Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
To this idea of ancient Masters of the Gnosis in
Egypt, Lactantius refers as follows :
" And so it appears that he [Cronus] was not born from Heaven (which is impossible), but from that man who was called Uranus ; and that this is so, Trismegistus bears witness, when, in stating that there have been very few in whom the perfect science has been found, he mentioned in their number Uranus, Cronus, and Hermes his kinsfolk."3
Lactantius seems to be somewhat under the fascination of the theory of Euhemerus, and has no credence in the Heaven-born, in spite of the Christ Birth. We, however, learn from him that he knew of a statement by Hermes in this connection in which, besides Uranus and Cronus, an ancient Hermes was mentioned. Now in our treatise this is not the case, and Tat and not Hermes is the speaker ; whereas in P. S. A., xxxvii., where Hermes speaks of his progenitor Hermes, no mention is made of Uranus and Cronus. Therefore Lactantius refers to a lost treatise of Hermes.
1 Cf. § 25, where ecstasis is explained as an extension of consciousness,— a certain " greatness " (pcyeeos).
2 See the "Chart of Orphic Cosmogony," facing p. 87 of my Orpheus (London, 1896), where Uranus and Cronus are referred to the two lower of the three Noetic " planes " transcending the Sensible Universe.
3 Div. Institt., i. 11 (ed. Fritz., i. 29, 30).
OF APOTHEOSIS
6. The nature of Ecstasy is then further explained ; it is the fruit of meditation or contemplation, the consummation of the Theoretic Life.
" The Gnosis of the Good is holy silence and a giving holiday (/carapy/a) to every sense."
The Holy Silence reminds us of the Sige of the Christian Gnostics ; here, however, instead of the Mother-^Eon of Cosmos, it is used in the sense of the pure mother-nature of the little cosmos of man, the divine womb that brings to birth the true man.
With this may be compared 0. H., xiii. (xiv.) 2 :
" Wisdom conceived by mind in silence, such is the matter and the womb from out which man is born, and the true Good the seed."
It is hardly necessary to add that this is the Yoga of the Upanishads. Indeed, the first part of § 6 might be taken word for word from those sublime treatises of Vaidik theosophy, and shows how identical is the thought of those who have first-hand experience of the higher consciousness.
" For it is possible, my son, that a man's soul should be made like to God (aTroOecoOrjvat), e'en while it still is in a body, if it doth contemplate the Beauty of the Good."
This is the " deification " (aTroOewans), or " apotheosis " of a man ; he becomes like unto God, in that he becomes a god. The Beauty of the Good is the Cosmic Order ; and the mode of this meditation was to bring the soul into sympathy with the Cosmic Soul.
THE METAMORPHOSES OF THE SOUL 7. The secret of this divine operation (or theurgy) is based upon the fact that the soul can be transformed into every likeness. The Great Likeness of God is the Cosmic Order, the making oneself into this Likeness is the supreme transformation or transfiguration of the soul.
The separated or individual soul is in perpetual pilgrimage, revolving on the wheel of transformation. This doctrine was shared in by many other faiths, and it was also Egyptian.
In this connection we may refer instructively to Hippolytus' quotations from the Naassene Document (§ 3 S.):
"And they1 say that the soul is very difficult to discover, and hard to understand ; for it never remains of the same appearance, or form, or in the same state, so that we can describe it by a general type, or comprehend it by an essential quality."
On this Hippolytus comments :
"These variegated metamorphoses they2 have laid down in the Gospel superscribed 'According to the Egyptians.' "
The Gospel according to the Egyptians is lost, with the exception of a few fragments. We, however, here learn that it described the metamorphoses of the soul. It was a Gospel having its origin in Egypt and suited to Egyptian modes of thought. It follows, therefore, that the doctrine of the soul's transformation was Egyptian.3
1 The quotation is from the text of the Hellenistic Commentator, who is referring to the Chaldaeans.
2 The Gnostics Hippolytus calls the Naassenes.