Asclepius: Nag Hammadi (Lecture 2)
Presented on: Tuesday, April 29, 1986
Presented by: Roger Weir
Hermetic Tradition: From Egypt to America, From Osiris to Benjamin Franklin
Presentation 17 of 24
Asclepius: Nag Hammadi Lecture 2
Presented by Roger Weir
Tuesday, April 29, 1986
Transcript:
The date is April 29th, 1986. This is part 17 of the in the Hermetic tradition series of Roger Weir, from Osiris to Franklin. Mr. Weir will announce his own title.
This is the Asclepius, the second lecture. We're going to try and finish this up. In fact, if you want you can use the title of Asclepius - Nag Hammadi. One of the Nag Hammadi track dates is a poignant excerpt from The Asclepius. And in the volume that we have, the Nag Hammadi library it commences on page 300. Which is significant because that's about when it was written 300. And we're gonna get to that.
But first we have to backtrack somewhat. We have to understand. And I think all of us are alert to the fact that it's very difficult to understand wisdom. Wisdom is different from data. And we are acclimated, we are taught, we are conditioned, to respond to data. Rather than to intuit the gestalt of wisdom. And one of the difficulties is that the gestalt of wisdom requires of us to intuit the negative spaces. For data we look at that which is presented. And order that which is presented in terms of the mind. But for wisdom what is presented to us is the actual background, as it were. And we have to intuit the spatiality of it, as it were. The, the limit, the gaps. and that's what we have to intuit. We have to make a gestalt out of that. So, to the ordinary mind wisdom is an optical illusion. And to the ordinary mind high wisdom is ridiculous. Seems strange to us but this this is how it is viewed. This accounts for a great deal of evil in the world. The ignorance is actually a profound misunderstanding.
In The Gospel According to Matthew when Jesus is presenting the conditions under which wisdom, the Spirit, is awakened and wisdom is understood. This is how Jesus puts it. And Matthew of course written about, written down about 50 A.D. and is extremely accurate as report so far, the actual discourses. There are five discourses of Jesus in Matthew. And they are legitimate.
He said, "When you pray do not be like the over-scrupulous, who loved to stand in synagogues and public places to pray so that they may be in plain view of all. In solemn truth I tell you that they have already their reward." What is the reward that they have? It's what they sought public recognition that their pious. Their neighbors have seen them and that's the extent of the reward. And that's how deep that kind of prayer goes. It's a sociological, ephemeral occurrence. It's like the Sunday hat.
"But, records the Lord, but you when you pray go into your room, shut the door and pray to your Father in secret. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Now the Greek term for go into your room and shut your door, it doesn't mean room. This is a misleading translation. The Greek word for that is monasteria. From which we get the word later on, centuries later, Monastery. But the word monastery, the first Greek suffix there is mano, one. The monasteria was a one-person enclosure. Sometimes it's called in retrospect a cell. A Hermits cell. Even the word hermit is Hermetic you see. But it isn't so much a cell. And it isn't a closet. And it certainly isn't a room. But it's as the Greek word indicates a monasteria. It's a place where one goes for spiritual solitude. Because there's a very special communion that is going to be taking place there. And we'll see that The Asclepius in the Nag Hammadi is very explicit about this. it says that is as intimate as sexual intercourse.
After Jesus gives this admonition of, of where to go. Then he gives the further instruction set in that container, that crucible. Let's use the term crucible because it's alchemical. Once one understands that you have to create for yourself a monasteria. And that one should go there for the interchange. Then this is what we do. "In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. For they suppose that they will be heard simply on account of their verbosity. Do not be like them. Your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him. pray like this."
And then this is the classic example that Jesus gave. "Our Father in Heaven may your name be held in honor. Let your kingdom come what you will be done. As in heaven so also on earth. give us today the food we need. and release us from our debts as we also release our debtors. Do not bring us to the final test but save us from the evil one." And of course, this is The Lord's Prayer. This is a translation which is very close to the actual language given. It doesn't have the doctrinaire flourishes that have come down through the centuries. This is actually very close to what is placed here.
So, in Matthew. And this is in The Gospel of Matthew 6 from 5 to 13, which includes The Lord's Prayer. And you can see it for yourself. I've used The Anchor Bible translation because I like William F. Albright very much who helped with the translation.
In the Oxford University Press New Testament it runs like this. In their translation. This is again Matthew 6 1 through 13.
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them. Else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven. When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. That they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward. But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret. And thy Father which see it in secret shall recompense thee. And when he pray, he shall not be as the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the very corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you they have received their reward. But thou when thou prayest enter into thy an inner chamber. And having shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And in praying use not vain repetitions as the gentiles do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. But not be not therefore like unto them for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye. Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth and as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
So, you can see that there's quite a bit of difference in the translations. but the, the gist the understanding and the excellence of his kind intelligence is apparent.
Jesus learned this in Alexandria. Here's a description from Philo. This is from The Contemplative Life. If you're looking for a good translation the Harvard University Press, the Loeb classical library volume 9 of Philo's works page 127. This is the description, the classical description of the therapeutae community. Which was just north out of Alexandria on the hill on the north shore of Lake Mariout. One could look across the to the lake and see the great metropolis of Alexandria. It was rather like, the aspect would be rather like looking from Palos Verdes to Long Beach if, if there were a body of water in between. About that distance.
The houses of the society thus collected are exceedingly simple. Providing protection against two of the most pressing dangers, the fiery heat of the Sun and the icy cold of the air. They are neither near together as in towns. Since living at close, close quarters is troublesome and displeasing to people who are seeking to satisfy their desire for solitude. Nor yet at a great distance because of the sense of fellowship which they cherish.
Notice here now that solitude and fellowship go together. They're not opposed at all. Solitude and fellowship occur together in a religious community. And they are complementary. To not understand this is to have a profane mind.
"In each house there is a consecrated room which is called a sanctuary or a closet." And the Greek word here then is monasteria. Monasteria. And if we look at the note on page 519 to the Greek term monasteria, we read this, which is instructive. "On this word the great scholar Conibear states that it does not exist elsewhere in any Greek document until the end of the third century. When it has acquired the sense of a building or establishment for a single monk or hermit for which he gives references from Athanasius and other patristic writers." Patristic means church father. "Or for several monks together. The statement that it does not occur earlier is confirmed by Liddell and Scott revised." That's the great Greek dictionary. I have it over here on the table. About 3,000 pages. Liddell Scott and Jones, it is now. "Which apparently ignoring the patristic use quotes this passage but nothing else earlier than the sixth century. It translated here by the term Hermits cell. Which does not seem to me a happy phase. It indicates simply a room in a house into which no one else is a to enter." And it goes on this way.
What is interesting here is to note that nowhere in Greek literature does the term monasteria occur ever before this passage in Philo. It's not in Plato. It's not in Aristotle. It's not anywhere in Greek literature. It's not anywhere in Greek literature after this specific usage until the 3rd century. And it doesn't come into general usage until the 6th century, the 500's A.D. by then it means what we understand by monastery. Because the word was made up there in Alexandria. It was made there at this time. Philo wrote this about 10 B.C., 10 BC to around 10 A.D.
The quality that the Greek term monasteria delivers is that in this solitude there is an extraordinary change that takes place. It's only when we go to The Asclepius that we understand the nature of this change. And it is a transformation.
Now in the, in the setting in The Nag Hammadi, in the codex is that we have, that are translated. The very setting of this passage from The Asclepius is full of significance and understanding. The document in the codex just before the excerpt from The Asclepius is the great Hermetic document The Eighth Reveals the Ninth which I've lectured on twice. And there is a very good tape available from the Gnostic society lecture of about a month ago. Which I won't go into again. You can get the tape and hear it for yourself.
Between The Eighth Reveals the Ninth and the excerpt from The Asclepius, which we're looking at now, there is inserted a little note from the scribe. From the person who had transcribed these. and it comes right at the end of an appendage to The Eighth Reveals the Ninth called The Prayer of Thanksgiving. And in fact, so significant is this Prayer of Thanksgiving that in The Nag Hammadi library volume that Robinson and the others have edited and translated, it's given a special place. It's given in fact a special scholarly number. It's Nag Hammadi track date 6 comma 7 Roman numeral 6 comma Arabic 7.
What is this Prayer of Thanksgiving? It reads like this. Think now that Jesus has given us the Lord's Prayer under these very special conditions. This is the prayer that they spoke. And this is a Hermetic prayer.
We give thanks to thee. Every soul and heart lifted up to thee. O undisturbed name honored with the name God. And praised with the name father. For to everyone and everything comes the fatherly kindness and affection and love. And any teaching there may be that is sweet and plain. Give us mind. give a speech. Give us knowledge. mind so that we may understand thee. Speech so that we may expound thee. Knowledge so that we may know thee. We rejoice having been illumined by thy knowledge. We rejoice because thou has shown us thyself. We rejoice because while we were in the body, thou has made us divine through thy knowledge.
Knowledge here is gnosis incidentally, not epistimale.
The delight of the man who attains to thee is one thing, that we know thee. We have known thee. O intellectual light. O life of life. We have known thee. a womb of every creature we have known thee. A womb pregnant with the nature of the father we have known thee. O eternal permanence of the beginning father thus have we worshipped thy goodness. There is one petition that we ask, we would be preserved in gnosis. And there is one protection that we desire, that we not stumble in this kind of life. When they had said these things in prayer, they embraced each other. and they went to eat their holy food which has no blood in it.
Then the copyist is written in a different person script. Same hand. It's the same copyist and he has written his own personal note on here. "I have copied this one discourse of his. Indeed, very many have come to me. I have not copied them because I thought that they had come to you." Which is a plural you in Coptic. "Also, I hesitate to copy these for you because perhaps they have already come to you. and the matter may burn you since the discourses of that one which have come to me are numerous." Who is that one? Who is the one that he's talking about? It is Hermes Trismegistus. Hermes Trismegistus who is the Hermetic priest who discloses the inner wisdom.
The excerpt of The Asclepius then in The Nag Hammadi bares the scholarly designation, Roman numeral six comma Arabic numeral eight. So that you have in The Nag Hammadi Codex, The Eighth Reveals the Ninth, The Prayer Thanksgiving, which is a Hermetic version rendering of The Lord's Prayer. And then you have The Asclepius.
And The Asclepius excerpt begins this way. "And if you," and the you here is singular,
And if you wish to see the reality of this mystery then you should see the wonderful representation of the intercourse that takes place between the male and the female. For when the semen reaches the climax it leaps forth. In that moment the female receives the strength of the male. and the male for his part receives the strength of the female while the semen does this. Therefore, the mystery of intercourse is performed in secret in order that the two sexes might not disgrace themselves in front of many who do not experience that reality. For each of them contributes it's, their own part in the beginning. For if it happens in the presence of those who do not understand the reality it is laughable and unbelievable. And moreover, these are holy mysteries of both words and deeds. Because not only are they heard but also, they are not seen. Therefore, the unbelievers, the blasphemers are atheistic and impious, but the others are not many. Rather the pious are counted as just a few. Therefore, wickedness remains among the many. Since learning concerning the things which are ordained does not exist among them. For the gnosis of the things which are ordained is truly the healing of the passions of matter. Therefore, learning is something derived from gnosis.
And this exists in the soul of man.
So that's in the monasteria, in the in the contemplation, in the Hermetic contemplation, three aspects need to be brought into focus at the same time. Mind, life and existence. Which are distinguishable for the rational mind but need to be focused for the experience of gnosis. Mind, life and existence. These three.
Asclepius then addresses himself to Trismegistus and says, "Old Trismegistus did he send this knowledge and learning only to men? And Trismegistus replies, yes oh Asclepius. He sent them to men alone. And it is fitting to tell you why to men alone he granted knowledge and learning. the allotment of his good."
And now the Hermetic tradition becomes extremely insightful. That the, that gnosis is not available to the Gods. That gnosis and learning is not available to any of the occurrences in the demonic realms. There is nowhere between man and God that gnosis obtains. So that there is a direct link between man and the divine. There's nothing in between whatsoever. That the interface is the interface of secret exchange. That when man and God in the monasteria have an exchange it is like the man and the woman having an exchange. And in that moment the soul of man is begotten, as it were. And up until that time there is there is no soul. There is no soul. Or an understanding that came down later is that the soul is awakened. That the soul is made then.
Trismegistus then cautioning Asclepius, "And now listen God in the Father, even the Lord created man subsequent to the Gods. And he took him from the region of matter. Since matter is involved in the creation of man the passions are in it." And so, man from his very nature then has passions. But to understand here, it's not the, it's not the, the, the passion of what we would colloquially mean by passion. By passion is the ongoing desire to make something happen in addition to what is occurring. That is to generate as we would say psychologically, to generate illusions added on to existence. Added on to life. Added on to mind. I'm trying to push mind and when you do you have fantasy. I'm trying to push life and what when you do you have death. I'm trying to push existence and when you do you have a perverted existence.
So Trismegistus says, "By necessity God set a boundary for man. He placed him in learning and gnosis." This boundary, the Greek word boundary here is very close to what we would philosophically understand his definition. Definition is drawing a line around something. Making a boundary. So, look the very shape of man, the definition of man, is that he becomes aware that in this extraordinary condition of gnosis and learning that his real nature is revealed. And his real nature is that he is able in a sacred marriage with the divine to produce the spiritual soul. It is awakened or is born in him. Actually, comes into being. Actually occurs.
And then Trismegistus going on. Watching Asclepius. And remember there are two others present, Tat and Amun, watching them carefully. Because this is extraordinary presentation fraught with difficulties.
And it happened this way because of the will of God that men be better than the Gods. Indeed, the Gods are immortal, but men alone are both immortal and mortal. Therefore, man has become akin to the Gods and they know the affairs of each other with certainty. The Gods know the things of men and men know the things of the Gods. And I am speaking about men oh Asclepius who have attained learning and gnosis. But about those who are more vain than these it is not fitting that we say anything base. Since we are divine and our introducing holy matters.
That is to say at this particular high level of instruction one should no longer talk about emendations. Talk about the other aspects, the offshoots. One should increasingly then just go with the pure truth, as it would be said.
Since we have entered the matter of the communion between the Gods and men. No Asclepius that in, that in which man can be strong. For just as the Father the Lord of the universe creates Gods in this very way man to this mortal earthly living creature. The one who is not like God also himself creates Gods. Not only does he strengthen but he is also strengthened. Not only is he God but he also creates Gods. Are you astonished old Asclepius? Are you yourself another disbeliever like the many? O Trismegistus I agree with the words spoken to me. And I believe these things as you speak. But I have also been astonished at the discourse about this. and I have decided that man is blessed since he has enjoyed this great power.
And Trismegistus then watching him carefully as one must do at this moment.
And that which is greater than all these things oh Asclepius is worthy of admiration. Now it is revealed to us concerning the race of the Gods. And we confess it along with everything else that the race of the Gods has come into being out of the pure matter. And their bodies are heads only. But that which men create is the likeness of the Gods. These Gods are from the farthest part of matter. And the object the kinds of Gods made by men is from the outer part of the being of men. Not only are what they create heads, but they are also other members of the body according to their likeness.
Now this is extremely difficult to understand, to believe and to follow. But the import of what is being said here is that the Gods that have been created by the pen crafter, the cosmic God who creates this cosmos, those Gods are from the pure matter. But the Gods that man creates are from the farthest removed matter. The most impure matter, as it were. The matter which is the farthest part of matter. That this is not to denigrate the Gods which man, holy man, makes. But in fact, the converse of that. That man's responsibility is to sacrifice, to make sacred in the universe by taking the lowest element in the material universe and making it divine. That the immortal Gods, and in fact the whole demonic realms, the whole psychic level of the universe, cannot touch down to the lowest levels of the universe. Man, alone like the bait on the hook can go through all the levels down to the most base and profane of matter. And man, alone with his knowledge and learning can transform the farthest reaches of matter back into divinity. So that in the ecology of the real, man is the best servant of God. Because only he can be trusted to go to the farthest reaches of the universe and return that back to wholeness.
Now this, the image the classical Hermetic Egyptian image of this. as one would expect from Egypt. The image of the farthest reaches of matter is mud and slime. Mud and slime. And the creatures that live in mud and slime in Egypt are like frogs and serpents. creatures like that. so that when the Hermetic ogdoad, the eight-fold, the two quaternary is brought together the eight-fold crucible of this transformation. Of man making sacred in that Hermetic crucible. Matter the basis of all matter returned back to the gold of the divine. The imagery in the Pyramid Texts, in Hermopolis in ancient Egypt, Two, three thousand years B.C. was that each of the four corners that were in the regular array were personified by frogs. And each of the four corners that were in the diamond interspace in between were personified by four serpents. Now later on in the new kingdom the serpents were replaced by cats. When the cult of Bubastis came in and changed the iconographic orientation somewhat. So that sometimes in late dynastic Egypt, 19th, 20th dynasty you see it frogs and cats. But it used to be frogs and serpents and that's they that's the correct designation. That's the Hermetic ogdoad.
The crucible of transformation in the Hermetic tradition is that place which an, a human being can take themselves to. That's the monasteria. And in the monasteria, the mysteria occurs. And in the mysteria man transforms the basis, the most base of all elements back into the divine. What is that farthest reach of nature from the divine? It's man's body. Man's body. All of the other elements, all of the other material in the universe is controlled. controlled by the Gods. Controlled by the demonic. Controlled by destiny. By heimarmene. It's only the physical body of man that is able to escape control and thereby be the farthest reach of matters. So that one's own body becomes the mud, the slime. Recognizing that is a moment of high religious insight. And the compliment that must come with that, that has to rise with that as that sinks in rising to meet that. Otherwise one is devastated. Rising to meet that has to be this gnosis.
Now what happens in the individual is played out also in large. In the median foreground what happens in the individual is played out in the society, in the civilization. And in the largest context is played out in the universe also. So that the drama of the individual person is amplified because the civilization also plays out this story. and is amplified even further, in fact the furthest that it can go, because the universe also plays out this drama. If man does not perform this sacred act of transforming himself everything is lost. Everything. And there's nothing that any of the Gods can do. There's nothing that any of the realms of the psyche can do. And as for this reason then that God has the greatest confidence in man that he will do this. That he will accept this.
"Old Trismegistus, says Asclepius. You are not talking about idols, are you? That man creates Gods in his own likeness. You're not talking about idols? And Trismegistus now, oh Asclepius you yourself are talking about idols." Notice the, notice the pointed repartee here. It's almost like what a Zen master does. He takes the very language and the very shape in which the question comes and turns it into a point that goes back into the questioner.
"Oh Asclepius, you yourself are talking about idols. You see that again. you yourself, oh Asclepius are also a disbeliever of the discourse." Why is he a disbeliever? Because he's introducing tangential material. That in the religious revelation tangential material must be ignored. must not be seen. Must not be paid attention to. This is the razor's edge. Why is that so? Because the tangential material keeps alive the profane discursive of consciousness. Which is based on polarity. Which is based upon the false identity.
So Trismegistus,
Oh Asclepius, you're also a disbeliever in the discourse. You say about those who have soul and breath that they are idols. Those who bring about these great events. You are saying about these who give prophecies that their idols. Those who give men sickness and healing. or are you ignorant oh Asclepius? That Egypt is the image of heaven. It is a dwelling place of heaven and all the forces that are in heaven. And if it is proper for us to speak the truth, our land is the temple of the world.
And so, we see an extraordinary continuity coming down. this is 300 AD and from our Pyramid Texts of 3000 B.C. the same imagery given us.
If you hold up in your imagination for a moment, the Nile River as a spinal column. You can see that the branching of the Nile is very much like the brain. and that in this branching out, if you turn it in a profile facing towards the West. One finds that Alexandria is right about where the pineal gland would be. And has that esoteric position. So, Egypt is the image of heaven. What is heaven? The neural physical body of man.
"Moreover, it is the dwelling place of all the forces that are in heaven." This is the temple in man.
If it is proper for us to speak the truth, our land is the temple of the world. This land is the temple of the world. And it is proper for you not to be ignorant that a time will come in our land when Egyptians will seem to have served the divinity in vain. And all their activity in their religion will be despised. For all divinity will leave Egypt and will flee upward to heaven. And Egypt will be widowed. It will be abandoned by the Gods. For foreigners will come into Egypt and they will rue it. Foreigners. Egypt moreover Egyptians would be prohibited from worshiping God. Furthermore, they will come into the ultimate punishment. Especially whoever among them has found worshipping and honoring God. The real God. And in that day the country that was more pious than all other countries will become impious. No longer will it be full of temples but will be full of tombs. Now there will be it full of Gods, but it be full of corpses. Egypt will become like the fables. And the religious objects, the marvelous things, the words will be like stones. And the barbarians will be better than you. Oh Egyptian.
So, we're given here in The Asclepius the admonition to pay attention to the monasteria crucible in which this transformation is going to happen.
Please turn your cassette now and it will commence playing again on the other side without a break in continuity.
END OF SIDE ONE
I was going to go into Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by Rundle Clark here but I, I won't, I won't go into all this. Except just to give one of the old Pyramid Texts spells. Which later on we'll see becomes almost the archetypal mantra for alchemy.
I have to give a little bit beforehand here there. Before the quaternary, the Hermetic quaternary, of the mystery which occurs in the monasteria has a quaternary to it. And the, the four elements in that quaternary are inertness, infinity, invisibility and nothing. We're not talking about earth, air, fire and water anymore. We're talking about invisibility, inertness, infinity and nothing. And out of this base is made the soul. The soul is made out of this. But inertness, infinity, invisibility and nothing in the Hermetic understanding have female counterparts. So that quaternary has a female quaternary in the diamond that comes in and complements it. so that there are eight. So that the ogdoad is eight here.
That ogdoad, that ogdoad is the primal egg. Or rather the primal egg occurs because of the male and female of that ogdoad. The primal egg. The egg was invisible for it took shape before the appearance of light. In fact, the bird of light bursts from this egg. And then a quotation from Pyramid Texts, "I am the soul. The creation of the primeval waters. my nest was unseen. My egg unbroken." Because the generation of the egg takes place in a realm of non-being. Infinity, invisibility, inertness and nothing generates from there.
And the old Heliopolian spell then, mantra if you like, "Hail Atun," A-t-u-n. "Hail Atun. I am the double lion. Give me the pleasant breeze that is in your nose. For I am that egg that was in the great primal one. I am the keeper of that great support that separates Geb from Nut." Man is earth. woman is sky. You see it's transposed now. Nut, nut becomes the feminine starry expanse of the sky. Now the sky is feminine. The earth is masculine.
"I breathe the breezes it breathes. I am he who joins and separates. For I go all around the egg, the master of yesterday." Circulation through this primal egg now gives this, this kind of a sense of time. It's the circulation in this birth. This primal egg. It's a circulation in the soul that gives a sense of time. This is why God is the Lord of history. The Lord of history.
In The Nag Hammadi excerpt from Asclepius, we are then treated to an apocalyptic vision which ends with an admonition on the soul. I'm going to skip over most of the apocalyptic phrases. You have to understand that at this time it was quite apparent that the structure of the world is going to fall.
Oh, Trismegistus where will these be settled now? Oh, Asclepius in the great city that is on the Libyan mountain. It frightens as an evil that is great in ignorance of the matter. For death occurs which is the dissolution of the labors of the body. And a dissolution of the number of the body when death completes the number of the body. For the number is the union of the body. Now the body dies when it is not able to support the man. And this is death the dissolution of the body and the destruction of the sensation of the body. And it is not necessary to be afraid of this. Nor because of this. But because of what is not known and is disbelieved one is afraid. But what is not known? What is not believed? Oh Trismegistus. listen oh Asclepius, there is a great demon, the great God has appointed him to be overseer and judge over the souls of men. And God has placed him in the middle of the air between the earth and heaven. Now when the soul comes forth from the body, it is necessary that it meet this demon. immediately he, the demon, will surround this one. And he will examine him in regard to the character that he has developed in this life. And if he finds that he piously performed all of his actions for which he came into the world this demon will allow him to turn and go on. But if he is brought into life evil deeds, he grasps him as he flees upward and throws him down. So that he is suspended between heaven and earth and is punished with a great punishment. And he will be deprived of his hope and be in great pain. And that soul has been put neither on the earth nor in heaven. But it has come into the open sea of the air of the world. The place where there is a great fire and crystal water and furrows of fire and a great upheaval. The bodies are tormented in various ways. Sometimes they're cast upon raging waters. And other times they're cast down into the fire in order that it may destroy them. Now I will not say that this is the death of the soul. For it has been delivered from evil but it is a death sentence. Oh Asclepius, It is necessary to believe these things and to fear them. In order that we might not encounter them. For unbelievers or impious and commit sin. Afterwards they will be compelled to believe. And they will not here by word of mouth only, but we'll experience the reality itself. For they kept believing that they would not endure these things.
And so, this Asclepius excerpt ends with one last question from Asclepius.
Oh, Trismegistus who are these demons? Oh, Asclepius they are the ones who are called Stranglers. and those who roll souls down on the dirt. and those who scourge them. and those who cast into the water. And those who cast into the fire. And those who bring about the pains and calamities of men. For such as these are not from a divine soul nor from a rational soul of man. Rather they're from the terrible evil.
And so, this tail end of the Hermetic tradition is what passed into Christianity. All of the 3,000 plus years of tradition before it were forgotten. Were left out. All of the tremendous setting in which this apocalypse was seen and understood was forgotten. And only this, the bare childish presentation of this imagery passed into Christianity. And became the mainstay of the Christian vision. What the Christian Church in its doctrinaire approach sustained and passed on through the centuries was a mental fiction based upon fear of this image base. And not the teachings of Jesus at all.
Before this happened, while this was happening, there was one last genius. One last Trismegistus in the tradition. And that was Plotinus. And Plotinus was able to present, not only in Alexandria but to take to Rome itself, hoping to transform the Roman Empire. And almost succeeded. Came, came with within an ace of being able to carry it out. So, we're going to spend the next month on Plotinus. And take a look at Plotinus' vision. And one of the surprising elements here is that Plotinus came very close to establishing a sacred city. He had the backing of the Roman Emperor at the time, Aurelius and Aurelius' wife. He had the backing of about a third of the Roman Senate, who were just about ready to finance the sacred city. That would have been founded down around where the Sibyl at Combi was placed. near, near Naples in that area. And this would have been the development of the monasteria in Plotinus' is great capacity. Instead of being a monasteria for a single individual. Instead of being a monasteria for a therapeutae community outside Alexandria. Or a therapeutae community in one of the cities in Egypt or some of the other places in Hellenistic world. It would have been a sacred city set up under the aegis of the Roman Empire to be an example of how the communion with the divine could be taught to tens of thousands of people at a time. Had this been able to be carried out the history of the world would have been much different. In fact, the task facing us in our time is this same task. To set up a working example of a spiritual community of transformation. So that not one at a time but tens of thousands at a time can understand and transform. This is the vision that is still there. It's works still undone seventeen hundred years later.
But we'll take a long look at Plotinus and The Enneads. And look at it consistently in the light of the Hermetic tradition.
Now if you're interested at all in the way in which Hermetic and Gnostic material is related, we'll get into it somewhat next week with Plotinus. And we're going to have to treat this with kid gloves as it were because you know my dearest friend is the Bishop of the Ecclesia Gnostica. And Plotinus says some unkind things about Gnostics. remember that Plotinus is writing in the 260's A.D. and the purity of Valentinian Gnosticism is greatly sullied a hundred years after.
In the book The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics on page 241 Hermes Trismegistus as an ally of Gnosticism. And we're going to go into that a little bit next week when we start off with Plotinus. It's necessary to understand that Hermeticism and Gnosticism, the Hermetic tradition and the gnosis are related together. And one of the really great insights that came out about twenty years ago. In a book called, in a book called The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel Professor E.R. Dodds talked about the relationship between the Gospel of John and the Hermetic tradition, The Corpus Hermeticum. And this was seconded by his student W.D. Davies. And E.R. Dodds and W.D. Davies were two of the great scholars about 20 years ago on this. And just as that realization was starting to come up the scholarly world, the religious establishment put a nix on this. And put a hush on this. let's not talk about this. And so that whole viewpoint has been discredited in terms of university scholars in the last 10 or 15 years. But we will see that there's a lot of politics to this discrediting. That in fact the insight is even closer. Because Gnosticism, the Gospel of Saint John, the Hermetic tradition, all of them come together. All of them in Alexandria around 100 A.D. to about 130-140 A.D. And Plotinus is the last individual, he's a world-class universal genius, who understands this. And when he denigrates Gnosticism, he's denigrating the kind of phony
Gnosticism that was beginning to obtain around 270 A.D. So, we'll look at that next week. And we'll be on Plotinus now for about a month.
Thanks for your patience I know this is difficult.
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