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

1 Ibid., § 48 ; M. i. 224, P. 186 (Ri. i. 314).
3 Leg. Alleg., i. § 32 ; M. i. 64, P. 59 (Ri. i. 87).

are able to cloak them and guard them " from the unworthy.1

With regard to these Mysteries, they were, as we might expect, divided into the Lesser and the Greater — in the former of which the neophytes " worked on the untamed and savage passions, as though they were softening the [dough3 of their] food with reason (logos)."

The manner of preparing this divine food, so that it becomes the bread of life, was a mystery.3

One of the doctrines revealed in these Lesser Mysteries was plainly that of the Trinity ; for, commenting on Gen. xviii. 2 : " And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him " — Philo writes :

" ' He lifted up his eyes/ not the eyes of his body, for God cannot be seen by the senses, but by the soul [alone] ; for at a fitting time He is discovered by the eyes of wisdom.

" Now the power of sight of the souls of the many and unrighteous is ever shut in, since it lies dead in deep sleep, and can never respond and be made awake to the things of nature and the types and ideas within her. But the spiritual eyes of the wise man are awake, and behold them ; nay, they are sleeplessly alert, ever watchful from desire of seeing.

" Wherefore it is well said in the plural, that he raised not one eye, but all the eyes that are in the soul, so that one would have said that he was altogether all eye. Having, then, become the eye, he begins to see the holy and divine vision of the Lord, in such a fashion that the one vision appeared as a trinity, and the trinity as a unity." 4

1 Leg. Alleg., ii. § xv. ; M. i. 76, P. 1097 (Ri. i. 106).

2 Which they brought out of Egypt — that is, the body.

3 De Sacrif., § 16 ; M. i. 174, P. 139 (Ei. i. 245).

4 Qucest. in Gen., iv. § 2; P. Auch. 243 (Ei. vii. 61).

Elsewhere, referring to the same story, and to the words of Abraham to Sarah " to hasten and knead three measures of fine meal, and to make cakes upon the hearth,"1 Philo expounds the mystery at length as follows. It refers to that experience of the inner life :

"When God, accompanied by His two highest Potencies, Dominion (apxn) and Goodness, making One [with Himself] in the midst, produces in the seeing soul a triple presentation, of which [three persons] each transcends all measure ; for God transcendeth all delineation, and equally transcendent are His Potencies, but He [Himself] doth measure all.

" Accordingly, His Goodness is the measure of things good, and His Dominion is the measure of things subject, while He Himself is chief of all, both corporeal and incorporeal.2

" Wherefore also these Potencies, receiving the Eeason (Logos) of His rules and ordinances, measure out all things below them. And, therefore, it is right that these three measures should, as it were, be mingled and blended together in the soul, in order that, being persuaded that He is Highest God, who transcendeth His Potencies, both making Himself manifest without them, and also causing Himself to be seen in them, it [the soul] may receive His impressions (^a/aa/cr^pa?), and powers, and blessings, and [so] becoming initiate into the perfect secrets, may not lightly disclose the divine Mysteries, but, treasuring them up, and keeping sure silence, guard them in secret.

"For it is written: 'Make [them] secret,'— for the sacred sermon (\dyov) of initiation (fjivtrr^v) about the Ingenerable and about His Potencies ought to be kept

1 Gen. xviii. 6.

2 That is, apparently, the " good " = the "incorporeal," and the
"subject" =the "corporeal."

secret, since it is not within the power of every man to guard the sacred trust (TrapaKaTaB^Ktjv) of the divine revelations (opyuav)." l

CONCEKNING THE SACRED MARRIAGE

But the chief of all the mysteries for Philo was, apparently, the Sacred Marriage, the mystic union of the soul, as female, with God, as male (Deo nubere). In this connection he refers to Gen. iv. 1 :

" And Adam knew his wife. And she conceived and bare Cain. And she said : / have gotten a man by means of the Lord. And He caused her also to bring forth Abel his brother."2