogy or Invocation of the God proper

3. Thee I invoke, thou mightiest God and Master . . . thou who enlightenest all and pour's t thy rays by means of thine own power on all the world, 0 God of gods!

4. 0 Word (Logos) that orderest night and day, who guid'st the ship,3 and hold'st the helm, thou dragonslayer,4 Good Holy Daimon . . . !

5. To whom the East and West give praise as thou dost rise and set, thou who art blest by all the gods, angels, and daimones !

6. Come, show thyself to me, 0 God of gods . . . !

7. Enter, make manifest thyself to me, 0 Lord ; for I invoke as the three apes invoke thee — who symbol-wise name forth thy holy Name.

1 See Dieterich, Jahrb. f. Phil, Suppl., xvi. 802, 171, and 706. Compare also Ephes. iii. 18, and the Valentinian interpretation of the terms in this text as given by Hippolytus, Philos.y vi. 34 (Dunker and Schneidewin, p. 248) ; also the interpretation of the Light Hymn in Pistis Sophia, 146, where the " height " is identified with the " home " of the Light.

2 The magic names of power are omitted, as in the other prayers.

3 Horus is often represented as pilot of the sun-ship in its voyage across the ocean of space, the " Great Green."

* The dragon here undoubtedly meaning darkness. Cf. G. H.,i. 4.

8. In thy ape-form1 enter, appear to me, 0 Lord; for I name forth thy mightiest names !

9. 0 thou who hast thy throne about the height of cosmos,2 and judgest all, encircled with the sphere of Surety and Truth!3

10. Enter, appear to me, 0 Lord, for that I was before the fire and snow, and shall be after [them] ;

11. I am the one who has been born from heaven.4

12. Enter, appear to me, 0 Lord of mighty names, whom all have in their hearts,5 who dost burst open rocks,6 and mak'st the names of gods to move !

13. Enter, appear to me, 0 Lord, who hast thy power and strength in tire, who hast thy throne within the seven poles.7

1 d>y K^voKt(f>a\os. Can it be possible that behind this strange symbolism there may once have been some such idea as this — that as the ape is to man, so was this great elemental to the God ?

2 Lit., art seated on the head of cosmos.

3 That is the Eternity or ^Eon, called elsewhere the Pleroma or "fullness of grace," and identified with Agathodaimon (see prayer, R. 30). See also Wessely, op. cit.t 185 (R. 362) ; and compare John i. 14, " full of grace and truth " ; and 16, " Of his fullness have we received, and grace for grace."

4 The regenerate, or spirit-born — that is of " virgin-birth" or the " birth of Horus." But compare the declaration of the soul on its entrance into the unseen world after death, as given on an inscription found in the tomb of an Orphic or Pythagorean initiate, at Petilia, in what was once Magna Greecia : " Of Earth and starry Heaven child am I ; my race is of the Heavens ! " (See Inscr. Gr. Sicilice et Italics, 638 ; and my " Notes on the Eleusinian Mysteries," Theosophical Review, xxii. 317.)

6 These are the logoi hidden in the hearts of all.

6 This may be merely a figurative expression in praise of the might that can not only dissolve the most stable things on earth, but also set in motion the centre of stability of spiritual essences ; or it may refer to the idea of the " God born from the rock," which is most familiar to us from the Mithriac mystery-tradition, where the rock is said to symbolise in physics the " firmament," which was thought of as solid or rigid by the ancients.

7 That is, the seven cosmic spheres.

14. And on thy head a golden crown, and in thy hand a staff . . .l by which thou sendest forth the gods !

15. Enter, 0 Lord, and give me answer with thy holy voice, that I may clearly hear and truthfully about this thing !

(d) A Stronger Form of Adjuration if (c) fails