Moving Reflections

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Creation in the Corpus Hermetica

The first Libellus of the Corpus Hermeticum, titled 'Poimandres of Hermes Trismegistus', recounts the conversation of the author with his higher self, the "Mind of Soverignty". The majority of the text is concerned with explaining the Hermetic cosmogony while subtly introducing the sacred sciences of astronomy and alchemy.

The account begins with the Primordial Darkness out of which arises the first Light called "Mind the Father". The initial act of self-manifestation by Mind the Father separates light and life from the darkness. What was once the Darkness has now become the primordial Waters. Not surprisingly, these Waters are akin to the watery abyss of Nun in the Egyptian Hermapolitan cosmology; they represent a primeval soup of the elements and creative potential intermingled and intermixed into a chaotic matrix. After all the Hermetic philosophers were Hellenized Egyptians.

Through the projection of thought via the spoken word, or logos, also called the "Son of God", Mind the Father begins to separate and order the elements of the Waters. As expressed in the text, "the Watery substance having received Logos, was fashioned into an ordered world, the elements being separated out from it." First Fire then Air rise out of the mixture . As Air ascends upwards to join Fire, it separates Earth and Water, thus structuring the fledgling universe into four distinct primeval elements and paving the way for the next stage of creation.

After successfully ordering the primordial chaotic matrix into the four elements of Fire, Air, Earth, and Water, Mind the Father births a second mind, called "Mind the Maker". This second Mind fashions the seven 'Administrators of Destiny' from the active elements of Fire and Air. These Administrators rule over the seven heavens of hermetic cosmology and are the seven planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon). Logos then rises from the "downward tending elements" to unite with 'Mind the Maker', and together they set the planets in orbit.

At this point in the text, the reader is introduced to two new agents, Nature and Aether. Nature is the union of the passive elements now devoid of logos (Earth and Water), whereas Aether is the union of the active elements (Fire and Air). Both Nature and Aether are willed by Mind the Maker, through logos, and together they represent the polarities of vertical movement (down and up). Whereas Aether is not dealt with until later in the text, here Nature proceeds to create the animals without divine reason, these are the four-footed beasts, fish, birds, and all the creatures of the animal kingdom. At this stage all animals are hermaphroditic, as the polarity of male-female has yet to be realized.

We are then told, in a verse that echoes the Genesis of the Bible:

"Mind the Father of all, he who is Life and Light, gave birth to Man, a Being like to Himself. And He took delight in Man, as being His own offspring; for Man was very goodly to look on, bearing the likeness of his Father. With good reason then did God take delight in Man; for it was God's own form that God took delight in. And God delivered over to Man all things that had been made."

Man here refers to Primordial Man, a being like its father, that is neither male nor female, but both. Perhaps an apt comparison would be to the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalistic traditions, or the Macroanthropos of Plutarch. This Primordial Man is stationed with Mind the Maker in the 8th heaven, the sphere of the fixed stars above the planets.

"Having observed the Maker's creation in the region of fire, he [Man] willed to make things for his own part also; and his Father [Mind the Father] gave permission…. having in himself all the working of the Administrators; the Administrators took delight in him, and each of them gave him a share of his own nature."

This enigmatic verse is incomplete in the original Greek manuscript (hence the ellipsis points after "permission"). It is unclear as to what Man creates, but whatever it is, it seems to please the Administrators who in return grant Man some planetary attributes. This seems to be the moment when Man becomes Microcosmic Man, which is the Hermetic notion that the Universe exists within Man.


Following the above-cited passage, we are told that Man learns "the being of the Administrators". Here "being" should be interpreted as states of consciousness, modes of existence, or instances in space-time. To "know the beings of the Administrators" then refers to achieving planetary consciousness, or more profanely to learning the periodicities of the planetary orbits (the science of Astronomy). The Greek word used in the text is gnosis as opposed to episteme indicating knowledge through union with the transcendent principle. Indeed, we are then told that Man "willed to break through the bounding circle of their orbits; and he looked through the structure of the heavens, having broken through the spheres and showed to downward-tending Nature the beautiful form of God."

Armed with the knowledge of Sacred Astronomy and gnosis of Kosmos Man peers through the heavens at Nature, the terrestrial world of Earth and Water. The "beautiful form of God", of course, refers to Man himself being made in the image of Mind the Father. Nature, who has fallen in love with the celestial glory of Primordial Man, lures him to the terrestrial plane by showing Man his reflection upon the Water, and his shadow upon the Earth. In an act of self-love, perhaps even narcissism in the face of perfection (compare with Mind the Father's delight in Man cited above), Man enthralled by his reflection descends to Nature where "she wrapped him in her clasp." Now, because Man was given the seven planetary attributes whilst in the 8th heaven, this union results in Nature giving birth "to seven Men, according to the characters of the seven Administrators." While not explicitly stated in the text, the seven Men can only represent the seven alchemical metals (Lead, Tin, Iron, Gold, Copper, Quicksilver, Silver).

The alchemical process is also hinted at by the transmutations that occur while on the terrestrial plane. First, the birthed men are composed of a trinity of Earth , Water , and Aether . Then the "Man in them changed from Life and Light into soul and mind, soul from Life, and mind from Light." These transmutations are echoed in the role of the seven men, or alchemical metals, as the seven Administrators of the terrestrial plane. Gold is to Sun as soul is to Life and mind is to Light...As above, so below!

At the end of an undisclosed period, Mind the Father separates the female from the male amongst all living things including Men. With this we have the creation of man and woman, sexuality, polarity, and carnal desire. It seems that the seven men become the male and female ancestral humans at this point, presumably three and three, with the correspondent to Mercury/Quicksilver remaining a hermaphrodite. Mind the Father then leaves men and women to do their bidding with these final words:

"Increase and multiply abundantly, all ye that have been created and made. And let the man that has Mind in him recognize that he is immortal, and the cause of death is carnal desire."

Mercury: Gateway to the Heavens

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'And I', said Hermes, 'will make mankind intelligent; I will confer wisdom on them, and make known to them the truth. I will never cease to benefit thereby the life of mortal men; and then above all will I benefit each one of them, when the force of nature working in him is in accord with the movement of the stars above.'

(Corpus Hermetica, EXC. XXIII. Isis to Horus)

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Mercury (gk. Hermes, eg. Thoth) is the innermost planet of our solar system, always in proximity to the sun. Pick up any textbook on Roman or Greek mythology and you will read about how observations of its rapid movement across the zodiac and frequent conjunctions with the other planets resulted in the interpretation of Mercury as the swift “messenger of the gods”.

Mercury/Hermes/Thoth is traditionally associated with communication, wisdom, knowledge, magic, and the psychopompic initiation into Death and the Mysteries. In this context Mercury is the communicator of sacred knowledge. This knowledge is transmitted by Mercury through its planetary cycles and celestial geometry.

The Morning and Evening Star:

Mercury as the innermost planet orchestrates a unique astronomical pattern with the Sun. For approximately four to six weeks Mercury will linger as a bright star near the western horizon several hours after sunset. During this period Mercury is the Evening Star. Afterwards it enters an inferior conjunction with the Sun and disappears from the evening sky. A week later Mercury reappears in the sky, but this time as a bright luminary near the eastern horizon heralding sunrise. Mercury is the Morning Star for another four to six weeks before entering superior conjunction with the Sun and disappearing for five weeks (35 days).

The complete cycle takes 116 days (115.9 days). This means that in one solar year, Mercury will complete 3.14 cycles. Because of this decimal interval the ancients observed Mercury in seven year periods. Every 7 years, Mercury completes 22 conjunction cycles. The Mercury::Sun ratio of 22/7 is extremely precise with only a 1hr error margin.

Pi, Geometry and Gematria:

The 22/7 Mercury::Sun ratio is also a close fractional expression of the Pythagorean irrational and transcendent number Pi (3.14...). Pi is the universal ratio of any circle's diameter to its circumference and is the essential constant by which mathematics and astronomy interpret the universe. If you don’t understand the importance of Pi, look it up!

In the letter-number system of Pythagorean Greek gematria, the value of the first three digits of Pi (314) gives us Μαγος (Magos, ‘magician’ or ‘wise man’). When we take the first nine digits of Pi in three digit segments (314 159 265) the gematria gives us Magos, Megas ('Great'), and Kleis ('Key')...interpret this how you will.

The reverse Sun::Mercury ratio 7/22, or .318 (or 318/1000), is Pi to the power of negative one. The integer 318 is the gematria value of Helios ('Sun'). A circle with a diameter of Helios (318, or 3.18, or .318) will always have a circumference of Pythagorean Unity (1000, 100, or 1). Furthermore, a circle drawn around a square with the perimeter of Helios will measure a circumference of 353, the gematria value of Hermes!



Mercury and the Triangle:

The ecliptic astronomical chart below was created using data from the Alcyone Astronomical Ephemeris to arc-second precision. The 22/7 conjunction cycle of Mercury traces an isosceles triangle inside the constellation belt that turns clockwise every 3 conjunctions.



Mercury delivers us the two most primeval symbols of polarity(▲/▼). For the initiate these are the first keys for unlocking the universe. Nothing else needs to be said.

"I will confer wisdom on them, and make known to them the truth."

The Philosophical Mind

It is impossible for the Modern Mind to comprehend metaphysical principles as a true transcendent Reality. This is because the Modern Mind is taught to quantify experience into two opposing buckets of information:1) the rational and “real”, and, 2) the irrational and “imaginative”.

The relativist philosophers of the ‘Enlightenment', and forefathers of modern western thought, taught that all knowledge arises from external sensible perceptions. It is therefore impossible to have true knowledge of transcendent universal principles. As a result, the gnosis of the classical Philosopher, as Union with the object of knowledge, is unattainable by the relativistic Modern Mind. That which cannot be explained by rational analysis is therefore irrational and in the relativistic Modern Mind an inferior and imaginative sentiment.

This “left-brain”/” right-brain” split does not exist in the traditional Philosophical Mind, which instead accepts the Unity of all things. It does not differentiate between the physical manifestation and the metaphysical principle; the symbol does not represent meaning, the symbol IS the meaning. Through the lens of the Philosophical Mind the rational and irrational are merely vessels for transcendent principles.

Thanks to the "Enlightenment" , the modern world fails to see reality as a spectrum of truths, opting instead for discrete units of quantification. For this reason the Modern Mind struggles between the dualities of sacred being and profane existence… binary distinctions that do not exist in the qualitative mind of the traditional Philosopher.

The initiate who aspires to break the bindings of material and physical existence must first transmute the relativist Modern Mind into the universal Philosophical Mind. Only with this Promethean power of Philosophical Mind, can one aspire to steal the immortal Fire from the gods.

Sacred Astronomy

Astronomy, like geometry and mathematics is one of these venues through which the principles of harmonic logos, and the subtle workings of Kosmos are made manifest for the Philosopher to contemplate. In Sacred Astronomy, the Philosophical Mind found the keys to God's kingdom and the road map to immortality. However, since the schism of the ‘Enlightenment', Sacred Astronomy has been replaced by profane astronomy and mundane astrology. These two sub-disciplines by consequence of their separation are incomplete systems, and can thus never reflect the transcending principle of traditional Sacred Astronomy.

Astrology has degenerated to cheap materialism; addressing questions of love, money, and body-ego success; it has lost its purpose and sacred essence. By being divorced from the science of astronomy, astrology is no longer a quest for qualifying the harmony and order of Kosmos. Unlike the Chaldean Magi, the Egyptian Horary Priests, and the Pythagorean and Neo-Platonic astronomers, the astrologer today does not seek to understand the universe, but rather aspires to ‘divine' the future for materialistic purposes and to understand earth-bound personalities and sentiments.

Rather than employing Sacred Astronomy as a means to resurrection, as a meditation to break through the restricting cycles and physical structure of the heavens and reunite with the eternal One; the mundane astrologer remains in the fallen state reflecting the patterns of the heavens back towards earth and tellurian matters. Thereby, the mundane astrologer will always be subject to the fate of the stars and will remain a peasant in God's Kingdom bonded to the wheel of life and death. The proverb of the Philosopher's Sapien dominator Astris , ‘the wise rule over the stars', resonates with unfathomable truth.

Gnosis and Logos

As the Catholic Church became a political institution it simultaneously distanced itself from the Pythagorean sciences inherited by the early Christian initiates. Primarily threatening to the ecclesiastic spiritual hegemony was the doctrine of gnosis that taught that we are all “sons of God” and can all share intimate experiences with divinity without a mediating institution. The Church responded by quantifying spirituality and declaring Gnosticism a heresy.

As masterfully explained by David Fideler in "Jesus Christ Sun of God" (1993), the original doctrine of the Christian logos was related to the doctrine of gnosis and to the Pythagorean teachings of universal harmony (Harmonia). Greek logos was poorly translated into Latin as verbatum and then finally into English as 'word' whereby it lost all meaning.

In Greek, logos has several meanings: order, pattern, ratio, reason, mediation, and harmony. Only in the most mundane and topical sense does logos mean "word" (or more precisely oration, or ‘spoken word'). But even in the meaning as ‘word', our English equivalent misses the mark. We must of course place the spoken ‘word' in traditional context as an act of cosmology. This is evident in the magical properties of the spoken divine names of the Hebrew Kabbalah, the mantras of Vedas, and the formulaic nomina barbara of Greco-Egyptian magic.

The doctrine of logos can be traced back to ancient Egypt , and in particular to Thoth as the patron god of speech, writing, wisdom, astronomy, mathematics, music, medicine, and magic. In fact, among his dynastic period (c. 3000 – 330 BCE) epithets was ‘Lord of Ma'at (Order)', ‘Lord of Divine Words'. And ‘Tongue of Re', associating him with the ordering process of creation ; for in Egyptian cosmology the Sun god Re by speaking the divine names of the gods created and set the universe in motion.

In a wall painting from the tomb of Seti in Abydos (above), Thoth- as psychopomp- initiates the Pharaoh into the mysteries of death by performing the "Opening of the Mouth Ceremony". This magical rite grants Seti the logos of divine speach so that his soul may recite the necessary God-names to cross the gates of the Duat and ascend to eternity and immortal spiritual existence.

Thoth was later called Hermes by the Hellenized Egyptians (the Hermetic Philosophers) who saw in him the same principle of Gnostic revelation and logos that the early Christian's saw in Christ. In the Corpus Hermetica, attributed to the Hermes Trismegistus – the third incarnation of Thoth, we find explicit references to logos as the ordering principle, as the “son of God”, and as the Shepard of man (poimandres).

‘That Light.' [Poimandres] said, ‘is I, even Mind, the first God, who was before the watery substance which appeared out of the darkness; and the Logos which came forth from the Light is son of God.'… ‘Learn my meaning,' said he, ‘by looking at what you yourself have in you; for in you too, the logos is son, and the mind is father of the logos'…The watery substance, having received the Logos, was fashioned into an ordered world (Kosmos), the elements being separated out from it…' (Corpus Hermetica, Libellus I)

Throughout the classical Greco-Roman world (c.a. 800 BCE – AD 500), the teachings of logos were transmitted by the initiates of the Orphic-Pythagorean Mysteries and later with the Mithraitic, Bacchic, and early Christian Cults. The initiates into these Mysteries learned the Pythagorean universal harmonia of mathematics, astronomy, geometry, and music. Through mythic symbols and mythic narratives, the patterns and underlying order of Kosmos was unveiled to the initiate as perpetual manifestation of harmonic logos.

For the initiated into the doctrine of logos the knowledge of Harmonia is beyond mere episteme; it is an ontological experience directly related to the nature of being. To understand and know the universe, one has to first understand and know oneself.

Concerning the Tree

Ten Sefirot of Nothingness
And 22 Foundation Letters
Three Mothers
Seven Doubles
And twelve Elementals
(Sefir Yetzirah, 1:2)

These first words of the Sefer Yetzirah lay the foundation for the entire treatise as contemplation on the mathematical and symbolic relations between the ten Sefirot of creation and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Together these make up the thirty-two emanated “paths of wisdom” by which the Godhead creates and orders the universe. As such, they are also to be understood as the paths of re-absorption and mystical ascension towards the divine.

The three Mothers ( ש ,מ, א) are the first, middle, and penultimate letters of the alphabet , they correspond to the three elements of creation (Air/Ruach, Water, and Fire). The seven Doubles ( ת ,ר ,פ , כ ,ד ,ג ,ב) are the seven Hebrew consonants that have a hard and soft pronunciation; they represent the seven planets. The remaining twelve letters are the Elementals ( ה ,ו, ז, ח, ט ,י, ל, נ, ס, ע, ץ, and ק ) attributed to the twelve constellations of the Traditional zodiac... Let us take a moment to point out the obvious; among other things, the seven planets also equate with the days of the week and the constellations with the months in a year. Thus, when discussing these correspondences we must keep in mind their multi-dimensional nature as symbols of both space and time.

The twenty-two letters are mapped to the line segments, or paths of the Kabbalistic Tree according to the inherent geometric division of the Tree: three horizontal, seven vertical, and twelve diagonal paths.



The three Mothers govern the three horizontal paths as pictured above. They represent the creative/destructive energies of Fire (ש), and Water (מ) separated and joined by Ruach (א). This is a clear metaphor to the act of creation and the divine Spirit separating the higher waters (ש /▲) from the lower (מ /▼).


The seven Doubles map to the seven vertical paths. The most logical order by which to attribute the Doubles to the planets is by order of emanation. Thus: ב= Saturn, ג = Jupiter, ד = Mars, כ = Sun, פ = Venus, ר = Mercury, and ת = Moon. Of course, this is the Traditional ordering of the planets based on their sidereal cycles and astronomical distance from earth (from longest/most distant to shortest/closest). This is the order in the Short, Long, Saadia, Suares, Donash, and Shiur Komah versions of the Sefer Yetzirah. The Gra and Golden Dawn versions differ significantly and are quite likely influenced by the letter-planet correspondences found in the Zohar. However, this is beyond our present scope.

The various versions of the Sefer Yetzirah attribute each of the twelve Elementals to the twelve constellations in alphabetical and zodiacal order. Since they all begin with Aries, we can be assured that all the surviving versions of the text are not older than the Age of Aries (post 12th Century B.C.E).


Despite their differences all the sources indicate that the patriarch Abraham was the original author of text. In The Eternal Chronos we discussed the Precession of the Equinoxes and the Abrahamic covenant when Taurus ruled the equinox. This means one of two things: 1) The astronomical correspondences were either forgotten or never specified in the original text and replaced with the classical zodiac at a later date, or 2) The Sefer Yetzirah is intended as a dynamic living text that must be seen through the lens of a current, past, or future Age. Indeed, it is a worthwhile pursuit to experiment with the different zodiacal correspondences during the various Ages to better grasp the full power of the Tree.

Furthermore, the correspondence systems all maintain that alphabetic order corresponds to spatial order (read clockwise); however, this brings forth questions of multi-dimensionality. If we instead focus on the constellations as symbols of Time, the order must be reversed since the sun travels counter-clockwise through the zodiacal belt. This is the kabbalistic principle of reflection in practice. The constellations as star groups pertain to the universe of Forms (Asiyah), while as the embodiment of Time (or of Angels/ stellar energies) they belong to Yetzirah.

Here we will expand upon the Elemental correspondences in Yetzirah during the prophetic Age of Taurus as a simple exercise to demonstrate the dynamic nature of the Tree. The letter-constellation pairs are such: ה = Taurus , ו = Aries, ז = Pisces, ח = Aquarius, ט = Capricorn , י = Sagittarius, ל = Scorpio , נ = Libra, ס = Virgo, ע= Leo, ץ = Cancer, and ק = Gemini. (see The Eternal Chronos for a more in-depth discussion )




The resulting Tree displays the polarities of the Universe balanced by the Central Pillar. The constellations to the left of the Center Pillar all correspond to active elements (Fire and Air), while those to the right to passive elements (Water and Earth). The constellations zigzag from Taurus to Gemini in zodiacal order. The descending order (Taurus to Gemini) mimics the Precession of the Equinoxes, while the ascending order (Gemini to Taurus) is the annual progression of the Sun across the zodiac. Whichever way you look at it, the directionality of the zigzag corresponds to the active and passive polarities on the left and right- these polarities being the energies of motion and therefore time in the never-ending circuitry of the helix.

There seems to be an apparent contradiction as the Sefirot of Binah is on the left side corresponding to the active constellations, and Chakhmah is on the right with the passive constellations. This however is not a contradiction; far from it, in fact this outlines the very principle of reflection. That which is male/+ reflects towards that which is female/-, this is how the incorporeal Supernal Triad interacts with the material universe. Furthermore, this same principle of reflection is hard-wired into our own neurological circuitry. Our Left Brain controls the muscles and sensations on the Right side of our body, while the Right Brain does the same for the Left side. Meditate upon this and the biblical narrative of the Serpent in the Garden will take a whole new meaning.