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Philosophia Hermetica
A Course of Ten Lessons, Being An Intro-
duction to "The Philosophy
of Alchemy*9
BY
Dr. A. S. Raleigh
(Hach Mactzin El Dorado Can.)
Eierophant of the Mysteries of Isis,
Publishers
HERMETIC PUBLISHING COMPANY
San Francisco, Calif.
Distributors
STERLING PUBLISHING COMPANY
Chicago, U. S. A.
1916
*?i*
COPYRIGHT. 1916 by A. S. RALEIGH Copyrighted and Registered at Stationers' Hall, London, England. (All Rights Reserved)
COPYRIGHT IN ALL COUN- TRIES. SIGNATORIES TO THE BERNE CONVENTION
the STERLING press
MAY 29 1916 ©CU433188
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In evidence whereof it is strictly understood these Private Lessons must not be loaned as they come to you fully magnetised, and the magnetism must remain intact.
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CONTENTS
THOUGH UNMANIFEST GOD IS MOST MANIFEST.
Text page 7
Lesson I. The God Beyond All Name 13
Lesson II. The Manifestation of God 27
Lesson III. The Manifest God 37
Lesson IV. The Unmanifest God 52
Lesson V. The Immanence of God 61
IN GOD ALONE IS GOOD AND ELSEWHERE NOWHERE.
Text 75
Lesson VI. The Nature of the Good 79
Lesson VII. The Pleroma of the Bad 87
Lesson VIII. The Inherent Badness of Man 95
Lesson IX. The Beautiful and the Good 107
Lesson X. The Gnosis of the Good 115
DEDICATION
To G. R. S. Mead, who through the publica- tion of his edition of the Sermons and Frag- ments of Hermes Trismegistos, under the title of Thrice Greatest Hermes; made it possible for the English Reading Public to gain access to the rich mine of Hermetic Wisdom contained therein; and in this way did a great deal in the great work of bringing the transcendental truths of Hermetic Philosophy to the knowl- edge of the Modern world ; who also through his work in reproducing the Gnosis through the medium of his writings on the Gnostic Fragments, but especially in his editing of the Gnostic Fragments ; thus aiding in the resto- ration of the Gnosis of the Mind, this series of Lessons on Hermetic Philosophy is lovingly dedicated.
By the Author.
PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA
Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest.
(Text: G. R. S. Mead. Thrice Greatest Her- mes; Corpus Hermeticum (VI); G. Par- they, Hermetis Trismegisti, 41-48; Pat- rizzi, Nova de Universis Philosophia, 12b- 13b.)
1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, 0 Tat, that thou mayest cease to be with- out the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how That which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most mani- fest for thee.
Now, were It manifest, It would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becom- ing, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest forever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things.
Being Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking-manifest, He thinketh all things manifest.
Now "thinking-manifest" deals with things made alone, for thinking-manifest is nothing else than making.
2. He, then, alone who is not made, 'tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking- manifest, and is unmanifest.
And as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest.
8 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A
Do thou, then, Tat, my son, pray first unto our Lord and Father, the One-and-Only One, from whom the One doth come, to show His mercy unto thee, in order that thou mayest have the power to catch a thought of this so mighty God, one single beam of Him to shine into thy thinking. For thought alone "sees" the Unmanif est, in that it is itself unmanif est.
If, then, thou hast the power, He will, Tat, manifest to thy mind's eyes. The Lord be- grudges not Himself to anything, but mani- fests Himself through the whole world.
Thou hast the power of taking thought, of seeing it and grasping it in thy own "hands," and gazing face to face upon God's Image. But if what is within thee even is unmanif est to thee, how, then, shall He Himself who is within thy self be manifest for thee by means of [outer] eyes?
3. But if thou wouldst "see" Him, bethink thee of the sun, bethink thee of moon's course, bethink thee of the order of the stars. Who is the One who watcheth o'er that order? For every order hath its boundaries marked out by place and number.
The sun's the greatest god of gods in heaven ; to whom all the heavenly gods give place as unto king and master. And he, this so-great one, he greater than the earth and sea, en- dures to have above him circling smaller stars than him. Out of respect to Whom, or out of fear of Whom, my son, [doth he do this] ?
Nor like nor equal is the course each of these stars describes in heaven. Who [then] is He who marketh out the manner of their course and its extent?
4. The Bear up there that turneth round
PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA
itself, and carries round the whole cosmos with it — Who is the owner of this instru- ment? Who He who hath set round the sea its bounds? Who He who hath set on its seat the earth?
For, Tat, there is someone who is the Maker and the Lord of all these things. It could not be that number, place and measure could be kept without someone to make them. No order whatsoever could be made by that which lacketh place and lacketh measure; nay; even this is not without a Lord, my son. For if the orderless lacks something, in that it is not lord of order's path, it also is beneath a lord — the one who hath not yet ordained it order.
5. Would it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowing of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftness, [and] the coursing of the stars, the swiftness of heaven's circuit round them [all] !
Most blessed sight were it, my son, to see all these beneath one sway — the motionless in motion, and the unmanifest made manifest; whereby is made this order of the cosmos and the cosmos which we see of order.
6. If thou would'st see Him too through things that suffer death, both on the earth and in the deep, think of a man's being fash- ioned in the womb, my son, and strictly scru- tinize the art of Him who fashions him, and learn who fashioneth this fair and godly image of the Man.
Who [then] is He who traceth out the cir-
10 PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA
cles of the eyes; who He who boreth out the nostrils and the ears; who He who openeth [the portal of] the mouth ; who He who doth stretch out and tie the nerves; who He who channels out the veins; who He who hardeneth the bones ; who He who covereth the flesh with skin; who He who separates the fingers and the joints ; who He who widens out a treading for the feet; who He who diggeth out the ducts ; who He who spreadeth out the spleen ; who He who shapeth heart like to a pyramid ; who He who setteth ribs together; who He who wideneth the liver out; who He who mak- eth lungs like to a sponge ; who He who mak- eth belly stretch so much; who He who doth make prominent the parts most honorable, so that they may be seen, while hiding out of sight those of least honor?
7. Behold how many arts [employed] on one material, how many labors on one single sketch ; and all exceeding fair, and all in per- fect measure, yet all diversified ! Who made them all? what mother, or what sire, save God alone, unmanifest, who hath made all things by His Will?
8. And no one saith a statue or a picture comes to be without a sculptor or [without] a painter; doth [then] such workmanship as this exist without a Worker? What depth of blindness, what deep impiety, what depth of ignorance! See, then, thou ne'er, son Tat, deprivest works of Worker!
Nay, rather is He greater than all names, so great is He, the Father of them all. For verily He is the Only One; and this His work, to be a father.
9. So, if thou f orcest me somewhat too bold,
PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA 11
to speak, His being is conceiving of all things and making [them].
And as without its maker it is impossible that anything should be, so ever is He not un- less He ever makes all things, in heaven, in air, in earth, in deep, in all of cosmos, in every part that is and that is not of every- thing. For there is naught in all the world that is not He.
He is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, He keepeth things that are not in Himself.
He is the God beyond all name ; He the un- manifest, He the most manifest; He whom the mind [alone] can contemplate, He visible unto the eyes [as well] ; He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather He of every body.
Naught is there which He is not. For all are He and He is all. And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no name, in that He's Father of [them] all.
Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee?
Whither, again, am I to turn my eyes to sing Thy praise; above, below, within, without?
There is no way, no place [is there] about Thee, nor any other thing of things that are.
All [are] in Thee; all [are] from Thee; 0 Thou who givest all takest naught, for Thou hast all and naught is there Thou hast not.
11. And when, 0 Father, shall I hymn Thee? For none can seize Thy hour or time.
For what, again, shall I sing hymn? For things that Thou hast made, or things Thou
12 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA
hast not? For things Thou hast made mani- fest, or things Thou hast concealed?
How, further, shall I hymn Thee? As being of myself? As having something of mine own? As being other?
For that Thou art whatever I may be ; Thou art whatever I may do ; Thou art whatever I may speak.
For Thou art all, and there is nothing else which Thou art not. Thou art all that which doth exist, and Thou art what doth not exist, — Mind when Thou thinkest, and Father when Thou makest, and God when Thou dost ener- gize, and Good and Maker of all things.
(For that the subtler part of matter is the air, of air the soul, of soul the mind, and of mind God.)
LESSON I The God Beyond All Name
Text:
1. I will recount for thee this sermon (logos) too, 0 Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how That which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most manifest for thee.
Now, were It manifest, It would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becom- ing, for it hath been made, manifest. But the Unmanifest for ever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things.
Being Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking-manifest, He thinketh all things manifest.
Now "thinking-manif est" deals with things made alone, for thinking-manifest is nothing else than making.
I will recount for thee this sermon (logos) too, 0 Tat, that thou may'st cease to be with- out the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most man- ifest for thee.
13
14 PHILOSOPHIA EEBMETICA
The subject matter of this sermon is the mys- tery of the God beyond all name. To enable one to understand the nature of the God beyond all name is the purpose of this discourse, and this knowl- edge must ever be the basic principle in Hermetic Philosophy. Without this understanding we can- not advance in the study of our subject. All of our Philosophy is based upon this knowledge and therefore, our first step must be to understand this mystery. First of all, we must understand just what is meant by being beyond all name.
Words are composed of determinate numbers of syllables, each syllable representing a determinate sound. In spoken language, a definate sound is the result of a determinate modification of the breath, in such a manner as to produce that specific sound. Words are therefore combinations of sounds, and hence, combinations of definite modifications of the breath. Breath is air in motion, hence it has become the symbol of all energy acting under the impulse of an inward and outward motion, in other words the periodicity of Centripetal and Centrif- ugal motion. A word then, will be the synthesis of two or more modifications of force, the result being a complex or synthetic modification of force. We are told that words are the signs of Ideas, which means that an Idea causes the modification of force essential to give dynamic expression to it, and hence words are in reality the names of Ideas, and are at all times the correspondents of the Ideas which they express. In other words, the Ideative Faculty creates an Idea, which acts upon the dynamic will force, in such a way as to give dynamic expression to it, which, acting upon the vocal organs, causes a modification of the breath in such a manner as to express that Idea through the medium of corresponding sound. Words then are the living expressions of corresponding Ideas. Man thinks not as he will, but as he must. The Ideative Faculty in man, is but the reflection of
PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA 15
the Ideative Principle of the Kosmos, the Logos in fact. In other words, there is an absolute Law governing the formation of Ideas, and they can be formed in no other way. The Eacial Mind operates as a nnit, and Language is the expres- sion of this Eacial Mind. A Language is not an invention, but an Evolution, the Infallible coun- terpart of the evolving Psychology of the Eace. It is for this reason that every effort to form an International Language has proved a failure and always will fail. Language evolves in accordance with an absolute law, and no language can ever evolve in any manner different than it has. A word in any given language could not possibly be any thing except just what it is, and could not possibly have any other meaning. Where a false meaning has been given to a word, it is simply due to the fact that the people do not un- derstand their own language. Words change through usage because the Ideas of the people change, and of course the language, the mission of which is to express the Ideas of the people who use it, changes automatically with their Ideas. Of course there are technical words that have been arbitrarily given, but in the main this principle enunciated here will apply.
Words are given to objects as distinguishing names, and in the main the word is given which corresponds to the attributes of the object so named. In other words, there is a perfect cor- respondence between the dynamic power of the word and the dynamic power of that to which it is applied. A name then can only be applied to something the attributes of which are in corre- spondence with the dynamic elements of the word which is used as the name for it. Names there- fore can only be given to things whose natures are to be determined by comparison or contrast with other things. We cannot give a name to the Absolute God, because that would in the very
16 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA
nature of things bring Him into relation with other things, and by asserting that He was pos- sessed of certain attributes, deny to Him all other attributes. As all attributes emanate from Him, we cannot do this. We cannot even give to Him all names, because this would limit Him to the Pleroma of things, and He is much more than this, being Source of all, rather than the All of things. Hence is He the One beyond all name, or the Nameless One.
This Nameless One, who is to the world un- manifest, seeing that It does not manifest Itself to their consciousness, owing to the fact that their consciousness is made up of the conscious- ness of things, will, however, become most mani- fest to the one who is able to get back of the mystery through Spiritual Abstraction.
Now were It manifest, It would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becom- ing, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest forever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all things.