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

This highly authoritative form of enunciating doctrine was evidently chosen because it was desired to impart a more intimate instruction than that of the " General Sermons " and the like, — to wit, the inculcation of the ^Eon-doctrine, in connection with the marvellous doctrine of At-one-ment with all things which constitutes the Path of the Good. The doctrine is no longer " Become (or make thyself like) Cosmos," but " Become ^on"(§ 20).

Now it is remarkable that the instruction given in our treatise by the Mind to Hermes is, almost point for point, the " esoteric " teaching of which the Sermon of Hermes to Tat, entitled the " Cup or Monad "— G. H.t iv. (v.) — is the " exoteric " form.

That the instruction in these Trismegistic schools of initiation was divided into grades is manifest on all sides ; and, therefore, nothing is more natural than to find these two sermons standing in such intimate relations to one another as to doctrine, the one containing

1 C. Jul., ii. 52 ; ed. Migne, col. 580 B.

2 Gf. R. 128, i. ; 196, 3.

the more intimate and advanced explanation of the more general instruction of the other.

And that this inner instruction on the "Cup" doctrine must have been thought to be of very great value, is evident when we reflect that " The Cup " sermon was one of the most famous of all the treatises of Hermes, for, as we have seen, its title was worth being plagiarized, and the Baptism of the Cup, of which it treated, constituted the goal of the endeavour of the disciples of the School, as Zosimus tells us.

Mystically, then, the main interest of our treatise centres in the doctrine of the At-one-ment (as the inner consummation of the Baptism in the Cup or Monad), to which the ^Eon-idea is but a formal introduction ; historically, however, the introduction of the ^Eon-idea presents itself as a critical problem, for the term is not found in the '•' Poemandres," and, therefore, presumably was not used in the earliest documents of the School.

THE ^EON-LORE

When, then, did this ^Eon-idea impose itself ujton the older form of tradition of the Trismegistic schools ? This is a most important question ; for if we can in any way answer it, we shall be in a position to assign a termimis ad quern for the earlier forms of Hermetic doctrine.

The answer to the question seems to me to be involved in the supposition that the ^Eon-doctrine must have influenced " Hermeticisrn " at more or less the same date as that at which it influenced " Gnosticism."

Now " Gnosticism," in its Christianized forms, is practically never found without the ^Eon-lore.

The earliest forms of Christian Gnosis referred to by the later Patristic haeresiologists are bound up with ^onology. Not only so, but the very earliest reference to Gnosticism by any Christian writer presupposes the ^Eon-doctrine, and uses it in illustration of the spiritual state of the writer.1

The widespread influence of the ^Eon-doctrine can thus be traced back to at least the origins of Christianity.

Now as the Gnosis existed before any Christian form of it was developed, the question of the date when the ^Eon-doctrine was introduced into it must be referred to pre-Christian times.

And, indeed, the very simple character of the ^Eonlore in our treatise,2 as compared with the mindbewildering complexity and transcendency of first and second century Christian Gnosticism, is all in favour of an early date for its introduction into " Hermeticism," which is only another name for " Gnosticism " of a preponderatingly Hellenic form.

If this line of reasoning holds good, we have in it a very strong presumption that the older forms of the Trismegistic treatises were pre-Christian.

And that this is so may be seen by the absolute identity of the teaching of our treatise (§2) with that of Philo, when he writes :

" But God is the Artificer of Time as well. For He is Father of its Father; and Time's Father is the Cosmos, which manifests its motion in the genesis of Time. . . .

" This [Cosmos] then, the Younger Son, the Sensible, being set a-moving, has caused Time's nature to appear

1 Namely, Paul in his Letters, which are the earliest of all Christian documents. See my article, "Some Notes on the Gnostics," in The Nineteenth Century and After (Nov. 1902), pp. 822-835 ; and D. J. L., pp. 353 ff.

2 Perhaps the clearest exposition is to be found in P. S. A., xxx. and xxxi.