From the Corpus Hermeticum:

"The excellence of the soul is understanding;
for the man who understands is conscious.
devoted, and already godlike"

-

My discourse leads to the truth:
the Mind is great and guided by his teaching
is able to arrive at some understanding.
When the Mind has understood all things
and found them to be in harmony
with what has been expounded by he teachings,
it is faithful and comes to rest in that beautiful faith.

-

Book 1, verse 8-15:

From the will of God, which, holding the Word and seeing the beautiful cosmos made one exactly like it, fashioned from her own constituent elements and the offspring of souls.

"Nous", God, being both male and female, beginning as life and light, gave birth, by the Word, to another "Nous", the Creator of the World; he, being the god of fire and air, formed seven powers who encompass in their circles the sensory world, and the governance of these powers is called destiny.

Immediately, the Word of God leapt forth from the downward moving elements to the pure work of the Creator, and was united with the Creator "Nous" (for he was of the same substance) and the downward moving elements of the creation were left behind, without the Word, to be matter alone.

"Nous", the Creator, together with the Word, encompassing the spheres and spinning them round with a rushing motion, caused those things he had made to revolve and he allowed them to revolve from no fixed beginning to an end without limit, for it begins where it ends. The rotation of these spheres, as "Nous" willed, brought forth from the downward moving moving elements living beings without speech (for they did not contain the Word) and the air produced winged creatures and the water swimming creatures. The Earth and the water were separated from each other, as "Nous" willed, and the earth brought forth from herself what she possesses, four-footed animals, reptiles, beasts; wild and tame.

"Nous", the Father of all, who is life and light, brought forth Man, the same as himself, whom he loved as his own child, for Man was very beautiful, bearing the image of his Father. It was really his own form that God loved, and he hander over to him all his creation.

When Man had observed in the Father the creation of the Creator, he himself wished to create; and he was given permission to do so by the Father, being begotten in the sphere of the Creator, he observed carefully the creations of his brother from which he obtained every power. The Father and the brother loved him, and each gave him of their own authority. Having acquired knowledge of their essence and partaking in their nature, he wished to break through the circumference of the spheres and to come to know the power of him who was set in authority over the fire.

Having all power over the world of mortals and living creatures without speech, he looked down through he harmony of the cosmos, and having broken through the sovereignty of the Divine Power, he showed to downward moving Nature he beautiful form of God.

When she had seen the beauty which never satiates of him who had in himself all the energy of the powers and the form of God she smiled with love, because she had seen the image of the most beautiful form of Man in the water and his shadow upon the earth. He, seeing in himself a similar form to his own in the water, fell in love with her and wished to dwell there. No sooner wished than done, and he inhabited a form without speech. Nature, having taken her beloved, enfolded him completely and they united, for they loved each other.

For this reason, of all living beings on earth, Man alone is double; mortal because of the body, immortal because of the real Man. For, although being immortal and having authority over all, he suffers mortal things which are subject to destiny. Then, although above the harmony of the cosmos, he has become a slave within it. He is beyond gender and as he has been born from a Father beyond gender; and he never sleeps as he is ruled by one who never sleeps.

-The Corpus Hermeticum, latest translation of "The way of Hermes", by Salaman, Van Oyen, Wharton and Mahè

Interesting thing is the 'word of god' which is reflected in the bible too.

and also two doubts

-Could you elaborate what exactly is the point you are tryin to state?

- is it the correct forum to post this thread/topic?

i feel it is more a religious / creationsim topic than ancient civilization.

Cheers!

Well this is "Ancient mysteries and alternate history"

And this is part of ancient mysteries: Who was Hermes?

These words are from old ancient texts, translated originally from greek and into latin and then other languages.

So I think it fits here. It is ancient history, real facts.

The contents of these texts however, may be considered spiritual, but so are many things related to the ancient past, and to the threads in this forum.

However, back to your questions:

What was the point? It was merely to show people, whom are not familiar with Hermes, the brilliant spiritual wisdom that came from his experiences and the writings that are now left of him

Also, to compare it to the biblical tales of creation, to see the similarities, as well as the differences.

And, to open up for the possibility, that ancient history and it's mysteries, connects with Hermes the Thrice Great.

Talking about very ancient history here of course, times as mentioned in the text, when Man were immortals, but fell into earthly worlds, and became a mixture of the earthly and the spiritual.

So it is hard to say if this belongs in this forum, or the spiritual forum. Up to the moderators to move it if they feel it is not suitable here, though I find Hermes an important part of Ancient Mysteries.

Here is more info on Hermes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus

More on ancient hermeticism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeticism

What I find interesting about the hermetic tradition, is the fact it states God made a Creator, whom created the World, in other words, God created another God to do the jobs for him- is this other god, the Creater, the one whom is the fallen angel Lucifer, or even Satan (they are not the same two persons btw)

And almost ALL ancient cultures did worship MANY gods, not just one, so, logically, it seems there are more than one God if any Gods at all, as most of history is filled with many Gods and not just one that Christianity created (even the bible speak of several gods, and God in plural form, such as Elohim)

Well guess its a mix of both ancient mysteries, history and spirituality

CHeers

it aint ancient mysteries..but ancient civilizations and alternate history!

What? This forum is called "Ancient Mysteries & Alternative History".

There is no word about "civilizations" even mentioned Though of course that logically connects with ancient mysteries and alternative history in any case.

yeah dude..my mistake! sorry!
i was always thinking that the title of the fporum is ancient civilizations and alternate history

heh ok no problems mate

If you want a forum about ancient civilizations (well called Lost Civilizations) scroll down on this rather new forum of mine: http://www.dark-truth.net/forums/

Feel free to join any discussions there, go down to Ancient History & Mysteries / Lost civilizations

And of course, tons of other things..

Anyway back on topic, lets discuss Hermes.

Was he a real physical ancient master? (or person at all) , Or just a legend?

Any evidence supporting his existence?

A good brief history of the Corpus Hermeticum is John Greer's eassay at

http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/herm/h-intro.htm

I also recommend that site as a general free source for both texts and criticism about a variety of spiritual and religious traditions.

For the Corpus, they feature the Mead ("Theosophical") English translation.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/herm/

The Corpus is visibly Hellenistic, and so not especially ancient, Second Century of the Common Era perhaps. Hellenism was a cosmopolitan movement. The notion of a fusion between the Egyptian Thoth and the Indo-European Hermes would be irresistable, and so inevitable.

In the Renaissance, the Medici corporation managed somehow to link this with another legendary Egyptian wisdom author, Moses, and had a runaway hit all over again.

Sacred Texts. great site indeed.

Frequently visit it myself

Since you're on the topic of Hermes, I assume you've already read The Kyballion? I read it not too long ago and it such a cool book, it made a lot of sense.

Of course, I have it right here.

These days, between my work, I am re-reading "The Ways of Hermes" by Salaman, Van Ovin, Wharton and Mahe. It is a new translation of the Corpus Hermeticum set to fit the modern days and be more in harmony with the english language of the present. It is quite nice read, in addition it features "The Definitions oof Hermes Trismegistus to Aclepius" which is a translation of newly rediscovered manuscript.

You can get this great book worthy having for any student and researcher of the hermetic system and occult studies.

It is available at Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Way-Hermes-Translati...s/dp/0892811862

Highly recommended.

LVX