Re: Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum)
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 9:47 pm
Hermes Trismegistus wrote:28. And when they heard, they came with one accord. Whereon I say:
Ye earth-born folk, why have ye given yourselves up to Death, while yet ye have the power of sharing Deathlessness? Repent, O ye, who walk with Error arm in arm and make of Ignorance the sharer of your board; get ye out from the light of Darkness, and take your part in Deathlessness, forsake Destruction!
Now that I read this, it reminded me strongly of the setting of the Sermon on the Mount. People hear something marvellous, something new to them, and gather around to learn more. In the very end of Matt. 7 it's said that ”the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”. In the Sermon on the Mount there is the same strong division to Spirit and Matter as in the Poimandres text. Not that those two wouldn't be one and the same in the end, but in practice our fundamental focus on one or the other defines whether we are esotericists or profane people. In a sense that division is quite harsh and ”merciless” even.
”Get ye out from the light of Darkness, and take your part in Deathlessness, forsake Destruction!” In a way, it really is this simple. In practice it takes a lifetime's work and more, but at the same time, in the right state of clarity, it really can be seen this simple. One option is vanity, easy rewards and throwing away one's potential during this lifetime; the other option is growing, learning and striving with a much greater and wholesome ”reward” in love and light, eventually. That is what religions etc. tend to teach anyway.
”Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:19-21)