Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
natured son, upon their orders. The space from height of heaven to the moon devotes itself unto the gods and stars arid to the rest of providence ; the space, my son, from moon to us is dwelling place of souls.
This so great air, however, has in it a belt to which it is our use to give the name of wind, a definite expanse in which it is kept moving to refresh the things on earth, and which I will hereafter tell about.
Yet in no manner by its motion on itself does it become an obstacle to souls ; for though it keeps on moving, souls can dart up or dart down,1 just as the case may be, free from all let and hindrance. For they pass through without immixture or adhesion as water flows through oil.
6. Now of this interval, Horus, my son, there are four main divisions and sixty special spaces.
Of these [divisions] the first one upwards from the earth is of four spaces, so that the earth in certain of its mountain heights and peaks extends and comes so far, but beyond these it cannot in its nature go in height.
The second after this is of eight spaces, in which the motions of the winds take place.
Give heed, 0 son, for thou art hearing mysteries that must not be disclosed — of earth and heaven and all the holy air which lies between, in which there is the motion of the wind and flight of birds. For above this the air doth have no motion and sustains no life.
1 Cf. the beginning of the Apocalypse of Thespesiua (Aridseus) in Plutarch, De Sera Num. Vind., xxii.
This [moving] air moreover hath of its own nature this authority — that it can circulate in its own spaces and also in the four of earth with all the lives which it contains, while earth cannot ascend into its [realm].
The third consists of sixteen spaces filled with subtle air and pure.
The fourth consists of two and thirty [spaces], in which there is the subtlest and the finest air ; it is by means of this that [air] shuts from itself the heavens above which are by nature fiery.
7. This ordering is up and down in a straight line and has no overlapping ; so that there are four main divisions, twelve intervallic ones and sixty spaces.
And in these sixty spaces dwell the souls, each one according to its nature, for though they are of one and the same substance, they're not of the same dignity. For by so much as any space is higher from the earth than any other, by so much do the souls in them, my son, surpass in eminence the one the other.1
What souls, however, go to each of them, I will accordingly begin again to tell thee, Horus, [son] of great renown, taking their order from above down to the earth.
1 For a consideration of this ordering, see p. 168 ff. above.
CONCERNING THE INBREATHING AND THE
TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SouL1
8. The [air] between the earth and heavens,
Horus, is spaced out by measure and by
harmony.
These spaces have been named by some of our forefathers zones, by others firmaments, by others layers.
And in them dwell both souls which have been set free from their bodies, and also those which have as yet been never shut in body.
And each of them, my son, hath just the place it doth deserve ; so that the godly and the kingly ones dwell in the highest space of all, those least in honour and the rest of the decadent ones [dwell] in the lowest space of all, while middling souls dwell in the middle space.
Accordingly, those souls which are sent down to rule, are sent down, Horus, from the upper zones ; and when they are set free [again] they go back to the same or even still more lofty ones, unless it be they still have acted contrary
1 This appears to be a heading inserted by Stobseus (Phys., xli.
64) or some scribe ; there seems to be no break in the text.
to their own nature's dignity and the pronouncement of the Law of God.
Such souls as these the Providence above, according to the measure of their sins, doth banish down to lower spaces ; just as with those which are inferior in dignity and power, it leads them up from lower [realms] to vaster and more lofty ones.
9. For up above [them all] there are two ministers of universal Providence, of whom one is the warder of the souls, the other their conductor. The warder [watches o'er the souls when out of body], while the conductor is dispatcher and distributor of souls into their bodies. The former keeps them, while the latter sends them forth according to the Will of God.