Corpus Hermeticum
Hermes Trismegistus (attr.) · tr. G. R. S. Mead · 1906 · 22,667 words
Mead’s translation from Thrice-Greatest Hermes (1906), tractates I–XIV as given.
Opening
I. Poemandres, the Shepherd of Men
1. It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back - just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.
Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?
2. And I do say: Who art thou?
He saith: I am Man-Shepherd (Poemandres), Mind of all-masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I'm with thee everywhere.
3. [And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.
He answered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will teach thee.
4. E'en with these words His aspect changed, and straightway, in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Vision limitless, all things turned into Light - sweet, joyous [Light]. And I became transported as I gazed.
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Contents
- I. Poemandres, the Shepherd of Men
- II. To Asclepius
- III. The Sacred Sermon
- IV. The Cup or Monad
- V. Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest
- VI. In God Alone Is Good And Elsewhere Nowhere
- VII. The Greatest Ill Among Men is Ignorance of God
- VIII. That No One of Existing Things doth Perish, but Men in Error Speak of Their Changes as Destructions and as Deaths
- IX. On Thought and Sense
- X. The Key
- XI. Mind Unto Hermes
- XII. About The Common Mind
- XIII. The Secret Sermon on the Mountain