This freesite series brings various thoughts and insights that seem particularly relevant now, at a time when the old order is failing around us, and a new civilization is about to rise from the ashes.

Most items are in the form of quotations and many go back a long way. However, all the wisdoms expressed in the series remain relevant to our times.

Rebirth

An excerpt from The Hermetica - The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs,
as translated by Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy.

No one can be saved,
until he is born again.
If you want to be reborn
purify yourself
of the traditional torments of matter.
The first of these is ignorance.
The second is grief.
Third is lack of self-control.
Fourth is desire.
Fifth is injustice.
Sixth is greed.
Seventh is deceit.
Eighth is envy.
Ninth is treachery.
Tenth is anger.
Eleventh is rashness.
Twelfth is malice.
Under these twelve are many more,
which force the man who is bound
to the prison of the body,
to suffer from the torments they inflict.
But by Atum's mercy,
they may all depart
and be replaced by understanding.
This is the nature of rebirth.

This is the only road to reality.
It is the way our ancestors trod
to discover Primal Goodness.
It is sacred and divine,
but a hard highway for the soul
to travel in a body.
For the soul's first step
is to struggle against itself -
stirring up a civil war.
It is a feud of unity against duality.
The one seeking to unite
and the other seeking to divide.

He who is reborn
communes with the All-Father
who is Light and Life.
You will only experience this supreme vision
when you stop thinking about it,
for this knowledge is deep silence
and tranquility of the senses.
He who knows
the beauty of Primal Goodness
perceives nothing else.
He doesn't listen to anything.
He cannot move his body at all.
He forgets all physical sensations
and is still,
while the beauty of Goodness
bathes his mind in Light
and draws his soul out of his body -
making him One with eternal Being.
For a man cannot become a god
whilst he believes he is a body.
To become divine
he must be transformed
by the beauty of Primal Goodness.

The womb of rebirth is wisdom.
The conception is silence.
The seed is Goodness.
Those born of this birth
are not the same.
They are of the gods
and children of Atum - the One-God.
They contain all.
They are in all.
They are not made up of matter.
They are All-Mind.

Rebirth is not a theory
that you can strive to learn.
But when Atum wills.
he will re-Mind you.
A man may only seek to know Atum
by controlling his passions
and letting Destiny deal as she wills
with his body,
which is no more than clay
that belongs to Nature and not to him.
He should not attempt
to improve his life by magic
or oppose his fate by using force,
but allow Necessity to follow its course.

For the man of vision,
all things are good,
even if they appear evil to others.
When men devise mischief against him,
he sees it in the light
of his knowledge of Atum,
and he -
and only he -
transforms evil into Goodness.

..... Toth
..... (also known as Hermes Trismegistus; 'Hermes Thrice-Great')

The following quote is from the introduction of Freke and Gandy's book. It provides the context of the Hermetic texts from which the above translation comes, and it describes the importance of Hermetic thinking and spirituality to what became the European Renaissance.

A Forgotten Spiritual Classic

The Hermetica is a collection of writings attributed to Toth - a mythical ancient Egyptian sage whose wisdom is said to have transformed him into a god. Toth, who was venerated in Egypt from at least 3000 BCE, is credited with the invention of sacred hieroglyphic writing and his figure, portrayed as a scribe with the head of an ibis, can be seen in many temples and tombs. He is the dispatcher of divine messages and recorder of all human deeds. In the Great Hall of Judgement, the after-life court of the god Osiris, Toth would establish whether the deceased had acquired spiritual knowledge and purity, and so deserved a place in the heavens. Toth was said to have revealed to the Egyptians all knowledge on astronomy, architecture, geometry, medicine and religion, and was believed by the ancient Greeks to be the architect of the pyramids. The Greeks, who were in awe of the knowledge and spirituality of the Egyptians, identified Toth with their own god Hermes, the messenger of the gods and guider of souls in the realm of the dead. To distinguish the Egyptian Hermes from their own, they gave him the title 'Trismegistus', meaning 'Thrice-Great', to honour his sublime wisdom. The books attributed to him became collectively known as the 'Hermetica'.

Although largely unknown today, the writings attributed to Hermes/Toth have been immensely important in the history of Western thought. They profoundly influenced the Greeks and through their rediscovery in fifteenth-century Florence, helped to inspire the 'Renaissance' which gave birth to our modern age. The list of people who have acknowledged a debt to the Hermetica reads like a 'Who's Who' of the greatest philosophers, scientists and artists that the West has produced - Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Botticelli, Roger Bacon, Paracelsus, Thomas More, William Blake, Kepler, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Sir Walter Raleigh, Milton, Ben Johnson, Daniel Defoe, Shelley and his wife Mary, Victor Hugo and Carl Jung. It heavily influenced Shakespeare, John Donne, John Dee and all the poet-philosophers who surrounded the court of Queen Elizabeth I, as well as the founding scientists of the Royal Society in London, and even the leaders who inspired the Protestant Reformation in Europe. The list is endless, with the Hermetica's influence reaching well beyond the frontiers of Europe. Islamic mystics and philosophers also trace their inspiration back to Thrice-Great Hermes, and the esoteric tradition of the Jews equated him with their mysterious prophet Enoch.

etc. ...

Hermes and the Reawakening of Europe

With the Arab empire becoming increasingly intolerant, the owners of the Hermetic books travelled in search of a safe refuge. In the fifteenth century many fled to the tolerant city-state of Florence in Northern Italy, where this wisdom again inspired a great cultural flowering. In 1438 the Byzantine scholar Gemisto Plethon, made available to the awe-struck Florentines the entire lost works of Plato. These and other Pagan works were translated into Latin for the first time. The ruler of Florence, the philanthropist and scholar Cosimo de Medici, established a New Platonic Academy - a group of intellectuals and mystics who found their inspiration in the ancient Pagan philosophy. It profoundly influenced great names like Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli and Raphael, who began painting pictures of the ancient Pagan gods. Botticelli's 'Venus and Mars', for example, was painted at a precise astrological moment as a 'talisman of occult radiance', capable of magically transporting the viewer to an altered state of spiritual awareness.

Cosimo sent out agents to look for other lost Pagan works that might still be awaiting discovery. In 1460 on of them came across the lost works of Thrice-Great Hermes, and brought them to Florence. The Florentines, already reeling from the discovery that an ancient civilization of immense sophistication had risen and fallen nearly 2000 years before them, now believed they had in their hands the words of the most ancient sage of them all. Cosimo ordered his young Greek scholar Marsilio Ficino to cease his work on translating Plato and begin immediately on this new Egyptian text. Ficino had it ready in time to read to Cosimo just before his death.

The emergence of a glorious new culture in Florence signalled the end of the Dark Ages. We call this period the 'Renaissance', meaning 'rebirth', which is a fitting name, for the heart of the Hermetic philosophy is the idea of being spiritually reborn. The ancient Pagan wisdom arrived in Florence at a fortuitous moment in history. Within a few years the first printing presses arrived in Italy and the Pagan wisdom was printed and dispersed throughout Europe. Students of the 'New Learning', as the Florentine experiment became known, were sent out as emissaries, beginning new movements wherever they went.

Reuchlin, 'the father of the reformation' and teacher of Luther and Erasmus, left Florence and sowed the earliest seeds of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Thomas Linacre founded the Royal College of Physicians in London. The mathematician Nicholas of Cusa, the physician Paracelsus, the architect Brunelleschi and the astronomer Toscanelli (whose famous map inspired Christopher Columbus) all owed their inspiration to the Florentine reawakening of the spirit of ancient Paganism. Copernicus' momentous claim that the sun, not the Earth, is at the centre of the solar system was a choice, not a discovery, made after studying Hermetic/Platonic philosophy at an Italian university. On the first page of On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs, published in 1543, Copernicus quotes the words of Thrice-Great Hermes - 'The Sun is the Visible God'.

As in Alexandria, a thousand years earlier, the Renaissance viewed science, art, literature and religion as parts of a unified whole to be studied together. All aspects of human life were now opened up as legitimate areas of investigation. It was a situation that challenged the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church and in 1492, with the aid of the King of France, they crushed the Republic of Florence. Although the heady days of the New Academy were over, the suppression was too late to prevent the ripples of its influence expanding ever outwards, Florentine scholars were dispersed across Europe and became known as the 'Fifth Essence'. The taste for all things Italian - art, sculpture, fashion, literature and philosophy - was insatiable. Within less than 200 years, the Renaissance had conquered Europe.

The Unifying Religion

In England the works of Hermes had a profound effect on the circle of courtiers surrounding Elizabeth I. Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Donne, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, George Chapman, and Francis Bacon were all acquainted with the works of the Egyptian sage. Elizabeth's personal astrologer, whom she referred to as 'her philosopher', was the enigmatic Hermeticist John Dee. He was a brilliant mathematician and the first person to translate the complete works of Euclid into English. Doctor Dee owned the greatest library in England and his home was regarded as a third university to Oxford and Cambridge. He was visited by scholars from all over Europe and made frequent journeys to Prague where the first detailed commentaries on the Hermetica were being written. At the time Prague was the capital of Bohemia, an enlightened republic where Hermetic scholars, Platonic philosophers, Jewish rabbis, and scientists of every nation found sanctuary at the court of Rudolph II. Europe was being ravaged by the Wars of Religion between Protestants and Catholics, and in Bohemia another way was proposed - Hermeticism.

Evangelists of the new 'Egyptian' religion of Thrice-Great Hermes, such as Giordano Bruno, travelled extensively in Europe. Bruno interpreted the new sun-centred cosmos proposed by Copernicus in an entirely mystical way, as the rising of a new sun at the dawning of a New Age. He believed that the Egyptian religion of Hermes was the ancestor of the Greek Mystery Schools, the religion of Moses and the Jews, and the birthplace of Christianity. In Bruno's imagination it was now poised to become the unifying religion in which Jews, all denominations of Christians, Platonic humanists, and even Muslims could meet and resolve their differences. Bruno's courage and conviction was nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in his decision to return to Italy, where within a short time he was arrested by the Roman Catholic Church. He endured eight years of torture during which he refused to recant, and in 1600 was led out into the 'Square of Flowers' in Rome and ceremonially burnt alive.

The vision of a universal Hermetic religion was fated to fade, but its influence remained strong amongst visionaries and scientists. Sir Isaac Newton, for example, like many men of his time, was passionately interested in alchemy, the patron god of which was Thrice-Great Hermes. Indeed the word 'alchemy' means 'from Egypt'. The astronomer Kepler published quotes from the Hermetica in his greatest work, On the Harmony of the World. In 1640 the poet John Milton celebrated the wisdom of Hermes. ...

The Demise of Thrice-Great Hermes

At the same time as Milton was writing, however, the ground was being cut away from under the authenticity of the Hermetica. Previously these works had been believed to be of extreme antiquity - dating back to the time of the pharaohs. In 1614 a scholar called Casaubon published a textual analysis of the Hermetica, which showed, quite correctly, that the grammar, vocabulary, form and content of the Greek versions of these works dated them to no earlier than the second and third centuries CE. They were not written by an ancient Egyptian sage, he claimed, but by scholars in the city of Alexandria. Their philosophy was nothing more than an exotic blend of Greek, Christian and Jewish philosophy, mixed up with astrology and magic. The Egyptian names that pepper the text were mere decoration and ornament. Casaubon was one of the most brilliant Greek scholars of his time and, with the encouragement of the Christian status quo, his damning criticism was generally accepted. Casaubon had dealt the Egyptian sage a fatal blow, and the books of Hermes were destined to be forgotten as fakes and forgeries.

In the modern world we know from the actions of the tabloid press how one well-timed 'hatchet job' can unjustifiably undermine someone's reputation for good. This is exactly what happened to Thrice-Great Hermes. Casaubon was a fine scholar, but he was motivated by a hidden political agenda. The ultra-orthodox James I was now on the throne of England and he employed Casaubon and others to purge the magically inclined court of Elizabeth. Hermeticists like John Dee were ostracised. Later, Casaubon's son Merick wrote a book which portrayed the great philosopher as a confused occultist. Dee died alone and forgotten.

Nevertheless some of Casaubon's claims regarding the Hermetica are true. The books of Hermes are undoubtedly the products of many authors, not just one ancient sage, and they were certainly composed in the first few centuries of our era. Hermes was credited with these writings, even though we know they were the composite work of many scholars, but this does not discredit either them or Hermes.

It was common practice in antiquity for authors to ascribe their work to the god who gave them their inspiration. This was a mark of respect, not an attempt to deceive. On the second charge, Casaubon is also right to claim that the Hermetica was written down in second century Alexandria, but all the modern evidence suggests that it does in fact express Egyptian beliefs filtered through the understanding of the Greek scholars of the period.

Even if all Casaubon's criticisms were correct, this would neither diminish the Hermetica's wisdom, nor alter the fact that it has profoundly influenced some of the greatest minds in history. As old as the Christian gospels and older than the Koran, it is one of the great sacred texts of the world. It is worthy of respect and study for these reasons alone.

While the words of the Hermetica don't come directly from Toth, the wisdom they convey is his. So who was he? The fact that the ancient Egyptians always portrayed Toth as a human - bird hybrid, carved into the walls of their temples, could well be significant in terms of the research and theories incorporated in Graham Hancock's new book Supernatural.

In common with Jeremy Narby, the author of The Cosmic Serpent, DNA and the Origins of Knowledge, Hancock postulates (based on his own experience with the use of hallucinatory substances administered to him by a number of traditional shamans) that humanity has often received knowledge from the spirit realm. Hybrids of human and animal forms (therianthropes) are a common feature of prehistoric cave art and rock paintings all over the world. And such beings are still routinely 'seen' and 'spoken with' by indigenous peoples; once their states of mind have been altered by carefully prepared hallucinogenic potions.

Hancock reveals the little known fact that Francis Crick who, together with James Watson won materialist science's highest prize, for the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, was under the influence of LSD at the time that he first visualised it. Jeremy Narby describes how the rock art of long dead Australian aboriginals clearly depicts not only the double helix structure of DNA but also the structural changes during cell division. Modern microbiologists quickly identify the structures from the paintings, yet the ancient Australians drew them without having any technology capable of viewing such things. Except, that is, for their 'dreaming' abilities and their close connections with the spirit world.

Until next time then. Please keep thinking and asking the questions that the Old World Order doesn't want us to think or ask.

One such question concerns the reason for their universal ban on our procurement and use of the natural hallucinogen, DMT; that we all produce within our bodies. Is it because DMT is dangerous (which it is if not properly administered and supervised) or is it that they don't want us to discover how to fashion our own VMCs (Vehicles of Mass Consciousness) to nullify their evil WMDs? Why are they so afraid of us; we who have no weapons of our own besides our minds and voices?

Lothar, February 2006.

There are links to earlier editions of this series in the sidebar.