Asclepius: Nag Hammadi (Lecture 1)
Presented on: Tuesday, April 22, 1986
Presented by: Roger Weir
Hermetic Tradition: From Egypt to America, From Osiris to Benjamin Franklin
Presentation 16 of 24
Asclepius: Nag Hammadi Lecture 1
Presented by Roger Weir
Tuesday, April 22, 1986
Transcript:
The date is April 22nd, 1986. This is the, this is part 16 of the Hermetic tradition Osiris to Franklin's series by Roger Weir. He will announce the title of tonight's lecture himself.
That was the Asclepius. the Asclepius. The Asclepius.
We are trying to, trying to understand something difficult and doing our best. And we're coming to the end of The Corpus Hermeticum. I'm going to take The Asclepius tonight as far as we can. And if we can't finish it then we'll finish it next week. The Asclepius is called the crowning discourse for the Hermetic texts. But as you will see it is not the crowning discourse. And in fact, after we finish our work on The Asclepius, we'll have to take the crowning discourse. Which is actually The Aeneids of Plotinus.
Plotinus is the great master of the Hermetic tradition. And I don't know how long we'll have to spend with Plotinus. But it's taken a long time to get to this condition and we might as well sit in there and do it right.
The word magic came from Persia. Just as our word paradise comes from Persia. In fact, the, the Persian Magi referred to those individuals who were adept at manipulating correspondences to produce effects. And the center of the activity was Babylon. So that the Chaldeans were not only the original astrologers, they were the original magicians in that sense. There have always been I think anthropologically magicians. But there never were magicians like the stereotype before the Persians. Before that is the what as used to be called in antiquity the Medes. M-e-d-e. The Medes.
And the median or the ancient Persian Chaldean Babylonian magicians were the first to work by extensive formulae. So that the correspondences were able to be written out as recipes. And of course, the archetypal recipes were the magic words. Abracadabra being the stereotype that we've Hollywood like inherited in our imagination.
In the high Roman antiquity one of the great masters of magic, who was born in Africa. Northern Africa. The province of Numidia. Was named Apuleius. And Apuleius as famous to us as being the author of The Golden Ass or The Transformations. And one of the 15 books in The Golden Ass is the great story of Cupid and Psyche, Amor & Psyche. And Apuleius was one of the greatest magicians and Hierophants of the high roman antiquity. He was born about 125 A.D. We don't know when he died. But he was still practicing around the 160's A.D. Probably dying around I should think 185 or so 190 A.D.
Apuleius is the reputed author of the Latin Hermetic treatise The Asclepius. And it is denied by all of the great scholarly work of the last hundred years. But as usual there are some reason why tradition, stubborn as it is, ascribes the Hermetic treatise The Asclepius to Apuleius. And it's difficult, initially, to try and understand why this should be. In fact, it's a mystery. And it's something that we're going to have to come back to after we finish up with Plotinus. The mystery is this. What place does magic have in the Hermetic tradition?
Now The Asclepius is the only Hermetic treatise that we have in Latin. All the others are in Greek. It is said that it is Latin from a Greek original. The Greek original has never been found. Question: why should this single treatise be handed down in Latin when all the others are in Greek? Answer: we don't know. It's strange. But The Asclepius is very peculiar. And when we review it tonight, you'll see that there's a different mentality operating in The Asclepius from the rest of the Hermetic treatises. Some of this is a development. Not all of it. Some of it is a change of pace. some of it is a change of mind. And I think when we, we'd better come to The Asclepius right away and just see how, how this turns out.
In the Scott volumes on the Hermetica, in volume 1 The Asclepius begins on page 287. And it's a subtitle in Greek, not in Latin but in Greek. It's subtitle as A Holy Book of Hermes Trismegistus Addressed to Asclepius. And it's a dialogue like the rest of The Corpus Hermeticum. but this is the only one that has a prologue. In fact, the prologue reminds one of the prologues in The Book of Job.
In the prologue Trismegistus says to Asclepius,
It is God that has brought you to me Asclepius. To hear a teaching which comes from God. My discourse will be of such a nature that by reason of its pious fervor it will be rightly deemed that there is in it more of God's working than an all that I have spoken before. Or rather that God's power has inspired me to speak. And if you understand my words and thereby come to see God, your mind will be wholly filled with all things good.
But he says in a caution, "You have to listen with earnest attention." And this is repeated several times in the beginning of The Asclepius. that we are cautioned that what is being said requires earnest attention. That is to say an active attentiveness. We have to rev ourselves up. We have to get our awareness crackling, as it is, to be able to follow what is going to be said.
But Trismegistus before he begins says to Asclepius, "This is so important I want my son Tat to be present. Go out and find Tot and bring him in." And Asclepius not only brings in Tat but brings in the fourth person. Another student of Hermes named Amun. So that we have Tat, the son of Hermes Trismegistus. Amun, who of course is the Egyptian Sun God. Amun-Ra now become a student of Hermes Trismegistus. And we have Asclepius and we have Hermes himself. So, we have an arcane quaternary here. And were we to know more about Asclepius we would see that all four of these figures are connected with Apollo. With the Sun God. Because classically Asclepius, in Greek mythology, is the, the great physician but he has also a son of Apollo.
In fact, he's born under very strange circumstances. His mother has been unfaithful to Apollo. and she is being burnt on a pyre. And Asclepius is rescued from her womb on the pyre. So, he is born out of the shameful death of his Mother. That is to say he comes from a negative underground under great duress.
The original Greek cult of Asclepius was in Thessaly, middle Greece. The city was named Tareeka in antiquity. And I think its contemporary name is Tri Kota. It's in the valley. right in the center of Greece. Dead center. The cult of Asclepius spread through and moved south. And its great place of celebration was at Epidaurus. Epidaurus is just across the little bit, body of water from Athens, from Piraeus. Just go around the island of Aegina and on the coast there at Epidaurus. What else is at Epidaurus? The great and the greatest surviving Greek Theatre. Greek tragic theater. And in fact, in the complex that Asclepius had his cult the Asclepion, just a hundred yards or 200 yards away from that is where of the great theater, Greek tragedy theater of Epidaurus was.
Now the cure at the Asclepion was what we call incubation. You went there to the peristyle of the temple and talked with the priests. Talked with the priest's physicians. And they sometimes administered hymns or chants or sometimes diets. And you would spend some time there. Seven days. Nine days. something like that. And then you would sleep in the peristyle of the temple when you were ready. And you would have a dream. Now the dream usually would come that night although sometimes it would be delayed and come later on. And in the dream, the hint for the cure, the hint for what would heal you would come. And then you would have to follow this through.
And the whole strategy of a cure is that it must reach a culmination. There must be a, a, an actual happening a culmination that actually happens this is parallel to what happens in a Greek tragedy. There must be a dae numa in a Greek tragedy there must be a dae numa, a realization. so that the healing by Asclepius and the healing by Greek tragedy, these curing modes, deep curing modes, make something happen. And in fact, the Greek term for the purified mind was the Neuse catharsis. A mind that is undergone catharsis is purified.
And in the Hermetic literature, in the Greek, whenever one is talking about a pure mind in Greek, they use the term neuse catharsis. It means that the cure in itself is in that culmination. That something must happen. That the disease in some grand way some deep profound way the disease is the lack of a catharsis. And the Hermetic understanding of evil is that one is living in an ambiguous demonic realm that has not been resolved. So that the curing actually is bringing that realm to a point of resolution. Generally, by following the old Delphic dictum that the, that the wounder heals. That which wounds heals. That is whatever you've been wounded by you have to go to that to get healed.
So, there's a great deal of devil's advocate psychology working here. And there's also a little bit of the lesson of inoculation. of taking a little bit of poison or a little bit of the disease to stimulate your responses, your system, to that to become immune. The catharsis of the mind, the purifying the mind, is the cure for the evil condition in the world. For the Demiurgic world. For the world of destiny. For the heimarmene. for the general human condition.
So that the Hermetic healing is always towards bringing the evil condition to an ultimate, to a catharsis. And the way that this is done is that the mind is progressively converged to a point of realization about its own nature. That the Neuse catharsis, par excellence, if I can mix languages like that. Is for the mind to realize that in and of itself it is not the working functioning faculty that it thought it was. That in the mind what is the functioning faculty is God. That in the body is the soul. And in the soul is the mind. But in the mind is God.
But the Hermetic insight here is that within the God in the mind is an unnamed God, who is a super cosmic God. That if you only contact the divinity in the mind you're still in the realm of destiny. You're still in the cosmos. That in fact, man is not an imitation of God in the cosmos so much. But that man is third and the cosmos is second with its God, its creator God is second. And that there is an unknown God who is first.
So that Hermes Trismegistus is a tertiary.
Wake Elizabeth a little bit.
So that man is tertiary. Not secondary.
Now the Aristotelian mind and the kind of mind which habitually traps itself into psychological conundrums, like body-subject dualities, is all based upon man being like God. Or opposed to God. Or complimentary to God. And so, there's always dualities there. By bringing in the third element. By bringing in a supra cosmic God one escapes this duality. One escapes the imitation.
And so, in the beginning of The Asclepius, when they are there Asclepius...uh Hermes saying to Asclepius says, "Now this is going to be very difficult for you to follow." He says,
In fact, as for our discussion today I will inscribe it with your name Asclepius. It would be an impiety to make public through the presence of too many people a discussion which is replete with God in all his majesty. And before he began to speak, the hearers listened in fitting silence as with heart and soul each of them hung on the words in reverence. As through the lips of Hermes the divine Aros began to speak. and Trismegistus begins and declaims all human souls Asclepius are immortal. But souls are not all of one kind.
Different souls have been created from different fashions. And right away Asclepius raises an objection. How can there be different kinds of souls when you have told us that God is one? And Hermes says this is right, that God is one. But the creator God of the cosmos has made many different kinds of conditions. Many different kinds of people. There are as many different kinds of men, human beings, as there are of conditions. And that some men are very much like beasts. other are very much like demons. And others are very much like Gods. And that mankind has this tremendous range. And that this is very, very difficult to, to talk about.
And Hermes then can see that his students are beginning to not understand the, the, the triple profundity with which he is speaking. And so, he cautions them again. he says,
Now give me your whole attention exerting to the utmost your power of thought and keenness of intelligence. For the doctrine which teaches of God's being needs for its apprehension an effort of thought such as man cannot make except by God's help. It is like a torrent plunging downward with headlong rush. So that in its swiftness it outstrips the man who strives to follow it and leaves behind not only the hearers but even the teacher himself.
That is to say if you're listening with the critical mind. If you're listening with the mind, you're not going to be able to follow the discourse. Because the words of the discourse in order to be intelligible in a mental meaning have to have a referential world which they speak to. a world of ideas. Ideation. But the realm of ideas has always in the cosmos. It's always in the cosmic pattern ideas. Cannot help but exist in the cosmic pattern. So that the mind that's listening with a referent to ideas, to the cosmos, is going to be trapped within the secondary level. And what Trismegistus just is to say now is that the meaning is going to multiply itself in such a way that is going to go to the thrice greatest level. So that we have to listen with our spirit because only the spirit will be able to follow this. Because while the mind is fast, it is still finite in its speed. For the spirit is spontaneous and there's no movement whatsoever.
Then he says that,
There is a heaven and there is a God perceptible by sense. And this God administers all other bodies. The growth and decay of bodies. And these fall under the charge of the Sun and the moon. But heaven itself and all the things in it are governed by God. And he, working through nature is the maker of all general and individual forms of living things. For by all the heavenly bodies, which all alike are governed by God, there is poured into matter an uninterrupted stream of soul. Matter has been made ready by God beforehand to be the recipient of individual forms of every shape. and nature fashioning matter in individual forms, by means of the four elements brings into being up to the height of heaven all things that will be pleasing in God's sight.
So, there are four elements earth, air, water, and fire. Earth and water coming up and air and fire coming down and meeting. And being held together. Held together largely by man as we will see. man is a microcosm. And what holds these elements together is the fifth element. The Hermetic quintessence, which is mind. It is mind that holds them together. Keeps them together.
And Hermes says, that is very difficult to understand. And that most people didn't believe this. Scoff at this idea. Scoff at this doctrine. Laugh at it. But that the quintessence of the real in the cosmos is man's mind. But notice now that within man's mind is God the creator of the cosmos. but if man stops there, he is forever trapped in what the mind is capable of structuring for itself. Because its limitations then are the limitations of the operating function within it. The only way to be freed from that is to penetrate through that God to the God beyond. So that the purification of the mind is not so much purifying itself to sense God but purifying the sense of God so that one can see through that to the other. This is difficult. Because the mind cannot do this itself. It is limited. It is limited by its very nature, by its very structure, by its very function, by its range. Every aspect that you want to say.
So that in purifying the mind, the Neuse catharsis, what gives it's cathartic, its final cathartic realization in the Hermetic tradition is that it's self-idea of divinity is also limited. And in order to do this the Hermetic tradition has to reach out and negate every exit that could be posited by the mind to get around this issue of having to see through this God.
And as we will see in The Asclepius the greatest esoteric block to this is the idea of the void. The idea of a space beyond. and the Hermetic tradition, and this is where yes exactly counter to, exactly polar to Buddhism and Daoism, will say that the void especially specifically has to be negated. Why is this so? Because if the mind has a conception of the void it will use it as an idea. And will limit itself forever within the mental structure and be forever subservient to the destiny of the cosmic creator God. And man will never know the real God. The highest God. So, we will see.
The Asclepius then says, "Man is a marvel because he can associate with every conceivable level in existence. He can associate with animals. He can associate with demons. With Gods. With other men. And finally, with the highest God himself."
Now we should put a word in here about diamons. And I think how we'll come to this. This book is called our Arcana Mundi. Just came out 1985, Johns Hopkins University Press. And George Luck who did this is professor classics at Johns Hopkins. And in here chapter three is on Demonology. "Attested sense Homer and used frequently in The Corpus Hermeticum in the writings of Philo Judeas and, and other ancient sources. The Greek word Daimon," D-a-i-m-o-n. "Originally meant divine being. In fact, in the early text the distinction between diamon, divine being and Thais, God was not always clear. by the later Hellenistic period however the distinction between Thais, God and diamon, evil spirit had become fairly common."
Now how does it come to be evil spirit? Because the demonic realm is seen increasingly in the Hermetic wisdom and consequently in the Christian tradition and in the Gnostic tradition. But primarily beginning in the Hermetic tradition, the demons were seen as intermediaries between God and man. Well if the intermediaries between God and men are subject to heimarmene, subject to destiny, subject to the correspondences of astrology and of magic. Then the demons in this sense of man trying to get to the highest God, the real God, the demons are evil spirits. That they're not seen as evil spirits until man understands that the real God is beyond all of these correspondences. Noting that the God image which astrology delivers, which magic delivers, which a demonology delivers to one is potent and powerful as the creator and maker of the cosmos. But that that is the ceiling on man's spirit. it is the ceiling which is made by man's mind. Because in a very real sense that God, that maker of the cosmos, is the last archetypal projection of man's own mind. And man must wake up from that illusion. He must wake up from that dream.
So that the ultimate curing dream that one might have in an asclepeion is to be cured of the cosmos by having a vision of the unknown God. Do you see why the discourse is named The Asclepius then. And why Asclepius is brought in. One cannot have this curing dream unless one is prepared. So just like the physician priests who would prepare someone in an asclepeion to have this dream. Hermes Trismegistus in this dialogue is preparing the hearers to have this ultimate right realization.
And now we have to make a separation, a Hermetic separation. This is where the Hermetic tradition is very powerful. Just as one would be cured by a dream when one is sick and seeking health in the cosmos. To be cured of the cosmos one must have a waking dream. So that the Hermetic curing of souls from the disease of the cosmos is to show you that your awake state is a dream state. And that the vision of the unknown God comes to you while you are awake with attentive fervor mind wide awake. In fact, as awake as can possibly be. And even though you're as awake and attentive and earnest as you can possibly be the image comes from somewhere else of the divinity. Of the divinity. And that this breaks the illusion. It breaks the back of the destiny cage that one is in. For if you can be shown that even at your most energized, attentive realization level, wide awake consciousness, that an image comes to you from somewhere else. Then it is proof positive to you that there is a realm beyond your highest attentiveness, your highest consciousness, that is effective. And this is what the Hermetic tradition specializes in.
It was so powerful that when Christianity was taking over all of the religious functions in the ancient world in the 4th century they appropriated the Hermetic doctrines wholesale. Especially The Asclepius. And if you read through The Asclepius you can see that the understanding is very much what traditional Christianity came to understand.
Hermes then says,
Man is a marvel then Asclepius. honor and reverence to such a being. Man is worthy of honor and reverence. Man takes on him the attributes of a God as though he himself were a God. He is familiar with the diamon kind for he comes to know that he has sprung from the same source as they. And strong in the assurance of that in him, which is divine, he scorns the nearly human part of his own nature. How far more happily blended are the properties of man than those of other beings. He is linked to the Gods and as much as there is in him a divinity akin to theirs. He scorns that part of his own being that makes him a thing of earth. And all else that with which he finds himself connected by heavens ordering. He binds to himself by the tie of his affection. He raises reverent eyes to heaven above. And he tends the earth below.
So, man is in an intermediate station. He is in a physical body because he is given the tending of the material realm. It is subservient to him. but man's function to the divine is specific and peculiar in the Hermetic tradition. The only function that man has to the divine is worship. Worship. Because of all the levels of all the entities in the cosmos man alone may worship the divine. Why is this so? How is this so? Because man alone of all the levels of all the creatures in the cosmos has the ability to penetrate through all those levels to the real God. So that his purpose is to not worship the cosmic God but to worship the real God. So that the highest worship in the Hermetic tradition is to first engender a purified mind. because it's only by the power of the mind that one can't get to the heights of heaven. And then have the spirit passed through that purified mind to go to the real God beyond.
So, in a way, if we can use a Greek term here. There is not only a Thais which is the God of the cosmos but there is a para-Thais. There is a God beyond. And man's function specifically is to find a way to worship the God beyond. And the only way to worship the God beyond is through a neuse catharsis having its, having the spirit penetrate through it. This is very, very difficult. Extremely difficult to follow I realize.
Mind then is a fifth component part and it comes from the ether. And has been bestowed on man alone of all the beings that have soul man is the only one whose faculty of cognition is by this gift of mind so strengthened, elevated and exalted that he can attain to knowledge of the truth concerning God.
And of course, the truth concerning God is that this God who created the cosmos is not the real God. That that God is in fact an imitation. That whatever is made by that God is a representation. Is an imitation. An imitatio.
So that man discovers that he exists. He lives his life. He has been born into an imitation realm. And that everything that has seemed quite real is in fact not real. In precisely and specifically this way, that it is an imitation. So that in the Hermetic understanding what specifically provides the catharsis to the mind is when it realizes that its whole realm of reality is an illusion. Is an imitation. This is the purifying of that mind. But that this thought, this realization, if it comes unprepared is devastating. Because it asks of the mind to recognize that its own functioning, its own rootedness, is the source of its disease. Is the source of its malady. That the malaise of the mind is the fact that it's working. Unprepared, religiously unprepared, if someone were to believe that they would not be able to take it. It's like telling someone that what you consider your normal sanity is in fact proof positive of your craziness. There is no way to accept that mentally. Which is why the spirit has to be strengthened. Which is why in the Hermetic tradition care and caution is always taken to prepare and show that what is being understood is not merely mental. Is beyond the mind. But that one must use the mind up to the point of understanding that it is beyond the mind.
Now if we circumvent the mind by taking the tack, which for instance shamanism would take, that one doesn't use the mind at all one uses of feeling. One uses ecstatic experience. This eventually leads into a conundrum of experience. Because it is the mind that must be purified. And if you use a ecstatic experience to discover the divine without having purified the mind, this creates a bind. And it's just this, this, this kind of bubble that's made that feeds the demonic realms. So that man has a very specific task religiously. That he must worship. That he is the only creature in the whole cosmos that can worship God, the real God. But it must be the real God and not any imitation.
And so the greatest stricture is put upon the student in the Hermetic tradition. That one must learn to use the mind with almost exquisite perfection. And that exquisiteness in the perfection, the perfecting of wisdom as they will call it. the progeny paramita. It was the same all over the known world by the 3rd century A.D. Greek, India, China, wherever you went. The Hermetic message was heard worldwide. Round the world. That the perfection of wisdom is to see that the spirit must be freed to go through the mind to the real God. It's that journey that is worship.
Please turn your cassette now. mister Weir will continue on the other side without a break in the continuity.
END OF SIDE ONE
In The Asclepius Hermes tells us as he's telling the students, "As I have been led to speak of mind I will later on expound you the true doctrine concerning mind also. For it is a high and holy doctrine and one no less sublime than that which treats of God himself." And you can see that it is no less sublime than that which treats of God itself. Because the ultimate true doctrine concerning the mind concerns the real God. That the God within the God within the mind is what is real.
But for the present, says Hermes Trismegistus, I will continue the explanation I have begun. I was speaking of that attachment to the Gods which men and men alone are by the grace of the Gods permitted to enjoy. That is to say such men as have attained to the great happiness of acquiring that divine faculty of apprehending truth. That diviner sort of mind which exists only in God and in the intellect of man.
Now there's a mystery in here. They say that diviner sort of mind which exists only in God and in the intellect of man. The mystery is, is that when the mind is purified the Neuse Cathars... catharsis. When the mind is purified it no longer exists in the mundane level. It is no longer in the cosmos. It is no longer subject to space-time. It is an eternity.
So that the intellect of man. And the intellect was one of four parts of the mind. There was the logos. There was a intellect. There was the memory. And there was the pronoia. So, the mind had its four members. But in that structure, it was the intellect, the neuse, which was able to be taken. which was the, the wings of the soul as it were. because the purified knows the Neuse catharsis was able to take the soul to God. Not to the God of the cosmos but to the real God beyond. Only these wings were wings of effortless no movement. Because the divine was manifest in person.
So that there is a divine dimension within man himself. That when he realized as the real God, the real God occurs in him. Like a, like the six dimensions that occur in nuclear physics now in the midst of the four-dimensional realm that we call space and time. the last couple of years the, the computing of this has been worked out in nuclear physics now. There are six dimensions of space that exist within the four dimensions of space-time. They're there. They're mathematically there. They're experimentally able to be proved as soon as we build some nuclear accelerator about a thousand times as powerful is the most powerful that we have now. They're building it in Geneva and another five years it will be built. And the experiments will confirm it. It actually occurs.
The way the Hermetic tradition posits it in The Asclepius is, is that this sort of mind, which exists only in God and in the intellect of man, the Neuse. Asclepius then is led to say,
But tell me then Trismegistus is not the mind of all men of one quality. Trismegistus, not all men Asclepius have attained to true knowledge. Many men yielding to reckless impulse and seeing nothing of the truth are misled by illusions. And these illusions breed evil in their hearts. And transform man the best of living beings into a wild and savage beast. But concerning mind and the like I will fully set forth the truth to you later on when I come to treatise spirit also.
Because the purified mind is a spirit. The Holy Spirit is the purified mind. But after the neuse catharsis it ceases to be a mind and becomes a holy spirit. This is like Jesus saying I have to go because if I don't go the Holy Spirit can't come. That the, that man perfected is as far as that can go. But man perfected knows that he has to go he. Has to exit the picture. Because, because only by the perfect man and his perfection stepping aside does the Holy Spirit come. How does man step aside? He steps aside because his purified mind no longer thinks in terms of ideas but allows the real God to occur. This is a transubstantiation which takes place in the mass incidentally. Supposedly. And actually, does occasionally.
Man, and man alone of all beings that have soul is of this twofold nature. And of the two parts of which he has composed. the one single and undivided this part is incorporeal and eternal, and we call it that which is formed in the likeness of God. The other part of man is fourfold and material. And within it is enclosed that part of him which I have just called divine. To that end that sheltered there in the divine mind together with the thoughts of pure mind, which are cognate to it, secluded from all else may dwell at rest fenced in by the body as it were by a wall.
In terms of man's material, fourfold material corporeal self. He is able to have a pure mind. But within that pure mind he is able to have the divine mind. Now note here that the divine mind is singular. So that any human being who has realized the divine mind is at one-ment with all others who have realized that divine mind.
Shake Elizabeth just a little bit.
Trismegistus then...I have to skip over here because of time. Says,
I see Asclepius that you were eager and impatient to be told how man contend Heaven. Or the things that are in heaven. listen then Asclepius, tendence of heaven and of all things that are there in is nothing else than frequent worship. And there is no other being divine or mortal that worships but man alone. For in the reverence and adoration, the praise and worship of men, heaven and the Gods of heaven find pleasure. So, it is not without good reason that the supreme deity sent down the choir of the muses to dwell among mankind.
How many muses are there? There are nine. Nine muses. Nine. The Greek word for nine and a structure of nine is Aeneid. There are nine dimensions of space. There's only one of time. But nine of space. Nine Muses. And this is called a choir. A choir of muses. This is religious talk.
The earthly part of the universe would have seen but rude and savage if it had been wanting in sweet melody. Less this should be God sent the muses down to the intent that man might adore him with hymns of praise. Him who in all things is the one, the father of all. And thus, sweet music might not be lacking upon earth. To sound in concord with the singing of his praise in heaven.
How is the praise in heaven sung? In the ninth sphere it is sung in silence. So that the silence of the choir of heaven in the ninth realm blends itself with the choir of the nine muses. Which are mental faculties of recognition and structure for man. so that in the working of, workings of man's mind inspired by the muses there is a harmony which blends with a silent choir of the ninth realm. How does that blend? The silence blends with the singing to produce articulation. But there would be no articulation whatsoever if there weren't for this blending of the silence is coming in with the hymning. So that instead of it being a block undifferentiated of matter, the cosmos is articulated exactly in the right proportion by man bringing this silence. This interval. this space reality in. This is the way that they at the Hermetic understanding is.
Now, any element that is articulated in reality can be transformed into any other element by bringing it back into the silent ninth. And then projected out again in some different realm. Alchemy will take this up and will become the great art of mankind. Alchemy is still the great art of mankind. We run into a real Alchemist he deals with experience on a divine level. And can change the world. And does.
Why? Why all this? because it is God's will. On The Asclepius here. And we have to be careful, for this because this has been misused and manhandled many times in the past.
For since the world is God's handiwork, he who maintains and heightens the beauty by his tendons is cooperating with the will of God. So that man is cooperating with the will of God. When he contributes the aid of his bodily strength and by his care and labor day by day makes things assume that shape and aspect which God's purpose has designed.
So, man shapes this world. How does he shape it? He shapes it in terms of God's will.
But take heed here. Tie a red string around your finger. Most men are bound by illusion. And most of that illusion is completely structured by destiny. Which is all based upon correspondences which are subject of, to evil influences. So that the problem of will is the central problem for human beings. We would call it pride. But that's rather generous. The problem of evil will is man's problem. Willfulness. Very, very serious problem.
Trismegistus says,
Man's reward for this is that he may be received into heaven with God the Father. The real father, he says here. What shall be his reward? Shall it not be that which our fathers have received and which we pray with heartfelt piety that we too may receive? If God in his mercy is pleased to grant it. And that is that when our term of services ended, when we are divested of our guardianship of the material world. And freed from the bounds of mortality he will restore us, cleansed and sanctified to the primal condition of that higher part of us which is divine. Right and true, Trismegistus says Asclepius. And then Trismegistus says, yes. such as the reward of those who spend their lives in piety to God above and in tendance of the world around them. But those who have loved evil and impious lives are not permitted to return to heaven. For such men is ordained a shameful transmigration into the bodies of another kind. Bodies unworthy to be the abode of holy mind.
Now of course this means going into animal forms. But the arcane understanding is that it was going into demonic beings. Demonic. This is why there are evil spirits. They go into to demonic realms.
This became an intolerable realization for all the religions of antiquity. The populating of, of the arcane trans mental spaces with evil spirits became the bane of Judaism. And of the Hermetic tradition. of the pagan religions. And the only resolution to that problem, and this was a theological problem for the mind of man. The only resolution to it was the one which Christianity posed. And this is why Christianity became the great world religion. Because it solved the problem of evil spirits in the cosmos.
Trismegistus says, "Yes this is the reward. And Asclepius says, according to your teaching then Trismegistus souls have at stake in this earthly life their hope of eternity in the life to come." And this comes down as popular Christianity now. When you die you will go to heaven. If you have been good. And this is a watered-down sophomoric way, almost like a childish way of presenting these great arcane truths. But the great arcane truths involve a highly specialized development of mind. Of which almost anybody that you would meet today would be totally incapable of doing. The degeneration of mind in this civilization is appalling. So, we have to have something else. And we do fortunately.
Trismegistus says,
Yes, but some cannot believe this. And some regard it as an empty tale. And to some perhaps it seems a thing to mock at. For in our bodily life on earth the enjoyment drive from possessions is a pleasant thing. And the pleasure which they yield grips the soul by the throat, so to speak. And holds it down to earth compelling it to cleave to man's mortal part.
It is exactly our enjoyment of this realm that grips the soul by its throat. Why? Because the enjoyment is always mental. and the mind which enjoys is not purified. It's not question of not eating meat. It's not a question of not committing adultery. It's not a question of not thieving. it's a question of the mind being addicted to the cosmic realm. It is sick. It is diseased. And does not know it. Because it's only standard of operation, it's only guide to it's a working condition, is to be addicted to the cosmos. Is to work within these structured and ordered levels.
And it is exactly this that the Hermetic tradition constantly, specifically is saying. It is this exactly that is the sickness unto death. It is exactly this that must be opened up. And because it involves the whole structure of the mind it has to be a catharsis. There's no way to gradually take this apart. It has to be all at once. But leading up to that it needs to be comprehensive. Because in order to pull apart the mind from its addiction to its own self, which is the linchpin that makes the cosmic cosmos work in the first place. We're saying that in order to be free of the cosmos you have to unhitch the very buckle that holds the cosmos together. The mind will never do this. It will never consent to do this. Cannot consent to do this. That's its own death warrant. And it knows that.
And so, the Hermetic tradition says this requires great spiritual courage. and one must do it without thinking about it. One must set aside all of the expectations and just do it. And when it's just done like that then comes the purification. Then comes the catharsis. And what is the catharsis? What is the Neuse catharsis? That what is there is the divine in oneself.
I think because of time we better just end with that. let's let Trismegistus end it here. We're about two-thirds the way. "God then is everlasting is eternal. that he should come into being or should ever have come into being is impossible. He is. He was. He will be forever. Such is God's being wholly self-generated. That this becomes known."
Well let's stop it there.
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