Section 7

How are we to sing His praises ? As being like
unto us, or as being different from us ? Are we to
praise Him because of the human attributes which
He has, or is it to be because of His non-human
attributes? All of our attributes are in Him and
have come out from Him, and from Him did we
obtain them; hence, to praise Him for being like
unto us, is merely to praise Him for being Him-
self! Also, the non-human attributes are in Him
and have been born from Him, and therefore, if
we praise Him for being unlike us we praise Him
for merely being like unto Himself. At the same
time, if we praise Him for being unlike us, we
praise Him for being unlike Himself, but how can
any one be unlike himself? If we praise Him for
being like unto us, we set up His likeness unto
us, as in contrast to His unlikeness to us, and this
makes Him inconsistent with Himself, which
means to destroy His perfection as well as His
Unity, which would be a grave impiety. There-
fore, there is no way in which we can praise Him
without being guilty of a grave impiety; there-
fore, hearken to this eleventh commandment,
"Thou shalt not praise the Lord thy God, for in

70 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA

the day that thou doest this thou shalt be guilty
of blasphemy against the Most High."

For that Thou art whatever I may be ; Thou
art whatever I may do ; Thou art whatever I
may speak.

The being of man can never be anything other
than the individualization of certain attributes of
God. He is nothing apart from this ; hence God is
all that any of us are, and therefore, we have no
existence apart from Him. In ourselves we are
absolutely nothing. The recognition of this truth
is the true self-abnegation. Self-denial is nothing
other than the affirmation of God. Man in himself
does nothing. All his actions are in reality the
mode of God's attributes expressing themselves
under the terms of motion and rest. All of our
acts are acts of God. Apart from Him, and in
ourselves we do nothing. This was the message of
the Great Master Jesus. We do nothing, God
works in us. This is the true doctrine of non-
action. All words come forth from Him, are en-
gendered within Him and are brought forth into
manifestation. We can never speak a word that
has not previously been spoken by Him ; therefore,
we speak no word, His words speak through us;
hence, it is God who speaks and not us. No word
was ever spoken by anyone save God alone, as it
is Him speaking in all. The recognition of this
truth is the true secret of Quietism, and the Vow
of Silence.

For Thou art all, and there is nothing else
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.

PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA 71

God is all, and there is nothing of all the things
that are, that ever have been, or that will ever
be, that He is not. Every single thing that
has ever been, or that is, or that will ever be,
has been engendered and made within Him, is but
a partial individualization of Him, and in it He
continues to abide so long as it exists. There is
not one thing which is not He. Hence there is noth-
ing of which we may not truly say, this is God.
He is all that exists, for the reason that all exist-
ing things have been conceived and made within
Him, and have been born forth from Her, and thus
begin their period of existence. He is all that does
not exist, because those things that do not as yet
exist, have been conceived and made within the
Divine Depths, and having not as yet been born
forth into existence continue to subsist in Her, or
else they are in process of conception and making;
hence, is He both that which exists and that which'
does not exist, but subsists within Him. In His
thinking He is the Mind; for all Thoughts origi-
nate in this Mind; it being the true source of all
intelligence. In His making, He is the Father and
the Mother of all; for all that ever comes into
being is conceived of the Mind and made in Ku;
hence, is He the Father-Mother in His capacity of
the maker of all things, and no one thing comes
into being apart from this making by the Father-
Mother. He is God in His capacity as the ener
gizer of all that is made. All Life, all Energy, all
"Will Force is His ; it is in fact, the action of His
Will Force entering into all the things that are
made that in them becomes in them, Life, Energy
and Will. The life of anything is His Life func-
tioning in it. The energy of anything is His
energy functioning in it. The Will of anything,
is His Will Force functioning in it. In the act of
energizing all things, is He God. As the energizer
and at the same time the energy of the universe
both universally and particularly, He is God. He

72 PEILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A

is Good, for there is nothing Good save He-She
alone\ and is the Maker of all things, because all
things are made in Ku; hence, there is nothing
which this so Great God hath not made. What is
there that He is not? In reality it is a mistake
to say that He has created anything. This term is
misleading. He-She is the Father-Mother of all
things ; and all things of whatever kind and degree
are His-Her children, conceived of the Father and
born of the Mother. How then can we serve this
so great God? Only with the mind. We can but
contemplate His Greatness, and seek to compre-
hend Him as clearly as possible. Through this
contemplative study of the Divine Principle, and
in the adoration of His perfections, we may serve
Him. Also, by doing all in our power to in-
dividualize His attributes, and thus ensoul His
Nature. Service of Him must be in our becoming
like unto Him. Therefore, there is but one way to
serve GooJ; by treading the Old, Old Path of De-
votion joined with Gnosis.

(For that the subtler part of matter is the
air, of air the soul, of soul the mind, and of
mind, God.)

Here we have the relationship between the di-
verse aspects of the unity of the whole. God is
the ultimate Divine Essence. It abides within the
Mind, which it uses as a Vehicle through which
it manifests itself in its action on all beneath it.
Mind dwells within Soul, permeating it through
and through, and manifesting through it. In this
way is mind permitted to act through the medium
of soul upon the air. Subtle air dwells within
matter, which it permeates and makes use of as
its Vehicle and thereby is able to manifest in
action on matter and all material forms. We
might say that the objective world is the Gross

PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA 73

Body of the One. The Matter is its Etheric Count-
erpart. Air is the connecting principles between
this and the soul. Soul is the soul, and Mind is
the Spirit, while God is the Self or Ego hidden
within the Spirit. Thus there is but one Being in
which all that is, presents itself as some essential
part of the one great whole. This sublime truth
was vaguely hinted at in the statement in the
poem, "All things are one harmonious whole,
whose body nature is, and God the soul." While
the poem states the truth rather crudely, and
Hermes gives it with all of the grandiose force of
our Sacred Philosophy, yet in essence the mean-
ing is the same. This is the true Pan-Theism, or
Omni-Theism more correctly speaking.

PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA

In God Alone Is Good and Elsewhere

Nowhere.

(Text: G. R. S. Mead; Thrice Greatest Her-
mes; Corpus Hermeticum (VII) ; G. Par-
they, Hermetis Trismegisti, 48-53; Pat-
rizzi, Nova de Universis Philosophia, 14a-
15a.)
1. Good,0 Asclepios,is in none else save God
alone ; nay, rather, Good is God Himself eter-
nally.

If it be so, [Good] must be essence, from
every kind of motion and becoming free
(though naught is free from It), possessed of
stable energy around Itself, never too little,
nor too much, an ever-full supply. [Though]
one, yet [is It] source of all; for what sup-
plieth all is Good. When I, moreover, say
[supplieth] altogether [all], it is for ever Good.
But this belongs to no one else save God
alone.

For He stands not in need of anything, so
that desiring it He should be bad; nor can a
single thing. of things that are be lost to Him,
on losing which He should be pained, for pain
is part of bad. Nor is there aught superior
to Him, that He should be subdued by it; nor
any peer to Him to do Him wrong, or [so
that] He should fall in love on its account;
nor aught that gives no ear to Him, whereat
He should grow angry; nor wiser aught, for
Him to envy.

76 PHILOSOPHIA EERMETICA

2. Now as all these are non-existent in His
beings what is there left but Good alone?

For just as naught of bad is to be found in
such transcendent Being, so too in no one of
the rest will Good be found.

For in them all are all the other things —
both in the little and the great, both in each
severally and in this living one that's greater
than them all and mightiest [of them].

For things subject to birth abound in pas-
sions, birth in itself being passible. But where
there's passion, nowhere is there Good; and
where is Good, nowhere a single passion. For
where is day, nowhere is night; and where is
night, day is nowhere.

Wherefore, in genesis the Good can never
he, but only be in the ingenerate.

But seeing that the sharing in all things
hath been bestowed on matter, so doth it share
in Good.

In this way is the Cosmos good ; that, in so
far as it doth make all things, as far as mak-
ing goes it's Good, but in all other things it
is not Good. For it's both passible and sub-
ject unto motion, and maker of things pas-
sible.

3. Whereas in man by greater or by less of
bad is good determined. For what is not too
bad down here, is good ; and good down here
is the least part of bad.

It cannot, therefore, be that good down
here should be quite clean of bad, for down
here good is fouled with bad; and being
fouled, it stays no longer good, and staying
not it changes into bad.

In God alone, is, therefore, Good, or rather
Good is God Himself.

PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A 11

So, then, Asclepios, the name alone of Good
is found in men, the thing itself nowhere [in
them], for this can never be.

For no material body doth contain It, — a
thing bound on all sides by bad, by labors,
pains, desires and passions, by error and by
foolish thoughts.

And greatest ill of all, Asclepios, is that
each of these things that have been said above,
is thought down here to be the greatest good.

And what is still an even greater ill, is
belly-lust, the error that doth lead the band
of all the other ills — the thing that makes us
turn down here from Good.

4. And I, for my own part, give thanks to
God, that He hath cast it in my mind about
the Gnosis of the Good, that it can never be,
It should be in the world. For that the world
is "fullness" of the bad, but God of Good, and
Good of God.

The excellencies of the Beautiful are round
the very essence [of the Good] ; nay, they do
seem too pure, too unalloyed; perchance 'tis
they that are themselves Its essence.

For one may dare to say, Asclepios, — if es-
sence, sooth, He have — God's essence is the
Beautiful ; the Beautiful is further also Good.

There is no Good that can be got from ob-
jects in the world. For all the things that fall
beneath the eye are image-things and pictures
as it were ; while those that do not meet [the
eye are the realities], especially the [essence]
of the Beautiful and Good.

Just as the eye cannot see God, so can it not
behold the Beautiful and Good. For that they
are integral parts of God, wedded to Him

78 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A

alone, inseparate familiars, most beloved,
with -whom God is Himself in love, or they
with God.

5. If thou canst God conceive, thou shalt
conceive the Beautiful and Good, transcend-
ing Light, made lighter than the Light by
God. That Beauty is beyond compare, inimi-
tate that Good, e'en as God is Himself.

As, then, thou dost conceive of God, con-
ceive the Beautiful and Good. For they can-
not be joined with aught of other things that
live, since they can never be divorced from
God.

Seek'st thou for God, thou seekest for the
Beautiful. One is the Path that leadeth unto
It — Devotion joined with Gnosis.

6. And thus it is that they who do not know
and do not tread Devotion's Path, do dare to
call man beautiful and good, though he have
ne'er e'en in his visions seen a whit that's
Good, but is enwrapped with every kind of
bad, and thinks the bad is good, and thus doth
make unceasing use of it, and even feareth
that it should be ta'en from him, so straining
every nerve not only to preserve but even to
increase it.

Such are the things that men call good and
beautiful, Asclepios, — things which we cannot
flee or hate; for hardest thing of all is that
we've need of them and cannot live without
them.

LESSON VI.
The Nature of the Good.

1. Good, 0 Asclepios, is in none else save
God alone; nay, rather, Good is God Himself
eternally.

If it be so, [Good] must be essence, from
every kind of motion and becoming free
(though naught is free from It), possessed of
stable energy around Itself, never too little,
nor too much, an ever-full supply. [Though]
one, yet [is it] source of all; for what sup-
plieth all is Good. When I, moreover, say
[supplieth] altogether [all], it is for ever
Good. But this belongs to no one else save
God alone.

For He stands not in need of anything, so
that desiring it He should be bad; nor can a
single thing of things that are be lost to Him,
on losing which He should be pained ; for pain
is part of bad.

Nor is there aught superior to Him, that
He should be subdued by it; nor any peer to
Him to do Him wrong, or [so that] He should
fall in love on its account; nor aught that
gives no ear to Him, whereat he should grow
angry; nor wiser aught, for Him to envy.

Good, 0 Asclepios, is none else save God
alone, nay, rather, Good is God Himself eter-
nally.

There is no such distinction as Good and God,
they are svnonyrnous terms. Good is the nature

79

80 PHILOSOPHIA EEBMETICA

of the essence of God, and it exists nowhere else
save in God alone. Goodness is simply another
name~f or Divinity or Godness. Therefore, when we
speak of Good we should understand that we are
merely saying God. Good being identical with God
Himself, an understanding of the nature of God
will give us an understanding of the nature of
the Good. At the same time it is to be understood
that the Good is merely one aspect of the nature of
God. God is the Mind, He is the Father, and He
is also God and then He is Good. Good is in a
certain sense the Moral side of the Mother aspect
of God. However, this Moral aspect of the
Motherhood of God, must be understood in a much
more comprehensive sense than that which we
apply to morality in the accepted sense of the
term. We have already seen the nature of God as
the Mind, the Father and as God. His nature as
the Good is yet to be explained. We must now
see the nature of our Good Mother ; therefore, lend
thine «ear and open thy heart that I may expound
to this the holy mystery of the Goodness of the
Mother !

If it be so, [Good] must be essence, from
every kind of motion and becoming free
(though naught is free from It), possessed of
stable energy round itself, never too little,
nor too much, an ever-full supply. [Though]
one, yet [is it] source of all; for what sup-
plieth all is Good. When I, moreover, say
[supplieth] altogether [all], it is for ever
Good. But this belongs to no one else save
God alone.

Good will have to be an essence, seeing that it
is an aspect of the Unmanifest God. The Divine
Essence is Ku; and hence, the mystery of the
Good, is none other than the mystery of Ku. Ku

PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A 81

is the Feminine and Maternal Essence of the
Divine Principle. This essence is perfectly free
within itself. Every possible motion transpires
within its depths, and yet it is controlled by none
of those motions; for the reason that when the
cycle of each motion has been completed, the es-
sence returns into the passive state once again.
After each cycle of motion, it returns to the state
of rest. Yet, while it has the power to become
free from all of its motions, nothing can ever be
free from the absolute control of this Essence,
seeing that all things are made by it, and that
nothing can ever come into being apart from its
operations. This Ku is possessed of stable energy
which completely surrounds It, so that all of Its
motions are confined within this wall of energy.
Its motions take place within Its depths, not on Its
outer rim; hence, all the actions of Ku are con-
cealed, and can never be approached. The
mystery of the Womb of Ku can never be violated
by either gods or men, even the Father respects
its sacred seclusion. This zone of stable energy is
at all times exactly sufficient to confine the sphere
of activity and motion and rest, and also feed it
so that substance will at all times be provided for
making of all things. This Ku is an absolute
Unity. It is not composed of elements but is in
Itself one Simple Element absolutely indivisible in
its nature. It is this Essence that supplies sub-
stance and energy to all things that ever come into
being. In this way is It the one and only source
of everything. Because It is the source that makes
all, and that supplies to all, the completion of its
substance and energy, is It termed Good, seeing
that all comes from It. As It derives assistance
from nothing else, but is absolutely self-sufficient
in Itself, is It of the nature of Good, lacking noth-
ing. Because It supplieth altogether all, the time
can never be that anything should ever be sup-
plied by anything apart for this Ku; and hence,