(17) Let every nature of the World receive the utterance of my hymn! Open thou Earth! Let every bolt of the Abyss be drawn for me. Stir not, ye Trees! I am about to hymn creation's Lord, both All and One. Ye Heavens open and ye Winds stay still; [and] let God's deathless Sphere receive my word (logos)! For I will sing the praise of Him who founded all; who fixed the Earth, and hung up Heaven, and gave command that Ocean should afford sweet water [to the Earth], to both those parts that are inhabited and those that are not, for the support and use of every man; who made the Fire to shine for gods and men for every act. Let us together all give praise to Him, sublime above the Heavens, of every nature Lord! 'Tis He who is the Eye of Mind; may He accept the praise of these my Powers!

(21) "May thy fate, O lord, be supreme among the gods

(1) [Asclepius] Is this again the reason, O Thrice-greatest one?

[Trismegistus] It is, Asclepius. For God’s the Father or the Lord of all, or whatsoever else may be the name by which He’s named more holily and piously by men,—which should be set apart among ourselves for sake of our intelligence. For if we contemplate this so transcendent God, we shall not make Him definite by any of these names. For if a [spoken] word is this:—a sound proceeding from the air, when struck by breath, denoting the whole will, perchance, of man, or else the [higher] sense, which by good chance a man perceives by means of mind, when out of [all his] senses, —a name the stuff of which, made of a syllable or two, has so been limited and pondered, that it might serve in man as necessary link between the voice and ear;—thus [must] the Name of God in full consist of Sense, and Spirit, and of Air, and of all things in them, or through, or with them.

The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. HEAR, pow'rful, Hercules untam'd and strong, To whom vast hands, and mighty works belong, Almighty Titan, prudent and benign, Of various forms, eternal and divine, Father of Time, the theme of gen'ral praise, Ineffable, ador'd in various ways. Magnanimous, in divination skill'd And in the athletic labours of the field. 'Tis thine strong archer, all things to devour, Supreme, all-helping, all-producing pow'r; To thee mankind as their deliv'rer pray, Whose arm can chase the savage tribes away: Uweary'd, earth's best blossom, offspring fair, To whom calm peace, and peaceful works are dear. 13 Self-born, with primogenial fires you shine, And various names and strength of heart are thine. Thy mighty head supports the morning light, And bears untam'd, the silent gloomy night; From east to west endu'd with strength divine, Twelve glorious labours to absolve is thine; Supremely skill'd, thou reign'st in heav'n's abodes, Thyself a God amid'st th' immortal Gods. With arms unshaken, infinite, divine, Come, blessed pow'r, and to our rites incline; The mitigations of disease convey, And drive disasterous maladies away. Come, shake the branch with thy almighty arm, Dismiss thy darts and noxious fate disarm.

(2) For truly first of all, eternal and transcending birth, is God the universals' Maker. Second is he "after His image", Cosmos, brought into being by Him, sustained and fed by Him, made deathless, as by his own Sire, living for aye, as ever free from death. Now that which ever-liveth, differs from the Eternal; for He hath not been brought to being by another, and even if He have been brought to being, He hath not been brought to being by Himself, but ever is brought into being. For the Eternal, in that It is eternal, is the all. The Father is Himself eternal of Himself, but Cosmos hath become eternal and immortal by the Father.

(4) In fine, He hath made man both good and able to share in immortal life,—out of two natures, [one] mortal, [one] divine. And just because he is thus fashioned by the Will of God, it is appointed that man should be superior both to the Gods, who have been made of an immortal nature only, and also to all mortal things. It is because of this that man, being joined unto the Gods by kinsmanship, doth reverence them with piety and holy mind; while, on their side, the Gods with pious sympathy regard and guard all things of men. XXIII

(1) THE time, then, is come for our discourse, to sing the God of many Names, as "Sovereign Lord," and as "Ancient of days." For He is called the former, by reason that He is an all-controlling basis, binding and embracing the whole, and establishing and supporting, and tightening, and completing the whole. Continuous in itself, and from itself, producing the whole, as it were from a Sovereign root, and turning to itself the whole, as to a sovereign parent stock, and holding them together as an all-embracing basis of all, securing all the things embraced, within one grasp superior to all, and not permitting them, when fallen from itself to be destroyed, as moved from an all-perfect sanctuary. But the Godhead is called Sovereign, both as controlling and governing the members of His household, purely, and as being desired and beloved by all, and as placing upon all the voluntary yokes, and the sweet pangs of the Divine and Sovereign, and in dissolvable love of the Goodness itself,

(25) For no one of the gods in heaven shall come down to the earth, o'er-stepping heaven's limit; whereas man doth mount up to heaven and measure it; he knows what things of it are high, what things are low, and learns precisely all things else besides. And greater thing than all; without e'en quitting earth, he doth ascend above. So vast a sweep doth he possess of ecstasy. For this cause can a man dare say that man on earth is god subject to death, while god in heaven is man from death immune. Wherefore the dispensation of all things is brought about by means of there, the twain - Cosmos and Man - but by the One.

(4) The god has said this: thy words are those of the father of the gods, thy name will be triumphant before the gods; they exalt thee and the cycle of the gods give thee their hands

(40) He who sees the god who is in it, face to face, he who sees him dies there from his blows, except the gods who are there, and who are hidden to the glorious ones

(5) And so he should be the full store of life and deathlessness; if that it needs must be that he should live for ever. And so the Sun, just as the Cosmos, lasts for aye. So is he, too, for ever ruler of [all] vital powers, or of [our] whole vitality; he is their ruler, or the one who gives them out. God, then, is the eternal ruler of all living things, or vital functions, that are in the World. He is the everlasting giver-forth of Life itself. Once for all [time] He hath bestowed Life on all vital powers; He further doth preserve them by a law that lasts for evermore, as I will [now] explain. XXX

(3) Whoever, then, is able to get free of these three voices I have just mentioned and come by means of another voice to confess the God of truth and agree in everything concerning him, he is immortal dwelling in the midst of mortal men.

(1) BUT since whatever we have to say on these matters has reached, in my opinion, a fitting conclusion, we must sing Him of endless names, both as Holy of Holies and King of Kings; and as ruling eternity and for ever and beyond, and as Lord of Lords, and God of Gods. And first we must say, what we think Holiness Itself is; and what Kingdom, and what Lordship, and what Divinity, and what the Oracles wish to denote by the duplication of the names.

The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. THEE, mighty-ruling, Dæmon dread, I call, Mild Jove, life-giving, and the source of all: Great Jove, much-wand'ring, terrible and strong, To whom revenge and tortures dire belong. Mankind from thee, in plenteous wealth abound, When in their dwellings joyful thou art found; Or pass thro' life afflicted and distress'd, The needful means of bliss by thee supprest. 'Tis thine alone endu'd with boundless might, To keep the keys of sorrow and delight. O holy, blessed father, hear my pray'r, Disperse the seeds of life-consuming care; With fav'ring mind the sacred rites attend, And grant my days a glorious, blessed end. Next: LXXIII: To Leucothea Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: LXXI. To Fortune Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: LXXIII: To Leucothea » Sacred Texts | Classics

(4) Now, since we are speaking of these things, come then, and let us praise the Good, as veritably Being, and giving essence to all things that be. He, Who is, is superessential, sustaining Cause of the whole potential Being, and Creator of being, existence, subsistence, essence, nature; Source and Measure of ages, and Framer of times, and Age of things that be, Time of things coming into being, Being of things howsoever being, Birth of things howsoever born. From Him, Who is, is age, and essence, and being, and time, and birth, and thing born; the realities in things that be, and things howsoever existing and subsisting. For Almighty God is not relatively a Being, but absolutely and unboundedly, having comprehended and anticipated the whole Being in Himself. Wherefore, He is also called King of the ages, since the whole being both is, and is sustained, in Him and around Him. And He neither was, nor will be, nor became, nor becomes, nor will become--yea rather, neither is. But He is the Being to things that be, and not things that be only, but the very being of things that be, absolutely from before the ages. For He is the Age of ages--the Existing before the ages.

(5) And Aeon doth preserve this [Cosmos], or by Necessity, or by Foreknowledge, or by Nature, or by whatever else a man supposes or shall suppose. And all is this - God energizing. The Energy of God is Power that naught can e'er surpass, a Power with which no one can make comparison of any human thing at all, or any thing divine. Wherefore, O Hermes, never think that aught of things above or things below is like to God, for thou wilt fall from truth. For naught is like to That which hath no like, and is Alone and One. And do not ever think that any other can possibly possess His power; for what apart from Him is there of life, and deathlessness and change of quality? For what else should He make? God's not inactive, since all things [then] would lack activity; for all are full of God. But neither in the Cosmos anywhere, nor in aught else, is there inaction. For that "inaction" is a name that cannot be applied to either what doth make or what is made.

(8) Oh thou Great One, who art Shoreless, and callest upon the Powers of the South, at the moment when the god is carried forth, saying:—

(21) But if thou wouldst Him also contemplate, behold the ordering of the Cosmos, and [see] the orderly behavior of its ordering "order, arrangement">; behold thou the Necessity of things made manifest, and [see] the Providence of things become and things becoming; behold how Matter is all-full of Life; [behold] this so great God in movement, with all the good and noble [ones] - gods, daimones and men! Tat: But these are purely energies, O father mine! Hermes: If, then, they're purely energies, my son - by whom, then, are they energized except by God? Or art thou ignorant, that just as Heaven, Earth, Water, Air, are parts of Cosmos, in just the selfsame way God's parts are Life and Immortality, [and] Energy, and Spirit, and Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, Soul, and Mind, and the Duration of all these that is called Good? And there are naught of things that have become, or are becoming, in which God is not.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. NATURE, all parent, ancient, and divine, O Much-mechanic mother, art is thine; Heav'nly, abundant, venerable queen, In ev'ry part of thy dominions seen. Untam'd, all-taming, ever splendid light, All ruling, honor'd, and supremly bright. Immortal, first-born, ever still the same, Nocturnal, starry, shining, glorious dame. Thy feet's still traces in a circling course, By thee are turn'd, with unremitting force. Pure ornament of all the pow'rs divine, Finite and infinite alike you shine; 12 To all things common and in all things known, Yet incommunicable and alone. Without a father of thy wond'rous frame, Thyself the father whence thy essence came. All-flourishing, connecting, mingling soul, Leader and ruler of this mighty whole. Life-bearer, all-sustaining, various nam'd, And for commanding grace and beauty fam'd. Justice, supreme in might, whose general sway The waters of the restless deep obey. Ætherial, earthly, for the pious glad, Sweet to the good, but bitter to the bad. All-wife, all bounteous, provident, divine, A rich increase of nutriment is thine; Father of all, great nurse, and mother kind, Abundant, blessed, all-spermatic mind: Mature, impetuous, from whose fertile seeds And plastic hand, this changing scene proceeds. All-parent pow'r, to mortal eyes unseen, Eternal, moving, all-sagacious queen. By thee the world, whose parts in rapid flow, 33 Like swift descending streams, no respite know, On an eternal hinge, with steady course Is whirl'd, with matchless, unremitting force. Thron'd on a circling car, thy mighty hand Holds and directs, the reins of wide command. Various thy essence, honor'd, and the best, Of judgement too, the general end and test. Intrepid, fatal, all-subduing dame, Life-everlasting, Parca, breathing flame. Immortal, Providence, the world is thine, And thou art all things, architect divine. O blessed Goddess, hear thy suppliant's pray'r, And make my future life, thy constant care; Give plenteous seasons, and sufficient wealth, And crown my days with lasting, peace and health.

(1) [Asclepius] What part of the economy, Thrice-greatest one, does the Heimarmenē, or Fate, then occupy? For do not the celestial Gods rule over generals ; the terrene occupy particulars?

[Trismegistus] That which we call Heimarmenē, Asclepius, is the necessity of all things that are born, bound ever to themselves with interlinked enchainments. This, then, is either the effector of all things, or it is highest God, or what is made the second God by God Himself,—or else the discipline of all things both in heaven and on earth, established by the laws of the Divine.