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Thrice-greatest Hermes; studies in Hellenistic theosophy and gnosis
Thricegreatest Hermes studies in Hellenistic theosophy and gnosis Author:Hermes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Accept my reason's1 offerings pure, from soul and heart for aye stretched up to Thee, O Thou unutterable, unspeakable, Whose Name naught but the Silence can expr... more »ess. 32. Give ear to me who pray that I may ne'er of Gnosis fail, [Gnosis] which is our common being's nature2; and fill me with Thy Power, and with this Grace [of Thine], that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my Brethren, and Thy Sons. For this cause I believe, and I bear witness; I go to Life and Light. Blessed art Thou, O Father. Thy Man8 would holy be as Thou art holy, e'en as Thou gavest him Thy full authority [to be]. COMMENTARY Of Vision And Apocalypsis The " Pcemandres" treatise not only belongs to the most important type of the Trismegistic literature, but is also the most important document within that type. It constitutes, so to speak, the Ground-Gospel of the Pcemandres Communities, in the form of a revelation or apocalypse received by the founder of the tradition, 1 oyixdt. 8 Ttji yvaatai Ttjj xar' oMar foar, " our being," that is, presumably, the " being " of man and God, the " being " which man shares with God. 3 Cf. C. H., xiii. (xiv.) 20. 4 HovirUv. that founder, however, being not a historical personage but the personification of a teaching-power or grade of spiritual illumination—in other words, of one who had reached the " Hermes," or rather " Thrice-greatest," state of consciousness or enlightenment. This stage of enlightenment was characterized by a heightening of the spiritual intuition which made the mystic capable of receiving the first touch of cosmic consciousness, and of retaining it in his physical memory when he returned to the normal state. The setting forth of the teaching is thus naturally in the form of apocalyptic, and of apocalypti...« less