THE KEY OF HERMES
For there is one name or appellation of nature or the force of increase. The Within and the Without; the Divine and the Human of man; the two beings of increase, every one of which himself will have so to be. The action and operation of man both Divine and Human must here also be understood. For man’s operation or act is his Will and his Essence-power to will all things to goodness. For it is possible, O Son of Truth, to be deified while yet it lodges in the body of man, if it contemplate the beauty of the Good. As it opens the eyes of mind vision, the Soul beholds incorruptible and incomprehensible beauty of Love, that is goodness, and when man sees it man has nothing at all to say of it, for it is the unspeakable light of Truth. For the knowledge of it is a Divine silence and the rest of all the outer senses. For the Light of Truth stands steadfastly upon and around the whole mind, whose atmosphere enlightens all the Soul, and, loosing it from the bodily world, draws it from the body in the embrace of Love wholly into the Essence of God.
The Soul of man is carried in this manner. The mind in reason; reason in the Soul; the Soul in the Spirit; the Spirit in the inner temple. Knowest thou that every Soul hath the good mind; but, the mind being the window of the Soul, therefore the Soul without the mind can neither do nor say anything; for many times the mind flies away from the Soul, and in that hour the Soul neither sees nor hears but is in darkness, like a lost sheep in confusion, an unreasonable thing. So great is the help and power of the mind! Wherefore, if the Soul in man has no mind, then must such an one not be called a man. For a true man is a Divine living thing, and is not to be compared to any brute breast that lives upon earth, but to them that are above in heaven, they that are called Angels or Gods. For none of the things of heaven will come down upon earth to live, and leave the limits of heaven. But the true man ascends into heave, understands and measures it, and by his wisdom from the Father he knows what things are on high and what things are below, and learns all things exactly. And, what is the greatest of all, he leaves not the earth, and yet goes above. So great is the Father in His Love to him, giving him the nature-life which every Angel has not. Wherefore we must be bold to say that an earthly man is a mortal God, and that the heavenly God is an immortal man. All things depend on one beginning, and the beginning depends on that which is One and that alone. And the beginning is moved that it may again be a beginning; but that which is One stands, abides, and is not moved.
There is therefore a trinity of these three — God, the Father of all, and the Good; the World, and Man. God has the world and the world has man, and the world is the son of God and man, as it were — the offspring of the world. For God is not ignorant of man, but knows him perfectly, and desires to be, and will be, known of man. Therefore this only is healthful to man, — the knowledge and understanding of his Father, God. This is the return of Olympus, or Adonai; for by this only is the Soul made good, and not sometimes good and sometimes evil, but of necessity always good.
My son, when man lifts his hands up to God, He also extends His hand down to man. Therefore strive to draw Him unto you. Quiet and make idle the outward senses of the body.
Purge yourself from all the unreasonable arrogance of the brutish element which only torments matter, and God will come unto you. Make yourself in order, and it shall be done.
Remember there are many tormentors in the body of most men. One of the greatest of these is Wrath, and with it is Ignorance. A third is Intemperance; fourth, Concupiscence; fifth, Injustice; sixth, Covetousness; seventh, Deceit; eighth, Envy; ninth, Fraud or Guile; the tenth is Sorrow; eleventh, Rashness; and twelfth, Maliciousness/ From out these twelve principles grow very many more, some or all of which, through the prion of the body, do cause the inwardly true man and the Soul to suffer greatly. O sons of Life, suffer not yourselves to be carried away with these outward things, with the great stream of men; but stem the tide. Through the inward man you can lay hold of the haven of safety, and make full course toward it. Seek the one that my lead you by the hand and conduct you to the door of truth and knowledge; for the God of all cannot be heard with the outward ears, nor seen with the outer eye, nor expressed in the noise of words, but only in the inmost Soul of mind and heart. But first thou must tear to pieces and break through these outer garments you wear, for they are the web of ignorance, the foundation of all mischief, the bond of corruption, the living death, the sensible carcass, the sepulchre which men carry about with them.
Such is the hurtful apparel with which you are clothed, my son. It is that which draws and pulls you down by its own self, lest, looking upward, you shall see the beauty of truth and light and the good that reposes therein.
It chooses darkness and self above all; therefore you should hate the wickedness of this garment and understand the traps and ambushes it has laid for you; for it truly hides and envelopes what it presents to you in must deceitful promise, filling it with hateful pleasure, so you can neither hear that which you should hear, nor see that which you should see, nor have the good things you should have.
Who has made all these worlds and fashioned so many arts in one matter, and so many works in one superscription, all so exceedingly beautiful, all done in measure, and yet all different? Who has made all these things? What father, what mother, save only God, that is not manifest? He has made all by His own love and will and fashioned them.
No man says a statue or an image is made without a carver or a painter; and was all this wonderful workmanship made without the mind of a great workman? O great blindness! O great impiety! O great ignorance! God is the Cause of life’s perpetual motion, of which motion there is nothing more ancient; yet it is always fresh, vigorous, and young.
God is not a mind, but the Cause of mind; not a Soul, but the Cause of Soul; not a light, but the Cause of Light. The Spirit-Soul of Eternity is God; and the Soul of the world, eternity; and of the earth, heaven. God is in the mind, the mind in the Soul, the Soul in matter, all things in eternity. All this Universal body, in which are all bodies in full of Soul, full of mind, the mind full of God. For within He fills them with Spirit, and without He contains them, quickening the Universe. Without, He quickens this perfect, living thing, the world, and within, He quickens all living creatures; and above in heaven He abides in one identity or one Selfhood; but below upon earth He changes generation.