The Divine Pymander Or Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus

In this Book, though so very old, is contained more true knowledge of God and Nature, than in all the Books in the World besides, except only Sacred Writ; And they that shall judiciously read it, and rightly understand it, may well be excused from reading many Books; the Authors of which, pretend so much to the knowledge of the Creator, and Creation. If God ever appeared in any man, he appeared in him, as it appears by this Book. That a man who had not the benefit of his Ancestors’ knowledge, being as I said before, The first inventor of the Art of Communicating Knowledge to Posterity by writing, should be so high a Divine, and so deep a Philosopher, seems to be a thing more of God than of Man; and therefore it was the opinion of some That he came from Heaven, not born upon Earth [Goropius Becanus]. There is contained in this Book, that true Philosophy, without which, it is impossible ever to attain to the height, and exactness of Piety, and Religion. According to this Philosophy, I call him a Philosopher, that shall learn and study the things that are, and how they are ordered, and governed, and by whom, and for what cause, or to what end; and he that doth so, will acknowledge thanks to, and admire the Omnipotent Creator, Preserver, and Director of all these things. And he that shall be thus truly thankful, may truly be called Pious and Religious: and he that is Religious, shall more and more know where and what the Truth is: And learning that, he shall yet be more and more Religious. The glory and splendour of Philosophy, is an endeavoring to understand the chief Good, as the Fountain of all Good: Now how can we come near to, or find out the Fountain, but by making use of the Streams as a conduct to it? The operations of Nature, are Streams running from the Fountain of Good, which is God. I am not of the ignorant, and foolish opinion of those that say, The greatest Philosophers are the greatest Atheists: as if to know the works of God, and to understand his goings forth in the Way of Nature, must necessitate a man to deny God. The Scripture disapproves of this as a sottish tenet, and experience contradicts it: For behold! Here is the greatest Philosopher, and therefore the greatest Divine.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1884 Edition.

The Corpus Hermeticum is one of the primary works within the Hermetic Tradition. This Renaissance era craft is nonetheless based upon philosophical materials from far older times, namely the third or fourth century AD, from which the primordial material came. Credited to Hermes Trismegistus, the Divine Pymander (sometimes spelled "Poemander") touches upon astronomy, science, nature, and a great deal of theological material. It is presented in the form of discourse; a format which will be familiar to anyone also familiar with Plato's "Republic" and some similar philosophical works of antiquity. Through his discourse with several individuals, Trismegistus attempts to draw upon the overarching philosophy "as above, so below." Thus then, this work describes the very process and ideation behind all of existence, the purpose of life, and the nature of good and evil, all through its treatises upon various topics.