Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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The Shepherd, Mind of all masterhood,1 hath not passed on to me more than hath been writ down, for full well did He know that I should of myself be able to learn all, and hear what I should wish, and see all things.
He left to me the making of fair things 2 ; wherefore the Powers within me, e'en as they are in all,3 break into song.
16. Tat. Father, I wish to hear; I long to know these things.
Her. Be still, my son ; hear the Praise-giving now that keeps [the soul] in tune, Hymn of Re-birth — a hymn I would not have thought fit so readily to tell, had'st thou not reached the end of all.
Wherefore this is not taught, but is kept hid in silence.
Thus then, my son, stand in a place uncovered to the sky, facing the southern wind,4 about the sinking of the setting sun, and make thy worship ; so in like manner too when he doth rise, with face to the east wind.
Now, son, be still !
struck thy tent and left the tomb of thy daimonic soul" (y\>v 5' #T6 5$; (T/cfjf oy nfi> e\u(Too, (TTjjua 5' f\€ityas tyvxy5 Sai/Aoyfrjj). Porphyry, Plotini Vita, xxii. ; c/. Ex. vii. 3 ; Ex. iii. 1.
1 Cf. C. H., i. 2.
2 Sc. psalms and praise-giving.
3 Sc. prophets.
4 Also used of the south-west quarter. The " south wind " is thought to have extended from SSE. to W.
THE SECRET HYMNODY
17. Let every nature of the World receive the utterance of my hymn !
Open thou Earth ! Let every bolt of the
Abyss be drawn for me. Stir not, ye Trees !
I am about to hymn creation's Lord, both All and One.
Ye Heavens open, and ye Winds stay still ;
[and] let God's deathless Sphere receive my
word (logos) \
For I will sing the praise of Him who founded all; who fixed the Earth, and hung up Heaven, and gave command that Ocean should afford sweet water [to the Earth], to both those parts that are inhabited and those that are not, for the support and use of every man ; who made the Fire to shine for gods and men for every act.
Let us together all give praise to Him, sublime above the Heavens, of every nature Lord !
'Tis He who is the Eye of Mind ; may He accept the praise of these my Powers !
18. Ye Powers that are within me, hymn the One and All ; sing with my Will, Powers all that are within me !
0 blessed Gnosis, by thee illumined, hymning through thee the Light that mind alone can see,1 I joy in Joy of Mind.
1 rb voifrbv 0«*.
Sing with me praises all ye Powers !
Sing praise, my Self - control ; sing thou through me, my Eighteousness, the praises of the Righteous ; sing thou, my Sharing-all, the praises of the All ; through me sing, Truth, Truth's praises f
Sing thou, 0 Good, the Good ! 0 Life and
Light, from us to you our praises flow !
Father, I give Thee thanks, to Thee Thou
Energy of all my Powers ; I give Thee thanks,
0 God, Thou Power of all my Energies !
19. Thy Reason (Logos) sings through me Thy praises. Take back through me the All into [Thy] Reason — [my] reasonable oblation l !
Thus cry the Powers in me. They sing Thy praise, Thou All ; they do Thy Will.
From Thee Thy Will2; to Thee the All.
Receive from all their reasonable oblation. The
All that is in us, 0 Life, preserve ; 0 Light
illumine it ; 0 God in-spirit it.3
It is Thy Mind that plays the Shepherd4 to Thy Word,5 0 Thou Creator, Bestower of the Spirit [upon all].6
1 Cf. below, § 21.
2 Cf. P. S. A., Comment, and R. 39, n. 1.
3 The Spirit being Light and Life.
4 iroipaivfi, acts as a shepherd or feeds ; Poemandres is thus the Shepherd of men or the feeder of men, He who gives them the heavenly food.
5 The Word or Reason or true Man in man.
6 Trvtvij.a.To<j>6pe
20. [For] Thou art God; Thy Man1 thus cries to Thee through Fire, through Air, through Earth, through Water, [and] through Spirit, through Thy creatures.
'Tis from Thy Mon I have found Praise-giving ;
and in Thy Will,2 the object of my search, have
I found rest.
Tat. By thy good pleasure 3 have I seen this Praise-giving being sung,4' 0 father ; I have set it in my Cosmos too.
Her. Say in the Cosmos that thy mind alone can see, my son.
Tat. Yea, father, in the Cosmos that the mind alone can see ; for I have been made able by thy Hymn, and by thy Praise-giving my mind hath been illumined. Bat further I myself as well would from my natural mind send praise-giving to God.
21. Her. But not unheedfully, my son.
Tat. Ay. What I behold in mind, that do I say.