THE GREAT INITIATES - THE VISION OF HERMES

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here is a pure jewell of this great author, Edouard Schure

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« THE GREAT INIITATES », part I

Edouard SCHURE

Kessinger Publishings Rare Reprints

ISBN 0-7661-3146-7

 

 

HERMES, chapter V : THE VISION OF HERMES*

 

*The Vision of Hermes is found at the beginning of the books of Hermes

Trimegistus, under the name of Poimandres. The ancient Egyptian tradition has

come down to us only in a slightly changes Alexandrian form. I have attempted to

reconstitute this important fragment of Hermetic doctrine in the sense of the

lofty initiation and esoteric synthesis it represents.

 

 

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One day, Hermes, after reflecting on the origin of things, fell asleep. A dull

torpor took possession of his body; but in proportion as the latter grew

benumbed, his spirit ascended into space. Then an immense being, of

indeterminate form, seemed to call him by name.

 

" Who art thou? " said terrified Hermes.

" I am Osiris " , the sovereign Intelligence who is able to unveil all things. What

desirest thou? "

" To behold the source of beings, O Divine Osiris, and to know God " .

" Thou shalt be satisfied. "

Immediately Hermes felt himself plunged in a delicious light. In its pellucid

billows passed the ravishing forms of all beings. Suddenly, a terrifying

encircling darkness descended upon him. Hermes was in a humid chaos, filled with

smoke and with a heavy, rumbling sound. Then a voice rose from the abyss, the

cry of light. At once a quick leaping flame darted forth from the humid depths,

reaching to the ethereal heights. Hermes ascended with it and found himself

again in the expanse of space. Order began to clear up chaos in the abyss;

choruses of constellations spread above the head and the voice of light filled

infinity.

 

" Dos thou understand what thou hast seen ? " said Osiris to Hermes, bound down in

his dream and suspended between earth and sky.

" No " , said Hermes.

" Thou wilt now learn, Thou hast just seen what exists from all eternity. The

light thou didst first see is the divine intelligence which contains all things

in potentiality, enclosing the models of all beings. The darkness in which thou

wast afterwards plunged is the material world on which the men of earth live.

But the fire thou didst behold shooting forth from the depths, is the divine

Word. God is the Father, the Word is the Son, and their union is Life. "

" What marvellous sense has opened out to eyes of the body, but with those of the

spirit. How has that come to pass?

 

" Child of dust " , replied Osiris, " it is because the Word I in thee. That in thee

which hears, sees, and acts is the Word itself, the sacred fire, the creative

utterance ! "

 

" Since things are so, " said Hermes, " grant that I may see the light of the

worlds; the path of souls from which man comes ad to which he returns. "

" Be it done according to thy desire. "

 

Hermes became heavier than a stone and fell through space like a meteorite.

Finally he reached the summit of a mountain. It was night, the earth was gloomy

and deserted, and his limbs seemed as heavy as iron.

 

" Raise thine eyes and look! " said the voice of Osiris.

 

Then Hermes saw a wonderful sight. The starry heavens, stretching through

infinite space, enveloped him with seven luminous spheres. In one glance, Hermes

saw the seven heavens stretching above his head , tier upon tier, like seven

transparent and concentric globes, the sideral centre of which he now occupied.

The Milky Way formed the girdle of the last. In each sphere there rolled a

planet accompanied by a Genius of different form, sign, and light. Whilst

Hermes, dazzled by the sight, was contemplating their wide-spread efflorescence

and majestic movements, the voice said to him : " Look, listen, and understand.

Thou seest the seven spheres of all life. Through them is accomplished the fall

and ascent of souls. The seven Genii are the seven rays of the World-Light. Each

of them commands one sphere of the Spirit, one phase of the life of souls. The

one nearest to thee is the Genius of the Moon, with his disquieting smile and

crown of silver sickle. He presides over births and deaths, sets free souls from

bodies and draws them into his ray. Above him, pale Mercury oints out the path

to ascending or descending souls with his caduceus, which contains all

Knowledge. Higher still, shining Venus holds the mirror of Love, in which souls

forget and recognise themselves in turn. Above her, the Genius of the Sun raises

the triumphal torch of eternal Beauty. At a yet loftier height, Mars brandishes

the sword of Justice. Enthroned on the azure sphere, Jupiter holds the sceptre

of supreme power, which is divine Intelligence. At the boundaries of the world,

beneath the signs of the Zodiac, Saturn bears the globe of universal wisdom. "

 

" I see " said Hermes, " the seven regions which comprise the visible and invisible

world; I see the seven rays of the World-Light, of the one God who traverses

them and governs them by these rays. Still,, O master, how does mankind journey

through all these worlds ? "

 

" Dost thous see " , said Osiris, " a luminous seed fall from the regions of the

Milky Way into the seventh sphere ? These are germs of souls. They live like

faint vapours in the region of Saturn, gay and free from care, knowing not their

own happiness. On falling from sphere to sphere, however, they put on

increasingly heavier envelopes. In each incarnation they acquire a new corporeal

sense, in harmony with the surroundings in which they are living. Their vital

energy increases, but in proportions as they enter into denser bodies they lose

the memory of their celestial origin. Thus is effected the fall of souls which

come from the divine Ether. Ever more and more captivated by matter and

intoxicated by life, they fling themselves like a rain of fire , with quiverings

of voluptuous delight, through the regions of Grief, Love, and Death, right into

their earthly prison where thou thyself lamentest, held down by the fiery centre

of the earth, and where divine life appears to thee nothing more than an empty

dream. "

 

" Can souls die? " asked Hermes.

" Yes, " replied the voice of Osiris, " any perish in the fatal descent. The soul

is the daughter of heaven, and its journey is a test. If it loses the memory of

its origin, in its unbridled love of matter, the divine spark which was in it

and which might have become more brilliant than a star, returns to the ethereal

region, a lifeless atom, and the soul disaggregates in the vortex of gross

elements. "

 

Hermes shuddered at these words, for a raging tempest enveloped hi in a black

mist. The seven spheres disappeared beneath dense vapours. In them he saw human

spectres, uttering strange cries, carried off and torn by phantoms of monsters

and animals, amidst nameless groans and blasphemies.

 

" Such is the destiny " , said Osiris, " of souls irremediably base and evil. Their

tortures finishes only with their destructions, which includes the loss of all

consciousness. The vapours are now dispersing, the seven spheres reappear

beneath the firmament. Look on this side. Do you see the swarm of souls trying

to mount one more to the lunar regions ? Some are beaten back to earth like

eddies of birds beneath the might of the tempest. The rest with mighty wings

reach the upper sphere, which draws them with it as it rotates. Once they have

come to this sphere, they recover their vision of divine things. This time

however, they are not content to reflect them in the dream of a powerless

happiness; they come impregnated thereby with the lucidity of a

grief-enlightened consciousness, the energy of a will acquired through struggle

and strife. They become luminous, for they possess the divine in themselves and

radiate it in their acts. Strengthen therefore thy soul. O Hermes! Calm thy

darkened mind by contempling these distant flights of souls which mount the

seven spheres ad are scattered about therein like sheaves of sparks. Thou also

canst follow them, but a strong will it needs to rise. Look how they swarm and

form into divine choruses. Each places itself beneath its favourite Genius. The

most beautiful dwell in the solar region; the most powerful rise to Saturn. Some

ascend to the Father, powers themselves amidst the powers. For where everything

ends, everything eternally begins; and the seven spheres say together : " Wisdom!

Love! Justice! Beauty ! Splendour! Knowledge! Immortality! "

 

" This " , said the hierophant, " is what ancient Hermes saw and what his

successors have handed down to us. The words of the wise are like the seven

notes of the lyre which contain all music, along with the numbers and the laws

of the universe. The vision of Hermes resembles the starry heaven, whose

unfathomable depths are strewn with constellations. For the child this is

nothing more than a gold-studded vault, for the sage it is boundless space in

which worlds revolve, with their wonderful rhythms and cadences. This vision

contains the eternal numbers, evoking signs and magic keys. The more thou

learnest to contemplate and understand it, the farther thou shalt see its limits

extend, for the same organic law governs all worlds.

 

The prophet of the temple commented on the sacred text. He explained that the

doctrine of the Word-Light represents divinity in the static condition, in its

perfect balance. He showed its triple nature, which is at once intelligence,

force, and matter; spirit, soul, and body; light, word and life. Essence,

manifestation, and substance are three terms which take each other for granted.

Their union constitutes the divine and intellectual principle par excellence,

the law of the ternary unity which governs creation from above downwards.

 

Having thus led his disciple to the ideal centre of the universe, the generating

principle of Being, the master spread him abroad in time and space in a multiple

efflorescence. For the second part of the vision represents divinity in the

dynamic condition, i.e. in active evolution; in other terms, the visible and

invisible universe, the living heavens.

 

The seven spheres attached to the seven planets symbolise seven principles,

seven different states of matter and spirit, seven different worlds which each

man and each humanity are forced to pass through in their evolution across a

solar system. The seven Genii or the seven cosmogonic Gods signify the superior,

directing spirits of all spheres, the offspring themselves of inevitable

evolution. To an initiate of old, therefore, each great God was the symbol and

patron of legions of spirits which reproduced his type in a thousand varieties,

and which, from their own sphere, could exercise their action over mankind and

terrestrial things. The seven Genii of the vision of Hermes are the seven Devas

of India, the seven Amshapands of Persia, the seven great Angels of Chaldea, the

seven Sepiroths of the Kabbala, the seven Archangels of the Christian

Apocalypse. The great septenary which enfolds the universe does not vibrate in

the seven colours of the rainbow and the seven notes of the scale, only; it also

manifests itself in the constitution of man, which is triple in essence, but

sevenfold in its evolution.

 

" Thus " , said the hierophant in conclusion, " thou hast reached the very threshold

of the great Arcanum. The divine life has appeared to thee beneath the phantoms

of reality. Hermes has unfolded to thee the invisible heavens, the light of

Osiris, the hidden God of the universe, who breathes in millions of souls and

animates thereby the wandering globes and working bodies. It is now thine to

direct thy path and choose the road leading to the pure Spirit. Henceforth dost

thou belong to those who have been brought back from death to life. Remember

that there are two main keys to knowledge. This is the first : " The without is

like the within of things; the small is like the large; there is only one law

and he who works is One. In the divine economy, there is nothing either great of

small. " And this is the second: " Men are mortal gods and gods are immortal men. "

Happy the man who understands these words, for he holds the key of all things.

Remember that the law of mystery veils the great truth. Total knowledge can be

revealed only to our brethren who have gone through the same trials as

ourselves. Truth must be measured according to intelligence; it must be veiled

from the feeble, whom it would madden, and concealed from the wicked, who are

capable of seizing only its fragment which they would turn into weapons of

destruction. Keep it in thy heart and let it speak through thy work. Knowledge

will be thy might, faith thy sword, and silence thy armour that cannot be

broken. "

 

The revelation of the prophet of Ammon-Râ, which opened out to the new initiate

such vast horizons over himself and over the universe, doubtless produced a

profound impression, when uttered from the observatory of a theban temple, in

the clear calm of an Egyptian night. The pylons, the white roofs and terraces of

the temples lay asleep at his feet between the dark clusters of nopals and

tamarind trees. Away in the distance were large monolithic shrines, colossal

statues of the gods, seated like incorruptible judges on their silent lake.

Three pyramids, geometrical figures of the tetragram and of the sacred

septenary, could be dimly seen on the horizon, their triangles clearly outlined

in the light grey air. The unfathomable firmament was studded with stars. With

what strange gaze he looked at those constellations which were depicted to him

as future dwellings! When finally the gold-tipped barque of the moon rose above

the dark mirror of the Nile which died away on the horizon, like a long bluish

serpent, the neophyte believed he saw the barque of Isis floating over the river

of souls which it carries off towards the sun of Osiris. He remembered the Book

of the Dead, and the meaning of all symbols was now unveiled to his mind after

what he had seen and learned; he might believe himself to be in the crepuscular

kingdom of the Amenti, the mysterious interregnum between the earthly and the

heavenly life, where the departed, who are at first without eyes and powr of

utterance, by degrees regain sight and voice. He too was about to undertake the

great journey, the journey of the infinite, through worlds and existences.

Hermes had already absolved him and judged him to be worthy. He had given him

the explanation of the great enigma: " One only soul, the great soul of the All,

by dividing itself out, has given birth to all the souls that struggle

throughout the universe. " Armed with the mighty secret, he entered the barque of

Isis. Rising aloft into the ether, it floated in the interstellar regions. The

broad ray of a far-spreading dawn were already piercing the azure veils of the

celestial horizons, and the choir of the glorious spirits, the Akhimou-Sekou,

who have attained to eternal repose, was chanting: " Rise, Râ Hermakouti, Sun of

spirits! Those in thy barque are in exaltation. They raise exclamations in the

barque of millions of years. The great divine cycle overflows with joy when

glorifying the mighty sacred barque. Rejoicing is taking place in the mysterious

chapel. Rise, Ammon-Râ Hermakouti, thou self-creating Sun! " And the initiate

replied proudly: " I have attained the country of truth and justification. I rise

from the dead as a living God, and shine forth in the choir of the Gods who

dwell in heaven, for I belong to their race. "

 

Such audacious thoughts and hopes might haunt the spirit of the adept during the

night following the mystic ceremony of resurrection. The following morning, in

the avenues of the temple, beneath the blinding light, that night seemed to him

no more than a dream….. though how impossible to forget…. That first voyage into

the intangible and invisible! Once again he read the inscription on the statue

of Isis: " My veil no mortal hand hath raised. " All the same a corner of the veil

was raised, but only to fall back again, and he woke up on the earth of tombs.

Ah, how far he was from the goal he had dreamed of! For the voyage on the barque

of millions of years is a long one! But at least he had caught a faint glimpse

of his final destination. Even though his vision of the other world were only a

dream, a childish outline of his imagination, still obscured by the mists of

earth, could he doubt that other consciousness he had felt being born in him,

that mysterious double, that celestial ego which had appeared to him in its

astral beauty like a living form and spoken to him in his sleep? Was this a

sister-soul, was it his Genius, or only a reflection of his inmost spirit, a

vision of his future being dimly foreshadowed ? A wonder and a mystery! Surely

it was a reality, and if that soul was only his own, it was the true one. What

would he not do to recover it ? Were he to live millions of years he would never

forget that divine hour in which he had seen his other self, so pure and

radiant.

 

The initiation was at an end, and the adept consecrated as priest of Osiris. If

he was an Egyptian, he remained attached to the temple; if a foreigner, he was

permitted, from time to time, to return to his own country, therein to establish

the worship of Isis or to accomplish a mission.

 

Before leaving, however, he swore a formidable oath that he would maintain

absolute silence regarding the secrets of the temple. Never would he betray to a

single person what he had seen or heard, never would he reveal the doctrine of

Osiris except under the triple veil of the mythological symbols of the

mysteries. Were he to violate this oath, sudden death would come to him, sooner

or later, however far away he might be. Silence, however, had become the buckler

of his might.

 

On returning to the shores of Ionia, to the turbulent town in which he formerly

lived, amidst that multitude of men, a prey to mad passions, who exist like

fools in their ignorance of themselves, his thoughts often flew back to Egypt

and the pyramids to the temple of Amon-Râ. Then the dream of the crypt came back

to memory. And just as the lotus, in that distant land, spreads out its petals

on the waves of the Nile, so this white vision floated above the slimy,

turbulent stream of this life. At chosen hours, he would hear its voice, and it

was the voice of light. Arousing throughout his being the strains of an inner

music, it said to him: " The soul is a veiled light. When neglected, it flickers

and dies out, but when it is fed with the holy oil of love, it shines forth like

an immortal lamp. "