Contents
Contents
| Preface | |
| I. The Remains of the Trismegistic Literature | |
| Writer and Reader | |
| The Extant Trismegistic Literature | |
| The Original MS. of our Corpus | |
| Texts and Translations | |
| II. The History of the Evolution of Opinion | |
| The Chief Points of Interrogation | |
| The Opinions of the Humanists | |
| The First Doubt | |
| The Launching of the Theory of Plagiarism | |
| The Only Argument Adduced | |
| The Theory of Hilgers | |
| The German Theory of Neoplatonic “Syncretismus” | |
| The French Theory of Egyptian Origin | |
| The Views of Ménard | |
| English Encyclopædism | |
| Chambers’ Opinion | |
| German Encyclopædism | |
| A Recent Article by Granger | |
| Reitzenstein and the Dawn of Right Views | |
| A Key to Egypt’s Wisdom | |
| The Answers to our Questions | |
| III. Thoth the Master of Wisdom | |
| Thoth-Teḥuti | |
| Thoth according to Pietschmann | |
| The Three Grades of the Egyptian Mysteries | |
| Thoth according to Reitzenstein | |
| Thoth according to Budge | |
| His Deific Titles | |
| His Symbols and Name | |
| The Shrine of Thoth | |
| Thoth and his Company of Eight | |
| The “House of the Net” | |
| Thoth the Logos | |
| The Words of Thoth | |
| Thoth and the Osirified | |
| Thoth the Measurer | |
| The Title “Thrice-greatest” | |
| The Supremacy of Thoth | |
| The Views of a Scholar-Mystic | |
| The Spiritual Nature of the Inner Tradition of Egyptian Wisdom | |
| The Holy Land of Egypt and its Initiates | |
| Thoth the Initiator | |
| Some of the Doctrines of Initiation | |
| The Temples of Initiation | |
| The Mystery of the Birth of Horus | |
| “The Book of the Master” | |
| The Steps of the Path | |
| An Illuminative Study | |
| IV. The Popular Theurgic Hermes-Cult in the Greek Magic Papyri | |
| The “Religion of Hermes” | |
| i. An Invocation to Hermes as the Good Mind | |
| ii. An Invocation to Lord Hermes | |
| iii. An Invocation to Lord Hermes | |
| iv. An Invocation to Thoth as Logos | |
| v. An Invocation to Hermes as the Spiritual Light | |
| vi. The Mystic Rite of the Flame | |
| vii. A Prayer of Consecration | |
| V. The Main Source of the Trismegistic Literature according to Manetho High Priest of Egypt | |
| Hermes at the Beginning of the Hellenistic Period | |
| Petosiris and Nechepso | |
| Manetho the Beloved of Thoth | |
| The Letter of Manetho to Ptolemy Philadelphus | |
| The Importance of Manetho’s Statement in his “Sothis” | |
| Is “Sothis” a Forgery? | |
| The Arguments of Encyclopædism refuted | |
| The Seriadic Land | |
| The Stelæ of Hermes | |
| The Sons of Seth-Hermes | |
| The Epithet “Thrice-greatest” | |
| The Clue of Griffiths | |
| The Earliest Trismegistic Literature | |
| Philo Byblius | |
| Are his “Phœnician Histories” a Forgery? | |
| Sanchuniathon and the “Books of Hermes” | |
| VI. An Egyptian Prototype of the Main Features of the Pœmandres’ Cosmogony | |
| The Higher Criticism of the “Pœmandres” | |
| A Prototype of its Cosmogenesis | |
| A Praise-giving to Ptah | |
| Ptah-Thoth the Wise One | |
| Egyptian Syncretism 1000 B.C. | |
| The Doctrine of “Pœmandres” Compared with that of its Prototype | |
| The Man-Doctrine | |
| VII. The Myth of Man in the Mysteries | |
| The Gnostic Tradition | |
| The “Philosophumena” of Hippolytus | |
| The Naassenes | |
| Analysis of Hippolytus’ Account of the Naassene Document | |
| Hippolytus’ Introduction | |
| The Material for the Recovery of the Original Hellenistic Document | |
| Hippolytus’ Conclusion | |
| Conclusion of Analysis | |
| The Hellenist Commentator | |
| The Jewish and Christian Overwriters | |
| Zosimus and the Anthropos-Doctrine | |
| Philo of Alexandria on the Man-Doctrine | |
| VIII. Philo of Alexandria and the Hellenistic Theology | |
| Concerning Philo and his Method | |
| The Great Importance of his Writings | |
| Concerning the Mysteries | |
| Concerning the Sacred Marriage | |
| Concerning the Logos | |
| The Son of God | |
| The True High Priest | |
| The Elder and Younger Sons of God | |
| Yet God is One | |
| The Logos is Life and Light | |
| The Divine Vision | |
| The Sons of God on Earth | |
| The City of God | |
| God’s Shadow | |
| The Mother-City of Refuge | |
| The True Shepherd | |
| The Apostles of God | |
| The Ladder of the “Words” | |
| The Logos the Spiritual Sun | |
| The Disciples of the Logos | |
| The River of the Divine Reason | |
| Jerusalem Above | |
| The Logos is as Manna and Coriander Seed | |
| The Logos is the Pupil of God’s Eye | |
| “Man shall not Live by Bread Alone” | |
| The Logos-Mediator | |
| The Yoga of Plotinus | |
| The Race of God | |
| IX. Plutarch: Concerning the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris | |
| Foreword | |
| Concerning Isis and Osiris | |
| Address to Klea concerning Gnosis and the Search for Truth | |
| The Art of Knowing and of Divinising | |
| The True Initiates of Isis | |
| Why the Priests are Shaven and wear Linen | |
| Of the Refraining from Flesh and Salt and Superfluities | |
| On the Drinking of Wine | |
| On Fish Taboos | |
| The Onion and Pig Taboos | |
| The Kings, the Riddles of the Priests and the Meaning of Amoun | |
| Of the Greek Disciples of Egyptians and of Pythagoras and his Symbols | |
| Advice to Klea concerning the Hidden Meaning of the Myths | |
| The Mystery-Myth | |
| The Undermeaning, a Reflexion of a Certain Reason | |
| Concerning the Tombs of Osiris | |
| Concerning the Theory of Evemerus | |
| The Theory of the Daimones | |
| Concerning Sarapis | |
| Concerning Typhon | |
| The Theory of the Physicists | |
| Concerning Osiris and Dionysus | |
| The Theory of the Physicists Resumed | |
| The Theory of the Mathematici | |
| The Theory of the Dualists | |
| The Proper Reason according to Plutarch | |
| The Symbolism of the Sistrum | |
| The True “Logos” again according to Plutarch | |
| Against the Weather and Vegetation God Theories | |
| Concerning the Worship of Animals and Totemism | |
| Concerning the Sacred Robes | |
| Concerning Incense | |
| Afterword | |
| X. “Hermas” and “Hermes” | |
| An Anticipation | |
| The Higher Criticism of “The Shepherd of Hermas” | |
| The Introduction of the “Pastoral Hermas” | |
| Comparison with our “Pœmandres” | |
| The Popular Symbolic Representation of the Shepherd | |
| The Name “Hermas” | |
| An Early Form of the “Pœmandres” | |
| The Holy Mount | |
| “Gnostic” Elements | |
| The Vices and Virtues | |
| The Early Date of the Original “Hermas” | |
| The Dependence Theory to be used with Caution | |
| The Visions of Crates | |
| The General Christian “Many” and the Gnostic “Few” | |
| The Story of Abbot Olympius | |
| A Final Word | |
| XI. Concerning the Æon-Doctrine | |
| The Scope of our Essay | |
| The Orphic Tradition of the Genesis of the World Egg | |
| Commentary | |
| The Sethian Gnosis | |
| The Mithriac Æon | |
| Probable Date of Origin of the Hellenistic Æon-Doctrine | |
| Abraxas | |
| The Feast of the Æon | |
| The Quintessence and the Monad | |
| The Æon in Plato | |
| Concerning the Hellenistic Origin of Æonology | |
| The Æon the Logos | |
| The Roman Sæculum Cult derived from Egypt | |
| The Æonic Immensities of Egypt | |
| A Song of Praise to the Æon | |
| The Demiurgic Æon | |
| The Æon in Theurgic Literature | |
| XII. The Seven Zones and their Characteristics | |
| Macrobius on “The Descent of the Soul from the Heights of Cosmos to the Depths of Earth” | |
| The Tradition of Servius | |
| Criticism of the Evidence | |
| The “Ophite” Hebdomad | |
| The Simpler Form of the Trismegistic Gnosis | |
| Concerning Leviathan and Behemoth | |
| The “Fence of Fire” | |
| XIII. Plato: Concerning Metempsychosis | |
| The Soul and her Mysteries in the “Phædrus” | |
| Plotinus on Metempsychosis | |
| Proclus on the Descent of Souls into Irrational Natures | |
| XIV. The Vision of Er | |
| Er Son of Armenius | |
| From the Mysteries | |
| The Cylinder | |
| The Vision | |
| Commentary | |
| XV. Concerning the Crater or Cup | |
| The Crater in Plato | |
| In “Orpheus,” Macrobius, and Proclus | |
| The Vision of Aridæus | |
| The Origin of the Symbol to be sought in Orphic Tradition | |
| XVI. The Disciples of Thrice-Greatest Hermes | |
| Ptah, Sekhet and I-em-ḥetep (Asclepius) | |
| Nefer-Tem | |
| Imhotep-Imuth-Asclepius | |
| Thāth-Tat | |
| The Incarnations of Thoth | |
| The Disciples of Lord Hermes in Petosiris and Nechepso | |
| Tosothros-Asclepius | |
| Imuth-Asclepius the Master-Mason and Poet | |
| Æsculapius the Healer | |
| Asclepius in Trismegistic Tradition | |
| Concerning Ammon | |
| Prophet and King | |
| Amenhotep-Asclepius | |
| The Sacred Group of Four | |
| James, John and Peter | |
| The Triad of Disciples | |
| Chnum the Good Daimon | |
| Osiris Disciple of Agathodaimon the Thrice-greatest | |
| Logos-Mind the Good Daimon | |
| Chnum Good Mind the Æon | Isis, Lady of Wisdom, Disciple of Thrice-greatest Hermes |