Pymander, books 3–4: The Holy Sermon, and The Key

THE Third Book CALLED The Holy Sermon.

THe glory of all things, God, and that which is Divine, and the Divine Nature, the beginning of things that are.

2. God and the Minde, and Nature, and Matter, and Operation, or Working, and Necessity, and the End, and Renovation.

3. For there were in the Chaos, an infinite darknesse in the Abyss or bottomless Depth, and Water, and a subtile Spirit intelligible in Power; and there went out the Holy Light, and the Elements were coagulated from the Sand out of the moist Substance.

4. And all the Gods distinguisted the Nature ful of Seeds.

5, And when all things were interminated and unmade up, the light things were divided on high. And the heavie things were founded upon the moist Sand, all things being Terminated or Divided by Fire; and being sustained or hung up by the Spirit, they were so carried, and the Heaven was seen in Seven Circles.

6. And the Gods were seen in their Ideas of their Stars, with all their Signes, and the Stars were numbered with the Gods in them. And the Sphere was all lined with Air, carried about in a circular motion by the Spirit of God.

7. And every God by his internal power did that which was commanded him; and there were made four-footed things, and creeping things and such as live in the Water, and such as flie, and every fruitfull Seed, and Grasse, and the Flowers of all Greens, all which had sowed in themselves the Seeds of Regeneration.

8. As also the Generations of men, to the knowledge of the Divine Works, and a lively or working Testimony of Nature, and a multitude of men, and the Dominion of all things under Heaven, and the knowledge of good things, and to be increased in increasing, and multiplied in multitude.

9. And every Soul in Flesh, by the wonderfull working of the Gods in the Circles, to the beholding of Heaven, the Gods, Divine Works, and the Operations of Nature; and for Signes of good things, and the knowledge of the Divine Power, and to finde out every cunning workmanship of good things.

10. So it beginneth to live in them, and to be wise according to the Operation of the course of the circular Gods & to be resolved into that which shall be great Monuments, and Rememberances of the cunning Works done upon Earth, leaving them to be read by the darknesse of times.

11. And every Generation of living Flesh of Fruit, Seed, and all Handicrafts, though they be lost, must of necessity be renewed by the renovation of the Gods, and of the Nature of a Circle moving in number; for it is a Divine thing, that every worldly temperature should be renewed by Nature; for in that which is Divine, is Nature also established.

The End of the Fragments of the third Book very unperfect.

THE Fourth Book CALLED The Key.

YEsterdayes Speech, O Asclepins, I dedicated to thee: this dayes it is fit to dedicate to Tat, because it is an Epitome of those generall Speeches that were spoken to him.

2. God therefore, and the Father, and the Good, O Tat, have the same Nature, or rather also the same Act and Operation.

3. For there is one name or appellation of Nature and Increase, which concerneth things changeable, and another about things unchangeable, and about things unmoveable, that is to say, Things Divine and Humane; every one of which himself will have so to be; but action or operation, is of another thing or elsewhere, as we have taught in other things, Divine and Humane, which must here also be understood.

4. For, his Operation or Act, is his Will, and his Essence, to will all things to be.

5. For what is God, and the Father, and the Good, but the Being of all things that yet are not, and the existence it self, of those things that are?

6. This is God, this is the Father, this is the Good, whereunto no other thing is present or approacheth.

7. For the World, and the Sun, which is also a Father by Participation, is not for all that equally the cause of Good, and of Life, to living Creatures: And if this be so, he is altogether constrained by the Will of the Good, without which, it […] not possible, either to be, or to be begotten or made.

8. But the Father is the cause of his Children, who hath a will both to sowe and nourish that which is good by the […].

9. For Good is alwayes active or busie in making; and this cannot be in any other, but in him that taketh nothing, and yet willeth all things to be; for I will not say, O Tat, making them; for he that maketh, is defective in much time, in which sometimes he maketh not, a[…] also of quantity and quality; for sometime, he maketh those things that have quantity and quality, and sometimes the contrary.

10. But God is the Father, and the Good, in being all things; for he both will be this, and is it; and yet all this for himself (as is true) in him that can see it.

11. For all things else are for this, it is the property of Good to be known: This is the Good, O Tat.

12. Tat. Thou hast filled us, O Father, with a sight, both good and fair, and the eye of my minde is almost become more holy by the sight or spectacle.

13. Trism. I wonder not at it, for the sight of Good is not like the Beam of the Sun, which being of a fiery shining brightnesse, maketh the eye blinde by his excessive Light, that gazeth upon it; rather the contrary, for it enlighteneth, and so much increaseth the light of the eye, as any man is able to receive the influence of this intelligible clearnesse.

14. For it is more swift and sharp to pierce, and innocent or harmlesse withall, and full of immortality; and they that are capable, and can draw any store of this spectacle, and sight, do many times fall asleep from the Body, into this most fair and beauteous Vision; which thing Celius and Saturn, our Progenitors, obtained unto.

15. Tat. I would we also, O Father, could do so.

16. Trism. I would we could, O Son; but for the present we are lesse intent to the Vision, and cannot yet open the eyes of our mindes to behold the incorruptible, and incomprehensible Beauty of that Good: But then shall we see it, when we have nothing at all to say of it.

17. For the knowledge of it, is a Divine Silence, and the rest of all the Senses: For neither can he that understands that, understand any thing else, nor he that sees that, see any thing else, nor hear any other thing, nor, in sum, move the Body.

18. For shining stedfastly upon, and round about the whole Minde, it enlighteneth all the Soul; and loosing it from the Bodily Senses and Motions, it draweth it from the Body, and changeth it wholly into the Essence of God.

19. For it is possible for the Soul O Son, to be dei[…]ed while yet it lo[…]geth in the Body of Man if it contemplate the beauty of Good.

Tat. How dost thou mean deifying, Father?

21. Trissm. There are differences, O Son, of every Soul.

22. Tat. But how dost thou again divide the changes?

23. Trism. Hast thou not heard in the generall Speeches, that from one Soul of the universe, are all those Souls, which in all the world are tossed up and down, as it were, and severally divided? Of these Souls there are many changes, some into a more fortunate estate, and some quite contrary; for they which are of creeping things, are changed into those of watery things; and those of things living in the water, to those of things living upon the Land; and Airy ones are changed into men, and humane Souls, that lay hold of immortality, are changed into Demons.

24. And so they go on into the sphere or region of the fixed Gods; for there are two quiets or companies of Gods, one of them that wander, and another of them that are fixed; And this is the most perfect glory of the Soul.

25. But the Soul entering into the Body of a Man, if it continue evil, shall neither taste of immortality, nor is partaker of the good.

26. But being drawn back the same way, it returneth into creeping things. And this is the condemnation of an evil Soul.

27. And the wickednesse of a Soul, is ignorance; for the Soul that knows nothing of the things that are, neither the Nature of them, nor that which is good, but is blinded, rusheth and dasheth against the bodily Passions; and unhappy, as it is, not knowing it self, it serveth strange Bodies, and evil ones, carrying the Body as a burthen, and not ruling, but ruled. And this is the mischief of the Soul.

28. On the contrary, the vertue of the Soul is Knowledge; for he that knows, is both good and religious, & already Divine.

29. Tat. But who is such an one, O Father?

30. Trism. He that neither speaks, nor hears many things; for he, O Son, that heareth two speeches or hearings, fighteth in the shadow.

31. For God, and the Father, and Good, is neither spoken nor heard.

32. This being so in all things that are, are the Senses, because they cannot be without them.

33. But Knowledge differs much from Sense; for Sense is of things that surmount it, but Knowledge is the end of Sense.

34. Knowledge is the gift of God; for all Knowledge is unbodily, but useth the Minde as an Instrument, as the Minde useth the Body.

35. Therefore both intelligible and materiall things, go both of them into bodies; for, of contraposition, that is, setting one against another, and contrariety, all things must consist. And it is impossible it should be otherwise.

36. Tat. Who, therefore, is this materiall God?

37. Trism. The fair and beautifull World, and yet it is not good; for it is materiall, and easily passible, nay, it is the first of all passible things; and the second of the things that are, and needy, or wanting somewhat else. And it was once made, and is alwayes, and is ever in generation, and made, and continually makes, or generates things that have quantity and quality.

38, For it is moveable, and every materiall motion is generation; but the intellectuall stability moves the materiall motion after this manner.

39. Because the World is a Sphere, that is, a head; and above the head there is nothing materiall, as beneath the feet there is nothing intellectual.

40. The whole universe is materiall: The Minde is the head, and it is moved spherically, that is, like a head.

41. Whatsoever is joyned or united to the Membrane or Film of this head, wherein the Soul is, is immortal; and is in the Soul of a made Body, hath its Soul full of the Body; but th[…] that are further from that Membrane, have the Body full of Soul.

42. The whole is a living wight, and therefore consisteth of materiall, and intellectuall.

43. And the World is the first, and Man the second living wight after the World, but the first of things that are mortall; and therefore hath whatsoever benefit of the Soul all the other have: And yet for all this, he is not only not good, but flatly evill, as being mortall.

44. For the World is not good, as it is moveable; nor evil, as it is immortall.

45. But Man is evil, both as he is moveable, and as he is mortall.

46. But the Soul of Man is carried in this manner, The Minde is in Reason, Reason in the Soul, the Soul in the Spirit, the Spirit in the Body.

47. The Spirit being diffused, and going through the veins, and arteries, and blood, both moveth the living Creature, and after a certain manner beareth it.

48. Wherefore some also have thought the Soul to be blood, being deceived in Nature, not knowing that first the Spirit must return into the Soul, and then the blood is congealed, the veines and arteries emptied, and then the living thing dieth: And this is the death of the Body.

49. All things depend of one beginning, and the beginning depends of that which is one and alone.

50. And the beginning is moved, that it may again be a beginning; but that which is one, standeth and abideth, and is not moved.

51. There are therefore these three, God the Father and the God, the World and Man: God hath the World, and the world hath Man; and the World is the Son of God, and Man is as it were the Off-spring of the World.

52. For God is not ignorant of man, but knows him perfectly, and will be known by him. This only is healthfull to man; the Knowledge of God: This is the return of Olympus; by this only the Soul is made good, and not sometimes good, and sometimes evil, but of necessity Good.

53. Tat. What meanest thou, O Father?

54. Trism. Consider, O Son, the Soul of a Childe, when as yet it hath received no dissolution of its Body, which is not yet grown, but is very small: how then, if it look upon it self, it fees it self beautifull, as not having been yet sp[…]tted with the Passions of the Body, but as it were depending yet upon the Soul of the World.

55. But when the Body is grown, and distracteth the Soul it ingenders Forgetfulness, and partakes no more of the Fair, and the Good, and Forgetfulnesse is Evilnesse.

56. The like also happeneth to them that go out of the Body: For when the Soul runs back into it self, the Spirit is contracted into the blood, and the Soul into the Spirit; but the Minde being made pure, and free from these cloathings; and being Divine by Nature, taking a fiery Body, rangeth abroad in every place, leaving the Soul to judgment, and to the punishment, it hath deserved.

57. Tat. Why dost thou say so, O Father, That the Minde is separated from the Soul, and the Soul from the Spirit? When even now thou saidst the Soul was the Cloathing, or Apparell of the-Minde, and the Body of the Soul.

58. Trism. O Son, he that heares must co-understand, and conspire in thought with him that speakes: yea, he must have his hearing swifter and sharper, then the voyce of the speaker.

59. The disposition of these Cloathings or Covers, is done in the Earthly Body; for it is impossible, that the minde should establish or rest it self, naked, and of it self, in an Earthly Body neither is the earthly Body able to bear such immottality: And therefore, that it might suffer so great vertue, the Minde compacted as it were, and took to it self the pasfible Body of the Soul, as a Covering or a Cloathing. And the Soul being also in some sort Divine, useth the Spirit as her Minister and Servant; and the Spirit governeth the living thing.

60. When therefore the Minde is separated, and departeth from the Earthly Body, presently it puts on its Fiery Coat, which it could not do, having to dwell in an Earthly Body.

61. For the Earth cannot suffer fire, for it is all burned of a small spark; therefore is the water powred round about the Earth, as a Wall or defence, to withstand the flame of fire.

62. But the minde being the most sharp or swift of all the Divine Cogitations, and more swift then all the Elements, hath the fire for its Body.

63. For the minde which is the Workman of all, useth the fire as his Instrument in his workmanship; and he that is […]rkman of all, useth it to […]ng of all things, as it is use[…] man, to the making of Earthly things only; for the Minde that is upon Earth, voyd, or naked of fire, cannot do the businesse of men, nor that which is otherwise the affaires of God.

64. But the Soul of Man, and yet not every one, but that which is pious and religious, is Angelicall and Divine. And such a Soul, after it is departed from the Body, having striven the strife of Piety, becomes either Minde or God.

65. And the strife of Piety is to know God, and to injury no Man; and this way it becomes Minde.

66. But an impious Soul abideth in its own essence, punished of it self, and seeking an earthly and humane […] enter into.

67. For no other Body is capable of an Humane Soul, neither is it Lawfull for a Mans Soul to fall into the Body of an unreasonable living thing: For it is the Law or Decree of God, to preserve an Humane Soul from so great a contumely and reproach.

68. Tat. How then is the Soul of Man punished, O Father; and what is i[…] greatest torment[…].

69. Herm. Impiety, O my S[…], for what Fire hath so great a flame […]? Or what biting Beast doth so tear the Body as it doth the Soul?

70. Or dost thou not see how many Evils the wicked Soul suffereth roaring and crying out, I am burner, I am consumed, I know not what to say, or do; I am devoured, uuhappy wretch, of the evils that compass, and lay hold upon me, miserable that I am, I neither sée nor hear any thing.

71. These are the voyces of a punished and tormented Soul, and not as many; and thou, O Son, thinkest, that the Soul going out of the Body, grows bruitish or enters into a Beast; which is a very great Error, for the Soul is punished after this manner.

72. For the Minde, when it is ordered or appointed to get a fiery Body for the services of God, coming down into the wicked soul, torments it with the whips of Sins, wherewith the wicked Soul being scourged, turns it self to Murthers and Contumelies, and Blasphemies, and divers Violences, and other things by which men are in[…]ured.

73. But into a pious Soul, the Minde entering, leads it into the Light of Knowledge.

74. And such a Soul is never satisfied with singing praise. To God, and speaking well of all men; and both in words and deeds, alwayes doing good in imitation of her Father.

75. Therefore, O Son, we must give thanks, and pray, that we may obtain a good minde.

76. The Soul therefore may be altered or changed into the better, but into the worse it is impossible.

77. But there is a communion of Souls; and those of Gods, communicate with those of men; and those of men, with those of Beasts.

78. And the better alwayes take of the worse, Gods of Men, Men of bruit Beasts, but God of all: For he is the best of all, and all things are lesse then he.

79. Therefore is the World subject unto God, Man unto the World, and unreasonable things to Man.

80. But God is above all, and about all; and the beames of God are operations; and the beams of the World are Natures; and the beams of Man are Arts and Sciences.

81. And Operations do act by the World, and upon man by the naturall beams of the World, but Natures work by the Elements, and man by Arts and Sciences.

82. And this is the Government of the whole, depending upon the Nature of the One, and piercing or coming down by the One Minde, than which nothing is more Divine, and more efficacious or operative; and nothing more uniting, or nothing is more One. The Communion of Gods to Men, and of Men to Gods.

83. This is the Bonus genius, or good Demon[…] Blessed Soul that is fullest of it! and unhappy Soul that is empty of it.

84. Tat. And wherefore, Father?

85. Trism. Know, Son, that every Soul hath the Good Mind; for of that it is we now speak, and not of that Minister, of which we said before, That he was sent from the Judgement.

86. For the Soul without the Minde, can neither do, nor say any thing; for manytimes the Minde fl[…]es away from the Soul, and in that hour the Soul neither seeth nor heareth, but is like an unreasonable thing; so great is the power of the Minde.

87. But neither brooketh is an idle or lazie Soul, but leaves such a one fastened to the Body, and by it pressed down.

88. And such a Soul, O Son, hath no Minde; wherefore neither must such a one be called a Man.

89. For Man is a Divine living thing, and is not to be compared to any bruit Beast that lives upon Earth, but to them that are above in Heaven, that are called Gods.

90. Rather, if we shall be bold to speak the truth, he that is a man indeed, is above them, or at least they are equall in power, one to the other: For none of the things in Heaven will come down upon Earth, and leave the limits of Heaven, but a man ascends up into Heaven, and measures it.

91. And he knoweth what things are on high, and what below, and learneth all other things exactly.

92. And that which is the greatest of all, he leaveth not the Earth, and yet is above: So great is the greatnesse of his Nature.

93. Wherefore we must be bold to say, That an earthly man, is a mortall God; and that the heavenly God, is an immortall Man.

94. Wherefore, by these two are all things governed, the World, and Man; but they and all things else, of that which is One.

The End of the fourth Book.