Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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It needs must, therefore, be the less should give place to the greater mysteries. The ordinance of the sublimer things transcends the lower ; it is both sure in every way and falleth 'neath no mortal's thought. Wherefore the [mysteries] below did sigh, fearing the wondrous beauty and the everlasting durance of the ones above,
'Twas worth the gazing 2 and the pains to see Heaven's beauty, beauty that seemed like God, — God who was yet unknown, and the rich majesty of Night, who weaves her web with rapid light,3 though it be less than Sun's, and of the other mysteries* in turn that move in Heaven, with ordered motions and with periods of times, with certain hidden influences 1 bestowing order on the things below and co-increasing them.
1 rb irpurov a^potrias. 2 Of Contemplation, 9tu>pias.
3 Sc. The weft; and warp of stars. 4 The planetary spheres.
2. Thus fear succeeded fear, and searching search incessant, and for so long as the Creator of the universals willed, did ignorance retain its grip on all. But when He judged it fit to manifest Him who He is, He breathed into the Gods the Loves, and freely poured the splendour 2 which He had within His heart, into their minds, in ever greater and still greater measure ; that firstly they might have the wish to seek, next they might yearn to find, and finally have power to win success as well. But this, my Horus, wonder-worthy son, could never have been done had that seed 3 been subject to death, for that as yet had no existence, but only with a soul that could vibrate responsive to the mysteries of Heaven.
3. Such was all-knowing Hermes, who saw all things, and seeing understood, and understanding had the power both to disclose and to give explanation. For what he knew, he graved on stone ; yet though he graved them onto stone he hid them mostly, keeping sure silence though in speech, that every younger age of cosmic time
, or emanations. Cf. R. 16, n. 4, for the conflation of the pure Egyptian emanation doctrine with astrological considerations.
2 Radiance or light. 3 Sc. the race of the Gods.
might seek for them. And thus, with charge unto his kinsmen of the Gods to keep sure watch, he mounted to the Stars.
To him succeeded Tat, who was at once his son and heir unto these knowledges ; and not long afterwards Asclepius-Imuth, according to the will of Ptah who is Hephaestus,1 and all the rest who were to make enquiry of the faithful certitude of heavenly contemplation, as Foreknowledge 2 willed, Foreknowledge queen of all.
4. Hermes, however, made explanation to surrounding [space], how that not even to his son (because of the yet newness of his youth) had he been able to hand on the Perfect Vision. But when the Sun did rise for me, and with all-seeing eyes I s gazed upon the hidden [mysteries] of that New Dawn, and contemplated them, slowly there came to me — but it was sure — conviction that the sacred symbols of the cosmic elements were hid away hard by the secrets of Osiris.
5. [Hermes], ere he returned to Heaven, invoked a spell on them, and spake these words. (For 'tis not meet, my son, that I should leave this proclamation ineffectual, but [rather] should speak forth what words [our] Hermes uttered when he hid his books away.) Thus then he said :
1 For the restored text, see R. 122. 8 Or Providence, irpoVom.
3 The masculine is here used, the writer forgetting for the moment that he had assumed the person of Isis.