The Wisdom of the Egyptians

The Story of the Egyptians, the Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, the Ptah-Hotep
and the Ke’gemini, the “Book of the Dead,” the Wisdom of Hermes Trismegistus,
Egyptian Magic, the Book of Thoth

Edited, and with an Introduction

By Brian Brown

New York: Brentano’s

[1923]

CHAPTER VII

THE VISION OF HERMES 1

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 the 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
his head and the voice of light filled infinity.

“Dost 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 me?” asked Hermes. “I no longer
see with the 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 is 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 and 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 sidereal 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 word-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 points 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 recognize them 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. 2

“I see,” said Hermes, “the seven regions which comprise the visible and invisible
world; I see the seven rays of the word-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 thou 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 vapors 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 proportion 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, “many 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 him in a
black mist. The seven spheres disappeared beneath dense vapors. 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 torture finishes only with their destruction, which includes the loss
of all consciousness. The vapors are now dispersing, the seven spheres reappear
beneath the firmament. Look on this side. Do you see this swarm of souls trying
to mount once 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 become 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 contemplating these
distant flights of souls which mount the seven spheres and 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 favorite genius. The most beautiful dwell in the solar region;
the most powerful rise to Saturn. Some ascend to the Father, powers themselves
amidst powers. For where everything ends, everything eternally begins; and the
seven spheres say together: ‘Wisdom! Love! Justice! Beauty! Splendor! 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 contains 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. The 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 a 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 off spring
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 Chald, the seven Sephiroths of the Kabbala, the seven Archangels
of the Christian Apocalypse. The great septenary which enfolds the universe
does not vibrate in the seven colors 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
or 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 to 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 fragments, 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 armor that cannot be broken.”

The revelations of the prophet of Amon-R 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
a 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 the 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 power 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
rays 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, RHermakouti, 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-RHermakouti, 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 his 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. 3

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 or 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-R 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.”

Footnotes

1 The Vision of Hermes is found at the beginning of
the books of Hermes Trismegistus, under the name of Poimandres. The ancient
Egyptian tradition has come down to us only in a slightly changed Alexandrian
form. It has been attempted here to constitute this important fragment of Hermetic
doctrine in the sense of the lofty initiation and esoteric synthesis it represents.

2 It is unnecessary to state that these gods bore
other names in the Egyptian tongue. The seven cosmogonic gods, however, correspond
with one another in all mythologies, in meaning and attributes. They have their
common root in the ancient esoteric tradition. As the western tradition has
adopted the Latin names, we keep them for greater clearness.

3 In the Egyptian teachings, man was considered
in this life to have consciousness only of the animal and the rational soul,
called hati and bai. The higher part of his being, the spiritual soul and the
divine being, cheybi and kou, exist in him as unconscious.