Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

1. THE Glory of all things is God, Godhead and Godly Nature. Source of the things that are is God, who is both Mind and Nature, — yea Matter, the Wisdom that reveals all things. Source [too] is Godhead, — yea Nature, Energy, Necessity, and End, and Making-new-again.1

Darkness that knew no bounds was in Abyss, and Water [too] and subtle Breath intelligent ; these were by Power of God in Chaos.

Then Holy Light arose ; and there collected 'neath Dry Space2 from out Moist Essence

1 Cf. P. S. A., xxvi 2.

2 Lit. u Sand " ; this presumably refers to the Light, and would thus mean " within the area or sphere of Light " — that is to say, manifestation. The " Moist Essence" is apparently the Water of Chaos, or primal substance.

Elements ; and all the Gods do separate things out from fecund Nature.

2. All things being undefined and yet unwrought, the light things were assigned unto the height, the heavy ones had their foundations laid down underneath the moist part of Dry Space,1 the universal things being bounded off by Fire and hanged in Breath to keep them up.

And 2 Heaven was seen in seven circles ; its Gods were visible in forms of stars with all their signs; while Nature had her members made articulate together with the Gods in her. And [Heaven's] periphery revolved in cyclic course, borne on by Breath of God.

3. And every God by his own proper power brought forth what was appointed him. Thus there arose four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and those that in the water dwell, and things with wings, and everything that beareth seed, and grass, and shoot of every flower, all having in themselves seed of again-becoming.3

And they selected out 4 the births 5 of men for gnosis of the works of God and attestation of the energy of Nature; the multitude of men for presumably the "Water" of space. The heavy things are apparently primaeval or cosmic " Earth."

2 The emended text from here to the end of the first sentence of § 3 is given by R. 47, n. 1.

3 Or " reincarnation " (Tra\iyyfvffflas).

4 Iffirtpnohtyovv. 5 reks yevffftts.

lordship over all beneath the Heaven and gnosis of its blessings, that they might increase in increasing and multiply in multitude, and every soul infleshed by revolution of the Cyclic Gods, for observation of the marvels of the Heaven and Heaven's Gods' revolution, and of the works of God and energy of Nature, for tokens of its blessings, for gnosis of the power of God, that they might know the fates that follow good and evil [deeds] and learn the cunning work of all good arts.

4. [Thus] there begins their living and their growing wise, according to the fate appointed by the revolution of the Cyclic Gods, and their deceasing for this end.

And there shall be memorials mighty of their handiworks upon the earth, leaving dim trace behind when cycles are renewed.

For every birth of flesh ensouled, and of the fruit of seed, and every handiwork, though it decay, shall of necessity renew itself, both by the renovation of the Gods and by the turning-round of Nature's rhythmic wheel.

For that whereas the Godhead is Nature's ever-making-new-again the cosmic mixture, Nature herself is also co-established in that Godhead.

COMMENTARY

TEXT AND TITLE

The text seems to be very corrupt, and at one time I thought it incomplete ; but it may very well end with the reference to the mighty deeds of the men of old.

The title " Sacred Sermon " would lead us to expect something of a special nature, something that would constitute a basis of doctrine. For we hear of the " Sacred Sermon " of Orpheus, and of the " Sacred Sermon " of Pythagoras, and are told that they formed the most sacred deposits of these two mystic schools respectively, and were regarded with special reverence ; they thus seem to have been looked upon in some fashion as containing the groundwork of these systems.

And this is precisely what we find with our treatise ; it is to a large extent a summary of the general ideas of the "Shepherd" cosmogony adapted to the needs of a simpler formularization.