Message #84206

[Veronica Poe]

I_am_that_I_am

Member
Member # 1238

Member Rated:
   posted 08-17-2006 12:03 PM                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Divine pymanmder of Hermes Trismegistus
(pymander= poemandres)
by The Editors of the Shrine of Wisdom
1st printing 1923,2nd 1935,3rd 1948, 4th 1955

Chapter 1
This manual represents an endeavour to systematize and unfold something of the significance of the writtings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.

The numerous profound truths which the Corpus Hermeticum contains are not easily recognizable from a general perusal of them in the form in which they are usually presented.

The extant Trismegistic literature consists of the Pymander collection of fourteen sermons;the definition of Asclepius,or the perfect sermon; the twenty-seven excerpts from John Stobaeus(including a sermon entitled "The virig of the world") and of many fragments and referances from the philosophers and the church fathers.

This is all that remains of what was evidently an extensive literature. No precise date can be assigned as to when it first saw light, but many of the early church Fathers accepted the Trismegistic writings as both ancient and authoritative,sometimes utilizing them to support Christian doctrines; while the philosophers,in whose work they appear,did not question their authenticity.

Some of those who quoted from them were: Iamblichus,Justin Martyr,Tertullian,st.Cyprian,Eusebius pamphilus, Clement of Alexandria,Lactantius, st. Augustine,st. Cyril od Alexandria,Suidas,and Julian the Emperor.and nearly all the spiritual Humanists of the middle ages ranked them,especially the Pymander,in the very first list of religious literature.
The extracts contained herein are not taken from any one paricular version,but are the results of a comparison of three Engish translations,namely, by JohnEverard,D.D., 1650; J.D. Chambers,1882; and G.R.S. Mead, 1906.

The references quoted herein are as used in the last version.But it must be admitted here that in the Trismegistic fragments there is much that requires considerable elucidation. This can be only very partially attempted in this manual,which has for it's objects the emphasis of the more primary and important fundamental truths contained in the Corpus Hermeticum rather than the full explanation of secondary points and the reconciliation of all the real or apparent inconsistencies.


was he one, or many,merging
Name and fame in one,
Like a stream, to which,converging,
Many streamlets run?



who shall call his dream fallacious?
Who has searched or sought
All the unexplored and spacious
Univers of thought?



Who,in his own skill confiding,
Shall with rule and line
Mark the border-line dividing
Human and divine?



Trismegistus! Three times greatest!
How thy name sublime
Has descended to this latest
progeny of time !


Longfellow.

--------------------
KNOW that as ye do unto the least of thy associates ye do
unto the GOD within THEE that is in the image of the God
without.
E.C.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 1820 | From: Nashville, TN. | Registered: Nov 2002